While traveling in the West and lecturing on the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most common questions asked by peace loving Western students is, “Why is Krishna preaching and almost forcing Arjuna to take up weapons against his own kinsmen while Arjuna shows no interest in it and argues against the ghastly warfare and its irreligious and immoral outcome?”
They assume Krishna to be a warmonger and Arjuna a champion of peace—a compassionate and kind-hearted dude. Indeed, anyone who gives a cursory reading to the first chapter of the Gita sympathizes with Arjuna and is puzzled with Krishna’s preaching to Arjuna to stand up and fight. Even Mahatma Gandhi, an ardent lover of the Gita, could not digest Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna to fight, and thus commented that the whole plot of the Bhagavad Gita is allegorical. Truth, however, is more mysterious than it appears.
Some people say that Bhakti is already present in the jiva and then it just manifests by doing sadhana. In this Anuccheda (47), Sri Jiva Gosvami does not agree with this view. Bhakti is the intrinsic potency of Bhagavan and it is with Bhagavan and his devotees. The very reason jiva is covered by maya is because it does not have Bhakti. If jiva had Bhakti, it could not be covered by maya.
