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Psychology of 'The Gita'
- RAGHUNANDAN PRASAD Most of us are mortals with ordinary psycho-somatic capabilities. We tend to buckle down under the impact of every other mediocre difficulty in life. But we might feel surprised to see that a great, experienced warrior, of the stature of Arjuna of Mahabharata, also succumbed to the pressure of the holy-war, the Mahabharata! Let us try to figure out how it happened;
#ret: 3421: A Teixent À 3474al.1 (3/38) योत्स्यमानानवेक्षे अझ् ये एते अत्र समागताः । धार्तराष्ट्रस्य दुर्बुद्धेः युद्धे प्रिय चिकीर्षवः ।। (१/२३)
....qef 484-Takt - 44001-28 57-5fa II (2/34) 'Arjuna' requests 'Lord Krishna' to place his chariot midway between the two armies of Kaurava's & Pandava's. He wanted to see the soldiers who had come, ready to fight for the pleasure of the son of Dhritrastra, the wickedminded 'Duryodhana'. It was obviously an important strategic move to figure out the important faces on the enemy - side. The Lord complies. Arjuna looks at the facing army that consisted of many of his relatives, friends & the members of the Kaurava family. Next moment Arjuna experiences something, unprecedented!
दृष्ट्वाइमम् स्वजनं कृष्ण युयुत्सं समुपस्थितम्। HİCRA HA Efo Ha a ufyufa II (1/28) ... usta werd stilla-r9105 #aufged II (1/29) ... Yhdita a HA: 1
fafitif aurin fauztaifa- ra 11(1/30) Arjuna says, "O Krishna, looking to my own people (relatives and friends), ready to fight (with me), my limbs have become languid & my mouth, dry. I am not able to hold the Gandiva (the famous bow of Arjuna) & it is slipping out of my hand & my skin is giving an intense burning sensation. My mind is confused & I only see the bad omens." What has happened? Clue can be seen in the phase "seeing my own people present, desirous to fight". This describes dilemmatic situation facing Arjuna: His own people taking the position as his enemies. This happened for the first time.
The ground conflict of 'Kurukshetra' translates into psychological one for Arjuna, posing the twin options of 'Flight' or 'Fight'. As is usually the case with human psychology, Arjuna is choosing the 'Flight' option. He gives is
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