Gita and Non Violence - 2, Mahabharata & Gita

The first and foremost point is Gita cannot be seen in isolation from Mahabharata. The two are intrinsically related, just like Krishna's relation to Arjuna as a teacher and a student, as two friends and cousins. Although there were overt and covert attempts in the last two hundred years to prove that Gita was perhaps a later addition to Mahabharata, such intellectual assertions did not gain much ground. In Mahabharata we see that a stage is set for a great battle, there is no way this battle can be avoided because Duryadhana, the usurper, who has also played many a tricks on his cousins, the Pandavas, is adamant. All peace overtures, even one made by Krishna himself fall into pieces because Duryadhana and the Kaurava camp are not ready to compromise. Duryadhana flatly refuses donating even five villages to the five Pandava brothers. He is confident of winning because he has so many great warriors in his camp. His camp is also numerically superior, and he also draws solace from the fact that Krishna, the master strategist who has always shown his leniency towards the Pandavas, has assured that he will not fight for anybody.
Want to draw a parallel? Think of Hitler at the beginning of World War 2.


Therefore war is inevitable and this war is an outcome of many factors – the avarice of Duryadhana for the royal title and throne, his monumental ego and jealousy, his blind father’s inferiority complex and blind love for his son, his uncle’s hidden agenda and evil designs, the encouragement received from his brothers and friends, the enmity between Karna, his chief friend and lieutenant and Arjuna and last but not the least, his personal hatred for Bhima, the second Pandava.
Many of these factors are present in today's time, some of them reconditioned and adapted to the age.

Just when the Great War is about to begin, Arjuna, on whom Pandavas are pinning their hope, refuses to fight, driven by apparent compassion and contradictions. He sees that he will have to kill his Guru, grandfather, brothers, in laws, uncles, nephews and other relations in order to win the war, something which he cannot bring himself up to do. He rationalizes that it is better to die unarmed than kill so many near relations because with the destruction of the clan one is bound to destroy the very foundation of society – order. Arjuna relinquishing war will have a tremendous impact – people like Duryadhana will win and reign over a vast kingdom with grave impact and at that critical juncture Sri Krishna appears to deliver his discourse on Gita.
Lets imagine that a rogue nuclear nation is about to hurl a bomb on a neighbour which would kill or maim a large section of the latter's population. However the neighbour, being weak in mind, is thinking of the enormous consequences of a nuclear warfare and is therefore loathe to retaliate. This is the beginning of Gita.