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Journalism of Courage
In determining the purpose of any treatise, we must see the question with which it opens upakrama and the conclusion to which it leads upasamhara. The Gita opens with a problem. Arjuna refuses to fight and raises difficulties. He puts up a plausible plea for abstention from activity and for retreat from the world, an ideal which dominated certain sects at the time of the composition of the Gita. To convert him is the purpose of the Gita. It raises the question whether action or renunciation of action is better and concludes that action is better. Arjuna declares that his perplexities are ended and he would carry out the command to fight.
Right through, the teacher emphasises the need for action. He does not adopt the solution of dismissing the world as an illusion and action as a snare. He recommends the full active life of man in the world with the inner life anchored in the Eternal Spirit. The Gita is therefore a mandate for action. It explains what a man ought to do not merely as a social being but as an individual with a spiritual destiny. It deals fairly with the spirit of renunciation as well as with the ceremonial piety of the people which are worked into its code of ethics.
The Gita asks us to live in the world and save it.
Extracted from S. Radhakrishnan8217;s introduction to the Bhagavadgita
