The Second Teaching
Philosophy and
Spiritual Discipline
Sanjaya
Arjuna sat dejected,
filled with pity,
his sad eyes blurred by tears.
Krishna gave him counsel.
Lord Krishna
Why this cowardice
in time of crisis, Arjuna?
The coward is ignoble, shameful,
foreign to the ways of heaven.
Don't yield to impotence!
It is unnatural in you!
Banish this petty weakness from your heart.
Rise to the fight, Arjuna!
Chapter 2, Stanzas 1-4, The Bhagavad Gita translated by Barbara Stoler Miller
The majority of the time my mind likes to take the role of Krishna when talking to myself in this fashion. I blame it on the oldest of 5 children complex...kindof like Krisha, the oldest of the entire world complex.
ReplyDeleteWill organize context more accordingly now. It has been really insightful to read the introductions to the 3 versions of the text I have so far as it explains how the poem is set up both as a "war" within and the foresight to let go of that war all together. I can only imagine how the self would talk to itself with no valid war in sight...what would become of the opposite of poetry?!