Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline

In this teaching we get introduced to Krishna, and we get to see how wise and full of knowledge he is. I think this tablet was very philosophical because Krishna starts explaining how life is a cycle and how everything that has to happen will happen, we can clearly see it explained here: "It is not born, it does not die; having been, it will never not be, unborn, enduring, constant and primordial, it is not killed when the body is killed" (pg.34). Here he is refering to life saying how it is not only a physical thing or a one-time experience, but actually saying that your spirit goes on and that it does not lay resting with your body. I think that the whole purpose of Krishna's "teachings" are to try to convince Arjuna of death and try to chance his perspective towards it. In a way I also understand where Arjuna is coming from because although he understand what Krishna is saying and that we could die many ways, he also thinks that we only live once and that we should be humble yet, take advantage of life.

One thing I found interesting was Krishna's take on how we all have a beginning and an end, a point of origin, and how we all are here for a reason, and how we all have a task to accomplish: "Look at your own duty; do not tremble before it; nothing is better for a warrior than a battle of sacred duty" (pg.36).

Krishna tells Arjuna that he must have alot of dicipline and be in touch with his emotions. I think he says this to ince again persuade Arjuna to change his POV: "when your understanding turns from sacred lore to stand fixed, immovable in contemplation, then you will reach discipline" (pg.39).

Krishna also tells of the importance of learning how to control your emotions because they (if not manipoulated correctly) could lead to many wrong paths, paths we are not willing to take: "from anger comes confusion; from confusion memory lapses; from broken memory understanding is lost; from loss of understanding, he is ruined" (pg.41). In the end I believe that Krishna gets his message across and teaches us how important it is to have dicipline and to be able to control our emotions.

I think this may turn out to be a very valuable and important book, from which we will learn a whole lot.