Krishna does not really start the Geeta.Arjun does.
With his vishad yoga, Arjun laments over the situation -- a fight where he does not see a win in either way it goes. Duryodhan also laments before him over this and that, and in his weakness shouts. Arjun on the other hand, crumbles down in this weakness and speaks of all the philosophically sound things. Intellectually he is still very qualified, but emotionally a wreck.
Feeling weak is an emotion of missing something; missing a good trust in what we have in physical or emotional form, or lack of a proper understanding or knowledge. Such feeling is universal, and so is our wanting to gain back our strength. Luckily, Arjun remains wise enough to ask for help. Krishn takes the intellectual in Arjun through a series of statements that is overall fine and piecewise logical, but may not appear consistent with all perspectives in between. For instance, K pokes A's ego first -- what rubbish, will anybody remember of you for that? wake up ! You are betraying your highly regarded status; its better to die than to loose your grace. A finds it factual, hence finds the strength to surge up from the whirl of the emotional mess logically. But barely does A wake up to it, K whips him again -- what do you really have to loose? Heed no attention what anybody thinks of you. Well, that sound sound at a level too. Everyone dies.
We, with some bit of smartness, can see as a play of logic when told as such. Can digest this much in Geeta from no leap of faith in our mind. Good but so what ? If seeing this much was enough, Arjun was very smart, would have said -- enough already, stop singing (Gita) so that I can fight now, will ya? And that’s that; we would have had Geeta with 2 chapters. That did not happen; in our own stories, we are not that ideal either. First Krishna had to take an intellectual to align with what he knew logically. Then pampered him with emotional strength. That is few more chapters. And then there is this altogether a different job for someone to align what we know in our head and what we know in our heart together. It cost 700 verses and 18 chapters for Krishna to address it to a wise man. Our mileage may vary.
As feeling of weakness is in everyone and is the same irrespective of where it comes from. So is an underlying principle among the trust systems that is there. When chips are down, one has to start with any ground that is firm. Sometime it’s a matter of recalling our built-in trust system. For instance, even one think one is no good, can fight tooth and nail to protect what one thinks. Else no issue. Ego is a safety-vault that puts so many of us up and running. Divorces are messy as often heartbroken spouses take it on their ego. Then, we have inherent trust in so many things whether we know or not. From the waking hour to work hours to in the process of crashing to bed again, we trust on so many things not to behave erratically. Trust in people need emotional kind, physical stuff need trust in laws that governs the universe that is true everywhere and always. On the emotional front, some people starts with their trust in God itself. For instance, some are able to say - God, you can do a better job of delivering the result in appropriate manner or make my reputation in Boss' eye. I will let you worry about it, let me work on my part, the job at hand. Others, in theory, may get here purely logically. A good God should not care :-) Gita is delivered.
The further point is, no matter how you climb back, there is a connection leading from one system of trust to another. That is unless you stop yourself exploring. For most of us, we stop at a circle of some logic. But that logical consistencies themselves start with basic premises, and that’s a trust system.
(Yes basic mathematics and logic is a time tested and people tested system, but we do not demand the basic premises to be proved nonetheless. A is always A, and existence exists, always. One can not lead to other. There is always a statement that is true but can not be deduce by the given set of premises. Godel said things to this effect. If it was not, then all mathematicians would have lost their job first, for technology of deduction is far better implemented with machines already. In theory itself, some will keep their job of enriching mathematics on its fringes. Physicists who use it as language to deduce laws of physical systems, will also be alive and kick well for every deduced logic from their model premise are not always physically sensible. )
This system of trust, as any other, creates lots of mischief on both ends. One who are complete blind to logic as well as one who trust in it blindly. Similarly, we have to be careful what is right observation and what is fantasy for convenience. To paraphrase the points above -- different aspects of life can be seen as different trust systems; and there exists a connection between them. Can start with believing in yourself, or your God, does not matter. Having trust and recognizing it as such is important. That virtue took Arjun to his peace. There may not be a need to push hard to jump from one trust system leaving the other altogether. At the same time, when its on your face, sometime its worthwhile. Even if it means to oscillate in a limbo for a while. Its worthwhile to recognize a possibility of steps in between if that’s how you can step out of our loop a bit and see. There may be no dichotomy at the end. The real magic is, there is no magic at the end. just missing steps and apparently a sense of wow every step on the way.
