II: 32

Chapter 2, Verse 32

“Blessed are the warriors who are given
The chance of a battle like this,
Which calls them to do what is right
And opens the gates of heaven.”

Sri Aurobindo:

“Krishna turns aside for a moment to give another answer to the cry of Arjuna over the sorrow of death of kindred which will empty his life of the causes and objects of living. What is the true object of the warriors’ life and their true happiness? Not self-pleasing and domestic happiness and a life of comfort and pleasure with friends and relatives, but to battle for the right is their true object in life and to find a cause for which they can lay down their lives or by victory win the crown of the hero’s existence.”

[These ideas apply equally to the soldier and the spiritual grappler, the one who grapples with unskillful desires day in and day out. By turning our backs introspectively on ego/sense gratification for its own sake, we “lay down our lives” and are born anew, for, as Jesus says, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12: 24]