What does Gita say
about devotion or love practice?
Before seeking answer, let us check
the background of Gita. Five Pandav, who were exiled to forest,
returned after the period of stay in forest and demanded back their
kingdom from Duryodhan – the one who expelled them to the
forest. Pandav had lost a game of gamble with him. The game was
played on the condition that whichever party lost the game would be
exiled to the forest for twelve years and one more year to be spent
in hiding and if found in hiding period, again twelve years of forest
stay and one year of hiding.
Duryodhan wanted to
usurp Pandav’s share. He had a vast kingdom but greed never has
any end. He enjoyed support of stalwarts of those time who were
extremely powerful and adept in battle skills of all sorts. It was
almost impossible to defeat them. He had huge army, all kinds of
latest weapons of those times and was supported by many other kings.
The war was on cards.
Krishn decided to make a last ditch effort to stop the war. He went
alone to Duryodhan and said,’I suggest you one solution to this
problem. You can give five villages to five Pandav so they can spend
their life peacefully. You can have rest of their kingdom in addition
to yours.’ It seemed to Duryodhan that Pandav and Krishn were
afraid of him and therefore they came up with such a proposal of five
villages. Under the delusion of invincibility, he said,’No
land, even that on tip of a needle, will be given.’
As stated,
Krishn was alone without support of any army. Seeing that, Duryodhan
tried to capture Krishn but Krishn, who was God in flesh, displayed
his giant form and no amount of force could capture him. On this,
Duryodhan said,’O! Just some trick! Such tricks don’t win
wars.’ His ego did not allow him to grasp the reality. His
intellect became his adversary and a complete destruction followed
later.
Krishn returned and the
war preparations began.
When war was about to
begin, Dhrutrashtra (father of Duryodhan) wanted to know about war as
it happened live. Ved Vyas gave Sanjay, charioteer of Druthrashtra, a
special vision with which he could see what was happening in the war
that was fought 100s of miles away from the capital. Sanjay narrated
the whole war episode. When Dhrutrashtra asked,’Which side will
win the war?’ Sanjay replied, ‘Of course that side which
has Krishn….’