The main thing in Gita’s first chapter...

Arjun’s main argument here is an interesting social commentary. It’s generally given a bit of a misogynistic twist by readers: “Arjun says that women become corrupt and that causes society to go to hell.” But really, what I am reading here is like this:

1. •If you destroy the people who maintain the morality of society...
   

2. •The immorality that arises will cause women to be “abused” / “misused” / “corrupted”
   

3. •This causes unwanted children, raised in unhappy conditions
   

4. •This causes society to become like hell
   

I think essentially what happens in this first chapter is that that Arjun is shown to be a thoughtful fighter; a warrior who fights only for the right cause. His intelligence sees only the reasons why he shouldn’t fight, but his heart knows that he should (for the backstory you’d need to read or watch Mahabharat) - so in the end all he can do is slouch down in his chariot, unable to do anything.

Other miscellaneous thoughts from Chapter One:

Arjun is staring down the shafts of arrows but isn’t feeling anger? Rather, he’s forgivingly seeing the positive aspects of the people who are bent on killing him? “Though their bows are drawn to kill - Shouldn’t we still forgive them?”

As an isolated lesson in and of itself, it’s pretty nifty. Arjun is not just an angry fighter. He’s the most devastating fighter on the face of the earth - but he thinks first. He’s a fighter in the “mode of goodness.”

1. •Duryodhan is sooooo passive-agressive-manipulative.
   

2. •Bhishma is cooler than cubes. After Duryodhan finally shut up, Bhishma made his “lion’s roar”.
   

3. •I wonder why Arjun’s flag has a “rampant monkey” on it??? Are monkeys tuff? I don’t get it.