The  Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 1

The Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 1

NEW SERIES ALERT! 📢 This week, we're kicking off a new series within #TheologyThursdays to help distill the greatest Hindu text of our times: the Bhagavad Gita.

Over the next couple of months, we'll share a new chapter each week in an effort to share its teachings with simplicity.

Although we've been running #TheologyThursdays for a couple of years now, this feels a bit outside the comfort zone for me. I'm listening and taking your feedback, so PLEASE let me know what you think because, ultimately, this is meant to help us all (including me) learn.

And if you do love it, please share, share, share!!! It would be criminal to keep all this cultural wholesomeness to yourself 😄

Let's do this! 🙌🤓

Text conversation 1 reading: I can't believe it's come down to this. All 100 of my sons -- my Kauravas -- are on the battlefield right now! person 2: Well, they are there to defend you and your throne as the King of Hastinapura. person 1: Yes, but I didn't want things to escalate this far. person 2: Your sons have a massive army by their side, compared to the Pandav brothers. You have nothing to worry about.
Text conversation 2 reading: Person 1: How can there be any winners when my sons are fighting against their own blood, their cousins? Person 2: Then consider it your good fortune that you are blind and cannot see the carnage that is about to occur. person 1: And consider it your bad luck that you've been given the magical power of  distant vision. I need you to tell me everything you're seeing on the battlefield. person 2: As you wish, your highness.
Text conversation 3 reading: Your nephew, Arjuna, just asked his charioteer, Lord Krishna, to draw the chariot to the center of the field so he can clearly see his opponents. Oh my, looks like Arjuna is already giving up. He just said to Krishna, "He would rather lay down his weapons and be killed by the Kauravas than kill his own kinsmen..." Good, looks like he has come to his senses, after all.
Once upon a time...

There was a great warrior named Arjuna, who was caught in the middle of some major family drama, which escalated to a full blown war at the Battle of Kurukshetra.

The war was against two sets of cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas. Picking a side wasn't so simple since there were mutual friends and family members on both sides.

Leading up to the war, one cousin from each opposing side visited Lord Krishna to seek help. Krishna granted a choice to each cousin: they could either have Krishna or his army on their side during the war. Arjuna chose wisely, while Duryodhan chose the army.

However, once Arjuna approached the battlefield, seeing loved ones on both sides made him lose heart. He refused to take part in their demise.

Since Krishna was riding Arjuna's chariot, he felt it was the right time to give Arjuna a pep talk.

The Bhagavad Gita is essentially this "pep talk" -- broken down into 18 chapters -- of the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna, on what constitutes right action, proper understanding and, ultimately, the meaning of life.