Why did Krishna ask Arjuna to worship Durga before the Mahabharata war?

From Pancha Pandava P

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question.
In Mahabharata, just before speaking of Bhagavad Gita, why did Krishna ask Arjuna to worship Durga? Answer. The worship of Durga was asked by Krishna because Durga Devi is the goddess of material energy and she bestows material prosperity and the Pandavas wanted to win the war and winning the war and getting the kingdom is an aspect of material prosperity. Now, this might seem simplistic like demigod worship but if you look at Gita, when the goddess appears, when Durga appears, Arjuna offers prayers to her, chanting hymns like, looking in the face, she appears before him and what does he say that you are guaranteed victory because Lord Narayan is by your side, Supreme Narayan is with you, no one can defeat you, even Indra, the greatest of the gods cannot defeat you, what to speak of Duryodhana and his company.
So, if we see what is happening in this past time is that through the past time, the supremacy and the glory of Krishna is being further propagated. Arjuna is worshipping the goddess but what is happening, the goddess is reaffirming Krishna’s supreme position and now if we look at the Mahabharata, the Mahabharata is primarily focused on the level of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha and it talks about material religiosity at one level. Mahabharata can always be understood at two levels, it is talking about Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha and we are also talking about pure devotional service.
So, at the level of Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, worship of the devatas is an integral part of religious life and that is why we will see repeatedly the characters in the Mahabharata worshipping the devatas, Drupada worships Shiva in order to get Draupadi and Vishnu as his daughter and son. Similarly, we will see even Yudhishthira Maharaj worships Suryadeva to get the Akshaya Patra and Arjuna himself goes to the heavens and he seeks weapons from the gods but we will see while this is happening, the mood is there is no confusion about who is supreme and the understanding is that for the service of the lord, one can acquire resources. So, Yudhishthira Maharaj asks Lord Vishnu that there are so many Brahmins between me, how can I entail them when I don’t have them here and Lord Vishnu told him worship Suryadeva and get Akshaya Patra but this worship did not confuse Yudhishthira Maharaj about who is supreme.
Yudhishthira Maharaj performed the Rajasuya and even in the presence of all the devatas, the Brahma and Shiva are present, so even Surya was present. So, it was clear that for him he wanted Krishna to worship Surya. So, the devatas are in four specific departments and for specific things if one worships the devatas that is not contrary to the Vedic principles, especially the principle of Dharma and Kama.
However, when one wants to talk about pure devotional service, then by talking about pure devotional service, then one does not want to have any distracted devotion and that pure devotional service is talked about in the Bhagavad Gita which is like a jewel presented within the magnificent setting of the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita also talks about Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha but it talks mostly about Bhakti. So, the Krishna’s worship of Durga is a part of his normal Kshatriya Dharma, the Kshatriyas to Dharma, Artha, Kama and the Bharata they worship the Vedic devatas while at the same time knowing that Krishna is supreme, Krishna is supreme and that Dharma, Artha, Kama level is depicted here.
But along with that and especially within the Bhagavad Gita, the Dharma, Artha, Kama is left far behind. Krishna says in 2.45 from that point of view of pure devotional service, the worship of the demigods is less intelligent. So, we have to understand the Mahabharata from both perspectives and while it is demonstrating Dharma, Artha, Kama, the demigod worship is a part of a religious life.
Now, our Acharyas have understood and presented the Mahabharata from the perspective of pure devotional service and therefore based on the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is telling us that don’t worship other devatas and that’s why we focus on pure devotional service but we shouldn’t get disturbed if we see those who are arranged by the Lord’s plan to worship, to demonstrate Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. If they demonstrate that, we worship in the Vedas. We have to understand that the Lord is orchestrating them to demonstrate certain religious principles.
But what the Lord wants us to do, He has told directly in the Bhagavad Gita and He has also given us through the Acharyas. We correct the understanding of the Mahabharata at the pure devotional level as well as Dharma, Artha, Kama level. So, we wanted to focus on the pure devotional level taking up the principle of undistracted devotional service.
Thank you.