Gita 02.07 When surface identities lead to conflicting duties seek the fundamental identity

Bhagavad-gita will provide to Arjun.

Thank you. all of us in our life go through various relationships and we all act in different ways in these relationships we often define ourselves in terms of these relationships and this person's husband and this person's father and this person's son or daughter or whatever now these roles are important at the same time they are not our fundamental or defining identity in the previous chapter in 1.30 Krishna has been asked by Arjuna it is not possible for me to stay here my mind is wandering here there and everywhere I'm seeing causes of adversity of misfortune everywhere so for Arjuna at the start of the Gita he defines himself as a Kuru Nandana as a descendant of the Kuru dynasty and having defined himself thus he is no longer able to perform his Kshatriya duty because he starts thinking that Swajanam hi katham hathwa, sukhina syama dhava by killing our own loved ones who are Arjuna Swajanam hi katham hathwa but how can I kill my own loved ones? Arjuna asked. So he's thinking of himself as a Kuru Nandana and he's thinking how can I fight and he places that role at a higher position than his role as a Kshatriya.

Although they are atatai, they are aggressors but they are also my loved ones so although as a Kshatriya his duty is to counter aggressors as a Kuru Nandana it is his duty to protect his family members and because he identifies more with his dynastic identity than his natural identity so he feels confused and he's unable to resolve that confusion on his own. He recognizes that actually even his dynastic duty he cannot do so easily because He says I don't know if I fight to kill them what is going to happen? They will die but if I don't fight against them they will kill me and they will kill not just me they'll kill all my relatives so in a sense he sees a lose-lose situation either way the dynasty will be killed. That destruction of the dynasty is going to happen either destruction of the Kurus if the Pandavas win or destruction of the Pandavas if the Kurus win and thus he feels I don't know what is better.

Normally we would think that victory in a war is better than defeat no doubt but this is not a normal situation. This is a situation where both sides are his relatives. His relatives are fighting a patricidal war and especially on the opposite side are his venerable elders, dear elders such as his grandsire.

So what to do in such a situation? Arjuna says that the only thing I can do is surrender. So we have different dharmas but those dharmas are superficial or are not superficial in the sense of not being important but rather they are superficial beings being at the surface. We have a surface identity and we have substance identity.

Our surface identity is that we make Kshatriyas. Arjuna is a Kshatriya, Arjuna is a Kuru Nandana but the Bhagavad Gita takes him to his substantial identity. Identity of who he actually is and based on that identity Krishna tells Arjuna that you are a soul.

Therefore it is best for you Arjuna to move onwards in your life towards attaining me. To do embrace that dharma which will enable you to attain me. The conflict over identity is resolved by digging down to the deepest identity.

Digging down, you know, when if there is a place where we know some gold is buried, gold is hidden, then we would like to get that gold and we'll take whatever it takes to get that gold. Similarly here Krishna is telling Arjuna that Arjuna go down from the surface level of identity to the core identity of yours. Your core identity is that you are a soul.

You are my part. And if we live in an area where there is gold, where we know there is gold underneath, then even if the surface looks ordinary, there may be some grass or some mud or some other vegetation over there and that plot of land would not have much value or nothing, no special value normally speaking. But when it is discovered that there is gold in that area, then that plot acquires enormous value and when its value increases, then ordinary people recognize that, okay, they may not understand why its value has increased, but if they understand the value of gold, then they understand there might be so much more gold over here.

They dig deep within. So the human body is like the land where there is gold within. Any ordinary land can be used for growing some vegetation and getting some fruits, getting some grains, getting some flowers, which is good, but a land where there is gold available, using it to grow ordinary vegetation is a colossal underutilization of that land.

Similarly, to use the human body for growing crops and fruits and flowers, that is for doing that which can be done on almost any other land, that is for pursuing bodily pleasures, food, sleep, sex, power, that is misleading. That is a mistake, that is a colossal underutilization of the potential of the human body. So what we do as devotees or as spiritualists in general, in the human body, if we understand that we have a body which can give us deeper spiritual happiness, then we won't let ourselves be caught, be consumed, be distracted from the spiritual quest by the pursuit of bodily pleasures.

And ultimately, whatever bodily identity we have, bodily identity gives us bodily pleasure, but also helps us to do our bodily duties by which we can move towards spiritual happiness. So as devotees, we need to focus on calmly mining within, digging deep within. The Bhagavad Gita helps Arjuna to dig deep within, to go beyond surface levels of identity to the substance, to dig beyond the land to the gold deep within.

When we do that, that is when we attain Krishna, that is when we move closer to Krishna and ultimately attain Him. So dharma is that activity, at the foundational level, is that activity which enables us to come closer to Krishna and to attain Krishna. And that is the Bhagavad Gita's conclusion also, मावेकंशर्णमृज़, just surrender to me alone.

So when we are confused about what to do, which role to abide by, we need to focus on the purpose, the purpose of life of going deep within to Krishna. And with that purpose fixed in our mind, we will be able to deal with whatever issues we face and progress towards Krishna.