Sunday, March 16th, 2014...8:14 pm
The Bhagavad Gita and Duty
The Bhagavad Gita focuses on the 18 day battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Throughout this journey the concept of Dhrama brought up. Dhrama is described as one’s role in society, and without the fulfillment of Dhrama, society is will be un-balanced. Dhrama is mostly determined by what caste you are born in. Arjuna, the protagonist of the Bhagavad Gita is born into the Ksatriya Varna, the warrior class; therefore he has a duty to fight. But because the enemies, the Kauravas, are his cousins, he has a familial duty not to fight them. This provides the main tension of the story, if Arjuna fulfills his personal Dhrama, then he will have sacrificed his familial duty, and if he upholds his familial duty, he will not fulfill his own personal Dhrama. Arjuna asks his mentor, Krishna, an incarnation of the god Visnu, for advice. Krishna says that Arjuna must follow his own personal Dhrama otherwise the balance of society will be ruined.
“Bhagavad Gītā” as Duty and Virtue Ethics: Some ReflectionsAuthor(s): Bina GuptaSource: The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Sep., 2006), pp. 373-395Published by: on behalf of Journal of Religious Ethics, IncStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017693 .Accessed: 11/03/2014 22:13
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