Non-violence - the highest truth

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna and Arjuna have a spiritual dialogue on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

- B.K. USHA

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna and Arjuna have a spiritual dialogue on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. At the end of Krishna's sermonising, Arjuna, who was hitherto reluctant to fight his own kin, realises the true nature of things and picks up his bow to fight the Kaurava army.

In essence, the Gita says that the human soul must conquer vices to attain perfection. But since the battle against one's weaknesses is depicted through the metaphor of a war between the Pandavas and Kauravas, many people have come to believe that God exhorted Arjuna to slay the Kauravas, and therefore it is right to employ violence to destroy evil. They forget that the Mahabharata, of which the Gita is a part, extols abstention from violence as the highest form of religion, the greatest penance, the best sacrifice, and the supreme truth.