As it now stands the poem very cleverly weaves into one fabric
many lofty aphorisms borrowed from the Upanishads and the later
philosophic schools, upon the groundwork of a popular story of which
Arjuna is the hero. Arjuna and his four brothers are about to engage in
a great battle with their cousins for the possession of an hereditary
throne. The divine Krishna, once himself a hero, becomes Arjuna's
charioteer, that in that capacity he may act as his counsellor. As the
battle array is formed, Arjuna is seized with misgivings at the thought
of slaughtering his kindred for the glory of a sceptre. "I cannot--will
not fight," he says; "I seek not victory, I seek no kingdom; what shall
we do with regal pomp and power? what with enjoyments, or with life
itself, when we have slaughtered all our kindred here?"

Krishna then enters upon a long discourse upon the duties of caste and
the indwelling of the Infinite, showing that the soul, which is a part
of deity, cannot be slain though the body may be hewn to pieces. "The
wise," he says, "grieve not for the departed nor for those who yet
survive. Never was the time when I was not, nor thou, nor yonder chiefs,
and never shall be the time when all of us shall not be. As the embodied
soul in this corporeal frame moves swiftly on through boyhood, youth,
and age, so will it pass through other forms hereafter; be not grieved
thereat.... As men abandon old and threadbare clothes to put on others
new, so casts the embodied soul its worn-out frame to enter other forms.
No dart can pierce it; flame cannot consume it, water wet it not, nor
scorching breezes dry it--indestructible, eternal, all-pervading,
deathless."[77]

It may seem absurd to Western minds that a long discourse, which
constitutes a volume of intricate pantheistic philosophy, should be
given to a great commander just at the moment when he is planning his
attack and is absorbed with the most momentous responsibilities; it
seems to us strangely inconsistent also to expatiate elaborately upon
the merits of the Yoga philosophy, with its asceticism and its holy
torpor, when the real aim is to arouse the soul to ardor for the hour of
battle. But these infelicities are no obstacle to the Hindu mind, and
the consistency of the plot is entirely secondary to the doctrine of
caste and of philosophy which the author makes Krishna proclaim. Gentle
as many of its precepts are, the Bhagavad Gita, or the "Lord's Lay," is
a battle-song utte