In this Teaching Sanjaya continues the story on how Arjuna 'sat dejected, filled with pity' because he couldn't make up his mind weather to go on with this, what Lord Krishna calls, 'battle of sacred duty'. Now Lord Krishna, Arjuna's charioteer, is trying to convince him to stop thinking about it and go on with the battle. He tells Arjuna that an 'embodied self', a soul, never dies, it just sheds its old body when it is time and lives a new life in a new body. This is also an old belief, mostly present in Indian cultures, called reincarnation. It is said that a soul, after a persons death, comes back to the world in another body, it is re-born not necessarily in a human form but in any, animal, human, or natural body. Krishna puts a lot of emphasis on this point, he repeats it and says that the war would do no harm because all the souls come back anyway, and I think that this might mean that the story is somehow linked to these ancient cultures.
Lord Krishna also says that to understand this, Arjuna must be totally separated from his emotions and that he must be totally in control and have a lot of discipline, 'withdrawal of the senses… is complete, discernment is firm'. I can see both good and bad aspects in this philosophy. If man was to disconnect from his emotions, not feel rage, greed, or desire, then clearly the world would be a much more correct and organized place. With no man only looking out for himself, a lot of the problems we have today would not exist, and we would have much more clarity and agreements to sole the other problems which would exist. However, if man as to forget all of his emotions, the world would be a horribly cold place and everybody would be just… neutral. Nobody would feel love, warmth, friendship, happiness, or even sadness. Think how boring your life would be with absolutely no excitement or change! Sure, we would have a more organized world, but is that really worth giving up what makes us human?
We still don't know what Arjuna will decide, if to fight or to back down, but I think he will really consider what Krishna said. He used great persuasive techniques, or rhetoric, like appealing to his emotions and his beliefs, using logic to explain to him what happens in the after life, and making him think about his reputation, 'you will be despised by those who held you in esteem'. It is amazing to see that even if it hadn't been identified at the time, although I am not sure of that, it was still being used.
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