[Advaita-l] Why Arjuna?

[Dr. Sanjay Verma]

Namaste and Pranam to all,

In my humble opinion, I understand the choice of
Arjuna as the recipient of Krishna's techings as
follows:

One of the many, but more important, purposes of
the Krishna Avatar was to restore dharma. This
was achieved both by slaying the opponents of
dharma and by discursive dialogues with the
proponents of dharma who had forgotten the way.

That being so, Arjuna is the proximal and
immediate recipient of the BG, but Sri Krishna's
intent is for the discussion to be taught to a
wider audience. Arjuna as the proximal and
immediate recipient is chosen (in addition to the
reasons already mentioned by list members)
because he had the purest heart. Arjuna, among
the Pandavas, may not have been the most
intelligent, dharmic, or strong, but he had the
purest heart and thus was able to assimilate the
message better. Furthermore, because of his pure
heart he approached Sri Krishna with an innocence
and humility that perhaps we can all identify
with when confronting such esoteric but also very
practical spiritual questions. So, Arjuna becomes
the representative for all sadakhas.

I also believe that Arjuna is not the only
recipient of the BG. Sanjaya was granted by Vyasa
the 'vision' of the great battle, and thus became
the recorder of the BG. (Is not the sage Vyasa
considered a partial incarnation of Vishnu also?)
Through Sanjaya, the BG is  narrated to the King
and thus recorded for the benefit of generations
to come. In fact the closing verses of the BG are
Sanjaya's final comments on the Divine grandeur
that he just witnessed.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Sanjay

--- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com>
wrote:
> Heres a question I would like to know
> listmembers thoughts about.  Don't
> worry if you can't quote shastras about it, I'm
> more interested in your
> own feelings.
> 
> The era of the Mahabharata contained great
> sages like Vyasa, great
> warriors like Bhishma, wise statesmen like
> Vidura, and bhaktas of the
> calibre of Narada.  Yet the truths of the Gita
> were revealed by Krishna
> Bhagavan to Arjuna.  Why him of all people?
> 
> -- 
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives:
>
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> 
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
>
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> 
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com