One of the most prominent subjects touched upon by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is the Self. It is mentioned in almost all chapters and verses in some way or the other. Either he calls it directly as the Self, or indirectly as Him or as the Sun or as the Self-Consciousness. So what exactly is this and why was this important to tell Arjuna grieving about whether to fight or not? We'll answer these questions here.
To start with, the Self, as Krishna explains, is something that dwells in everything we see in the universe. This could be in a stone, a living being, a plant, a planet, or even in the entire universe itself, and that Self governs its core functionality. In other words, it is almost like a central entity that defines the characteristics and behaviors of that object. And, this central entity is rather an idea or concept, than something that can be touched, felt or even sensed. It's an intangible entity, just as ideas and concepts, which are in fact intangible entities.
So when he says that the Self cannot be wet by water or burnt by fire and so on, he is actually referring it to be this intangible entity.
Furthermore, since it is an intangible entity, it cannot be be killed, nor is it born ever. However, it can instead take shape in the tangible world and have its influence in accordance to its central characteristics. This tangible shape, that it takes (or assumes), can be killed, however. And upon death, it is only the underlying central characteristics in which it functioned that remains. It doesn't die. A fitting example is say: the idea (or the central characteristic) of communicating from point A to point B. This idea had taken shape in the the tangible world in the form of a messenger, pigeon post, telegram, telephone ☎, fax machine 📠, mobile phones, smart phones 📱, ethernet, and so on as far as we know it. But while pigeon posts, telegrams, fax machines have almost died out, the idea of communicating still remained and continues to exist in mobile phones, smart phones, ethernet, and etc. So in the near future, we could expect mobile phones, smart phones or even the ethernet to die out completely, but idea of communicating would still remain. This time, may be in the form of a hologram.
Thus, the Self is an indestructible central entity.
And adding to this, since concepts or ideas fall into this set, Knowledge too falls into this. But knowledge, to be frank, is a tangible entity as it is impossible for someone to know everything. It is defined within specific boundaries, which we humans like to call as Assumptions. However, no matter how tangible this entity is, knowledge is usually the central part of a tangible system. And this central part usually holds the principles by which it functions or the set of rules by which it is meant to operate. Technically, its more or like an internal decision tree that defines the functionality. Furthermore, these principles or rules may or may not be perfect, but can be improved over time. And the only way for this centralized decision tree to become indestructible is, if its has several other branches branching out from its nodes and connecting back into those same nodes in some way or the other. A sort of necessary redundancy in the connections, where, in case one fails or gets killed, another branch or set of branches exist to support the nodes again. This, in the sense of knowledge implies developing multitude of reasoning stances for any new concept or idea that is learned or assimilated into the existing knowledge base. And when such multitude of reasoning stances are established for the concept or idea, it gets closer to the conscience, where it becomes part of or seeps into the core functionality of the system, object or living being. So things like "brushing 🪥 your teeth in the morning right after you wake up" becoming a seamless task every morning happens not only because it was a trained habit, but because over time a multitude of reasoning was developed around into why it is required or important to do it. And once that developed, nothing or no one can or could ever cause a destructible reasoning that would stop you from ever doing it. It could even be a nuclear holocaust or a meteor that just split the Earth in half, or even a zombie apocalypse with one 🧟, just a few steps away from eating you alive. You just wouldn't stop completing to brush your teeth right after you woke up... ever 😀. [You would only increase its speed.]
Hence, the Self resides in the deepmost conscience of every living thing. So Krishna, when he was explaining the aspects of the Self to Arjuna, was literally telling him to listen to his conscience before he made the decision to either back-off or fight. And the more he did, the more he would realize that the decision he had to make was to fight.
Analyzing the stakes for Arjuna
Though the central idea of fighting the Kauravas to get back what rightfully belonged to him and his brothers was quite intact for Arjuna, the fact that it also involved killing his Uncle Grandfather - Bheeshma, and gurus - Drona and Kripa, who he revered for their excellence and kinsmanship, destroyed him of his will to fight back. And whatever reasoning he had then to fight, just broke at the very first sight of that situation in front of him. That was when Krishna advised him to look deeper into the conscience to see why he actually needed to fight. The main point Krishna put forward was that: though the entire Kaurava army was massive in size and in fact bigger than the Pandava army, almost everyone in that army was pretty much trembling at the idea of fighting against him, Arjuna. Bheema was only just second to that. And if they by any chance learned that Arjuna had backed-off all because of not wanting to fight against Bheeshma, Drona and Kripa, they would firstly get an immediate sense of relief, and then in return, turn him into a laughing stock and throw in unsolicited words on him while they were at it. Other things that Arjuna had to look deep into his conscience was that: if he backed-off, it would only encourage the Kauravas to take more of what belonged to the Pandavas. Because the Pandavas wouldn't dare fight back at all, all thanks to Bheeshma, Drona and Kripa. But what if this was Draupadi, who they fancied stripping down naked and turning her into their bitch (as she wedded five men: the Pandavas) as they tried doing in the courtroom where the game of dice was held. It was only to their surprise and dismay then, that she wore a never-ending piece of cloth, which no matter how aggressively they advised or how aggressively Durikshadana tried to rip her cloth off, it just kept flowing and flowing.
This and other the events that occurred, the indestructible truth which his grandfather Sage Vyasa described in the Mahabharata as a tree formed of a multitude of snaking 🐍 branches: a multitude of events that led to (and being the central reason behind) the battle of Kurukshetra, was what Arjuna had to look into.
Summarizing
So as we have seen, this Self is nothing but an indestructible central entity that governs the functionality of everything, big or small, and is also something that resides in the deepmost conscience of every living thing. Put plainly, it is the innermost gut-feeling that holds the indestructible truth, which we all know as what drives morality and the balance of the universe. So this, being even pertaining to the central entity that balances something as big as the universe, would only bring into question whether it was this Self that was responsible for bringing about the battle where many Kshatriyas died?
We will discuss more on this later.
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