Bhagavad Geeta teaches the natural ways of the cosmos

Introduction to Srimad Bhagavad Geeta by Swami Chidbhavananda Part 9

It is possible to come across people who object to the study of the Bhagavad Gita. They hold that the dialogue was intended to drag Arjuna somehow into the carnage. Arguments had to be invented in order to justify that nefarious act. And Sri Krishna proved himself an adept in the art of making a virtue of needless killing. What ensued was wholesale massacre. Without compunction Arjuna did away with his grandsire as well as with his preceptor. Killing is undoubtedly a heinous sin resorted to by wicked people. Religion is quite against it. Just as darkness does not co-exist with light, religion is incompatible with bloodshed. Those who are pious and intent on practising the tenets of religion should scrupulously eschew pseudo-religious books which advocate destruction. In this manner charges are found levelled against the Bhagavad Gita.

But what actually is the position of the Gita? It does not stop half way. It goes to the very core of this issue. It proclaims that the panorama of nature is an interminable battle-field. Both the macrocosm and the microcosm are permeated with life. A drop of water contains countless atomic life germs. They are atomic and insignificant when viewed from our angle of vision. But when judged from their own standpoint they are as much important as we claim we are. In the air contained within our closed fist an equally extensive world of living beings exists. The same is the case with a clod of earth. Minute and imperceptible life units muster earth, air and water. Life is all pervasive. When a human being breathes once, millions of atomic life units are done away with. A growing plant is constantly consuming bacteria in millions. And each bacterium is a life unit by itself. There is no food which is not constituted of organic matter. This means that life subsists on life. To live is to live out. New forms of life are built at the cost of old ones. Destruction is involved in construction. Unalterable is this scheme of Nature. Not a moment passes without destruction taking place. Recognizing this truth in its nakedness is the first step in understanding the plan of Nature.

Creation, preservation and destruction are the three phases of ceaseless activity going on in Nature. These may be termed the triple purpose of cosmos. What is sunrise to one place is sunset to another. It is simultaneously the setting sun as well as the rising sun. Birth into a new body is putting an end to the old worn-out body. Seed dies in order to give birth to a seedling. Beings perish in their old bodies prior to their reincarnation in new ones. The interval between a creation and a destruction is called preservation. Even as the sides of a triangle are interdependent these triple activities are interrelated. If, of these, destruction or death is truly understood the other two become self-evident.

Source: Srimad Bhagavad Geeta-Commentary by Swami Chidbhavananda