The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ Notes
CHAPTER ONE
1 The phrase “on the field of dharma” ( dharma-kshetre ) gives a
hint that the battle is to be an allegorical one, a fight of dharma,
justice, against adharma, evil. The battle takes place not only
at Kurukshetra, the “field of the Kurus,” but also on the elusive
“field of dharma,” the spiritual realm where all moral struggles
are waged.
40–44 These verses are particularly difficult to translate, because
they revolve around the complex word dharma : law, justice, or
simply something’s inner nature. To try to capture the word in
English we might say “God’s law” or “eternal truth.” Dharma
is divinely given; it is the force that holds things together in a
unity, the center that must hold if all is to go well. The opposite
of dharma is adharma : evil, injustice, chaos. In these verses
Arjuna gives expression to his fears of a coming chaos, an evil
world where good people will be confused and violated. “Sense
of unity” here translates dharma ; the phrase “loses its sense of
unity” would be more literally translated as “is overcome by
adharma. ”
The translation speaks in a general way of the chaos that overcomes
society when dharma is weak – when ancient spiritual
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