The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

The War Within ╯
Basically there have been two points of view, which are almost
(but perhaps not completely) irreconcilable. First, there is the
orthodox Hindu viewpoint that the Gita condones war for the
warrior class: it is the dharma, the moral duty, of soldiers to
fight in a good cause, though never for evil leaders. (It should
be added that this is part of an elaborate and highly chivalrous
code prescribing the just rules of war.) According to this
orthodox view, the lesson of the Mahabharata (and therefore
of the Gita) is that although war is evil, it is an evil that cannot
be avoided – an evil both tragic and honorable for the warrior
himself. War in a just cause, justly waged, is also in accord
with the divine will. Because of this, in the Mahabharata,
Yudhishthira and his noble brothers find their peace in the
next world when they have finished their duty on earth.
The mystics’ point of view is more subtle. For them the
battle is an allegory, a cosmic struggle between good and
evil. Krishna has revealed himself on earth to reestablish
righteousness, and he is asking Arjuna to engage in a spiritual
struggle, not a worldly one. According to this interpretation,
Arjuna is asked to fight not his kith and kin but his
own lower self. Mahatma Gandhi, who based his daily life on
the Gita from his twenties on, felt it would be impossible to
live the kind of life taught in the Gita and still engage in violence.
To argue that the Gita condones violence, he said, was
to give importance only to its opening verses – its preface, so
to speak – and ignore the scripture itself.
75 ╯