As the story unfolds and the great war looms, the reader is perched on the edge of his seat. Mahabharata reaches its climax as a great fratricidal war proves unavoidable. Family members face off as the reader has come to identify with men and women on both sides. The legendary author Vyasa has captured the full attention of his readers and no one can put his book down. It is at this moment that Vyasa wisely inserted the Gita, the sacred conversation between God and devotee, Krishna and Arjuna.
Armies are lined on either side, separated by a thin line of tension.
They remain poised as Krishna perfectly balances on that line and enlightens all about inaction within action, and about the confidential knowledge of the highest devotion. In 700 verses, the essential message of the Upanishads issues from the lips of Krishna as Arjuna asks all the pertinent questions of the ideal seeker. In the Gita, Krishna is the ideal statesman and philosopher. He does the work of the avatara, delivering the pious and destroying impiety, as he establishes religious principles on a firm philosophical foundation. Krishna's words are penetrating and immortal, all the more compelling when considering the position he takes in the war.