"The Bhagavad Gita is not just to be read as a novel, because it has nice words and is beautiful to read and makes one excited. No! It is about life itself! The whole Gita is to transform one's ego identity into the Divine identity.
So, here Krishna was giving the Gita to Arjuna, because when arriving on the battlefield, he experienced doubt. Looking at his cousins, uncles, his own family, all of them on the other side, he asked, “This is part of myself, part of my family, how can I fight?” He experienced a great dilemma inside of himself.
Now you see, look at your own life. In life, it comes to a point when you do experience such a dilemma, not outside of you but within yourself. When you are on your spiritual path doubt arises, “Am I really going on that path? Am I doing something right?” Because this is what the mind wants you to believe. Until you transcend the mind, the Self doesn't reveal Itself and sometimes to transcend the mind, there are great challenges. Kurukshetra is not out there, it is here [Swamiji points to the body]. This body is Kurukshetra! This is where Moksha will happen! This is where you'll meet the Lord! That's why to have a human body is the most important of all. And, if you don't use this physical body to attain the Lord, then you'll come again and again and again; because this is the aim of being born as human, to attain the Divine! Not just to say, “Yes, God I love you.” No, this is not enough! Because when you love God, you have to express it. The same way, when you love somebody, what do you do? You express yourself, no? You always express yourself. But, towards the Divine, the Divine also wants you to express yourself. However, for that, you have to get to know Him, not out there, but within yourself, within this temple, where He is seated.
In the Gita Chapter 10, Lord Krishna Himself explains that the only Reality is only Him, there is no other reality. It is only Him, who plays different roles in everybody. There is no you, there is only Him! That's what Tukaram always said, “Who am I?” There is only the Lord. Who are you? Throughout lives you have gone through many identities, thousands, hundreds. Which one would you call yourself, from all those identities? This one you have now?
In the other nine chapters, Krishna explained to Arjuna why he had to do his duty, as a kshatriya, as a warrior. He had to do his duty, like everybody, wherever God has put them, in whatever duty, wherever they are, they have been placed there for a reason. And they have to do their duty accordingly. The disbalance starts happening when one doesn't do one's duty.
Here, Arjuna was standing and saying, “I don't want to fight!” But a kshatriya, a warrior, has to fight, he can't run away. So, in all these chapters, Krishna was reasoning with Arjuna and clearly said, “Fight!” And Arjuna said, “How can I fight? They are all my dear ones!” It is the same when the mind is looking inside at all the qualities which one has to get rid of. The mind says, “Well, all this is me! I don't want to get rid of all these qualities!” Because the mind enjoys every quality. The mind rejoices even in the negative qualities. But will one be free from that? One will never be free! One will never attain the Lord with the negative qualities. Even if this is part of you, yes, you can't get rid of it, because it is part of you. But you can transcend it. Even the mind can transcend itself into the intellect and from there it can be transcended again into consciousness.
So here, Krishna was telling Arujna, “You have to fight!” What does Arjuna represent? In the Gita, very often Krishna describes Arjuna as the ‘conqueror of sleep’. What does it mean the ‘conqueror of sleep’? The ‘conqueror of sleep’ means that he is wise, that he has full control over his senses. He has all his senses under control, because Arjuna was a great warrior. He had fought so many battles before Kurukshetra. But yet to attain Moksha, there is a final battle.
After this talk, Krishna said to Arjuna, “Fix your mind on Me! Be devoted to Me! Worship Me! Bow down to Me! Having thus surrendered yourself to Me, have thus united yourself to Me, certainly you will attain Me!” This is very deep here, the whole Universe is the manifestation of God. Everything that you see is a manifestation of God. Everything manifested or unmanifested it is His Glory, but it is not fully Him. It is part of Him. It is His manifestation in everything. So, to attain the fullness, to attain His Divine Glory completely, one is called to do something. Even if the whole Universe is His manifestation, yet He is free from everything. His creation is a part of Him. And He is calling back His creation to unite again with Himself."
Sri Swami Vishwananda