Tattva-viveka
arjuna in niskama karma yoga or suddha bhakti
Vivek - August 6, 2007 1:08 am
I had a question throughout the Gita krsna is sort of asking arjuna to follow his nature as a warrior while thinking of Krnsa, as he will be forced to act all the same due to action born of his nature. Many times he says that he is not well suited yet for life of jnana or contemplation.
Although i know that Arjuna is a pure devotee and a nitya siddha but in the lila is he acting in niskama karma yoga or suddha bhakti.
Margaret Dale - August 6, 2007 1:40 am
Wouldn't it be suddha bhakti, because Arjuna is displaying these tendencies as part of Krsna's lila of providing us with instruction on bhakti?
Syamasundara - August 6, 2007 5:26 am
The fun part is that the Pandavas are considered pure devotees, but at the same time they are expansions of Yama, Vayu, Indra and the Asvin kumaras respectively, and the demigods are said to be karma-misra bhaktas.
Vivek - August 6, 2007 6:54 am
my question is regarding krsna's guidance to arjuna during B.G, does Krsna place him as a person needing to act according to his own nature(niskama karma) before he can act in accordance with lord's will even if it conflicts his nature(suddha bhakti) later on. What is his standing according to rendering of Gita?
I am am talking about his position as pure devotee, what role is he taking to instruct us in this pastime of listening Gita( a person practising niskama karma yoga or a person practising suddha bhakti)
Zvonimir Tosic - December 19, 2007 1:49 pm
my question is regarding krsna's guidance to arjuna during B.G, does Krsna place him as a person needing to act according to his own nature (niskama karma) before he can act in accordance with lord's will even if it conflicts his nature (suddha bhakti) later on.
Dear Vivek,
Thank you for this question. I was also thinking a lot about these subjects you're mentioning now.
With the help of Swami's Gita, I was going back and forth, asking myself many similar questions, and, (if I'm allowed to share my thoughts?) here are just few short observations:
I was trying to understand the shifts in the conversation. What drives Arjuna to ask specific questions was very important to me.
Was he asking only what Krishna wanted to answer, thus behaving just like a puppet?
Or was he asking something that troubled him deeply, preserving his individuality fully, and Krishna had recognised and magnified those feelings and transformed them into a doubt first, and then into a question? So, under the layer of questions asked by Arjuna, there's also prostrated a layer of emotions. Hopes, fears, reflections, doubts, love, forgiveness. For me, those emotions are much more important than mere questions because they ignite questions. Sometimes it is so clearly visible how Krishna takes Arjuna's question and transformes it masterfully into a objective reality. In other words, he is both answering Arjuna's personal fear and addressing our objective situation at the same time. What a skill! Krishna is the master of double talk.
If we try to analyse emotions (or feelings, as Swami's Gita says in its name), we will discover something extraordinary in Bhagavad-gita.
I dare to say, a completely new Gita. I wrote so many observations, and I'd like to share them with you all later. But please, don't judge me harshly then 
I'm just a novice here.
In regards to your questions about the nature of Arjuna's acting, I think that there's an unifying thought: suddha bhakta can be engaged in all kinds of activities, regardless on how we call them. Naming them as such, niskama karma, is our perspective. So from our perspective it might seem inappropriate for Arjuna to accept that path, because it's not in his true nature. However, from his perspective it's all auspicious. Both approaches thus take place, both are possible, so which one is true? That's the true beauty of Bhagavad-gita.
Ys, Z