In the ancient text the “Bhagavad Gita”, the main character, Arjuna, faces a crisis in his identity and in fulfilling his dharma. The section titled ‘The Soul Does not Die’ offers reassuring words of encouragement from Krishna. He ultimately defines the importance of fulfilling dharma for the Hindu religion by stating that even though the body may die, the soul will be forever reincarnated; therefor, one must follow their dharma.
Throughout the story, Arjuna worries that he can no longer be a warrior because he does not want to harm his family. However, in the passage ‘The Soul Does not Die’ Krishna describes the body to be a vessel. Through many metaphors Krishna shows how, although a body (vessel) can be scraped, cut, and destroyed, no man…show more content… Krishna openly reflects on this when he tells Arjuna, “The self is not born nor does it ever die.”(Bhagavad Gita, 187) Death and birth hold no substantial burden in Hinduism because rebirth is accepted and inevitable. Krishna then segues into his main point for Arjuna which is focused on the concept of dharma. Krishna is trying to convince Arjuna to follow his dharma as a warrior during this tough time even though Arjuna doesn’t want to kill his family. Arjuna would rather fulfill the dharma of a family man than his born dharma of a warrior. This is where the class system comes into play. Arjuna was born into a warrior class but would rather be fulfilling the dharma of a different class; however, “better to fulfil one’s own dharma poorly than another’s well”(Birkenholts, 9/6) The idea of receiving good karma as a result of following dharma is incredibly prevalent in this passage. Krishna has told Arjuna that his soul will live on forever. By following through with his dharma of a warrior he will receive good karma and be reincarnated into a higher class and his Atman, or soul, will be more divine. If he does not successfully adhere to his dharma of a warrior his karma will be bad resulting in his Atman being born into a lower class, and therefor elongating the time it will take for him
