https://aeon.co/essays/the-indian-epic-mahabharata-imparts-a-dark-nuanced-moral-vision?fbclid=IwAR1Z-BeHlmagKKwBW2Ekow3tzW7n2HK6f8vKKVSehtJXCb8F14rddHDceIg

No. The Gita does NOT rationalize mass slaughter. If that’s what someone got out of the Gita, there really is nothing more to say.

The Mahabharata is an allegory for our daily existence. What Arjun is asking Krishna is “why should I do what is expected of me to do?” Why should I, if I am in IT, wake up every morning to churn out code? What is the purpose of this existence?”

What Krishna says is in essence that it’s your job. Each of our little existences has its purpose, life is not an empty nihilistic dream, and that purpose (dharma) is also what justice is for an individual, a just life is doing what you know you have to do

The result of your actions, whether you become the next Steve Jobs or get laid off, is not in your hands. So don’t worry about it. Life supersedes death, and the mark we make in the universe we won’t even know. So don’t bother about the immediate effects.

Arjun is the wisest of the wise, he isn’t asking Krishna “hey should I kill a lot of people or not?” Arjun has killed many people before. He is asking “Why should I do what I do?” It is one of the greatest questions a skeptical man can ask.

Krishna isn’t saying “hey you got to kill them all”. This isn’t Rambo. He is saying “they are already dead. You are merely an instrument of their fate.” This again is an allegory, it says that the end isn’t in your control but that didn’t mean you should stop your action.

Why is Arjun asking this question now, given he has killed before? Because before when he dispatched people before, it didn’t come with a personal cost. It’s similar to “I work 60 hour weeks and I am sacrificing my health and time I can spend with my daughter. Why?”

The work we do comes with a cost to ourselves. Gita says don’t do a cost benefit analysis because you can’t estimate the cost nor the benefit. This is not dissimilar to Buddhist teaching also.

These words of Gita have been a great personal solace to me in all the dark days I have been and still go through. It tells me that I can’t give up, I need to dust myself up & get up again, to do my dharma. No it’s not telling me to do mass slaughter.

The purpose of life is not the end which we cannot control, but the journey. Gita says you shouldn’t stop the journey because you aren’t happy with how the end looks, because you, as a human, can’t see the end. Just walk on the journey.

To those who know Western Philosophy, this is the variation of the Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus rolls a barrel up a hill for all eternity, the barrel rolls down, he picks it up again. This is his duty & he does it despite the futility. Why?

Because it’s the journey that’s the validation, not the end. No one has interpreted the Myth of Sisyphus as rationalization for rolling a barrel up a hill

This by the way is a place below hell, Tartarus, (the original title for the Mine was Tartarus, I was told it was too difficult), so it’s not a nice thing to be on this journey, it comes with an obvious pain and futility, which is similar to the pain that Arjun feels.