why A

Why does the Lord teach the yoga sastra to Arjuna and not to Bheema, Yudhishtira or the other Pandava brothers? Why does He teach on the battlefield when both sides are ready for war? Interpreters put forth many interesting observations regarding the context, reasons for the choice of time, place, disciple, etc, with regard to Krishna’s instruction, pointed out Sri B. Sundarkumar in a discourse.

Yudhishtira is proficient in sastra knowledge and does not need to be taught. By nature, he has no enemies and so does not see Duryodhana as one, though the latter shows enmity to him. Left to himself he would not have fought the war. Bheema is waiting for the chance to avenge Draupadi’s humiliation. His pent up anger is his motivation. Arjuna alone feels confused about waging the war at the eleventh hour and surrenders himself to Krishna for guidance and solace. His dilemma is on the issue of fighting Bhishma, Drona and his own kinsmen.

It is not that Arjuna had not fought the same Bhishma, Drona and others earlier. In fact, when the Pandavas were spending the last year of exile in the kingdom of Virata in disguise, Arjuna did not need any motivation to fight against the same elders and kinsmen who were always venerable to him. He accompanied Uttara Kumara to retrieve the cows for the sake of the Virata kingdom. There was no personal stake then but now the gain from the war will be the kingdom and he is not for it. So Krishna imparts the knowledge of atma tatva which alone can dispel Arjuna’s ignorance and delusion regarding right and wrong. He should understand that this kind of self denial is misplaced at this point when his Kshatriya dharma should motivate him to fight against adharma. If he allows Duryodhana to take possession of the kingdom, he is complying with adharma.