Why is the sword sleeping in the hand (Gita Daily)

Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04, Text 42

Imagine medieval warriors with their hands on the swords by their side surrounded by marauders attacking innocent civilians and charging to strike the warriors themselves. If their hands on the swords stay motionless and if we happened to be there, we would most likely try to arouse them with the call: “Why is the sword sleeping in the hand?”

The realized teachers of Gita wisdom similarly arouse us with a call to intellectual arms.

The Bhagavad-gita (4.42) compares its spiritual knowledge with a sword (jnana-asina) that can cut to pieces all worldly illusions and doubts. When we study the Gita, we acquire this sword to counter the onslaughts of illusions and doubts. These onslaughts come in our times through the contemporary education and culture that aggressively spin fantasies about material pleasures, and relegate God to irrelevance, if not non-existence.

All of us have the power to fight these onslaughts; we just need to use the sword of Gita wisdom in two ways:

1. Rigor in application: To the extent we are lazy in applying Gita wisdom in our own lives, to that extent we are like the warriors under attack who let the sword sleep. When we apply the knowledge rigorously to cultivate sustained devotional remembrance of Krishna, we use the sword to unmask and repel the deceptive worldly propaganda.

Read More – http://www.gitadaily.com/2012/09/13/why-is-the-sword-sleeping-in-the-hand/