Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita not just for Arjuna
Krishna is known as līlā-puruṣottama. He manifests all varieties of līlās. He came 5,000 years ago in his own svarūpa. At the end, in his kurukṣetra-līlā, he gave his message in the form of Bhagavad-gītā. He spoke it to Arjuna. Through Arjuna he gave this message to the whole of mankind.
We should not think that he only gave it to Arjuna. We call this śākhā-candra-nyāya. “Nyāya” means logic, “śākhā” means branch of the tree and “candra” means moon — the branch and the moon logic. The child cries, so what does the mother do? The mother says, “Don’t you see the moon there, the very effulgent silver plate? Don’t you want to have it?”
The child says, “Yes, mother. Where is it? Where is it?”
“Don’t you see it? It is in the sky.”
The full moon looks like an effulgent silver plate. Very beautiful, but it cannot be seen because the branches of some tree are obstructing the vision. It is just at the opening of some branches, but the child cannot see it.
“Where is it, where is it, where is it, mother?”
“Look at this tree. Look at that big branch there.”
She points out the tree’s branch and thus the mother shows the moon. This is the logic of śākhā-candra-nyāya. By pointing out the tree’s branch the mother shows the moon to the child. Similarly, pointing out to Arjuna, Krishna shows everything to mankind.
by Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
— From a lecture on Bhagavad-gītā, 1 June 1993, Baltimore, USA.
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