Bhagavad Gita verse 2.8 | The Nakedness That Made the Gita Possible
How often do we feel comfortable being inwardly naked in front of anyone?
Physical nakedness is perhaps easier. You can remove your clothes, and there is nothing more to hide physically. Lovers do that all the time. But inward nakedness is much harder. To become inwardly naked is to allow everything that you have been protecting, your fear, confusion, attachment, helplessness, ignorance and self-image, to be exposed.
There is an interesting story about Duryodhana. Before the war, Gandhari asked him to come before her completely naked. Her gaze, through years of austerity, had the power to make his body as strong as iron. Duryodhana went to her, but even before his own mother, he felt embarrassed and covered his genitals. That was the one part of his body that remained vulnerable.
The story is about physical nakedness. But look at the parallel with Arjuna.
Arjuna is also a mighty warrior. He is standing in the middle of a battlefield, with everything that he has known about himself and his duty suddenly collapsing before him. He is afraid, confused, attached and helpless.
And yet, he does something much harder than removing his clothes. He becomes inwardly naked before Krishna.
He does not protect his image. He does not try to maintain the image of the great warrior who knows what to do. He does not hide his confusion or manufacture arguments to appear right. He simply exposes his actual situation before Krishna.
And this is precisely why Arjuna becomes the worthiest recipient of the Gita. Because he was able to become inwardly naked.
It could have been very different. Arjuna could have thought, I am Arjuna. I am a great warrior. What will Krishna think if I reveal that I am afraid, confused and unable to decide? He could have protected his image and continued to argue from that image.
But if Arjuna had been afraid of this inward nakedness, the Gita would not have happened at all.
The Gita became possible because Arjuna was willing to say, in complete helplessness, that he did not know. He stood before Krishna almost like a child before his father, without protecting himself from being seen.
This is why Arjuna's nakedness is harder than Duryodhana's. Duryodhana could not even become physically naked before his own mother. Arjuna was willing to become psychologically naked before Krishna.
And this nakedness goes even deeper than the physical body. Revealing one's clothes does not necessarily reveal anything. Revelation happens when what is within is no longer protected. Arjuna had this willingness. And perhaps that is why the Gita became available to him.
The question, then, is not merely whether we can remove our clothes. The much harder question is: can we allow ourselves to be inwardly naked?