Posted on: 17 Mar 2024
[A question by Shri Kishore Ram]
Swami replied:- Arjuna is the incarnation of sage Nara, who is always closely associated with sage Narayana. God Dattatreya is sage Narayana because God Dattatreya being the son of sage Atri is always a sage. Arjuna is acting in the role of an ignorant soul while hearing the Gita. As the actor of that role, Arjuna is a liberated soul and he is only an ignorant soul as per the role. Arjuna, while acting in the role of an ignorant soul forgets himself as the actor and acts as the role thinking himself as the role only and not the actor. This takes place due to the divine illusion imposed on Arjuna by Sage Narayana. In such a case only, Arjuna can ask all the doubts of an ignorant soul. If Arjuna is aware of himself as actor (sage Nara), he may not ask some questions about which he already knew the answers. Even though Arjuna is acting as an ignorant soul, he is always under the control of sage Narayana and will not do the mistakes of an ordinary ignorant soul. He will do only permitted mistakes that are decided as per the prescribed role.