Has a question ever sat in your mind for weeks while you said nothing? Perhaps you feared people would laugh, or that the question would sound childish, or that asking so much would look like a lack of faith. So you stay quiet and carry the confusion along.

The Gita starts the other way. This whole book exists because Arjuna asked. He did not ask once. He kept asking right through the conversation. And Lord Krishna never says that asking was a mistake.

So the answer is simple: yes, ask. Just ask as Arjuna does, in plain words, honestly, and for one clear answer.

Arjuna says openly what confuses him

In chapter 3 Arjuna's question can come as a surprise.

He says that the Lord's mixed-sounding words are confusing his mind, and asks him to say decisively the one path that will do him good (Gita 3.1–2). In other words: I do not follow You. There is no politeness to hide behind and no roundabout phrasing.

What does the Lord do? He is not offended. In the very next verse he calmly begins his answer (Gita 3.3). Saying what confuses you is not a fault. It is the first step towards the answer.

What kind of questions Arjuna asks

Arjuna's questions are not only about lofty philosophy. They are the questions that rise in all of us.

• What should I do? Two roads look good, each with its strength: giving up action, or the yoga of action (Gita 5.1). The reply is in Renunciation or Karma Yoga?.
• Why do I go wrong? Why does a person do wrong even when unwilling (Gita 3.36)? The Lord answers that it is desire turning into anger (Gita 3.37). That is the subject of The Enemy Called Desire.
• My mind will not settle. What now? Arjuna says the mind is restless like the wind and very hard to hold (Gita 6.34). The Lord agrees that it is hard, and says that practice and detachment steady it (Gita 6.35).
• What if I stop halfway? What becomes of a seeker who set out with faith and then fell away (Gita 6.37–39)?

He also wants to know things: what a person of steady wisdom is like (Gita 2.54), and what nature and the self are (Gita 13.1). In chapter 11 he asks to see the Lord's form (Gita 11.4). The Gita has an answer for each of these.

A question can also come from trust

Some people think that whoever asks has little faith. Arjuna shows the opposite.

Here Arjuna asks the Lord to remove his doubt completely, because he sees no one but the Lord who can do it (Gita 6.39). This is not the language of distrust. It is the language of someone who knows where the answer lies and goes straight there.

It was his way from the start. When his mind was most shaken, he still said: I am Your disciple, teach me (Gita 2.7). In the Gita, then, questions and faith walk together.

One thing to keep in mind: a question is not a way to win an argument. Arjuna does not ask to prove the Lord wrong. He asks because he needs the road ahead.

Questions change as you grow

Arjuna's first complaint, that the Lord is confusing him (Gita 3.2), is not his last question. Later he admits that he cannot hold his mind (Gita 6.34), and then he asks to see the Lord's form (Gita 11.4). As he moves forward, his questions change: from "why am I confused" to "how do I do this" and then "I want to know more".

That means the doubt you hold today may be stuck or raw, and that is fine. Asking it is what makes the next question possible.

An example

Neha is an accountant at a firm. She has started a piece of work that is still unfinished. One senior tells her to complete it before anything else. Another tells her to drop it and take a new opening. There is truth in both, and she respects both.

For days she says nothing to anyone. Then one evening she writes a single line: "Both pieces of advice are sound, but which one is right for me now?" The next day she takes that line to the first senior. She gets her answer, because the question is now clear.

Neha did what Arjuna did in chapter 3: she said what was pulling her in two directions, and asked for one clear answer.

What to do once you have an answer

Getting an answer is not the same as receiving an order. After all his teaching, the Lord tells Arjuna to reflect on it fully and then do as he wishes (Gita 18.63). Asking is yours, and so is choosing. Test the answer, set it against your own situation, and then take the step.

Questions readers ask

Does asking questions mean my faith is weak?

No. Arjuna asks as a disciple who has taken refuge (Gita 2.7), and for the removal of his doubt he looks to the Lord alone (Gita 6.39). Asking is what someone does who wants to move forward.

What if my question feels too small or silly?

Arjuna's questions are ordinary too. He asks how a person of steady wisdom speaks, sits and walks (Gita 2.54), and how a restless mind is to be handled (Gita 6.34). The Lord gives a direct way: practice and detachment (Gita 6.35). What has held you up is not small.

What if the doubt comes back after I have an answer?

It happened to Arjuna too. At the end of chapter 4 the Lord told him to cut doubt with the sword of knowledge (Gita 4.42), and in the next chapter Arjuna raises the same dilemma again (Gita 5.1). The Lord answered a second time. If the doubt returns, ask again.

Where do I find the answers to Arjuna's questions?

The library has a page for each. Which path to choose is in Renunciation or Karma Yoga?, and the root of wrong action in The Enemy Called Desire. The whole sequence runs through Arjuna's Journey.

Going deeper

To take the fourteen main questions one by one, with their replies and what each shows about Arjuna's mind, read the verse-by-verse reading.