I’m reading the second chapter which talks about the consciousness or soul as the ultimate identity of all beings. The material body is only a covering and it changes all the time, most drastically at death, when the atma/soul receives another body, corresponding to whichever type of consciousness it has developed during its lifetime.
Arjuna is the warrior of the Bhagavad-gita who decides not to fight, seeing friends and relatives on both sides of the armies. Krishna, as Arjuna’s friend and chariot-driver, tells him that as a warrior, he cannot run away from his duty. Arjuna suggests that maybe he should just disappear to the forest and become a wandering ascetic. Krishna says that it’s not possible. Arjuna’s nature is to be a warrior, or ksatriya, and even if he went to the forest, he would fight there.
So. Ahimsa or non-violence is one of the very, very basic principles of yoga. I’m now talking about the yoga lifestyle, lifestyle of connecting with the Divine, which yoga literally means - I’m not talking about the popular Indian gymnastics going by the name yoga. ;) Ahimsa, as Buddha taught it, means practically to refrain from killing people and animals. Obviously, this includes eating animals. Animals have a much more developed consciousness than plants and so killing them for food, when there really is no necessity at all, is serious business karmically.
This is one layer of understanding ahimsa - refraining from hurting and killing other beings, or from supporting people and companies that do.
A bit deeper understanding of ahimsa is what struck me right now as I was reading the purport to the mantra 2.3 in which Srila Prabhupada calls Arjuna’s seemingly compassionate refusal to fight “so-called non-violence”. More about that later, I will leave you in suspense for now, see you in a day or too!