Whether or not it is historically true that there was the battle mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita is unimportant to us of the twentieth century. But the psychological interpretation of it as meaning that Arjuna was ordered to fight not his parents and relatives but his attachment to them, is important. It is the same teaching as that of Jesus' hard saying about the necessity of taking up the cross and denying father and mother. All this we can understand even where we cannot follow it into practice. But it is bewildering to be told that a time comes in the disciple's development when attachment to the teacher must also be broken. He must free himself from the very man who has shown him the path to liberation from every other form of attachment. His liberation is to become total and absolute.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6 : Student-Teacher > # 869
