ABOUT THE BOOK
Life is a battlefield. Each of us, like Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra, faces moments of doubt, fear and overwhelming choice. At such crossroads, Krishna’s timeless wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita offers a path forward, guiding us from confusion to clarity, from anxiety to peace, and from limitation to liberation. In Life Is a Battlefield, Priya Arora distils the Gita’s most powerful verses into lessons for modern life. She reveals how adversity becomes a teacher, how inner reality shapes outer experience, and why selfless action and equanimity are essential for resilience. With clarity and compassion, Priya shows that the Gita is far more than an ancient scripture; it is a living guidebook, addressing questions of purpose, meaning and courage that have troubled humanity for centuries. This inspiring work is an invitation to rediscover the fearless warrior within and to meet life’s trials with strength, wisdom and grace.
EXCERPTS
Vedanta has a unique concept of evil. It does not speak of the existence of the devil as a counterforce to God. This is because it views every aspect of the universe, and indeed the multiverse, as a manifestation of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Advaita, the lofty philosophy of non-duality espoused by the Upanishads, leads us to the highest truth that even the most villainous person on earth is, in essence, divine. On the face of it, such a view not only seems naive but thoroughly implausible, because we all know that plenty of immoral activity, antithetical to social wellbeing, goes on in the world. To resolve the contradiction, one must remember that Vedanta does not view Brahman as an entity but instead sees it as existence itself. Therefore, nothing that exists can be apart from this limitless power. If God is infinite, logically, how can there be a second? In other words, since every aspect of creation is an expression of the one all-pervading reality, everything we see around us is but a name and form of
Brahman, necessarily bathed in the same inner light. Nothing is intrinsically evil.
‘That infinite indeed is below. It is above. It is behind. It is in front. It is to the south. It is to the north. The infinite indeed is all this world.’ (Chandogya Upanishad 7.25.1)
If everything is Brahman, what is the cause of evil?
Vedanta attributes all wrongdoing to avidya—ignorance of the Self. As the Gita says, the unenlightened are caught up in outer appearances and disregard the presence of Brahman within. Engrossed in the body, they are oblivious to the transcendent nature of the indwelling supreme reality (9.11). Moreover, by not recognizing themselves as the Atman, they act out of fear or greed, absorbed in their own welfare, which leaves them forever restless and never at peace (5.12). Ignorance of the Self as the essence of all creation is the genesis of evil. It compels one to seek satisfaction in what pleases the senses, regardless of the cost. Sinful deeds are committed only because the perpetrator is oblivious to the divinity that exists in everyone.
Brahman, our actual reality, is described as nirgun because it has no denoting attributes; hence it is undefinable. Consciousness is simply pure awareness, beyond the labels of good or evil. However, nirgun Brahman possesses a manifesting power known as maya or prakriti, which produces the countless forms, animate and inanimate, that make up the universe. Maya is not different from Brahman, because the very same unchanging consciousness appears as changeable matter with a name and form (nama roopa). The feeling of separateness is a hoax due to maya’s hypnotic nature
Every physical entity owes its appearance to maya, and once manifested in a perceptible form necessarily has qualities or gunas that gives it its individuality. Brahman, expressed as material nature, has qualities. Brahman, as intangible, has no defining qualities.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Priya Arora is an author, spiritual seeker and lifelong student of Vedanta. Born and raised in Kolkata, she studied English Literature at Oxford University before establishing a successful career in banking and technology in the United States, where she has resided for over three decades. Her spiritual journey began with a lecture at the Ramakrishna Mission in Berkeley, which awakened a deep interest in Vedic philosophy. A devoted follower of Advaita Vedanta, she has also studied Sanskrit to engage more closely with ancient texts.
Priya’s first book, Rama, A Man of Dharma (Penguin India, 2024), reimagined Rama as a model of ethical leadership. Her latest, Life Is a Battlefield (Penguin India, 2025), offers a modern, practical interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita for those seeking clarity, strength and purpose. Written from personal experience, including a cancer diagnosis and raising a child with autism, her work is both spiritual and profoundly human.
