Krishna who played upon the flute and sang the song celestial’ on the battle-field taught that the life of the spirit was not ascetic but profoundly human, to be lived not away from the world but in the field of action. many who believed that his teaching was transcendental moonshine have found in his words the wisdom of life. many who thought he preached impracticable abstractions have learnt to discover in Krishna’s gospel a message of vital value to the practical modern man.
Krishna was ever human as a boy: and he taught, alike by precept and example, that action was at once the necessity and fulfillment of human life. To live is to act and none may hope to grow into the virtues of the interior life without fulfilling the obligations of the outer life as members of a society, a nation.
The life of action is what Krishna taught each one must live. But he was careful to add that our action must express not the lower self of ambition and power, but the deepest self which is love. As it is our work hides, it does not express, the higher self; hence the conflict between the ideal and the actual in the life of the world.