Paramhansa Yogananda says, the Bhagwad Gita is evidently a spiritual metaphor used for the exposition of the Yoga. The persons portrayed therein are in fact, ingenious depictions symbolising the various stages in the devolvement of spirit into matter.

The battle represents the real struggle that ensues within a person who realises that all along it was the mind and its deep-rooted tendencies, that was playing the game of deception with him, leading to false perceptions of truth and happiness, but under proper guidance can rectify this.

Kurushetra, battlefield refers to our bodily domain, where the action must take place. Pandu was the rightful & noble monarch of Bharata, the bodily kingdom. Pandu had 5 sons, 3 from wife Kunti—representing the power of dispassion, and 2 from Madri, the power of persisting in dispassion. The five brothers unwittingly lose their kingdom in a game of dice, deceitfully loaded by Duryodhana (material desire) against them. The bodily kingdom comes to be ruled by the blind king Dhrtrashtra, who represents our own sense-infatuated and hence “blind” mind.

Duryodhana represents vain, material desire most difficult to put-off. His 99 other brothers represent the sense-entrenched tendencies of mind.