Following up a bit on my comments in posts 8 & 19, I return to the Gita.

For years prior to throwing down his bow and slumping into a panic attack on his chariot, Arjuna had be itching for a fight; he had grievances (pretty good ones too). But now, this brave warrior wanted to run away from the blood to be shed on the fields of Kurukshetra.

Krishna told Arjuna to suck it up, saying all that was about to unfold was due to desires. Arjuna's desires and those of his cousins who had usurped the throne.
The desires led to actions, the actions had consequences and the results were out of Arjuna's control.

Krishna also explained how to avoid such dramas in the future, clarifying many common human errors and explicating an entire life-style of self-defense without being defensive, offensive, or confused about the nature of "self-defense".

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna faced the situation of protecting some family and loved ones and killing others.
The answer is not easy.

Everyone claims to know their self, but apart from the obviously changing body wrapper, the constant "self" is very hard to pin down.
One might say that one's self is actually unknowable as the self-conscious self can not be revealed by the five senses or science.

The Bhgavad Gita expounds upon this human dilemma of desire, defense, action, inaction, killing, dying and self-identity.