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The second chapter of Bhagavad-gita opens with Kṛṣṇa chastising Arjuna for hesitating to perform his duty as a warrior. Then what happens? Arjuna restates his case; he makes the same basic argument as he did in the first chapter, only more succinctly:

arjuna uvaca
katham bhismam aham sankhye
dronam ca madhusudana
isubhih pratiyotsyami
pujarhav ari-sudana

gurun ahatva hi mahanubhavan
sreyo bhoktum bhaiksyam apiha loke
hatvartha-kamams tu gurun ihaiva
bhunjiya bhogan rudhira-pradigdhan

“Arjuna said: O killer of Madhu (Kṛṣṇa), how can I counterattack with arrows in battle men like Bhisma and Drona, who are worthy of my worship? It is better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though they are avaricious, they are nonetheless superiors. If they are killed, our spoils will be tainted with blood.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.4-5]

The first problem for Arjuna was how to kill his kinsmen, family men. He makes this argument elaborately in the first chapter based on religious principles. Now, in the beginning of the second chapter, Arjuna was chastised by Kṛṣṇa as a friend: “Why you are so weak? Don’t be weak. This material compassion is simply sentiment. Uttistha: stand up. You’d better get up and fight, or everyone will laugh at you.”

If we do not want to do something, we can offer so many excuses. So Arjuna presents the next argument based on his gurus: “All right, Kṛṣṇa, you are talking about my kinsmen. I accept that it is my weakness. But how can You advise me to kill my guru? Dronacarya is my guru, and Bhismadeva is also my guru. So do you really want me to kill my guru? Gurun hi hatva? And not just ordinary gurus: mahanubhavan. Bhisma is a great devotee, and similarly, Dronacarya is also a great personality, mahanubhavan. So katham bhismam aham sankhye dronam ca madhusudana. “They are not only my gurus, but they are great personalities, more than ordinary men. How can I kill them?”

Arjuna again addressed Kṛṣṇa as Madhusudana. The Madhu demon was Kṛṣṇa’s enemy, so Kṛṣṇa killed him. By addressing Kṛṣṇa as Madhusudana, Arjuna implies, “You are Madhusudana, You are the killer of Your enemies. But can You give me any evidence that You have killed Your guru? So why You are asking me to kill my guru?”

This is the purport. Isubhih pratiyotsyami pujarhav ari-sudana. This time Arjuna calls Kṛṣṇa Ari-sudana. Ari means enemy. So Kṛṣṇa has killed so many demons, ari, who came as enemy to fight with Him. Therefore His name is Arisudana.

So Kṛṣṇa has got enemies also, what to speak of ourselves. This material world is made so that you must have some enemies. In this material world there is always matsarata. Matsarata means enviousness, jealousy. We all know people like that. So there are jealous enemies of God also, and they are called demons. Ordinary jealousy or enemy, is natural. But demons are envious even towards God.

One evening, a man came to see my guru. He was arguing, “Why should Kṛṣṇa be accepted as God?” That was his argument. So Kṛṣṇa has enemies. Therefore not only ourselves, but even Kṛṣṇa, has enemies. In one sense, everyone who is in the material world is an enemy of Kṛṣṇa, because they want to be a competitor of Kṛṣṇa.

But How can you compete with Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa says, “I am the supreme enjoyer.”

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santim rcchati

“A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.” [Bhagavad-gita 5.29]

Sarva-loka-mahesvaram: “I am the Supreme proprietor.” And the Vedas also confirm,

isavasyam idam sarvam
yat kinca jagatyam jagat
tena tyaktena bhunjitha
ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam

“Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.” [Isopanisad, Mantra 1].

Sarvam khalv idam brahma “Everything is the property of the Supreme Lord.” [Chandogya Upanisad 3.14.1] These are Vedic injunctions.

yato va imani bhutani jayante
yena jatani jivanti
yat prayanty abhisam-visanti
tad vijijnasasva tad brahmeti

“Brahman is He from whom everything has come. Everything is created by Brahman, after creation everything is maintained by Brahman, and after annihilation everything is conserved in Brahman.” [Taittiriya Upanisad 3.1.1]

This was the answer given by father Varuna when questioned by his son Varuni Bhrgu about the Absolute Truth. In this mantra, the word yatah, the Absolute Truth from which the cosmic manifestation has emanated, is in the ablative case; that Brahman by which this universal creation is maintained is in the instrumental case (yena); and that Brahman into which the whole cosmic manifestation merges is in the locative case (yat or yasmin). So the Brahman described in this sloka cannot be impersonal.

It is stated in the Esoteric Teaching:

idam hi visvam bhagavan ivetaro
yato jagat-sthana-nirodha-sambhavah

“The entire universal creation is contained in the gigantic form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everything emanates from Him, everything rests in His energy, and after annihilation everything merges into His person.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.20]

The Esoteric Teaching begins with the mantra:

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
janmady asya yato ’nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat

“O my Lord, Sri Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1]

These are Vedic versions. But still, we, because we are enemies, we argue, “No, why shall Kṛṣṇa be the proprietor? I am the proprietor. Why only Kṛṣṇa shall be God? I have got another God. Here is another God. I am God.”

So Kṛṣṇa has enemies, and He has to kill them. Therefore He is addressed as Arisudana. Kṛṣṇa comes to this material world for two main purposes and one subsidiary purpose:

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium. [Bhagavad-gita 4.8]

The demons who challenge Kṛṣṇa, who want to compete with Kṛṣṇa, who want to appropriate the property of Kṛṣṇa for their own enjoyment, are all enemies of Kṛṣṇa, and they should be killed. They are miscreants. So Kṛṣṇa’s killing them is all right because they are demons, enemies of the Lord and of religion.

Then Arjuna’s question in Bhagavad-gita 2.4-5 is, “All right, you can kill enemies, that is admitted. But how you advise me to kill my gurus?” Gurun ahatva. “I cannot kill my gurus.” But if for Kṛṣṇa’s sake, there is a need, you have to kill your guru also. For Kṛṣṇa’s sake, if Kṛṣṇa wants, then you cannot disobey. If Kṛṣṇa wants you to kill your guru, then you have to do it. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Of course, Kṛṣṇa will not ask you to kill a bona fide guru, because guru and Kṛṣṇa are the same. Guru-Kṛṣṇa-krpaya. We get Kṛṣṇa consciousness through the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa. Real guru is never to be killed, but the phony so-called guru has to be killed or rejected. The so-called, pseudo guru, false guru, should be killed, meaning that he should be given up.