Bhagwad Gita- Post 10

Dear All,

Arjuna tries to convince Sri Krishna for not fighting with Kauvarvas, with various explanations like the following, (verse 32 to 35)

For I desire neither victory, O Krishna, nor pleasures nor kingdoms! Of what avail is a dominion to us, O Krishna, or pleasures or even life?

Those for whose sake we desire kingdoms, enjoyments and pleasures, stand here in battle, having renounced life and wealth.

Teachers, fathers, sons and also grandfathers, grandsons, fathers-in-law, maternal uncles, brothers-in-law and relatives.

These I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, O Krishna, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds, leave alone killing them for the sake of the earth!

In spite of all that Arjuna said so far, Krishna is as silent .  Therefore, Arjuna gives up his melodramatic expression and assumes a softer, a more appealing tone and takes the attitude of explaining in vain, a serious matter to a dull-witted friend and says, 

Verse 36

Nihatya dhaartaraashtraan nah kaa preetih syaaj janaardana;

Paapam evaashrayed asmaan hatwaitaan aatataayinah.

Killing these sons of Dhritarashtra, what pleasure can be ours, O Janardana? Sin alone will be our gain by killing these felons.

The kaurvas had  committed such sins that they deserve to be slayed immediately, arjuna mentions  that  the kaurava brothers were behaving towards the Pandavas as felons. 

If it is put forth that in killing aggressors there is sin that argument can be nullified because in the Vasistha Samhita ( it is mentioned as Niti Shastra in come commentary), it is stated that the following six types of aggressors can be killed.

1) one who administers poison

2) one who commits arson 

3) one who attacks with deadly weapons 

4) one who steals one’s wealth 

5) one who usurps another's property 

6) and one who kidnaps another's wife

In case of Kauravas, they had  usurped  Pandava's property, they had tried to kill Pandavas by placing them in a place prone to fire , they had humiliated Draupadi and they had done many  other wrong things to Pandavas.  So, as per the above shastra, they could be slain. 

However, arjuna takes another route and says that he would in turn be accruing more sin if he slays his own relatives.  His reasoning is based on  Dharma sastra where it is stated that one should not cause harm to any living creature. 

Since Dharma sastra is superior to any other sastra, the killing of revered elders such as Drona, Bhishma and all his Kaurava brothers and their army can only be the cause of a bigger  sin. 

Without the elders and the relatives, the enjoyment of sovereignty will not be palatable, rather, it  will only result in remorse.

Arjuna addresses Sri Krishna as Madhava, Janardana etc. in these verses which are attributable to  the husband/consort of goddess of good fortune. 

Arjuna indicates  by this that  as the Husband, He is the protector of the family and not the destroyer. 

Accordingly, Arjuna should also follow Krishna’s path as protector and he should not act contrary to Sri Krishna’s nature, by killing his relatives ( Kauravas, who are his family members)

Arjuna's seemingly learned objection to killing enemies is a misinterpretation of our sacred texts (Shastra), and to have acted upon it would have been suicidal to our very culture. 

As a Kshatriya, after the war has been decided, where Arjuna was fully geared up and was enthusiastic to fight against adharma  and army is lined up on both sides and the conches have been blown, taking the support of Dharma Shastra only reflects the cowardice and fear of Arjuna.

Therefore, Krishna refuses to show any sign either of appreciation or criticism of Arjuna's stand. 

The Lord understands that his friend is raving hysterically and the best policy is to allow a mental patient first of all to bring out everything in his mind and thus exhaust himself.

Love

Bhagwad Gita - Post 9

Dear All,

Now, we move to the other important verses in Chapter 1 

Verse 31

Nimittaani cha pashyaami vipareetaani keshava;

Na cha shreyo'nupashyaami hatwaa swajanam aahave.

(And I see adverse omens, Kesava! I do not see any good in killing my kinsmen in battle.)

Commentary

Swami chinmayananda writes, 

In this state of mental confusion, when his emotions have been totally divorced from his intellect, the 'objective mind,' without the guidance of its 'subjective-aspect,' runs wild and comes to some unintelligent conclusions. 

He says, 'I desire neither victory, nor empire, nor even pleasure.' It is a recognized fact that a patient of hysteria, when allowed to talk, will, in a negative way, express the very cause for the attack. 

For example, when a woman, hysterically raving, repeatedly declares with all emphasis, that she is not tired of her husband that she still respects him, that he still loves her, that there is no rupture between them, etc., she, by these very words, clearly indicates the exact cause of her mental chaos.

Similarly, the very denials of Arjuna clearly indicate to all careful readers how and why he got into such a state of mental grief. He desired victory. He urgently wanted the kingdom. He anxiously expected to win pleasures for himself and his relations. 

But the challenging look of the mighty Kaurava forces and the great and eminent warriors standing ready to fight, shattered his hopes, blasted his ambitions, and undermined his self-confidence and he slowly developed the well-known "Arjuna disease," the cure for which is the theme of the Geeta.

Dear All,

Before declaring this verse, Arjuna even says in the previous verse that he does not seek any victory, any pleasure, any good (upon killing his own Guru/brothers and other warriors) !!!

When one’s emotions are running unchecked, rationality goes out the window. That’s when one starts talking or thinking about irrational things like superstition, which is what Arjuna was alluding to in this verse.  

 

On the surface, one would attribute Arjuna’s second statement in this verse to an outpouring of compassion towards his kinsmen. But, would an outpouring of compassion cause a panic? 

The true underlying emotion that caused this  panic  was fear. And what was Arjuna afraid of? Arjuna was accustomed to winning every war that he fought. When he saw the caliber of warriors in the Kaurava army, his ego felt extremely threatened that maybe this time it won’t win. 

Here we see that Arjuna’s ego was trying to deflect this fear by substituting compassion for the true emotion of fear. 

If we look back in our life, there are so many moments where, we are afraid from within to take up any action  and instead of accepting our fear openly, we speak philosophy, we quote some leaders, we even end up quoting Swami ( which would have been spoken by Swami in some other context)  and plug it in as our excuse to run away from action/renouncing an action.

And, it is not that we are making fool of others. We make fool of ourselves and we believe in what we are speaking, to escape from what we actually must do in a given  situation.

When life teaches us through experience and when we look back, we laugh at ourselves and say to ourselves, what all  we  spoke/thought, to justify ourselves, in the past!

Think.....!!!

Love

Bhagwad Gita - Post 8

Dear All,

In the next couple of posts, we will deal with the most striking verses from chapter 1

Verse 7

Asmaakam tu vishishtaa you taan nibodha dwijottama;
Naayakaah mama sainyasya samjnaartham taan braveemi te.

(Know also, best among the twice-born, the names of those who are the most distinguished among ourselves, the leaders of my army! These I name to you for your information.)

Commentary 

Addressing his master as "the best among the twice-born,"Duryodhana now repeats the names of the distinguished heroes in his own army. 

A weak man, to escape from his own mental fears, will whistle to himself in the dark. The guilty conscience of the tyrant king had undermined all his mental strength. The more he realized the combined strength of the great personalities arrayed in the opposite enemy camp, the more abjectly nervous he felt, in spite of the fact that his own army was also manned by highly competent heroes. 

After all, Drona is a Brahmana by birth and as such he must have a greater share of softness of heart. Moreover, the enemy lines are fully manned by his own dear students. As a shrewd dictator, Duryodhana entertained shameless doubts about the loyalty of his own teacher. This is but an instinctive fear which is natural with all men of foul motives and crooked dealings. 

All of us who have been leaders in any organization and have witnessed many leaders in Social/cultural/political/ commercial/any other  organization would have surely observed what is to be said here. 

" In tamil, there is a saying, " Nirai Kudam Talumbadu" ( The pot which is filled, will be steady, water will not spill out from that easily, which means that the danger of spilling of water is only in case where the pot is half filled and has room to jump in the next half and fall.

We would have observed in our own case, where one has absolute faith in one's self and especially where one's conscience is clear, he does not speak much and his actions speak for his purity, his noble thoughts. 

Only where a leader is not confident of himself, his intentions are not 100% right and noble, fear grips in him about the outcome of his proposed action and to overcome that fear, he talks too much, he projects his strength too much and tries to deceive the listeners as much as he tries to deceive himself, thinking that he will gain victory in and through his actions. This is the plight of Duryodhana!!

A Brahmana is considered as "twice-born" because of his inner spiritual development. When born from his mother's womb man comes into the world only as the animal called man. Thereafter, through study and contemplation he gains more and more discipline, and a cultured Hindu is called a Brahmana (Brahmin).

(This is applicable to every human being. By birth one may be a Brahman but as per the above understanding, one becomes a Brahmin in real sense upon sincere  study and  understanding and  contemplation  of/on  Brahman)

Love