The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

CHAPTER 2: CURIOSITY ABOUT ACTION

CHAPTER 2: CURIOSITY ABOUT ACTION

In the nature of a preface, Chapter 1 presents the seeker’s doubts and confusions. The participants in the war include all of the Kaurav and Pandav, but Arjun alone is subject to misgivings. However, Arjun is the very embodiment of devotion as a wayfarer on the path of spiritual quest. It is his love for God that inspires him to get ready for the war between matter and spirit. The initial stage is thus of love, adoration. My revered teacher used to say, “Believe that adoration of the Supreme Spirit has commenced when, even while one is leading the life of a householder[27], there are signs of weariness and tears, and sentiment so powerful that it chokes the throat.’’ Manifold strands are entwined in love: of dharm, precept, restraint, pious association, and sentiment.

[27]Garhastya : the second of the four stages in the traditional Hindu life, the other three being brahmcharya, vanprasth, and sanyas.

In the first stage of spiritual seeking, attachment to the family looms as an obstacle. At the outset everyone wishes to achieve the ultimate reality, but the worshipper is overtaken by despair when he realizes that after going a certain length of the way he will have to sever all his ties of attachment to the family. So he learns to be contented with whatever customs he had followed earlier. He even cites prevailing customs to justify his infatuation, just as Arjun does when he insists that family rites are Sanatan Dharm. The war will cause the extinction of the Sanatan Dharm itself and, along with that, destruction of families and loss of civilized ways. Far from being an independent view of Arjun, his ideas only reflect some inherited creeds he had acquired earlier before approaching an accomplished teacher such as Krishn.

Mired in these traditions, men devise numerous religions, sects, groups small and large, and castes beyond reckoning. Some press the nose while others pierce their ears, while yet others lose their dharm because they are touched by someone, or because their food and drink are defiled. Is it just to blame the so called “untouchables” or non-Hindus for this state of affairs? By no means. The blame should rather be apportioned among those who propagate delusions in the name of dharm. As for us who listen to them, we are blind victims of what are but misguided customs, and so we, too, have to bear part of the blame.

In Mahatma Buddh’s time there was a sect called Kesh-Kambal[28], the members of which regarded the practice of growing hair, so that it could be used like a blanket, as a standard of perfection. There have been some who thought it pious to live like cows, while others have lived and conducted themselves in the manner of dogs. But all these were only stupid customs that have nothing to do with awareness of God. There were schisms and foolish customs in the past, and they are with us even today. There were also divisions and stupid customs in Krishn’s time, and Arjun is a victim of some of them. This is seen from his four arguments, namely that war destroys the eternal Sanatan Dharm and that it produces varnsankar, an unholy intermingling of disparate classes and ways of life. Obsequial offerings of diseased ancestors will cease and that we shall by being engaged in destroying our race, invite great curses on us. Thereupon, Yogeshwar Krishn speaks to him.

[28]Literally translated, Kesh-Kambal is blanket of hair.

1. “Sanjay said, ‘To him (Arjun), whose eyes were brimming with tears of grief because he was overcome by pity, Madhusudan spoke thus.’’’

To Arjun, his eyes filled with tears of sorrow and profound agitation, Madhusudan, the destroyer of arrogance, speaks:

2. ‘‘The Lord said, ‘From what cause, O Arjun, does this unmanly (un-Arjun-like), heaven-barring, and shameful despair come over you at this perilous spot?’’’

Krishn uses the term “visham” for the place where Arjun and he are at the time. Besides meaning “difficult” or “dangerous,” the word also means “unique” or “unequalled.” So Krishn really wishes to know that which has caused spiritual ignorance (agyan)[29] in Arjun in this unusual, unparalleled setting. The setting is one, the like of which, can be found nowhere else in the entire world, because it is the sphere of spiritual striving towards an unworldly, celestial goal. In such a universal and undisputed setting, how has spiritual ignorance come over Arjun? Why does Krishn call Arjun’s views spiritual ignorance? Has Arjun not said categorically that it is his heartfelt wish to defend Sanatan Dharm ? Is it spiritual ignorance to be resolved, body and soul, to protect what Arjun believes to be the immutable, eternal dharm? According to Krishn it is so, for it has not been the practice of those who truly deserve to be called men. Neither does it provide access to heaven. It is also not conducive to glory. The one who keeps firmly to the path of righteousness is an Arya. In Hindu scriptures, instead of referring to any race or stock, “Arya” denotes an exceptionally cultivated man who adheres scrupulously to dharm. If dying for one’s family were not an instance of ignorance, Krishn adds, sages would have practised it. Had family traditions been the ultimate reality, they would have been used as a ladder for climbing up to heaven and salvation. When Meera sang her songs of divine adoration, people declared her insane and her mother-in-law condemned her as a destroyer of the family. But no one today remembers the mother-in-law for shedding copious tears of concern about the well-being of her family and safety of its honour, while the whole world cherishes the memory of Meera. After all, how long can we remember the man who is concerned only about his family? Is it not evident then that customs which bring neither glory nor sublime happiness, and which have at no time been accepted by an Arya (a man of dharm), must be a kind of ignorance? Krishn says to Arjun: