Krishna - A War Monger or a Counsel ?

Partho and Shakuntala were amongst our best family friends. In age they were nearly a decade older than me and my wife, one can call it generation gap and, we respected them more as our elders than friends. Partho was a self taught photographer and continued well into his retirement. Shakuntala devoted all her time in the service of Lord Krishna and her charitable activities. She was a modern day Mira. She had converted her home into an ashram and invited women friends for the daily puja rituals. She organised devotional musical programmes and invited visiting 'gurus' and 'swamis' to UK to her home and washed their feet. She was true and true a divine personality. On the other hand Partho, though never objected or interfered in Shakuntala's activities, was opposite. He never visited any temple or bowed to any idol. However, he did avail himself to the services of Shakuntala whenever there was a photo opportunity during the visitation by saffron garbed 'gurus'. I use to tell him that people who live in a temple had no need to visit temple. He would give me a gaze avoiding any comments.

Kamala was in her teens and only daughter of Partho and Shakuntala. Kamala sounded too desi and long so she shortened her name to Kam following many thousands of Indian youths who had done before her. Kanti became Ken, Chotalal became Cho, Mandeep became Mandy, Mohit became Mo, Krishna became Kris and so on. Kam was a sweet little vibrating intelligent being. She was a step further from her father. She did not subscribe to her mothers activities and kept away from home for most of the time with her English boyfriend Robert. Weekends were totally away from home only to avoid devotional environment, the music, the incense, the spiritual vibes and all the noise to go with it.

One evening we visited them unannounced - its was Shakuntala's insistence that no one should call to visit her and her home should be treated open 24/7. That evening we found Shakuntala a broken person making difficult attempt to read from the scripture. A middle aged gray haired woman had put on few more years and gray hairs since we last saw her only a few days ago. She gave us a dry faint smile and said she was going to call us in any case.

We soon found the cause that lead to her shocking condition. She was deeply hurt. The tears ran in abundance over her now fragile crumpled cheeks as she slowly began to open up.

Kamala insulted my Lord Krishna. She called him a war monger and preacher of violence. She lay total blame on Krishna for the war of Mahabharata. She accused Lord of forcing Arjuna to kill his own elders, teachers and young cousins.

Tear taps were on the high as she slipped in to repeat mode and her story looped to repeat everything in sequence. I kept quite and waited for the right moment to short circuit her mental loop which seemed unending like Hare Krishna mantra chant. But she was out of breath now. She stopped to take deep gasp of fresh air and to wipe cold itchy sticky tears. I took the cue and broke her mental circuit just to remind her that Kamala always listened to me and that I would talk her out of this. I knew I would convince her that what Lord Krishna's advice to Arjun is a thoughtful and relevant time eternal.

To begin with I simply asked Kamala how would she feel if her bank manager did not perform his or her duty that lead to difficulty and loss to her ? I WOULD COMPLAIN AND DEMAND COMPENSATION AS IT WAS THEIR DUTY TO SERVE ME TO THE FULLEST.

I asked her what if her doctors failed to treat her correctly and as a consequence she lost her job ? I WOULD COMPLAIN AND CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION...

What if a thief got away with your mobile phone and the police just looked on ? SHE STARRED AT ME...

I explained Kamala that what she demanded in terms of performance of one's duty is what Lord Shree Krishna reminds Arjun. Being a soldier, a King, a Ksatryiya it was the sole duty, Dharma of Arjun to fight in defence of justice. If Arjun failed his Dharma he would fail everyone, including himself.

Eisenhower, former President of USA, once said during the World War II campaign that he was inspired by the Bhagwad Gita to fight on and win every time he felt let down or overwhelmed by depression. He said that if the soldiers put down their arms who will defend justice? Pacifism does not mean you stop defending yourself at the time of attack on you. You have to fight as it becomes your sole Dharma to save yourself. This was what Lord Krishna advocates to Arjun - perform your duty.

Taking this further in our day to day life, say if doctor fails his Dharma you cannot expect a bank manger to do doctor's job and vise versa. Everyone has been bestowed with duties in society...Dharma. The condition of our society is totally dependant upon the sincerity with which one performs one's Dharma.

Kamala's mind set condition changed slowly but surely and she slowly understood the meaning of the Bhagwad Gita and today she is ardent follower and companion of her mother.

Barbara Stoler Miller in her introduction to The Bhagwad Gita says:

According to Krishna, Arjun's objection to killing his relatives are based on the same subjective worldly desire that blinds his foes to their folly. Krishna's solutions lies on another level, one where oppositions co-exist within his cosmic knowledge. Krishna the omnipotent lord, teaches that the warrior's ordained duty (DHARMA) is grounded in the reciprocal relationship between cosmic and human action (KARMA), which is crucial to universal order.

In the Steps of the Yogis, Swami Vijayananda (Dr A J Weintrob) gives an interesting account when he first visited Shri Lanka (erstwhile Ceylon) just after the World War II in search of Spiritual master. He met a senior Buddhist bikkhu who said the Bhagwad Gita was a dangerous book because it sanctioned murder in certain cases. It is a charge that has been made against this Indian "Bible" (like Kamala), but it cannot withstand thorough investigation. The book has to be read from cover to cover and within its own proper context...the "sanctioning of murder" is not a commandment in the Gita; far from it. It is a counsel given to Arjuna, a military leader, and it is given at a critical moment on the battlefield; it comes as the solution of a problem rooted in exceptional circumstances, and is not intended to be a directive for all men.

There is no man who, in the course of his life, has not confronted - albeit on a lesser scale-a dilemma such as this-the imperative to choose between two course of action which are equally wrong.

But Krishna allowed his friend and disciple a way out of this impasse. The duty of a military leader, he declared, is to fight in defence of justice. Arjuna, therefore, should give battle, not beat a faint-hearted retreat. However, though it was his duty to kill his enemies, he should do so without hatred or anger or passion, and without concern over the outcome of the actions performed simply in his role as an instrument of God. In this way he would bear no responsibility for deed which, under other circumstances, would have been sin.

This is far call from saying that the Gita licenses any man to kill provided only that he do so without hatred in his heart. The fact is that there are no sublimer teachings than those of the Bhagvad Gita and its moral code can bear comparison with that of any religion whatever.

Many learned humans amongst us and, many of today's fashion generation youths are misled into believing what Kamala once believed. I hope this blog offers, to all those full of suspicion and doubts, a thought provoking spark that could re-kindle their capacity to think and understand the Bhagwad Gita better. And if one has joined a fashion group who bash The Bhagwad Gita because it is fashionable and cool to do so, I would say still there is lot of hope, because Lord Shree Krishna has promised that Parivartan (Change) is inevitable. Everything has to change and those who fail to change will parish. So there we go - today's fashion of Bhagwad Gita bashing has fair chance of changing and, if not, then this fashion will have to go out of fashion to replace by yet another fashion...cool...ehhh!...Krishna says so and history is before us to witness...Jai Shree Krishna

Just Arrived...looks like will stay on...

Acknowledgement:

In the foot steps the Yogis by Vijayananda (Dr A J Weintrob), Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans, Mumbai 400 007

The Bhagwad Gita by Barbara Stoler Miller

Copyrighted 2008 by Navin Joshi