More musings

Is it right for Krishna to persuade Arjuna to fight, against his best impulses?

It is difficult to say no, I think.

If Arjuna had these feelings from the beginning, he could have graciously renounced and found happiness and self-respect in that type of life. But it was too late now. It was more like a passing sentimentalism, and he would have found it difficult to reconcile himself to a life of subservience to his haughty cousins, and contempt from his peers at his apparent cowardice.

He was not really ready for that sort of high living, and would have to wait until, by a process of gradual introspection to understand the futility of all this in the wide compass of the universe, he could realize fully the more lasting happiness of internal peace.

For us who do not have to meet such challenges, but have lesser dilemmas to confront, and have to decide what we should do in certain circumstances, the approach of geetha, a combination of committed action without worry about the immediate result, a firm belief that in the order of things any sincere action will not be in vain under the benevolent eyes of a God who is impartial just and loving, and the realization of our pettiness in the vast incomprehensible universe,may be appealing.

Whatever we say about the unknown origin and cause of life and universe is certainly bound by our own experience. The ultimate reality conceived by us as either a personal god or universal impersonal reality beyond our feelings and thoughts, is a mental projection, shaped by our imagination.One thing which makes the vedanthic teaching more appealing to many is that of its universality, the oneness of all irrespective of individual differences.

And its non-imposing of its beliefs on others.Instead of being a jealous god who cannot stand a rival, and who would annihilate all nonconformists, it accepts that there are differences born of individual personalities and mental makeups.

And that the fundamental criterion is sincerity and regard for others.Instead of giving commandments and orders, it asks people to think,study all that is ever written and thought by the wise and learned men, and then try to develop themselves in accordance with his nature.

The nature of humankind is categorized into 3 major types, what they call satva, rajas, and thamas, what may .be called the balanced/mature, restless/violent, lazy/inert, respectively.

And into4 classes of activities, castes, intellectual/brahmin,power-centred/kshatriya, trade/vaisya, and service/soodra. They also divide the life-span into 4 stages, student days/brahmacharya,household maintaining/ grihasthha, semi-retirement/vanaprasthha, and final renunciation of all worldly things/sanyas.

This kind of approach accommodates all sort of people and allows for diversity of beliefs and actions.God as presented here is god of all, and whichever form one worships,ultimately goes to Him only.

One criticism we can make about this is probably that this favours status quo and does not provide for changes in social organization.Probably this is not individual concern, but to be executed by God himself in the form of incarnations to set things right when things degenerates from the original values and ideals.

Musings on the Bhagavad Geetha

When one reads critically the Geetha, as a guide for living, not as a hymn to be chanted for favours handed out by a pleased deity, the first thing which strikes one may be, is it not callous and even cynical to use all these high-sounding words and philosophy, only to make Arjuna fight a bloody internecine war for the sake of material gain? similar to Arjuna’s feelings expressed in chapter 2.

If you hold the author in respect as a serious poet, you might wonder whether there is a purpose in inserting this noble philosophy in this context. The national poet of Kerala, Vallaththol, has hailed it as the bugle of detachment even in the battle field, a testimony to India’s deep spiritual commitment!

I personally should like to think that the central idea is, given the harsh realities of life, which nobody can escape, bound as he is by Nature to its laws of survival, how best can one reconcile himself to it, and at the same time strive to raise himself above them, by a basic transformation of his base impulses through a process of introspection and practice of self control. There is no room for repression, or quick fix in it. The objective is one’s finding the truest abiding happiness in a feeling of self-mastery and resulting self-esteem, and through this, stability and all-round development of society as a whole.

The means to achieve this, according to Indian tradition is, manifold, the chief being: one, positive committed action with the object of self-control, two, submission and emotional bonding to a supreme Godhead, three, intellectual search for the ultimate reality. Geetha I think assimilates all of them, and asserts that they are not contradictory, but are complementary, the basic requirement being sincerity and integrity..

It is customary to consider Geetha as divided into 3 sections of 6 chapters each, the first mainly dealing with karmayoga, the second with bhakthiyoga, and the third with jnanayoga. But there is no hard and fast separation, and it is always emphasized that they are not exclusive of the others.

There is also a gradual development of Krishna’s personality, first a frend and companion, and then guide and philosopher, and later God himself impersonating the entire universe. Towards the end he is again the old self.

God has spoken to many prophets, and devotees, but only through the mind of somebody or the other, this time through Krishna, as envisaged by Vyasa. Just as he has to assume a form to be visible to mortal eyes, he has to assume the egoistic “I” when addressing us. It should not be taken ,I think, as self-glorification.