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.