83: Arjuna's Dilemma

Creative Expression: Graphic Novel / Comic Book Strip

Chapter 1 of the Bhagavad-gita is entitled Arjuna Vishaad Yoga, which translates as "The Yoga of Despair as Displayed by Arjuna." This means that being in despair is actually a way to unite (yoga) with God. We need to get to a place of rock bottom despair, sometimes, in order to turn to God for guidance and shelter. 

(Pssst - I had a lot of fun with this one.) 

Chapter 1.31, 45-46. 

18: From Lust to Love and Back Again

CHAPTER 3, TEXT 37: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

For me, the word "enemy" brings to mind Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and murderers in prison. Pushed a little further, an "enemy" is war, slavery, global warming, plastic straws, sweatshops, and cocaine. These all-devouring "enemies" tear at our souls and have us question the very definition of what it means to be a human being - Hitler destroyed millions and cocaine continues to destroy millions. How could this happen? How could we let this happen?

Why?

Krishna is telling us here that the enemy is not outside, the enemy is inside.

The sinful enemy of this world is lust.

Lust only.

What a striking declaration. Now, lust is described as all-devouring, sinful, and an enemy. That definitely brings to mind characteristics that I would assign to Hitler, war, and cocaine. But what is so profound about this verse that underneath lust is the most profound nature of the soul: love.

Srila Prabhupad elaborates: "When a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Kṛṣṇa [God] is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion" (162). This means that the line between lust and love is much thinner than we could ever imagine.

Prabhupad continues: "Or, in other words, the sense of love of God becomes transformed into lust, as milk in contact with sour tamarind is transformed into yogurt." Both milk and yogurt come from the cow, and are composed of the same substance. But when the sour tamarind of the mode of passion comes in contact with the milk of love, the milk transforms into a completely distinct substance with a different taste, texture, and chemical properties. Yogurt is milk, and yet it is not. Lust is love, and yet is not.

Lust has such power to destroy and devour the soul because it is the reflection of the deepest prerogative of the soul: to love.

What's more, the intrinsic propensity of the soul is to serve. But once again, when the soul comes in contact with the mode of passion, "the service attitude is transformed into the propensity for sense enjoyment" (163). Service means that I am caring for another, concerning myself with the needs and wants of another, and in its highest expression I serve God and others in complete selflessness. But in this material world, that propensity turns inward: I want to serve myself. I want to serve my own senses and desires and goals. I become the center. Ultimately, love transforms into lust, and the path of lust is destructive and filled with endless pain.

The only hope is that maybe, one day, the soul becomes "completely baffled by prolonged lustful activities, [and] the living entities begin to inquire about their real position." Indeed, too much war, too much global warming, too much cocaine, too many plastic straws, and we can hopefully become baffled. Hopefully, we get sick of the pain and the suffering and yearn for meaning. Athatho brahma-jijnasa - one should inquire into the absolute truth (163). Hopefully, we inquire about our real position, which is to serve and to love. 

There is hope. Much like how beneath the disgusting mask of a monster lies a beautiful maiden, so beneath the mask of lust lies love. In this sense, we can actually feel compassion for ourselves, whenever lust begins to consume our hearts, for we can simply notice that our propensity to love is simply being misplaced. The process of Krishna consciousness is about learning how to offer our love in the right place. Ultimately, "lust and wrath, when they are employed in Krsna consciousness, become our friends instead of our enemies."

If lust is the greatest enemy of the world, then if lust is employed in Krishna consciousness to awaken the love dormant within the heart of each and every living being, then that lust and love have the greatest potential to transform the world. 

P.S. The purport of this verse given by Srila Prabhupad is brilliant; you're encouraged to check it out here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/

8: Taking Solace in the Truth of the Soul

CHAPTER 2, TEXT 19: Neither he who thinks the living entity the slayer nor he who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for the self slays not nor is slain.

Warrior cultures have existed throughout all of human history to protect the weak and take a stand for honor and justice. By definition, warriors kill. One cannot be a warrior without being willing to kill another human being.

The conclusion must be drawn that "violence also has its utility" (2.21, Purport): violence is useful, violence is even necessary. In fact, "violence and war are inevitable factors in human society for keeping law and order" (2.27, Purport). Chris Hedges of The New York Times writes in the article "What Every Person Should Know About War" that "Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history" (2003). Although world peace is a laudable goal, the facts show that we are more often at war than at peace, and violence is inevitable.

For Arjuna, who is a warrior, his role in this war is to kill others in his duty to keep law and order. Nevertheless, because of his soft heart, he is now conflicted, and even though he's given authority by the law to kill, he sees no utility or justice in doing so.

Krishna thus gives Arjuna knowledge that on a spiritual level, there IS no violence: the soul is not slain - what is killed is the body only (82). Following verses describe the nature of the soul, how it cannot be cut to pieces by any weapon, burned by fire, moistened by water, withered by the wind (2.23). Arjuna can take solace in the fact that the soul is never killed or injured in any way. The soul exists eternally and is untouched by the violence of this world. Krishna emphasizes that on a spiritual level, no one is slain. No one slays.

Prabhupad emphasizes, though that "This, however, does not encourage killing of the body. The Vedic injunction is ma himsyat sarva bhutani: never commit violence to anyone" (82). Indeed, if killing of the body were encouraged - hey, the soul is eternal I can kill whatever body I want! - then law and order would certainly be disrupted. Ahimsa - nonviolence - is a principle that honors the sacred soul within every being. 

Thus Prabhupad is emphasizing that violence is not done whimsically or for one's own personal interests. He writes that "Killing the body of anyone without authority is abominable and is punishable by the law of the state as well as by the law of the Lord (82). We must take into consideration that Arjuna is a warrior - he is given authority to kill. We cannot take Krishna's instructions literally into our own lives - fight! kill! - because we are not warriors. We have no authority to kill.

Of course, if you actually are a warrior, do your thing.

But most of us are not literally warriors. Our duty is to follow the sacred principle of ahimsa and never commit violence to anyone. We need to understand the essence of Krishna's instructions, which is although we may encounter so much violence and death and suffering in this world, the soul is eternal. The soul is not slain. The soul does not experience violence, such as being cut to pieces.

The essence of Krishna's instructions is that the next time we encounter death in this world, we can remember that the soul does not die. Our soul does not die. The essence is that we can experience great solace and freedom from the fear of death. The truth sets us free.

4: Justice vs. Forgiveness

CHAPTER 1, TEXT 36: Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and our friends. What should we gain, O Kṛṣṇa, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?

Arjuna is in deep distress. Like a lawyer, he is presenting his case to not engage in this vicious war. Arjuna is arguing here that "sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors." Defining terms is a good place to start in any logical argument, so Prabhupad first defines "aggressor":

According to Vedic injunctions there are six kinds of aggressors: (1) a poison giver, (2) one who sets fire to the house, (3) one who attacks with deadly weapons, (4) one who plunders riches, (5) one who occupies another’s land, and (6) one who kidnaps a wife (53).

Each of these types of aggressors threaten one's life, and threatening one's livelihood (such as occupying another's land) is a threat to one's life. In a rather natural sense of balance and justice, for the aggressor to receive the same kind of treatment is logical - their life is threatened and even taken. In simple terms, you get what you deserve.

Prabhupad then offers a statement that, in today's context, would be taken as quite controversial: "Such aggressors are at once to be killed, and no sin is incurred by killing such aggressors" (53). Whoah, interesting. This sounds almost barbaric, to kill someone "at once" for a violent crime that s/he committed. The debate surrounding the modern death penalty is thick with emotional tension and political strife. On a strictly monetary scale, to convict a man or woman of the death penalty takes, on average, 1.26 million dollars (amnestyusa.org) to process. In contrast, to incarcerate a man or woman (often for life) costs about 740,000 dollars. That is a difference of half a million dollars - it seems it would be better to just keep a man or woman jailed for life than go through the tangled political web and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to ultimately convict a man or woman who may not actually be guilty. In fact, throughout the history of the world there have been many instances of a man being killed who was later discovered to actually be not guilty, and so I imagine that the burden of this history - wrongful death - has driven these costs and the controversy to frenzied heights.

Consider though that Prabhupad states, "Such aggressors are at once to be killed." The key phrase here is "at once." The way that death penalty cases are currently managed, the average length to process such a case is 16 years (bnd.com). In this time, over a million dollars is spent on fees and investigation, and the aggressor is simply waiting behind bars.

But let's contrast this with a situation when an aggressor attacked another and in self-defense that person killed the aggressor immediately. The court case is more straightforward and swift, millions of dollars are not spent, the person acting in self-defense is not imprisoned for 16 years or more; there is - in other words - no sin incurred. In fact, there may even be a sense of relief that justice was served immediately. Prabhupad asserts that "Such killing of aggressors is quite befitting any ordinary man" (53).

Of course, the biggest problem is determining motivation. Was the person acting as an aggressor actually defending his or her own life? Was the person acting in self-defense actually framing the aggressor for murder? We have all seen enough crime movies or possibly paid attention to real-life court cases to know that the matter is often not so simple - the person who looks like the aggressor could be innocent of wrongdoing, and the person who looks innocent could be guilty of unjust violence.

In Arjuna's situation, though, the evidence is clear. The aggressors - The Kurus - have shown time and time again that they are relentless in plundering the riches of the Pandavas, occupying their land, and even inviting them to a flammable house in an effort to kill them. There were no repercussions simply because the Kurus were in power. Time and time again, justice did not prevail.

Duryodhana built a highly flammable house and invited the Pandavas to stay

with the intention of burning  it down to kill his cousins.

Thus, Prabhupad refutes Arjuna's concern that "Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors." There is no sin to slay aggressors such as these.

Nevertheless, even though so much violence has been perpetrated towards him and his family, Arjuna is still in distress at the prospect of fighting, because although meting out immediate justice befits an ordinary man, "Arjuna is not an ordinary person" (53). He is saintly. Saintly persons are "advised to forgive" and "such [saintly] injunctions are more important than any political emergency." He is seeing how these aggressors are no ordinary aggressors - they're his own grandfather, teacher, friends, sons, grandsons (53) and more. He argues that to forgive, especially his kinsmen, is religious and noble, no matter the political emergency.

Arjuna also emphasizes that there's nothing to gain - no happiness or peace of mind - in ruling over a kingdom that was obtained through such bloody, tainted means.

Like a lawyer in a court case, such are the opening arguments of the saintly Arjuna, and we will explore more of his reasons in the upcoming verses. As a reader, 5,000 years after this conversation was spoken, I empathize with Arjuna. And that is the point. We are meant to connect with Arjuna's distress, connect with the struggles we face in our own lives that no amount of logic can reason us out of. Deep down, we all desire to not simply be ordinary and mete out ordinary justice to our aggressors, but to be saintly and forgive. As the Catholic Lord's Prayer goes, "[O Lord] forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Being unconditionally merciful towards another - especially a family member - resonates on a deep religious and spiritual level.

That said, we can feel the tension build. We can feel that, somehow, Arjuna is arguing a case that will be refuted by Krishna. This tension is the basis of the entire Bhagavad-gita.

We shall see where Krishna, The Supreme Lord, takes us. 

1: Spirit of Inquiry

CHAPTER 1, TEXT 1: Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?

The Bhagavad-gita is a timeless scripture that has guided millions of people for thousands of years to learn the truth of the soul and love, and the purpose of life. And yet this wondrous scripture transpires within a few hours on the cusp of a great battle. Two armies are facing off. There will be untold death upon the battlefield today, blood will soak the ground and run in rivers.

What's more, this is a fratricidal war, which means that brothers will kill brothers, fathers will kill sons, uncles will kill nephews.

In fact, the very first verse of the Bhagavad-gita begins with the inquiry of King Dhrtarastra inquiring about the activities of his own noble nephews, whom he fears and wants to be defeated and killed.

How is this supposed to be the setting for a scripture that teaches the truth of the soul and love, and the purpose of life? 

How? 

My husband, Ghanashyam, shared yesterday in his scripture class that being in a spirit of inquiry does not mean to always ask questions. Indeed, Dhrtarastra is asking questions here but he is doing so out of fear and to protect his own interests. Someone who asks a lot of questions could actually not be in a spirit of inquiry - they could just be doing some mental gymnastics or engaging in an ego battle. But someone who is quietly listening in the back of the room who never asks a question could actually be in the spirit of inquiry. Radhanath Swami then shared with Ghanashyam that a true spirit of inquiry is the sincere desire to know the truth. To remain open, curious, and present, even without a direct question. 

In this sense, Prabhupad writes that "One should read Bhagavad-gita very scrutinizingly with the help of a person who is a devotee of Sri Krsna and try to understand it without personally motivated interpretations" (33). Prabhupad emphasizes that one must scrutinize with help. Studying this scripture is not a solitary practice - we need guidance and direction. What's more, the qualification of the guide must be that s/he is a "devotee of Sri Krsna." Not a scholar, a devotee. This must mean that someone is devoted to Krsna, and devotion entails service, even love. 

If I want to know the truth and I approach a devotee of Sri Krsna for guidance, that seems like a pretty solid foundation for being in a true spirit of inquiry. But Prabhupad emphasizes that one must try to understand the Gita without any "personally motivated interpretations." What does that mean? Personally motivated interpretations? 

I once knew a man who committed with 100% conviction that he would read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is from cover to cover within a few months. 

He never got past the second chapter. He later shared that his mind was too full of debilitating doubts and questions and even repulsion and disgust. 

Why? 

Could this same fate befall me? 

To embark upon the journey of reading the Gita is no ordinary feat - its not like reading the latest bestseller. The Gita is alive and cannot be read or understood without blessings. Prabhupad offers clear parameters: 1) scrutiny, 2) help from a devotee, and 3) be without personally motivated interpretations.  

You can see why I'm rather nervous in this endeavor to read and share my realizations on the Gita. I wonder if I'll make it past the second chapter. Although I'm scrutinizing with my intelligence (check) and receiving the help from a devotee - Srila Prabhupad and Ghanashyam and I'm sure many others over the next few months (check), I have to wonder about having a personally motivated interpretation (...check??). I don't want to twist and form the words of the Gita to fit my own personal and political agenda, to justify beliefs and ideas that could be destructive. 

The key words in the title of Prabhupad's version of the Gita are: As It Is. In this sense, Prabhupad does not have any personally motivated interpretation. He's not translating and commentating on the Gita for his own ends - to make disciples, make money, get famous, etc. etc. 

He is simply sharing the Gita, As It Is. 

I want my reflections to be in this spirit of As It Is. Prabhupad emphasizes that if one approaches the Gita in the proper spirit of inquiry, "he surpasses all studies of Vedic wisdom, and all scriptures of the world" (33). What a beautiful vision. Surpassing studies of all Vedic and world scriptures is not about being a great scholar of Sanskrit or history or philosophy. This inquiry must come from a sincere, humble space from within the heart. A sacred space. 

I do not want to twist and manipulate the setting of the opening of the Gita to fit my own personally motivated interpretation. I trust that if the setting of this scripture is a fratricidal war where blood will soon soak the ground and run in rivers, then there is a reason. 

I don't know that reason. 

But I trust that the dear devotee of Sri Krsna, Srila Prabhupad, will guide me in time. 

sincerely,

bhakti