When it is time to take side (and when nuance is irrelevant)
In Mahabharat Bhagwan Krishna exhorted Arjuna to fight. He did this knowing that war will bring death to many warriors. He also knew that among the enemies were Pitamah Bhisma and Guru Dronocharya, men of impeccable characters, noble souls rare among humans, morally superior to almost everyone in camp of Pandavas. And yet, Bhagwan Krishna commanded Arjuna to lift His Gaandiv against them, realizing for sure that by this action he was sanctioning killing of two exalted humans.
He did this because that's what Arjuna was required to do in order to follow his Dharma.
Dharma here for Arjuna meant fighting for "Justice".
Bhisma also fought for Dharma. To him it meant "loyalty to the throne of Hastinapur".
But Justice is a greater Dharma than loyality and therefore Bhagwaan Krishna asked Arjun to fight against his relatives.
8 comments:
Gaurav, here is something that has vexed me for quite some time. Once a leftist literary figure in kEraLa had said that the God of the bhagavad gIta is harmful since he urges arjuna to participate in a war. Later I was wondering - just for the pANDavas to gain the kingdom was it right to sacrifice the lives of so many soldiers ( in the end only the kings seemed to matter, anyway )? Wouldn't it have been better for the pANDavas to beg ( or rather, virATa himself would give them a few villages etc. )?
Of course we can explain it as karma theory. And we can also say that morality is necessarily relative. And that in case God's business was always to meddle in human affairs then the world wouldn't be the way it is now.
But still, does this form a justification? I hope so. I will be very, very grateful to you if you can give me a more satisfying justification of shrIkRShNa's stance.
Frog,
But even the soldiers were not coerced to fight. They fought in the war because fighting was duty for warriors.
And didn't Bhagwan himself go for a compromise and Duryodhana in his hubris rejected it, instead tried to capture Bhagwaan.
So the war was the last recourse, otherwise the injustice would have gone unrectified.
This is not to say that war is the best way to settle the scores, that is why it is said "Ahimsa Parmo Dharma", however MahaBharata is an example of that how sometimes it is required to wield arms to follow the Dharma.
Regards
My problem is : doesn't this show that the notion of duty was defined in such a way that over some family's internal problem so many innocent soldiers died and their families suffered?
Thanks and regards.
Frog,
As I said it depends on what is considered as Dharma.
From your point of view Ahimsa is the Dharma to follow.
Bhagwaan Krishna said not always, sometime Dharma is to wield arms for sake of Justice.
Your point about a family dispute is correct, but it is a modern one.
I think that in those times where monarchy was the norm of governance
and ascension to throne was considered to be a serious matter.
Therefore a King to be dethroned or to be denied kingdon could be considered a grievous injustice.
Similarly I would have thought that for Kshatriyas to beg for land would be considered disrespectable.
Here I think that much of feudal societies were based on concept of honour.
Again I don't think that Soldiers were coerced into fighting.
This however doest mean that War is something glorious, only that sometimes it is inevitable.
Regards
Froginthewell/Gaurav,
Saw this pretty late in the day nevertheless my 2 bit.
The point isn't about king's ascension or whatever. Gaurav got close to the exact reason Krishna asked Arjuna to fight: to uphold Dharma.
The point wasn't killing your relatives or reclaiming your kingdom or begging etc. The point is Adharma signified by Duryodhana and all his cohorts had reached alarming proportions and it was a do or die situation. I mean, it is like basic: a wrong committed by anyone is a wrong. If my son murders someone and I happen to be the judge--Bollywood style--what do you advocate that I do?
THAT is the whole issue.
But thanks Gaurav, you've just motivated a post! Expect me to write something in the coming days...
Sandeep,
Looking forward to it :-).
Hi there:)
Would love you to post more information on this subject!
Regards,
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