Bhagawad Gita - Ch.1 - Verses 31-37

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Om Sri gurubhyOnamaH |

 

Chapter 1. Arjuna-Grief

[Commentary by Swamy Chinmayananda]

 

 

NOT ONLY DOES THE FOLLOWING STANZA VIVIDLY PICTURE TO US HIS MENTAL

CONFUSIONS, BUT IT ALSO SHOWS HOW FAR HIS DISCRIMINATION HAS BEEN DRAINED

OFF, AND HIS MORALE DESTROYED.

 

nimittAnica paSyAmi vipareetAni kESava

naca SREyOnupaSyAmi hatvA svajanamAhavE || 1-31

 

1.31. And I see adverse omens, O Kesava. Nor do I see any good in killing

my kinsmen in battle.

 

In this state ofmental confusion, when his emotions have been totally

divorced from his intellect, the 'objective-mind,' without the guidance of

its 'subjective-aspect.' runs wild and comes to some unintelligent

conclusions. He says, 'I desire neither victory, nor empire, nor even

pleasure.' It is a recognized fact that a patient of hysteria, when allowed

to talk, will, in a negative way, express the very cause for the attack.

For example, when a woman, hysterically raving, repeatedly declares with

all emphasis, that she is not tired of her husband, that she still respects

him, that he still loves her, that there is no rupture between them, etc.,

she, by these very words, clearly indicates the exact cause of her mental

chaos.

 

Similarly, the very denials of Arjuna clearly indicate to all careful

readers how and why he got into such a state of mental grief. He desired

victory. He urgently wanted the kingdom. He anxiously expected to win

pleasures for himself and his relations. But the challenging look of the

mighty Kaurava forces and the great and eminent warriors standing ready to

fight, shattered his hopes, blasted his ambitions, and undermined his

self-confidence and he slowly developed the well-known 'Arjuna-disease,'

the cure for which is the theme of the Geeta.

 

nakAMkshE vijayaM kRshna naca rAjyaM sukhAnica

kiMnO rAjyEna gOviMda kiM bhOgairjeevitEnavA || 1-32

 

yEshAmarthE kAMkshitaM nO rAjyaM bhOgAH sukhAnica

ta imEvasthitA yuddhE prANAM styaktvA dhanAnica || 1-33

 

AcAryAH pitaraH putrAstadhaivaca pitAmahAH

mAtulAH SvaSurAH poutrAH SyAlAH saMbhaMdhina stadhA || 1-34

 

1.32. For, I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingdom, nor pleasures. Of

what avail is dominion to us, O Govinda? Of what avail are pleasures or

even life itself?

 

1.33. They for whose sake we desire kingdom, enjoyment and pleasures stand

here in battle, having renounced life and wealth.

 

1.34. Teachers, fathers, sons and also grandfathers, maternal uncles,

fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives.

 

Arjuna continues his arguments to Krishna against the advisability of such

a civil war between the two factions of the same royal family. A

Dharma-hunting Arjuna is here mentally manufacturing a case for himself

justifying his cowardly retreat from the post of duty where destiny as

called upon him to act.

 

He repeats what he had said earlier because Krishna, with his pregnant

silence, is criticizing Arjuna's attitude. The provocatively smiling lips

of the Lord are whipping Arjuna into a sense of shame. He wants the moral

support of his friend and charioteer to come to the conclusion that what he

is feeling in his own mind is acceptable and just. But the endorsement and

the intellectual sanction are not forthcoming from either the look of

Krishna or the Lord's words.

 

EtAnnahaMtu micchAmi ghnatOpi madhu soodana

api trailOkya rAjyasya hEtOH kiMnu mahee kRtE || 1-35

 

1.35. These I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, O Madhusudana, even

for the sake of dominion over the three worlds; how much less for the sake

of the earth.

 

Feeling that he had not expressed his case strongly enough to Krishna to

make him come to this conclusion, and, assuming that it was because of this

that the Lord had not given his assent to it, Arjuna decided to declare

with a mock spirit of renunciation, that he had so much large-heartedness

in him that he would not kill his cousins, even if they were to kill him.

The climax came when Arjuna, with quixotic exaggeration, declared that he

would not fight the war, even if he were to win all the three worlds of the

universe, much less so for the mere Hastinapura-kingship.

 

nihatya dhArta rAshTRAnnaH kA preetiH syAjjanArdana

pApamE vASrayE dasmAnhatvaitA nAtatAyinaH || 1-36

 

1.36. Killing these sons of Dhritarashtra, what pleasure can be ours, O

Janardana? Sin alone will be our gain by killing these felons.

 

In spite of all that Arjuna said so far, Krishna is as silent as a sphinx.

Therefore, Arjuna gives up his melodramatic expression and assumes a

softer, a more appealing tone and takes the attitude of explaining in vain

a serious matter to a dull-witted friend. The change of strategy becomes

conspicuously ludicrous when we notice Krishna's continued silence!!

 

In the first line of the stanza he explains to Krishna that no good can

arise out of killing the sons of Dhritarashtra... still the wooden-smile of

Krishna does not change and the Pandava hero, his intelligence shattered,

tries to find a cause for Krishna's attitude. Immediately, he remembers

that the Karava brothers were behaving towards the Pandavas as felons.

'Atatayinah' means felons, who deserve to be killed according to the Artha

Sastra.*

______________

* 'whether he be a preceptor, an old man, or a Veda-knowing Brahmana, if he

comes in from as an Atatai (felon) he should be killed on the spot without

a thought. There is no sin involved in killing a felon.' (Manu. VIII -

350-351).

_______________

 

Sin is only a mistake committed by a misunderstood individual ago against

its own Divine Nature as the Eternal Soul. To act as the body or the mind

or the intellect is not to act up to the responsibilities of a man but it

becomes an attempt to behave under the impulses of an animal. All those

acts performed and motives entertained, which create grosser mental

impressions and thereby build stronger walls between us and our cognition

of the Real Divine Spark in ourselves are called sins.

 

Arjuna's seemingly learned objection to killing enemies is a

misinterpretation of our sacred texts (Sastra), and to have acted upon it

would have been suicidal to our very culture. Therefore, Krishna refuses to

show any sign either of appreciation or criticism of Arjuna's sand. The

Lord understands that his friend is raving hysterically and the best policy

is to allow a mental patient first of all to bring out everything in his

mind and thus exhaust himself.

 

tasmA nnArhA vayaM haMtuM dhArta rAshTrAn svabAMdhavAn

svajanaM hi kathaM hatvA sukhinaH syAma mAdhava? || 1-37

 

1.37. Therefore we shall not kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our relatives;

for how can we be happy by killing our own people, O Madhava?

 

Here, Arjuna concludes his seemingly logical arguments which have got a

false look of Hindu scriptural sanction. More then deliberate blasphemers

of a scripture, the unconscious misinterpreters of a sacred text are the

innocent criminals who bring about the wretched downfall of its philosophy.

Purring with the satisfaction of a cat in the kitchen, Arjuna, in this

verse, is licking up his arguments all round and is coming to the dangerous

conclusion that he should not kill the aggressors, nor face their heartless

challenge! Even then Krishna is silent.

 

Arjuna's discomfiture makes him really quite conspicuous in his ugliness.

In the second line of the stanza, he makes a personal appeal to Krishna and

almost begs of him to think for himself and endorse Partha's own lunatic

conclusions.

 

With the familiarity born out of his long-standing friendship, Arjuna

addresses his charioteer with affection as Madhava, and asks him how one

can come to any happiness after one has destroyed one's own kinsmen...

Still, Krishna remains silent.

 

[To be cont...]