Moments of spiritual 'cowardice'. Arjuna and Bharata

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Arjuna was not a coward in the ordinary sense of

the word. None of Devendra Vyas's meanings of

cowardice. Never a bhira as Harsha points out.

Not even emotionally, as his entire life would

bring out. Then what happened to him on that

glorious first day of the War? We shall take

another parallel in mythological history before

we come to Arjuna.

The scene is the foot of the chitrakuta hill in

Valmiki Ramayana, where Bharata pleads with his

elder brother Rama to return to Ayodhya and take

the kingship. It is worthwhile recalling briefly

the events leading to this scene (though many

would know it). Bharata comes back from his

uncle's place, having been called from there by

Guru Vasishta, who takes over control in the

crisis situation created by King Dasaratha's

death. Bharata gets to know of all the tragic

events that took place in his absence , viz.,

Rama having been exiled, the aged father no more,

Sita and Lakshmana following Rama to the forest.

Each piece of news comes to him as a lightning

shock, particularly at the key role his mother

kaikeyi played in all of this. His anger and

disgust at her know no bounds. He rejects

everything that she says, proclaims publicly that

he is going to bring Rama back from the forest.

The whole city marches with him to the forest in

this fond hope.

Two days of discussions take place at the

chitrakuta camp on what is right and wrong.

Bharata brings many points. It has always been

the eldest son who succeeded to the throne. The

father nurtured Rama for the kingship of Ayodhya.

The city wants him. Nobody else has the

competence. Mother Kaikeyi would only go to Hell

for the crime she has done. If protocol requires

it Bharata would 'return' the kingdom to Rama. He

would even substitute for Rama in the forest …

and so on. For all this Rama replies in one

sentence: 'Our father and mother have told us to

do it this way and neither of us can go against

it and change it'. Period. Nobody could refute

this argument and the assembly dispersed for the

night.

The next day Bharata tries to bring in new points

and fails. He then simply adamantly insists

that somehow Rama should return, come what may.

Finally Rama decides to give him a sermon on the

philosophical implications of his proposal.

(This is a piece, known as Rama-Gita, of 28

verses starting with

nAtmanaH-kAma-kArosti

in the 104th Sarga of Ayodhya Kanda, of the

Chowkhamba edn. 1957 of the Valmiki Ramayana ) It

is at these times of crises, says Rama, that

Dharma goes through its greatest test. What is

the dharma at this point, even from the point of

view of Bharata? It does not depend on a debate

on whether the father did right or wrong in

banishing Rama to the forest. The ultimate

question for Bharata is: Am I being concordant

with the dharma of the Self in insisting that

Rama should disregard the father's promise? What

is ultimate? Is it the temporary benefit to the

ruler and the ruled of Ayodhya or is it the more

fundamental values of each man's evolution

towards the Ultimate Supreme? Does the individual

self have a freedom to argue from a point of view

other than that of the Infinite Self embedded in

it? Why are you grieving, says Rama to Bharata,

over inessential things -- while your greatest

obligation in life, namely, to be in concordance

with the Supreme Self, is the summum bonum of all

dharmas? Do you think everything depends on you?

… and so on it goes. Right in the beginning, he

clinches the issue, saying:

'AtmAnam anuSoca tvam kim-anyam anuSocasi'

Grieve about your Self; why are you grieving

about other things? The only thing that man has

to worry about in this transient world is the

Self. Any other worry is itself only a passing

phase. ….

This is the problem of Bharata. Misplaced

attachment to the transient. Now let us come

back to the Bhagavad-gita. Krishna also tries

first to shake Arjuna off from his 'cowardly'

proposal to desist from the War. (Verses: 2 and 3

of Ch.2). But Arjuna insists (just as Bharata

adamantly insisted on the second day of the

discussion) and says that it is perhaps better to

live on alms in this world rather than slay

these noble masters…. And he throws down his

armour and bow. It is only after this insistence

that Krishna decides to

give him a piece (!) of His mind. And mark it:

He uses the same words which Rama used for

Bharata. 'aSocyAn-anvaSocastvam ..' (Gita:2-11):

You are grieving about something which ought not

to be grieved about. Wise Men - he uses the word

'paNDitAH'. paNDA means knowledge - spiritual

knowledge, in this context.. Those who have this

are paNDitas. Such Wise Men, says Krishna, do not

grieve over transient things.

 

The problem of Arjuna is therefore, as Krishna

analysed it, a misplaced compassion, arising out

of extreme attachment to the transient and the

moment of forgetting the supreme Reality of one's

Self.

 

In fact Rama Himself fell a victim (did He?) to

this spiritual fall. After Sita was kidnapped by

Ravana, Rama and Lakshmana go from tree to tree

and hill to hill and Rama wails all the time.

Once it became so bad that Lakshmana pulls up

Rama Himself and uses the words (which echo the

above two parallel situations where we were told

to grieve over the Self and not on oneself).

Lakshmana says:

'mahAtmAnaM kRtAtmAnaM AtmAnaM nAvabudhyase'

(Kishkinda-kanda: Sarga 1, verse 125) meaning,

Why don't you realise that You are yourself the

Glorious Self, the Self Revealed?

 

The purpose of the gita is to tell us, ordinary

men, who are always spiritually fallen, to awake

to our Self. Very often we say, when we calm down

after a sudden burst of anger, Oh, I forgot

myself. Yes, we forgot who we are, not in the

ordinary english sense of the word, but in the

sense, we have fallen from The Self.

Even when we are not angry, ours is a constant

fall from the Self; In Arjuna's and Bharata's

cases it is a moment of fall, a crucial one,

however. It is a subtler piece of spiritual

'cowardice'(=fall) as it were, expressing itself

as a crucial dilemma between right and wrong. The

Gita assumes its importance for the ordinary

layman, because we are all daily in the same

dilemma as Arjuna, though not on such substantial

issues as those confronting Arjuna. Our dilemmas

can be traced to our attachment to the transient.

In our case the disease is however more crucial

because, our attachment to the transient is

permanent and continuous; it is not a momentary

fall from the Spirit!

 

Regards and praNAms to all advaitins,

profvk

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

The simplified URL of my website on Science and Spirituality is

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can also access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice from the same address.

 

 

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