Initiative by Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati

[Guest guest]

I am glad that a practical Advaitin like sri Jayendra Saraswati has taken

initiative to solve the problem. This should also be a pointer to Advaitins

on the question: "What should be the role of an Advaitin in the society"...

Contrary to the popular beliefe on Advaita, Traditional Advaita teaches

Advaitins to take an active role in the society!

 

 

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POINTER SLOKAS FROM GITA TO PONDER: Chapter 3 verses 21&22:

 

yadyadaacharati shreshhThastattadevetaro janaH .

sa yatpramaaNaM kurute lokastadanuvartate .. 3\.21..

 

21. Whatever a great man does, that other men also do (imitate) ; whatever

he sets up as the standard, that the world (people) follows.

 

Commentary by Swamy Chinmayanandaji:

 

Man is essentially an imitating animal. This is a psychological truth. The

moral rejuvenation of a society in any period of history can take place only

because of the example set up by the leaders of that nation. Students can be

disciplined only when teachers are well-behaved; the minor officials cannot

be kind and honest when the rulers of the country are corrupt tyrants.

Children's behaviour depends entirely upon, and is ever controlled by, the

standard of purity and culture of their parents.

With this Krishna raises his next argument on why Arjuna should act in the

world. Unless he diligently acts, the chances are that the entire community

will follow the low standard of retreat from action set up by him and thus

they will ultimately invite a general decadence of culture in life.

Now, to emphasise the point and to make a lasting impression upon Arjuna of

the teaching so far given (III-4 to 21), Lord Krishna indicates himself as

an example. The Lord , though already a liberated soul (Mukta), is acting

diligently, without attachment , as a model, for his generation to rise up

above the slothfulness of the age into vigorous activity.

The very creed of Krishna is "active resistance to evil." His non-violence

is not the instinctive incapacity of the day-dreaming coward who cannot

stand up against injustice and fight for the accepted principles of national

culture. There could not have been any doubt now left in the mind of Arjuna

regarding the efficacy of the 'Path-of-Action' advised to him.

 

"IF YOU HAVE A DOUBT AS REGARDS THE NECESSITY FOR WORKING FOR THE PROTECTION

OF THE MASSES, WHY DO YOU NOT OBSERVE ME? WHY DO YOU NOT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE,

AND TRY TO PREVENT THE MASSES FROM GOING ASTRAY, SETTING UP FOR THEM AN

EXAMPLE IN YOURSELF?"

 

22 There is nothing in the three worlds, O Partha, that has to be done by

Me, nor is there anything unattained that should be attained by Me; yet, I

engage Myself in action.

 

Being a Perfect-Man, a true Yogi, Krishna had no more desire for achieving

or gaining anything in the world. Had He wanted a kingdom all for Himself,

He could have easily carved out one, but He was in the battle-front only

with a sense of duty towards the noble and the righteous cause the Pandavas

stood for.

The life of the Lord till the very moment of the Mahabharata war had been a

perfect life of complete detachment and even then --- even though there was

nothing He had not gained, nor had He anything further to gain --- He was

spending Himself constantly in activity, as though work was to Him a

rapturous game of enthusiasm and joy.

CONTINUING THE SAME ARGUMENT, THE LORD SAYS:

 

23. For, should I not ever engage Myself in action, without relaxation, men

would in every way follow My Path, O son of Pritha.

 

Why should the Lord work? What would be the loss to the generation if He

were not to work at all? The masses always imitate their leaders and heroes

in their dress, in their behaviour, in their moral values, in their actions,

in all the branches of their activities. They fix their measure of

perfection always by watching the standard of life of their leaders. If the

Lord did not continue to work without relaxation, men also would follow in

His wake and sink themselves into inactivity and so into an unproductive

existence. In nature everything acts constantly and sincerely. The entire

Universe survives and sustains itself by activity.

In these stanzas, as everywhere, all along in the Geeta, the first person

singular is used by Lord Krishna , not in the sense of the Blue Boy of

Vrindavana, but as the Atman , or the Self-realised Man-of-Perfection. A

liberated soul realises himself to be nothing other than the Spirit, upon

which alone is the play of matter sustained, as the dream is sustained upon

the waker. If this God-principle, though inactive in Itself, does not

consistently serve the pluralistic phenomenal world as its permanent

substratum, the world as it is now, cannot exist. The ocean never rises, in

spite of the billows. Yet, it is a fact that without the ocean the waves

cannot rise or dance. Similarly, if the Lord were not to keep on activity

serving the world, the cultural life of the generation would stagnate

 

Yours,

Madhava

 

 

--

Madhava K Turumella

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