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 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Three
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Right But Wrong
Smiling, Lord Krishna says an unexpected thing to Arjuna in response to his fervent disquisition on how he both should not and could not engage in battle on the field of Kurukshetra: “Your words are wise, Arjuna, but your sorrow is for nothing.”
When I was a novice in a Greek Orthodox monastery which placed great emphasis on the mystical approach to Christianity and on meditation (Hesychia) particularly, one of the prime inspirations was Saint Gregory Palamas, a great mystic and author on the subject of interior prayer. When looking through the original Greek texts of the collection of spiritual writings known as the Philokalia, I came across a writing of Saint Gregory that had some diagrams. Not knowing any but the most elementary Greek–little more than the alphabet–I took the volume to our abbot and asked what the article as about. To my amazement he told me that it was an explanation of how the world was flat and how completely irrational and baseless it was to say the world was spherical! (Why such a subject would be treated in a collection of mystical writings was not explained to me.) Now, Saint Gregory possessed a brilliant intellect and his arguments were thoroughly logical–but he was wrong.
Later on I decided to read the complete writings of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, one of the greatest mystics of the early Christian Church. I was not disappointed, for his words are truly inspired and his insights invaluable. But then I came up against a real surprise. His brother, Saint Basil the Great, gave a series of discourses on the days of creation, but died before he could give the final sermon. So Saint Gregory decided to complete the work by writing an article on the final day of creation. In the article he discusses the human anatomy and presents a lengthy and complicated explanation of why and how human beings sneeze. (I have no idea why.) The explanation is ingenious–and equally erroneous, not to say genuinely funny. Again, the words were very logical, quite reasonable, but utterly mistaken to the point of silliness. And in both instances both Gregories’ sincerity and conviction counted for absolutely nothing. Wrong is wrong.
Millennia before the Gregories, Arjuna looked out at the battlefield and “beheld there stationed, grandfathers and fathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons and friends, too. [He saw] fathers-in-law and friends also in both armies.” Overcome with grief at the thought of fighting and killing them, he said the following:
“I do not see any good in killing my kinsmen in battle. For I desire neither victory, O Krishna, nor pleasures nor kingdoms! Of what avail is a dominion to us, O Krishna, or pleasures or even life? Those for whose sake we desire kingdoms, enjoyments and pleasures, stand here in battle, having renounced life and wealth. Teachers, fathers, sons and also grandfathers, grandsons, fathers-in-law, maternal uncles, brothers-in-law and relatives—these I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, O Krishna, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds, leave alone killing them for the sake of the earth! By killing these sons of Dhritarashtra, what pleasure can be ours, O Janardana? Only sin will accrue by killing these felons. Therefore, we should not kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our relatives; for, how can we be happy by killing our own people, O Madhava (Krishna)? Though they, with intelligence overpowered by greed, see no evil in the destruction of families, and no sin in hostility to friends, why should not we, who clearly see evil in the destruction of a family, learn to turn away from this sin, O Janardana (Krishna)? Alas! We are involved in a great sin in that we are prepared to kill our kinsmen through greed for the pleasures of a kingdom. If the sons of Dhritarashtra, with weapons in hand, should slay me in battle, unresisting and unarmed, that would be better for me.”
“How, O Madhusudana, shall I fight in battle with arrows against Bhishma and Drona, who are fit to be worshipped, O destroyer of enemies? Better it is, indeed, in this world to accept alms than to slay the most noble teachers. But if I kill them, even in this world all my enjoyments of wealth and desires will be stained with (their) blood. I can hardly tell which will be better: that we should conquer them or they should conquer us. Even the sons of Dhritarashtra, after slaying whom we do not wish to live, stand facing us. My heart is overpowered by the taint of pity, my mind is confused as to duty. I do not see that it would remove this sorrow that burns up my senses even if I should attain prosperous and unrivalled dominion on earth or lordship over the gods. I will not fight.”
Krishna’s reaction to this was to smile and say: “Your words are wise, Arjuna, but you are wrong.” He then explained very fully just why Arjuna’s conclusions were mistaken, and we will be looking at his explanations later, but for now it will be beneficial for us to pursue this matter of being wrong even when we seem to be right–which is the usual situation in religion.
The fundamental problem is the character of the mind itself. It is intended as a link between the witness-consciousness that is our pure spirit and the outer world that is really only a dream in the mind of God and our minds, for we are co-dreamers with God, dreamers in the Great Dream of creation and evolution.
God and his creation are a bit like Moliere and his plays. Backstage he wrote out in large script the basics of the plot and the actors went onstage and improvised their lines and actions within Moliere’s parameters. After many performances the words were written down and Moliere has received all the credit for centuries. In the same way God has set the boundaries and the basic scenario of evolution in consciousness. We then ad-lib our way through the whole thing until we develop the good sense to listen to those who have already trodden the way and given instructions on the Right Way To Go About It. Part of this good sense is the awareness that we rarely know what we are doing or see anything correctly or fully–for that is the nature of the mind: distortion and incompleteness.
Yet the mind is part of our equipment for evolution, so what shall we do? Clarify and correct it–yes, put Humpty Dumpty together. And that can be done by meditation. For Krishna is going to tell Arjuna: “Yoga purifies the man of meditation, bringing him soon to Brahman,” and “If he practices meditation, his heart will become pure.”
In the purity of mind produced by meditation, intuition comes to the fore, replacing discursive (and consequently tangled) thought, thus making the mind an instrument of perception rather than interference in perception. For our thoughts are mostly static and distortion. In time through the effect of meditation we no longer think–we know. Therefore: “Make a habit of practicing meditation, and do not let your mind be distracted. In this way you will come finally to the Lord, who is the light-giver, the highest of the high.”
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 2:11 [Go back]
2) One of the funniest “wrongs” of a spiritual figure was the outlawing of hurdy-gurdies by one of the Popes in the Middle Ages. This was based on the fact that the hurdy-gurdy was the instrument played by wandering beggars, and wherever the beggars went the plague broke out. Not knowing about germs, the Pope concluded that hurdy-gurdy music caused the plague! Reason led to folly. [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 1:26,27 [Go back]
4) Bhagavad Gita 1:31-39, 45,46. Sivananda translation. [Go back]
5) Bhagavad Gita: 2:4-9. Sivananda translation. [Go back]
6) Bhagavad Gita 5:6 [Go back]
7) Bhagavad Gita 6:12 [Go back]
8) Bhagavad Gita 8:8 [Go back]
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