The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 6.7. Swami Krishnananda.
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Wednesdayday, September 9, , 2020. 10:22. AM.
Chapter 6: The Meaning of Duty -7.
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1.
So there are the four classes of people who have been specially endowed with this responsibility of conducting themselves in various levels of human society. Arjuna belonged to one class; and every one of us belongs to some class or other. If we will not perform the duties expected of us in that particular atmosphere or class in which we are placed, we would be derelicts, renegades, selfish persons who exploit people for the benefit of ourselves, and that should not be an example that we can properly set before others. It is a highly objectionable attitude.
2.
“So Arjuna, even from a sociological point of view, you are mistaken in your notion of ‘I shall not act’. If everybody says ‘I will not do’, then what will happen? Is this the example you wish people to follow? Secondly, what has happened to your mind and intellect? How is it that you appear to be fumbling and falling off? Is this the way an integrated personality will speak? Are you healthy and sane in your personality? Will a wise person succumb to this catastrophic conclusion which you have arrived at just now, at this moment of crisis, here in this battlefield of Kurukshetra? What a pity, and a tragedy! Is this becoming of a hero like you? You have lost your personality. And you take that as the basis for your argument, which affects the human society also in which you are living. Society has sustained you, and you have a duty towards it.”
3.
Now, we move further on. The world of Nature is that which highly conditions our experiences in life. Heat and cold, hunger and thirst are all processes which are engendered by the movements of the powers of Nature. We have to bear with fortitude the results that follow by our placement in an atmosphere of physical Nature. We should not say, “How horribly is it hot! How wretchedly is it cold! How stupidly is it raining”, etc. These are statements which convey no sense. Nature performs its duty regularly and perfectly, and our complaints arise because of our maladjustment with the way in which Nature works. Nature is an impersonal computer system. It does not go wrong. It sometimes appears to us that it is going wrong on account of our not understanding all that which is behind its workings.
4.
The physical universe is also a reality which expects of us some duty. The pancha-maha-yajnas, as they are called in the system of living, in India particularly, are the obligations that we owe to the various sides of life: to human beings, to our ancestors, to the gods in heaven, to the sages of wisdom, and even to the beasts and animals. Much more than that, we seem to be connected with still greater realities. We owe a duty even to the planets and the Sun and the Moon. Traditional systems require us to offer prayer to the Sun every day. The Gayatri Mantra, which every religious person in India chants with reverence, is an offering of prayer to the mighty Sun, whose existence is our life. If we study the cultural and religious history of India in all its facets, we will be wonderstruck that life is nothing but yajna, sacrifice, service, cooperation, and it is self-abandonment that is taught in the culture of this country. Perhaps this is to be the essence of every culture that is truly humane.
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