The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 7.4. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Friday, October 09,  2020. 05:30/PM.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

Chapter 7: Can War Ever be Justified ? - 4.

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)

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1.

These are questions which are not easily answered. There are some people who pursue a very extreme view of the philosophy of ahimsa. I read a passage of Bertrand Russell, who wrote something on it. He was a philosopher of every kind of thought. You will find him thinking different systems of thought at different levels of his life. In one place he says it has to be accepted that non-aggression is the law of life. Then what would be the consequence? He gives an illustration of a country being invaded by another country if the country is to pursue the principle of nonaggression to the hilt. Mahatma Gandhi did not believe in that kind of extreme ahimsa, though he is said to be one of the protagonists of it. Many questions were put to him. I myself was one who put a question to one of his great leaders, his right hand. He was not saying that aggression can be tolerated. Then I said, “Then, what is your principle? You have diluted your principle of nonaggression by saying that it cannot be tolerated.” He was giving some sort of explanation which is difficult to understand.

2.

However, one of the extreme types of policy of nonaggression is: Truth must triumph always, and the triumph of truth need not necessarily mean its material triumph. This is a very hard thing for a materially bound mind to accept. It implies the acceptance of the justice of God and the retribution which God will mete out to a man who does the right thing – if not in this world, in another world. Even death is considered by these people as an acceptable thing, provided it is met by a person in the pursuit of truth. There are others who say: You are not supposed to die. Life is sacred. Suicide and a deliberately entering into the field of dying, where dying has become a certainty, may not be considered as wisdom. In all circumstances you should protect your life, because the last value in existence is existence itself. You have to exist first for any other value to be meaningful. If the final value, which is existence, is itself to be threatened, then every other value falls. So under every circumstance, life has to be protected, and you cannot sacrifice it under any circumstance.

3.

In the Mahabharata itself there is one section called Appadharma. Appadharma means ‘your attitude under critical moments’. ‘Critical moments’ means ‘threats to life’. When life itself is at stake, what will you do? There, the usual norms of behaviour get transformed. The rigidity of social mandate gets relaxed, and you are permitted to behave in certain ways, which permission will not be granted under normal conditions.

To be continued ...

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