The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 3.3. : Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday, January 06,  2023. 06:00.

Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation - 3.

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So, the human being, in the human context, finds himself in an arena of conflicts of these forces; and the battle of life, so-called, is nothing but the field of the action and reaction of these forces. The battle of the Mahabharata or any battle whatsoever, inward or outward, is the colour and the shape that these forces put on when they commingle in the interest of cosmic evolution. They collide one with the other. There is a collision of the thesis with the antithesis for a higher purpose of the evolution of the individuality of both the thesis and the antithesis, and there is a coming together of both in a blend to form a totally new thing altogether, giving birth to a new baby, as it were, in the form of a synthesis which transcends the lower opposing categories.

The context of the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is the atmosphere of tense feelings in the field of a tremendous Armageddon, each one imagining that one would win victory over the other, each one intent upon overcoming the other, so that each one musters in all the powers of oneself available for unleashing the same in this battle that is to ensue. The individual faces this world before it as a confrontation, a field of action and opposition. The child, in its moods of unintelligent enthusiasm, imagines that it can do anything with this world—possess it, enjoy it, overcome it, utilise it, harness it for its purposes. As we grow older, we become aware of the fact that the world is too much for us. Its quantity frightens us, as the ocean can terrorise us when we gaze at it from the shore. We are afraid of it because of the tremendous magnitude that is in front of us. How vast is this arena of the Universe! How difficult it is to think of the powers of these five elements, the whole of nature.

Not merely that; there are other things to which we are connected—our social relationships. The setup of Nature is a different thing, a consideration of which will come later on in the course of our study of the Gita. But we have immediate problems which are related to our human relationships, more imminent and demanding greater attention from us than the powers of Nature. We may be feeling heat and cold, we may be under the pull of the gravitational power, the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether—may be there before us as terrible forces, no doubt, but they are not our immediate consideration. When we get up in the morning we are not usually thinking of the five elements, though it is true they are there as powerful oppositions before us. We are, rather, thinking of immediate human relationships and other things connected with our personality, emotionally related, and the concern of today, for instance. There are loves and hatreds in relation to our connections with humanity in the immediate vicinity of our existence.

When we are in the midst of people to whom we are accustomed, we are not in a position to properly go deeper into the secrets of these relationships. We are living in a social atmosphere, we are living in a town, we are living in a monastery, in an ashram, in a house, in a family. When we are living in an atmosphere of this kind, which is human and social, we cannot know our mind wholly, because the fish is in water, and it thinks that everything is fine. We must bring the fish out of water and then see the fate of it. We wrench ourselves from social relations for some time, be not in the midst of people, do not go to the shop for purchase, do not live in the town, do not have anything to do even with family relations, do not speak to anyone, do not look at anybody's face for some months. We will know ourselves better then, than when in society.

We will be a little bit restless in the beginning stages. We will be unhappy for reasons we cannot easily know. We will like to get up and run away into the thick of human relations once again, because man is a social animal basically. And to ignore this aspect of the human individual would be not to properly comprehend the psychology of the human being. The attractions and repulsions, the likes and dislikes in relation to personalities, are inborn in us. We are born into this circumstance. We have something to say about the people around us. For or against, we have some opinion about people, and we always pass a judgement on things in our own selves. A judgement in the form of a logical conclusion that we draw in connection with our understanding in relation to humanity around us becomes the propelling force for our conduct and behaviour in relation to people.

Our attitude towards people is the result of our understanding of people. We have an opinion in such-and-such a manner and, therefore, we have to deal with this situation in such-and-such a manner. This so-called dealing in respect of people outside is our conduct which we express in behaviour outwardly, an expression of our internal attitude or feeling psychologically. Mostly, we are tied up by ropes of likes and dislikes which pull us in two different directions, and we rarely bestow thought on the interesting feature behind our likes and dislikes, namely, that a like implies a dislike, and a dislike implies a like. They are not actually two different activities of the mind. It is one outlook, one attitude, which puts on the colour or feature of a double attitude. The like which the mind entertains in respect of a particular thing or a group of things implies the exclusion of factors which do not contribute to the makeup of that atmosphere in which this thing or this group of things exists. The inclusiveness in respect of a particular situation implies exclusiveness in respect of other situations. So, as the obverse and reverse of a coin, like and dislike go together, one signifying the other, one being impossible without the other. This is, again, an internal warfare that is taking place in us, a perpetual conflict between the circumstances within us pulling us in the direction of likes and dislikes.

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To be continued

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