The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 7.7. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday, October 31,  2020. 08:02. AM.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

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

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)

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Now, this is a human question which was humanly answered because we are always faced with some counter-correlative of a position whenever an issue is raised. Every issue has a counter issue. You cannot have an absolute issue in this world, and you do not know how to correlate these two sides of an issue where two sides are always there for every issue. When there are two sides of an issue, which side are you going to take? And how do you know which is the right side? The question of the Bhagavadgita is: How do you know what is right?

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I will close by quoting an interesting suggestion made by an ethical philosopher who wrote a small book called Situation Ethics. His says that an action can be considered to be right if four conditions are fulfilled. An action cannot be considered to be right if any one of the conditions is not fulfilled. If four conditions are fulfilled, the action is right. All the four should be fulfilled, not only three. Even if one is not fulfilled, it becomes a wrong action. It was an interesting suggestion that has been made. Firstly, the objective before you should be a justifiable one. What is it that you are aiming at? This aim that is before you should be a justifiable aim. Number two, the intention in your mind behind pursuing this objective should also be justifiable. Thirdly, the means that you adopt to fulfil your intention should also be justifiable. Fourthly, the consequences that may follow from the steps that you take should be justifiable. Then your action is right. If one is missing, it is not correct.

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Though these are not the words uttered by Arjuna, and this is not the way in which Sri Krishna answered the question, some such intriguing situation Arjuna brought up in that critical hour, and many of us may sometimes find ourselves in such conditions. “I do not know whether this is proper or that is proper.”

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Little questions arise in offices in the case of some employee. He is between two persons, a boss above and a subordinate below, and he is sometimes expected to do something which will have a terrible impact upon him. If he does a thing, he will be in the pit. If he does not do it, he will be in another pit. So which pit is good? He is in a terrible quandary. “If I want to continue in my office, I have to do a wrong thing. If I do not agree to do that wrong thing, I lose my job. Which is better?” A very big officer drawing a good salary put this question to me. He was in this condition. “I lose my job if I pursue the path of truth, and if I don’t pursue it, I continue in the office. What is your answer?” he asked me. What answer can I give? Think over what answer you can give. “Lose your job,” you can say. “Do what you like; hang yourself.” But how can you say, “Don’t be truthful?”

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To be continued ...

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