The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 7-6: Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday 10, September, 2024, 07:00.
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity :
Chapter 7: Can War Ever be Justified? - 6.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti

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I had a little talk with Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj on the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. We had a little celebration here. I had a peculiar brainwave. It was between us only. That question which I raised before him is still unanswered. He is trying to answer it, and I am also trying to answer it. Anyhow, we have tried to reconcile ourselves somehow or other, and come to a conclusion in some way. I wrote on a small piece of paper and handed it over to him, because it was the occasion of the birth of a great man who was an uncompromising protagonist of ahimsa: Under any circumstance one cannot kill. I asked in this little note I passed to Swami Chidananda, “Do you believe that ahimsa is uncompromising?”

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“Yes,” he said. “It is uncompromising.”

“What would you like a country to do when it is threatened with invasion?” He thought for a few minutes. He cannot say, “Let them invade.” It is a very difficult thing to say that. Nor can he say, “We will attack them.” If he says that, then the principle fails.

Then he gave me a single-sentence answer, “Mahatma Gandhi did not say that an aggressor should be tolerated.”

I said, “Then where comes ahimsa? What is meant by ahimsa? I can go and attack anybody because I don't like him. Then I am justified.”

Then he said, “This principle, which is highlighted in the sutra of Patanjali also, says that ahimsa should have no compromises.” It is mentioned in the sutra of Patanjali that it should not be limited by place, time and circumstance. It should not be that in some place one can attack, under certain conditions one can attack, and at certain times one can attack. Under every condition it is not permitted. Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj told me, “This is a rule for those who are striving for moksha, and not for others.”

I said, “Do you want others to go to hell, that others should not go to moksha – that the warriors who protect the person who wants to go to moksha should go to hell?”

Ah, this has become a difficult question again, because why should the warriors go to hell? They also should go to moksha. And why should I go to moksha and you go to hell? You protect me. I want you to fight for my sake so that I may go to moksha? What a justifiable argument! It is still in the boiling pot. The question has not been answered. Who is to go to hell, and who is to go to heaven?

These questions were put by Arjuna in a different way. “It is not at all justifiable,” he said. “It is not possible to fight because firstly, there was a little question of the success or failure of it, but secondly there is a more crucial question: It is a heinous crime to kill. Nothing can be worse than that. We will all land in perdition. Then, there is a third argument: What would be the consequence of a total destruction of mankind in battle? Anyone who has read history will know what would be the consequence: wretchedness to the core. All ethics and morality go to dogs. There is no question of ethics and morality where life and death are the question, and you will drive people to that condition by depriving them of every security. All the men die and all the wives are without husbands, with no support for them. What will happen? Promiscuous mixing, confusion, chaos, worse than anything that is conceivable will be the consequences of destruction in war, even if we win. Take for granted we are going to win and they will die; let it be, but how many will die? All will go, and then there will be social chaos. Shall we be responsible for it? Do you agree that this is good? Secondly, it is bad to kill. Thirdly, will I really win? Therefore, it is not at all proper to go further in this project. I shall not do anything.”

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Continued

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