01-07-2005, 12:50 AM
I did not know where to post this. I think this thread may be appropraite since it deals with a weakness in our character.
I got this email. No link
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Verse 11 in Chapter 2 is verily the turning point where Bhagavadgita really
started.
Like pointed out before, teachings of Gita are jewels to guide us in the path of duty. When India was taken over from the Mughal rulers by the British, one British administrator, who read Gita for the first time, exclaimed, "With a book like Gita on hand, how did India lose her independence to begin with?" This question can also be applied to India's moral decadence that was inflicted by foreign rule. The problem is clear: we failed to learn from Gita. We keep on deviating from the reforms that Lord Krishna tried to introduce. In this feedback to your article, I will try to follow the time-line to show why teachings of Gita are not helping Indian society today
Prior to the verse quoted (Verse 11 in Chapter 2), Arjuna lamented for a long time quoting the word "family" (Swajana, kula) ten times in 18 verses in Chapter 1 (Verses 28 to 45). Right at the beginning of Chapter 2, Lord Krishna replied by pointing out that it was an hour of crisis (visame). He gave a short businesslike instruction and asked Arjuna to get out of unmanliness (klaibyam) and faintheartedness (hrdayadaurbalyam) and arise to fight the battle (Verses 2 & 3, Chapter 2).
Had Arjuna listened to Him, Gita would have ended right at that point. But, Arjuna had to continue his whining for five more verses, citing noble ideas that the life of a beggar was preferable to winning a battle where he would have to kill these "mahanubhavan" (people with great feelings) elders and gurus like Bhishma and Drona, or cousins like Duryodhana and his brothers. Arjuna completely forgot that Duryodhana and his brothers disrobed Draupadi in open court while the mahanubhava Bhishma and Drona, who were watching, did not stop them. Bhishma and Drona accompanied Duryodhana and his brothers when they went to steal cows from King Birata. Bhishma and Drona were with Duryodhana and his brothers in all their unjust, unlawful and remorseless activities. Now, Bhishma and Drona were all well prepared with deadly weapons to kill Pandavas, and Arjuna was going for personal aggrandizement by making noble statements to show the greatness of his heart.
Personal glory and aggrandizement by a leader at the cost of his duty to people whom he was supposed to protect were repeated in the history of India many times, proving the point that many leaders of India deviated from the great teachings of Gita. The Battle of Kurukshetra took place only for 18 days. Wisdom of Gita was imparted to Arjuna on the first day of the Battle. Just within three weeks of the great teaching of Gita, when the Battle of Kurukshetra was going on in full force, Arjun was about to refrain from fighting again when he saw that Karna's chariot was stuck in mud. Arjun did this AFTER he had a full course of the wisdom of Gita only a few days before directly from Lord Krishna, without the vast multitudes of commentaries that drown us today. Maybe this was the first instance of deviation from Gita, but luckily Lord Krishna was present there and He did not allow that to happen. He reiterated his teaching of Gita and clarified that the law of a battlefield was different from the law of domestic life. Charity and magnanimity did not have a place when one was in the midst of a blood battle. Arjun listened to Lord Krishna and continued his battle with Karna, who was killed fighting from ground.
Another glaring deviation from Gita was made by Prithwiraj Chauhan that plunged India into the abyss of degeneration that we must examine to understand why teachings of Gita are not helping Indian society today.
In the battlefield of the First Battle of Tarain (1191), Prithwiraj Chauhan refrained from fighting because Mahammad Ghouri fell down from his horse. Could it be possible that Prithwiraj Chauhan never read Mahabharata? Ghouri escaped and returned with redoubled forces after two years. This was the Second Battle of Tarain (1193). Prithwiraj was defeated, blinded and taken away to Ghajni in shackles. Entire Indo-Gangetic plains were overrun by the Islamic cavalry, which spread like wild fire. In 1200 AD (7 years after 1193), they arrived at Nalanda University, about 1000 miles from Delhi (territorial expansion @ average 150 miles per year), which was ravaged, all the books were burnt down and all the scholars were hacked to pieces. Bengal was taken in 1205. The Islamic cavalries were stopped at Assam, a land of hillocks and interconnecting earth ramparts that slowed down the cavalry.
The atrocities committed by the early Islamic invaders in the Indo-Gangetic plains were unprecedented in history. Women were raped and their bodies were ravaged. In 1193, there was no newspaper, no radio, no TV. The atrocities continued unabated for many years. Hindu women found out that it was better to commit suicide than to fall at the hands of Islamic invaders. If they heard that Islamic invaders were coming, groups of Hindu women, married and unmarried, would light a bonfire and jump into it, which they called "Jawahar Vrata" "Vow of Purity." The situation continued for many decades, and burning of a woman became an
acceptable scenario.
Hindus survived in the Indo-Gangetic plains by accepting a status of second-class people. Hindu scriptures, including Gita, were publicly decried. In a family had seven brothers, two would take conversion to Islam to protect the remaining five. That was the beginning of Indian Muslims. The remaining five were advised to maintain a low profile by agreeing to everything that the Islamic rulers would say. But they followed a different life within the four walls of their house. This was how public life became very divorced from individual life, a trend that continues even today. The interiors of the houses were clean, but the streets outside were extremely dirty, because nobody cared about public life. Same practice continues in India even today.
Hindus under early Islamic overlordship developed an adroit skill of twisting their words. If they said something that did not please the Islamic masters, they must acquire the skill of changing the meaning of the word immediately, otherwise their necks might be severed. Double talk and double meaning of the words became tools of survival. To tell a lie became a virtue. Status of women deteriorated beyond all imaginable limits. An Islamic soldier could enter any home and snatch away a grown-up daughter for the harem of the Sultan. Child marriage, unknown in Gupta period or in the 2500+ stories of Mahabharata, started
at this time to get rid of daughters. Daughters became a liability. Money would be paid to those who would take charge of a daughter. Dowry system, unknown in areas which were not dominated by Islamic rulers, became a second nature in Islamic India. Hereditary caste system proliferated as a result of child marriage and arranged marriage. Hindu society degraded to the lowest level. The battlefield teachings of Gita were ignored because Islamic rulers would not tolerate that. Bhakti marg, approved by Islamic rulers, flourished in this period.
It was only natural that some Hindus played the role of an intermediary between the Islamic ruler and his Hindu subjects. The rulers entrusted these turncoats with the task of collecting taxes and depositing it in Sultan's treasury. These tax collectors squeezed as much they could from the common people, but deposited only a part in the Sultan's treasury.
In hundreds of years, Hindu tax collectors became very rich. They started to call themselves aristocrats. They led the country to the path of greed, corruption, treachery, betrayal and debauchery. In the later Mughal era, tax collectors of a "nehar" (nehar means a canal) were called "Nehru." In our time, when independent India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said "Thora kuch de do" during the debacle of utter corruption of Jayantilal Teja in 1956, we should have not been surprised. Habits developed through history do not go away so soon.
Another glaring example of deviation from Gita took place when Nehru stopped Indian Army at the middle of Battle of Kashmir. He created a Line Of Control (LoC) at the middle of Kashmir and took the Kashmir case to the United Nations in 1948. Today, 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus, uprooted from their home, are raising their children on the streets of India for the last ten years, thanks to Nehru's magnanimity and greatness of his heart.
Just before the "Turning Point" that you have quoted (Verse 11, Chapter2), Sanjay, the narrator of Gita, described that Lord Krishna was smiling (prahasan iba) in Verse 10. This tells us why Lord Krishna was using the phrase "prajna-vadam ca bhasase" in Verse 11, meaning "talking like a wise man," which actually meant that Arjuna lacked real wisdom. Verse 11 was translated by Dr. Radhakrishnan as "Thou grievest for those whom thou shouldst not grieve for, and yet thou speakest words about wisdom. Wise men do not grieve for the dead or for the living." Dr. Radhakrishnan also referred to Kashmir version of Gita which had "thou dost not speak as an intelligent man": "prajnavan na abhibhasase."
I believe this is a direct rebuke from Lord Krishna, and we all deserve it. You are absolutely right to point out that: "What Arjuna did then is done by all of us most of the time. We take our stand and then rationalize it by quoting it from one shastra or the other."
We can absolve ourselves only by performing our duty to the society, in addition to our duty to our family, to uphold righteousness.
I got this email. No link
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verse 11 in Chapter 2 is verily the turning point where Bhagavadgita really
started.
Like pointed out before, teachings of Gita are jewels to guide us in the path of duty. When India was taken over from the Mughal rulers by the British, one British administrator, who read Gita for the first time, exclaimed, "With a book like Gita on hand, how did India lose her independence to begin with?" This question can also be applied to India's moral decadence that was inflicted by foreign rule. The problem is clear: we failed to learn from Gita. We keep on deviating from the reforms that Lord Krishna tried to introduce. In this feedback to your article, I will try to follow the time-line to show why teachings of Gita are not helping Indian society today
Prior to the verse quoted (Verse 11 in Chapter 2), Arjuna lamented for a long time quoting the word "family" (Swajana, kula) ten times in 18 verses in Chapter 1 (Verses 28 to 45). Right at the beginning of Chapter 2, Lord Krishna replied by pointing out that it was an hour of crisis (visame). He gave a short businesslike instruction and asked Arjuna to get out of unmanliness (klaibyam) and faintheartedness (hrdayadaurbalyam) and arise to fight the battle (Verses 2 & 3, Chapter 2).
Had Arjuna listened to Him, Gita would have ended right at that point. But, Arjuna had to continue his whining for five more verses, citing noble ideas that the life of a beggar was preferable to winning a battle where he would have to kill these "mahanubhavan" (people with great feelings) elders and gurus like Bhishma and Drona, or cousins like Duryodhana and his brothers. Arjuna completely forgot that Duryodhana and his brothers disrobed Draupadi in open court while the mahanubhava Bhishma and Drona, who were watching, did not stop them. Bhishma and Drona accompanied Duryodhana and his brothers when they went to steal cows from King Birata. Bhishma and Drona were with Duryodhana and his brothers in all their unjust, unlawful and remorseless activities. Now, Bhishma and Drona were all well prepared with deadly weapons to kill Pandavas, and Arjuna was going for personal aggrandizement by making noble statements to show the greatness of his heart.
Personal glory and aggrandizement by a leader at the cost of his duty to people whom he was supposed to protect were repeated in the history of India many times, proving the point that many leaders of India deviated from the great teachings of Gita. The Battle of Kurukshetra took place only for 18 days. Wisdom of Gita was imparted to Arjuna on the first day of the Battle. Just within three weeks of the great teaching of Gita, when the Battle of Kurukshetra was going on in full force, Arjun was about to refrain from fighting again when he saw that Karna's chariot was stuck in mud. Arjun did this AFTER he had a full course of the wisdom of Gita only a few days before directly from Lord Krishna, without the vast multitudes of commentaries that drown us today. Maybe this was the first instance of deviation from Gita, but luckily Lord Krishna was present there and He did not allow that to happen. He reiterated his teaching of Gita and clarified that the law of a battlefield was different from the law of domestic life. Charity and magnanimity did not have a place when one was in the midst of a blood battle. Arjun listened to Lord Krishna and continued his battle with Karna, who was killed fighting from ground.
Another glaring deviation from Gita was made by Prithwiraj Chauhan that plunged India into the abyss of degeneration that we must examine to understand why teachings of Gita are not helping Indian society today.
In the battlefield of the First Battle of Tarain (1191), Prithwiraj Chauhan refrained from fighting because Mahammad Ghouri fell down from his horse. Could it be possible that Prithwiraj Chauhan never read Mahabharata? Ghouri escaped and returned with redoubled forces after two years. This was the Second Battle of Tarain (1193). Prithwiraj was defeated, blinded and taken away to Ghajni in shackles. Entire Indo-Gangetic plains were overrun by the Islamic cavalry, which spread like wild fire. In 1200 AD (7 years after 1193), they arrived at Nalanda University, about 1000 miles from Delhi (territorial expansion @ average 150 miles per year), which was ravaged, all the books were burnt down and all the scholars were hacked to pieces. Bengal was taken in 1205. The Islamic cavalries were stopped at Assam, a land of hillocks and interconnecting earth ramparts that slowed down the cavalry.
The atrocities committed by the early Islamic invaders in the Indo-Gangetic plains were unprecedented in history. Women were raped and their bodies were ravaged. In 1193, there was no newspaper, no radio, no TV. The atrocities continued unabated for many years. Hindu women found out that it was better to commit suicide than to fall at the hands of Islamic invaders. If they heard that Islamic invaders were coming, groups of Hindu women, married and unmarried, would light a bonfire and jump into it, which they called "Jawahar Vrata" "Vow of Purity." The situation continued for many decades, and burning of a woman became an
acceptable scenario.
Hindus survived in the Indo-Gangetic plains by accepting a status of second-class people. Hindu scriptures, including Gita, were publicly decried. In a family had seven brothers, two would take conversion to Islam to protect the remaining five. That was the beginning of Indian Muslims. The remaining five were advised to maintain a low profile by agreeing to everything that the Islamic rulers would say. But they followed a different life within the four walls of their house. This was how public life became very divorced from individual life, a trend that continues even today. The interiors of the houses were clean, but the streets outside were extremely dirty, because nobody cared about public life. Same practice continues in India even today.
Hindus under early Islamic overlordship developed an adroit skill of twisting their words. If they said something that did not please the Islamic masters, they must acquire the skill of changing the meaning of the word immediately, otherwise their necks might be severed. Double talk and double meaning of the words became tools of survival. To tell a lie became a virtue. Status of women deteriorated beyond all imaginable limits. An Islamic soldier could enter any home and snatch away a grown-up daughter for the harem of the Sultan. Child marriage, unknown in Gupta period or in the 2500+ stories of Mahabharata, started
at this time to get rid of daughters. Daughters became a liability. Money would be paid to those who would take charge of a daughter. Dowry system, unknown in areas which were not dominated by Islamic rulers, became a second nature in Islamic India. Hereditary caste system proliferated as a result of child marriage and arranged marriage. Hindu society degraded to the lowest level. The battlefield teachings of Gita were ignored because Islamic rulers would not tolerate that. Bhakti marg, approved by Islamic rulers, flourished in this period.
It was only natural that some Hindus played the role of an intermediary between the Islamic ruler and his Hindu subjects. The rulers entrusted these turncoats with the task of collecting taxes and depositing it in Sultan's treasury. These tax collectors squeezed as much they could from the common people, but deposited only a part in the Sultan's treasury.
In hundreds of years, Hindu tax collectors became very rich. They started to call themselves aristocrats. They led the country to the path of greed, corruption, treachery, betrayal and debauchery. In the later Mughal era, tax collectors of a "nehar" (nehar means a canal) were called "Nehru." In our time, when independent India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said "Thora kuch de do" during the debacle of utter corruption of Jayantilal Teja in 1956, we should have not been surprised. Habits developed through history do not go away so soon.
Another glaring example of deviation from Gita took place when Nehru stopped Indian Army at the middle of Battle of Kashmir. He created a Line Of Control (LoC) at the middle of Kashmir and took the Kashmir case to the United Nations in 1948. Today, 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus, uprooted from their home, are raising their children on the streets of India for the last ten years, thanks to Nehru's magnanimity and greatness of his heart.
Just before the "Turning Point" that you have quoted (Verse 11, Chapter2), Sanjay, the narrator of Gita, described that Lord Krishna was smiling (prahasan iba) in Verse 10. This tells us why Lord Krishna was using the phrase "prajna-vadam ca bhasase" in Verse 11, meaning "talking like a wise man," which actually meant that Arjuna lacked real wisdom. Verse 11 was translated by Dr. Radhakrishnan as "Thou grievest for those whom thou shouldst not grieve for, and yet thou speakest words about wisdom. Wise men do not grieve for the dead or for the living." Dr. Radhakrishnan also referred to Kashmir version of Gita which had "thou dost not speak as an intelligent man": "prajnavan na abhibhasase."
I believe this is a direct rebuke from Lord Krishna, and we all deserve it. You are absolutely right to point out that: "What Arjuna did then is done by all of us most of the time. We take our stand and then rationalize it by quoting it from one shastra or the other."
We can absolve ourselves only by performing our duty to the society, in addition to our duty to our family, to uphold righteousness.