1.36 -“What happiness can we have, O Janardan (Krishn), from slaying these sons of Dhritrashtr? Only sin will fall to our lot if we kill even these wicked men.”
What happiness can Arjun gain from killing Dhritrashtr’s sons? Dhritrashtr denotes the “insolent or profligate nation,” and born from it is Duryodhan, the image of infatuation. But shall even the slaying of such an evil kinsman make Arjun and Sri Krishn happy? The Kaurav are unrighteous, but the Pandav will be only guilty of sin if they kill them. We call men evildoers if they adopt impious ways for their livelihood. In fact, however, the worst felons are those who put obstructions in the way of the Self. The gravest offenders in this respect are lust, wrath, avarice, and inordinate attachment which obstruct one’s realization of the Self.
1.37 -“So it is not for us to kill Dhritrashtr’s sons, for how indeed can we be happy, O Madhav (Krishn), if we slaughter our own kinsmen?”
Is it not surprising that the Kaurav are at this moment seen as kith and kin? Didn’t they come to the battlefield as foes? In truth, physical relationship arises from ignorance. He is my maternal uncle; here is my wife’s family; this is the community of my own people. What are all these, but ignorance? We have people who are affectionate to us and we have our family, and we have our world,but all these we have only as long as there is attachment. All such ties are demolished when there is no attachment. That is why even sworn enemies now appear to Arjun as kinsmen. He asks Sri Krishn how they can be happy by killing their kinsmen. Without ignorance and attachment the idea of family cannot exist. Paradoxically, however, it is this ignorance that also provides the initial urge for knowledge. Some great men like Bhartrihari and Tulsidas were driven to renunciation by their spouses, whereas there are examples of many others who have gone the same way because of their disillusionment with the conduct of a stepmother.
1.38/39 -“Although, with their minds vitiated by greed, they (the Kaurav) have no awareness of the evil they do in destroying families and in being treacherous to friends, why should we, O Janardan, who know that it is evil to destroy families, not turn away from the sinful act?”
Straying from righteousness because of their arrogance and avarice, the Kaurav are blind to the sin they commit by destroying families and practising treachery against friends. This is their error. But why, Arjun wishes to know from Sri Krishn, should they themselves, knowing the evils of destroying families, not desist from the crime? What deserves special notice here is Arjun’s belief that not only he, but Sri Krishn, too, is about to make the same error. So he also indirectly accuses Sri Krishn. Every novice taking refuge in an accomplished teacher reasons in the same way. Arjun is under the impression that perhaps the problem that is bothering him has not yet occurred to,Sri Krishn. All the same, they are both reasonable men and it is required of them to think of the evil consequences of destroying a family.
1.40-“In case of the destruction of a family its eternal sacred traditions are lost, and impiety afflicts the whole family with the loss of its values.”
Until now Arjun has viewed family traditions as the eternal (Sanatan) Dharm. And he also believes that with the loss of these traditions, families are laden with sin.
1.41-“When sin prevails, O Sri Krishn, women of the family stray from virtue, and when they are unchaste, O descendant of the ‘Vrishnis (Varshneya: Krishn), there is generated an unholy mixture of classes (varnsankar).”
When unrighteous ways dominate a family, its women lose their chastity and there arises an intermingling of different classes, of incompatible cultures and ways of living.According to Arjun, this sinful intermingling occurs when women lose their virtue. But Sri Krishn contradicts this: “I am fully contented in the Self and there is nothing more precious which is beyond my reach. Yet I continue to practise meditation and renunciation, and urge others to the same. But these are only means and not the goal, and when the goal is achieved who cares for the means? So if the achiever such as I neglects the means, his followers of an inferior merit will emulate him and they, too, will give up the required means. Confused and misled from the path of Self-realization, they then perish.”
Lacking in true achievement, they only swagger emptily as if they were perfect.This imitation creates a chaos.There remains no distinction between the deserving and the undeserving. This confusion is varnsankar and the teacher himself is held responsible for this disorder. That is why an ideal teacher always teaches by his own conduct.
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“Humble Wishes”
