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By Jayaram V
When Arjuna stood in the middle of the battle field, between
the two
great armies, and saw his own cousins and relations standing
against him, on the other side, ready to wage a destructive
war, he was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of deep
depression and despair.
The thought of much violence and bloodshed ensuing out of
the war and the possibility of the destruction of his family in
the war filled him with fear and anguish. His knowledge and
experience could not give him the much needed assurance to
perform his duties as a warrior.
At that particular moment in his life, he felt that the
gains of winning the war were far less appealing, both morally
and socially, than the possibility of a vast devastation and
destruction of human life.
He became convinced that he was set upon a destructive
course of action and that he was on the threshold of committing
a great sin by becoming the source of destruction of his own
family and friends.
With the destruction of family, he reasoned, the women of
his family would lose their virtue and this in turn would lead
to the inter mixture of castes. In such circumstances, he
wondered, how could he wage a war and later on live with blood
stained hands and the ill reputation of being a slayer of his
own family?
Would it not be better for him to live on alms like a beggar
than slaying so many members and elders of his own family
towards whom he had shown so much respect in the past?
These were the moral and intellectual issues that raged in
his mind as he stood upon the battle field facing his enemies.
Unable to resolve the conflict, in confusion and consternation,
he decided to face death, unarmed, than kill his own relations
and live in sin.
One cannot blame Arjuna for his weaknesses as a human being.
Like most of the ordinary mortals, though perhaps spiritually
more advanced than many, he poured out the confusion of his
mind and his faltering knowledge.
The same motives, desires and limitations, which play in our
minds, as we deal with our day to day tasks, also played in his
mind, as he stood confused in the battle field, with his
beliefs shaken, intelligence failing and judgment faltering. In
the face of a grave crisis, he spoke the same language which we
all would speak in similar circumstances.
A great warrior, bred on the beliefs and values of his
times, Arjuna was intensely religious, morally righteous,
socially responsible, ambitious, earthly and humane. As he laid
aside his bow and arrows and sank down in the back seat of his
chariot, down and dejected, there was no dichotomy in his
thoughts or in his actions.
There was neither cynicism nor insincerity, nor any form of
duplicity in his approach. The thought of bloodshed and
violence truly touched him and shook him. Sincere was his
conclusion that avoiding the war was better than causing the
bloodshed. As a human being, his sorrow was genuine and so was
his concern.
His arguments were perfectly logical and intellectually
sound. His fears were also normal and understandable. Whether
it was his orthodox views or his genuine concern for the
welfare of his family members, even after all the troubles he
got from some of them, and his fear about the virtue of his
family women, that they would degenerate into vice and cause
destruction of family, were in tune with the social and moral
values of his times and we should not judge him from our
standards.
One cannot be too critical of him for his lopsided logic,
his inclination to rationalize his fears and his pretentious
and questionable approach to the ethics of war. He was but
expressing the knowledge of his times and his conditioned mind.
Worldly knowledge does not illuminate the suffering mind. It
does not provide correct solutions to the problems of our
existence, because it does not have the force of true
illumination.
This knowledge, which we all hold dearly, is an ignorant
force, without clarity of vision and without adequate strength
to sustain us through trails and tribulations. It is an
imperfect instrument which cannot present to its possessor a
holistic vision of the world in which he lives. Holding him
with in the confines of his sensory world and perpetuating the
old habits and movements of his mind, it binds him strongly to
his ordinary mortal existence and to the pettiness that comes
with it.
An instrument of nature, it ensnares man deeply in the pit
of his own desires, accentuating his problems instead of
alleviating them, leading him not towards light and salvation
but into the world of egoism, ignorance and illusion. Its
source, therefore is not light but illusion. Its purpose not
providing freedom but holding us in bondage. And its hidden
agenda is not to seek truth but imitate the patterns of nature.
Created, nourished and enriched by the senses, it holds in
its view a very narrow vision of life, upholding the values
that do not seek to mitigate our suffering but increase it, not
to show us the way but to lead us astray, not to encourage
divine centered awareness but perpetuate self-centered
activity.
True freedom comes only when we are willing to break out of
the confines of conditioned mind and its knowledge of limited
light. Suffering helps us in this process. As long as we are
not willing to go beyond sense gratification and sensory
perceptions and are not willing to detach our minds from
routine thought processes and habitual vibrations, we remain
slaves to our minds and memory.
Without the intervention of suffering and the awareness of
suffering, our ordinary consciousness cannot establish a divine
centered life that prepares us adequately to seek solutions to
the problems of life.
Without suffering, we cannot bring fundamental changes in our
ways of thinking and behavior towards ourselves and others. We
cannot prepare ourselves to fight spiritual battles and gain
passage into an ever lasting immortal world.
The willingness to set aside our imperfect knowledge and
seek correct knowledge and wisdom for a more meaningful
existence comes to us only through the process of intense
suffering and persistent sorrow.
The Patient Lord does not grant us His Divine Boons till we
drink enough from the cup of His sorrow, open our eyes, and
admit our mistakes and ignorance, and pray for our final and
complete release from the wretched conditions of mortal life.
Sorrow is thus a divine gift that comes from above. Its
purpose is to cleanse and purify us physically, mentally and
spiritually in order to make us fit for holding with in
ourselves divine light and love. Sorrow is but the twisted and
inverted form of Divine Grace that hides in its coils rare gems
of knowledge and eye opening truths.
It is a seemingly negative but a truly positive and
progressive force, the precursor of enlightenment in whose womb
the soul prepares itself for its onward journey. By throwing
light directly on the transience and meaninglessness of our
existence and by brining us into direct confrontation with our
own limitations and failures, it rather crudely and painfully
nudges us towards the loving hands of God. It encourages us to
believe in Him, depend upon Him, surrender to Him and seek His
help.
Suffering is thus the true and faithful messenger of truth.
As an instrument of light, it dazzles us, in rather unpleasant
and frightening ways, to wake us up from our pleasant dreams
and illusions.
Our true teacher, it teaches us how to live correctly and
spiritually, so that we can attain true freedom. It is in the
rain of suffering and sorrow that we find a rare opportunity to
cleanse ourselves of all impurities that we accumulate in the
course of our normal living and in the performance of our
desire oriented actions.
Unless one is burnt in the fire of sorrow and suffering ,
spiritual life is but a remote possibility, a distant dream, a
mere intellectual debate or delight. The light cannot shine in
the hearts of those who have not shed copious tears.
Sincere prayers cannot come from the lips that have not
quivered and cried for divine help. The world of God opens not
to him whose heart is not drenched by the tears of his own
suffering and cries of his own pain.
Along the paths and grooves carved by the hands of sorrow
travels the mortal man, by trails and tribulations, into an
immortal world that is at once a total negation of all that he
has experienced and understood before. In no other way can the
mind of man be shaken out of the stupor and the perversion into
which it descends.
Arjuna suffered and in the process became wise. He sought
divine help and God taught him the Gita, the secret of all
secrets, His immortal Celestial Song by knowing which one can
attain freedom from suffering in this world and salvation
hereafter.
So however distasteful it may be, sorrow is not to be
despised but invited with respect and gratitude, for it
descends from above with a definite purpose, hiding in its
bosom the strength of pure light, the seed of an awakening , a
line of spiritual instruction from the Universal Teacher.
Sorrow is the poison that arises as we start churning the
mortal life to understand its mystery and transience. And
unless we learn how to deal with this sorrow we cannot achieve
immortality.
Even the great gods and the mighty demons had to deal with
this poison as they started churning the ocean of life in
search of "amrit " the sweet nectar that would render life
immortal. Lord Shiva dealt with the poison wisely by taking it
and keeping it in his throat, without allowing it either to go
up into his mind or to go down into his heart.
In both the places it would have caused great turmoil
mentally and emotionally and destroyed the very balance of
creation and existence of all beings. But in his throat it
remained ineffective and harmless and helped the gods and the
demons to proceed further in their search for truth and
immortality.
In case of Arjuna, it went both into his heart and mind and
there by disturbed him mentally and emotionally beyond his
control. For Arjuna was a mortal and was preparing himself
unconsciously for this great hour of spiritual awakening. He
was unaware that his anguish would lead him eventually to
witness the birth of a philosophy that would provide solace not
only to him but for generations of men and women to come, that
he was at the threshold of the birth of a spiritual river that
would flow eternally into the future, quenching the thirst of
many a seeker of salvation on its way.
Suggested Further Reading
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