Philosophy concepts and applications

Bhagavad-Gita's Philosophy Of Reconciliation Of Divinity With Earthly Responsibility

Within the Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), the first-century B.C. Hindu Sanskrit poem that is the holy book of the Hindu religion; salvation in the afterlife is described by Krishna (God) to the Pandava warrior Arjuna on the eve of an important battle as the result of attaining a particular state of mind, not of having lived a particular kind of life according to God's divine plan or will. It is the sixth book of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata" which "narrates the story of a great war between the virtuous Pandavas and their evil cousins, the Kauravas... ("The Bhagavad-Gita first century B.C., p. 1010") Salvation within life after death, as implied within this book, similarly to Buddhist belief, but unlike that of either Judaism, Christianity or Islam, springs from individual understanding and reconciliation of one's desired divine state with one's responsibilities to society in one's present life. Arjuna's battlefield dilemma and Krishna's divine advice to him on the eve of war illustrates that conflict and its resolution.

Arjuna, or the "Warrior Prince," as Krishna calls him, does not want to fight here, against own friends, blood relatives, and past teachers, all of whom he recognizes here and to whom he feels attachment. Conflicted and confused about what he should do, Arjuna asks his chariot driver and spiritual guide Krishna (who is in fact God) for guidance in working out his painful dilemma about whether to fight and possibly kill many loved and revered ones in the process (Sargent; Minor; Keay). Responding to Arjuna's confusion Krishna tells Arjuna of his responsibilities as a warrior and a prince according to several Hindu philosophies (Holden).

It is in the course of giving Arjuna various philosophical examples to illustrate why he should fight in the battle that Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna as God. In offering Arjuna a brief look at his own divine; perfect and immortal form, Krishna points beyond earthly life itself to the cyclical importance of Arjuna's carrying out his battlefield responsibilities as both warrior and prince. The Bhagavad Gita, then, suggests a need for spiritual and practical reconciliation, within one's present earthly life, by vividly depicting the despair of a good leader of morality and conscience, Arjuna, who is "a champion among the Pandava heroes" ("The Bhagavad-Gita first century B.C."). When Arjuna realizes he must fight against the Kauravas, thereby likely killing fathers, sons, husbands, and cousins, he tells Krishna (Bhagavad-Gita, the First Teaching: 32, p. 1015) "Krishna, I see no victory, or kingship or pleasures" in going to war in this way.

That is because Arjuna cannot yet reconcile such future violence with the greater Hindu spiritual quest, to rise to the level of no longer needing to be reincarnated in future lives, the ultimate goal (and salvation) of the Hindi in the afterlife according to the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna (God) reminds Arjuna that non-attachment (to personal wealth or other gain) is the desired ultimate state of mind within the Hindu religion, and therefore the path to salvation and the ceasing of successive reincarnations must never supersede personal responsibility (the EAWC Anthology: The Bhagavad-Gita).

Arjuna's own personal responsibility is to fight as a leader of the Pandavas, on the side of virtue in this war. Arjuna himself has not sought out the present conflict for his own greater glory, so his going to war, Krishna tells him, will not in fact conflict with Arjuna's greater spiritual quest toward non-attachment, nor will it conflict with his salvation and eventual non-reincarnation. Further, within Hinduism as exemplified and illustrated by the Bhagavad-Gita, the afterlife is conceived of as being cyclical rather than linear (as within monotheistic religions) and therefore a continuation of a cyclical progression (toward nirvana) and the ceasing of future reincarnations (Flood; Sargent; Holden).

As Krishna implicitly points out to Arjuna as well, the impending war is but a part of a much larger cyclical whole and Arjuna has not sought to participate in this war in order either to seek glory for himself or based on his own attachments. Rather than being the reward for one's earthly obedience to God, and therefore a destination in and of itself then, as it is within Islam, Christianity and Judaism; arrival at nirvana and therefore the ceasing of further reincarnations comes from finally reconciling non-attachment in one's present life with personal responsibility in one's present life - as Krishna advises Arjuna to do now, on the eve of this war.

Holden further points out that during Krishna's conversation with Arjuna, Krishna, with his words from Bhagavad-Gita 2.12 "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be" (qtd. In Holden)

Krisna [sic] is telling us that death is not an end - life itself continues, and always will, as it always has. The implication here is that reality is not what it appears to be to the senses, or even to the common sense view. Not only are we being told birth and death are other than they appear, but that God himself is eternal, and we are like God - but, significantly distinct entities. We are individuals that are not God, although they are with God. ("On the meaning of Krisna's [sic] statement to Arjuna: "Never was there a time when I did not exist

Holden further observes: "This is quite a different concept of causation than the... idea of life of beginning and ceasing to be -... Krisna seems to be asking us to overcome our senses via the rational mind -... applying a rational argument for why we should not believe what we perceive to be true..." ("On the meaning of Krisna's statement to Arjuna: "Never was there a time when I did not exist..."). In this way Krishna encourages Arjuna to see the cyclical rather than linear essence of life and death through a lens of earthly rationality rather than having Arjuna deny the familiar in order to begin to understand the essence of divine life according to Krishna.