Right action for you depends on your conditioning || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagvad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 19.01.2020, Month of Awakening, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh  Context:  स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि | धर्म्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत्क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते ||31||          swa-dharmam api chāvekṣhya na vikampitum arhasi          dharmyāddhi yuddhāch chhreyo ’nyat kṣhatriyasya na vidyate Even considering your own duty you should not waiver, since there is nothing else better for a kshatriya than righteous battle. ~ Shreemad Bhagvad Gita (Chapter - 2 Verse - 31)  ~ Is there any role of conditioning in discovering one's duty or one's swadharm? ~ Is adhering to one's swadharm same as Liberation? ~ What is the duty of a kshatriya?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 Acharya ji Pranam. After explaining to Arjun that he shouldn't grieve for the embodied

00:16 beings in verse 31 of the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna says, "Even

00:28 in your own duty, you should not waver, since there is nothing else better for a Kshatriya

00:36 than a righteous battle." Acharya ji being born into a Kshatriya clan, fighting represents

00:46 Arjun's conditioning and training and what he has become good at. Is there any role of

00:54 conditioning in discovering one's duty or one's swadharma? Is adhering to one's

01:03 swadharma same as liberation? The verse says 2.31, "Even considering your own duty,

01:14 you should not waver from the fight, since there is nothing else better for a Kshatriya

01:20 than a righteous battle." You see, liberation is dharma. To move to the point where one

01:41 stands liberated alone is dharma. But when we define dharma this way, then we are talking

01:53 of only one point, the point to which you have to reach. We are calling that as the

02:00 point of liberation. But nobody stands at a position called no position. We all stand

02:12 somewhere and wherever we stand, that point is actually a point of conditioning. Had we

02:25 not been standing somewhere, there was no need to travel to be liberated. You could

02:35 consider the point of liberation as the origin, 0,0. Basic x,y coordinates. Thinking of a

02:46 graph paper, can you see that? So liberation is at 0,0, origin. You have to go back to

02:58 the very origin where everything comes from. But where are you currently located? You are

03:06 located somewhere. You have some coordinates x,y or if you take three dimensions, then

03:16 x,y,z. How many various kinds of coordinates are possible? Infinite. The x,y,z combo can

03:25 take infinite values, infinite distinct values. Wherever you are currently located, from there

03:38 you have to come to the origin. So coming to the origin is dharma. But swadharma is

03:52 coming to the origin from where you are. Therefore, each person, each x,y,z will have his own

04:02 particular path to come to the origin. And that's why it is called swadharma, not just

04:09 dharma. Swadharma means your dharma. Swadharma is not really different from dharma. But dharma

04:17 merely says come to the origin. Dharma says come to origin, become zero, come to the point

04:26 where everything is dissolved, nothing exists, come to zero. Dharma merely says that. Swadharma

04:35 clarifies things a little more. Swadharma says yes, you have to come to zero, but you

04:40 have to come from four, five, eight, x,y,z. So now things stand more clear. So from four,

04:50 five, eight, you have to come to zero and now you can find out a route. Obviously, the

04:56 shortest route is the straight line. But maybe the configurations, the situations stand in

05:04 such a way that a straight line is not even possible. So you figure out some other route,

05:08 whatever it is. The thing is now you know that you have to move from four, five, eight

05:11 to zero, zero, zero. Arjun too stands somewhere. Had Arjun not been standing somewhere, then

05:22 Arjun would have been standing at zero, zero, zero. Then there would have been no need for

05:27 any Krishna or any Gita. Arjun is already at the origin. But Arjun is standing somewhere.

05:34 Where is Arjun standing? Arjun is standing where his body and the norms and situations

05:43 and the customs and the conditioning of his time has made him stand. So Arjun is standing

05:50 at some particular place. Krishna has to take that particular place into account. Otherwise,

05:57 he would just be talking theory that would not be of much use to Arjun.

06:03 So Krishna not merely talks of liberation. Krishna not merely talks of freedom. He also

06:16 keeps referring to Arjun's Kshatriya clan. Because if you are really interested in covering

06:27 a distance, you must know both the ends. Krishna must talk of the origin zero, zero, zero and

06:35 Krishna must also equally seriously talk of four, five, eight which is Arjun's configuration

06:40 at that point, Arjun's coordinates. That's why he repeatedly refers to Arjun's Kshatriya

06:50 clan. Now let's say Krishna is talking to somebody belonging to the other varnas. He

07:08 would be advising everybody irrespective of whether he is a Kshatriya or a Vaishya or

07:17 a Brahman or a Shudra to go to zero, zero, zero. But all would be advised to go to zero,

07:27 zero, zero starting from where they actually and practically are situated. If you are standing

07:33 at four, five, eight, you cannot be told the same route that was told to someone who was

07:39 standing at two, three, eleven. If that route is suggested to you, will you ever reach zero,

07:45 zero, zero? You will fail, totally fail. So now when he is talking to Arjun, he is saying

07:52 you see over the passage of time in the game of Prakriti, in the entire play of Maya, you

08:08 have become a Kshatriya. Now all that is just a superficial thing. The entire varna system

08:18 has no depth. It is just a superficial arrangement made by man himself. But whatever it is, the

08:28 thing is that it is taken as an identity statement by somebody like Arjun. In fact, by all who

08:37 were present at that time, they take their varna identity as important. So now since

08:45 they take it as important, so Krishna tells them that according to your varna identity,

08:51 which is according to your present coordinates, this is how you should move to zero, zero,

08:56 zero. You have to fight. If a Brahman is there on the same battlefield, Krishna would advise

09:04 him to resist the Kauravas, but in some way that is most suited to the Brahmin's own conditioning.

09:17 If he tells the Brahmin to pick up the bow and arrow or the mace and start fighting Duryodhana,

09:25 then the war is lost already. So the Brahmin will have to fight Duryodhana, no doubt, but

09:32 in the way of the Brahmin. The Vaishya and the Shudra too will have to fight Duryodhana

09:40 in their own respective ways. Are you getting it? What is important is when you reach zero,

09:50 zero, zero, then the Kshatriya is no more a Kshatriya. He comes to learn that all this

09:56 varna and caste thing is some kind of a man-made joke. But when will he learn that? Standing

10:05 at 248, he is taking his caste very seriously. He says I am a Kshatriya. When will he be

10:15 able to doubtlessly and convincingly say I am not a Kshatriya, I am not even a body,

10:22 how can I be a Kshatriya? When will he be able to say that? Only when he reaches zero,

10:28 zero, zero. But to reach zero, zero, zero, he has to start from being a Kshatriya. So

10:34 even to come to the point where Arjun is no more a Kshatriya, he has to start from a point

10:39 where he is indeed a Kshatriya. In a way, Krishna is using the word of Arjun to bring

10:49 him to a point where he is liberated from the varna system altogether. But even to liberate

10:58 him of his class or caste or conditioning, he has to start from where he actually and

11:05 practically is standing right now. So Krishna is doing something very wise and very practical

11:14 at the same time. Are you getting it? When you come to that origin point, there is no

11:23 difference between a Brahmin, a Vaishya, a Kshatriya, anybody. There is no difference

11:30 between a man and a woman. There is no difference at all. Differences cease to exist. But in

11:39 this world that we see all around us, first of all there are physical differences of age,

11:45 of gender, of race. And then there are social differences, caste, creed, ethnicity, nationality,

11:59 religion. We live in a world of differences. Even to bring someone to a point where he

12:11 would be liberated of differences, you have to see what his current configuration is.

12:20 If you are not mindful of his current configuration, then your attempts to help him will fail.

12:28 And Krishna is not someone who is going to fail. So he repeatedly reminds Arjun that

12:37 he is a Kshatriya. His identity is repeatedly evoked. Arjun you are a Kshatriya and a Kshatriya

12:47 must fight. Now both the things are at play here, dharma and swadharma. In what does dharma

12:56 lie? Dharma lies in fighting Duryodhana. In what does swadharma lie? Swadharma lies in

13:02 fighting Duryodhana like a Kshatriya. Let's say if a Brahmin were present on the battlefield,

13:09 dharma would remain the same for Arjun and that Brahmin. Dharma is to fight Duryodhana

13:15 because Duryodhana is representing dharma. So dharma is to fight Duryodhana. But swadharma

13:23 will be different. Arjun's swadharma will be to fight Duryodhana like a warrior and

13:30 the Brahmin's swadharma will be to fight Duryodhana like a scholar. So dharma is the same for

13:40 everybody but swadharma varies according to the kind of personality you have taken, according

13:48 to your physical, social, temporal conditions. Swadharma varies. But remember that swadharma

13:57 can never be in contradiction of dharma. Swadharma will always be something within the ambit of

14:07 dharma. So dharma is to fight Duryodhana. Swadharma is to fight Duryodhana with bows

14:12 and arrows. Why with bows and arrows? Because Arjun that's all that you can do. What else

14:18 will you do? Over the last 45 years Arjun, if there is one thing that you have learnt

14:24 and there is only one thing that you have learnt which is to fight. There is only one

14:30 thing you have continuously practised which is your bow and arrow. So now that you have

14:35 to fight Duryodhana, what other method or weapon do you have? You have only one excellence.

14:41 There is only one thing that you know. There is only one way in which you can fight Duryodhana

14:46 which is your Kshatriya way because there is no other way that you know. So fight Duryodhana

14:50 in your own way that is swadharma. Fighting Duryodhana is dharma. Fight Duryodhana in

14:56 the way you can that is swadharma. You get it clearly?

15:02 Satcharitra Pranam. In verse 34 of the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna says

15:15 to Arjun, people also will speak of your unending infamy and to an honoured person infamy is

15:26 worse than death. Then the questioner has quoted the Ramcharitmanas. At the time of

15:39 King Dashrath's death, Guru Ashisht says, "Loss, profit, life, death, glory, infamy,

15:45 all in the hands of destiny." "Hanilabh, Jeevan, Maran, Yash, Apayash, Vidhyat." Acharya

15:52 Ji, the two contexts are different. In the first, a warrior is being urged to act and

16:01 the second is on the occasion of the death of a king. But it makes me wonder about the

16:08 connection of infamy with one's actions. Does a righteous action need to be influenced

16:16 by how the world will perceive of it? Also, when Krishna is urging Arjun to remain equanimous

16:30 in pleasure and pain, in life and death, then why does he ask Arjun to consider infamy as

16:38 worse than death when such a consideration might disturb his equanimity?

16:43 The shloka reads, "People will also speak of your unending infamy and to an honoured

16:50 person, infamy is worse than death." So, first of all, what is Shri Krishna doing?

16:59 I suppose we have already answered it in the previous question. On that battlefield, the

17:14 forces of darkness have to be fought. That is dharma. If Duryodhana occupies power, that

17:24 is not going to be good for Hastinapur and the adjoining states, probably the entire,

17:32 the larger part of the entire subcontinent. At least all the states who would come within

17:42 the influence of Duryodhana's power will have to suffer. Duryodhana has repeatedly

17:53 displayed his proclivity towards injustice, corruption, fame, lustfulness, treachery,

18:12 many kinds of evil. He is not at all an eligible candidate to occupy the throne and that is

18:21 the reason Shri Krishna is siding with the Pandavas. It is not about ensuring that one

18:32 party gets its rightful claim on the throne. The issue is wider. It is about entire populations.

18:46 Remember that the Mahabharata was not in an age of democracy. The king used to have almost

19:02 unlimited authority. He was supposed to be a representative of God and all that he did

19:12 or said had to be respected, obeyed. In such situations, the personal disposition of the

19:26 king towards dharma, towards justice was very critical in determining the welfare or the

19:45 disaster of an entire population. Give the population the right kind of king and you

19:56 have one kind of result and give the population an evil king and you have a totally different

20:07 and disastrous result. So the question of who will be the king was a very, very crucial

20:15 question in determining the very fate of Bharat. Therefore, sides had to be taken. Therefore,

20:27 Krishna had to really stand with and behind the Pandavas to ensure that they win.

20:38 Herein lay dharma. Fight Duryodhana. He is the mascot of evil right now. But who is to

20:52 fight Duryodhana? Arjuna. And who is Arjuna? Is Arjuna a liberated person? No. Arjuna is

21:01 very much a product of his times. Arjuna is someone who believes in his caste identity

21:09 very strongly. Arjuna is someone who is quite strongly attached to his family members. Familial

21:20 bonds matter a lot to him. The Gita opens with the sight of Arjuna shivering and trembling

21:32 and feverish and refusing to pick up the Gandiva because he cannot. He says he has not enough

21:43 power in his hands at the moment to even pick up his weapons. That's his state. Does this

21:52 look like the state of some perfect person? No. Not at all. Over his entire lifetime,

22:02 Arjuna had displayed normal human tendencies. Obviously, he was a good human being. He had

22:14 defended Krishna. He tolerated a lot. He was often seen fighting for the right cause, defending

22:26 the right kind of people. But still, he was more or less an ordinary mortal. Now, such

22:38 an ordinary mortal, let's say a little better than ordinary, such a person is to be roped

22:50 in to fight against Duryodhana. Merely telling him that fighting Duryodhana is important

23:01 for the welfare of entire North India would be no good. Those kinds of dharmic invocations

23:18 will not matter too much to Arjuna. Arjuna is riled in his own inner battles, attachments,

23:29 old memories, bonds of blood, such things. If Krishna were to just tell him, Arjuna,

23:43 fighting Duryodhana and killing him is important to uphold dharma, Arjuna would not fight.

23:54 Arjuna is not Krishna. Arjuna is not perfect. Family matters are very significant to Arjuna.

24:12 He cannot forget the insult meted out to Draupadi. He cannot forget that once he used to play

24:20 in the lap of Bhishma. These kinds of things, they are what are important and material to

24:32 Arjuna. How do you just tell Arjuna, Arjuna, get up and fight. We are crusading for dharma,

24:44 no less. Arjuna would not budge. So, knowing fully well what kind of a person Arjuna is,

24:58 Krishna is telling those things to Arjuna that matter to him. What matters to him? One

25:08 of the things that matter to him is fame. So, Krishna tells him, you run away from the

25:15 battle and you will be earning a lot of infamy. Now that matters to Arjuna. That's true.

25:24 I cannot run away. I will be dishonored. Tell Arjuna that if you run away, it would be the

25:35 defeat of dharma and such an argument will fall flat. Tell Arjuna, if you run away, it

25:43 will be your personal dishonor and this argument will work because Arjuna is Arjuna, a normal

25:50 mortal being. That however does not mean that fame is in reality something very important.

26:07 That does not mean that fame has some kind of an absolute significance in spirituality.

26:12 No, not at all. In fact, look at the danger. Krishna is using Arjuna's predisposition

26:25 towards fame to make him fight a war. It's just that the person who is right now advising

26:33 Arjuna is Krishna. So, he will use Arjuna's weakness to guide Arjuna towards a right thing.

26:46 But what if it were not Krishna but somebody else and that somebody else knew very well

26:52 that Arjuna has a very high consideration for fame. Then he could say to Arjuna, Arjuna,

27:06 you know, you lose your fame. If you fight against your brothers and uncles and teachers

27:21 and grandfathers, you lose your fame and Arjuna, fame conscious as he is, would be then fooled

27:34 into quitting the battle because of the fame issue. Are you getting it? It's just that

27:44 right now Arjuna is luckily in the hands of Krishna. So, Krishna, even though he is using

27:56 Arjuna's weakness, he is using Arjuna's weakness for a right cause. But what if by way of chance

28:06 Arjuna were to fall in the hands of somebody like Shakuni? Then Shakuni would capitalize

28:14 all of Arjuna's weakness to turn Arjuna against dharma. So, you must understand that it is

28:23 not at all right to harbor any such weaknesses and having a soft spot for fame, being very

28:36 very desirous for name and honor is a big weakness. Arjuna just somehow luckily is getting

28:49 away with it. Not everybody is going to be so lucky. Your hunger for fame will be used

29:00 by the forces of mischief to turn you to all the wrong directions. Is that clear? So, don't

29:22 wait for that to happen. You will not always be so lucky or so very discreet that your

29:30 companion would be a Krishna. More often than not, your companions will be of the mischievous

29:41 and unworthy kind and they will use all your frailties, all your weaknesses against you

29:49 and against dharma. Don't let that happen. Get rid of your weaknesses before they are

29:55 exploited by cunning people. Getting it? Then, the first part of the question. The connection

30:18 of infamy with one's actions. The questioner is asking, does a righteous action need to

30:29 be influenced by how the world will perceive it? It does not need to be, but that's the

30:37 way we are. We are so thoroughly influenced by the world. So, while we are deciding about

30:47 anything whether or not to do it, the factor of honor, of fame, of perception, of social

31:01 regard always somehow seeps into the equation. And many a times, the question of fame and

31:16 honor very strongly disbalances the equation. Your decision totally changes. You might be

31:30 making the right decision, but the factor of infamy starts weighing upon your mind and

31:42 then you flip. The decision changes. The one who gives the opinions of others a lot of

32:04 weightage will obviously not be able to give the highest weightage to truth. Therefore,

32:21 if you are really someone who aspires to live truthfully, you are someone who does not want

32:28 to live blindly, semi-conscious, then you have to be someone who has a healthy disregard

32:46 towards the opinions of others. That does not mean that you must not hear others out

32:56 or consult others. Rather, that means that even when you are listening to someone, your

33:08 objective is not to gain something in the eyes of that person. Your objective is to

33:21 gain the truth. You could be listening to your neighbor for two reasons. One, if you

33:32 listen to your neighbor, your neighbor will feel happy. If you listen to your neighbor,

33:41 your neighbor will start thinking good things about you. That could be one reason. The other

33:51 reason is you are listening to uncover the truth. To uncover the truth, you are prepared

34:01 to listen to anybody, but only to uncover the truth. Otherwise, people have no value.

34:09 It's a very strong condition. Let people have value in your life only in context of

34:23 the truth they bring to your life. Otherwise, what is the value of a body? Nothing. If there

34:33 is someone who really brings truth to your life, he is someone to be listened to. He

34:45 does otherwise. If there are people who are very full of their opinions and they are very

34:52 desirous of advising you, but their advice brings no truth to your life, there is no

34:57 need to waste your time listening to them. Do interact with others. Do take feedback

35:14 from others. Do hear people out. Do engage in meaningful conversations. But the objective

35:24 has to be very clear. The objective must always be truth, not the aggrandization of your ego,

35:35 not the gratification of the other's ego. No petty objective should be there. Clear?

35:48 [Music]

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