Gita 01.41 – Unwanted progeny – what does unwanted mean?

Thank you. for desisting from the war and he said how the dynasty will get destroyed and if the dynasty is destroyed, then a dharma will prevail and now he's going ahead and saying that the prevalence of a dharma will cause problems for many generations, past and future. So how is that? sankaro narakayaiva.

Naraka refers to hell, but the word hell is often used in a metaphorical sense. It is like hell. That means some places vary, is a place of great suffering.

Then it was like hell. So those who were victimized in the Holocaust, they would say the concentration camps were like hell. So narakayaiva, Krishna is saying that when sankara, when unwanted progeny rule, spread over the world, dominate the world and the world becomes like hell.

The quality of citizen, quality of kingdom is determined not just by the kind of facilities that are there in the kingdom or even by the kind of leaders that are present. Yes, these are important, but most importantly, the kind of people that are generally present determine the quality of a place. So if the people are degraded, then the place itself will also be naturally miserable.

There are some places where the thieves abound and there is no law and order. Then going to that place is like hellish. Every step that we take, we have to watch our shoulder and make sure that our pocket is not slit or even our belly is not slit by some thieves.

So now there may be that kind of people in some localities, but what if that kind of people were what was predominating the world? Then sankaro narakayaiva, and this will happen, kula-gnanam kula-sthicham, to both those who destroy the dynasty and the dynasty both. That's because once the population becomes ungodly, cruel, barbaric, then whichever dynasty is ruling, it will make that dynasty's life hellish. So Sankara, nowadays people don't understand that the caliber of people that is born depends on the nature of the consciousness, the level of consciousness of the people who are uniting.

John Lennon once said that most of Europe is born over a bottle of wine on Saturday night. Actually, in today's hook-up culture and even with one-night stands, people just unite and sometimes they get pregnant and they have children. So now literally sometimes these children are unwanted progeny.

This is how Prabhupada translates vayana sankara. Unwanted progeny, that means the mother doesn't want it, the father doesn't want it and they even abort them. But sometimes even if they don't abort, unwanted here doesn't just refer to the fact that the parents don't want them.

Unwanted essentially means that their quality is such that that is not the quality of people who would be desired. Just like if a teacher is starting a class, teacher would want good students. What teacher will want, the worst students who are no interest in studies, they are going to disrupt the discipline and are going to make life hell for the teacher.

So similarly, sankaro narakayaiva, if the proper samskaras are not performed, then the souls that are attracted are of a low grade. And although culture and education and samskaras, post-birth samskaras can help to some extent, but beyond a particular point, there is simply frustration and not much can be done. So, of course, now this is not at all for parents to abandon their children, thinking them to vayana sankara.

We should not judge people based on the conditions of their birth, but rather where the parents have a sense of responsibility, then they want to make everything favorable for getting good children, including having good conditions of birth. So here Krishna is not talking about, Arjuna is not saying that children should be abandoned, but he is saying that precautions should be taken so that low caste population is not born. Just like when a hospital is flooded with patients because there is an epidemic, now it's not that the hospital is going to abandon the patient, the hospital will try to offer the best service possible, but if that epidemic can be prevented and it is told at that time that don't be negligent about taking the medicines, taking the vaccines, taking the antibiotics, otherwise there will be a medical catastrophe, medical nightmare and the hospital will become like hell with so many patients everywhere, everybody suffering and so few beds, so few doctors, it will all become like hell.

So it's not meant as a rationalization of apathy towards the patients who are there, rather it is a warning for precaution before such a disastrous situation comes up. So same way, whatever children we have, we should take care of them, but also the point is that we should try to avoid Varada Sankara. That is the point which Arjuna is making over here and we will see that Yudhishthira along with Arjuna, after the war did make abandoned measures for taking care of all the victims of the war, the orphans and the widows and everyone, they were all taken adequately care of.

So Kulagnanam Kulasecha and both dynasties will be affected, Varada Sankara is there and Patantipitaro Yaisham, Luktapindo Dakakriyam. So we have various duties, one of the duties is the duties to the ancestors and that is doing Pindadan and the Pindadan which is done ensures that they have adequate pious credits to continue their stay in the higher planets. So this is a concern repeatedly expressed in the scriptures that if I don't have a son who can do Pindadan for me and then the kings worry, how will I be able to continue, what will happen to my future destination? So therefore the important thing is that one needs to recognize one's responsibility, recognize that we are all embedded in an interdependent world, in a deeply interconnected society and our actions will have consequences for many people.

Arjuna is pointing out future consequences of Kulaksha, of fighting and leading to Kulaksha, destruction of the dynasty and therefore he is giving a reason why we should not fight. So the general principle we can learn is that knowing that our actions are going to affect many many people, we need to carefully consider those actions before making a decision about how to act. Thank you.