Arjuna Far Sighted But Not Far Sighted Enough – Gita Verses 10 Gita 1.41 – 43

To suffering and that comes by absorption In this particular section of the Bhagavad Gita which is almost towards the last part of the first chapter the first chapter has 46 texts and we are in the 41st so overall Arjuna from the 27th text onwards is giving his reasons for not fighting now some of those reasons we can relate with immediately and some of those reasons they are coming from a particular world view that he was inhabiting at that particular time till now basically at least in this part he is saying that we are not just two individuals fighting against each other we are a part of a large community that is a part of a tradition and in one sense we are not just two communities rather there are two communities but both are part of one larger tradition the same Guru dynasty the one dynasty which has its own traditions and he is saying that if we fight it is not just two of us fighting against each other it is two traditions fighting against each other and what is going to happen is it is not just either one of us will be destroyed it is more that the entire tradition will get destroyed humanity will go on but the future generations will have a dark future and within that particular world view it is implicit that this life is not the only life that we live there is this life and after that we either go to a higher level of existence or a lower level of existence so the idea is that after we end this life where we go it depends not just on our karma so somebody can go higher but the kind of legacy that we have created in the world over here so our legacy our descendants their actions also shape our destination and thus we are saying that even if we are acting virtuously even if somebody thinks that okay I fought this war for a virtuous purpose but still future generations we will have created a legacy of chaos a legacy of disorder and thus we whoever even if they have ascended to a higher level they will fall down to a hellish level so if the legacy is virtuous then they perform certain they do they live in a virtuous way they perform some practices not only for their own well-being but for the well-being of their ancestors also so without getting into technicalities of all this, this particular world view, the key point is that Arjuna is thinking long term Arjuna is thinking not just I don’t want to fight because it doesn’t feel good to me he is saying that I don’t want to fight because the consequences are catastrophic in many ways Arjuna is farsighted but what Krishna will later say is that he is not farsighted enough but farsighted can also be much bigger zooming outwards first reason is that my relatives how can I kill them now then he says that after that he says that ok what is the point of you might get a kingdom but kingdom is worthless without relatives if it comes not just without them at worthless worthless if price is death of relatives then he goes on what is their aggressors well they may be aggressors but still they are my relatives they are aggressors they are motivated by greed why should I be motivated by greed I am not so I shouldn’t stoop to their level then he is going further and then he is saying that it’s not just my motivation I am thinking about society in future so in one sense society in future that society will be degraded if there are no protectors for society the vulnerable sections will be exploited and then in one sense this is also at the same level there is a slight difference this is one’s future life not just my own but in general our society’s future life that’s what he is talking about over here in this way he is actually zooming out now if you go to the next verse he says after this he is now again coming back to this plane and he is talking about how the leaders of society the protectors of society are destroyed then everything falls apart eventually sometimes we think of society one of the common illusions in human society is that the way the world is today if the world is like this today tomorrow is just going to be an extension of today but there is no guarantee of that that is tomorrow extension of today could be could not be it could be very different if somehow the order maintainers of society are destroyed or they get misled or whatever happens today might be here but tomorrow might be in a very dark direction so he is talking in terms of that long term future and he is saying no I see tomorrow to be very dark and the systems that have protected society will all be going away and in one sense you could say that Arjuna is here approaching this war not just from the perspective of the present you consider there is a past this is the present there is the past and there is the future so Arjuna is thinking not just in terms of the present or the immediate context around the present he is seeing it in the bigger past and the bigger future the distant past also and the distant future also so the Sanskrit word is Jati Dharma and Kula Dharma so so we humans are embedded in many social structures in the society so the way that Arjuna was a part of Jati is more like sorry Kula is more like genealogical genealogical group that’s called as Kula now so Arjuna is saying that I am a part of a dynasty and there are dynastic duties which keep society functioning and beyond that he is also talking about Jati Dharma Jati is similar to Varna which is more like an occupational duty it’s more like an occupational group so when you talk about the occupational group it’s bigger so if you see in human history sometimes people who are of similar professions group together people who are goldsmiths they all have their own all society so like that he is saying that this is not just a fight between that will destroy our dynasty it is true but he is saying as a part of our dynasty there are Kshatriyas, there are warriors from various other dynasties who have come here and because of that the warrior class itself will end up destroyed and that’s why he says Kula Dharma and Jati Dharma so both will be destroyed so you could say family is Kula is more of family and Jati is more referring to community so you could say that one family is doing the say the business of weaving and somehow if they are destroyed ok that’s bad but if the entire weaver community is destroyed then that’s going to be a significantly more problem and if the entire society is bereft of the community of protectors then there will be chaos in society so when he is using the word traditions it’s not just some sentimental thing from the past that we have to keep doing see traditions actually give us a sense of identity if we have the American Independence Day or the Indian Independence Day certain things are done at that time and those are a link with our past and that you could say is symbolic but it’s more than symbolic we have birthday celebrations we have certain activities which steal our link with where we come from and then they also remind us ok this is what I am expected to do this is how I am meant to function in life this is how I should be responsible so when we are not grounded in our past in the history from where we came from then we can become swept away by any and every wave that comes our way so what he is talking about here is that the things which ground society the dynastic duties and the broader occupational duties both will be destroyed and thus there is similarity but it’s a broader grouping over there these are these kind of catastrophes or disasters unfortunately they are scarily repetitive throughout human history and we are being uprooted from our moorings as people have transmigrated for education for business for political refuge for whatever reasons so yes I would say that it may not be only because of war but yes there is a significant loss of grounding from material perspective and there is definitely loss of grounding from spiritual perspective that’s why so many people feel lost nowadays and that’s why even if we can’t be very strongly materially grounded in the past at least when we talk about our roots I hope people have discovered our roots so we could discover our roots historically we could discover our roots culturally we could discover our roots geographically discover our roots genetically and all these are important but ultimately these are material from material perspective but beyond these we have our roots spiritually who we are at our core where have we come from and what does it imply for our destiny so the Gita will go towards this focusing on the spiritual grounding of our identity and that how at the material level things may change but at the spiritual level they can be kept unchanging so I will discuss this in the next chapter so he is talking here that this is not just my ideas, my fears, my apprehensions he is saying this is something which is time-honored wisdom I have heard it from wise people in the past that if we cause destruction of society then we will have to pay the price even if we are no longer here the price has to be paid there is a worldview which goes beyond our present life and that worldview will be explored later Prajna is a part of that society where he is looking at the future consequences and in the next verse he will talk about what is his decision thereafter so we will continue that in the next session he will discuss two main points today one was that how Arjuna is talking about when the society is filled with people who are unwanted progeny then that leads to social devastation and so he is he is farsighted his reasons are zooming outward and outward and outward he is thinking from a bigger broader perspective that is good and we will see how Krishna will take his vision further than that also and next one we discussed about how he is talking from the perspective of the broader destruction of society it’s in terms of the family, the dynasty and in terms of the occupational community, both so he is overall considering that the consequences of the action are going to echo not just from this present moment and around it to a small distance but they are going to echo over a large large distance and thus he feels that maybe this fight shouldn’t be there, that I shouldn’t be fighting this war okay thank you