Gita 01.39 – As soon as dharma weakens adharma attacks

Starts speaking in detail. Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 1.39 Kulakshe pranashyanti kuladharmah sanatana dharme nashte kulam krishnam adharmo bhivavatyautam.

Here Arjuna is continuing to talk in terms of kuladharma, the duty towards his dynasty and is going to give reasons why participating in a war which will cause the destruction of the dynasty is a disastrous choice, a choice that he should not take. And therefore, he should not fight the war. That is the conclusion that he's trying to establish.

So first he said that even if it is my dynasty which is trying to kill me, I should not kill it back because they are blinded and I don't have to become blinded like them. They may be maddened by greed, but I don't have to become maddened like them. And he says if we succumb to mutual madness and we kill each other, then what will happen? Kulakshe.

Kulakshe means the whole Kula will get destroyed. Pranashyanti kuladharmah sanatana. Pranashyanti.

Along with that will be destroyed what? Kuladharmah. Kuladharmah is the duties of the dynasty. There are various levels of dharma.

Sanatana dharma is the dharma of the soul for Krishna, to love and serve Krishna. But the soul when it is in the material world in a particular physical, social, cultural situation, the soul also has contextual dharmas. So if a particular person has born a particular dynasty and that person does duties of that dynasty and that is also important to maintain order at a material level and to keep people on the, keep social order by which people can practice spiritual dharma.

So kuladharmah that are there and he is using sanatana. So he is not, here the word is not sanatana dharma. It is kuladharmah which is saying sanatana.

Now this word sanatana can be seen in two ways. One is that it indicates actually Arjuna's illusion. Because Arjuna in one sense is in the bodily conception and the bodily conception is an illusion conception.

So one of the characteristics of the bodily conception is to consider the temporary to be eternal. Ghritva asadgrahan. So in 16.10 Krishna says that those who are godless, they accept the temporary as if it were eternal.

So this statement could be indicative of that illusion by which Arjuna is thinking the temporary to be eternal. Kuladharmah sanatana. Actually only the dharma of Krishna bhakti sanatana, everything else, just kuladharmah is temporary.

Now of course another meaning of this could be that for a particular soul who is going through a particular body which is in a particular kula, the kuladharmah be temporary. But kuladharmah sanatana means eternal does not have to be literally referring to from the beginning of time to the end of time. Of course the idea of a beginning and ending of time itself are paradoxical because time is what determines beginning and ending.

But still the point which is being made here is that there are social traditions which are there which go on generation after generation irrespective of who is there in the generation. The social tradition goes on and that social tradition ensures that society and society is maintained in an orderly way and many families and many dynasties pride themselves on their traditions and in that way through that sense of honor in the members of the dynasty, they maintain their descendants in the path of virtue. So if all the leading members of a dynasty are killed and there will be no one to practice the traditions and there will be no one to disseminate the traditions to the next generation and then that which has been going on for many many generations, those traditions, those social dharmas, dynastic duties, dynastic dharmas, kuladharmah will get destroyed.

So kuladharmah sanatana and dharme nashte, when the dharma is destroyed in this way, kulam krishnam, the complete dynasty. What happens to that? Adharmo abhibhavatyavta. Adharmo means irreligion, abhibhavatyavta.

Irreligion manifests there. So in general in this world, there is a constant conflict between light and darkness. As soon as the sun sets, immediately darkness comes.

As soon as the power goes off, immediately darkness comes. As soon as the candle switch is off, immediately darkness comes. So it's as if darkness is just waiting around the corner, waiting to pounce whenever the source of light goes off.

So actually the default state of this world, at one level we could say the level of darkness and there has to be some external measures by which light is maintained and Krishna talks about how in the spiritual world, there's no such light required because everything is self-effulgent. He says in 15.6. But just, but in this world, things are inherently dark. Now, he says things are inherently dark.

In this world, things by, left to the default, try to, tend to go towards degeneration, tend to go towards degradation, tend to go towards decline. So in science, there is a law of entropy and the law states that if a system is kept to itself, it moves towards more and more disorder. So like that, just as this is exhibited in natural order, that things go to a disorder, the same happens in human affairs also.

Unless there is some order that is maintained, things tend to become disorderly and therefore, there has to be periodically, there has to be a king who maintains order. There has to be even the descent of God or his representatives who re-establish order when the disorder comes up and this, such descent has to happen again and again. Krishna talks about in 4.7 and 8 when he says, sambhavami yuge yuge, I manifest myself again and again and again.

So here Krishna is saying that when the systems for establishing dharma are displaced and destroyed, then immediately adharma will prevail. Adharmo abhimahatyota. So in the battle between the light and the dark, forces of light and dark, in the battle between dharma and adharma, the moment dharma becomes weak, adharma prevails and this we see even in our consciousness.

To the extent we try to keep our consciousness fixed on Krishna, to that extent we are pure, we are potent, we are doing things and having noble thoughts and moving forward in our journey towards Krishna. But as soon as we stop endeavouring for fixing our mind on Krishna, then immediately our mind goes towards maya, it goes towards illusion and it makes us, that drags us down and binds us. So the vows for initiation that we take, the commitments that we make in devotional service, they are the ways in which we establish dharma in our heart.

And as soon as such vows, such commitments slacken, as soon as the arrangements by way, such commitments are made and sustained, when those arrangements are disturbed, then no longer can, no longer can dharma be sustained and immediately adharma predominates. And that's why we need to be always vigilant in our own hearts and according to our capacity in our society, in our world, to try to stay on the side of dharma and to try to ensure the rule of dharma in our heart and according to our capacity in the world, in our world. So Arjuna is expressing the authentic anxiety here, that if the ruling dynasty, which is meant to establish dharma, practice dharma and establish dharma is destroyed, then the adharma will flourish, adharma will predominate and that will lead to disaster in society.

How that will happen will be discussed in the subsequent verses. Now Krishna does not fault Arjuna's argument over here in its, in its broad pattern. He, yes, he says that there is a battle between dharma and adharma and if the arrangements for dharma are not preserved, then adharma will flourish.

But Krishna points out through his brilliant reasoning, that what the arrangements for preserving dharma are, is exactly the opposite of what Arjuna thinks it to be. Arjuna thinks that the current dynasty of Kshatriyas has to be alive because they are the Kula right now and they will practice Kula dharma. But Arjuna will reason and prove that actually it is the current dynasty of Kshatriyas, the current Kula who is adharmic and in order to preserve the Kula dharma, it is this adharmic dynasty of Kshatriyas, not just a dynasty, actually there are multiple dynasties, many generations are there on the battlefield.

All these adharmic Kshatriyas have to be removed and a dharmaraj, who is the current greatest exemplar of the, of the bearer of Kula dharma, of the practitioner of Kula dharma, that current example of Arjuna, of Yudhishtira has to be established and that way Arjuna's concern of the protection of Kula dharma will be addressed properly and comprehensively. And this Krishna will discuss in the third chapter. Thank you.