Gita 01.40 Dharma prevents human society from being ruled by the law of the jungle

Give reasons why he should not fight the war and he is describing in terms of the consequences of fighting the war.

So adharma bhivavad krishna pradushyanti kulastriyaha trishudushta shunashneya jayate varanasankarah adharma bhivavad krishna. If adharma becomes prominent in society pradushyanti kulastriyaha so now adharma can happen in various ways but a prominent way adharma has historically happened throughout society is through abuse of women. Men in power are often unless they are regulated by dharma internally or externally they will act on their lust and they will violate women.

So internally means that by their study of scripture and by their understanding of what is right and wrong they have developed a strong sense of conscience which regulates them internally from acting on their lower impulses and at a more evolved stage which helps them find higher satisfaction in fulfilling their higher purposes in life. Ultimately the highest purpose is of connecting with the divine and relishing great happiness in that connection. Till that is done the challenge in life is that one may end up getting caught in life being dragged down by one's lower impulses and dharma externally means social order which ensures that wrongdoers are punished.

So such inner and outer order is what is needed for protecting society and the commonest the most widespread anartha the law break the impulse that makes people break laws is lust. So wherever people may find opportunities for gratifying their senses they will do that immediately. If a war breaks out and wars traditionally were fought by men and quite often the victims in wars were women.

Women would be abducted, violated, enslaved. They are considered as captives of war, considered fair game. So the amount of human suffering that results when war breaks out and war causes destruction of the protectors of society, of those who enforce dharma, if they are destroyed in adharma, vivaad krishna, pradushyanti kulastriya, the women will get violated and shree shudhshthashivarshanaya jayate varanasankar that there will be attempted progeny.

So dharma is essential for the protection of the weak from the lower side of the strong. Look, Dharma is what differentiates humans from animals in the sense that in the animal world might is right, survival of the fittest is the operational principle, but it is when Dharma is enforced externally through legislation and internally through education, then that prevents the law of the jungle from becoming the law of the land, the law of the kingdom. So, humans have a lower instinct and a higher instinct.

Animals usually don't operate by any instinct higher than the jungle instinct, the animal instinct, that is, if there is food, pounce on it and eat it. If there is a potential mate, pounce on it and impregnate it. Of course, animals may not even consciously think that they are impregnating someone, they are simply driven by their biological drives and within those biological drives they will find that they will get dragged down, that they will be dragged towards certain impulses.

We humans also have our biological drives. Additionally, we have something more. We have our higher side which enables us to perceive reality beyond our specific situations, especially impulses that those situations may generate.

To the extent we learn to rise above our situations by recognizing that there is a spiritual essence to us or at least that there is some higher dimension to our life in terms of inner identity and outer destiny, that there is within us which goes beyond our biology. That is a higher dimension in terms of inner identity and in terms of outer destiny. A higher dimension means that we understand that death is not our end, that we will exist beyond death and when we exist beyond death, we will be creating our future by our actions in the present.

And for creating our future thus, it is vital for us to have a proper sense of perspective about what we are doing and why. Dharma is thus essential to curb the animal instinct within us and the greatest victim of the unfettering of the animal instinct within us is the weak. And it's not just the weak that will be victimized.

The weak victimizing whom pleasure seems to be available, they are the person who will victimize the most. If a person is weak on the streets and that person also looks wealthy, then thugs, especially if there's been a breakdown of law in society, then the thugs will target such a person first. If there is a weak person, but that person doesn't look very wealthy and they may not target him.

Similarly, if we consider the broad society in which we are living, lust makes all of us believe that we can get pleasure through sensuality. And naturally, therefore, we start thinking in terms of how best we can gratify our sensual desires. And especially if there is no dharma internally or externally, if there is no inner conscience that regulates our impulses, and there is no outer rule of law based on the principle of fairness that regulates our actions, that makes us regulate our actions, then there will be large-scale chaos in society with people's lusty impulses making them do terrible things and women becoming the victims of such lusty impulses.