Gita 01.43 – Hell forever is a subjective feeling, not an objective fact

Thank you. Gita 1.43 So here Arjuna is continuing his reasoning about why he should not fight against his relatives.

utsanna-kula-dharma-naam This is when the kula-dharma is destroyed, utsanna is disrupted. So in the previous world, the conclusion was utsadhyante jati-dharmaha kula-dharma sthashashvataha So the jati-dharma and the kula-dharma will be destroyed when the kulakshaya happens. When the leading members of the dynasty are destroyed.

So Arjuna is saying, therefore, I should not fight this war. He is giving the consequences. utsanna-kula-dharma-naam manushya-naam janardhana That person who causes the destruction of the dynasty.

It is a person janardhana. O Krishna, you are the maintainer of all people. You are the maintainer of the worlds.

So why are you causing, why are you impelling me to action which will cause the destruction of the world. Which will cause my own destruction. Now this manushya, who is actually going to do the kulakshaya.

Arjuna is considering that I am that person. janarki-nitam-vaso Such a person will reside forever in hell. bhavati-iti-anushushruma anushushruma bhavati-iti, this is what will happen to him.

Forever residing in hell. anushushruma This is what I have heard. So Srila Prabhupada would emphasize the principle of hearing.

How? Anushushruma. Anushushruma is hearing. Anushushruma is systematically hearing.

So we hear from proper authorities. Now the Pandavas lived in a culture where hearing was of significant importance. Although the Pandavas were kings and they had important duties as administrators.

But they would seek sages and hear from those sages. When the Pandavas were in exile, they would hear repeatedly. Markandeya Rishi came, Narada Rishi came.

Various great sages came to them in the forest and the Pandavas heard spiritual wisdom from them. And sometimes the sages would come to the palace also. And that time also the Pandavas would hear from them.

And of course, there was a culture of hearing for the general people also. And there would be local saints. And there would be travelling mendicants.

And they would speak and people would come and hear. And in this way, there was abundant facility for Anushushruma. So now Arjuna is saying that what I have heard, I am contemplating that.

And the sages by their hearing would guide people to stay on the path of morality and spirituality. So Arjuna is saying that those who destroy the dynasty, such people will get grievous consequences. And the consequences are Now, this naturally begs the question.

Is Arjuna talking something like the eternal damnation that is talked in the Abrahamic religions? Where there, they have the idea that this one life is all that we have. And if in this life, their belief is that if people don't surrender to Jesus or to Allah through Muhammad or to whatever, then after this, they will have to go to hell forever. Now, So now, of course, But such a teaching is there in the Abrahamic religions, in their scriptures, in their original form itself is debatable.

But such a teaching is definitely not a part of the broad Vedic tradition. And we have to look at the broad context of the Gita to understand. Now, the Gita at several places says that anyone and everyone can be delivered.

And we know that one life is not all that we have, that actually we all go through many, many lifetimes. And the Bhagavad Gita also talks about how the soul changes bodies just as a person may change dresses. So no body is eternal.

Krishna has said that later on, he will say that So wherever one goes, one has to come back again. And the point is that the whole material world is Dukhalayam. And it's Ashashvatam.

So, if the whole material world itself is temporary and hell is also part of the material world, so then how can residence in hell be eternal when hell itself is not eternal? And further the Puranas often contain many stories about how even from hell people have been delivered when they hear the holy name or when they get the association of saints. So the point is that here Niyatam Vaso, residing forever, is more subjective feeling rather than objective fact. It's used more in a symbolic sense than literal sense.

For example, the soul is said to be Nityabaddha. Now, is our conditioning eternal? It's not that we have been forever in the material world, but from the point of view of our present lifetime and in fact from our present, from the perspective of our conceptions of time, actually our conditioning has been for so long that it seems like eternity itself. And that's why Narake Niyatam Vaso.

So one will go to hell for a very very long time. And from the perspective of one's present lifetime, that will seem like forever. So Krishna is definitely not a God who condemns souls to hell forever.

And the principle of Karma gives us reactions in proportion to our actions. So no action is so grievous that its reaction will continue on for eternity. In fact, Karma itself is not eternal.

It's temporary. Once the action is done, it has its reaction latently and the reaction gets exhausted. So no Karma can cause eternal residence in hell.

Because the reactions of all actions are temporary. That means there is no vengeful God who is going to cast people to hell. And there is no Karma that can cause perpetual residence in hell.

So, therefore, the point of Narake Niyatam Vaso is more of a non-literal thing of that one will stay for a very very long time in hell as a consequence of one's actions. The reaction to one's actions. Now, when Prabhupada was asked, is hell eternal? Prabhupada replied that nothing except ecstatic devotional service to Krishna is eternal.

Everything else is temporary. So now Arjuna is considering the consequences of his actions and the Kulakshaya which will make life. Actually the word Naraka is coming twice now.

It is earlier come as sankaro narakayaiva kulla-dhananam kula-sthichyam that actually even in this life the world will become hellish when there are no proper guardians of society. And in the next such a person who makes things hellish in this world will have to suffer in hell by actually going to hell and enduring the consequences. And Arjuna is here basically and the point is that as will come in the next verses that therefore we should not fight in this war.

We should not do something which is having such grievous consequences for others, for society at large and for us also. So that is the emphasis and when we keep the emphasis in mind then these statements can be properly understood in the broad context of the philosophy. Just as in the Bhishopanishad the word Atmaha comes, the killer of the soul.

Now it cannot be taken literally because the soul is Avinashi. It can never be killed. So when such statements come we have to understand that Krishna himself is Avinashi in 2.17 and then in 16.21 he will say trividham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah the three gates to hell and they destroy the soul.

Now that destruction is obviously not in terms of existence. The soul is never destroyed in terms of existence but that destruction is more in terms of the conscience of the soul. The capacity for higher perception of the soul.

The capacity for spiritual realization which gets obscured. So now here Arjuna by his reasoning is going to come to the conclusion that I should not fight and he is saying the consequence will be we will have to suffer terribly and it is that principle of grievous consequences because of wrong actions that needs to be emphasized. Not the literal interpretation that one will have to go to hell forever.

Thank you.