Gita 01.44 – Arjuna’s reasoning is wrong, but his capacity for reasoning is laudable

Bhagavad Gita 1.44 So here Arjuna is concluding his argument against fighting the war and he is saying that ahopata mahatpapam oh how unfortunate it is that we are about to do mahatpapam, a great sinful activity sinful activity of kulaksaya, of destroying our entire dynasty kartum yavasita vayam vayam, we all have resolved to do such a terrible activity how lamentable it is and why are we doing it? yadrajya sukha lobhena that because of greed for the kingdom and for the happiness that comes from being kings royal happiness hantum swajanam udhyataha hantum swajanam, our own people we are about to destroy, udhyataha we are engaged in that the parva, before the Mahabharata parva before this parva in which the Gita is coming this parva is the Bhishma parva the previous parva was called the Udyoga parva so udhyataha they were endeavouring the Pandavas endeavoured on one side for peace and they also endeavoured to make allies in case the war took place so now the war has become inevitable and now they are ready to fight, udhyataha so Arjuna is out of his considerate, compassionate nature contemplating the terrible consequences of war and at his level of thinking has concluded that our motivation in fighting is lobha, rajya sukha lobhe naam so it is a lamentable motive its interesting vayam he is using for the last several verses Arjuna is referring to himself in the plural that means he is referring to himself, the Pandavas and he is talking to Krishna but he is also including in one sense Krishna he says all of us, all of us Pandavas how lamentable is it that we are about to fight a war which is motivated by our greed and the process of killing of relatives is a mahatpapa we are doing now actually speaking Arjuna was not motivated by greed nor were the Pandavas motivated by greed if they had been motivated by greed then they need not have waited for the 13 long years of the exile if the kingdom was what they had wanted they could have just rejected the rigged gambling match verdict and grabbed the kingdom but the Pandavas were honourable people and they honourably discharged the forest period according to the terms of the gambling match and thereafter also they were not primarily greedy for the kingdom as was evidenced by the Pandavas consenting to Krishna's proposal that he will present reduced demands a minimally reduced demand asking just for 5 villages for the Pandavas to rule so now actually speaking what Rajya Sukha can come for those who have been celebrated as the emperors of the world if they get 5 villages what Rajya Sukha can be there the fact that the Pandavas were ready to be satisfied with even that now of course both Krishna and the Pandavas at one level knew that Duryodhana would not agree to the peace proposal but they wanted to demonstrate that they tried their best for peace and when they decided to fight the war eventually it was for the cause of justice not just justice for themselves in terms of gaining back their rightful kingdom but also justice for the dishonoured wife and justice for the citizens who would have been left at the merciless hands of a power hungry wicked envious ruler Duryodhana so in that sense their motives were not at all due to greed but here Arjuna is at this point when he is thinking is ascribing the motive of greed to himself and therefore is lamenting so we do see in this world that greed does cause people to do terrible terrible things there are in history conspiracies made by friends relatives trustworthy aides just to gain a kingdom one of Shakespeare's most famous plays about Julius Caesar he had a trustworthy friend Brutus and it was Brutus who betrayed him and he killed him and when he was fighting against his assassins when Caesar saw that Brutus was also among his assassins he said you too Brutus and he was so disappointed at that betrayal that he just lost his spirit to fight so the point is that greed for kingdom is such that it can make friends into enemies it can make brothers into hostile opponents so many times it happens that and the father may be a big corporate magnet and when the father dies the sons fight bitterly for the for the estate of the father deceased father or sometimes they fight even when the father is still alive now certainly greed is very unfortunate and violence to the point of murder to be caused by greed is even more horrible and actually in general we want to ascribe evil motives to others and thereby we want to give a clean chit to ourselves thinking that I did not do anything wrong they did like that that's why I had to respond like this so although from the point of view of the subsequent revelation of the philosophy of the Gita and from the point of view of Krishna's plan Arjuna's lamentation over here is based on ignorance of the bodily conception of of life the ignorance and ignorance of Krishna's plan ultimately but at the same time Arjuna's although his analysis specifically is mistaken we see his values and his values are that he is not for the sake of kingdom ready to commit violence and Madhusudana Saraswati a commentator on the Gita whom Vishwanath Chakravarthy quotes quite often says that the whole first chapter of the Gita and the initial 8 verses of the Gita in the second chapter where Arjuna is speaking their purpose is to reveal how Arjuna is a sensitive thoughtful considerate humane cultured person and these are Arjuna's qualities which make him an excellent candidate for spiritual enlightenment so at one level Arjuna's ignorance is displayed ignorance of the spiritual knowledge is displayed from his arguments but at another level we see that Arjuna is not just ignorant in the sense of being in the mode of ignorance he is ignorant he is in ignorance of transcendence but still he is thinking deeply he knows about the principles of Dharma he knows about the principle that actions have consequences that is Papa and Punya and he knows that actions motivated by greed are bad he is considering his duties towards his relatives and based on a consideration of the consequences of his actions he is coming to a decision now the scriptures are so vast and their import is so deep that often even a person like Arjuna may miss the conclusion of the scripture and that's why his reasoning may come to a wrong conclusion but still the capacity for reasoning that he displays over here is commendable and the fact that although he is a warrior who can fight with blinding speed and who can who is excellent super excellent champion archer of his times and yet he is so deeply considering the consequences of his actions shows his calibre and that calibre is very deep it's not just the calibre of brute force or even brute skill it is a calibre of deep thought of deep thoughtfulness and based on this thoughtfulness he has come to a conclusion that the conclusion which he has come to also requires a huge amount of humility to even when we get depressed at that time often we try to pass the buck to others blame others but here Arjuna is not seeing he is not saying oh the Kauravas have caused the war and it is their greed that is to be blamed he is taking the responsibility on himself actually speaking the responsibility does not belong to him the cause of the war are the Kauravas not the Pandavas and the fact that Arjuna is ready to blame himself now if that thing happens in a chronically depressed person where the person unnecessarily blames oneself and beats oneself down and goes into inferiority complex that is unhealthy but the capability for the capacity for reasoning the willingness to accept responsibility for actions and willingness to hold oneself responsible you know all these are indicative of person of strong character and that strong character of Arjuna will stand him in excellent stead when he receives the spiritual wisdom of the Gita and with that spiritual wisdom he will become divinely empowered so that his brilliant skill and archery will be used in the service of the transcendental lord for doing the good of all of humanity so thus Arjuna here exhibits the characteristics of a thoughtful sensitive learned considerate person who is a fit candidate for spiritual enlightenment thank you.