Gita 01.45 The war was not to gain a kingdom but to protect the rule of law

Thank you … … … … So here Arjuna speaks the last verse in this chapter after which we will have the conclusion and this verse Arjuna is giving his very strong conclusion when he says … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … resistant and weaponless, fighting to destroy, fighting and being killed. The previous verse he said, he has said that, अहो बत्महत् पापम् करतुं गेवसितावयो हिदराज् शुक्लोपेन हन्तुम् स्वजनमुद्धताः So he said that it might be better to actually be killed.

How can we kill our own loved ones, our own relatives, for the sake of our kingdom? As compared to that, dying at, instead of killing them, dying at their hands is better. That is the essence of the point of the comparison given in these two verses. So why is it better? Because Arjun feels that killing one's loved ones would lead to bad karma, because of which he will have to go to hell.

And that bad karma will result because in the fight, the protectors of the dynasty would be killed. And when that happens, then the dynasty will become polluted. And that pollution of the dynasty will lead to overall deterioration and destruction of all that is held as sacred.

So the only way Arjun sees to avoid this catastrophe is to avoid the war. In a sense, whether the course of action he is choosing is going to avoid that catastrophe is questionable. Sometimes some things are just going to happen in a particular way and we don't have the power to avoid them.

But we can take a stand, we can decide that this is not what we are going to do, because this is not what is to be done. And sometimes we may do something not because we hope it makes a difference, but because we want to make a statement. We want to take a stand and be counted among those who we think are taking a principled stand.

So Arjun feels that he is taking a principled stand by forfeiting his claim to the kingdom and by thus choosing to avoid the war. The catastrophe that may result can be avoided, the war can be avoided. But Duryodhana is a vicious wrongdoer and such a wrongdoer needs to be punished.

Such a person who was so amazingly vicious that he attempted to violate Draupadi right in the palace, in the public eye, not just in general public eye, but it was in the eyes of those who are meant to be law enforcers For a man to disrobe and dishonor a woman anywhere is reprehensible, but to disrobe and dishonor in public with onlookers watching is even more reprehensible. But to do it in a police station or in a court in the presence of those who are meant to be the law enforcers that is especially heinous. So a person who out of envy, out of a desire to put down his perceived enemies the Pandavas who could go to that extreme, use his power to openly defy law in the presence of the enforcers of law If such a person himself became the unquestioned, the unchallenged enforcer of law then that, what he would enforce would be the law of the jungle.

What he would enforce would be a heinous law, heinous kingdom, heinous crime, anything that would satisfy him, that would fulfill his whimsy, he would do that because his sole consideration would be what will give me pleasure and whatever gives me pleasure I will do it and I will do it right now. Such was the ghastly disposition of Duryodhana and it was his actions that had made the war inevitable. It was his aggression, not the Pandavas aggression.

He had attacked and he had stolen the kingdom of the Pandavas and he refused to return it and now when the Pandavas were fighting, they were fighting to ensure that the rule of law prevailed if Duryodhana could. So, brazenly attempted to dishonor his own sister-in-law who had five powerful husband kings and if he got away with it scot-free, then the devil within him would become even more brazen and he would similarly victimize many other people also. Therefore, it is vital that he be reined in.

So, Arjuna was being misled by a false dialectic about what is at stake in the war and because of that false dialectic, dialectic means that he is this or this, what is at stake in the war, at stake was not the kingdom but the rule of law and that rule of law, protecting it was vital for Duryodhana's martial guardians society. So, the deep-rooted adharma of Duryodhana and the profound purpose of Krishna to establish dharma, this was what was required, this was what Arjuna was going to do. So, for Arjuna to move forward was essential not just for the sake of getting a kingdom for his family but for ensuring the rule of dharma for all of humanity.

But as of now, he was seeing the issue, he was framing the issue in a different way, we could say almost an incorrect way and thus the result was that he had arrived at a wrong decision. Now, how he had wrongly framed the issue and what was the right way to frame the issue, that will be revealed in the course of the Gita in Krishna's speech which will start from the next chapter.