Gita 02.05 – Hard choices have to be made to avoid harder consequences

Thank you so Arjuna is continuing his counterargument to Arjuna to Krishna's point that that don't give up to emotional weakness so he's saying it's not emotional weakness it's important dynastic consideration and he's saying that if I kill my own Guru Guru Ahatva if I kill him Mahan Bhavan they are all great people Shreyo rather than killing such great people like my Guru Shreyo it is better Arjuna has used the word Shreyo Shreyo Nupashyami in 1.31 Shreyo Bhoktum Bhiksham Api Haloke so Bhoktum generally means to enjoy so the Bhoktum Bhiksham is an oxymoronic juxtaposition of words better enjoy by begging so what is the enjoyment in begging we may wonder but the point is he is driving home the reality that he may have to beg but he is ready to accept that also and even that is better he says living by begging as a mendicant is better than living by killing one's relatives Bhiksham Api Haloke Ihaloke in this world Hathva Artha Kama is out of Kama purpose of fulfilling our desire Artha Kama the desire for wealth Hathva if I kill them Guru Nihaiva so Artha Kama to Guru Nihaiva so now Artha Kama in this context refers to the Guru yes Drona has sided with the Kurus because the Kurus provided them employment and Guru Nihaiva so although they are Artha Kama but still it doesn't matter he is saying even if they are Artha Kama still they are worshipable Bhunjiya Bhogan Rudhir Pradigdhan if we enjoy the spoils Bhunjiya Bhogan what we will obtain after killing them that will be Rudhir Pradigdhan that will be actually tainted by the blood blood of our loved ones Rudhir Pradigdhan Rudhir it's a very visually evocative language so the point which Arjuna is making here is that actually how can I enjoy the spoils which are tainted with the blood of my worshipable ones better to live by begging so he is actually anticipating objections and trying to counter them at his level so if he doesn't fight with his relatives how may he live so he says okay I'll live by begging that is better he says so then another objection is that oh they are not gurus you know he has acted improperly so actually Drona and Bhishma just by remaining silent while Draupadi was being dishonored they became culpable and further by siding with the Kauravas also for monetary considerations they have also become imparts you know actually why Drona and Bhishma sided on the side of the Kauravas can seem sometimes mysterious so at a external level as is told in the Mahabharata Bhishma says that you know everyone is a servant of money I am also the servant of money and it is money that has bound me to the Kauravas now you may wonder Bhishma is such a great soul how can money bind him actually that is the humility of Bhishma speaking there are multiple reasons that bound Bhishma one was that he had taken a vow that he will always protect the ruling king of the Kuru dynasty and that happened to be Dhritarashtra Duryodhana at that time and he was vow bound to protect them further Krishna wanted him to fight on the side of the Kauravas against the Pandavas so that the principle would be demonstrated that if a person no matter how powerful that person may be if he fights against Dharma he will be defeated and Drona of course when he was in great financial need the Kuru rulers had supplied for him and Ashwathama had also become friendly with Duryodhana primarily because both had shared an antipathy towards Arjuna so Ashwathama's affection with Duryodhana and Drona's financial obligation to the Kuru family the Kuru rulers both combined for the father-son pair to side on the to take the side of the Kauravas so they were Artha Kaman's now those who are Guru they should be free from such material attachments but if they are Artha Kaman then are they still Gurus so Arjuna's assertion is yes they are still Gurus now here the word Guru is used in a generic sense not in a specific sense of Diksha Guru any person who teaches whatever that person can be referred to as a Guru so here the Guru refers to Drona who has actually helped in the who has been a martial teacher he was never the spiritual teacher of the Pandavas Pandavas had Dhaumya as their priest and Drona as their martial teacher but any kind of teacher deserves respect and especially the Pandavas had an intimate relationship with Drona because they had been his favourite students and they had learnt so much from him so the Mahabharata also has Guru Avalokiteshwar that if the Guru acts in an improper way then the Guru can also be abandoned so to some extent that applied to Drona and he could have been abandoned or rejected but Arjuna is not thinking like that and he is saying that whatever we enjoy will be actually tainted by blood and therefore we cannot do this I cannot fight in this war so Arjuna's dilemma is understandable what can a person do when he is pitted against those whom one respects and loves and adores at the same time life sometimes calls for hard decisions and hard decisions need to be taken unsentimentally so Arjuna is unable to do that and that is what that unwillingness to put aside sentimentality is what Krishna is reproaching and to give him the strength to give up the sentimentality Krishna will introduce proper spirituality spiritual love of the soul and ultimately the soul's relationship with Krishna and the spiritual emotions this transcendental sentimentality sentiments sentience that is there at the spiritual level so in this world relationships don't stay frozen so relationships are dynamic and one may have a lot of respect for somebody but then while we are grateful for whatever that person has done to help us we cannot assume that that person is going to stay the same or similarly exalted all the time and we cannot unquestioningly respect a person for all time to come India there is a culture of respecting sadhus so many people have used that cultural respect and they take on the robes and the garb and the appearance of a sadhu and then they fleece people so a person's conduct has to be seen to actually decide whether that person is worthy of being respected and followed and without seeing the conduct undiscerning respect can actually backfire and many godmen are worshipped by millions of followers as their incarnations of god as if they are and then they end up misleading people in many terrible ways so it's important that we consider properly whom we offer respect and whether that person is worthy of offering respect and although for raju the decision is not easy but hard to avoid harder consequences which may come up otherwise just as we find that a doctor has helped us earlier but now later the same doctor is incompetent the doctor is no longer able to cure me so it's not that we hate the doctor anymore but it's just that we focus on I want to be cured and the doctor is not able to cure me the doctor is himself for herself falling sick then how can I expect to be cured by that doctor so and that sickness is not as incidental but it is actually because of some some ignorance or negligence or still maleficence on the part of the doctor so so that means there are multiple possibilities here one is a person who was never spiritual and is demanding respect a person should not be accepted as a spiritual authority another is a person has good qualities but is not a serious spiritualist just offering some mundane advice such person may be respected as a mundane teacher but not as a spiritual teacher and someone else who was a spiritual teacher in good standing but later slipped so now is it our position to judge others no but it is definitely our position to discern to discriminate using our God given intelligence so the mood is not that we stand as a judge above others to evaluate their moral character but rather we recognize that we are patients and we need to be treated and for spiritual treatment it's not just a matter of just putting some medicine into the mouth it's a matter of being inspired to live a particular kind of life and we need inspirations to be able to live that kind of life and the spiritual master is one of the primary inspirers so we focus on who inspires us and we take guidance from them and move on our spiritual life and if somebody who inspired us earlier who guided us earlier is now not having proper conduct so then we may keep a distance and seek inspiration from elsewhere and if that person falls to grievous misconduct then one may have to actually take shelter of guidance from another person generally reinitiation is not required in the Vaishnava culture if one is taking initiation from a Vaishnava guru but if there is a nominal initiation from some like a Karmakanti guru then one can always take a reinitiation from a Vaishnava but in general this is a painful predicament that devotees may have to go through and although it's painful following a person who is gone on the wrong track may take us further on the wrong track so hard choices have to be made to avoid harder consequences so Arjuna if he doesn't fight then there will be harder consequences for him and for the kingdom at large because the vicious Duryodhana will keep ruling and the Pandavas will get sinful reactions for having neglected their duty and all the subtleties of choosing the right course of action will be illumined in the Bhagavad Gita as it moves forward Thank you.