Gita 02.37 – Knowledge of atma and dharma redefines lose-lose situation as win-win

Thank you. So, here Bhagavad Gita 2.37, Krishna is telling, if you are killed, you will attain heaven.

If you win the war, you will enjoy the earth. Therefore, Arjuna, rise for the sake of fighting by making your determination strong. So, this verse, we can say, is a response to 2.6, where Krishna is telling, Arjuna told Krishna, I do not know what to do.

That I do not know whether it will be better for me to win or whether it will be better for me to lose. I do not know. Krishna is telling over here.

So, basically, at that time to Arjuna, both seem to lose those options. If he won, he would have to kill his relatives and the victory will be tainted by the spoils of the blood of his loved ones. And that would be a great defeat.

And if he loses naturally, he will be killed, which, of course, is unfortunate to die in a battlefield, or he will have to, if he decides to desist from the fight, then he will have to live like a beggar, which would be dishonorable, which would be painful, distressing for a Kshatriya, who is meant to live with honor and opulence. So, what Arjuna had thought of as a lose-lose situation, Krishna redefines or Krishna shows it to be a win-win situation once one understands the concepts of Atma and Dharma. So, Krishna is concluding here his argument, the first level argument about why Arjuna should fight based on Karmakanda.

Now, Karmakanda is also based on knowledge of the soul. It is based on understanding that there is a soul beyond the body and that soul can go to heaven in the future life. So, Krishna is telling Arjuna here, Hathova, if you are defeated, if you are killed in this battle, then Praapsi says, Swargam, you will attain heaven.

You know, even in this world, a warrior who dies a martyr's death, in a glorious cause, who becomes a martyr, that warrior is honored by the government, by the state, sometimes monuments are built for the heroes. So, that falling in death, falling to death in a war is considered honorable. And actually here, it will be described as, not only life doesn't end with death, life extends beyond and a Kshatriya who unflinchingly, unfearingly, unfailingly keeps fighting and lays down his life, that Kshatriya will attain heaven.

So, that Krishna has talked about in 2.31.32. And now, he is telling that, Jitvaava, and if of course, you win the war, then you get Bhokshase Mahim, you enjoy the earth. Now, where is Arjuna's major consideration of what will happen to my loved ones? So, Krishna has addressed that by saying that actually, they are not going to die, they are eternal, and their bodies are like their dresses, and they will get new dresses, they will get better dresses based on their karma. So, you don't have to lament for them.

So, Naktam Shochitumarasi was talked about several times between 25 to 30. It was there in 25, it was there in 30 also. And it was there several times in between.

So, the Atma Gyan was used to counter Arjuna's lamentation over the loss of his, death of his loved ones. He was told that death is inevitable, but by doing your duty, by not doing your duty, you will not be able to avoid the inevitable. But by doing your duty, till then Atma Gyan was at the level that you cannot avoid the unavoidable by avoiding your duty.

So, don't avoid the duty. That was the message based on Atma Gyan. And now, Krishna is giving a more positive explanation of things by saying that by doing your duty, you will actually gain positive result.

And again, now he's talking about by not doing your duty. So, the effect for others will be that they are temporary bodies, or their existence at the temporary body level is going to end whether you fight or not. And if you don't fight, it will end in some other way.

And because the body is by nature temporary. But if you don't fight, you will get Paapa and you will get Akirti. So, you will be the loser.

So, you may think that you will spare their lives, but their lives won't be spared for long. They will end anyway. And actually, you will get, by giving up Dharma, you will get Paapa and you will get Akirti.

So, you will suffer. That he has talked about. So, for Arjuna, he was thinking not fighting is the best among worst course of, best among bad courses of action.

But Krishna redefines it as the worst course of action. And then he is telling here that actually you have only good courses of action ahead for you. So, you can either attain heaven if you die a hero's death on the war field.

And if you win, then you will get this world. And the word Bhoksha say, enjoy the earth. Now, it is not wrong to enjoy the earth, if we are doing it in the precincts of Dharma.

Dharma, Artha, Kama, all three are actually Purusha Arthas. So, a king will enjoy royal opulence, a king will enjoy the royal position and the king will do that in the service of Dharma, at the highest level, in the service of Krishna. So, in this way, actually the society can be set, kept on the path of progress.

And the king uses the power, the influence, the respect, which comes from the position of king, king, of being king, to keep people on the path of Dharma. And then further, he says Bhoksha say Mahim, you enjoy the earth. And Tasmad Uttishtha Kaunteya, therefore Arjuna rise.

Uttishtha. So, Vishwajisasharam Saapam. So, actually in 1.46, the last verse of the 1st chapter, it was described that Evam Uktva Arjuna Sankhe Rathopasta Upavishad.

Arjuna had sat down in the chariot, indicating that he had decided he won't fight. On the chariot, he had sat down and he had explicitly said he will not fight in 2.9. So, Arjuna had become emotionless and wordless, basically inactive. So, now, Krishna is telling Arjuna, rise.

Uttishtha. That rises both in a physical and in an emotional sense. Physically Arjuna rise and emotionally, don't let yourself be dragged down by the unnecessary and undesirable emotions of confusion or dejection.

You have bright course of action on both sides for you. Whether you win or whether you lose, you have bright future ahead for you. And therefore, Yuddhaya for fighting, Krita Nishchaya.

Make your Nishchaya. Make your determination. Like we say, make up your mind now.

So, make your determination here. Krishna is saying, Krita Nishchaya. So, here we see that sometimes when we are lost, if a ship is lost in the ocean, then everywhere it will be dark at night and everywhere around there is water and one doesn't know if it's really cloudy at night, then one can't even see the stars.

So, there's practically no way if especially in the past when people did not have a compasses or other more sophisticated devices for knowing direction, then it would be so easy to get lost. But then if one is near a coast and one sees the distance lighthouse and that lighthouse enables a person to know, okay, I should be going in this direction. I should not be going in that direction.

So, similarly, the principles of the Dharma and Atma are lighthouses and they have, keeping them in mind. Now, Krishna has drastically changed Arjuna's conception. He showed Arjuna how actually you are not suffering, you are not miserable, because it's not that you have a loose course of action, you have a win-win course of action.