Gita 03.24 – Krishna turns on its head Arjuna’s argument about varna-sankara

Thank you utsideyur ime loka nakuryam karma chedaham sankarasya chakartasyam upahanyam ima praja so utsideyur ime loka utsideyur there will be disruption ime loka these words nakuryam karma chedaham if I do not do my duty sankarasya chakartasyam I will become the creator of Sankara Sankara refers to Varna Sankara which was talked about in the first chapter we will explain the relevance over here later upahanyam ima praja and in that way among all these people there will be upahanyam there will be chaos there will be a complete mess of things utsideyur ime loka nakuryam so Krishna says utsideyur first he says in the first line and upahanyam ima praja so Krishna by using the word twice ime loka pahanyam ima praja Krishna is talking about the widespread consequences that will be there among the loka among the worlds among the people of the worlds what exactly is Krishna talking about that how a Sankara Varna Sankara coming into the picture over here Akshatriya is meant to protect society from unscrupulous malevolent invaders from those hungry for power without any care for principle so Akshatriya is meant to protect people from that and how do the Kshatriya protect by the by one's example by one's conduct so the Kshatriya protects from hurt now when antisocial elements are not checked by Kshatriyas so if Krishna does not check the demoniac then the result will be that the demoniac will overrun the people in general they will disrupt the people in general they will break havoc among the people and generally whenever invaders come and conquer a land one of the biggest casualties are the women they are exploited they are enslaved they are brutalized and often from this exploitation children result and such children who in blunt language are bastards having no they are illegitimate children and they often become burdens of society in future so Krishna is saying that the dependent members of society will no longer be protected if the Kshatriyas do not protect society in general and then that will lead to Varna Sankara so here Krishna has neatly and thoroughly turned around Arjuna's argument on its head Arjuna had said that if I fight that will lead to Varna Sankara and Krishna is telling over here if you don't fight Arjuna it will lead to Varna Sankara so how has Krishna turned down that argument so dramatically so thoroughly when Arjuna was arguing Arjuna was thinking that if I fight motivated by greed then others will also act motivated by greed and when they act motivated by greed and the they overrun overpower and kill the guardians of society the kulaksha the leaders of the kula they destroy then again the women will be unprotected and then they will be exploited so similarly here now Krishna is telling the same consequence will be there but Krishna is depicting an entirely opposite causal chain for that scenarios materialization he says that if you don't fight Arjuna then people in general will see this as a authorization for abandoning their duty and when you abandon duty others abandon duty then women will be unprotected and then they will be exploited so now which is the correct scenario what is actually going to cause Varna Sankara is it Krishna's version or Arjuna's version the point is that in the Mahabharata prior to the speaking of the Bhagavad Gita elaborate efforts were made to try to avoid the war and despite all those efforts the war still took place which indicated that it was not a war fought just for the sake of greed as Arjuna was thinking ahobat mahatpa as he said Idraj Sukhlobhena Arjuna used that word in addressing the issue in 37 and 38 first chapter Idraj Sukhlobhena out of greed for a kingdom we are fighting but that they were not fighting for greed was clear because the Pandavas were ready to for peace in the most accommodating terms being ready to settle for just five villages instead of their huge kingdoms that would have been a huge huge come down do you imagine there is a property dispute between say two sons of a of a business magnate after the business magnate passes away and say one son agrees that okay I don't want conflict you just give me one small company somewhere so that I will have some source of living oh man that person has the right to inherit hundreds of companies or at least assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees but one small company the person is ready to settle for and that will indicate that this person is definitely not motivated by greed so the Pandavas were like that so Arjuna's assessment of the motive of Pandavas was wrong they were not motivated by greed they were motivated by duty as Kshatriyas they had to rule and more importantly they also had to ensure that the unrighteous Yudhana and the Kauravas did not continue to rule in society and exploit society so Arjuna's Arjuna's diagnosis was wrong because he diagnosed the motive of the Pandavas wrong at that particular point at least he was ascribing to himself and to his brothers greed which was actually not present at all in them so Krishna is outlining a much more realistic scenario where he is saying that if the guardians don't do their duty then what will happen then society will be disrupted so for example if the guardians of society that means the Kshatriyas they become lazy they become irresponsible then there are always in this world unscrupulous elements who are just waiting for opportunities to strike for opportunities to disrupt law and order and further their own selfish ends so they will exploit so Krishna is telling that the likelihood if the police taking contemporary example that sometimes the police may be excessive vigilant and they may sometimes beat a criminal more than what is necessary that is not good justice has to be proportionate punishment has to be proportionate but the danger to society because of the police punishing some criminals excessively is not as much as say the danger to society if the police don't do their duty at all the police don't punish anyone at all then the criminals will have complete free hand so Krishna is telling Arjuna that this is what will happen if if if I don't do my duty and by implication Krishna is telling that if you don't do your duty because Krishna and Arjuna they are both Kshatriyas at least Krishna is playing the role of Kshatriya over here although he is God so he is telling that if you don't do your duty then this is how society will be break and therefore your worst fear the scenario which you want to avoid actually you will end up courting that itself you will be ending up causing the thing which you are trying so desperately to avoid that is Varna Sankara the disruption of society and they will cause it not by fighting but by not fighting by not doing your duty by not setting an example for others therefore Arjuna the subtext is gird your shoulders and do your duty do your duty because that is how you will be able to protect society from the dangers that you are fearing and you will be able to put society on the path of material and spiritual prosperity.