Gita 11.26 The event of death is virtue-neutral, but the destination after death isn’t

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Bhagavad Gita, 11.26, describing what has caused him such great fear, such disorientation, as was mentioned in the previous verse, so he is highlighting what it is, and somebody becomes very scared of something, then we need to know what they are scared of, just like if somebody has a nightmare, the child wakes up and is crying and screaming and trembling, then while the mother is pacifying the child, the mother may want to know what is the nightmare that the child has, similarly here, when Arjuna is describing, he is quite disoriented, he is quite fearful, so Pratantaraat might have said that, the very core of his being is fearful, so what has caused that, so he is describing now, Ami, Chitwam, all these, Ami is all these, Chitwam Dhritarashtra's son, I am seeing the sons of Dhritarashtra, all of them, Sarve Sahai Baba Nipal Sanghai Sahavaneen, along with them, Avanipala, the various warrior kings, Sangha, Dhritarashtra's son, the Kauravas and various other warriors with them, Bhishmo, Drona, Sutaputra, Tathasau, and he mentions among those warriors, the prominent warriors on the opposite side, that is Bhishma, Drona and Karna, Sutaputra, Sahasmadiyai, Sahasmadiyai, so Sah is coming second time, it came in the second line also, now it's coming in the first line, Asmadiyai, Asmadiyai means our forces also, Apiyodhamukhyam, chief among the warriors, so he is listing warriors from both sides and in the next verse, he will describe how both of them are entering into your mouth and they are dying, so here the point is, death itself is universal, the Kurukshetra war was fought for the purpose of establishing dharma, the Kauravas were adharmic, the Pandavas were dharmic and the Pandavas under Krishna's supreme guidance wanted to establish the rule of dharma, at the same time, such a rule of dharma cannot be established automatically, that means to establish dharma, one needs an overall understanding of what dharma is and how it is to be established, so now Krishna gives that understanding in the Bhagavad Gita and he is actually demonstrating the working of dharma, the implementation of dharma here through his revelation of the Vishwaroopa, so it's understandable for us to know that the adharmic forces, Dhritarashtra, Sutaputra, they are going to die, now Bhishma, Drona themselves are not adharmic but they have chosen the side of adharma and of course Karna was attached with the personification of adharma, Duryodhana and in this way, basically there is complete disorientation that is happening, there is complete destruction that is happening and that is understandable, although ultimately people would like to have peaceful solutions but there are times when peaceful solutions do not work, sometimes aggressive action is required and that's what the Pandavas, after having exhausted all avenues for peace, have had to fight war and in the war, now they have an option of, they know what to do, so they have to fight this war and while fighting the war, they are thinking about how to move forward, what to do and then they are saying over here that actually, so they know that if they are to win, they will have to defeat the Kauravas, so Arjuna also knows that and that means not just defeat the Kauravas, you have to kill the Kauravas and you have to kill the leaders of the Kaurava army, leaders who are his relatives, so all that is, it is distressing but it's still unavoidable, he knows it. But further he is describing, even the warriors on his own side, they are also being destroyed, later on it will be revealed that, when the Vishwaroopa will speak, at that time he will say, everyone is going to be destroyed except for you and you refer not just to Arjuna but to the Pandava brothers, so actually when the destruction takes place that it is, the Pandava forces are also destroyed, eventually they are destroyed by, although the Pandavas win the war and they are victorious but then on the night of the 18th day, Ashwatthama massacres all the Pandavas and all the Pandava forces and thus the victory becomes Pairik.

Pairik victory is a term used to describe when a victory is attained but the cost of the victory is, it turns out to be far more than the actual benefit from the victory and in that case, there is great, the victory becomes pointless, it becomes empty and in the post-Mahabharata war discussions, Yudhishthira feels strongly that he achieved a Pairik victory but here Arjuna is just starting the war and he is seeing this vision and this vision of total destruction on all sides, that is quite disorienting for him. So actually later on, it will be revealed that the time had come for the destruction of all warriors and that time meant that they all were going to die no matter what they did and thus the best thing to do for them would be to move onwards and recognize that this was the will of destiny. So that will of destiny which is revealed here is shocking Arjuna that not only are the Kaurava forces destroyed but even the Pandava forces were destroyed and thus the, now here we understand the principle that the event of death is virtue neutral although the destination of the death isn't.

That means virtue neutral means like we say gender neutral. So gender neutral language means we don't use he or she to refer to general person, we may use they as a plural general address instead of being gender specific. So gender neutral means that there is no bias towards any particular gender.

So like that when we say virtue neutral means that whether a person is virtuous or vicious, death is going to come to everyone. So death itself is virtue neutral. The Pandavas side was supported by many who were virtuous but they too had to die because by the nature of the material world itself, the existence in the material world for everyone whether virtuous or vicious, their existence is temporary and so death itself is virtue neutral.

That means everybody will have to die irrespective of their being virtuous or vicious. Of course, the post-mortem destination isn't virtue neutral. So if somebody may say that okay if all of us have to die what is the point of being virtuous? But that's not the case because it will be said that actually the post-mortem destination will be determined by how one has lived and what one has been thinking of at the moment of death and that will be indicated in verses 28 and 29 also of how the virtues meet death in one way and how the vicious meet death in another way and that will be indicated in the metaphor of a moth entering into fire that is how vicious go to death and of a river entering into the ocean that is how the virtues move towards death.

So that will be talked about but at this point Arjuna is not able to notice such subtle differences. At this point what he is seeing is simply the fact that everyone and everything is being destroyed and he is alarmed at this thought, at this sight and thus he expresses his alarm and by saying that my whole, my very inner being is trembling, I lost sense of my direction as he has said earlier. Now specifically not just destruction is happening but the destruction is also happening in a very ghastly way and that will be indicated in the next verse.

Thank you.