Gita 16.24 – The transition from description to prescription requires discretion

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you कर्मकर्तुम् यहारः से The transition from description to description requires discretion In this verse 16.24 Krishna is telling Arjuna that we all need to follow Shastra For what purpose? कार्या अकार्यू नवस्तितव To know what should be done and what should not be done यात्वा शास्त्र विधानो तम् By understanding the word of Shastra कर्मकर्तुम् यहारः से we can do our respective works Shastra is thus a guidebook for action When we study Shastra the purpose is to understand what needs to be done and how it needs to be done There are some sections of scripture that are simply descriptive They describe things as they are at the time when scripture was spoken For example At the start of the Bhagavad Gita the first chapter the description of who all warriors were assembled where on the battlefield of Kurukshetra who was on which side Now that description does not in and of itself continue prescription It is not necessary that all warriors for all fights in future need to assemble in exactly the same way or that conch shells have to be blown in exactly the same sequence in the same way that were blown at that particular time That is simply a description Arjuna is the middle of the five Pandavas and yet when the conches are blown it is first said that Krishna and Arjuna blow the conches and then after that Yudhishthira and Bhima and others So is it that for all time to come if somebody follows the Bhagavad Gita then if they are fighting a war then the middle brother has to blow the conch shell first and then others have to blow it Not necessary at all It is a plain description which is given over there So description is simply a report of how things are at that particular time A prescription on the other hand is instruction of how things are to be done Just like there are prescription drugs That means those drugs are to be given only when there is a prescription given by a doctor Prescription means do this Somebody in an authoritative position tells us do this, that’s prescription So there are certain sections of scripture which are prescriptive Now in English there are different forms of sentences There is declarative sentences This is my friend Person may introduce someone to someone else Simply declaration over there Interrogative sentences, oh what is your name And then there are imperative sentences Close the door That contains clear instructions So even from grammatical form we know that there are certain sentences which are grammatically instructive they are imperative Things should be done in such a way Similarly in scripture there are certain sentences which are imperative and certain that are not So just because some things were done in a particular way at a particular time in history Now when scripture is spoken it is not that at that time everything was ideal Krishna says that he is speaking at a time when already there was dharma siglani Krishna says in the 4th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita 4.2 that By the great power of time This ancient knowledge of yoga that was lost That means Krishna is describing that at the time when he was speaking the Bhagavad Gita the knowledge was not necessarily lived, demonstrated, applied at that time and that means that there was so even if there is something which is a description something which is a description in scripture that may not be the prescription of scripture because that might just be the situation at that time but there will be no mandate that at all times situations have to be like that Scripture contains for example Do this, give up all varieties of religions Surrender to me That’s an instruction Do this So that principle of devotionally surrendering to Krishna and celebrating that as the highest form of religion of subordinating all other forms of religion for the sake of this highest religion that is a prescription in scripture that is something which those who want to live according to the Gita need to apply in their lives This difference between description and prescription is important so that we don’t try to see living according to scripture as impractically turning back the clock Scripture is not about turning back the clock and trying to take this world back to say 500 years ago or 5000 years ago or whatever time a particular book was written The essence of scripture is turning on the compass That means helping us to activate our inner self, our inner conscience, our inner guide by which we can live fruitfully, by which we can choose intelligently and act fruitfully in the world that we find ourselves in in the cultural setting that we are in Now this difference between description and prescription to understand this, it requires discretion, it requires intelligence and to make that transition that ok which section of scripture is describing what and which is prescribing because every section of scripture is important and we can learn valuable things from it but it’s not necessary that every part of scripture needs to be applied Today in Graysworld a certain section of scripture may actually not be meant to be applied at all because there may be a description in scripture of something that is a dilution or deviation from the standard So for example Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes are described in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit wherein it is described how Haridas Thakur was not allowed entry into the Jagannath Puri temple This is a description of the socio-cultural reality of his times but is that a prescription of scripture that people who are people who are not born in a Hindu family should never be allowed to enter into the temples This is not a timeless scriptural injunction This is simply a circumstantial cultural practice So it’s descriptive of the times Now interestingly this difference between description and prescription is also to be noticed in science Science is primarily a description of the world as it exists So Newton saw a fruit falling and based on that fall of the fruit he came up with the explanation of what made the fruit fall That explanation was the theory of gravity So this is descriptive Science by its nature is not prescriptive Science is not prescribed. This is how things should be done Because when you prescribe at that time it’s implied that when there is a choice whether to do it that way or not do it that way and this is what you should do But science deals with natural objects which the way science perceives it, they are insentient and they don’t have free will So science doesn’t prescribe that a stone or an object held in the air and let go and fall on the ground That is just the way natural objects work So now when say doctors give prescription, that giving prescription take this or don’t take this that is a part of the medical profession but scientific part of it is more of how when this medicine enters into the body, what will happen, how it will cure But whenever there are conscious agents who come in, who have free will science especially the reductionistic science or the mechanistic science that is prevalent in today’s world that cannot factor in free will So when people some people try to use science as a source of ethical guidance that this should be done or this should not be done And why? Because science says so Science by its very nature is amoral It is neither moral nor immoral It makes no moral judgments It simply tells, describes the pattern of events that will take place when certain substances interact with certain other substances But whether that interaction should be done or not that is not what science tells That is what human beings who may be scientifically informed or scientifically uninformed they decide based on their own own moral systems So for example science can tell us that if you if we light a bomb in a crowded area it will explode and many people will die Now should that bomb be applied or not should that bomb be exploded like that or not that is something which that person will decide based on their moral sense from wherever they may have got it So when science starts becoming prescriptive it is usually because science has been misappropriated to fulfill some cultural, political or ideological agenda For example Hitler tried to argue that by the principle of survival of the fittest the fitter races were meant to survive and other races were meant to die So he said the unfit Jews should die and the fit Nazis should prosper This was simply his personal ambition which was being passed off as science science of eugenics, science of social Darwinism that there is selection among the races Of course that has been discredited and rejected eventually But the point is that science cannot make prescriptions, science gives descriptions and whenever science seems to give prescriptions it is more of science being co-opted into some kind of ideological agenda cultural, political, ideological agenda For us, just as we wouldn’t let science become prescriptive we will use the description given by science and then we will use our moral sense, our God given intelligence to decide what to do or not using scientific knowledge that we have Similarly, we see in the end of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna to use his intelligence to deliberate deeply and decide what you want to do So that deep deliberation of using our God given intelligence to apply what is taught in scripture that is the description that the Bhagavad Gita encourages us to develop by which we choose our battles effectively and truthfully instead of seeing as prescriptive what is descriptive in scripture and expending our energies on replicating the cultural context of the past we can focus our energies on internalizing and applying a timeless spiritual principle that will raise our consciousness that will help us facilitate others in raising their consciousness and thus developing love for Krishna within us and within others which is the ultimate purpose of the Bhagavad Gita