Indian election results: Making sense through Bhagavad-gita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna the recent Lok Sabha elections in India have thrown quite a bit of surprises if we want to make sense of the world and the events within it the Bhagavad Gita is a very important resource. So for guiding others for inspiring others to make good choices for understanding why people make the decisions that they do.
Let us see what the Bhagavad Gita tells us and how it can relate with the elections and the results so I’ll talk about three points intelligence incentive and identity. Most people make their decisions based on a variety of factors one of them is their intelligence intelligence or buddhi is the faculty that the Bhagavad Gita itself is meant to help us develop and the Gita guides us so that with intelligence we can see our long term interests and one of the primary duties of a leader is to educate and engage people’s intelligence so that they can first of all perceive in the sense of see and then pursue in the sense of seek out, take steps for their long term interests. So for example the current government which was the government before this election also, worked for the overall economic and cultural and spiritual development of India and the infrastructure development is essential at one level for the long term physical stability and prosperity of a country and how important this is, is something which may not be immediately apparent to people and they may look for more quick benefits and it is important for the leaders to make sure that their intelligence of people is activated and they appreciate what is being done in the long term.
Similarly, the building of the temple Nayodhya was the healing of a multi-century long open civilizational wound and that helped bolster the civilizational identity and the cultural foundation that will bind a country together. Yet at the same time while this is being done and this is going to have enormous positive influence in the long run, the vision and value of this needs to be communicated in a way that people can understand. So appealing to intelligence of people so that they pursue and pursue long term interests is important for a leader and the Gita helps through the Gita Krishna helps Arjuna do that.
At the same time, the Gita acknowledges that not everybody will be pursuing their long term interests. People often need incentive for doing what is good for them and that incentive may often have to come in terms of relatively short term results. The Gita says in 326 na buddhi vedam janayet don’t expect people who are attached to act as if they are going to be interested in their long term interests.
That’s why the government and the leaders have a responsibility to also understand what are the immediate interests of people and to what extent can they be fulfilled. And so for example if infrastructure is developed then those people who lose their land and their property and other resources because of infrastructure development may not be so concerned about the long term prosperity that is going to come and they may become fixated with the immediate loss that they are facing. So is that going to be addressed? So on the other hand if the impetus in terms of the incentive comes through freebies then people may get carried away by that and this is the unfortunate reality of the world and this has to be acknowledged.
So the buddhi is what helps us to actually perceive our long term interests. The incentives are what appeal to the mind and Krishna says mayi arpit mano buddhir. He says that for any healthy decision making to be made it’s best if the intelligence and the mind, the reason and the emotion both are harmonized.
And now what people perceive as their interests both long term and short term depends on the third factor which is a key theme in the Bhagavad Gita that is identity. The Gita begins with a position of identity crisis. Arjuna is thinking I am a member of the Kuru dynasty, how can I fight? But he is also thinking I am a warrior, how can I not fight? So the Gita goes down saying that we have a fundamental spiritual identity which underlies all our various functional identities.
There is a paramarthic ahankar and there is a vyavaharik ahankar. So underlying the mind and intelligence is our sense of ego, our sense of self. So quite often the leaders may identify their followers in a particular way.
The followers may not identify themselves in that way. For example, the leaders may appeal to the Hindu community and expect to consolidate their interests. But many people within the broad demographic of Hinduism may not identify themselves as Hindus primarily.
They may identify themselves based on their caste. They may identify themselves based on their particular region. They may identify themselves based on their particular specific concerns.
So when this happens, there is an identity mismatch. So there has been concern and even criticism. Why did Hindus not vote for a government which did so much for the Hindus? Well, the diversity of Hinduism can sometimes be a cause of problem where people identify with smaller religious sects or smaller regional groupings or even specific caste groups rather than with the broader religious rubric or category.
And because of this natural problem, the consolidation does not happen. And further, the caste system as it exists today has had an unfortunate history of discrimination and exploitation. And because of that, many people from particular castes feel not only disenfranchised but also alienated from the, from what they see as broader Hindu causes.
So that’s why there has to be a focus from the leaders at one level, help people see their unifying underlying spiritual identity. And that is what will bring not just a nation together but humanity together. So while that spiritual aspiration is what the Gita foundation talks about, the Gita also recognizes that Arjuna is presently identifying himself primarily as a warrior.
And Krishna uses that identity to urge him to fight for establishing Dharma and bringing about social well-being and flourishing. 11th verse 33 in the Bhagavad Gita. So, therefore, the point here is that leaders need to understand what it is that people are identifying with and make sure that their interests based on their identity are taken care of.
And this applies not just to leaders in terms of those who are standing in elections. Each one of us has our circle of influence and we are all leaders in our own small ways. In fact, the Gita calls everyone to become a leader.
Yad Yad Acharati Shresthas, 321. The idea is that we ourselves, in our circles, wherever we are, we can try to encourage people to pursue their long-term interests by engaging and equipping their intelligence. We also see how people can be provided incentives so that they can make short-term choices in a way that are aligned with their long-term interests.
And also we need to understand how people identify themselves and see their interests accordingly while also helping them realize an underlying unifying spiritual identity. Thank you. Hare Krishna.