Is retaliation in the mode of passion?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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is retaliation in the mode of passion it can be but not necessarily if you see in the 18th chapter Krishna talks about the qualities of the four varanas so in 18.42 he talks about the quality of a brahmana so there he talks about tolerance forgiveness, peacefulness as the quality of a brahmana and the next verse itself in 18.43 he talks about how so he says what is the quality of a Kshatriya he says if there is a fight the Kshatriya does not run away from the fight there is days there is strong and fights so you see the almost opposite qualities non-violence forgiveness, peacefulness is the quality of a brahmana and fighting unflinchingly is the quality of a Kshatriya so what does this mean that different people have to perform different roles in society so as per the role that we are meant to perform as per the dharma that we have to do we may have to act in different ways at different times so tolerance can be in the mode of goodness and retaliation can be in the mode of passion but if one is actually taking assertive action that need not be in the mode of passion that can also be in the mode of goodness so when the Pandavas fought the Kurukshetra war they were not fighting that simply to take retaliation as the Kauravas they were not fighting only for revenge if their goal was revenge then they would never have proposed a peace pact before the war and a peace pact was such accommodating terms that they said just give us five villages the fact that they were ready for that means that they were simply interested in doing their dharma as Kshatriyas so they fought not to get even not to take revenge but to establish the rule of dharma to remove the dharmic people from being the rulers or they would make the whole society irreligious so when there is assertive action against someone retaliation done just to get even with someone that is in the mode of passion but assertive action taken may not always be in the mode of passion assertive action may be taken for the purpose of establishing dharma but Krishna himself says that he designs to vinashaya je dusikrtam he says he designs to destroy the demoniac why does he destroy? because they are irredeemable they are just not going to change, they have to be destroyed so that is not at all when Krishna is acting obviously that is not in the mode of passion at all so assertive action if it is done for the establishing of dharma then that is also in the mode of goodness if it is done with the mood of pure service to Krishna then it can even be transcendent