​Isn’t “dishonor is worse than death” an egoistic calculation?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so when we say dishonor is worse than death isn’t that in the platform of the ego or the pride yes it is at the same time not all pride is bad there is three terms there is arrogance there is pride and there is honor so arrogance is definitely bad but pride is not necessarily bad sometimes you can have a hotel by the name of hotel executive pride or hotel pride there is a car by the name pride so now the idea is that that or for example there is a world cup going on and the team is knocked out of the world cup and the last match is remaining they are not going to go ahead in the match they are already knocked out but still they try to play and the captains say that we are playing for pride playing for pride means that yes we are lost but we don’t want to be completely whitewashed we have some sense of honor at least one match we won something like that so pride itself is not always bad so there can be situations when now that positive connotation of pride is what we use in the sense of honor like Prabhupada in one letter he says that a devotee had stopped chanting Hare Krishna and stopped following the religious principles initiated devotee so Prabhupada wrote to him and said that you have taken a vow in front of the deities in front of the devotees in front of the spiritual master in front of the sacred fire you have given your word don’t you have a sense of honor how can you give up your word like this so now here Prabhupada is talking about a sense of honor in a positive sense so if a sense of honor can inspire a person to act honorably then that sense of honor is good so the sense of honor is often what inspires people to act honorably in many situations so now dishonor is worse than death what does it mean it means two things one is if a person feels that if I do this I will be dishonored and that is very painful and because of that the person does not act dishonorably then that is also good a Kshatriya is meant to give charity now often the Kshatriya may also feel I want to keep all my wealth with me but the Kshatriya thinks that if I don’t give this charity then my reputation will be spoiled and people will think that I am a stingy I am not a charitable person and because of that they give charity the best thing is to do the right thing with the right motive but if you can’t do the right thing with the right motive at least do the right thing with the not so right motive also just like if somebody told us you have to chant Hare Krishna you can chant Hare Krishna only when you are chanting purely we will never chant Hare Krishna right now our motive is impure but still chant Hare Krishna by doing that gradually the right motive will come so like that it is best if one gives charity for the sake of pleasing Krishna for the sake of benefiting others in the service of Krishna but if that is not the case if I give charity for the sake of reputation at least the charity is being given so a sense of honor if it can inspire people to do honorable things that is good and in Kshatriya culture Kshatriyas are people who are meant to have influence in society they are meant to have influence in the world the Brahmanas live very simply Brahmanas they are not really concerned they live in ideas they live in thoughts they live in wisdom and they share wisdom with those who appreciate it but Kshatriyas are meant to live in the world and they are meant to command the respect of the world and for that purpose their honor is important so for the Kshatriyas they also have a innate sense of honor and that sense of honor is dovetailed so that they act righteously instead of unrighteously so Narad Guni when Dhruva Maharaj leaves his father’s kingdom and comes to the forest Narad Guni meets him there and Narad Guni tells him there you know you are just a child actually before that Narad Guni hears this news he appreciates and he says ahok Kshatriya tejasam maan bhangam amrishyatam he says how great is the effulgence of the Kshatriyas that they cannot tolerate dishonor now we may say we have to tolerate dishonor that’s the principle Narad Guni is appreciating how great are the Kshatriyas that they cannot tolerate dishonor the point there is that because of their inability to tolerate dishonor they will avoid acting dishonorably and they will act honorably which is positive so therefore if a person’s ego is hurt and they feel that that is worse than death and that pain makes them act in an honorable way it is favorable but in some situations it is possible so Krishna is using whatever arguments are possible to get Arjuna to act in the right way and that’s why he tells Arjuna also that marana sambhavita sachakirti marana dirichyate in 2.34 it says for those who are dishonored for those who have been honored dishonor is worse than death and Arjuna if you go away from this battlefield you will be dishonored as a coward therefore stay on the battlefield and do your duty so the sense of honor if it is used to inspire people to act honorably that is positive and it is in that spirit that dishonor is worse than death means better you die but don’t act dishonorably don’t act like a coward like Shakespeare said that a coward dies a thousand deaths before his death so the idea is the coward is humiliated so many times because of the coward so don’t do like that the sense of honor can be used to inspire people to act honorably that’s wonderful you know Prabhupada when he would be in India and he would be preaching to Indians especially he would say that you know Bhagavad Gita is the message from India and to preach Bhagavad Gita in India I have to get people from America he says what are you doing this is your message you should be preaching it all over the world and Prabhupada even says you are regretting that India lost Pakistan at that time 20-30 years ago Pakistan he says if you preach Bhagavad Gita what to speak of Pakistan the whole world will become Hindustan so what is Prabhupada doing Prabhupada at other times will tell you you are not the body you are not an Indian also but here if their sense of Indianness their sense of honor and pride at being Indian can inspire them to preach Bhagavad Gita Prabhupada uses that and just a few days later in another lecture Prabhupada is speaking to his American disciples and he has asked them to make a big Pandal program and they are saying we don’t have any money we don’t have any resources how will we do a Pandal program and Prabhupada tells them in India you Americans are known as people who have done spectacular things so now Indians are watching you he says if you don’t do something wonderful what is the use of you being Americans so what is Prabhupada doing here in this case their pride at being Americans he is using that to engage them in Bhakti so if our sense of honor can inspire us can inspire us to act honorably then that’s good that will inspire us to act honorably so we will stop here if you have any more questions tomorrow evening we have question and answer session oh sorry not tomorrow evening Monday evening we have question and answer session you can submit the questions here and we can discuss at that time thank you very much Prabhupada Ki Jai Gaurabhatt Karimki