The destructibility of the body is not a license for its wanton destruction

Transcript

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few minutes? Hare Krishna The destructibility of the body is not a license for its wanton destruction. Some people argue the Bhagavad Gita says that the body is in anyway destructible therefore there is nothing wrong in destroying the body and this is the reason that Krishna gave Arjuna for killing his relatives isn’t in such an argument a license for wanton destruction of the body no not at all because the Bhagavad Gita firstly the Bhagavad Gita’s rationale for violence is not the destructibility of the body or the destructibility of the soul the Bhagavad Gita’s rationale is the necessity of dharma necessity of violence in protecting dharma especially when anti-social elements have unscrupulously grabbed the power and are wreaking havoc in society as had the Kauravas, the vicious Kauravas before the Kurukshetra war so the key to understanding the Bhagavad Gita is that to see its full content not just its context so if you see the same Bhagavad Gita which is supposedly a book instigating wanton worldly violence that same Bhagavad Gita talks about non-violence as a laudable quality in 16.1 while describing godly qualities it describes ahimsa, non-violence as a godly quality and further the same Gita also talks about carefully taking care of the body in 6.16 it states one should not eat too much the yogis should not eat too much nor should they eat too little or should they say without eating at all nor should one sleep too much nor should one stay awake for too long what is that spiritual in this verse don’t eat too much, don’t eat too little don’t sleep too much, don’t sleep too little this sounds like a guideline that some doctor may give for taking care of bodily health the point is the Bhagavad Gita considers the body as valuable as a tool for pursuing dharma and that’s why it gives directions for practicing for taking care of the body and this context, this section this instruction is given for renounced yogis who are living in the forest, what to speak of for people in general who are practicing dharma who are living a householder life, so the Bhagavad Gita asks us to take care of the body and similarly the Bhagavad Gita asks us to not hurt other bodies, so the Ahimsa there should not be any Ahimsa towards other’s bodies nor should there be Ahimsa towards one’s own body so in this way the Bhagavad Gita does give due respect for the body but in specific exceptional situations when the protection of dharma requires punishment of others which may involve killing them capital punishment to them then at that time the Bhagavad Gita does not run shy of of violence at that time so now the Bhagavad Gita talks about the indestructibility of the soul and the destructibility of the body to enable fighters like Arjuna to unsentimentally do their dharma of protecting society from antisocial elements by ridding those ridding the society of those antisocial elements through necessary violence so the central teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is the practice of dharma which in the exceptional situation of Krishna fighting of Arjuna fighting at that time required violence and the pursuit of dharma in most cases for us will require tolerance so the Gita’s teaching is not about violence or non-violence it is about transcendence through the careful utilization of the body for a transcendental pursuit thank you Hare Krishna