When Krishna descends to destroy the miscreants why does he try for peace with the miscreant Kauravas?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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So, at one side the Bhagavad Gita says that Krishna said, I have decided to destroy the Dushkritinas, but other side it has said that we see that Krishna went to seek peace. So did he want to destroy the Dushkritinas or did he want to have peace with them? Actually, this goes down to the deeper philosophical question of God’s omniscience and human free will. You know, if God knows everything, including the future, then do I really have free will? It means, if God knows the future, then God knows how I am going to answer the question.
Then if God knows how I am going to answer the question, then am I really choosing to answer that question? So, this is a fundamental philosophical question and the answer to that is that God’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past. What that means is, it is knowledge without intervention. It is like today morning, you know, I wanted to wake up at 4 o’clock, but I woke up at 4.30. I know it, but I can’t go back and change it now.
I woke up late. It’s done. So, it’s knowledge without intervention.
So, God also, his knowledge of the future is knowledge without intervention. That means he actually exists outside the time domain. So, he’s outside this cause-effect change.
Cause-effect change. And so, basically, if we make this choice, this consequence will be there. If we make this choice, this consequence will be there.
If we make this choice, this consequence will be there. But which choice we are to make, that is up to us. Krishna doesn’t determine that.
So, if there is intervention, then that means he would be determining. So, he doesn’t intervene. So, God’s knowledge of the future is like our knowledge of the past.
It is knowledge without intervention. So, now, moving forward, applying this specifically to the Mahabharata context. See, Krishna’s purpose, if we see, if we look at it grammatically, every sentence has a thrust.
So, just the other day, I was giving an example that how just by changing the sentence slightly, we can completely change the emphasis of the sentence. Now, if you want to praise someone, you say, you know, he had some problems in the past, but he’s stable now. But if you want to slight that person, you say, he’s stable now, but he had problems in the past.
The same statement, I just give it a different tilt, what I emphasize. So, like that, you know, when we look at a sentence grammatically, what is the emphasis? So, Krishna’s purpose is not to His purpose is not to destroy the duṣkṛtīs. His purpose is to establish dharma.
So, if the duṣkṛtīs can be reformed and dharma can be established, that’s also fine. That serves its purpose. So, if Duryodhana had been ready to come back to live dharmically, then Krishna was ready to forgive.
With the same principle, we see that Ram sends a peace proposal to Ravana. He says, if you give Sita back, there’ll be no fight. So, Ram has actually come to destroy Ravana.
In one sense, the devatas have created that Ravana is a terrible demon, he has to be destroyed. Then why is Ram giving a peace proposal? Basically, Ravana, if he acknowledges that Ram is so powerful that he can’t fight with him, and he returns Sita, then his demonic actions are curbed. So, it’s not necessary that the bloodshed has to happen for dharma to be established.
So, the Krishna makes all efforts to avoid the bloodshed. His purpose is to establish dharma, but the Mahabharata demonstrates a principle that is actually standard in military operations. The principle is try for the best, prepare for the worst.
So, try for the best. Try for a solution without any bloodshed at all. But while Krishna was going as Shanti Duta, the Pandavas were also going, forming alliances with the other kings.
So, because Duryodhana had already been forming alliances for 13 years. So, try for the best, but prepare for the worst. So, Krishna was trying for the best by going as Shanti Duta.
It is the ultimate purpose of trying to establish dharma. Thank you. Yes.