Why did Krishna first tell the Pandavas to fight and then to renounce the world because of their sins?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, Krishna initially tells the Pandavas to fight and then later he tells that now you should renounce and go to the Himalayas because you are burdened by sin of killing humans.
So, different instructions at different times. Actually, either in the Mahabharata or in the Srimad Bhagavatam, nowhere does Krishna tell the Pandavas that you should renounce the world because you are burdened by sins. In fact, if you look at the sequence of events, it is Krishna who departs from the world before the Pandavas.
So, there is no situation where Krishna will give the instruction to the Pandavas and the Pandavas feel that at that time, they realized that we had come to assist Krishna in his plan. Krishna has done his plan, he has completed his mission, he has left. So, now let us also leave.
So, there is no mention there of the Pandavas being burdened by sins because of which they renounced the world. And even if they are burdened by sins, renunciation was not the only solution. They could have done some yajnas, they could have earned some punya by which they could counterbalance things or whatever.
So, the reason why the Pandavas renounced the world was because they had come with Krishna as a part of his plan and when Krishna had departed, that phase of his plan was over and the Pandavas also departed. And with respect to the point of different instructions being given at different times, specifically here, actually no instruction is given by Krishna, but still the principle of different courses of action being chosen at different times. The principle over there is that actually the Pandavas had a role to play initially.
When they had that role to play, it’s like we all go through different phases in life and at different phases, we have different duties. So, in the initial phase of their life, their duty was, they were young, so they had their part to play. They had to rule, they had to administer dharma.
But then when they departed, they had become relatively speaking middle-aged by that time and then Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit had become more or less competent to become the successor. So, they saw that ruling the world is not our eternal responsibility. Although maintaining dharma is protecting dharma is a responsibility, now that is not our eternal responsibility.
It’s just like, you know, if there is a marathon relay races where one particular runner runs for say a certain number of kilometers or a certain distance and then they give the torch to someone else and then that next person runs. So, like that the Pandavas had run the relay race in their service to Krishna and when Krishna departed, they basically, they handed over the torch to Parikshit and then Parikshit started running. They felt now we have done our part and we are now departing.
So, it was not because of sinful reactions but it was because they had the understanding of the broader plan of the and they understood that our role now is here is over and that’s why they renounced the world. Is it clear? Yes, Nathimata.