Why does the Gita say that “for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death” and also say “consider honor and dishonor to be the same”?

From: swapnil

Transcript

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why does the lord say that for a respectable person dishonor is worse than death and then further say to Arjuna you should consider honor and dishonor to be the same answer because these are instructions at different levels of consciousness so in the second chapter verses 31 to 37 where this this mood of instruction comes that is being talked of at the level wherein the idea primarily is of dharmic material life that means by understanding that one is not the body but in the soul one should live in such a way that one can get honor in this life and honor in the next life so from that point of view of the material religiosity it is said that a person should follow dharma because by following dharma one will get honor and that’s how it is in a cultural society but when dharma is neglected then a person gets dishonored so at that level where the practice of dharma is done for getting material honor Krishna is reminding Arjuna that if you give up dharma sorry if you give up dharma then you will be dishonored and that dishonor will be worse than death on the other hand few verses later from 2.38 onwards when Krishna is speaking to Arjuna he is taking him to a higher level where the performance of dharma is not to get a better material life but to become liberated from material life and to go back to the spiritual world so to go back to the spiritual world one should not be aiming for getting things better at the material level one should be aiming simply for getting more and more fixed in transcendence in higher spiritual fulfillment that goes far that is far deeper and richer than material pleasure and also material distress so at that level of spirituality one is told that don’t bother about honor and dishonor so Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that amongst all happiness, distress, victory, failure among all such considerations stay equipoised and practice for the practice of yoga yoga here means connection connection with the higher spiritual reality so in this way these two instructions are at two different levels so at the level of material religiosity when a person is practicing religion to make things better at the material level then it is said that better one should give up where practicing religion will bring honor and giving up religion will bring dishonor it is said that better give up dishonor will be worse than death for you so the idea is somehow or the other the person should be kept in the on the path of dharma so if the considerations of honor and dishonor can be made to keep a person on the path of dharma, utilize those considerations when the person is not really understood the intrinsic value of dharma but when the person is a little more philosophically evolved that person can understand that the purpose of practicing dharma is to ultimately get liberated from material existence and attain the spiritual level so at that time the person is told don’t bother about don’t bother about honor and dishonor, just focus on yoga, just focus on transcendence and connecting with transcendence through the performance of one’s duty in a detached consciousness so these are instructions at different levels of consciousness just as a teacher math teacher may give different instructions at different levels for students a math teacher may tell 3 minus 5 is not possible to a lower grade student but then 3 minus 5 is minus 2 to a lower grade student to a higher grade student who has understood that negative numbers are also possible so when we look at the Bhagavad Gita, whenever we see contradictions we have to look at the progression of thought that is there and look at the broader context then we will be able to reconcile the