Will soldiers who fight in today’s wars be doing vikarma?

From Nailesh P

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna question from Nailesh Bruhom if someone is in the military and has a duty to fight then today’s wars are not like the dharma yugda of Kurukshetra so will such a person be doing vikarma and getting bandhan or if that person keeps Krishna in the center and does it as a duty then that person will not get bound in the 18th chapter when Krishna gives analysis of varanashram from 41st to 43rd verses from there onwards the whole section from 40th verse to 49th verse talks about varanashram and there towards the conclusion this verse comes that sahajam karma kaunteya that with every work which one does with it is born sadosham that the faults are there but in spite of the faults being there one should not give it up all activities are covered by faults fire is covered by smoke just because something is covered by something impure that does not mean that the thing has to be given up fire is considered auspicious fire is considered mouth of Vishnu and fire is essential for yajnas at the same time smoke is uncomfortable it is inauspicious but wherever there is fire often there is smoke so one has to deal with the smoke one has to stoke the fire and move with the smoke and then use the fire so exact example because in this world we cannot live without reactivity we are living in the world and we have to do some duties every duty will have some faults so Krishna is talking of culture in the past where everything was much more theistic and the whole culture was much more spiritually conducive and even in such a cultural context Krishna is saying sarvarambhati doshyena all endeavours are covered by faults and Prabhupada gives examples based on Acharya’s commentaries that in the past the brahmanas sometimes had to kill animals now that is required for tamasic animal sacrifice is not recommended for people who are in sattva guna for people who are in rajo guna and tamo guna they may do animal sacrifices and that is something which brahmana has to do similarly Kshatriya has to kill Vaishya while doing business may sometimes have to lie so these are things which are not desirable but sometimes they have to be done so the point is that even when the ashram was there and when things were spiritually conducive even at that time only duties are covered with faults they are not filled with faults they are surrounded by faults that is the nature of this world so then what to speak of in today’s context where the culture is far from spiritual in fact it is quite anti-spiritual so then there will be faults and in such a fault we cannot abandon our duties so if somebody is in the military then definitely that person should fight through the duty of fighting so there was a devotee in America who was actually in the American army and then he became a devotee so when America had decided to go for a war in the middle east then he was sent there now he was told by his spiritual master if you are in the army then you have to go in the war but when he went in the war what did he do he not only fought the war as was required but there in the war field in the middle east he actually talked about Krishna and he inspired many of his colleagues and friends and subordinates to take up, to become more inclined towards and to even take up Krishna Bhakti he wrote something, he is a devotee, his spiritual master gave him the name Parthasarathi and he wrote a series of articles called the Battlefield Bhajans to describe how he practiced Krishna Bhakti and how he shared Krishna Bhakti while being in the battlefield that was how he did in Bhajan over there so now we could say from the point of view of Dharma this war does not have much direct correlation but still one can spiritualize it by practicing Bhakti as much as possible and by having the understanding that ultimately whatever situation I am put in Krishna has put me in that situation and I will serve him accordingly to the best of my capacity, trying to remember him as much as possible now especially if somebody is in the Indian army and India is the place where there is Dharma right now of course there is a lot of Adharma even in India but still the culture is conducive to Dharma and Sanatana Dharma is present much more in India than in other parts of the world right now, many of the holy places many of the ancient temples are there in India and protecting this is important so there are intolerant elements in certain religions which would want to destroy all other forms of religious expression and protecting protecting the Indian boundaries is actually in one sense essential for protecting the Dharmic culture that is there in India so definitely if somebody is in Indian army and is practicing Bhakti that is definitely quite close to the practice of Dharma itself so we can look at the context we can look at the individual situation but ultimately we understand that Krishna is Bhava Virahi so if we have an intention to serve and we express that intention to the best of our capacity in our circumstances then Krishna accepts that and in that way he attracts, in that way one does not get bound in Karmic bondage now certainly while living in army, while doing certain activities actually while doing any activity in this world there is some bondage that occurs but Krishna reassures us in the conclusion of the Gita if somebody surrenders to Krishna and takes shelter of him then he frees one from sinful reactions so we should focus as much as possible on trying to be devoted to Krishna in whatever circumstances we are and we can within that situation also try to move towards a position where we can practice more and more Bhakti and as much as possible devotees try to avoid getting involved directly in sinful activities so for example even one may be in the army but one does not have to break the four elements one can lead a life of principles and in that way one can stay as harmonious with devotion as possible and with the intention of devotion one can keep progressing on the path towards Krishna Thank you.