Hinduism Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for followers of the Hindu religion and those interested in learning more about Hinduism. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
How according to Krishna's teaching to Arjuna, was the war between the two sides justified? Isn't fighting over a kingdom petty compared to the lives that would be lost?
Isn't killing (be it human or animal) against the basic tenets of Hinduism?
My understanding of the principle of Karma is that when you kill someone, you're interfering with their cycle of life and death, and you end up tarnishing your own soul, earning yourself 'bad' Karma.
Is this understanding incorrect?
Bhagawan Sri Krishna answers all the questions you pose in Chapter II of the Gita.
In the first 30 verses He outlines why the conducting of the war is not important from the standpoint of the Ultimate Reality.
In verses 31-38, the Divine Lord outlines why from Arjuna's personal standpoint the war is righteous and why it is it is Arjuna's personal dharma (Swadharma) to Fight and how he can gain heaven and the world by doing so.
From verse 39 until the end of the chapter, Sri Krishna then outlines how from the standpoint of one desiring Liberation, through yoga, one can attain Liberation while still conducting one's worldly duties (see especially verse 47 and 48). Arjuna is about to kill many people, and the Lord shows how to do so and still practice the yoga of Liberation.
The Lord through the Gita shows how, even in what appears to us as the worst of circumstances and events, a person can still attain Liberation. Here we are in our daily lives - which for most of us - the mental and physical circumstances are nowhere near as extreme as those on the battlefield of the Gita. Each one of us must then look in his or her own heart and ask - Why cannot I put forth the effort for Liberation? I have been born in a most propitious life.....
BG 18.17 - The one without the feeling of "I am doer", whose intellect is not tainted, despite killing [others] in this world, neither kills nor is bound
"Is killing justified in the Bhagwad Gita?"
Bhagawad Gita has no firm stand or message on any particular subject. It's more of a description about removing dualities from one's consciousness and fixing it unto the supreme self, which it refers as Atma or ParamAtma. According to Gita, Atma or "self", which is unborn & omnipresent, neither gets killed nor kills. Whatever is happening around the universe is merely interactions of 3 modes (guna-s: sattva, rajas, tamas).
BG 2.21 - Which is said to be indestructible, eternal; One who is unborn, indivisible; O PArtha, how that consciousness (purusha = consciousness = Atma, here) be killed by someone or kill someone?
After all the peace treaties failed between PAndava-s and Kaurava-s, the war was inevitable. Arjuna got confused just during the wartime, which is not a Swadharma or a natural trait for a Kshatriya (Patriot or Warrior). Even if Arjuna had ducked that war, he would have eventually been dragged into it due to his nature.
BG 18.59 - If sheltered by ego, should you think as "Won't fight"; that will be a worthless determination. [Because] Your nature engages you [in fight].
BG 18.60 - O son of Kunti, bound by activities born out of your own nature, you [will] do, which you don't desire [to do] due to illusion.
Also, there is a difference between Killing & Violence.
"Isn't killing (be it human or animal) against the basic tenets of Hinduism?"
Never.
Withing the scope of Prakruti, rightful killing is always recommended. Wrongful killing is equally sinful. There are many examples from MahAbhArata. One of them is from Bhishma in RajadharmAnusasana(ShAnti) Parva:
Even a person that is disrespectable, that is of uncleansed soul, and that is very cruel, may succeed in earning great merit as the hunter Valaka by slaying the blind beast (that threatened to destroy all creatures). ......... A deceitful person, falling away from all duties and abandoning those of his own order, always wishes to betake himself to the practices of Asuras for supporting life. Such a sinful wretch living by deceit should be slain by every means. Such sinful men think that there is nothing in this world higher than wealth. Such men should never be tolerated. No one should eat with them. They should be regarded to have fallen down in consequence of their sins. Indeed, fallen away from the condition of humanity and shut out from the grace of the gods, they are even like evil genii. Without sacrifices and without penances as they are, forbear from their companionship. If their wealth be lost, they commit even suicide which is exceedingly pitiable. Among those sinful men there is no one to whom thou canst say, 'This is thy duty. Let thy heart turn to it.' Their settled convictions are that there is nothing in this world that is equal to wealth. The person that would slay such a creature would incur no sin. He who kills him kills one that has been already killed by his own acts. If slain, it is the dead that is slain.
There is no killing whatsoever. I would like to answer this question indirectly.
Sudharshana chakra is the single most powerful weapon Lord Vishnu uses to kill bad people?
Now what does that actually mean?
The word Sudarshana is derived from two Sanskrit words – Su(सु) meaning "good/auspicious" and Darshana (दर्शन) meaning "vision".
"Vishnu kills bad people using a weapon named good vision ".Isnt it strange to name your weapon "good vision." Unless ofcourse Sudharshan ie Good vision is used to kill evil thoughts not people.
Mahabharata is not a war fighting over a kingdom.Mahabharata is a war within oneself-a war that we all have to fight,within our own conscience,between the right and the wrong.
The symbolic chariot in Bhagavad Gita is a very powerful metaphor. The chariot is our body itself and our intellect is its driver. Our mind is the rope and the five sense organs are the five horses pulling the chariot in the battlefield. The horses i.e., the sense organs travel through the senses. The sum total of the combination of various experiences involving sound, touch, form, taste and smell constitute life in this world. For example, the horse of ‘ear’ travels through the path of sound. The path of smell is reserved for the nose. Likewise, each sense organ is associated with its corresponding sense object.In this travel, if we have the intellect as the charioteer, there will be no trouble. But in many a time, the fickle mind will try to take decisions pretending to be the intellect. We must be able to detect this.
Ramakrishna ( Guru of Swami Vivekananda) , gives the example of a Doctor treating Patients.
Mostly , he cures with the help of Medicines .This is like the use of Ahimsa , non-violent method of transforming or training others .
But for some patients , he has to take recourse to Surgery --to cure the Disease or Broken Bones or other Ailments . This is like using Violence for Human Transformation.
This is a simplified explanation of the discussions between Arjuna and Krishna in the Gita.
Gita advocates the path of minimum violence. Krishna advocated the path of minimum violence to uphold Dharma. It is not always possible to eschew violence. One can not live life by running away from evil. There are situations when one has to fight to uphold Dharma. Take the cases of Adolf Hitler or Islamic terrorists. It would not be possible to stop the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. You will not be able to contain their depredations by taking 'the higher moral ground and the noble path'. In fact such a course would be simply cowardice and egoistic. It would simply result in the massacre of innocents. Should one live oblivious of the cry of the innocents?
This is what Sri Aurobindo says on this issue:
We see in the teaching of the Gita how subtle a thing is the freedom from egoism which is demanded. Arjuna is driven to fight by the egoism of strength, the egoism of Kshatriya; he is turned from the battle by the contrary egoism of weakness, the shrinking, the spirit of disgust, the false pity that overcomes the mind, the nervous being and the senses, - not that divine compassion which strengthens the arm and clarifies the knowledge. But this weakness comes garbed as renunciation, as virtue: "Better the life of the beggar than to taste these blood-stained enjoyments; I desire not the rule of all the earth, no, nor the kingdom of the gods." How foolish of the Teacher, we might say, not to confirm this mood, to lose this sublime chance of adding one more great soul to the army of Sannyasins, one more shining example before the world of holy renunciation. But the Guide sees otherwise, the Guide who is not to be deceived by words: "This is weakness and delusion and egoism that speak in thee. Behold the Self, open thy eyes to the knowledge, purify thy soul of egoism." And afterwards? "Fight, conquer, enjoy a wealthy kingdom." Or to take another example from ancient Indian tradition. It was egoism, it would seem, that drove Rama, the Avatara, to raise an army and destroy a nation in order to recover his wife from the King of Lanka. But would it have been a lesser egoism to drape himself in indifference and misusing the formal terms of the knowledge to say, "I have no wife, no enemy, no desire; these are illusions of the senses; let me cultivate the Brahman-knowledge and let Ravana do what he will with the daughter of Janaka"? The criterion is within, as the Gita insists. It is to have the soul free from craving and attachment, but free from the attachment to inaction as well as from the egoistic impulse to action, free from attachment to the forms of virtue as well as from the attraction to sin. It is to to be rid of "I-ness" and "my-ness" so as to live in the one Self and act in the one Self; to reject the egoism of refusing to work through the individual centre of the universal Being as well as egoism of serving the individual mind and life and body to the exclusion of others. To live in the Self is not to dwell for oneself alone in the Infinite immersed and oblivious of all things in that ocean of impersonal self-delight; but it is to live as the Self and in the Self equal in this embodiment and all embodiments and beyond all embodiments.
The Bhagavad Gita with Text, Translation and Commentary in the Words of Sri Aurobindo
