Question 5

QUESTIONER: IT SEEMS THAT KRISHNA IS TRYING TO SUPPRESS ARJUNA WHEN HE SAYS, "IT IS BETTER TO DIE IN ONE'S OWN NATURE THAN TO LIVE IN AN ALIEN ONE. " PERHAPS ARJUNA IS TRYING TO TRANSCEND HIS WARRIOR'S NATURE AND BECOME A BRAHMIN. WHEN HE IS OVERWHELMED WITH GRIEF AND COMPASSION, HE IS JUST TRYING TO ACHIEVE HIS SELF-NATURE, HIS TRUE NATURE, BUT KRISHNA PULLS HIM BACK.

SECONDLY, YOU SAY THAT KRISHNA DOES NOT DOMINATE ARJUNA; ON THE CONTRARY, HE FREES HIM. BUT AS THE GEETA BEGINS ARJUNA TELLS KRISHNA, "I AM YOUR DISCIPLE AND I SURRENDER TO YOU, " AND WHEN IT ENDS ARJUNA SAYS AGAIN, "I WILL DO YOUR BIDDING." DOES IT NOT SUGGEST THAT KRISHNA HAS BEEN TRYING TO IMPOSE HIMSELF ON ARJUNA AS HIS MASTER?

In this context a few things should be rightly understood. If one knows Arjuna, even in passing, he can not say he is not a warrior. He is indeed a warrior; it is his distinct individuality -- and his sadness, his grief is a momentary thing. He is not sad because he is going to kill some people, he is sad because he is going to have to kill his own family and relatives. If they were not his own people, Arjuna would have killed them like flies. He grieves not because of war, not because of violence, but because of his attach ments to those on the opposite side. He does not think killing is bad, although he says so. It is just a rationalization. His basic grief is that he has to fight with those who are so closely related to him. Most of them are his relatives.

The eldest of Arjuna's family, Bhisma, and his teacher Dronacharya are on the other side of the battlefield. The Kauravas are cousins, with whom he has grown up since childhood. Never did he imagine he would have to kill them. Violence is not the real cause of his resistance to war; he has been indulging in violence, in lots of violence, for a long time. This is not his first contact with war and violence. He is not a man to be scared of killing. He is, however, scared of killing his own people. And he is scared because of the bonds of his attachment to them.

It is wrong to say Arjuna is trying to become a brahman, because to be a brahmin means to be non-attached. In fact, it is Krishna who is telling him to shed his attachments. If Arjuna had said straightaway that he is against violence, Krishna would not have tried to persuade him to fight. He would not try to persuade Mahavira, who is also a kshatriya, a warrior. He would not try to change Buddha, who is a warrior too. It is amazing that all the twenty-four tirthankaras of the Jainas are kshatriyas. Not one of them thought of being born in any other varna than that of the kshatriyas. What is really amazing is that the philosophy of non-violence is the kshatriya's gift to the world. And there is a reason for it.

The idea of non-violence could only take root in a soil deeply steeped in violence. People who had lived with violence for generations were the right vehicles for non-violence, and the kshatriyas became the vehicle.

Krishna could not have persuaded Mahavira to take to violence, because Mahavira did not say he would not kill his family and relatives, he was not grieving for them. In fact, he had renounced them, he had renounced the whole world of relationships. His stand was altogether different: he had totally denied violence as inhuman and meaningless. He would have said, "Violence is irreligious." If Krishna had argued with him that, "It is better to die in one's own nature," he would simply have said, "Not to kill is my self-nature; I would die before killing." He would have told Krishna, "Don't tell me to kill. Killing is alien to me." If the Geeta had been preached to Mahavira, he would simply have stepped out of Krishna's chariot, said goodbye and retired to the forest. The Geeta would not have cut any ice with Mahavira.

But the Geeta had appeal for Arjuna; he was impressed and changed by it. The Geeta appealed to him not because Krishna succeeded with him, it changed his mind because he was intrinsically a warrior, because fighting was in his blood and bones. And all his distractions from war and its attendant violence, and his grief and sorrow, were passing reactions caused by his deep clannish attachments.

So Krishna succeeded in dispelling those patches of clouds that had temporarily covered the sky of his mind. Those clouds did not represent his real mind, they did not make up his sky. If it were his real sky, Krishna would not have tried to change it. This would be out of the question. Then the GEETA would not have been delivered at all. Krishna would have known it was Arjuna's own sky, his own self-nature. But the sky does not come so suddenly.

Arjuna's entire life bears witness to the fact that his real sky is that of a warrior, and not of a brahmin. And his deviations are like transient clouds in the sky, which Krishna seeks to dispel. If it is his true nature there is no reason for Arjuna to move from it. This is precisely what Krishna tells him, "It is better to die in one's own nature than to live in any alien nature."

And had Arjuna this much to say, "This is my true nature, that it would be better to die than to kill others. Forgive me, I am walking out on the battle. "

The story would have ended right there. Krishna does not ask him to take on an alien nature; on the contrary, he insists over and over again on his knowing his true nature and remaining steadfast in it. Krishna's entire effort, running through the whole of the GEETA, is directed towards making Arjuna realize his self-nature. He has no wish whatsoever to impose anything alien on him.

The other part of your question also deserves consideration.

Of course, I said that Krishna is not a Master, that he is a friend to Arjuna, but I did not say that Arjuna is not a disciple. I did not say that. Arjuna can well be a disciple, and this will be a relationship from Arjuna's side. He, on his side, can submit to being a disciple -- which has nothing to do with Krishna who, nevertheless, remains a friend. And Arjuna is really a disciple; he wants to learn. To be a disciple means a readiness to learn. Therefore a disciple asks questions. Arjuna asks questions, inquires, because he wants to learn.

And there is a way of asking questions as a disciple; it has a discipline of its own. In order to inquire and learn, the disciple has to sit at the feet of the Master; that is a part of learning, of being a disciple. To inquire and learn, it is first necessary that the disciple be earnest enough to learn, that he has the humility to learn, to know. Not that Krishna wants him to be humble and to sit at his feet -- from his side he remains a friend; he is not a Master. He answers his questions as a friend; it is a matter of friendship with him. And therefore he takes pains to explain things at great length.

Had he been a Master he would easily have been angered by Arjuna's long questioning, by his persistent doubting. He would have said, "Enough is enough. Drop your doubts and do what I say. It is not good to question, to doubt; you have to trust and obey your Master. You have to fight without raising a question when I ask you to fight. I need not explain." No, Krishna is always willing to answer and explain everything Arjuna would like to know.

Such a lengthy debate, such an elaborate exposition that the GEETA is, is enough evidence. Arjuna raises the same questions over and over again; he does not have any new questions, but Krishna does not object ever once. Now Kriyanand is doing the same here. He has been putting the same questions over and over again. But that does not make any difference to me.

When you put the same question time and time again, it only shows you have yet to understand it. So I will continue to explain it over and over again; it is not a problem for me. It is in this spirit that the GEETA was delivered at such length. This GEETA is not Krishna's gift, it is Arjuna's, because he goes on raising one question after another. Krishna has to respond to his persistent inquiry. Arjuna has a mind that wants to learn, to know, and that is very significant.

After all is said and done on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, you tend to think Krishna imposed his will on Arjuna and almost forced him to fight. You may say that Arjuna is trying his best to escape, but Krishna, through his intelligent arguments, goads him to fight. But you are wrong to think so. The truth is, all the time Krishna is trying to liberate Arjuna, to lead him to his freedom. That is why he explains to him at length what he can be, what his potentiality is, what his intrinsic nature is. He exposes Arjuna to Arjuna; he unfolds Arjuna to Arjuna. And if, after listening to the whole of the GEETA, Arjuna had re fused to fight and escaped, Krishna was not going to tell him, "Don't go." There was no one to prevent him from escaping.

It is significant that Krishna, on his own part, has decided not to take part in the war of Mahabharat. One who is not going to fight is trying to persuade another to fight. He keeps himself completely aloof from the war; he is not going to take up arms. It is extraordinarily amusing that Arjuna is persuaded to fight by one who is not going to fight himself. It is certainly a matter of tremendous significance. If Krishna had to impose himself on Arjuna, he should have asked him to follow him and not to fight. And only then could Arjuna have a grievance, that Krishna was imposing himself on him. Do you know one of the many names of Krishna is Ranchordas, which literally means one who is a renegade from war? Here a renegade is inciting Arjuna to fight as a brave man should fight. If Krishna wanted to impose himself on him he should have said, "Okay, now that you are my disciple, I ask you not to fight. Let us escape from the war together." No, it is not at all a matter of imposition.

All that Krishna tells Arjuna is this. "I know you to be a kshatriya, and I have known you very intimately as a warrior. And I know you better than you know yourself; your innate nature is that of a warrior. And so I am just reminding you of it. I tell you who you are. Know it rightly and then do what you choose to do."

The whole of the GEETA is an effort to remind you who you are.

Because Arjuna eventually agrees to fight after what Krishna has to say, you are inclined to think Krishna imposed his will on him. But this is a travesty of the truth. Krishna has no desires of his own; he is totally desireless. His desirelessness is superb and self evident. It is total.

In the war of Mahabharat Krishna alone is on the side of the Pandavas, while his whole army is on the other side, on the enemy side. Is this the way to fight a war, where your own army is on the side of those you are opposing? While Krishna is on the side of the Pandavas, his own army, his entire army is fighting from the side of the Kauravas.

It is a rare event in the entire history of war, in the whole history of mankind. And if this is the way a war should be fought then all other wars and warriors are wrong. Can you imagine Hitler would agree his army should fight on the side of the Allies, his enemies? Impossible. Armies are meant to fight for those who create and own them; there is no other meaning of an army. A belligerent's mind does every thing to see that all of his resources are used to help him win the war.

The Mahabharat is a weird kind of war, where Krishna is on one side and the whole of his own army on the side of the enemy. Obviously this man does not seem to relish fighting. He is certainly not a hawk, not a warmonger. He has no stake in war, but he is not an escapist either. Since a state of war is there, he offers himself to the Pandavas and his army to the Kauravas so that you don't blame him later. It is an extraordinary situation in which Krishna puts himself. Really, the structure of his whole makeup, his individuality, is unique.

And the Mahabharat itself is an exceedingly uncommon kind of war where, as fighting stops every evening, people from both sides get together, exchange pleasantries, inquire about one another and pay condolences to the bereaved. It does not seem to be a war between enemies, it looks like a play that has to be played, a drama that has to be enacted, an inevitable destiny that has to be accepted happily. Not a trace of enmity can be found after sunset when the two enemies visit each other, chit-chat and play together, and even drink and dine together.

Not only Krishna, there are many others who find themselves in the same strange situation. Members of the same family have divided themselves and joined the two warring camps; even intimate friends find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. And what is most amazing is that, after the war ends, Krishna sends the Pandava brothers to Bhisma to take a lesson in peace from him -- from Bhisma, who is the top general of the Kauravas' army, their commander-in-chief. They have to take a lesson in peace from the general of the enemy's forces, and they sit at his feet as his disciples. And Bhisma's message is known as the chapter on peace in the epic of the Mahabharat. It is amazing, it is miraculous that one goes to the enemy to learn about peace. An enemy is a lesson in war, not peace, and you need not go to him to take a lesson. But here Bhisma teaches them the secrets of peace and righteousness.

It is certainly not an ordinary war; it is extra ordinarily extraordinary. And the soldiers of this war are not ordinary soldiers. That is why the GEETA calls it a dharma-yuddha, a righteous war, a religious war. And there is a very good reason to call it so.

Krishna does not deliver the GEETA with a view to persuading Arjuna to fight. No, he delivers it only to reveal to him his true nature, the nature of a warrior.

Here I am reminded of the story of a famous sculptor. He is busy carving a statue from a rock, when a visitor comes to watch him sculpting. The artist is working with a chisel and hammer in his hand. As he cuts away chips of rock with expert skill a statue begins to manifest itself. And then a statue of superb beauty appears before the visitor's eyes. The visitor is simply enchanted and he tells the sculptor, "Congratulations, you are a marvelous artist. I have never seen another sculptor creating such an exquisitely beautiful piece."

The artist cuts in, "You understand me wrongly. I don't create a statue, I only help manifest it. A little while ago, passing by on the street, I saw by the wayside a statue hidden in this rock. I brought the rock home and with my chisel and hammer removed the unnecessary chips from it and the unmanifest became manifest. I did not create it, I just uncovered it."

Krishna does not create Arjuna, he only uncovers him, only uncovers his self-nature. He makes him see what he is. Krishna's chisel cuts away the unnecessary and ugly parts of his personality and restores him to his pristine being and beauty. What emerges at the close of the GEETA is Arjuna's own being, his individuality. But it seems to us that Krishna has created a new statue of Arjuna. The sculptor's visitor said the same thing, that he had seen him create it with his own eyes. But this is not what a sculptor feels about his art. Many sculptors have confessed they had seen the statues inside the rocks first and only then uncovered them. Rocks speak out to sculptors that statues are hidden inside and call to be uncovered. Not all rocks are pregnant with statues; not all rocks are useful for sculpting. Sculptors know where a statue is hidden and they uncover it. This statue happens to be the being, the individuality of the rock that bears it.