Arjuna Vishada Yoga
Chapter 1, Verses 33-36
yeṣām arthe kāṅkṣitaṁ no
rājyaṁ bhogāḥ sukhāni ca
ta ime’ vasthitā yuddhe
prāṇāṁs tyaktvā dhanāni ca
ācāryāḥ pitaraḥ putrāṁs
tathaiva ca pitāmahāḥ
mātulāḥ śvaśurāḥ pautrāḥ
śyālāḥ sambandhinas tathā
etān na hantum icchāmi
ghnato’pi madhusūdana
api trailokya rājyasya
hetoḥ kiṁ nu mahīkṛte
nihatya dhārtarāṣṭrān naḥ
kiṁ prītiḥ syāj-janārdana
pāpam evāśrayed asmān
hatvaitān ātatāyinaḥ
What is a kingdom to us, O Govinda, what enjoyment, what is even life? Those
for whose sake we desire a kingdom, enjoyments and pleasures, they stand
here in battle, abandoning life and riches – teachers, fathers, sons, as well as
grandsires, brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and others of
kin; these I would not consent to slay, though myself slain, O Madhusudana,
even for the kingdom of the three worlds, how then for Earth? What pleasures
can be ours after killing the sons of Dhritarashtra, O Janardana?
In this verse, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Govinda, the One who is the knower
of the Vedas. Arjuna knows that pleasures and riches are not permanent. Deep in the
core of the mind, deep in the feeling of the heart, everyone knows that one should
not be attached to these things. But one gets trapped into pleasures and enjoyment.
One has the deep feeling that one should not do this, but one always follows what the
mind is saying. Because the mind is always focused on gaining, on having more and
more and more things that one can’t even use. We never listen to the feeling in the
heart. The heart knows that nothing is permanent. That’s why Arjuna says, “For what
use will all this be? Today we are enjoying it, but tomorrow we will not be here. Now
we are fighting a big war, but tomorrow we will have to let go of everything.”
For example, you are working in the outside world, no? People in the outside
world work all day. It’s slavery. Day and night they work, seven days a week they go
and work. You ask them, why are you working? They say, “We are doing it for the sake of our children,” or “We are doing it for the sake of something else.” You may ask,
“What do you gain by doing that?” It is good to work, it is very important to work, yes!
But if you become a slave to work, it has lost its meaning, life itself has lost its meaning.
You are running after gain, and gain, and gain. What will we still have tomorrow? You
don’t know when life will end.
Two years ago, a girl I knew in Mauritius was crying, crying, and crying. I asked,
“Why are you crying?” She said, “My dad is terribly sick and I think he will die. The
saddest thing is that just last week he stopped working, and planned to enjoy and go on nice holidays. But he is very ill and in the hospital.” You can’t predict! You can’t say,
“Yes, now I am doing this, and later on, I will do that.” The time is now – this is the only
reality! You work and get a lot of money, then when you want to enjoy that money,
life leaves you. Who will enjoy that money? Your children? They will have to earn their
own living one day, because everybody has to make their own path in life. Hold on to
the Feet of the Lord, attain Him, do your dharma! In the mind, always focus on Him!
Serve Him! Do whatever you do with His blessing and His Love!
“Those for whose sake we desire a kingdom”: here Arjuna says, “I want this
kingdom not for myself, but for them! Those for whose sake we desire a kingdom,
enjoyments and pleasures, they stand here in battle, abandoning life and riches. I
want all these things for them, but now it is finished! How will they enjoy it? How will
we enjoy it?” To enjoy, we also need other people to enjoy it. If the people are not
there, how will we enjoy? This shows the impermanence of this world, where one
is always running after things, sorting out this and that – but at the end, everything
is taken away. When death comes, all is gone. The only real enjoyment is to enjoy
every second in remembering the Divine – so that on the other side, you can carry on
enjoying His blessing.
Arjuna says, “These I would not consent to slay, though myself slain. I would rather kill myself than kill these people.” He would rather oppose himself than his relatives who were fighting on the opposition’s side. “What will this do? I want to fight and get my kingdom, yet I am doing this for their sake, not for my sake. If I kill them, for whose sake will I do it? For myself? I don’t need it!”
“These people, who are my teachers, fathers, sons, as well as grandsires,
brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and others of kin; these I would not consent to slay, though myself slain, O Madhusudana, even for the kingdom of the three worlds.” Arjuna continues, “Even if I get all the riches of the three worlds, why would I kill these people? It will bring no good in this world or the next.”
The three worlds: when one surrenders to the spiritual field, one receives great
boons on the physical, the mental, and the spiritual levels. Arjuna says, “The blessings are not permanent in the three worlds. I am not desiring the riches of the three worlds.”
It is very important to know that in his confused state, Arjuna is also rising at the same time. Even if all this sadness and all these negative thoughts are arising inside of him, in reality, they are purifying what is deep inside of his heart and bringing it out. Even on the spiritual path, people always want to gain certain things. Even in this, if what you do is not in the service of God, what you gain becomes useless. Everything that you gain on the physical, mental and spiritual levels has to be for the service of God.
Then it has its use. But if it is for personal gain, for personal benefit, it loses its value.
That’s why here, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Madhusudana, the slayer of the demon Madhu, the slayer of ignorance – to remind one that one can be in ignorance even
on the spiritual path by getting attached to benefits, punya. One gets attached to the blessing, to the spiritual gain, to the siddhis or whatever. The only aim is to attain
God’s Love and God’s Grace. That’s the only aim of the soul: to attain Him.
Arjuna says, “What pleasures can be ours after killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?”
Ever since they were young, the Kauravas had been trying to kill the Pandavas. But here, Arjuna forgets about all this. That’s what compassion does: out of compassion, you feel for others. If you don’t have compassion, you are proud. If Krishna had not made this compassion arise in the heart of Arjuna, had not put him in such state, Arjuna would be very aggressive and proud of himself. Krishna is making Arjuna say
all this. Arjuna addresses Krishna saying, “O Janardana, what pleasure would there be in killing these aggressors, these sons of Dhritarashtra?” But it is not about killing them, it is about transforming them.
Bhagavad Gita
