Real Meaning of Duty in the Mahabharata
Questioner: Hello Acharya Ji. So at times, while learning from the Gita, I get a slightly nihilistic taste of the nature of the world. And the prime example being this verse—like if everything in nature is a process or a phenomenon, we cannot label phenomena as a greater phenomenon or a lesser phenomenon, or a right phenomenon or a wrong phenomenon.
So, my question is: then why should Krishna or Arjuna care if they win the war? Like, Arjuna's duty is to kill the embodied on the other side and to win the war is a natural process. So would be the case if Duryodhan wins it? So, all this Gyan could have been given to Arjuna despite the outcome of the war or the war itself.
Similarly, in our day-to-day life, why should we care so much if a crime, let's say, is committed? Why not just label it as a natural process and smile instead of taking serious actions against the criminal, on which the institution of laws is based?
Acharya Prashant: Your entire question began with: If everything in nature is a phenomenon.
Questioner: Yes, that's— I mean, I have a— that's not— I mean, yeah...That sounds like—
Acharya Prashant: Please wait, wait, wait. If everything in nature is a phenomenon, to whom? To you, right?
Questioner: Yeah.
Acharya Prashant: Now, is everything in nature a phenomenon? Change the if with is.
Questioner: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: To you, is everything in nature a phenomenon?
Questioner: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: Then you are Shri Krishna.
Questioner: I mean—so, that's what we learned today, isn't it?
Acharya Prashant: Sir, we— we are not talking ideals here. To you— forget about the if, get into the is. If is imagination, right? If is imagination, and your entire question began with an if.
Questioner: Yes
Acharya Prashant: Okay. So, replace the if with is. To you, is everything in nature a phenomenon?
Questioner: I mean, if I say no, would I be contradicting the truth?
Acharya Prashant: How does that matter? We are asking for the fact. When you see things, huh? The way you lead your daily life, do you look at people as processes?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: So then the if has been answered, right?
Questioner: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: To you, stuff in the world is not phenomenal. To you, stuff in the world is meaningful and purposeful. What does phenomenon mean?
Phenomenon basically means illusion, and the purpose of all spirituality is to heal your suffering. Is the world a phenomenon to you? No. Therefore, you suffer. And therefore, you must be shown that the world is a phenomenon, right?
Questioner: Right.
Acharya Prashant: And therefore, some action has to be taken. Shri Krishna is bringing Arjuna towards that action through this Gyan. Therefore, this Gyan is needed.
The purpose of spirituality is not to deliver you abstract concepts; it is to relieve you of your suffering.
Always begin from your inner condition. Your inner condition is of illusion and consequent suffering. It's not that Shri Krishna told you that the world is phenomenal, so you start saying, If the world is phenomenal...
Vedanta asks: For whom? To you, it is not phenomenal.
Therefore, you have to learn that it is phenomenal, and that's what the Gita is about. What Arjun is doing is that he is embarking on a course of action that will keep proving to him that the phenomenon is not a phenomenon but a reality.
He says, ‘Those are people, not processes.’ And if you believe in something too much and for too long, then that belief becomes your truth.
Shri Krishna does not want Arjun to continue in his beliefs because that would be a false truth. He's saying, Oh, I'll kill those people. They are not people at all; they are processes. But if you keep believing that they are people, you'll also keep believing that you are a person. And if you are a person, your suffering will continue.
So, all these are questions arising from bad logic, and they have always been there.
Well, if the world is just an illusion, why should we bother with the right action?Well, if the rabbit is just a phenomenon, why should I not kill it and eat it? I have not killed anybody. My Lord! There has been no murder because there was no person at all. That is only a process. Why are you sending me to jail? I didn’t kill anybody because there was no person in the first place! So, all these are instances of bad logic.
If you are saying there was no person, first of all, prove to me that you do not think of yourself as a person. There might, in the absolute sense, have been no person, but to you, there was a person. Therefore, in your own frame of reference, you did commit a murder. Therefore, you will be punished.
And therefore, the objective of all punishment has to be to bring you out of your own frame of reference. That's the objective of punishment—to beat the nonsense out of you, to beat your own personal frame of reference out of you. And that's what is called bringing you back to your senses.
Did the murder happen? In your own frame of reference, it did happen, didn’t it happen?
Had you known that there is nothing called a murder, you wouldn’t have shot at that person in the first place because you already know you cannot kill him. Then why will you fire at him?
In your own sense, in your own inner world, you did think that the person dies, right? And hence, you fired at the person. So, in your own world, you did commit a murder. And therefore, in your own world, you must face punishment.
It’s all with respect to somebody—that’s Vedanta. It always asks: For whom? To whom?
Questioner: Thank you, Acharya Ji. Got it.
