Chapter 4
Core of the Teaching
Gita is not a Political Science or Ethical Sophistry
▀ ▄ ▀ Dilemma of Arjuna
In the case of Arjuna, the situation is still more complicated. The action which he must do is one from which his moral sense recoils. It may be said that it is his duty to fight. But this very sense of duty has now become to his mind a terrible sin. It will not help him a bit if he is told that he must do his duty disinterestedly, dispassionately. Nor will it solve his difficulty.
Arjuna will then want to know as to how the above advice can be his duty when it leads to a bloody massacre of his kin, his race and his country. Arjuna is told that he has right on his side. But that does not and can not satisfy him. His very point is that the justice of his legal claim does not justify him in supporting the notion of duty which results in pitiless massacre destructive to the future of his nation.
In such a dilemma, does it mean that Arjuna has to perform his duty by acting in a dispassionate manner in the sense of not caring whether it is a sin or what its consequences may be so long as he does his duty like a soldier. This concept of the duty of a soldier may be the teaching of a State, of politicians, of lawyers, of ethical casuists. It can never be the teaching of a great religious and philosophical Scripture of the Gita which sets out to solve the problem of life and action from the very roots.
If we accept that it is what the Gita has to say on a most stirring moral and spiritual problem, then we must put it out of the list of the world’s Scriptures. We have to then thrust it , if anywhere, into our library of political science and ethical sophistry.
Relative applicability of the teaching of the Gita
We have to note that the Gita advocates separate teaching for
▀ A man in the advanced stage of spiritual development and
▀ A man living in ordinary consciousness
There is no doubt that the Gita does teach the equality which rises above sin and virtue, beyond good and evil. It is similar to the teaching of the Upanishads. However, the Gita does it only as a part of the Brahmic consciousness and for the man who is on the path and advanced enough to fulfill the supreme rule. It does not preach indifference to good and evil for the ordinary life of man. If it does preach this indifference, then it would have the most destructive consequences to the ordinary life of man.
･ﾟﾟ･:.｡..｡.:ﾟ::✼✿ - *▀ ▄ Chapter Four - Core of the Teaching ▄ ▀ ✿✼:ﾟ:.｡..｡.:･ﾟﾟ･
End of Note Six
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