Chapter Three
The Human Disciple
Note 3.4
Realisation at Sensational, Vital and Emotional Being
▀ ▄ ▀ 'Holi Day of Fight'
It is typical again of the pragmatic man that it is through his sensations that he awakens to the meaning of his action. He has asked his friend and charioteer to place him between the two armies.
The purpose of this placement is not any profounder idea. It is with the proud intention of viewing and looking in the face these myriads of the champions of unrighteousness.
He has to meet, conquer and slay these men. For him this fight is the “Holi Day of fight”. He has to do this so that the right may prevail.
At this point, without he expecting it, the revelation of the meaning of a civil and domestic war comes home to him as he gazes both these armies. This is a war in which not only men of the same race, the same nation, the same clan but also those of the same family and household stand upon opposite sides.
He must meet and slay as enemies all persons whom the social man holds most dear and sacred.
They include the worshipped teacher and preceptor, the old friend, comrade and companion in arms, grandsires, uncles, son, connections by blood and connections by marriage. All these social ties have to be cut asunder by the sword. It is not the case that he did not know these things before. However, having known them, he has never realized its emotional impact on him at all. He was too much obsessed by his claims and wrongs and by the principles of his life, the struggle for the right, the duty of the Kshatriya to protect justice and the law and fight and beat down injustice and law-less violence. He has neither thought out deeply nor felt it in his heart and at the core of his life. And now it is shown to his vision by the divine charioteer. It is placed sensationally before his eyes.
It has come home to him like a blow delivered at the very centre of his sensational, vital and emotional being.
This has multiple consequences.
▀ ▄ 1 The first result of this realisation is a violent sensational and physical crisis. This realisation has produced disgust of the action and its material objects and even of life itself. The Arjuna then rejects the vital aim pursued by egoistic humanity in its action – happiness and enjoyment.
He rejects the vital aim of the Kshatriya - victory and rule and power and government of men. He thinks that after all what is this fight for justice ? When reduced to its practical terms this fight amounts to nothing more than a fight for the interests of himself, his brothers and his party.
It is for possession and enjoyment and rule. He concludes that at such a horrible costs these things are not worth having. The rationale of this conclusion is that these things are of no value in themselves. They serve only as a means to the right maintenance of social and national life. Ironically it is these very aims that in the person of his kin and his race he is about to destroy.
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....... ▀ ▄ Chapter Three - Note 4 ▄ ▀ ........
The Human Disciple
.......... to continue
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