He is praised in all
our history textbooks for leaving violence and accepting non-violence. He left
the kalinga war, accepted buddhism and became a buddhist.
Question: Is Ashoka really the great?
In the Bhagvat Gita
Arjuna develops “vishadam” (depression) and questions himself if
he is doing right in killing his relatives on the other side. So he says , I
will not fight and drops his bow.
He says he will be
happy taking sanyasa than fighting the Mahabharata war.
If sanyasa was
great,why did Lord Krishna not ask him to accept the sanyasa (non-violence) and
prevent the war?
Instead Lord Krishna
says pick up your bow and fight ,Arjuna you are a warrier, your “Sva -Dharma “
is to fight not take Sanyasa. If you win you will get to rule your kingdom (Rajashree),
if you lose you will be given a befitting farewell (veergati,veeraswargam) as a
kstriya at your death. But do not run away from the fight. You should not follow
somebody else’s dharma “Para Dharma” that will only bring disrepute to your
name. It is better to die in the war than to take up sanyasa.
I believe India’s doom
started in the 11th century when Ashoka followed “ Para Dharma “ or somebody else’s dharma .
His dharma or sva-dharma was to fight and protect his subjects not leave the
battle,when a person takes up somebody else’s dharma, he is doomed is well
stated in the below verse in the bhagvat
gita..
श्रेयान् स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात् स्वनुष्ठितात्।
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः॥ - Bhagvat Gita 3.35
“It is far better to perform one’s own duty (dharma), even though imperfectly, than to perform another’s duty perfectly. Death in the course of performing one’s own dharma is better; the dharma of another brings fear and danger.”
Sadly Lord Krishna was
not there for Ashoka.
I believe one should
act according to one’s dharma (Swabhava
(latent tendences),Smaskaram) .Then victory/hapiness is destined.
In the end Krishna says
to Arjuna after having listened to him , you are free to choose your way. There
was no fear or compulsion to listen to the lord , Arjuna had a free
will to either follow the path said by Krishna or to reject it.
Practically how does Bhagvat Gita be used in our daily lifes:
It is stated that
spirituality is for the people who are lost/defeated in life, no Arjuna was a person who had enough material wealth as well as victories and percise goal throughout
his life, so spirituality is for all who
desire victory and for the materialists to live a happy life.
Though remember spirituality
is not escapism from life. Infact it is handling the sucess/failures in life with an equanimous mind.
There are very stages
that the person is afraid of the ‘result’ whether he would succed or fail (in
exams ,business,marriage,elections,interviews etc).Krishna says do your work according to
dharma,irrespective of the result,whatever the result, hold it with equanimity.
Mind you Arjuna was not afraid of his opponents in the battlefield ,but was depressed due to the fact that he would have to kill his blood relatives for getting the kingdom, so he said I don’t want the kingdom and would go sannyasa. Everybody would feel that he is doing such a great service by not shedding blood and taking a path of non-violence ,everybody would praise him ,but not Krishna. Krishna told
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं
प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः॥ -Bhagvat Gita - 2.11
"You speak words of wisdom, yet you grieve
for those who should not be grieved for.
The truly wise do not lament for the living or the dead."
A warrier is born to
fight, both inward and outward.If you don’t fight here , the battle will follow
you. Don’t take the fight from your known kuruskshetra to unknown kuruskshetra’s.
PS: The above blog post has been written based on my understanding of the Bhagvad Gita and Shri L Girish Kumar video given below.
How to practise Bhagvat Gita in Daily life