In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna giving an “assurance” to Duryodhana that He is not going to take any weapon in His hands and fight the war. Bhagawan Krishna reiterates His stance to Duryodhana that He will only be merely present near Arjuna during the war and He will not do anything else other than that! This makes Duryodhana extremely happy, but the larger question here is whether there is another trap that is being laid by Bhagawan Krishna, which Duryodhana is not understanding! Indeed, if we analyze Bhagawan Krishna’s answer deeply, we’re going to find enormous truths hidden inside! Let us discuss this in a bit of detail as we move on further!
Even as Duryodhana is convinced and Bhagawan Krishna gives a “convincing” answer to him, certain questions remain – Does Bhagawan Krishna even need a weapon in hand to win a war? Even further, does Bhagawan Krishna even need to be present in the battlefield to help Arjuna win the war? There are several dimensions through which we can approach these questions – One dimension is that, Bhagawan is omni-potent! He can create and destroy the entire world with just a wink of His eyes! This is reiterated in the Vedas at several places. Bhagawan has the entire power to create thousands of “Jeevatmas” at the same time and also to destroy several thousands of them at the same time as well! Hence, Bhagawan being present in the battlefield where just a few hundreds of people are fighting, doesn’t really matter! If He wants, He can destroy all the hundreds of people at one stretch, with just one inhalation and exhalation of His breath! All that is required is just one “Sankalpa” (Divine will & wish) from Bhagawan to do it! The second dimension is more important here – If Bhagawan is able to do everything by Himself, why at all should He be present in the battlefield? We’ve to understand the deeper sense here – The battlefield for a “Kshatrya” prince is a “Karma-Bhoomi” – The place where he performs his duty. Arjuna and the others in the Paandava camp are “Kshatrya” princes. The place where they should execute their duties is Kurukshetra battlefield. Moreover, the duties should be executed according to the path of “Dharma”. To guide these “Kshatrya” princes towards the path of “Dharma”, someone should be there as a “Guru” or a teacher, isn’t it? This “someone” is none other than Bhagawan Krishna! 🙂 Thus, the role of Bhagawan Krishna when He is marking His divine presence in the battlefield is to be a “Guru” and to guide Arjuna, Yudishtra, and the others towards the path of “Dharma”. Thus, even though Bhagawan is not going to take the weapon in His hand, His able guidance during the war is going to mean a lot to Arjuna.
Moreover, even if Bhagawan might be capable of accomplishing anything and everything in this world, why is He stepping behind and is not willing to do it on His own? This is another dimension through which we can view – Even though Bhagawan might be omni-potent, He wants Arjuna to do his duty meticulously. He doesn’t want Arjuna to escape from his duty and put everything on Bhagawan Krishna’s shoulders! Most of the time we also tend to do this – We tend to duck our responsibilities by saying that Bhagawan will take care of everything! Of course, Bhagawan will take care of everything, but, isn’t it our duty to put in the right effort? Thus, the underlying message here is that surrender to Bhagawan is important. However, in the pretext of surrendering to Bhagawan, shall we leave out all our responsibilities and escape away? The answer is “No”! We should still carry out our responsibilities and tasks, and leave the results of them to Bhagawan. We should put in the right effort towards whatever we’re doing and then surrender the results of our actions to Bhagawan. This is something that all of us have to understand as we move forward.
So for today, let us ponder over this bigger message that Bhagawan Krishna and in fact, He Himself is going to elaborate this during His Bhagawad Gita accord. We shall witness a more detailed accord on this subject at that time, but for now, let us understand the crux of this message. We shall wait till the next episode to continue further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 