MantraOnNet.com: Bhagavad Gita – Chapter II

• sva-dharmam api
• caveksya na vikampitum
• arhasi dharmyad dhi
• yuddhac chreyo
• nyat ksatriyasya na

Considering your specific duty as a ksatriya, you should know that
there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious
principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.

Purport:
Out of the four orders of social administration, the second order, for
the matter of good administration, is called ksatriya. Ksal means
hurt. One who gives protection from harm is called ksatriya
(trayate?to give protection). The ksatriyas are trained for killing in
the forest. A kshatriya would go into the forest and challenge a tiger
face to face and fight with the tiger with his sword. When the tiger
was killed, it would be offered the royal order of cremation. This
system has been followed even up to the present day by the ksatriya
kings of Jaipur state. The ksatriyas are specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, kshatriyas are never meant for accepting directly the order of sannydsa, or renunciation. Nonviolence in
politics may be a diplomacy, but it is never a factor or principle. In
the religious law books it is stated:

“In the battlefield, a king or ksatriya, while fighting another king
envious of him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death,
as the brahmanas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing
animals in the sacrificial fire.”

Therefore, killing on the battlefield on
religious principles and killing animals in the sacrificial fire are not at
all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefited by
the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human
life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the ksatriyas killed on the
battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the brahmanas who
attain them by offering sacrifice.

There are two kinds of sva-dharmas, specific duties. As long as
one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of his particular
body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve
liberation. When one is liberated, one’s sva-dharma-specific
duty-becomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. In
the bodily conception of life there are specific duties for the brahmanas and ksatriyas respectively, and such duties are unavoidable.
Sva-dharma is ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified in the
Fourth Chapter. On the bodily plane sva-dharma is called
varndsrama-dharma, or man’s steppingstone for spiritual under-
standing. Human civilization begins from the stage o{ varnasrama-
dharma, or specific duties in terms of the specific modes of nature of
the body obtained. Discharging one’s specific duty in any field of
action in accordance with the orders of higher authorities serves to
elevate one to a higher status of life.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:

0 Partha, happy are the kshatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets.

Purport:
As supreme teacher of the world. Lord Krishna condemns the attitude
of Arjun, who said, “I do not find any good in this fighting. It will
cause perpetual habitation in hell.” Such statements by Arjun were
due to ignorance only. He wanted to become nonviolent in the
discharge of his specific duty. For a kshatriya to be on the battlefield
and to become nonviolent is the philosophy of fools. In the
Pardsara-smrti, or religious codes made by Parasara, the great sage
and father of Vyasadeva, it is stated:

“The kshatriya’s duty is to protect the citizens from all kinds of
difficulties, and for that reason he has to apply violence in suitable
cases for law and order. Therefore he has to conquer the soldiers of
inimical kings, and thus, with religious principles, he should rule
over the world.”

Considering all aspects, Arjun had no reason to refrain from
fighting. If he should conquer his enemies, he would enjoy the
kingdom; and if he should die in the battle, he would be elevated to
the heavenly planets, whose doors were wide open to him. Fighting
would be for his benefit in either case.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:

If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of fighting, then
you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose
your reputation as a fighter.

Purport:
Arjun was a famous fighter, and he attained fame by fighting many
great demigods, including even Lord Siva. After fighting and defeating Lord Siva in the dress of a hunter, Arjun pleased the lord and
received as a reward a weapon called pdsupata-astra. Everyone
knew that he was a great warrior. Even Dronacarya gave him
benedictions and awarded him the special weapon by which he could
kill even his teacher.

So he was credited with so many military
certificates from many authorities, including his adopted father
Indra, the heavenly king. But if he abandoned the battle, not only

would he neglect his specific duty as a ksatriya, but he would lose all
his fame and good name and thus prepare his royal road to hell. In
other words, he would go to hell, not by fighting, but by withdrawing
from battle.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:
People will always speak of your infamy, and for a respectable
person, dishonor is worse than death.

Purport:
Both as friend and philosopher to Arjun, Lord Krishna now gives His
final judgment regarding Arjun’s refusal to fight. The Lord says,
“Arjun, if you leave the battlefield before the battle even begins,
people will call you a coward. And if you think that people may call
you bad names but that you will save your life by fleeing the
battlefield, then My advice is that you’d do better to die in the battle.
For a respectable man like you, ill fame is worse than death. So, you
should not flee for fear of your life; better to die in the battle. That
will save you from the ill fame of misusing My friendship and from
losing your prestige in society.”

So, the final judgment of the Lord was for Arjun to die in the
battle and not withdraw.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:
The great generals who have highly esteemed your name and fame
will think that you have left the battlefield out of fear only, and thus
they will consider you insignificant.

Purport:

Lord Krishna continued to give His verdict to Arjun: “Do not think
that the great generals like Duryodhana, Kama, and other contem-
poraries will think that you have left the battlefield out of compassion for your brothers and grandfather. They will think that you
have left out of fear for your life. And thus their high estimation of
your personality will go to hell.”

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:

Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words and scorn
your ability. What could be more painful for you?

Purport:
Lord Krishna was astonished in the beginning at Arjun’s uncalled-for
plea for compassion, and He described his compassion as befitting
the non-Aryans. Now in so many words. He has proved His state-
ments against Arjun’s so-called compassion.

Sanskrit working:

English Translation:

0 son of Kunti, either you will be killed on the battlefield and attain
the heavenly planets, or you will conquer and enjoy the earthly
kingdom. Therefore, get up with determination and fight

Purport:
Even though there was no certainty of victory for Arjun’s side, he
still had to fight; for, even being killed there, he could be elevated
into the heavenly planets.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:

Do thou fight for the sake of fighting, without considering happiness
or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat-and by so doing you shall
never incur sin.

Purport:
Lord Krishna now directly says that Arjun should fight for the sake of
fighting because He desires the battle. There is no consideration of
happiness or distress, profit or gain, victory or defeat in the activities
of Krishna consciousness. That everything should be performed for
the sake of Krishna is transcendental consciousness; so there is no
reaction to material activities.

He who acts for his own sense gratification, either in goodness or in passion, is subject to the reaction,
good or bad. But he who has completely surrendered himself in the
activities of Krishna consciousness is no longer obliged to anyone, nor
is he a debtor to anyone, as one is in the ordinary course of activities.
It is said:

“Anyone who has completely surrendered unto Krishna, Mukunda,
giving up all other duties, is no longer a debtor, nor is he obliged to
anyone-not the demigods, nor the sages, nor the people in general,
nor kinsmen, nor humanity, nor forefathers.” That is
the indirect hint given by Krishna to Arjun in this verse, and the
matter will be more clearly explained in the following verses.

Sanskrit working:

English Wording:

English Translation:

Thus far I have described this knowledge to you through analytical
study. Now listen as I explain it in terms of working without fruitive
results. 0 son of Prtha, when you act in such knowledge you can free
yourself from the bondage of works.

Purport:
According to the Nirukti, or the Vedic dictionary, sankhyd means
that which describes things in detail, and sdnkhya refers to that
philosophy which describes the real nature of the soul. And yoga
involves controlling the senses. Arjun’s proposal not to fight was
based on sense gratification. Forgetting his prime duty, he wanted to
cease fighting, because he thought that by not killing his relatives
and kinsmen he would be happier than by enjoying the kingdom
after conquering his cousins and brothers, the sons of Dhrtarastra.
In both ways, the basic principles were for sense gratification. Hap-
piness derived from conquering them and happiness derived by
seeing kinsmen alive are both on the basis of personal sense gratification, even at a sacrifice of wisdom and duty. Krishna, therefore,
wanted to explain to Arjun that by killing the body of his grand-
father he would not be killing the soul proper, and He explained that
all individual persons, including the Lord Himself, are eternal individuals; they were individuals in the past, they are individuals in the
present, and they will continue to remain individuals in the future,
because all of us are individual souls eternally. We simply change our
bodily dress in different manners, but actually we keep our individuality even after liberation from the bondage of material dress.
An analytical study of the soul and the body has been very graphically explained by Lord Krishna. And this descriptive knowledge of
the soul and the body from different angles of vision has been
described here as Sankhya, in terms of the Nirukti dictionary.

This
Sankhya has nothing to do with Sankhya philosophy of the
atheist Kapila. Long before the imposter Kapila’s Sankhya, the
Sankhya philosophy was expounded in the Srimad- Bhagavatam by
the true Lord Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Krishna, who explained
it to His mother, Devahuti. It is clearly explained by Him that the
purusa, or the Supreme Lord, is active and that He creates by
looking over the prakrti. This is accepted in the Vedas and in the
Gita. The description in the Vedas indicates that the Lord glanced
over the prakrti, or nature, and impregnated it with atomic indi-
vidual souls. All these individuals are working in the material world
for sense gratification, and under the spell of material energy they
are thinking of being enjoyers. This mentality is dragged to the last
point of liberation when the living entity wants to become one with
the Lord. This is the last snare of mayd, or sense gratificatory
illusion, and it is only after many, many births of such sense gratifi-
catory activities that a great soul surrenders unto Vasudeva, Lord
Krishna, thereby fulfilling the search after the ultimate truth.

Arjun has already accepted Krishna as his spiritual master by
surrendering himself unto Him: sisyas te ‘ham sddhi mdm tvdm
prapannam. Consequently, Krishna will now tell him about the work-
ing process in buddhi-yoga, or karma-yoga, or in other words, the
practice of devotional service only for the sense gratification of the
Lord. This buddhi-yoga is clearly explained in Chapter Ten, verse
ten, as being direct communion with the Lord, who is sitting as
Paramatma in everyone’s heart. But such communion does not take
place without devotional service. One who is therefore situated in
devotional or transcendental loving service to the Lord, or, in other
words, in Krishna consciousness, attains to this stage of buddhi-yoga
by the special grace of the Lord. The Lord says, therefore, that only
to those who are always engaged in devotional service out of tran-
scendental love does He award the pure knowledge of devotion in
love. In that way the devotee can reach Him easily in the ever-blissful
kingdom of God.

Thus the buddhi-yoga mentioned in this verse is the devotional
service of the Lord, and the word Sankhya mentioned herein has
nothing to do with the atheistic sankhya-yoga enunciated by the
impostor Kapila. One should not, therefore, misunderstand that the
sankhya-yoga mentioned herein has any connection with the
atheistic Sankhya. Nor did that philosophy have any influence
during that time; nor would Lord Krishna care to mention such
godless philosophical speculations. Real Sankhya philosophy is
described by Lord Kapila in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, but even that
Sankhya has nothing to do with the current topics. Here, Sankhya
means analytical description of the body and the soul. Lord Krishna
made an analytical description of the soul just to bring Arjun to the
point of buddhi-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Therefore, Lord Krishna’s
Sankhya and Lord Kapila’s Sankhya, as described in the Bhagavatam, are one and the same. They are all bhakti-yoga. Lord Krishna
said, therefore, that only the less intelligent class of men make a
distinction between sankhya-yoga and bhakti-yoga.

Of course, atheistic sankhya-yoga has nothing to do with bhakti-
yoga, yet the unintelligent claim that the atheistic sankhya-yoga is
referred to in the Bhagavad-gita.

One should therefore understand that buddhi-yoga means to
work in Krishna consciousness, in the full bliss and knowledge of
devotional service. One who works for the satisfaction of the Lord
only, however difficult such work may be, is working under the
principles ofbuddhi-yoga and finds himself always in transcendental
bliss. By such transcendental engagement, one achieves all transcendental understanding automatically, by the grace of the Lord,
and thus his liberation is complete in itself, without his making
extraneous endeavors to acquire knowledge. There is much differ-
ence between work in Krishna consciousness and work for fruitive
results, especially in the matter of sense gratification for achieving
results in terms of family or material happiness. Buddhi-yoga is
therefore the transcendental quality of the work that we perform.

Sanskrit working:

English wording:

English Translation:
In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.

Purport:

Activity in Krishna consciousness, or acting for the benefit of Krishna
without expectation of sense gratification, is the highest transcendental quality of work. Even a small beginning of such activity finds
no impediment, nor can that small beginning be lost at any stage.
Any work begun on the material plane has to be completed, other-
wise the whole attempt becomes a failure. But any work begun in
Krishna consciousness has a permanent effect, even though not
finished. The performer of such work is therefore not at a loss even if
his work in Krishna consciousness is incomplete. One percent done in
Krishna consciousness bears permanent results, so that the next
beginning is from the point of two percent, whereas in material
activity without a hundred percent success there is no profit. Ajamila
performed his duty in some percentage of Krishna consciousness, but
the result he enjoyed at the end was a hundred percent, by the grace
of the Lord. There is a nice verse in this connection in Snmad-
Bhagavatam:

“If someone gives up his occupational duties and works in Krishna
consciousness and then falls down on account of not completing his
work, what loss is there on his part? And what can one gain if one
performs his material activities perfectly?” Or, as the Christians say,
“What profit is a man if he gain the whole world yet suffers the loss
of his eternal soul?”

Material activities and their results end with the body. But work in
Krishna consciousness carries a person again to Krishna consciousness,
even after the loss of the body. At least one is sure to have a chance in the next life of being born again as a human being, either in the
family of a great cultured brdhmana or in a rich aristocratic family
that will give one a further chance for elevation. That is the unique
quality of work done in Krishna consciousness.