{"id":1399,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:33","slug":"07-kurukshetra-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13\/07-kurukshetra-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-07_Kurukshetra.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nFIVE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nKurukshetra<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nB<\/font><\/b>EFORE<\/font>
\nwe can proceed, following in the large steps of the Teacher of the Gita, to
\nwatch his tracing of the triune path of man, \u2013 the path which is that of his
\nwill, heart, thought raising themselves to the Highest and into the being of
\nthat which is the supreme object of all action, love and knowledge, we must
\nconsider once more the situation from which the Gita arises, but now in its
\nlargest bearings as a type of human life and even of all world-existence. For
\nalthough Arjuna is himself concerned only with his own situation, his inner
\nstruggle and the law of action he must follow, yet, as we have seen, the particular
\nquestion he raises, in the manner in which he raises it, does really bring up
\nthe whole question of human life and action, what the world is and why it is
\nand how possibly, it being what it is, life here in the world can be reconciled
\nwith life in the Spirit. And all this deep and difficult matter the Teacher
\ninsists on resolving as the very foundation of his command to an action which
\nmust proceed from a new poise of being and by the light of a liberating
\nknowledge. <\/p>\n

But what, then,
\nis it that makes the difficulty for the man who has to take the world as it is
\nand act in it and yet would live, within, the spiritual life? What is this
\naspect of existence which appals his awakened mind and brings about what the title
\nof the first chapter of the Gita calls significantly the Yoga of the dejection
\nof Arjuna, the dejection and discouragement felt by the human being when he is
\nforced to face the spectacle of the universe as it really is with the veil of
\nthe ethical illusion, the illusion of self-righteousness torn from his eyes,
\nbefore a higher reconciliation with himself is effected? It is that aspect
\nwhich is figured outwardly in the carnage and massacre of Kurukshetra and
\nspiritually by the vision of the Lord of all things as Time arising to devour
\nand destroy the creatures whom it has made.  <\/p>\n

\nPage 36<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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 This is the vision of the Lord of
\nall existence as the universal Creator but also the universal Destroyer, of
\nwhom the ancient Scripture can say in a ruthless image, \u201cThe sages and the
\nheroes are his food and death is the spice of his banquet.\u201d It is one and the
\nsame truth seen first indirectly and obscurely in the facts of life and then
\ndirectly and clearly in the soul’s vision of that which manifests itself in
\nlife. The outward aspect is that of world-existence and human existence
\nproceeding by struggle and slaughter; the inward aspect is that of the
\nuniversal Being fulfilling himself in a vast creation and a vast destruction.
\nLife a battle and a field of death, this is Kurukshetra; God the Terrible, this
\nis the vision that Arjuna sees on that field of massacre. <\/p>\n

War, said
\nHeraclitus, is the father of all things, War is the king of all; and the
\nsaying, like most of the apophthegms of the Greek thinker, suggests a profound
\ntruth. From a clash of material or other forces everything in this world, if
\nnot the world itself, seems to be born; by a struggle of forces, tendencies,
\nprinciples, beings it seems to proceed, ever creating new things, ever
\ndestroying the old, marching one knows not very well whither, \u2013 to a final
\nself-destruction, say some; in an unending series of vain cycles, say others;
\nin progressive cycles, is the most optimistic conclusion, leading through
\nwhatever trouble and apparent confusion towards a higher and higher
\napproximation to some divine apocalypse. However that may be, this is certain
\nthat there is not only no construction here without destruction, no harmony
\nexcept by a poise of contending forces won out of many actual and potential
\ndiscords, but also no continued existence of life except by a constant self-feeding
\nand devouring of other life. Our very bodily life is a constant dying and being
\nreborn, the body itself a beleaguered city attacked by assailing, protected by
\ndefending forces whose business is to devour each other: and this is only a
\ntype of all our existence. The command seems to have gone out from the
\nbeginning, \u201cThou shalt not conquer except by battle with thy fellows and thy
\nsurroundings; thou shalt not even live except by battle and struggle and by
\nabsorbing into thyself other life. The first law of this world that I have made
\nis creation and preservation by destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ancient thought accepted this
\nstarting-point so far as it <\/p>\n

\nPage 37<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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 could see it by scrutiny of the
\nuniverse. The old Upanishads saw it very clearly and phrased it with an
\nuncompromising thoroughness which will have nothing to do with any honeyed
\nglosses or optimistic scuttlings of the truth. Hunger that is Death, they said,
\nis the creator and master of this world, and they figured vital existence in
\nthe image of the Horse of the sacrifice. Matter they described by a name which
\nmeans ordinarily food and they said, we call it food because it is devoured and
\ndevours creatures. The eater eating is eaten, this is the formula of the material
\nworld, as the Darwinians rediscovered when they laid it down that the struggle
\nfor life is the law of evolutionary existence. Modern science has only
\nrephrased the old truths that had already been expressed in much more forcible,
\nwide and accurate formulas by the apophthegm of Heraclitus and the figures
\nemployed by the Upanishads. <\/p>\n

Nietzsche’s
\ninsistence upon war as an aspect of life and the ideal man as a warrior, \u2013 the
\ncamel-man he may be to begin with and the child-man hereafter, but the lion-man
\nhe must become in the middle, if he is to attain his perfection, \u2013 these now
\nmuch-decried theories of Nietzsche have, however much we may differ from many
\nof the moral and practical conclusions he drew from them, their undeniable
\njustification and recall us to a truth we like to hide out of sight. It is good
\nthat we should be reminded of it; first, because to see it has for every strong
\nsoul a tonic effect which saves us from the flabbiness and relaxation
\nencouraged by a too mellifluous philosophic, religious or ethical
\nsentimentalism, that which loves to look upon Nature as love and life and
\nbeauty and good, but turns away from her grim mask of death, adoring God as
\nShiva but refusing to adore him as Rudra; secondly, because unless we have the
\nhonesty and courage to look<\/p>\n

existence straight in the face,
\nwe shall never arrive at any effective solution of its discords and
\noppositions. We must see first what life and the world are; afterwards, we can
\nall the better set about finding the right way to transform them into what they
\nshould be. If this repellent aspect of existence holds in itself some secret of
\nthe final harmony, we shall by ignoring or belittling it miss that secret and
\nall our efforts at a solution will fail by fault of our self-indulgent ignoring
\nof the true elements of the problem.<\/p>\n

\nPage 38<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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If, on the other hand, it is an
\nenemy to be beaten down, trampled on, excised, eliminated, still we gain
\nnothing by underrating its power and hold upon life or refusing to see how
\nfirmly it is rooted in the effective past and the actually operative principles
\nof existence. <\/p>\n

War and
\ndestruction are not only a universal principle of our life here in its purely
\nmaterial aspects, but also of our mental and moral existence. It is
\nself-evident that in the actual life of man intellectual, social, political,
\nmoral we can make no real step forward without a struggle, a battle between
\nwhat exists and lives and what seeks to exist and live and between all that
\nstands behind either. It is impossible, at least as men and things are, to
\nadvance, to grow, to fulfil and still to observe really and utterly that
\nprinciple of harmlessness which is yet placed before us as the highest and best
\nlaw of conduct. We will use only soul-force and never destroy by war or any
\neven defensive employment of physical violence? Good, though until soul-force
\nis effective, the Asuric force in men and nations tramples down, breaks,
\nslaughters, burns, pollutes, as we see it doing today, but then at its ease and
\nunhindered, and you have perhaps caused as much destruction of life by your abstinence
\nas others by resort to violence; still you have set up an ideal which may some
\nday and at any rate ought to lead up to better things. But even soul-force,
\nwhen it is effective, destroys. Only those who have used it with eyes open,
\nknow how much more terrible and destructive it is than the sword and the
\ncannon; and only those who do not limit their view to the act and its immediate
\nresults, can see how tremendous are its after-effects, how much is eventually
\ndestroyed and with that much all the life that depended on it and fed upon it.
\nEvil cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil, and
\nit is no less destruction even if we personally are saved the pain of a
\nsensational act of violence. <\/p>\n

Moreover, every
\ntime we use soul-force we raise a great force of Karma against our adversary,
\nthe after-movements of which we have no power to control. Vasishtha uses
\nsoul-force against the military violence of Vishwamitra and armies of Huns and
\nShakas and Pallavas hurl themselves on the aggressor. The very quiescence and
\npassivity of the spiritual man under violence and aggression awakens the
\ntremendous forces of the world to a retributive <\/p>\n

\nPage 39<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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action; and it may even be more
\nmerciful to stay in their path, though by force, those who represent evil than
\nto allow them to trample on until they call down on themselves a worse destruction
\nthan we would ever think of inflicting. It is not enough that our own hands
\nshould remain clean and our souls unstained for the law of strife and destruction
\nto die out of the world; that which is its root must first disappear out of
\nhumanity. Much less will mere immobility and inertia unwilling to use or
\nincapable of using any kind of resistance to evil, abrogate the law; inertia,
\ntamas, indeed, injures much more than can the rajasic principle of strife which
\nat least creates more than it destroys. Therefore, so far as the problem of the
\nindividual’s action goes, his abstention from strife and its inevitable
\nconcomitant destruction in their more gross and physical form may help his own
\nmoral being, but it leaves the Slayer of creatures unabolished. <\/p>\n

For the rest the
\nwhole of human history bears witness to the inexorable vitality and persistent
\nprevalence of this principle in the world. It is natural that we should attempt
\nto palliate, to lay stress on other aspects. Strife and destruction are not
\nall; there is the saving principle of association and mutual help as well as
\nthe force of dissociation and mutual strife; a power of love no less than a
\npower of egoistic self-assertion; an impulse to sacrifice ourselves for others
\nas well as the impulse to sacrifice others to ourselves. But when we see how
\nthese have actually worked, we shall not be tempted to gloss over or ignore the
\npower of their opposites. Association has been worked not only for mutual help,
\nbut at the same time for defence and aggression, to strengthen us against all
\nthat attacks or resists in the struggle for life. Association itself has been a
\nservant of war, egoism and the self-assertion of life against life. Love itself
\nhas been constantly a power of death. Especially the love of good and the love
\nof God, as embraced by the human ego, have been responsible for much strife,
\nslaughter and destruction. Self-sacrifice is great and noble, but at its
\nhighest it is an acknowledgment of the law of Life by death and becomes an
\noffering on the altar of some Power that demands a victim in order that the
\nwork desired may be done. The mother bird facing the animal of prey in defence
\nof its young, the patriot dying for his country’s freedom, the religious martyr <\/p>\n

\nPage 40<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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or the martyr of an idea, these
\nin the lower and the superior scale of animal life are highest examples of self-sacrifice,
\nand it is evident to what they bear witness. <\/p>\n

But if we look
\nat after results, an easy optimism becomes even less possible. See the patriot
\ndying in order that his country may be free, and mark that country a few
\ndecades after the Lord of Karma has paid the price of the blood and the suffering
\nthat was given; you shall see it in its turn an oppressor, an exploiter and
\nconqueror of colonies and dependencies devouring others that it may live and
\nsucceed aggressively in life. The Christian martyrs perish in their thousands,
\nsetting soul-force against empire-force that Christ may conquer, Christianity
\nprevail. Soul-force does triumph, Christianity does prevail, \u2013 but not Christ;
\nthe victorious religion becomes a militant and dominant Church and a more
\nfanatically persecuting power than the creed and the empire which it replaced.
\nThe very religions organise themselves into powers of mutual strife and battle
\ntogether fiercely to live, to grow, to possess the world. <\/p>\n

All which seems
\nto show that here is an element in existence, perhaps the initial element,
\nwhich we do not know how to conquer either because it cannot be conquered or
\nbecause we have not looked at it with a strong and impartial gaze so as to recognise
\nit calmly and fairly and know what it is. We must look existence in the face if
\nour aim is to arrive at a right solution, whatever that solution may be. And to
\nlook existence in the face is to look God in the face; for the two cannot be separated,
\nnor the responsibility for the laws of world-existence be shifted away from Him
\nwho created them or from That which constituted it. Yet here too we love to
\npalliate and equivocate. We erect a God of Love and Mercy, a God of good, a God
\njust, righteous and virtuous according to our own moral conceptions of justice,
\nvirtue and righteousness, and all the rest, we say, is not He or is not His,
\nbut was made by some diabolical Power which He suffered for some reason to work
\nout its wicked will or by some dark Ahriman counterbalancing our gracious
\nOrmuzd, or was even the fault of selfish and sinful man who has spoiled what
\nwas made originally perfect by God. As if man had created the law of death and
\ndevouring in the animal world or that tremendous process by which <\/p>\n

\nPage 41<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 Nature creates indeed and
\npreserves but in the same step and by the same inextricable action slays and
\ndestroys. It is only a few religions which have had the courage to say without
\nany reserve, like the Indian, that this enigmatic World-Power is one Deity, one
\nTrinity, to lift up the image of the Force that acts in the world in the figure
\nnot only of the beneficent Durga, but of the terrible Kali in her blood-stained
\ndance of destruction and to say, \u201cThis too is the Mother; this also know to be
\nGod; this too, if thou hast the strength, adore.\u201d And it is significant that
\nthe religion which has had this unflinching honesty and tremendous courage, has
\nsucceeded in creating a profound and wide-spread spirituality such as no other
\ncan parallel. For truth is the foundation of real spirituality and courage is
\nits soul. Tasyai<\/i> satyam āyatanam.<\/i><\/p>\n

All this is not
\nto say that strife and destruction are the alpha and omega of existence, that
\nharmony is not greater than war, love more the manifest divine than death or
\nthat we must not move towards the replacement of physical force by soul-force,
\nof war by peace, of strife by union, of devouring by love, of egoism by
\nuniversality, of death by immortal life. God is not only the Destroyer, but the
\nFriend of creatures; not only the cosmic Trinity, but the Transcendent; the
\nterrible Kali is also the loving and beneficent Mother; the lord of Kurukshetra
\nis the divine comrade and charioteer, the attracter of beings, incarnate Krishna.
\nAnd whithersoever he is driving through all the strife and clash and confusion,
\nto whatever goal or godhead he may be attracting us, it is \u2013 no doubt of that \u2013
\nto some transcendence of all these aspects upon which we have been so firmly
\ninsisting. But where, how, with what kind of transcendence, under what
\nconditions, this we have to discover; and to discover it, the first necessity
\nis to see the world as it is, to observe and value rightly his action as it
\nreveals itself at the start and now; afterwards the way and the goal will
\nbetter reveal themselves. We must acknowledge Kurukshetra; we must submit to
\nthe law of Life by Death before we can find our way to the life immortal; we
\nmust open our eyes, with a less appalled gaze than Arjuna’s, to the vision of
\nour Lord of Time and Death and cease to deny, hate or recoil from the universal
\nDestroyer.
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage 42<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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