{"id":3607,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3607"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","slug":"05-kurukshetra-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn\/05-kurukshetra-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-05_Kurukshetra.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nB<\/font>EFORE<\/font>
\nWE<\/font> can proceed, following in the large steps or the Teacher
\nof the Gita, to watch his tracing or the triune path of man,\u2014the path
\nwhich is that of his will, heart, thought raising themselves to the
\nHighest and into the being of that which is the supreme object of all
\naction, love and knowledge, we must consider once more the situation
\nfrom which the Gita arises, but now in its largest bearings as a type
\nof human life and even of all world-existence. For although Arjuna
\nis himself concerned only with his own situation, his inner struggle
\nand the law of action he must follow, yet, as we have seen, the particular question he raises, in the manner in which he raises it does
\nreally bring up the whole question of human life and action, what
\nthe world is and why it is and how possibly, it being what it is, life
\nhere in the world can be reconciled with life in the Spirit. And all
\nthis deep and difficult matter the Teacher insists on resolving as the
\nvery foundation of his command to an action which must proceed
\nfrom a new poise of being and by the light of a liberating knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut what, then, is it that makes the difficulty for the man who has
\nto take the world as it is and act in it and yet would live, within, the
\nspiritual life? What is this aspect of existence which appals his
\nawakened mind and brings about what the title of the first chapter of
\nthe Gita calls significantly the Yoga of the dejection of Arjuna, the
\ndejection 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
\nof the ethical illusion, the illusion of self-righteousness torn from his
\neyes, before a higher reconciliation with himself is effected? It is that
\naspect which is figured outwardly in the carnage and massacre of
\nKurukshetra and spiritually by the vision of the Lord of all things
\nas Time arising to devour and destroy the creatures whom it has
\nmade. This is the vision of the Lord of all existence as the universal Creator
\nbut also the universal Destroyer, of whom the ancient Scripture can say in a ruthless image, "The sages and the heroes are his <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\nfood and death is the spice of his banquet." It is one and the same
\ntruth 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
\nin life. The outward aspect is that of world-existence and human
\nexistence proceeding by struggle and slaughter; the inward aspect is
\nthat of the universal Being fulfilling himself in a vast creation and a
\nvast destruction. Life a battle and a field of death, this is Kurukshetra; God the Terrible, this is the vision that Arjuna sees on that field of
\nmassacre. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWar, said Heraclitus, is the father of all things, War is the king
\nof all; and the saying, like most of the apophthegms of the Greek
\nthinker, suggests a profound truth. From a clash of material or other
\nforces everything in this world, if not the world itself, seems to be
\nborn; by a struggle of forces, tendencies, principles, beings it seems to
\nproceed, ever creating new things, ever destroying the old, marching
\none knows not very well whither\u2014to a final self-destruction, say
\nsome; in an unending series of vain cycles, say others; in progressive
\ncycles, is the most optimistic conclusion, leading through whatever
\ntrouble and apparent confusion towards a higher and higher approximation to some divine apocalypse. However that may be, this is certain
\nthat there is not only no construction here without destruction, no
\nharmony except by a poise of contending forces won out of many
\nactual and potential discords, but also no continued existence of life
\nexcept by a constant self-feeding and devouring of other life. Our
\nvery bodily life is a constant dying and being reborn, the body itself
\na beleaguered city attacked by assailing, protected by defending forces
\nwhose business is to devour each other: and this is only a type of all
\nour existence. The command seems to have gone out from the beginning, "Thou shalt not conquer except by battle with thy fellows
\nand thy surroundings; thou shalt not even live except by battle and
\nstruggle and by absorbing into thyself other life. The first law of this
\nworld that I have made is creation and preservation by destruction." <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAncient thought accepted this starting-point so far as it could see
\nit by scrutiny of the universe. The old Upanishads saw it very clearly
\nand phrased it with an uncompromising thoroughness which will have
\nnothing to do with any honeyed glosses or optimistic scuttlings of the
\ntruth. Hunger that is Death, they said, is the creator and master of
\nthis world, and they figured vital existence in the image of the Horse of the sacrifice. Matter they described by a name which means ordinarily <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\nfood 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
\nmaterial world, as the Darwinians rediscovered when they laid it
\ndown that the struggle for life is the law of evolutionary existence.
\nModern science has only rephrased the old truths that had already
\nbeen expressed in much more forcible, wide and accurate formulas by
\nthe apophthegm of Heraclitus and the figures employed by the Upanishads. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nNietzsche’s insistence upon war as an aspect of life and the ideal
\nman as a warrior,\u2014the camel-man he may be to begin with and the
\nchild-man hereafter, but the lion-man he must become in the middle,
\nif he is to attain his perfection,\u2014these now much-decried theories of
\nNietzsche have, however much we may differ from many of the
\nmoral and practical conclusions he drew from them, their undeniable
\njustification and recall us to a truth we like to hide out of sight. It
\nis good that we should be reminded of it; first, because to see it has for every
\nstrong soul a tonic effect which saves us from the flabbiness 
\nand relaxation encouraged by a too mellifluous philosophic, religious
\nor ethical sentimentalism, that which loves to look upon Nature as ,
\nlove and life and beauty and good, but turns away from her grim mask
\nof death, adoring God as Shiva but refusing to adore him as Rudra; secondly, because unless we have the honesty and courage to look
\nexistence straight in the face, we shall never arrive at any effective
\nsolution of its discords and oppositions. We must see first what life
\nand the world are; afterwards, we can all the better set about finding
\nthe right way to transform them into what they should be. If this
\nrepellent aspect of existence holds in itself some secret of the final
\nharmony, we shall by ignoring or belittling it miss that secret and all
\nour efforts at a solution will fail by fault of our self-indulgent ignoring
\nof the true elements of the problem. If, on the other hand, it is an
\nenemy to be beaten down, trampled on, excised, eliminated, still we
\ngain nothing by underrating its power and hold upon life or refusing
\nto see how firmly it is rooted in the effective past and the actually
\noperative principles of existence. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWar and destruction are not only a universal principle of our life
\nhere in its purely material aspects, but also of our mental and moral
\nexistence. It is self-evident that in the actual life of man intellectual,
\nsocial, political, moral we can make no real step forward without a
\nstruggle, a battle between what exists and lives and what seeks to exist <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\nand live and between all that stands behind either. It is impossible,
\nat least as men and things are, to advance, to grow, to fulfil and still
\nto observe really and utterly that principle of harmlessness which is
\nyet placed before us as the highest and best law of conduct. We will
\nuse only soul-force and never destroy by war or any even defensive
\nemployment of physical violence? Good, though until soul-force is
\neffective, the Asuric force in men and nations tramples down, breaks,
\nslaughters, burns, pollutes, as we see it doing today, but then at its
\nease and unhindered, and you have perhaps caused as much destruction of life by your abstinence as others by resort to violence; still you
\nhave set up an ideal which may some day and at any rate ought to
\nlead up to better things. But even soul-force, when it is effective,
\ndestroys. Only those who have used it with eyes open, know how
\nmuch 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
\nits immediate results, can see how tremendous are its after-effects, how
\nmuch is eventually destroyed and with that much all the life that
\ndepended on it and fed upon it. Evil cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil, and it is no less destruction
\neven if we personally are saved the pain of a sensational act of violence. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nMoreover, every time we use soul-force we raise a great force of
\nKarma against our adversary, the after-movements of which we have
\nno power to control. Vasishtha uses soul-force against the military
\nviolence of Viswamitra and armies of Huns and Shakas and Pallavas
\nhurl themselves on the aggressor. The very quiescence and passivity of
\nthe spiritual man under violence and aggression awakens the tremendous forces of the world to a retributive action; and it may even
\nbe more merciful to stay in their path, though by force, those who
\nrepresent evil than to allow them to trample on until they call down
\non themselves a worse destruction than we would ever think of inflicting. It is not enough that our own hands should remain clean
\nand our souls unstained for the law of strife and destruction to die
\nout of the world; that which is its root must first disappear out of
\nhumanity. Much less will mere immobility and inertia unwilling to
\nuse or incapable of using any kind of resistance to evil, abrogate the
\nlaw; inertia, tamas, indeed, injuries much more than can the rajasic
\nprinciple of strife which at least creates more than it destroys. Therefore, so far as the problem of the individual’s action goes, his abstention <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\nfrom strife and its inevitable concomitant destruction in their
\nmore gross and physical form may help his own moral being, but it leaves the Slayer of creatures unabolished. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nFor the rest, the whole of human history bears witness to the inexorable vitality and persistent prevalence of this principle in the
\nworld. It is natural that we should attempt to palliate, to lay stress on
\nother aspects. Strife and destruction are not all; there is the saving
\nprinciple of association and mutual help as well as the force of dissociation and mutual strife; a power of love no less than a power of
\negoistic self-assertion; an impulse to sacrifice ourselves for others as
\nwell as the impulse to sacrifice others to ourselves. But when we see
\nhow these have actually worked, we shall not be tempted to gloss over
\nor ignore the power of their opposites. Association has been worked
\nnot only for mutual help, but at the same time for defence and aggression, to strengthen us against all that attacks or resists in the struggle
\nfor life. Association itself has been a servant of war, egoism and the
\nself-assertion of life against life. Love itself has been constantly a
\npower of death. Especially the love of good and the love of God, as
\nembraced 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
\nbecomes an offering on the altar of some Power that demands a victim
\nin order that the work desired may be done. The mother bird facing
\nthe animal of prey in defence of its young, the patriot dying for his
\ncountry’s freedom, the religious martyr or the martyr of an idea, these
\nin the lower and the superior scale of animal life are highest examples
\nof self-sacrifice and it is evident to what they bear witness. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut if we look at after results, an easy optimism becomes <\/b> even less
\npossible. See the patriot dying in order that his country may <\/b> be tree,
\nand mark that country a few decades after the Lord of Karma has
\npaid the price of the blood and the suffering that was given; you shall
\nsee it in its turn an oppressor, an exploiter and conqueror of colonies
\nand dependencies devouring others that it may live and succeed
\naggressively in life. The Christian martyrs perish in their thousands,
\nsetting soul-force against empire-force that Christ may conquer, Christianity prevail. Soul-force does triumph, Christianity does prevail,\u2014
\nbut not Christ; the victorious religion becomes a militant and dominant Church and a more fanatically persecuting power than the creed
\nand the empire which it replaced. The very religions organise themselves <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\ninto powers of mutual strife and battle together fiercely to live,
\nto grow, to possess the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAll which seems to show that here is an element in existence, perhaps the initial element, which we do not know how to conquer
\neither because it cannot be conquered or because we have not looked
\nat it with a strong and impartial gaze so as to recognise it calmly and
\nfairly 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.
\nAnd to look existence in the face is to look God in the face; for the
\ntwo cannot be separated, nor the responsibility for the laws of world-existence be shifted away from Him who created them or from That
\nwhich constituted it. Yet here too we love to palliate and equivocate.
\nWe erect a God of Love and Mercy, a God of good, a God just,
\nrighteous and virtuous according to our own moral conceptions of
\njustice, virtue and righteousness, and all the rest, we say, is not He
\nor is not His, but was made by some diabolical Power which He
\nsuffered for some reason to work out its wicked will or by some dark
\nAhriman counterbalancing our gracious Ormuzd, or was even the
\nfault of selfish and sinful man who has spoiled what was made originally perfect by God. As if man had created the law of death and devouring in the animal world or that tremendous process by which
\nNature creates indeed and preserves but in the same step and by the
\nsame inextricable action slays and destroys. It is only a few religions
\nwhich have had the courage to say without any reserve, like the Indian,
\nthat this enigmatic World-Power is one Deity, one Trinity, to lift up
\nthe image of the Force that acts in the world in the figure not only of the
\nbeneficent Durga, but of the terrible Kali in her blood-stained dance
\nof destruction and to say, "This too is the Mother; this also know to
\nbe God; this too, if thou hast the strength, adore." And it is significant
\nthat the religion which has had this unflinching honesty and tremendous courage, has succeeded in creating a profound and widespread spirituality such as no other can parallel. For truth is the
\nfoundation of real spirituality and courage is its soul. Tasyai satyam āyatanam.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAll this is not to say that strife and destruction are the alpha and
\nomega of existence, that harmony is not greater than war, love more
\nthe manifest divine than death or that we must not move towards the
\nreplacement of physical force by soul-force, of war by peace, of strife
\nby union, of devouring by love, of egoism by universality, of death <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n
\nby immortal life. God is not only the Destroyer, but the Friend of
\ncreatures; not only the cosmic Trinity, but the Transcendent; the
\nterrible Kali is also the loving and beneficent Mother; the lord of
\nKurukshetra is the divine comrade and charioteer, the attracter of
\nbeings, incarnate Krishna. And whithersoever he is driving through
\nall the strife and clash and confusion, to whatever goal or godhead
\nhe may be attracting us, it is\u2014no doubt of that\u2014to some transcendence
\nof all these aspects upon which we have been so firmly insisting. But
\nwhere, how, with what kind of transcendence, under what conditions,
\nthis we have to discover; and to discover it, the first necessity is to
\nsee 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
\nwill better reveal themselves. We must acknowledge Kurukshetra; we must submit to the law of Life by Death before we can find our
\nway to the life immortal; we must open our eyes, with a less appalled
\ngaze than Arjuna’s, to the vision of our Lord of Time and Death and
\ncease to deny, hate or recoil from the universal Destroyer. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

V   KURUKSHETRA   BEFORE WE can proceed, following in the large steps or the Teacher of the Gita, to watch his tracing or the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","wpcat-90-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}