Thursday, September 22, 2011

Bhagavad Gita Verse 46, Chapter 1

yadi maamaprateekaaramashastram shasktrapaanayaha |
dhaartaraashtraa rane hanyustanme kshemataram bhavet || 46 ||
 
Even if I, unarmed and non-resistant, am killed in war by the sons of Dhritraasthra, who are armed with weapons, this will be beneficial for me.
 
yadi : even if
maama : I
aprateekaaram : non-resistant
ashastram : unarmed
shastra : weapons
paaneyaha : in hand
dhaartaraashtraa : sons of Dhritaraashtra
rane : in war
hanyuh : kill
tat : that
me : for me
kshemataram : beneficial
bhavet : will be
 
This is the final statement uttered by Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita. It shows the extent of delusion in Arjuna's mind, as he morphed from a mighty warrior into a pathetic, weak, helpless individual. Arjuna was desperately looking to escape the difficult situation he found himself in, and so his mind came up with all kinds of arguments to justify this escape, including making the escape "beneficial".
 
Let us revisit our friend Mr. X. He has been laid off due to the recession, and has been out of work for 3 months. He has not interviewed in over 2 weeks now. As time goes by, his confidence begins to weaken. If his mind cannot maintain equanimity, it will lead him down a path similar to Arjuna's fall. He begins to think that there's no point in applying for more jobs since there aren't any, and even if he gets an interview call, he has to compete with more qualified candidates. Therefore, there's no point even trying. In fact, it's better to stay at home and do nothing because there's no point applying for a job in a bad economy. Just look at how his mind has generated perverse logic to preserve the ego.
 
There's another point to note here : Shri Krishna kept quiet throughout Arjuna's rant. He wanted Arjuna to expel every perverse argument out of his system, in preparation for the teaching of the Gita.

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