Emotion's Arguments Against Battling Negative Forces

kiḿ no rājyena govinda kiḿ bhogair jīvitena vā
yeṣām arthe kāńkṣitaḿ no rājyaḿ bhogāḥ sukhāni ca

ta ime ‘vasthitā yuddhe prāṇāḿs tyaktvā dhanāni ca
ācāryāḥ pitaraḥ putrās tathaiva ca pitāmahāḥ

mātulāḥ śvaśurāḥ pautrāḥ śyālāḥ sambandhinas tathā
etān na hantum icchāmi ghnato ‘pi madhusūdana

api trailokya-rājyasya hetoḥ kiḿ nu mahī-kṛte
nihatya dhārtarāṣṭrān naḥ kā prītiḥ syāj janārdana

pāpam evāśrayed asmān hatvaitān ātatāyinaḥ
tasmān nārhā vayaḿ hantuḿ dhārtarāṣṭrān sa-bāndhavān

sva-janaḿ hi kathaḿ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava

O Govinda, of what avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed on this battlefield? O Madhusudana, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives are ready to give up their lives and properties and are standing before me, why should I wish to kill them, even though they might otherwise kill me? O maintainer of all living entities, I am not prepared to fight with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth. What pleasure will we derive from killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?

Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhritarashtra and our friends. What should we gain, O Krishna, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?

Commentary

We have seen earlier that Arjuna has requested his charioteer Krishna to take him to the middle of the battleground so that he can see the armies ready to fight each other. We have also seen that Arjuna on seeing his cousins, teacher, great grand father etc. arraigned against him has become totally confused, overcome by emotion. In these set of verses, he argues why it is futile for him to wage a war.Let us try to analyse his outburst using different sets of analysis.

If someone read only these verses without understanding the context of the war, the arguments seem cogent. It appears that Arjuna is a pacifist, who does not want to fight an internecine war. He seems to be taking a high moral ground and is willing to renounce the kingdom in favour of his cousins. Now, let us understand the context. The war was not being fought for personal reasons of Arjuna. The Pandavas had been cheated out of their empire by the crookedness of their cousins, the Kauravas. The cousins had also tried to disrobe Draupadi, the wife of Arjuna. So, the fight was not against cousins. It was a fight against evil. Evil had to be punished and Arjuna was to fight this war. Secondly, Arjuna always knew that he had to fight his cousins. During the thirteen years in exile, he had collected the best of weapons and had prepared mentally for the war. None of the current thoughts had ever arisen in him. The only issue now was to actually face his cousins. His emotions were aroused. He thought of the tender care given to him by his great great grandfather, Bhishma whom he had to battle now. He saw with reverence his teacher, Drona, who was now against him. Against the emotional memories of these people and the fact that when they are killed he would be deprived of their love and affection, he became a coward and decided not to fight. 

Let us look at this now symbolically. Arjuna represents each of us. When faced with a situation of giving up negative tendencies, we feel threatened and come up with seemingly powerful  arguments in favour of continuing. How often have we not heard people who drink quoting some literature that drinking is good? I do not deny that red wine or a small peg is good for health. But the boozers use it to justify an addiction which they cannot get over. Again, the tendency is to use a line of argument, which by itself makes sense, but in the context, is totally illogical. I am reminded of a story in this context. A chick and its mother hen were taking a walk. The chick saw a duck swimming in the pond and wanted to swim too. Mother hen admonished it and said it cannot and forbade it to ever swim. That night, the chick thought to itself. The duck has wings and I have wings. If it can swim, why cant I? It slowly slipped out of the house and jumped into the pond. Obviously it drowned. Similarly, we have heard of apocryphal stories regarding men trying to fly. They attached something like wings to their hands and thought that by flapping it like a bird, they can fly. In all these cases, we see a selective use of arguments to justify something that has been decided. A drunkard has already decided that he will not give up drinking and convinces himself and others using selective data. So also with the chick which decided to swim and used selective argument to convince itself.

Let us now look at this from another angle. Each of us is a composition of body, mind and intellect. The mind is that which gets signals from the sense organs and directs the action organs accordingly. For routine activities, the mind does not need advise from the intellect. However, when faced with tough situations, the mind seeks the advise of the intellect. I may see a very nice watch and feel like owning it. The mind has the emotion of like, but the intellect says that it is not within budget and hence the mind tells the legs to walk away. However, in many situations, the emotion fully clouds the intellect. It is like the clouds covering the sun fully. The sun is there, but not available. Similarly the intellect is there, but not available to use.  In a situation as above, the mind may use emotion to justify why the watch is a must. It may say, it enhances prestige, standing in society or whatever reasons. I may go in and buy the highly unaffordable watch swiping his credit card and become indebted for life.

Arjuna represents self control. When faced with a situation confronting negative tendencies, self control argues that without these tendencies like desire, habits, etc. life is worthless. It is hard to give up the known sense pleasures of the present for the unknown pleasures that may arrive in the future. The warning given by  these verses is that when we are fighting with our internal enemies such as bad habits and temptations, we often find our own self-control sympathizing with these emotions.


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3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

 

 

A Individual Overcome By Emotions

arjuna uvāca

dṛṣṭvemaḿ sva-janaḿ kṛṣṇa
yuyutsuḿ samupasthitam
sīdanti mama gātrāṇi
mukhaḿ ca pariśuṣyati


Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.

vepathuś ca śarīre me
roma-harṣaś ca jāyate
gāṇḍīvaḿ sraḿsate hastāt
tvak caiva paridahyate

My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gandiva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.

na ca śaknomy avasthātuḿ
bhramatīva ca me manaḥ
nimittāni ca paśyāmi
viparītāni keśava

I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I see only causes of misfortune, O Krishna, killer of the Keshi demon.


na ca śreyo ‘nupaśyāmi
hatvā sva-janam āhave
na kāńkṣe vijayaḿ kṛṣṇa
na ca rājyaḿ sukhāni ca


I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krishna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.



Commentary :

These verses brilliantly illustrates the helplessness of our self-control and the corresponding impact on our body and mind. When we face a tough situation, we find it difficult to exercise our own self-control because of our love, affection, fear and addiction to negative thoughts and emotions.

The scene is the Kurukshetra war where the opposing armies of the Kauravas and the Pandavas have gathered for a battle royal.

From an event perspective, just before the battle begins, Arjuna requests Sri Krishna to take the chariot between the 2 armies so that he can get an idea as to who are in the opposing armies. The all knowing Krishna takes the chariot right in front of the revered Bhishma, Drona etc. Bhishma is Arjuna's great grandfather and Drona is his revered teacher, both unfortunately being opposed to Arjuna now due to their prior obligations to Duryodhana.

Arjuna looks at the revered elders in front of him and his numerous cousins with whom he has played as a kid, now standing before him in battle. A wave of emotion overpowers Arjuna and he goes on a long lecture as to why it is not right for him to fight the battle.

Let us try and analyse the situation from different angles. First from the situational angle, here is the greatest warrior Arjuna who has done hundreds of battles and has been preparing for the greatest battle for the past 13 years, and he has broken down totally on seeing the people he is going to fight. Arjuna knew that he would have to fight his guru and his elders. It was not a surprise for him. but seeing them actually on the battlefield and the thought that his arrows could kill them totally threw him into a disarray. He totally forgot the purpose of the war and his duty and was overcome by emotion. His duty was to dislodge the Kauravas from the empire of Kurukshetra. It was not for the desire of kingdom that Lord Krishna wanted him to fight the war. Rather it was always known that the war was a righteous war to establish Dharma or proper conduct in society. The Kauravas were bad rulers climaxing in the utter horror of the crown prince attempting to disrobe a princess in the palace in the presence of elders. How much could society have degraded that it stood still watching such a scene and did nothing about it. It was Arjuna's duty as a warrior to fight evil tendencies and help establish a moral code of conduct. However as soon as he saw the people, he forgot that objective and the only thing that was in his mind was his keen selfish desire to preserve his kith and kin. From that perspective it was a massive fall for Arjuna from the lofty ideals of war to uphold righteousness to a selfish desire to protect his kin from certain death in the war.

Let us now look at it from a psychological perspective. Here was Arjuna, a towering warrior with a rich intellect overpowered by emotions. In this emotional state, Arjuna was finding enough reasons for not fighting, all within the control of emotions and not by the reasoning of the intellect. Most often than not, does it not happen to us that when we face a crisis situation, we are totally guided by the emotion rather than the intellect? Emotions, by themselves are not bad at all. They provide us a means to express and enjoy the rich tapestry of life. But emotions primarily consist of like(Raga) or dislike(dvesha) of something. Getting what we like makes us happy and losing what we do not like makes us happy and vice-versa. So, if any major act of ours is driven by emotion, in effect it is driven by our individual likes and dislikes and not by reasoning born of intellect. Such an act based on emotions is likely to lead to bad results. Just as Arjuna driven by emotion, deciding not to fight, would have meant a sure victory for the evilness of the Kauravas, our own actions driven by spurts of emotion can lead to actions with disastrous results. Seeing the fact that the destructive emotions are part and parcel of our own personality, our self-control find it difficult to act against them. Self control concludes that life without these thoughts and emotions is meaningless.

When we face a stressful situation, the perception will be sent to our thinking and emotional brain at the very same time through the thalamus. If the emotional brain finds a threat in the situation perceived, it hijacks our thinking brain ,may go to a fight, flight or freeze situation. The emotional response "can take over” the rest of the brain in a millisecond if threatened.

This challenge with the emotions overpowering the intellect and making self control powerless will manifest in different ways in our body and mind :

• Body Shivering
• Dry mouth
• Burning sensation in skin
• Cannot stand properly
• Mind spinning
• Hair stands up

Psychologically, when we are taken over by emotions in a stressful situation, the following typically happen:

• Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. A bleak outlook—nothing will ever get better and there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation.
• Loss of interest in daily activities. No interest in former hobbies, pastimes or social activities. You’ve lost your ability to feel joy and pleasure
•  Appetite or weight changes. Significant weight loss or weight gain—a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month
• Sleep changes. Either insomnia, especially waking in the early hours of the morning, or oversleeping (also known as hypersomnia).
• Anger or irritability. Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent. Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerve
• Loss of energy. Feeling fatigued, sluggish, and physically drained. Your whole body may feel heavy, and even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete
• Self-loathing. Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes
• Reckless behaviour. You engage in escapist behaviour such as substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports
• Concentration problems. Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things
• Unexplained aches and pains. An increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain.

Now let us look at this from a spiritual perspective. As a spiritual seeker, we are told that we have to give up desires, ego, past habits etc. Just as Arjuna felt that it is not worth fighting for a kingdom and winning it by defeating Duryodhana, we convince ourselves that it is not worth living if we give up all desires(Duryodhana).

Have we not heard enough arguments that without desire there is no progress and we should all aim higher and higher for physical/mental/intellectual desires? Having been conditioned by society that desires are essential, when we as spiritual students are told that we have to fight desires, we feel the spiritual path which is advocating giving up desires is not worth it. Arjuna could not face up to the fact that his arrows could kill Bhishma. Similarly we cannot face up to the fact that our arrow of intellect got through spiritual progress can kill our ego.



In summary, just as Arjuna, with clouded intellect, gave emotional reasons not to fight refused to fight with Duryodhana whose army consisted of warriors like Drona and Bhishma, we in our fit of ignorance of reality, give apparently convincing reasons not to fight desires whose army consists of warriors like ego and past habits and give up the path of spiritual progress.


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3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

 

Emotion Overcomes Self Control

sañjaya uvāca evam ukto hṛṣīkeśo guḍākeśena bhārata
senayor ubhayor madhye sthāpayitvā rathottamam

bhisma-drona-pramukhatah sarvesam ca mahi-ksitam
uvaca partha pasyaitan samavetan kurun iti

atrāpaśyat sthitān pārthaḥ pitṝn atha pitāmahān
ācāryān mātulān bhrātṝn putrān pautrān sakhīḿs tathā

śvaśurān suhṛdaś caiva senayor ubhayor api
taansameekshya sa kaunteyaha sarvaanbandhunavasthitaan



Sanjaya said: O descendant of Bharata, having thus been addressed by Arjuna, Lord Krishna drew up the fine chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties.

In the presence of Bhishma, Drona and all the other chieftains of the world, the Lord said, Just behold, Partha, all the Kurus assembled here.

There Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his fathers-in-law and well-wishers.

When the son of Kunti, Arjuna, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives, he became overwhelmed with compassion and spoke thus.

Commentary

To set the context, Arjuna, the archer has requested his charioteer,  Krishna to take the chariot between the two armies so that he could see the warriors assembled on the opposing side. Krishna then takes the chariot as requested and points out to Arjuna the various warriors including his great great grandfather, Bhishma, his teacher Drona, his cousin Duryodhana and various other relatives.

We have seen earlier that Arjuna represents self control and Krishna represents the supreme intellect in us. We have also seen that self control needs to be aware of the negative forces it has to battle in its journey. The intellect in us points out to us the negative forces. It shows us the main negative force which is Ego(represented as Bhishma), our past habits which drive our behaviour(represented as Drona), our material desire(represented as Duryodhana) to name a few.

Just as Arjuna on seeing his near and dear ones he would have to battle, felt remorseful, in exactly the same way, our self control behaves when it sees the negative forces in the mind. One may wonder why negative forces should cloud the self control. Let;s try to look at some of the negative forces we have to battle in our journey of self evolution. I mentioned ego as one of the negative forces. Have we all not been trained since almost birth that we have to have a identity different from others? Have we not been almost always taught that we should always try to become better than others? again none of these are bad in the materialistic world and are essential too. However for a spiritual journey, the feeling of separateness or the feeling of difference from the supreme which is the ego's creation, is what we are trying to eliminate. The ego has become us. I identify myself as a particular religion, group, caste whatever and when self control says, here is your enemy, we are struck with horror. If I fight ego and give it up, what becomes of me? Don’t I become a non-entity?

Intellect points and shows desire as one of my negative forces. Again it is a shock for me. It is a desire for a better life that has brought me here. It is a desire for the next BMW that makes me work hard. It is a desire to get that fat bonus that propels me. What would I be without desire? Without desire I am non-existent.

Some of the negative forces may have developed through conditions of environment. A child does not come into the world as a drunkard. But suppose it is in the company of parents/elders who always drink, then it sees nothing wrong at all in that and drinking is accepted as a part of life. Some of these negative traits may be acquired as we grow in life.  I may have casually started smoking for fun and without realizing it has engulfed me and become part of me. These are all habits which reinforce desires and are bound closely to my personality. When the intellect points out to habit as a negative force, I am stunned and if told to give up habits, I feel distressed since they have become part of me.

Conclusion

Negative forces to be controlled are  part and parcel of our psyche and it’s very hard for us to control or annihilate them as they are deep rooted and very dear to us. As discussed, some of these impressions might have been developed by the influence of the family. Some of them might have been from the society and culture we are born. Some of them might have been developed by our own misinterpretations. The negative thoughts / emotions / habits present themselves as near and dear to us. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

 

Assesssment by Self Control

atha vyavasthitān dṛṣṭvā
dhārtarāṣṭrān kapi-dhvajaḥ
pravṛtte śastra-sampāte
dhanur udyamya pāṇḍavaḥ
hṛṣīkeśaḿ tadā vākyam
idam āha mahī-pate 

arjuna uvāca
senayor ubhayor madhye
rathaḿ sthāpaya me ‘cyuta
yāvad etān nirīkṣe ‘haḿ
yoddhu-kāmān avasthitān

kair mayā saha yoddhavyam
asmin raṇa-samudyame

 yotsyamānān avekṣe ‘haḿ
ya ete ‘tra samāgatāḥ
dhārtarāṣṭrasya durbuddher
yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ

Translation

At that time Arjuna, the son of Pandu, seated in the chariot bearing the flag marked with Hanuman, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows. O King, after looking at the sons of Dhritarashtra drawn in military array, Arjuna then spoke to Lord Krishna these words.

Arjuna said: O infallible one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see those present here, who desire to fight, and with whom I must contend in this great trial of arms.

Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra.

Commentary

We are in our by now familiar  battlefield with the armies of Kauravas and Pandavas facing off against each other. Arjuna, the archer then requests, Krishna his charioteer to take the chariot between the two armies so that he could see the type of warriors flanked against him. It must be noted here that though each of the Pandavas were valiant and strong, the absolute necessity to win the war was Arjuna with his tremendous archery skills.

In terms of symbolism, we have seen that Pandavas represent the positive forces in our mind trying to steer us on the path to realize infinite happiness by identifying with the Supreme Consciousness. Kauravas represent the negative forces that make us align with the ego and be supported by desires of the material world which lead us to more and more unhappiness.

Just as the Pandavas absolutely need Arjuna to win the war, we absolutely need Self Control to win over the negative forces inducing us towards material objects. Self-control is the ability to control one's impulses, emotions, behaviour, and desires. Just as Arjuns has the guidance of Krishna as his charioteer, once self control has guidance from the intelllect/spiritual wisdom, the victory of the positive forces over the negative forces is guaranteed. In these verses, the self control requests the spiritual wisdom (Intelligence) to show the negative thoughts / emotions it needs to face in the subjective battle.

Self control touches nearly all aspects of healthy living: eating right, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, studying more, working harder, spending less etc. The first step in improving our finances is to become aware that we are spending way above our income and understand the items on which we are spending so that we can control. The first step in getting healthy is to become aware of all the unhealthy habits we have which are damaging our body so that we can control them. At an emotional level, the first step in battling forces that destroy my emotional happiness is to become aware of what is causing the emotional pain. It could be a blind attachment to a relationship, it could be a hurt caused to ego by someone. It could be jealousy at someone's progress. At an intellectual level, it could be the preponderant superiority feeling that makes me look down on people. It could be the clannish feeling of belonging to a group, religion, whatever that makes me dislike others.

More often than not, we are not even aware of the lurking negativity within us. How can we control what we are not even aware of? On a smaller scale, have we not seen people engage in compulsive useless behaviour like  biting nails, shaking legs etc. If they are not even aware, how can they control?

But who has to guide the self control in identifying negativity? It cannot be the body because it is just an instrument of action based on what the mind orders. It cannot be the mind since it is fickle and full of emotion. The only thing that can show self control the negativities it has to battle is the intellect. Very often in most of our cases, our intellect is clouded by the emotions and hence cannot guide us well. It requires a sharp intellect, sharpened by constant evaluation of what is right and what is not, that can guide self control to first of all identify the negativity within and subsequently to get the strength to battle the negative forces.

----------------------------------

3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality