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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