(Gita-3) Don't go too far, you may never return || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2023)

सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च ।। पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रिया: ।।1.42।।

saṅkaro narakāyaiva kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya cha patanti pitaro hy eṣhāṁ lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ

When the castes mix, that spells hell for the family. It destroys the family, in the way that the ancestors all fall because they are deprived of the Pindokdakriya.

~ Chapter 1, Verse 42 ❖ ❖ ❖

Acharya Prashant (AP): We have looked at the mental states of Duryodhana and then Parth; and there was a great deal to be learned from the trepidation, and angst, and sheer helplessness visible in Duryodhana's predicament. A great warrior, invincible with the mace, is actually anxious to the extent of breaking down. Just that Arjuna is candid enough to admit the same to Krishna; Duryodhana does not admit that visibly. He does admit that if you can read his state, but he does not acknowledge the sheer agony of his state in his own words. We wondered about the loss of Truth and how human birth is a limited opportunity. And though the relationship between the ego and the Truth is one of eternal love, yet life is not eternal; so that window of opportunity available to you is quite limited, limited not just by the lifespan of us individuals, but by the very elasticity of consciousness. You can stretch yourself so far away from the Truth that a return might become practically impossible. So, we all know that the saints have sung of the glory of the limited time span available to us in our life as homo sapiens. They have said that if you are born a human being, that's such a privilege and a rare opportunity; better make use of it. But even when we listen to them, it appears that the opportunity stretches at least a few decades, the few decades of our lifetime, right? That's the kind of impression we get if we listen to the saints. So, they will say, “Durlabh mānuṣh janma hai ,” and the moment you listen to this, you feel, “Fine, as long as I am alive, the possibility remains open. I can redeem myself any instant.” But when you look at Duryodhana’s state, you discover that the opportunity is even more constrained. First of all, your lifetime is so small, both limited and unpredictable. Secondly, on top of that, to make matters worse for us, the real window available to approach the Truth is only a fraction of a lifetime that is already very small. So, it is a small fraction of a small lifetime. Bad news made worse by careful observation. Think of it. You hardly have any consciousness worth the word ‘high’ before you are, let's say, fifteen. So, those fifteen years you can immediately strike out from the opportunity available. That is gone. Last five, ten, or fifteen years of your life, you are busy somehow just dragging your body. Dragging your body, somehow to the medical store, then to the dining table, then to the bed, eventually to the hospital; and then others drag your body to the crematorium. So, even that time cannot be counted as time available towards self-realization, right? Initial fifteen years struck out, last fifteen years not available. How many years remain in between? The average lifespan in India is still in the range of seventy, seventy-five. How many years remain? Let's say forty. Out of these forty, between fifteen and thirty-five, one is so occupied with his or her desires, so smitten by the bug of ambition and worldliness, that time simply flies. You do not realize when you turned thirty-five from fifteen, safely you can discount that time as well. Now how much is the window that's left to you? Twenty-five. In these twenty-five years, if you can do something worthwhile—that's just twenty-five years, mind you, and that too if you indeed manage to match the average life expectancy. In these twenty-five years, if you manage to do something worthwhile, then life is worth it; otherwise, it's an opportunity truly wasted. Duryodhana is a very dark example of that wasted opportunity, and he realizes that. He realizes that. And practically, Duryodhana being Duryodhana, it is impossible for him to rectify at this late stage. So, you cannot say, “I can keep wasting my life, I can keep drifting away from the Truth, the destiny; and someday after retirement, I will wake up and catch up.” That cannot happen, that does not happen. Theoretically, yes, we keep saying that an opportunity is available even till your last breath. But as we said, that's only theoretical. In theory, that exists but practically that might be too difficult to convert. It's like saying, “Theoretically, you still have a chance to win a match till the last ball is bowled.” I am talking of a cricket match. Theoretically, yes. Last over, fifty-four runs required—theoretically, yes, there is a chance. But had the bowlers been that bad, they wouldn't have been able to push you down to such a pathetic situation, right? For you to score fifty-four of one over, the bowling side has to be actually bad. But had they been that bad, how would you have been in a situation needing fifty-four of one? Equally, if you can score fifty-four of one over, you have to be a brilliant batting side. Now, if you really are a brilliant batting side, how do you find yourself in such a pathetic state—fifty-four needed of six balls? So, only theoretically it is possible; really it cannot happen. Someone who never cared for the Truth his entire life, how will he suddenly gain realization in his last six months? So, practically it has to be a continuous effort. Time is already short, and you cannot waste something you already are short on, right? In operations management, we know the concept of the bottleneck. A good manager always focuses on the bottleneck variable, right? Focusing on other things won't help, it's the bottleneck neck that really decides your throughput. In life, so many other things seem important—you feel like fighting so many other constraints. But really, those who have known, have told us that the final bottleneck is…? Come on? Time. There is nothing in life as much in short supply as this one thing—Time. And Duryodhana lost out on it. And it's the most regrettable thing when you observe a life gone waste, that too a life like Duryodhana's. He was not ‘Duryodhana’ from the beginning, we know that, right? Suyodhana —he was named as someone who would be glorious in war. Obviously, the guardians didn't mean only the war that involves bloodshed. They were educated people; they were people who cared for something within. So, when they named him Suyodhana , they wanted him to become someone who could win the internal war. And he was well-built, and he had firmness of purpose, and there are a lot of qualities you can attribute to him. Even if he had his vices, he was not alone in having them. Show me one character in Mahabharata that is absolutely virtuous, having no shade of evil at all. There is not a single character. You can keep Shri Krishna aside. Give him the advantage of the fact that he's not a ‘character’. Keeping him aside, show me someone. And even Shri Krishna, appearing as an avatar here, had to bear the curse of Gandhari, right? There are a lot of things, a lot of people accused him for. So, Duryodhana was an individual with a lot of potentiality. Think of what he could have been. Think of an alternate life that could have been possible. There is a beautiful play that has been composed on the same theme. Think of how everything would have been appended had Duryodhana decided to approach Krishna at an early stage, when he was still young. On the battlefield, you very well know all these are middle-aged people, well into their forties, fifties, and sixties. The Kauravas and the Pandavas, they are not young people really. And now, here stands someone who knows he has already lost it. Feel the fright. See how a chill runs down your spine. You have already lost it and you know that. It's an epiphanic moment—a sudden realization, a realization without doubt. You have seen it, it's the magic of the moment. Nothing has been left ambiguous or uncertain. It's very clear to you, the story of your entire life has flashed in front of your eyes like the flash of a thunder in a dark night. Ever experienced that sudden flash of lightning and it's absolutely dark? That one second, and you can see everything. And that which you see, does not please or amuse you. It just tells you, “You have lost it and it's not too late to make amends.” You want to be in that stage? And it's quite probable to land there. You had everything, you had all the opportunity, and you probably were brighter than the rest; and you still lost it. You want to be in that stage? So, that's one thing that's not been very widely commented upon, but I think it deserves a lot of attention—the agony of Duryodhana, and the message and the lesson it has for us. The lesson is very clear—yes, the opportunity is there but it's slipping away fast. And once it's totally gone, it's not that you would die, you would continue to still live. That's the very, very scary, spooky aspect of it—you will continue to live without any possibility, any hope of realizing the very purpose of life. You will continue to be as alive as the bark on a tree trunk. People will point at the tree and will say, “It's a living thing,” and the bark very well knows how alive it is; it's just attached to something alive. It's near something alive, but it lost its own life long back. There is no possibility, all that remains is the shedding. The future does not consist of realization, that probability is gone. The future now consists only of physical death, that's the only significant event left for you—Death. The beauty of life lies in learning, right? The beauty of life is when you know that you need a tomorrow, because you will be better tomorrow. Otherwise, the flow of time is not needed at all. Those who have known, have called the flow of time as an illusion. Why do you need the flow of time? Why is future needed at all? Future makes sense only if tomorrow you can be better, more learned, more liberated, right? And if you cannot be that, then time is simply a harassment. Imagine if there is no possibility left for you, no possibility of freedom. What is Time for you now? Let's say, you are jailed for life, and it's been assured that you are not to come out of jail till your last breath. Now tell me, what is the future for you? You are still physically alright and probably you will live another ten, twenty years. And it's been arranged that you will spend the next twenty years in your cell in the jail. Now tell me, what is the future for you? Just the prospect of more and more torture. What else is future? Because we live to be liberated, we live to grow, to learn, to become better, right? And if that possibility is closed, what is the future for you? Why must you live on? And Duryodhana has seen that. It's the worst feeling you can ever have in life, and I sincerely wish that none of you come to that. The feeling that you are already dead, but you still have to continue walking for few more decades till you drop dead. The realization that it's already over for you, and you cannot even die. How do you then live through those remaining years? Tell me, please. Duryodhana was valiant. He had realized he has already lost it, so he sped up. He said, “Fine, let me then hurry towards my eventual destruction.” The first day he realizes it's over for him, eighteenth day he is gone. So, he has to bear it for a maximum of eighteen days. Actually, more than eighteen, because he was not immediately dead after this battle with Bhima. But that’s all right, eighteen, twenty days, whatever. What if you close your opportunity for yourself at the age of twenty-five or thirty? And it's quite possible, you can do that. You are still twenty-five, you are just thirty, thirty-two something, and you have shut the door on yourself; and you know that you will still continue to live. How terrible is that? Or is that not? Life is over and yet you are not dead. That’s Duryodhana. And Duryodhana is lucky because he was at least honest enough to stand squarely against Krishna. That's an indicator of some kind of love—love gone wrong. Even if he is arranged against Krishna, he is at least facing Krishna. People do that in love, no? They want to look at you, so they will stand or sit opposite to you. If your beloved is sitting there, you won't want to be somewhere behind her, or next to her, or away from her. You will want to be seated right opposite her. So, Duryodhana at least had that degree of honesty. He said, “Fine, if I can't be by his side, if I can't be an Arjuna, I will at least be directly opposite to him.” So, he got liberated pretty soon. He didn't have to bear the agony of living through lifeless decades. What if you are neither with Krishna, nor against Krishna, simply indifferent to Krishna? That's how most people are. They don't even have the guts, the honesty, the Love to openly defy Krishna. They won't come out in the open. Even their opposition lacks sincerity. Even in their enmity, they have no sincerity. So, they are simply away. They are not fighters, they are deceivers. They will not openly defy Krishna, they will deceive. They will say, “We are with you, we are in your army.” And when somebody says that he belongs to your own army, that fellow gets the right to stand behind your back, right? And when the fellow gets the right to stand behind your back, he can stab you in the back. Duryodhana cannot stab Arjuna or Krishna in the back, that much honesty he has. He has ensured he is standing right in the front. The worst way to express your enmity with Krishna is to belong to his army. Even if you don't stab him in the back, you can at least snore at the back. The general is expecting that the army is all set for war, but here you are. He is standing, facing the enemy and the soldiers are snoring. The soldiers don't even have the guts to cross over, declare that they are in opposition and simply go to the other side. The soldiers don't have the guts. So, they will continue to be arranged behind the leader, and they will stab or snore from there. Duryodhana was sincere. So, it got over pretty quickly for him. For most people, it does not get over that quickly. The punishment is that one has to live on. Are you getting it? Is that clear? Now, we want to understand Arjuna's state. Let’s put the Gītā in perspective. What is it that Arjuna stands for? Write point wise. Because only when you understand what Arjuna stands for, will you understand the very purpose of Gītā . The Gītā exists to solve a problem posed by Arjuna. The Gītā exists to truly defeat certain arguments made by Arjuna. The Gītā is a discourse against Arjuna's position as enunciated in chapter one, right? What is Arjuna's position? Write down point wise. You cannot have just two or three points. And a lot of points you will come to by way of implication, so exercise your mind. What can a solution mean to you, if you do not know the very problem it is solving. Truth is supposed to dissolve the mind, right? We want to know the mind of Arjuna. There are seventeen chapters after the first one, are an attempt to dissolve the mind of Arjuna. But where are the knots? What is it that stands crystallized within Arjuna's mind? What is it that Krishna is seeking to work on? Where are the tumours that the expert surgeon is trying to surgically remove? (Audience answers) Yes, attachment. So, these are biological. You said attachment, he said fear; these are biological. So, first is attachment, obviously biological. Second is fear, probably yes. The biological part is over here—attachment and fear. Now you come to the social part. Audience : Religious beliefs. AP: What exactly? Audience: Believing that giving water and rice to their dead ancestors gives them peace. AP: So, by implication what does that mean? What is he actually believing in? Audience: In Vaidika karma kāṇḍa , the teaching he has gone through. AP: Once you say that it's important to offer Tarpaṇa etc. to the dead ancestors, what is it that you are fundamentally believing in? There is a particular concept behind that. (Audience answers) Jīvātmā , right? That there is something called a jīvātmā that transmigrates. So, that's the principle behind Arjuna—transmigration of the soul or jīvātmā. That's where Arjuna is coming from, and that's something the Gītā stands to dissolve and attack. Very interestingly, in favour of the principle of transmigration of the soul, people have been quoting the Gītā ; whereas the Gītā exists to deny that principle. That's exactly what Arjuna is stating as his position, right?—If kids of the wrong kind of caste combinations are born, then that will be very bad for all the departed souls. So, you started from there. Fine. The principle of transmigration of the personal soul. What else does Arjuna believe in? Audience: The caste system. AP: Caste system. What else does Arjuna believe in? Women as property. It's a very patriarchal mindset when he says that you know, women should not be allowed to mingle with people from the so-called lower castes. As if women cannot decide on their own, as if Arjuna is the great and final patriarch on whom rests the responsibility to protect women's chastity and minds. What else does Arjuna believe in? Rituals. It's a very ritualistic mindset. And that's the reason why Shri Krishna has to attack the karma kāṇḍa portion of the Vedas again and again in the ensuing chapters. So, ritualism. Ritualism, patriarchy bordering on misogyny, superstition and caste. By today's yardsticks, what Arjuna has said in chapter one is quite offensive. That was the going system in those days, so one must not judge, right? Because people operate according to the values of their own time and age. You cannot apply today's standards to an Arjuna that was two thousand five hundred years back. But still, we see what is it that Krishna is up against. We now clearly see how formidable is the challenge. We also see how contemporary is the challenge. Did you see that? It's not easy to tackle someone who carries that kind of a social load. And if you don't believe me, then try. Someone who believes in those things, try arguing with him. Krishna obviously had the advantage of proximity and also authority. Arjuna to a great extent had already accepted Krishna as the authority—an authority that was standing proximate to the to the learner. Arjuna already was someone who was open to learning. So, Krishna had these two advantages. But even with those advantages, it is a very uphill thing to tackle someone with that kind of a mental load. And we have listed four points under the social tab. Forget all four, someone who carries even just one of those is going to be a tough nut to crack. Try talking someone out of his patriarchal beliefs, you will understand what I mean. Try talking someone out of caste, next to impossible. Now, you also know what to do when you battle these kinds of problems and mindsets. Krishna didn't directly talk of these things, instead he introduced Arjuna to the self. Which basically means—look at Krishna’s method, not just his words, look at the method he has chosen—which basically means that if you want to tackle caste, or patriarchy, or ritualism, or superstition, then the only tool is self-knowledge. You cannot simply declare these as evil, or sins, or vices and hope that the population will discard these things. That won't happen. That's why you find that in spite of very liberal education, people still continue to be casteist. That's why you find that even scientists are extremely superstitious at times. Because it is self-knowledge that will defeat superstition, not just science. I am not denying the important role of science, I am saying that science alone will not succeed. Could science alone succeed, Krishna would have taught Arjuna science. Krishna doesn't teach Arjuna science. Arjuna is superstitious, Krishna doesn't teach him science. Arjuna is a casteist, Krishna doesn't teach him Marxist Revolution. Not because that revolution is something abhorrable or incompatible with spirituality, simply because it won't succeed. It won't succeed. So, Krishna doesn't launch himself into a diatribe against casteism and other evils. No, he doesn't do that. Once Arjuna has finished speaking, Krishna comes directly to self-knowledge—who you are. Once you know who you are, all these problems are attacked at their root. Once a fellow starts developing a degree of self-knowledge, you do not then need to additionally tell him to not to be casteist. If you are a casteist, that simply means you have zero self-knowledge. If you are superstitious or ritualistic, it simply means you have zero self-knowledge. Introduce self-knowledge and all these things will vanish like they never existed. You won't even need to talk about them or attack them directly, they are gone. There is some jaggery kept here, behind Anuj’s (audience member) back. So, a lot of flies are there in the room—one hundred and forty-four of them. What do I do? Fight each one of the one forty-four, is that the way? Is that the way? There are one hundred and forty-four mental and social evils—some arising from the body, some coming from society. What do I do? I fight each of them individually? Imagine there is this lump of jaggery kept somewhere and what am I busy doing? I am chasing individual flies with a swatter. This kind of wisdom is the last thing we can associate Shri Krishna with, right? He is not going to do such an obviously senseless thing. What does he do? He picks up that unwanted stuff in the room of Arjuna's mind and throws it out. What is that lump of jaggery to be called? What is that? That is called Ego. Another name for ego is self-illusion, right? Self-illusion. I believe in something that does not exist and call it as the Self—that's ego. Self-illusion. I tremendously believe in something that actually has no existence. Not only do I believe in it, I think of that thing as Self—that's ego, self-illusion. That’s the unwanted lump kept at the center of our existence, and it attracts a lot of flies and other stuff. So, Krishna says, “No, no, no. It's pointless debating caste or women with Arjuna. I know where all of it is coming from, I will immediately hit at the center.” What do you call it these days? Headshot. Finished! No point beating about the bush. And believe me, if Krishna chooses to beat about the bush, a thousand Gītās will not suffice. Such is the grip of these things on the mind. In Hindi, they say that which never goes is called caste. But in English, in translation, it loses its bite. The bite is there in the vernacular— Jo kabhī nahīan jāti, vo hai jāti. So, a thousand Gītās and a thousand years will not suffice. Caste is something you just cannot get rid of by arguing directly against caste. That is something you can attack only through self-knowledge. Only self-knowledge is the solution. You know what is happening in the US these days? When we had the first few waves of migrants crossing over to the U.S and Canada, they were mostly upper caste people from India, right?—I am talking of Indian migrants. Now, since the last twenty years or so, or twenty-thirty years, a lot of the so-called lower caste students and professionals also started moving over to the U.S. So, what happened was that Indians went there and carried caste even to those offshore destinations. They say when an Indian goes abroad, there are two things he definitely carries with him—one is pickle, the other is caste. He cannot leave these things back in India. You cannot say, “I am going there but I cannot carry pickle.” The mother or somebody—Aunt, Būā , Fūfī will definitely push a can, a sizable can of Achāra in your luggage. Pickle in the luggage and caste in the mind. So, they have now pushed legislation there and they have said that caste is now an acknowledged form of discrimination. And a lot of Indians were quite unhappy at that. It's happening, it's currently in the news. A lot of upper-caste Indians are quite unhappy. They say, “You know, we don't know what is caste. You see, we are modern progressive people. We are immigrants actually, and you are giving the natives something to beat us up with? They will call all of us a casteist.” But if such a step was needed to be taken, there actually was some rationale behind it. The fact is, Indians indeed do carry caste wherever they go. And that caste discrimination, that caste consciousness had started showing up even in North America. So, the society and the government there decided to do something about it. Think of it. How is caste so eternal, so long lasting? They say a cat has nine lives. Caste has more than ninety-nine at least, it just doesn't die. Now you see why I am calling Krishna’s challenge as formidable. It's very difficult to wipe these things off somebody's mind, especially of the mind of a Kṣhatriya belonging to the upper caste. He's simply saying, “I cannot bear to see my women, my Kṣhatriya women mating with these low caste unworthies.” That's what Arjuna is saying. That's the kind of challenge Krishna is facing. Do you see this? And there are several other mindset issues that Arjuna is facing that you can draw by implication, by implication. For example, if someone believes in caste and is superstitious, and believes in the transmigration of soul, and such things—what Arjuna is saying is, “I believe that once people die, there is something called the soul that goes to a place called Pitṛu loka and there it continues to stay till it is liberated. And when it is liberated…”—and such things. If someone believes in all those things, then it is also quite likely that the fellow would be demonstrating a lot of other problematic symptoms in his life. Now look at Krishna’s delicate position. He is fighting for Pandavas, right? Krishna has arranged himself on the side of the Pandavas. Arjuna would be wielding an important position of power if Krishna’s side wins, correct? If Krishna wins, Arjuna will get a lot of authority in the kingdom, would he not? So, Krishna is basically fighting and teaching to give a lot of authority to Arjuna and others, there are others. But Arjuna being a principal one, Arjuna will get his fair share of authority, won't he? So, Krishna knows that I am fighting to give a lot of authority to Arjuna, and look at Arjuna—what kind of attitude he is displaying? Is he going to govern the kingdom with this value system? Krishna must be horrified, because it is Krishna’s personal responsibility, right? Krishna is saying, “Personally, I am vouching that Arjuna is better than Duryodhana or Karna.” Otherwise, what is the need for the battle? Otherwise, Duryodhana can be allowed to have the kingdom. The battle is being fought, ostensibly, to give the people of Hastinapur the best ruler possible. That's the very purpose of the battle, right? If a great ruler is not to be provided to the kingdom, then the battle is totally unnecessary. Anybody can rule. The battle exists so that the kingdom can have the best ruler. Now Arjuna is supposed to be a part of the ruling combination. These are five brothers, and Arjuna is one of the seniors and the best fighter among the five. So, Arjuna will surely have a pole position in the ministerial portfolio and everything. And who is Krishna awarding that pole position to? A casteist, a superstitious person, ignorant of the self. So, Krishna would be totally horrified. He would be saying, “What am I doing? If he is displaying these tendencies, am I sure he is actually even better than Duryodhana?” Because if you look at Duryodhana, he accepted Karna even when it was not certain what caste Karna belonged to. In fact, it was more certain that Karna did not belong to any of the prime castes. He was taunted as a ‘*Sūta-putra*’ his entire life, because his father used to take care of horses and the chariots. So, Duryodhana didn't have that strong caste element in his mind, at least from that instance, we can draw some kind of a conclusion. Not very strong conclusion, but we get some faint idea. So, when it comes to the caste thing, Duryodhana looks better off than Arjuna. And Krishna must be wondering, why am I on this side? Why am I on this side? And will I make this man the king, or the minister, or the commander-in-chief of the armies? Will I become responsible for that kind of a misstep? So, now you see what the Gītā is. In some sense, the Gītā is an expression of Krishna’s personal responsibility. Krishna is saying, “Since I have taken it upon myself to make the Pandavas victorious, therefore I take it upon myself that the victorious party will not remain unworthy of ruling Hastinapur. Because my job does not stop merely at defeating Duryodhana, my real job was the establishment of Dharma ; that's what I am really fighting for. And Dharma means that the king has to be someone who is self-illumined. Otherwise, how is Dharma being established? And this fellow, look at chapter one. “What kind of drivel is he talking? How far he is from self-realization? And tomorrow he sits on the throne, and people will blame me.” They will say, “You made him sit on the throne. Now see all kinds of casteist steps he is taking. He has all the power and authority now. He says that only Kṣhatriyas are qualified to take important positions.” Is that not quite likely? Look at Arjuna's mind and look at the kind of things he is saying. Had Arjuna succeeded in going to the throne remaining as he is in chapter one, think of what he would have done to the administration. Would he have allowed women in important positions? And he would have patronized all kinds of superstitious priests, and he would have wasted the treasury on all kinds of hollow rituals, no? Those rituals are very expensive, and priests will come and say, “You know, two-thousand animals have to be slaughtered. And a great temple has to be built, otherwise the country will suffer famine and drought. You build that great Temple.” Now, even if the treasury cannot support the construction of that temple, yet it has to be done, because that's what the priests are saying. Is this kind of a king good for the kingdom? So, Gītā becomes Krishna’s personal responsibility to purge Arjuna's mind. Otherwise, Krishna would have said, “See, it's not a question of you running away. If you don't improve, I will run away. Because I cannot take it upon myself that I gave this kind of a king to Hastinapur. And how will I justify Duryodhana's death? I ensured that that entire huge army is defeated, and all those mighty warriors are killed just so that this kind of man can succeed to the throne?” By throne, I mean a position of power. Now don't come to me by saying that Yudhisthira would have become the king, not Arjuna and all those. Keep that aside. Think of the churn inside Krishna's mind. These are the thoughts in his mind. He is saying, “If Arjuna is who he is, as been displayed in chapter one, what am I doing supporting Arjuna? Why should I support him at all? So, he has to improve. He has to improve; else he doesn't deserve to win. Else he doesn't deserve to have me by his side.” Think of even Karna, even Karna is not ritualistic. Arjuna is so vulnerable to his physical self, right? Karna, if we believe what the Mahabharata says, had been told—the great secret had been let out. It has been disclosed to him by Krishna himself that his body belongs to the Pandavas, that he is in fact their eldest brother. And yet he was able to overcome bodily affiliation. Think of Karna. He has been told the side to which his body belongs, and his body definitely belongs to the Pandava side. All five are his brothers and that too younger ones and Krishna told him, “You go there, and they will touch your feet. You are the eldest one, elder even than Yudhisthira.” And he told all this to Karna in quite a poetic and compelling way. He said, two of them will wash your feet, two will stand behind you and guard you. And more poetic stuff, very alluring. Karna said, “Fine, no need.” And on the contrary, you see Arjuna being carried away by his physical associations, and Karna was the one who could resist his physical associations, right? Do you see that? Equally Karna’s allegiance to Duryodhana is not ritualistic or social, it is coming straight from his core. He's saying, “Duryodhana supported me in my lowest hour. How do I ditch him now? When I was a nobody, he pulled me up, he honoured me, he actually granted me an entire kingdom. Otherwise, I was just coming from a very ordinary place. He made me Angraaj. So, how do I deceive him now?” Now, that's not ritualistic, mind you. This position is not ritualistic. This position is an expression of deep inner values—personal values, not social values. Personal value. So, Krishna must be wondering, in some way Duryodhana is better than this chap; in another way, Karna is better than chap. What am I doing supporting him then? When it comes to resisting the body and the biology, Karna is superior to him. Why must I support Arjuna? Because it's not a matter of who has been my friend since long, it's a matter of gifting the right king to the people of Hastinapur—that's the entire purpose of the war. That's what is meant by the establishment of Dharma . My likes and dislikes aside, my personal preferences aside, how can I let someone like this ascend to the throne? Yes, I love Arjuna. He's not just my disciple, he is my friend. We have spent so many beautiful years together and we have laughed and made merry as friends do. But still, my accountability is not just to one person, but to the entire population of the nation. So, I have to ensure that only the worthiest fellow succeeds to the throne. And what Arjuna is displaying here is surely not symptoms of worth. Now do you see the whole thing? Is there some perspective now? Do you see where the Gītā is coming from? Do you see? Do you see the pressure that Krishna is experiencing? Yes? Can you clearly identify Arjuna's position? Can you see that Arjuna's position is not historical, but very, very current, extremely topical, very relevant, very contemporary? None of what Arjuna is saying is something unseen today. Look at all the points you have listed. Each one of them is present today as well, and very strongly at that, right? That's what makes the Gītā immortal. That's what will make the next seventeen chapters speak to you. That also tells you that if you have problems belonging to any of those points, then seek no other solution. The only solution is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge. Where do all the problems of the individual and the world come from? Self-illusion. Because you do not know yourself, so you create a mess within and without. Simple. Full stop! You look at any rubbish prevalent anywhere, without thinking a second, you could immediately declare it is coming from self-illusion. Declare first and argue it out later. Declare first, because that's a certainty that if there is a problem of any kind, anywhere; it can arise only from one thing—lack of self-knowledge. Having declared that, now you can think the whole thing through. Now you can argue it out and create the various linkages and ask yourself, “How exactly self-knowledge leads to this thing?” Obviously, when you will think through the thing, you will be able to establish a whole sequence of arguments, and that's not too difficult. But faith comprises—and that's the definition of faith now—faith comprises looking at anything that is ugly and immediately declaring without batting an eyelid, it is coming from a lack of self-knowledge. There are no problems except the mother problem, and the name of the mother problem is E-G-O. There is no other problem, so don't wonder too much about your problems. The moment you find yourself in a mess, in a soup, just tell yourself, “It is just my lack of self-knowledge.” Now, how is it your lack of self-knowledge, you can continue to think about that. All day think about that—how it is your lack of self-knowledge. But first of all, immediately admit, acknowledge that it is nothing apart from lack of self-knowledge; that must be instantaneous. The argument, I am saying, you can continue to build for two more days. You can take all the time that you want, but the declaration has to be instantaneous. So, should we conclude without thinking? In this matter, yes. And that's called faith. Your problem is—you think where thought should not interfere. And you know, when you think where thought should not interfere, that simply jeopardizes thought. Even your thought loses its quality. You think so much, and there is no power in your thinking. Your thought is like a lame and limp man trying to run, trying to cover a distance. How will he manage? It is faith that provides life to thought. Are you getting it? But this thing applies only to the mother question. Do not start applying this thing to any other question. The mother question is—what is the mother cause of any problem that I see anywhere? And the answer to that has to be, I am saying instantaneously, the ego. In other matters, do not start playing this trick. Otherwise, you will be called, and you deserve to be called a bigot. सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च ।।