Gita and Non Violence -1, a summary

One of the major contentions of intellectuals against Gita is that Gita advocates war in contrast with Christian or Buddhist philosophies which value non violence above everything else. However they often tend to ignore the fact that the Vaishnava sect which is based upon the worship of Rama or Krishna as the incarnations of the supreme lord of the Universe, is fundamentally based on principles of non violence. Western academia’s love for non violence has led to the deification of Mahatma Gandhi as the incarnation of the age, just a shade below Christ and Buddha. Mahatma also defended Gita, but his interpretation was different. He was more defensive on the war advocacy part of Gita and postulated that the war described therein is symbolic, a representation of the inner conflict inherent in every human being. While this can verily be an interpretation, this is no reason for denying the war. Gita is definitely set against the background of war, the Great War between Pandavas and Kauravas and therefore war plays a very important role in the teachings.


Sri Krishna, the lord of the supreme universe exhorting his disciple and friend Arjuna to fight and win over his enemies is in direct contrast with the dualistic notion of God which is benevolent and is bestowing grace, as well as the Advaistic principle of an inactive God or Self which is merely a witness. At the beginning of the war Arjuna is dejected by seeing so many near and dear ones whom he will have to kill to win the war. Hence he is willingly to give up fighting, ready to get killed by the enemy, based on his own concepts of virtue and vice, which are not very different from traditional intellectual notions of present age. However Lord is firm, he asks Arjuna to fight and win over his enemies.  He begins by explaining to him that the term “death” as understood by everybody is a misnomer, as every individual is nothing but Self and Self is neither born nor killed. In death it merely changes its form and passes from one identity to another. Then he explains that virtues and vices do not exist if one is free from desire, these traits only exist as long as an individual is imbibed with the spirit of dual aspects (like love and hate) and the goal of human beings is to progress to the level of one who is above these traits of duality. This person is free of desire and therefore relinquishes all fruits of actions even while acting. Such a person is called in Gita “Sthitapragnya” or the one of steady intellect (certainly does not refer to the intellectuals of our times).

To satisfy Arjuna’s desire for knowing more about the different paths, Sri Krishna goes on explaining the principles of Karma , the principle of work without desire for fruits and how selfless work can negate the effects of anger and desire which compel people to take up unholy actions. He also explains the path of knowledge and complete renunciation of work and but also emphasizes that renunciation of desire is far better than any other form of renunciation and therefore there is no conflict between selfless work and renunciation in contrast to popular belief. He then gradually unfolds his true nature in front of an amazed and dazed disciple. The sight, popularly called Viswaroopa, is so extra ordinary that it cannot be constructed from mere intellectual imagination, thus lending more credence to the truth inherent in Gita. He explains the path of devotion, the knowledge of the Self and body, the knowledge of nature and qualities which help in the progress of spiritual path and which impede progress. Finally in unequivocal terms he advocates complete surrender to the will of the Lord, shunning everything else. And the God’s will here is to wage war, to fight and to win over enemies.

This is something of an enigma to the intellectuals. How can a benign and benevolent God advocate war? Therefore one of the Western intellectuals declared that she does not like Gita much because it advocates war over peace and she is perplexed as to why Gita has popularity amongst educated Americans.