Gita and Nonviolence 5 - Destruction as message of hope

In our last blog we asked that why would a kind and merciful God want war and destruction of mankind.

The Supreme Lord’s message is not restricted to a particular age or context or person, it is universal. The purpose of a great destruction is to leave behind a message for the posterity, that do not cross your limits, or destruction is imminent. This is not a question of being kind or ruthless, this is simply a natural law. The  impersonal God is above any dualism of kindness or ruthlessness. He is detached from everything although He Is everything.

We’ll see shortly in Gita that it is His will that is driving everything and everybody, though because of ignorance people talk about free will. The war is also His will, His writ upon an aggressive society which is drunk with pride, lust and avarice. He, who is the supreme creator, is also the supreme destructor. He as Atman or Brahman, the Supreme Being, is indifferent, beyond all dualistic attributes like kindness and compassion, ruthlessness and vengeance and therefore the destruction associated with war does not move Him.

To leave behind a profound Universal message He will time and again sow the seeds of destruction and everybody who seems to carry out the destruction are nothing but His agents, instruments in carrying out His will, without even knowing the same. Historically that force of destruction struck evertime when the human civilization was too proud and too sure of itself. It destroyed half of imperial Europe in two world wars in the recent past and it obliterated many other kingdoms and civilizations. Many so called great men like Napoleon and Alexander who considered themselves to be invincible faded into oblivion leaving behind nothing but memoirs and memories of their exploits.

So the Lord will not stop the war. This is because it is His writ that runs through the world and He favours destruction when traits like avarice, greed, malice and pride have gone beyond limits. That’s why he proclaims in his most famous verse in Gita –

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharata abhyuthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamyaham

Oh Bharata! Whenever virtue is in peril, whenever there is erosion of moral values to a considerable extent that calls for my intervention, I project myself.

Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca duskrtam dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

Why does He incarnate? The answer is - to protect the good and to destroy the bad, to reestablish justice. This is not a onetime affair; this will happen time and again, whenever the world needs His service.

The other interpretation for this is, the Supreme Lord incarnates to protect His devotees. He creates war to leave behind a message of hope for his devotees that destruction awaits those who harms His devotees. This message of protection to devotees is also found in many chapters of Gita.

After all, this is a divine play. The Lord Himself is in all beings, therefore it is He who is divided into many selves who are busy fighting with each other.