Gita and Non Violence 6 - Lord as Destructor

If the Lord is indifferent or if He is compassionate, why would he bother about adharma or vices? Didn’t we say that He is above all pairs of opposites? So why would He be perturbed by good or bad?


Reason may be many. Only God knows His designs. However He appears on stage for His devotees, who fall in dire straits when there is preponderance of evil tendencies. He also appears to make sure that His life and His followers’ lives become worth emulating for millions in the coming ages. If we take a very high view point then He is still indifferent because in terms of cosmic scale these wars and the associated destructions do not mean anything. Destruction paves the way for new creation. Nature destroys only to create afresh, just as people leave behind their worn out garments to wear a new one. Thus destruction is also a form of compassion, to give people another chance to lead a better life, probably in another age or in another world. Another explanation is that all these are part of His Leela or the divine play. He enacts the divine play and Himself participates to derive more fun out of it, like a naughty child. He puts somebody in the garb of evil and some others in the garb of saints to make the play more interesting.

All these explanations do not satisfy the intellectuals as they would harp again and again – forbearance is what is expected, not war. Destruction leads to death and suffering and a kind God does not cause suffering. Therefore Gita is wrong to advocate war.

Now being exasperated one would say, but who said that God is always kind and merciful? In fact In Chapter 11 of Gita we find this through the depiction of the universal form. To Arjuna’s request of showing him the True Form, Sri Krishna gives him the divine vision, through which he is able to see the actual form of God. And what does he see? He sees a form which is without beginning, without end, with many bodies and limbs and many terrible teeth. All beings are in that form and the entire universe is contained in it. It is shining with a splendor of thousand suns and its glow is engulfing the entire universe. All the warriors are seen entering the endless mouth of that form, whose many mouths are devouring them and many teeth are crushing them. Arjuna sees that the all the major warriors in that great war are caught in those terrible teeth which shine like the fire of hell and their heads are crunched and crushed. In fact all the beings of the universe are rushing towards the fire emanating from the mouth of that terrible form. That’s how Arjuna with great horror realizes that the great universal force of destruction will destroy everything and everybody, but he knows not what it is. When a trembling Arjuna asks who the Lord is to whom that form belongs to, Sri Krishna answers –

Kaalo asmi lokakshayakrit prabrddha lokan samahartum iha pravrtta
Rte api tvam na bhavisyanti sarve ye avasthitah pratyanikeshu yodhah

I am that age old eternal destructor called time which is engaged in destroying everything and everybody. Whether you will fight or not fight does not matter to Me because in spite of you these warriors will be destroyed by Me.

One likes it or not, one is sure to die, as one is sure to born, every birth is succeeded by death and every death is preceded by birth. This is natural law and compassion or kindness is meaningless here. He now reveals to Arjuna that the latter is merely an instrument, a cog in the great wheel. The supreme ruler has already decided the fate of the war and in fact the fate of every being in the Universe –

Maya eva ete nihatah purvameva nimittamatram bhava Sabyasachin

I have already killed all these (warriors), Oh Sabyasachin! you just carry out my wish.

In Kurukshetra the divine will has already planned for destruction, Arjuna is merely an instrument and even if that instrument is incapable, He will find other ways and means. Nothing is impossible for Him. Therefore war is neither good nor bad, it is merely a way of changing the rhythm, the pattern, the cycle of life. It paves the way for sowing new seeds and getting rid of the old, worn out and decaying. A mass destruction, even though disastrous from a limited viewpoint, has no effect on a cosmic scale where such destructions just keep on happening as death keeps coming and snatching souls away. Sri Krishna therefore has deliberately assumed the terrible form in Viswaroopa, to leave behind a universal message for posterities, that everything is transient and transitory. Destruction is needed and there is nothing to be afraid of, because in destruction also people come unto Me, the lord of the Universe.