Bhagavagd Gita - Session 1 - Track 102

dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre

These are the two first words of the text of the Gita. Earlier we had already seen the need to study the Gita; we had also studied two basic characters of the Gita: Sri Krishna and Arjuna. We had also tried to understand the situation in which the two are placed: the problem that Arjuna had in his mind, what is the question that he raises? And the answer that came from Sri Krishna which satisfied him and he said that ‘all my doubts are now resolved’: moha naṣṭa, (XVIII, 73) ‘all the delusion is now finished’, and he was prepared to do the bidding of Sri Krishna. In a general way we know what was the question, what is the answer.

In short, the question was: “I know that there is a task to be done, I must fight; on the other hand, I know that this fight will cause a massacre, slaughter, destruction, and destruction of such a nature that it will create a great chaos and fall of Dharma. There will be varṇasaṁkaraḥ, (I, 41). On the one hand I know Dharma: to fight. On the other hand I know that if I do the Dharma, I will lead of Adharma. Between the two what is the best that I should do?”

This is his question basically. And Sri Krishna’s answer is that ‘Your question arises out of a confusion in the mind, out of egoism, out of attachment and out of a fear’, because at the end he says that: ‘I shall go to hell if I produce so much of Adharma’. Therefore Sri Krishna says that, “neither ‘this’ is Dharma nor ‘that’ is Dharma. To fight is no Dharma, nor not to fight is Dharma. Dharma is something different”. Even the concept of Dharma is to be transcended. You are today only thinking of Dharma, but Dharma is not the highest thing in the world: there is more than Dharma, beyond Dharma and that is the discovery of the Divine’s will, and to perform the Divine’s will. The entire argument of the Bhagavad Gita is only this: discover the Divine’s will and act according to the Divine’s will. It is not ‘your’ Dharma, nor ‘his’ Dharma, not ‘this’ is right, nor ‘that’ is right. Only divine action is the right action, because it proceeds from the supreme purity, supreme compassion, and therefore if you follow that Will, then the right thing will be done.

That is the basic answer of Sri Krishna: to become a flute. You know the analogy of flute is very great: a flute cannot play any music by itself. This is a fact. For the music to be produced there must be somebody to blow the wind into the flute. Flute by itself cannot put that wind into itself, nor does it know what kind of music it should produce. It has a capacity of producing the most wonderful music, but by itself it cannot produce that music at all. Therefore Sri Krishna says, ‘you become instrument’: nimittamātram bhava, XI, 33

You become only the nimittamā, you become only the instrument like a flute: allow the Supreme to blow the wind into you, and allow Him to play the music that He wants to play through you. All our difficulties are because we are obstructing that flow of the wind coming from the divine. So, remove those obstacles: parityajya sarvadharmān, XVIII, 66

All kinds of Dharmas, all kinds of ideas you have, you completely avoid them and surrender them. Allow the Divine Will to manifest, and then do what the Divine wants. Divine wants that you should fight, this is what He declares: the Divine Will is that you must fight. The answer is not because it is Dharma or Adharma: the divine will say you must fight and therefore you fight. This is the answer.