Bhagavagd Gita - Session 1 - Track 111

It was this kind of society which was created by India and sustained for a long time in the history of India which is itself a tremendous task. To create a condition in the minds of men, which will obey this kind of an order, accept it, implement it, sustain it for ages is a tremendous success of Indian civilisation of the past. This kind of society and this kind of social structure is quite different from our present structure of society. That is why for us it is very necessary to understand in which conditions Mahabharata was war, how it was fought. We will not understand very easily because we are removed from that ethos of that time. Our ethos at present is different. We are supposed to be both a teacher and a producer and a warrior at the same time. When the war starts in the west at least we know that everybody is required to join the war; everybody, a priest even who is actually going to preach silence and peace, even priest is required to take the gun in his hand and to shoot. This is the law of the society in the west; in India also at present. If the war breaks out every Indian will be required to take part in it, this is the modern idea of society.

Both the structures of society have its advantages and its disadvantages. We do not say that the modern society does not have any advantage at all, but the one great disadvantage in this particular present structure is that you are required to do things, which are against your own nature: when you are required to participate in a war or a participation in every kind of activity in life, then very often you are required to act against your own nature. I may be not a teacher by nature and yet society might say: ‘you must become a teacher’. How often our system of education is such, if you don’t get ninety percent marks you take philosophy; you may not have anything of philosophy in you but you must study philosophy, why? Because that is all that is required in the present society, you should be in a slot and if you can’t come in a slot of doctors you should become philosopher. You must be quite omnipresent as it were: if you don’t fit into this, you will fit into that. It does not take care of the specific needs of nature: it does not take care of Swabhava and Swadharma. This is the great disadvantage of the present form of society.

But there is a great advantage also. What is the advantage? That it provides you the possibility of developing not only one Swabhava but multiple Swabhava. The divine is multiple Swabhava, Divine Himself; therefore if you can take it rightly, you become so powerful that you can develop any kind of Swabhava which is necessary for a given moment: this is the great advantage of the modern society. By asking you to be a producer and a teacher and a warrior at the same time, you are required to develop various kinds of capacities and skills, you are required to become multiple in your own personality.

Question: But one cannot be expert in everything?

Answer: It depends, therefore there are problems, but this is the advantage. There is also an advantage: if you can receive this challenge of the modern society and master it then the result will be what? Result will be that you will create personalities of the type of Sri Krishna. Take Sri Krishna Himself: He was the greatest teacher in the world, therefore Brahmin. The greatest teacher having taught Gita in the way in which He has done, He can be regarded as the greatest Brahmin in the world. He was Kshatriya, great warrior of which there is no question. He was a great lover, and love is an element of Vaishya-hood; Vaishya is one who knows how to exchange and exchange is a fundamental power of love. The best way by which love can thrive is by exchange. You cannot stand on the river’s bank look at your object of love and do nothing about it. There has to be an exchange between the two then only the love manifests. Therefore, Vaishya is one who is the master of exchange, and Sri Krishna was the greatest lover in the world, on this question also there can be no doubt, we have known about His love for the people, for His friends, for Radha, for Gopis, and for the whole creation in fact. He is the greatest lover therefore greatest Vaishya. He was also a great charioteer. When He was asked to be a charioteer, He did not say: ‘no, no this is not my task’. Not only did He become a charioteer, but He became the best charioteer in the whole Mahabharata.

This great possibility exists in the modern times: because the modern times ask you to take up any challenge of life and to be prepared for any challenge of life therefore you can be integral in your personality, as much as the Divine is. There are problems of the kind that you just now said, to become “a jack of all trades, but master of none”, this also is a possibility; but another possibility is that if you can receive the challenge of the time and master it you can become integral.