Subtitles
in 1925 Mahatma Gandhi wrote the 00:00:00
in 1925 Mahatma Gandhi wrote the following words I find a solace in the 00:00:03
bhagavad-gita that I miss even in the 00:00:11
Sermon on the Mount when disappointment 00:00:15
stares me in the face and all alone I 00:00:18
see not one ray of light I go back to 00:00:21
the bhagavad-gita I find a verse here 00:00:24
and the birth bear and I immediately 00:00:27
begin to smile in the midst of 00:00:29
overwhelming tragedies and my life has 00:00:33
been full of external tragedies and if 00:00:36
they had left no visible no indelible 00:00:38
scar on me I owe it all for the 00:00:41
teachings of the bhagavad-gita in this 00:00:47
passage that I've just quoted to you 00:00:50
Mahatma Gandhi was referring to what is 00:00:54
perhaps the most famous of all the 00:00:56
spiritual classics of India the 00:00:59
bhagavad-gita or Bhagavad the Lord 00:01:04
Gita song the song of the Lord it is 00:01:09
spelled bhag a vad bhagavad-gita gita 00:01:16
the song of the lord the lord in this 00:01:19
case being tree krishna who in Hindu 00:01:24
mythology is regarded as an incarnation 00:01:28
and embodiment in the Sanskrit language 00:01:31
an avatar of Vishnu the Supreme Lord the 00:01:37
personification of the ultimate reality 00:01:40
underlying this universe the 00:01:45
bhagavad-gita was probably compiled 00:01:48
about the 5th century BC and it forms a 00:01:53
part of a great epic called the 00:01:54
Mahabharata it's attributed to a sage by 00:01:59
the name of Yasser and contains a 00:02:02
complete epitome of the whole central 00:02:05
doctrine of Hinduism known as the 00:02:08
Vedanta 00:02:10
it's a very fascinating into a puzzling 00:02:13
fact that Gandhi pre-eminently the man 00:02:16
of non-violence in modern times was so 00:02:19
devoted to this book because the scene 00:02:23
with which the book opened is a 00:02:25
battlefield the field of kuru where a 00:02:29
young prince by the name of Arjuna is 00:02:33
riding in his chariot and Shri Krishna 00:02:35
the incarnation of Vishnu is his 00:02:39
charioteer as the opposing armies face 00:02:44
each other and the battle is about to 00:02:46
begin and Arjuna is painting hard 00:02:52
oppressed with the senselessness of this 00:02:54
struggle and of internecine warfare and 00:03:00
the Gita says in the first chapter he 00:03:04
was overcome with great compassion and 00:03:06
out of this in sadness when I see my own 00:03:11
people arrayed an eager for fight o 00:03:13
Krishna my limbs quail my mouth goes dry 00:03:17
my body shakes and my hair stand on and 00:03:23
I see evil omens o Krishna nor do I 00:03:26
foresee any good by slaying my own 00:03:28
people in the fight I do not long for 00:03:31
victory o Krishna nor Kingdom nor 00:03:33
pleasures of what uses Kingdom to us o 00:03:37
Krishna or enjoyment or even life and 00:03:41
having spoken thus on the field of 00:03:44
battle 00:03:44
Arjuna sank down on the seat of his 00:03:47
chariot casting away his bow and arrow 00:03:49
his spirit overwhelmed by sorrow and to 00:03:55
this complaint his charioteer the Lord 00:03:57
Krishna replied whence has come to be 00:04:01
the stain this dejection of spirit in 00:04:03
this hour of crisis it is unknown to men 00:04:06
of noble mind yield not to this on 00:04:10
manliness go Arjuna for it does not 00:04:13
become me cast off this petty 00:04:16
faintheartedness and arise o oppressor 00:04:18
of the foes and to give point to his 00:04:22
words Krishna goes on 00:04:24
now Grievous for those for whom thou 00:04:27
should not grieve and yet thou speakest 00:04:30
words about wisdom wise men do not 00:04:33
grieve for the dead nor for the living 00:04:36
never was there a time when I was not 00:04:39
now nor these lords of men nor will 00:04:43
there ever be a time hereafter when we 00:04:46
shall cease to be as the soul passes in 00:04:50
this body through childhood youth and 00:04:52
age even so is its taking of another 00:04:54
body 00:04:55
the Sade is not perplexed by this heat 00:05:00
and cold pleasure and pain come and go 00:05:03
and do not last forever 00:05:05
these learn to endure the man who is not 00:05:10
troubled by these Oh chief of men who 00:05:12
remains the same in pain and pleasure 00:05:13
who is wise makes himself fit for 00:05:16
eternal life of the non-existent there 00:05:21
is no coming to be of the existent there 00:05:24
is no ceasing to be the conclusion about 00:05:29
these to have been perceived by the 00:05:31
seers of truth know thou that that by 00:05:35
which all this is pervaded is 00:05:37
indestructible of this immutable being 00:05:41
no one can bring about the destruction 00:05:44
it is said there these bodies of the 00:05:46
eternal embodied which is indestructible 00:05:49
and incomprehensible come to an end 00:05:53
therefore fight o Arjuna he who thinks 00:05:56
that this slaves and he who thinks that 00:05:59
this is slain both of them fail to 00:06:01
perceive the truth this one 00:06:04
neither slays nor is slain he is never 00:06:08
born nor does he die at any time nor 00:06:11
having come to be does he again and 00:06:13
ceased to be he is unborn eternal 00:06:18
permanent and primeval he is not slain 00:06:21
when the body is slain 00:06:21
it's obvious I think to those of you who have listened to any other of these 00:06:30
programs 00:06:33
what Shri Krishna is talking about here 00:06:33
when I was talking to you about the Upanishads I explained at several points 00:06:40
the fundamental doctrine of the Hindus 00:06:47
and that is that the innermost reality 00:06:50
of man is not quite quite what we who 00:06:54
have been brought up in a Christian 00:06:56
tradition called the soul we have an 00:07:00
inherited teaching of course of an 00:07:03
immortal and individual soul which is 00:07:07
the root principle of every human being 00:07:10
but in the Hindu doctrines the soul is 00:07:14
not individual soul is Supra individual 00:07:19
or as they would say in their technical 00:07:23
language the Atman the soul or self self 00:07:27
is really a better translation and soul 00:07:30
the Atman is identical with braum and 00:07:34
Brahman is the name which they use for 00:07:37
the ultimate reality which underlies 00:07:39
this whole universe now I don't want you 00:07:46
to think of Brahman as a sort of vast 00:07:48
blob of perfectly transparent jello 00:07:51
which penetrates the whole world I I 00:07:55
think that's what many people imagine 00:07:57
when they hear this kind of thing the 00:08:01
whole point of the bum idea is mist when 00:08:06
you form any image of it in your mind at 00:08:08
all even jello even empty space or 00:08:11
boundless light Brahman is what we 00:08:16
ourselves really are what this whole 00:08:20
universe is fundamentally and actually 00:08:25
there is no way of thinking about of 00:08:29
imagining that for a very simple reason 00:08:33
that as water cannot rise higher than 00:08:37
its own level 00:08:39
thought cannot think what is higher than 00:08:42
thinking it cannot conceive the mind 00:08:46
which thinks and still less the power 00:08:50
which generates the mind our symbols for 00:08:57
our ideas about this supreme reality ah 00:09:01
vacation voyage not at all because that 00:09:05
reality is vague and void but because 00:09:09
thought and imagination are annihilated 00:09:12
in trying to grasp it the essential 00:09:17
teaching which the Gita is trying to 00:09:19
convey in that the real center and soul 00:09:24
the basic reality of you and I he is not 00:09:29
the superficial consciousness which we 00:09:31
ordinarily call myself what we are 00:09:36
fundamentally is this unthinkable source 00:09:39
of life and existence named Brahman the 00:09:43
expansive nor must we confuse this 00:09:49
unthinkable center of our lives with the 00:09:52
sort of inner stuff a so-called blind 00:09:55
force for one doesn't derive life and 00:10:00
consciousness feeling and reason from 00:10:02
mere stuff as if the dead were able to 00:10:06
give birth to the living you know this 00:10:09
notion of blind force of the ultimate 00:10:11
reality which has been popularized by a 00:10:14
facile scientism is merely the result of 00:10:17
the fact that women the human mind gets 00:10:19
out of its depth it drowns and the 00:10:23
vomits up a lot of dead ideas and so 00:10:30
shri krishna goes on he who knows that 00:10:35
it is indestructible and eternal 00:10:37
uncreated and unchanging how can such a 00:10:40
person slay anyone o arjuna or cause 00:10:44
anyone to slay just as a person casts 00:10:48
off worn out garments and 00:10:50
it's on others that are new even so does 00:10:53
the embodied soul cast off one out 00:10:55
bodies and take on others that are new 00:10:58
weapons do not leave this self fire does 00:11:02
not burn him waters do not make him wet 00:11:05
not as the wind make him dry 00:11:07
he is unclever Bor he cannot be burned 00:11:10
he can neither be wetted nor dried 00:11:14
he is eternal all-pervading unchanging 00:11:18
and immovable he is the same forever he 00:11:22
is said to be manifest unmanifest 00:11:25
unthinkable and unchanging therefore 00:11:29
knowing him as such now sheds not green 00:11:32
even if thou thinkest that the self is 00:11:35
perpetually born and perpetually dies 00:11:37
even then o mighty-armed thou should not 00:11:40
grieve for to the one that is born death 00:11:44
is certain and certain is birth for the 00:11:47
one that has died therefore for what is 00:11:50
unavoidable thou should not grieve 00:11:50
perhaps that last passage needs a little bit of interpretation for the one that 00:11:57
is born death is certain is a statement 00:12:03
of course which is obvious enough but 00:12:06
not so obvious to us is and certain his 00:12:09
birth for the one that has died I should 00:12:12
try to explain this a little bit because 00:12:14
it's a passage expressive of what is 00:12:17
called in India the doctrine of rebirth 00:12:18
or reincarnation if you will think for a 00:12:23
moment of what you were before you were 00:12:26
born you will come to the rather 00:12:28
puzzling conclusion that you will before 00:12:32
you were born or impossible to think 00:12:34
about before you were conceived by your 00:12:38
father and mother in the womb you can't 00:12:41
remember anything you don't even 00:12:44
remember darkness not even the plant 00:12:48
your background your past history right 00:12:52
at its beginning seems to be a state of 00:12:56
complete annihilation of your ego of 00:12:59
your personality 00:13:02
and yet oddly enough here you are after 00:13:10
you die you may presumably go again into 00:13:14
a state which we can imagine only has 00:13:16
complete annihilation of complete 00:13:19
nothingness and if so you will don't you 00:13:24
be in the same sort of condition as you 00:13:26
were before you were born you came out 00:13:30
of that state though should you be 00:13:34
afraid to return to it this is perhaps a 00:13:40
rather elementary way of expressing the 00:13:43
Hindu doctrine of rebirth but I don't 00:13:46
want to give the impression that the 00:13:49
Hindu doctrine is as it is imagined to 00:13:52
be by many people in the West a doctrine 00:13:55
of the reappearance again and again in 00:13:58
this life of an individual soul I think 00:14:02
it is true to say that according to the 00:14:04
strict doctrine of the Vedanta there is 00:14:07
not an individual soul which passes from 00:14:09
life to life the one called 00:14:11
transmigrates is precisely this Atman or 00:14:15
Brahman and that this is why we have to 00:14:18
imagine the state before birth and after 00:14:21
death as blank annihilation because 00:14:25
thought is annihilated in trying to 00:14:28
grasp the reality which lies deeper than 00:14:31
thinking the finger that struggles to 00:14:34
touch its own tip finds only the empty 00:14:37
air and so Krishna goes on the dweller 00:14:45
in the body of everyone o Arjuna is 00:14:48
eternal and can never be slain therefore 00:14:52
thou should not grieve for any creature 00:14:56
further having regard for thine own duty 00:14:59
thou should stop father there exists no 00:15:02
greater good for acharya than a war 00:15:06
enjoined by duty 00:15:06
I think it is just at this point that we puzzle about this book in relation to 00:15:13
Mahatma Gandhi let me explain the 00:15:20
passage that I've just read acharya is a 00:15:27
member of one of the three great castes 00:15:29
of Hindu society those casts being 00:15:33
respectively brahmana which is the 00:15:37
priestly caste the sack addo diem 00:15:41
Kshatriya the caste of warriors and 00:15:44
rulers device' the caste of merchants 00:15:48
and they're roughly equivalent to the 00:15:51
Lords Spiritual the Lord's temporal and 00:15:53
the Commons of medieval European society 00:15:58
and each caste has its proper duty in 00:16:01
life which in Sanskrit is swadharma and 00:16:08
this is the phrase which Krishna uses 00:16:11
here when he says having regard for 00:16:13
thine own duty for thine own swadharma 00:16:16
serve our self Dharma function auspi 00:16:22
Dharma is probably best translated into 00:16:24
English as vocation the crateria is one 00:16:30
who has a vocation to fight that's his 00:16:34
job whereas a Brahmin or more 00:16:40
particularly one who has gone beyond 00:16:42
caste altogether one who in India is 00:16:45
called a sannyasi no corresponding in 00:16:48
the medieval West to the monks and 00:16:49
Hermits those who have gone outside 00:16:52
society they do not have the vocation or 00:16:55
the duty of fighting 00:16:57
I think the clue to the problem of the 00:17:02
Gita especially in relation to that 00:17:05
great nonviolent man 00:17:06
Gandhi is this primarily Arjuna's 00:17:12
objection to taking part in war is a 00:17:15
sentimental one 00:17:15
he is unwilling to fight in the battle because of his depressed emotions in 00:17:21
regard to slaying his kinsmen or we 00:17:25
would say in regard to slaying one's 00:17:28
fellow man if one would be a pacifist 00:17:33
because one is merely squeamish and if 00:17:38
the kind of person of whom one would say 00:17:39
well he couldn't even hurt a fly then 00:17:43
surely there is something phony about 00:17:45
such pacifism because it is sentimental 00:17:49
this does seem to be Arjuna's objection 00:17:52
and this is why krishna says in effect 00:17:57
your objection to slaying is a fear of 00:18:00
slaying a squeamishness to slay and 00:18:03
because of this you do not have a 00:18:05
genuine objection to slay if you refrain 00:18:09
from taking part in battle because you 00:18:11
are frightened of so doing or because 00:18:13
you are sentimental you are not the kind 00:18:16
of person who really has a right to 00:18:18
abstain from battle now why does he say 00:18:22
this the reason is that to the Hindu 00:18:26
mind one who abstains from what might be 00:18:31
an evil action through fear has not 00:18:36
really liberated himself from evil 00:18:36
Krishna would say that so long as our conduct is motivated by fear on the one 00:18:44
hand or by desire on the other we are 00:18:51
incapable of performing a truly moral 00:18:54
action only those actions are truly 00:18:59
moral which are unmotivated because if 00:19:04
you are motivated to do good by fear 00:19:06
your good may under other circumstances 00:19:09
be evil this is the case with Arjuna he 00:19:17
wants to refrain from war for the same 00:19:20
reason for which many other people would 00:19:23
engage in war many people engage in war 00:19:27
because they're afraid and not at all 00:19:29
because they hate 00:19:32
the world situation at the present time 00:19:32
the world situation at the present time might be said to be a situation of 00:19:35
mutual fear where the only reason why 00:19:42
someone might start a war would be for 00:19:45
fear of the other side starting at first 00:19:49
after all we all know now that modern 00:19:54
warfare is something in which neither 00:19:57
side wins it is then fear more than 00:20:03
anything else 00:20:04
fear that the other fellow should send 00:20:06
the bombs over first is what starts a 00:20:09
war and thus you see fear is no 00:20:12
deterrent to war at all a person whose 00:20:20
reluctance to fight is based on fear or 00:20:24
squeamishness does not then in Krishna's 00:20:26
view have the right to renounce it and 00:20:32
you see here the view is one which would 00:20:35
probably commend itself to a man like 00:20:39
Gandhi because you could turn it round 00:20:42
in the other way and say that a person 00:20:46
who has to take the step of being a 00:20:48
non-violent man a man of peace a 00:20:50
pacifist he would have his vocation and 00:20:54
his duty to do in exactly the same way 00:20:57
as the Kshatriya of the warrior 00:21:00
he must not be nonviolent on sentimental 00:21:03
grounds but rather because he sees it as 00:21:06
his father anima that is to say his 00:21:11
vocation in life and so a moment later 00:21:16
krishna formulates the principle of 00:21:19
action he says therefore arise o son of 00:21:23
Kunti Arjuna resolved on battle treating 00:21:28
alike pleasure and pain gain and loss 00:21:30
victory and defeat to action alone has 00:21:35
the right never at all to its fruits let 00:21:39
not the fruits of action be damages 00:21:42
neither let there be in the any 00:21:44
attachment to inaction fixed in yoga 00:21:49
that is to say in union with the 00:21:52
principle with the self do thy work a 00:21:56
winner of wealth abandoning attachment 00:21:58
with an even mind in success and failure 00:22:01
for evenness of mind is called yoga one 00:22:06
who has yoked his intelligence with the 00:22:09
divine casts away even here both good 00:22:12
and evil they are false pride for Yoga 00:22:16
Yoga is skill in action the principle 00:22:23
you see which he enunciates is to act 00:22:25
without attachment to the fruits of 00:22:27
action to do what you have to do without 00:22:31
seeking either evil or good from it how 00:22:35
this is simply another way of saying to 00:22:37
act without motive seems of course from 00:22:43
our point of view impossible that a 00:22:45
human being should act without motive in 00:22:49
our Western Way of thinking about ethics 00:22:51
we judge the quality of an action by the 00:22:54
quality of the motive and the whole 00:22:57
notion of an action without a motive at 00:22:59
all seems to be extraordinarily foreign 00:23:02
to us but ever natural effect if there 00:23:07
is no such thing as an action without 00:23:09
motive there is no such thing as a free 00:23:12
or moral action because so long as we 00:23:17
have a motive our actions are not 00:23:19
actions they're simply reactions sure 00:23:24
it's obvious that our motives are 00:23:26
determined by our conditioning by our 00:23:28
environment our editing our social 00:23:30
structure they give us motives and these 00:23:34
motives of the past determine the way in 00:23:36
which we act now if my motive for doing 00:23:40
good yes for the sake of some sort of a 00:23:43
reward whether it's in the ancient sense 00:23:45
of going to heaven or the modern sense 00:23:47
of being a real person or a regular guy 00:23:50
or whether it's for an ancient sense is 00:23:53
going to hell 00:23:54
sense of being a cab I act motivated Li 00:23:58
and therefore the things which I do by 00:24:01
way of moral action are not actually 00:24:04
free if as we in the West have rather 00:24:10
inconsistently but nevertheless rightly 00:24:12
insisted a moral man must be a free man 00:24:16
a free man must be an unmotivated man in 00:24:22
Western Christianity it has always been 00:24:24
thought that there is only one 00:24:26
unmotivated being and this would be God 00:24:29
in the words of the ancient him in the 00:24:32
Catholic breviary God is creation secret 00:24:36
force thyself unmoved all motions sauce 00:24:40
God then would be the one who would act 00:24:44
without motive who would act 00:24:45
spontaneously from himself without 00:24:47
having to be pushed around the point you 00:24:50
see of the Hindu teaching he is that in 00:24:53
reality each one of us is that unmoved 00:24:56
one that unmotivated one the Routan 00:25:00
ground of our soul and mind is the same 00:25:03
as the Routan ground of this whole 00:25:04
universe therefore one in whom this is 00:25:10
fully realized can act in an unmotivated 00:25:14
way in studying the philosophy of the 00:25:19
Hindus we have to get used to the idea 00:25:22
that it's really an illusion to suppose 00:25:27
that every event is motivated determined 00:25:30
or caused by the past what they call 00:25:33
karma or causation by the past is in 00:25:37
fact Maya or unreality for in the Hindu 00:25:42
philosophy the present of the universe 00:25:46
or the eternal now of the universe is 00:25:49
not the consequence of its past but 00:25:52
rather the past is always the 00:25:55
consequence of the present of the 00:25:57
eternal now it trails behind it like the 00:26:01
wake of a ship it does not stand before 00:26:04
it and push it 00:26:06
and thus it is through the realization 00:26:11
that he is that eternal now not his past 00:26:15
that Arjuna is able to act in a free way 00:26:19
in an unmotivated way and thus go into 00:26:22
battle not because he is moved to fight 00:26:24
by hate by squeamishness or fear but 00:26:27
because he carries out his appointed 00:26:30
place in a society in which it's his 00:26:32
vocation to be a warrior we may think it 00:26:35
regrettable that societies exist in 00:26:39
which there is a vocation to be a 00:26:40
warrior but let's not be sentimental in 00:26:43
this respect also because every one of 00:26:46
us is unable to live at all without 00:26:48
killing something some of us would like 00:26:51
to rule out altogether the killing of 00:26:53
our fellow men but you see in the Hindu 00:26:57
view of life there isn't this rigid 00:26:59
distinction between men on the one hand 00:27:02
and animals and plants on the other 00:27:04
which exists for us in the West 00:27:07
therefore there are times in the Hindu 00:27:09
view when killing is an unavoidable 00:27:11
condition of being alive and this is one 00:27:15
of the problems which the Gita sets 00:27:17
itself to solve I read these selections 00:27:21
from the translation of the 00:27:23
bhagavad-gita that spelled BH a Gav ad 00:27:27
- gita translated by dr. s Radhakrishna 00:27:33
r Adha KR i sh n am as you may know dr. 00:27:41
Radhakrishnan is the vice president of 00:27:43
india the translation is published by 00:27:46
Harper & Brothers of New York it is one 00:27:49
of the best of the many translations 00:27:51
that I know and is provided throughout 00:27:53
with an excellent commentary 00:27:53