Karma in Gita

I bought a copy of annotated Bhagavad Gita a few months back with the intention of understanding the scripture better since I’m living in a country that has become a Hindu theocracy in all but the Constitution. After reading the first part [chapters 1 to 6] which is about Karma, I gave up. Shelving a book [literally and metaphorically] is not entirely strange to me. If a book fails to appeal to me after a reasonable number of pages, I abandon it. The Gita failed to make sense to me just like any other scripture. That’s not surprising since I’m not a religious kind of a person. I go by reason. I accept poetry which is not quite rational. Art is meaningful for me though I can’t detect any logic in it. Even mysticism is acceptable. But the kind of stuff that Krishna was telling Arjuna didn’t make any sense at all. To me.

Just a sample. When Arjuna says he doesn’t want to fight the war because he can’t kill his own kith and kin, Krishna’s answer is: Fight. If you are killed, you win heaven. If you conquer, you win the earth. Rise and fight, man. [2.37]

The numbers in square brackets refer to the chapter and verse of the Gita. The translation is my own. I went through three different editions and found all the translations obsolete if not obfuscating.

Before I proceed with Krishna any further, let me tell you about my renewed interest in the Gita. Three different versions of the sacred song landed in my house the other day as part of a project I took up recently. I’m forced to read them, in other words. One of the four you find in the photo was bought by me a few months back.

Now, back to Krishna and Karma.

As a Kshatriya, Arjuna should have accepted Krishna’s pragmatic counsel above. A few verses earlier, Krishna had tried metaphysics. The soul is immortal and you cannot kill it. You are only killing the bodies of these people. You are releasing the eternal soul from the mortal body. [2.19-21] Such metaphysics had had no impact on Arjuna. That is why, I guess, Krishna resorted to the ruthless pragmatism of the win-win strategy cited above. Kill and you win the earth. Or be killed and you win heaven.

Arjuna is not quite convinced. Is there no better way than killing or dying for solving a problem? There are other ways, of course. Bhakti yoga [chapters 7-12] and Jnana yoga [chapters 13-18]. But now we are on a battlefield. And you are a soldier. It is your duty to fight.

Action (karma) and duty (dharma) are the two vital concepts of the first 6 chapters of the Gita, as far as I understand. Let me warn you, dear reader, that what you’re reading is my personal interpretation of Krishna’s divine song to Arjuna after I went through three different interpretations. I’m a teacher of literature by profession. It’s only natural that I read any book as a work of literature. Forgive me if your religious sentiments are brittle. Take my writing as an opportunity for you to exercise the most divine virtue of forgiveness.

Back to Karma, once again.

Karma is action in simple words. We cannot but act. Life is action. Krishna goes to the extent of saying that even not acting is action as long as you are not free from impulses and passions. You cannot escape from action; you can only escape from the passions that drive them. What is evil is not action, but the motive.

Your motive will be right when you know that you and your enemy out there and the entire cosmos is an extension of the divine.

Sanatana dharma is nothing but the presence of divinity, wherever it is. When that divinity is disturbed by inappropriate human actions, there is disharmony, adharma. We have to bring back the harmony. That bringing back of the harmony is now Arjuna’s duty. Arjuna’s karma.

Arjuna is still not convinced. I am not either. A lot of questions arise. Where do I find the divine presence in the first place? I look around. There is more religion today than in my youth. But life was far more peaceful and joyful in those old days even though the politicians were corrupt. Now I realise with dismay that corruption is better than religion. There are more temples and idols now. There are more books being sold on religion now. And yet there is hardly any divinity to be experienced. What does dharma mean anymore?

I stand bewildered at the end of Part One of the Gita. There are two more parts left for my study. I shall study them too. I have the time now, having retired from teaching. I will return here tomorrow with the next lesson I learn from the Gita – from part 2: chapters 7-12. But I repeat: my learning is personal. If only everyone’s religious learning was personal, the world would have been a far, far better place!