Sri Krishna says in Gita
'yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamyaham
paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge'
Literally speaking, (or what the 'asitis' guys call the purport), Sri Krishna, in this verse assures that 'whenever the 'dharma' is subdued, and the 'adharma' rises its head, He will 'spring' up. He will appear for saving the good men and destroy the evil ones and establish the 'dharma' from time to time.
On the face of it, this is a straightforward verse, merely Krishna promising that He, as the savior will appear from time to time and save the good men. But the thing is, I find the idea of a personal, acting, talking God faulty. I will first state why.
As per Vedanta (of which Gita is supposed to be a sweet summary), the Supreme Being is One, Infinite, Omnipresent and Unchanging. Now, if something is Infinite, it does not obey laws of time, space and causation (for Infinite is One, and all three of these require the concept of atleast two present); or the concept of any of these does not exist for Him. In plain words, the Infinite Being is immutable.
Now, the question is this, why does Krishna, who is of course a realized Soul, fully aware of this Supreme Consciousness, speaking or acting as the Immortal being say that He will come back as the savior, when clearly He is Immutable/Impersonal?
What makes him say the 'nirgun' 'nirakar' Being of which He is aware, takes a human form (which is a change) and takes efforts to establish dharma, destroy miscreants and save the sadhus?
Well, this is my interpretation.
IMO, what Krishna is reiterating is a fundamental law of this Universe. He merely states that whenever there is too much evil, when people become against their dharma (nature), fault in their duties, there is a resurgence of good, of stability of progress. What has gone down comes up, rises again and reaches the highest point, until the decline starts again. The cycle is complete and continuous.
But there is still the 'sambhavami yuge yuge'! Not only does He say that 'dharma' will be restored, but adds that He himself will be doing it. What He means is that He, the Supreme Being is in every individual to be manifested. It is through the common people, the oppressed and the oppressors that He acts! Whenever there is evil one or many of these oppressed men and women act and there is the establishment of a new system. When He assures that He will 'spring' up (Srujami aham), this is the uprising he is talking about. There are seers and leaders and prophets in every period of time, but the force behind a mass movement is the common people, who fight tyranny, ill will, oppression and help setup a new system based on values of righteousness, justice and equality. That is the 'dharma' He talks about.
So the people who sit with folded hands hoping the savior from sky will come down and slay the evil-doers are doomed. There is no external savior, He resides in us only, in each one and all of us. Realizing this fact and rising up to work is the need of the hour. No amount of praying is going to help, there are so many of us who have no food, no education, there are others who have been illed against by other humans or by nature. And when we do nothing about them that is the sleep 'dharma' has fallen into. Man not caring for man is the resurgence of 'adharma', and we are the ones who should be fighting it. God is within us, we need to act as he says!
May we all realize our true form and fulfil what Krishna rightly says, the establiishment of the true 'dharma' of humanity!
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2 comments:
Thanks a lot for this!!!!!!!!!!
"What He means is that He, the Supreme Being is in every individual to be manifested. It is through the common people, the oppressed and the oppressors that He acts! Whenever there is evil one or many of these oppressed men and women act and there is the establishment of a new system."
AWESOME!
Strictly speaking there are two phases of liberation as per advaita. In the first phase the gyaani becomes free from 'unreal' avidya and hence he is liberated from avidya. This liberation is most important as per advaita. However ..
Well..! Let me use an example to put forth my point.
Consider the both of us, say we are gamers..!
We keep playing a game in which we keep collecting points. We use these points to upgrade our character in the game.
One can earn points by either paying up or by playing the game well and winning the points or by borrowing from an ally.
And one day I find myself badly in short of points and hence I am forced to borrow some points from you.
But later, I realize that the game is just another bondage and that I am addicted to it and that I need freedom. So what can I do?
I cannot stop playing games instantly and declare a graceful exit, because I need to repay you. Though it is 'unreal' in reality, I am in debt.
So either I have to play, collect those points and repay you or I have to buy some points and repay you. Either way restoring order into the system before gracefully exiting is a must.
Same is with Karma. For Every cause, there is an effect. Though both are unreal in reality. The Karma of a Jnaani would have effects of aJnaanis as well. Hence even if a man is liberated from Ajnaana he is forced to take one more birth as a Jnaani to repay his Karma.
But this time he being the highest personal manifestation of Brahman, he commits many acts with Nishkama karma Yoga (no attachment to action and hence no reaction) and hence he is called the avatar. There is no added Karma in this birth for the Jnaani. With all his previous Karma negated and with agyaana destroyed the Gyaani enters the second phase where in he is liberated from sa.nsaara.
Hence even if a man is liberated from Ajnaana he is forced to take one more birth as a Jnaani to repay his Karma, or he should nullify his Karma in the same birth where he got the 'real'ization.
This is an avatar, monistically speaking.
Anyway, for a Jnani, this nullification of Karma is insipid, To him liberation is attained as soon as Vidya is realized..! From then this life (this one and the next if any..!) is just an effect to sink the previous causes.
Whether this nullification can be done in the birth where realization is attained or is there could there be a birth after this realization phase to nullify is a debated issue again, though I take the latter side.
To elucidate the way karma works let me take you outside the box. Away From philosophy, spirituality and Religion. I present a glimpse of history from my viewpoint. Okay?
I take you 70-60 years backwards, the times of the world war.
Allies Vs Axis, yes we are referring to the world war here.
Germans were clearly (or seemingly clearly) winning in the first phase. First, let me explain one of the greatest strengths of Germans. It was their Encryption standards. They used a protocol called ENIGMA to encrypt their messages and launched quick and lethal co-coordinated attacks on NAVY with their U-boats (submarines) thus controlling the naval front.
The location of the submarines were unknown and there was total chaos and confusion among the allies. Why? For Britain to fight Germans (US was yet to enter the war then) she needed resources and aid from the USA.
But these supplies were cut-off by the U-Boats. So, for Britain to win there was only one way. And that was to crack Enigma. For that they needed someone to betray Germany. I could explain the whole story, but it is a needless exercise. Anyway there was this person who betrayed Germany and aided the British out of lust for money (the word lust is intentional, it is beyond greed). Concordantly, the British found a solution with the help of Polish engineers and they broke the Enigma.
And now my question : What do you say? This man betrayed Germany and was monumental in her defeat right?
But from my view-point this traitor's act was unintentionally patriotic. Why? Events never occur in isolation. Had Enigma been not cracked , Germany would have lost her war 6 months or at max one year later. This would have meant that the First Atom bomb would have fallen in Berlin not Hiroshima. Hiroshima was bombed mainly because Germany surrendered by then (and of course the American Wrath). What I wish to say is that, such is the effect of our actions.
We cannot say my Karma or your Karma as Karmas are linked at a subtle level. So no one can attain liberation from Sansaara unless one has emptied the Karma, even if one is a Jnanin. But in the post-realization phase, the Jnanin is God-incarnate. So all the asat-nishkama-kriyas (unreal-unattached-actions) of Jnanin will be termed as Bhagavad-lila. Being unattached the Jnanin is not the Kartha and hence he will derive no Karma-phala (causative reaction or effect).
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