Doubt misquote

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 7 Jul 1997, sadananda wrote:

> Do not worry!  Krishna says B.G. in Ch. 4 -in the end while gloryfying the
> JNaana aspect
>
> aJNaH ca ashraddadhaanaH ca
> samshayaatmaa vinashyati,
> na ayam lokaH asti na paraH
> na sukham samshayaatmanaH||
>
> For those who are ignorant, who do not have faith (loose translation of
> shradda)  and who have doubts (all the time?), they get perished.  For
> those who doubt neither they have this world nor the higher world. They
> have no peace of mind.
> (Sankara actually defines shradda as - shastrasya guru vaakyasya
> satyabudhyavadhaaraNa - saa shradda - loosely - faith in the truth imparted
> by the words of the scriptures and the preceptor)
...for the purpose of understanding the truth.

>
> Intellect always doubts, but the answer lies beyond the intellect.  Hence
> faith becomes important.  Those who doubt all the time have no mental
> commitment to sit down and contemplate.  Here "doubt" I interpret as a
> reflection of a non-study mind

I agree.  The sanshayatma Krishna Bhagavan is describing is the type of
person who never wants to confront a problem.  It is useful to look at the
context of the Bhagavad Gita here.  It is the prelude to battle and Arjuna
has suddenly lost his nerve.  Now if Krishna Bhagavan had just picked up
some person at random and told them to kill 18 lakh people, one could
understand the confusion.  But Arjuna is born in the warrior caste in a
royal family.  Since childhood he has had instruction in warcraft from
teachers like Dronacharya and Krpacharya.  Such a person cannot
complain they are unprepared for war.  His "doubts" are actually based on
cowardice and hypocrisy.  By the end of the Gita, he still has doubts and
questions but they are based on a desire to understand the truth not to
hide from it.

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