[Advaita-l] Dying to Live Peacefully - III

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

Dear Sir,                  To explain in detail about the question of Sh. Raghava Kumar
"Is there any shAstra reference to what constitutes dhArmic"I have few line to explain this:
 Thereis no word in English or any other language that may be equivalent to or innear term carry the same meaning as Dharma in Sanskrit or in other Indianlanguages. However, the word 'Religion'is often used for 'Dharma' in foreign languages, which is not quite accurate. Unlike other religions that are based on 'One Book'(Christianity on Holy Bible and Islam on Holy Koran) and 'One Savior-Christ inChristianity' and 'One Prophet Muhammad in Islam', Vedic/Hindu Dharma is notbased on one book or one messenger or prophet. It is pluralistic in its approach to realize the ultimate Truth. Eachindividual has to strive for his or her own destiny. It is a law of 'Karma’.It is not based on any miracle, as is the case in other religions. It isnot even based on a group of people/monks/or fake guru's who started a religion following theinstructions and after the name of their teacher. 
These criteria do not applyto Vedic Dharma.  It isnot a dogma given for others to believe, but it is a process of investigation,practice, and purifying ourselves so we can have our own spiritualrealizations, perception and experience of our own true spiritual identity andrelationship with God. Thus, the individual has the freedom to decide what isbest to learn whatever they need to learn in this lifetime for their ownultimate spiritual progress. This is a big difference between conventionalreligion that we find today and that of Vedic Dharma Kameswara
Dr. M.Kameswara RaoSenior Scientist, P&T Division,Defence Research & Development Establishment, Ministry of Defence, Govt of IndiaJhansi Road, Gwalior-474002,IndiaPh 91-(0)751-2390368(0) Imp Note:The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments if any.
 

    On Saturday, 6 January 2018 3:45 PM, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 

 On 06-Jan-2018 12:57 PM, "Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

On Fri, 5 Jan 2018, kuntimaddi sadananda via Advaita-l wrote:

Bhagavat Geeta is from Mahabharata and Geeta is essentially a manual of
> living beautifully and peacefully to ultimately to arrive at peace that
> passeth understanding. Geeta, in essence, provides the discusses how to
> live peacefully according to sanatana dharma perspective.
>

!!!  Let's not forget Gita took place on the eve of an ugly war in which
lakhs of people including virtually the entire flower of the ruling classes
were killed.  The Gita is many things but peaceful it is not.  And note
Arjuna is perfectly willing to give up his kingdom, wealth etc.  It is
Krishna Bhagavan who dissuades him.


I was wondering why a battle in which the 'entire flower of the ruling
classes perished' ( one researcher says that this loss of kxatriya prowess
badly affected India for millennia, making it vulnerable to foreign
invaders ) , is still regarded as right by Astika-s .

( Btw , nAstikas like Amartya Sen have a stupid take on the Gita and say
that the Gita is a dishonest book and it asks us to act without bothering
about the consequences etc etc....)

But coming to the Astika-s perspective on extolling certain kinds of
violence -
dharmyaddhi yuddhAt shreyonyat kxatriyasya na vidyate, as they say.

Can we say that if Arjuna had run away, then the forces of adharma would
have caused even more deaths and disruption for society, in the longer run?
So even from a societal perspective this killing people and violence was
unavoidable and was for the larger good, like say, fighting the Nazis?

Not to speak of fighting being good at the individual level for Arjuna in
being karma yoga for him, which I am not focusing on for the moment.

(ISKCON teachers say that the battle was legit because Krishna the supreme
personality of Godhead goaded Arjuna. Period.)

Is there any shAstra reference to what constitutes dhArmic killing? Like
meting out just deserts for an AtatAyin, maybe?

Om







The Mahabharata, particularly if you read the original, does not shy away
from acknowledging the neegative consequences of the Pandavas actions.
Nevertheless it was the right thing to do.  What the Gita teaches is how to
develop the mental equanimity to do the right thing even when it may seem
to be wrong.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>

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