HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO- SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 4:
Text in Transliteration:
arjuna uvaacha
katham bheeshmam aham samkhye
dronam cha
madhusoodana
isubhih pratiyotsyaami
poojaarhaav
arisoodana
Text in English:
Arjuna said:
O slayer of Madhu, O slayer of foes, how shall I with arrows
counter-attack Bhishma and Drona, who are worthy of worship?
Comments:
This is hesitation at its hight. Even after the Lord has
called him the scorcher of foes, and chided him for his temporary impotence of
mind and the resultant despondency, Arjuna calls the Lord’s attention to his
having killed the demon Madhu and being a slayer of foes, and asks how he could
be expected to slay Bhishma and Drona worthy of worship. This hesitation has
entered his psyche and makes him argue with the Lord even showering encomium on
Him for having slain the demon and being in the nature of slaying not one own
people but the foes alone!
When the Lord killed the demon, He knew full well that he
was only slaying the body, not the soul of his. And when the appellation slayer
of foes is applied to the Lord, it carries a peculiar meaning. It should not be
taken as we generally understand, and see in movies the hero thrashin and killing
the villain at the last scene; that is a gory act of vengeance, and hero’s face
and body language would show that state of mind. When the Lord kills his foes,
they are not His foes, but it is they who consider the Lord as their foes. For God
all are His children only. Even then, whenever the occasion arose, He never
hesitated to kill the foes, in the sense above mentioned. Killing the body is
not tantamount killing of the soul. Soul knows no action and suffers no action.
So Arjuna’s stacking of very good argumentative points are
not going to help him. Soon the dawn of the knowledge of yoga is going to shine
on him and he is going to give equal battle to all, friends and foes, the
Acharya and the Pitamaha, Drona and Bhishma respectively!
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