With Krsna on the Battlefield of Life
BY: SUN STAFF
Jul 08, 2023 — CANADA (SUN) — By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Back To Godhead Vol. 01, No. 58, August 1, 1973 - Part One.
HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA
KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
The Hare Krsna mantra is for everyone, regardless of one’s religious faith, nationality, race, creed or occupation. This sound vibration is transcendental to all boundaries because it cannot be affected by material conditions; therefore anyone can chant it freely, at any time, in any place or under any circumstances. The chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the most simple and sublime method for realizing who God is, who we are, what the material world is, and what the relationship is between us all. Hare refers to the energy of the Lord. Krsna and Rama are names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the reservoir of all pleasure. God, or Krsna, is full in knowledge, He is eternal, and He is always blissful. God is absolute because His name and He Himself are nondifferent.
This spiritual knowledge is now inconceivable to us because our reasoning power has been contaminated by materialistic consciousness. By our own mental speculation we cannot transcend limited and mundane logic. But if one sincerely chants and hears the Lord’s name, the Lord, who is seated in everyone’s heart, will reveal His inconceivable nature. The articles in Back to Godhead explain this process of revelation. We humbly request you to experience life beyond the petty happiness and distress of day-to-day activities by sipping the nectar of the holy names. You have nothing to lose, and the gain is very great.
With Krsna on the Battlefield of Life
arjuna uvaca
senayor ubhayor madhye
ratham sthapaya me ‘cyuta
yavad etan nirikse ‘ham
yoddhu-kaman avasthitan
kair maya saha yoddhavyam
asmin rana-samudyame
“Arjuna said: O infallible one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see those present here, who is desirous of fighting, and with whom I must contend in this great battle attempt.” (Bg. 1.21-22)
tatrapasyat sthitan parthah
pitrn atha pitamahan
acaryan matulan bhratrn
putran pautran sakhims tatha
svasuran suhrdas caiva
senayor ubhayor api
“There Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his father-in-law and well-wishers-all present there.” (Bg. 1.26)
Now Arjuna is facing the problem. He is facing all his relatives his grandfathers, his uncles, sons, friends, animals, etc. Yes, there were also animals horses and elephants-present before Arjuna on the battlefield. According to the Vedic conception, animals are also members of the family. They are considered members because they render service. It is not that we are to give protection only to one section of our family. We should not take everything from an animal and give it no protection. This is not civilization. The family includes wife, sons, daughters, cows, dogs, etc. Speaking in terms of either family or state, we should not give protection just to some members of our family and cut the throats of others.
On the Battlefield of Kuruksetra all the members of Arjuna’s family were present before him, and the problem was that he had to kill them. Since the Battle of Kuruksetra was a family fight, some of the family members were on the other side as well as on Arjuna’s side, Arjuna was even faced with his superiors, his uncles and teachers (pitrn, acaryan), for there were those who were on the platform of father and grandfather-Bhismadeva and Somadatta. Even his great teacher Dronacarya was on the opposing side. Actually before fighting with Dronacarya, Arjuna cast an arrow at his lotus feet as a form of obeisance. Such was the etiquette. “My dear sir, you have taught me this fighting art. Now it is being used against you.” This is duty. As for Dronacarya, he shot an arrow that grazed Arjuna’s head, and he said, “My dear son, become blessed.” How blessed? “By killing me. I know you will kill me, so I give you my blessing.”
This material world is problematic, especially when we are involved in family, society, friendship and love. These are all entangling. In the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated:dehapatya-kalatradisv atma-sainyesv asatsv api. First of all the living entity has an attraction to his body, then to the offspring of the body. The individual is alone, he accepts a wife, and in this way, through the begetting of children, he expands himself. The woman is called stri because she helps the man expand. First the individual has affection for his own body, then the wife, then the children. In this way the individual expands his affection for the material world.
The material world means attachment; it is not required, but is a foreign thing. It is foreign because we are essentially spiritual aham brahmasmi: “I am spirit.” But because we wish to lord it over material nature, Krsna has given us these bodies. He gives a body to the great god Brahma or to the ant whatever one desires, if we want the body of a tiger, Krsna will give it; if we want the body of a hog, He will give that also. And if we want the body of a demigod, like Brahma, He will give it. If we want an American or Indian or English body, Krsna will give it. He is so kind. A son may be disobedient to his father because he wants to enjoy something, but the father says, “All right. Take the money anything.” The father is so kind that even though he may not approve of what the son is doing, he says, “All right. You are free. Go ahead and take some money.”
This material life is a concession given to us by God in order that we may gratify our material senses. Actually Krsna does not want us to become entangled in this material world. Why does a man get married and beget children? When he is alone, he has no responsibility. Why take on the encumbrance of a wife, home, and children? Why make friends? Why go to such botheration? The answer is that we wish to enjoy. Krsna is also a person. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. Krsna has produced so many children-all these living entities. Where does this idea come from that we will be happy with children, society, friendship, love, etc.? What is the origin of such an idea? It is there in Krsna. Krsna is the origin of love. He is loving Radharani, so the idea of love has come from Him. Whatever is within our experience is present in Krsna; therefore Krsna cannot be impersonal. He is a person exactly like ourselves, but the difference is that He is unlimitedly powerful.
Krsna also wants to live peacefully with His family. This Krsna consciousness movement is away of training ourselves so that we can again live within Krsna’s family. With these so-called families in the material world, we are suffering. The family idea is present in the material world, but it is only perfected in Krsna. The family idea cannot exist unless it is present in Krsna. Krsna is the origin of everything. Whatever we are seeing here in this material world has its origin in Krsna, but here it is perverted. When we see a tree, we see it standing erect, but when we see its reflection in a lake, it is upside down, topsy-turvy. Similarly, this material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. It is false in the sense that it is a reflection. Those things which we see here exist in the spiritual world.
(To be continued…)
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