Editorial
When War is Inevitable
Sri Krishna tried his utmost to stop the conflict. The amount of work he did during those days was unimaginable. He went to the enemy country all alone. It was dangerous, but Krishna did. He entered the enemy court all alone and tried to talk the cruel power-hungry monsters out of war. But the jeering and mocking monsters laughed at him. They were not ready even to give away five villages to Pandavas, the rightful owners of the country. The monsters virtually drove Krishna out. This was one of the most daring ventures in human history: whether human or an incarnation, to visit the enemy territory all alone to discuss peace was extraordinary. After this failure to establish peace, Sri Krishna tried other methods. He spoke to Karna, the chief of the enemy army. Krishna revealed that Karna was in fact one of the pandavas. Karna was shocked to know that he was living and serving an enemy of his own brothers in the enemy country. But yet he had the foolish pride and arrogance to reject Krishna’s call for peace. Ego is a terrible thing. Just as the word “religion” has caused immense bloodshed in the world, ego has caused countless, really countless, deaths and disasters in the world. Karna was proud of his capabilities. So he said, “Okay, since you have revealed to me the secret that I was one of the brothers whom I am to fight, I shall only kill one pandava.” Everything failed and the war began.
Is war bad? A counter question would be, is surgery good or bad? There’s a lot of bloodshed, cutting, deaths of viruses and bacteria. But sometimes that is the only solution to cure and heal the entire personality. Similar with wars. This world is dualistic. There are always gods and demons here. Who are the demons? Anyone whose philosophy of life is the body and whose goal is the pleasures of the body is a demon. A demon, or rakshasa, thinks only of his or her body and its pleasures here or elsewhere. Even if these demons die and go to heaven, they will have bodily pleasures. Such is their idea. God for them is only a giver of bodily comforts and pleasures. The so-called prayer that these demons do is just pretension or show of physical strength and the aim is pleasures. They have nothing to do with spirituality. These demons live beastly lives of murders, hatred, stealth, etc and train their offspring the same things. Show them love and affection, and they will return their hatred and overpower you. So these demons would become powerful occasionally and no amount of talk would help. You can’t convince beasts by reading the bible to them. Devas or Gods are different. They have moral principles, they have God as their means and end, freedom of the body, mind and Spirit as their only goal and virtues, love, etc as their means. Devas never harm, they try to serve all. This has been the history of humanity. So there have been wars. No war is good and yet they have to be to eliminate beasts who will understand no logic, no philosophy, no sane word.
Yuddhyasva vigata-jvarah: fight on without fear! The Lord is with you when you are fighting for dharma and a righteous cause.
May Sri Ramakrishna guide us all towards the supreme Light. This is the eternal prayer of all of us.
Swami Sunirmalananda