By Urmila devi dasi
Asvatthama, son of the Brahmana guru, had murdered Draupadi’s sons in their sleep, after the war was over. Arjuna was going to execute him as he had promised his grieving wife. But now Draupadi pleaded for mercy. His brother, Bhima urged the death penalty, and the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna said: A friend of a brahmana is not to be killed, but if he is an aggressor he must be killed. All these rulings are in the scriptures, and you should act accordingly. You have to fulfill your promise to your wife, and you must also act to the satisfaction of Bhimasena and Me. (SB 1.7.53-54)
Prabhupada comments, “The solution was awarded by Krsna.” Doesn’t sound like a solution does it? Krsna says, “You need to kill him; but you can’t kill him. You have to make Me happy, and you have to make Bhima happy, and you have to make Draupadi happy. Instead of just saying, “Your wife,” Krsna says, “priyam,” — those who are dear to you. You have to make your dear wife santa, meaning peaceful.
So, you have to satisfy your wife, you have to satisfy Bhima, you have to satisfy Me, you have to follow the scripture. Oh, but the scripture gives contrary instructions. As Prabhupada is saying here in the purport that you don’t kill a brahmana; even a brahmana bandhu cannot be killed. So, if someone is even in the family of a brahmana you don’t kill them. But, Manu says that if someone is an aggressor, even if they are a real brahmana, what to speak of a brahmana bandhu, they must be killed. Prabhupada gives the example of Dronacarya, who, he says, was a real brahmana, but because he was standing on the battlefield he had to be killed. And here Asvatthama, who is not acting as a real brahmana, is, in one sense a worse aggressor because on the battlefield there are rules and so forth whereas here he’s just killing boys in their sleep, so certainly he would be killed. But, even though he is an aggressor, he is bound up; he doesn’t have any weapon, and you cannot kill an aggressor in such a circumstance. Then you also have Draupadi’s points that he is not just a friend of a brahmana. He is the son of their teacher to whom they have a debt of gratitude. Gratitude is also a sastric injuction; it’s one of the items of knowledge. And he’s the only son of his widowed mother. His death would put her into grief, so out of compassion for the mother he should not be killed.
So, you have all these contrary things, how do you adjust them? You can ask an authority. Here God is standing next to Arjuna. The Sanskrit says, Sri Bhagavan uvaca, this is God. Krsna is not an ordinary counsellor. He’s not some self-help guru or somebody with a PhD in mediation or psychology. Not only is he the Supreme Lord, He is the most full and ultimate expression of the Supreme Lord. He’s described as akhila-rasamrta-murtih (CC Madhya 8.142), ete camsa-kalah pumsah/krsnas tu bhagavan svayam (SB 1.3.28), isvarah paramah krsnah (CC Adi 2.107), mattah parataram nanyat (Bg 7.7).
So, you will not find any higher authority than Krsna even among Visnu tattva, what to speak of Siva tattva, or jiva tattva. You might think, “I’ll go to God, I’ll get some definitive answer.” But you may say, “Well, He answer just makes it worse.” Krsna is saying you have to do everything. You can’t take this OR this; you have to take this AND this. And it was a lot of ands, it wasn’t even two ands, it was many ands. You have to not kill a brahmana but you have to kill an aggressor, and you have to not kill an aggressor who has no weapons, and you have to satisfy Bhima who wants him killed, and you have to keep your promise in the beginning to kill him, and you have to pacify Draupadi who is now asking for compassion, and you have to satisfy Me who said he should be killed.
Yet Arjuna understood how to accommodate everything. Perhaps he remembered Krsna’s instructions that for one who has been honoured, dishonor is worse than death. He realized that if he dishonored Asvatthama that would be more than killing him, and yet it would not killing him. Arjuna, in order to come to that solution, had to do what we call today “think out of the box.” He had to get out of a paradigm that sees things as black-and-white. Even many modern so-called gurus and decision-making people who work in the corporate world or personal-life coaches, will often say that when we’re thinking “this or this?” instead we should think, “Is there some way we can do this AND this?” That’s exactly what Arjuna did by cutting off Asvatthama’s hair and jewel, and then exiling him.
This section is about, among many other things, dharma, or the right path that leads to success. Many of us think that understanding dharma is something like figuring out a huge bureaucracy where everything is according to rules with a lot of layers of hierarchy and authority. A machine bureaucracy is a highly centralized mechanical system. There is one ultimate leader who makes the decisions and everyone has to follow more-or-less without question. As any organization grows in time and space it encounters many permutations on similar situations and for each new situation it creates a new rule, so that the rule book gets bigger and bigger and bigger. At one point even the leaders don’t know all the rules. They have to hire people who become familiar with all of the rules and how to apply them. We may think that this is how the universes run. We may think that dharma means there is this very big book of rules which just keeps getting bigger over time for different circumstances, and the demigods know the rules and apply them, and on the top is Krsna who just tells everybody what to do. Everybody simply follows that instruction like a machine and then everything works.
However, that is not reality and that is not dharma. It is quite interesting that Sri Prabhupada said on a number of occasions, “Stop this centralization and bureaucracy.” Similarly, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in a lecture about Putana, the false guru, says, “The original purpose of the established churches of the world may not always be objectionable, but no stable religious arrangement for instructing the masses has yet been successful.” A machine bureaucracy is very stable.
He goes on to say, “The Supreme Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya in pursuance of the teachings of the scriptures enjoins all absence of conventionalism for the teachers of the eternal religion. It does not follow that the mechanical adoption of the unconventional life by any person will make him a fit teacher of religion. Regulation is necessary for controlling the apparent worldliness of conditioned souls but no mechanical regulation has any value even for such a purpose.
“The bona fide teacher of religion is neither any product nor the favorer of any mechanical system. In his hands no system has likewise the chance of degenerating into a lifeless arrangement. The mere pursuit of fixed doctrines and fixed liturgies cannot hold a person to the true spirit of doctrine or liturgy.
“The idea of an organized church in an intelligible form indeed marks the close of the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical establishments are the dykes and the dams to retain the current that cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona fide spiritual master.
“The people of this world understand preventive systems. They have no idea of the unpreventive positive eternal life. Neither can Earthly contrivance for the permanent preservation of the life eternal on this mundane plane on the popular scale.”
And Prabhupada, said very similar things. “You say ‘they mistake.’ Who are they? You say, ‘you do mistake’ don’t say ‘they.’ This is bureaucracy, ‘they.’ You are all ‘they.’ (conversation in ‘76 in Hyderabad). In a letter to Karandhar in ‘72, “You want to make big plans for centralization of management. I do not at all approve of such a plan. Do not centralize anything. … The movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments and action not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility…”
So, why are Srila Prabhupada, and Bhaktisiddhanta saying these things? Because Krsna’s way of managing is not centralization and bureaucracy. Dharma is not about a mechanical rulebook. Dharma is about a relationship with Krsna. It’s personal. We are personalists. Personalists doesn’t just mean that I’m a separate spark from you in the sense that there’s some space around me. That’s not what personality means. Personality means that I have my intelligence and desires and preferences as do you. And what Krsna wants is a relationship with persons. That is ultimately what dharma is.
Even if you want to say that dharma is given in the sastra, which is true, and that the sastra has certain rules, which is true, how are those rules understood and applied, and what is the essence of the rules? Arjuna has to figure out what is the essence of the law and how to juggle the so-called opposite instructions to keep the spirit of the law. Doing that is a very personal thing.
Here Krsna is urging personal relationships. He is saying follow the scriptures, and your dear wife, your priyam, make her santa, your dear wife has to be peaceful. The word priyam is used also for Bhima and Krsna. All who are dear to you have to be happy. They have to be satisfied. That is the essence of dharma. Krsna and the vaisnava are satisfied. The world becomes peaceful. People become happy. As Prahlada Maharaja said, “Let there be all good fortune for the universe.” That’s the point. That’s dharma. Dharma isn’t just, “Well, I did the right thing according to the rules.”
Even finding the right rules is hard because sastra gives apparently opposite instruction in different places. One cannot say, “I gave the medicine off the shelf; it’s not my fault if the patient dies.” No, the point is to keep the patient healthy. And for that one has to look at the particular person. The point of all the rules and regulations is to always remember to become attached to Krsna. And if you do that, Prabhupada says, the rules will come naturally.
So, it’s sort of the reverse of how we think of it. We think of it as “I’ll follow the rules and I’ll become attached to Krsna. That’s true, of course. But it’s much more a question that you become attached to Krsna and then you’ll know how to follow the rules. Out of a desire to please Krsna and a desire to please Draupadi and Bhima, Arjuna could figure out how to follow the rules. That’s dharma. Not, “I follow the rules and, if everybody’s miserable, that’s dharma.”
So, that dharma is about our relationship with Krsna.
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah
[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
B.G. (18.66)]
Instead of thinking, “I have to do this,” think, “How can I surrender to Krsna?,” and then all the other dharma is included. And one will get intelligence.
tesam evanukampartham
aham ajsana-jam tamah
nasayamy atma-bhava-stho
jsana-dipena bhasvata
[To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.
Bg (10.11)]
In this story with Arjuna and Asvattama, we see Krsna as being as He is. Playful. The Absolute Truth, Sri Bhagavan. The Absolute Truth. The Highest.
mattah parataram nanyat
kiscid asti dhanas-jaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva
[O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.
Bg (7.7)]
He is a young boy. He’s not an old man. Young boys are playful. Krsna is 16-20 years old. It isn’t that Krsna just looks young. He has the wisdom of the oldest man, He has the power of the original man but He has the playfulness of a young boy. He’s not a bureaucrat. Krsna doesn’t go to Arjuna and say, “Okay. Here’s exactly what you do. Now Arjuna you just be my hand to do it.” The demons want followers who simply extend the power of their senses. It’s interesting in the 13th chapter of Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that the Supersoul has His hands and legs and eyes are everywhere. And the acaryas and Srila Prabhupada comment that these hands and legs and eyes can be understood as the jivas. Our hands and legs and eyes are the hands and legs and the eyes of the Lord everywhere. And this is remembered in the 13th chapter of the 10th Canto.
But it’s not that we are the hands and eyes of the Lord in the sense that the Lord just says, “Okay. This is exactly what I want you to do, now do it.” Sometimes that may be, but not always. Here Krsna is being playful. “Okay Arjuna do this and this and this and this… all these things that are contradictory and you figure it out.” He’s not just giving a direct final instruction. He’s giving an indirect instruction. Krsna also does this with Bhima in the battle with Jarasandha. There Krsna doesn’t even speak. He just takes a blade of grass and divides it in half. He just gives a hint as to how to accomplish the purpose. Krsna wants the devotees to use their intelligence. Would it be fun to have all your family be robots? Do we really want our relationships to be with machines? That’s not pleasing. And Krsna has no desire to enjoy matter. He doesn’t enjoy the material energy. Krsna’s enjoyment is with relationships with persons. Persons means they can say, “No, I’m not going to do that.”
It’s explained that Krsna didn’t want the cowherd boys to enter into Aghasura’s mouth but they wanted to. They thought, “Here’s another opportunity for Krsna to show His proweress and He likes that. Krsna told Rukmini, “I didn’t want you to faint. I wanted you to argue with Me.” But He was still pleased by her fainting.
Krsna wants relationship with people who take initiative and have intelligence. There’s a reciprocation between the Lord and the devotees of love. That is ultimate dharma. What’s real dharma is that our love for Krsna and our love for the devotees increases. Krsna is satisfied and Krsna’s devotees are satisfied. One has to follow sastra. Certainly Krsna also says that here to Arjuna. You have to follow the sastra, you have please Me, please the devotees, follow the sastra. Because what pleases Krsna and the devotees is given in the sastra but it’s not like following something bureaucratic. It’s not what dharma is. It’s not what reality is. It’s not what God is. God is not a bureaucrat, thankfully. Would we really want that? Does anyone enjoy working in a machine bureaucracy? Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said it kills everything. He says an organization has to be living, has to be organic. Krsna is the ultimate life. He says He’s the life of all that lives.
We know we are following dharma by the result. Prabhupada said to judge a tree by its fruits. What are the fruits? Our relationship of love and respect and peace and satisfaction, satyam, truth, are increased internally for ourselves and others. The result that we are looking for is that everyone comes closer to truth and peace and satisfaction. That’s our result. Then we go to sadhu, sastra, and guru with that in mind. Our action has to be within sadhu, sastra, guru. We can’t make something up. Which means, of course, we have to know sastra. We can’t just say, “Well, I think that this will bring me more peace so I can do this.” It has to be within the purview of sastra, it has to be within the purview of the sadhu, within the purview of guru. But the result has to be that Krsna and the devotees are pleased. Otherwise if you say that we are following the sastra and everyone becomes disturbed, that’s not dharma.
So, we need to judge by the fruit in ourselves and in others. That is the essence. And if Krsna is pleased, if the devotees are pleased, if peace and satisfaction and joy and rasa is increased within the circle of sadhu, sastra, guru, that is dharma. And dharma may mean AND, not OR. It may be out of the paradigm. We are meant to use our intelligence and our individuality in our relationship with Krsna. The ultimate reality is a dance, not a corporation. Dharma is not a mechanical rulebook of a centralized bureaucracy. Dharma is Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, an ocean of loving, devotional, tasty nectar of service; that is dharma. Rupa gosvami doesn’t call his book of ultimate dharma “The centralized bureaucracy of bhakti.” He calls it Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Rasa — relationships. Liquid. Liquid essence. Rasa is liquid essence taste. Amrta — nectar without death. Life. am rta — mrta is death. Amrta — full of life. Sindhu — ocean. A flow and waves and currents going in different directions at different times. Not always predictable. An ocean of life. An ocean of life that is full of liquid tastes, a variety of taste. Bhakti of love and devotion.
Dharma is a dance, not a bureaucratic corporation. And if you try to impose a bureaucratic centralized corporation on a dance…can you imagine that? Okay, time for rasa dance. Where’s your punch card? What are the rules of the dance now? Then everything is spoiled. Rather, “the aim of this Krsna consciousness movement is to enable us to approach Radha-Krsna and associate with the Supreme Lord in His sublime pleasure dance.” (Purport to Manah-siksa) Even for a beginner, such a personal approach to spiritual life enables us to “become increasingly enlightened, and enjoy life with a thrill, not only for some time, but at every moment.” (purport Bg 18.76)
source: http://urmiladasi.com/reality-is-a-dance-not-bureaucratic-law/
Comments
Haribol !
Amazing Mataji. Thank you very much
YS Bharat