Yatharth Geeta -Swami Adgadanand 75

Yatharth Geeta -Swami Adgadanand Ji

CHAPTER 1 The Yog of Irresolution and Grief तस्मान्नार्हा वयं हन्तुं धार्तराष्ट्रान्सबान्धवान्। स्वजनं हि कथं हत्वा सुखिनः स्याम माधव॥37॥ [ “So it is not for us to kill Dhritrashtr’s sons, for how indeed can we be happy, O Madhav (Krishn), if we slaughter our own kinsmen?” ] Is it not surprising that the Kaurav are at this moment seen as kith and kin? Didn’t they come to the battlefield as foes? In truth, physical relationship arises from ignorance. He is my maternal uncle; here is my wife’s family; this is the community of my own people. What are all these, but ignorance? We have people who are affectionate to us and we have our family, and we have our world, but all these we have only as long as there is attachment. All such ties are demolished when there is no attachment. That is why even sworn enemies now appear to Arjun as kinsmen. He asks Krishn how they can be happy by killing their kinsmen. Without ignorance and attachment the idea of family cannot exist. Paradoxically, however, it is this ignorance that also provides the initial urge for knowledge. Some great men like Bhartrihari and Tulsidas were driven to renunciation by their spouses, whereas there are examples of many others who have gone the same way because of their disillusionment with the conduct of a stepmother.