Re Vl-IV: Chapter 10 - Krishna

[Michael Bailey]

and Arjuna bought that?  What a load of militaristic hooey!
I think it's more likely that Arjuna's relatives were reluctant to
kill each other, and Arjuna made up an imaginary friend to goad them
into battle.

He probably was under pressure from the chariot and spear makers and
had to come up with something quick.

Some things never change...

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Robin Landseadel
<robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>        From: "Understanding the role of Karma in Hinduism"
>        by V. Kumar
>
>        THE ORIGIN OF KARMA
>
>        The philosophy of 'Karma' originated in ancient India, as a
>        sermon of KRISHNA, considered to be an incarnation of the
>        almighty god. It all happened a few thousand years ago, in the
>        battle of KURUKSHETRA, when Arjuna, a famous warrior and
>        friend of Krishna refused to take arms against his brethren on
>        the ground that he was not ready to kill his relatives for any
>        wealth in this world. On seeing this great warrior losing his
>        strength in the confusion between what is wrong and what is
>        correct, his friend and guide, Krishna gave him a lecture that
>        was penned down by the famous poet Ved Vyas in what is
>        today the largest ever epic written in human history. Titled
>        'Mahabharata', this epic consists of over 100,000 couplets in
>        Sanskrit. The lecture itself, a small part of this epic, is called
>        'Bhagvadgeeta' or 'Geeta' in short.
>
>        What Krishna told, came to be known as the 'philosophy of
>        karma', and has been the backbone of all schools of thoughts
>        pertaining to Hinduism and Buddhism ever since. This mother
>        of all philosophies, Bhagvadgeeta, retains a very important
>        place in the large volume of Indian mythology and mystical
>        philosophies.
>
>        KARMA - THE ACTION vs. THE DESTINY
>
>        Krishna told the great warrior 'Arjun' that it was his duty to fight,
>        not because he was greedy and wanted to gain power or
>        wealth, but because having committed himself to being a
>        warrior and having given himself to the principles a warrior
>        must follow, fighting this war was his 'karma' now, from which he
>        could not escape, even if fighting against his relatives was
>        unpleasant. Going against his 'karma' would lead him to worse,
>        Krishna told Arjun, because it will make him responsible for the
>        death of all those who have joined him in the belief that he will
>        fight with them, and it will also lead to despise and insult from
>        his opposition who will only laugh at him as a coward.
>
>        Since Arjun was not ready take the blame of death of his
>        relatives on his head, Krishna told him something that is the
>        essence of 'karma'. He said that the people he will fight in this
>        war will not be killed by him, but by their own karma. Then
>        Krishna went on to tell him that even while killing them, he will
>        only be acting a 'means' in the fulfilment of the destiny of those
>        persons, whose karma has destined them to die in this battle.
>        One who sins will get punished and he will be punished
>        because of his own sins, not because of the person who inflicts
>        the death blow.
>
>        Just like bad karma brings disaster, good and pious karma
>        brings glory and fulfilment. That is a law of nature. The
>        philosophy of karma suggests that the result of all karma may
>        not be completed in this life only. Hinduism believes in life as a
>        cycle that every human soul goes through till it acieves
>        MOKSHA, or salvation - the process of getting merged with the
>        almighty Lord. The karma of one life can have a positive or
>        negative impact on the subsequent lives too.
>
>        http://tinyurl.com/c8mbxn
>



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