Part 2, Week/Lesson 4 – Nonviolence and the Gita

I was reading an article this week how John Brennan, the head of the CIA, and President Obama plan their targeted kill list using St. Augustine’s just war theory to inspire and justify their actions. I mention this because this week noted that there are different ways to interpret the Bhagavad Gita, it could be seen as a physical battle or a spiritual battle. I have read the Gita often and have wondered if those who view it as a physical battle and interpret it as a justification in which one can kill in war view it in a comparable way towards how Christians may view their actions under just war theory. The results of such paradigms seem evident in the issues which arise.

Gandhi however had a different, more deep view of the Gita. The Gita to me puts out demands that would seem incompatible with violence if one would seriously attempt to apply its teachings, unless one has a particularly harsh way of dealing with their friends. For example such passages as

In Chapter 6 “They are equally disposed to family, enemies, and friends, to those who support them and those who are hostile, to the good and evil alike.”

In Chapter 12 ” who looks upon friend and foe with equal regard”

In Chapter 14 “Alike to friend and foe”

Gandhi can be said to embody these qualities and really became the Gita. Can you really embody the Gita by intentionally inflicting violence on your enemies? I don’t know but to me it seems that it would not be really compatible. If so, I am not sure I want to go to a dinner party with such people knowing that they treated friends and foe alike and would happily kill me if they felt it was justified for some reason.

The Gita’s teaching seems extremely compatible with non-violence and provides a roadmap on how an a aspirant can conquer and train himself in order to live high ideals. It is real easy to see why Gandhi was able to take it as a spiritual guide and live so non-violently. A primary theme of the Bhagavad Gita is the renunciation of the fruit of actions Reading the copy of the “Bhagavad Gita according to Gandhi” (which Professor Nagler wrote the forward to) he mentions that all actions of untruth or violence come from attachment to the desired ends. We can see such as in the kill list mentioned above. As a result the Gita’s emphasis on non-attachment to results is an extremely helpful tool to help one rise above untruth and violence.

I believe it was in one Sri Eknath Easwaran’s book that he mentioned that to see the Gospels lived one could look at the life of St. Francis while to see the Bhagavad Gita lived out one could look at the life of Gandhi. I would consider St. Francis a satyagrahi as well and seeing such examples of the non-violence that arose from these individuals living out these sacred texts helps illustrate they power of approaching such texts with the spirit of truth and non-violence that Gandhi approached the Gita in.

Two quotes that really stood out to me in the introduction by Eknath Easwarn were the following:
“When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union”
“He alone sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature, who sees the deathless in the heart of all that die. Seeing the same Lord everywhere, he does no harm to himself or others. Thus he attains the supreme goal.”

The last quote about seeing the Lord in every human being follows this concept of unity and oneness that is at the heart of nonviolence. It is when we recognize ourselves in the other that we do no harm. This follows a quote that I store in my document of quotations, as I truly believe that once we shake the shell of the persona that individuals, society, and violence create that we will see nuances and intricacies of individuals and the underlining unity of vulnerability, desire for companionship and community, and the vibrancy of the soul: “I think you could fall in love with anyone if you saw the parts of them that no one else gets to see. Like if you followed them around invisibly for a day and you saw them crying in their bed at night or singing to themselves as they make a sandwich or even just walking along the street and even if they were really weird and had no friends at school, I think after seeing them at their most vulnerable you wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with them.”
Also in the introduction Easwaran mentions the theory of dream sensations and state which was incredibly interesting for me. I have always had this question of “is this ‘real’ life? Or it just a perception that I am having?” This question of am I awake when I wake up arose from very strong spiritual/psychic experiences I have during sleep. I found that Easwaran’s comparison of dreaming and the physical body (i.e. nervous system) portraying all the “waking” state symptoms to be profound—“only when we wake up we can realize that our dream-sensations, though real to our nervous system, are a lower level or reality than the waking state.”
Additionally, I found a lot of the verbage of the introduction and the The Bhagavad Gita to parallel the Tao Te Ching. For example, 1 translated by Stephan Michael speaks of similar concepts and ideologies as chapter two. I highly recommend reading the Tao Te Ching to anyone who hasn’t read it, I prefer the Stephan Michael version.
1 Translated by Stephan Michael
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

The interconnectedness highlighted by Easwaran hypothetical story of Joe and Ralph is a concept that has completely changed the way I live my life. I am unsure how it got started in my head but a few years ago, I started seeing this invisible line between people, experiences, and events. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and that even our perception or “Good and bad” also fails to even understand the principle of interconnectedness. Viewing things as a continuum of interconnectedness and interplay is quite a comforting perception to have, especially if it is followed by the unwavering truth of spiritual purpose.