“My dear Krishna, Your Lordship has protected us from a poisoned cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, from the vicious assembly, from sufferings during our exile in the forest and from the battle where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the weapon of Ashvatthama.” (Queen Kunti, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.8.24)

Download this episode (right click and save)

विषान् महाग्नेः पुरुषाद-दर्शनाद्
असत्-सभाया वन-वास-कृच्छ्रतः
मृधे मृधे ऽनेक-महारथास्त्रतो
द्रौण्य्-अस्त्रतश् चास्म हरे ऽभिरक्षिताः

viṣān mahāgneḥ puruṣāda-darśanād
asat-sabhāyā vana-vāsa-kṛcchrataḥ
mṛdhe mṛdhe ‘neka-mahārathāstrato
drauṇy-astrataś cāsma hare ‘bhirakṣitāḥ

1. The difficulties in marriage

“Don’t speak to me until you have been in the trenches. Until you have had to struggle with difficult decisions. Whether to stay or whether to go. How to deal with an irrational person living in the same house, watching your every move. How to manage something basic and routine like entering the kitchen to fix something to eat, without being harassed. How to balance competing responsibilities. These are the greatest difficulties imaginable, and you cannot possibly understand what I go through.”

2. The loss of a loved one

“Don’t speak to me until you have been in the trenches. In really feeling the loss. In knowing that you will never see that family member again. In remembering that you watched them struggle to survive, in what ended up being a losing battle. It is something I will never get over. You cannot possibly understand.”

3. Witnessing sadness in a child

“Don’t speak to me until you have been in the trenches. On the frontline witnessing sadness and disappointment in the face of an innocent child. They don’t ask for much in life. All they crave is some basic companionship. Someone to be a friend. Someone to share memories with. Right now, they don’t get any of that. It was stolen from them by a society turned evil on a dime. I have to witness the tragedy firsthand. Parenting is easy when you don’t care. You cannot possibly understand.”

4. On the receiving end of bigotry and hate

“Don’t speak to me until you have been in the trenches. I try to be a good citizen. I obey the laws. I pay my taxes on time. I don’t bother anyone. I am not a burden to others. I make valuable contributions to society. But the hate I receive is overwhelming. It is crippling at times, to know that people can be so dumb. They have these mistaken judgments based simply on how I look. I can try to explain the error of their ways, but that is like trying to teach calculus to a dog. You have no idea what it is like.”

5. Political persecution

“Don’t speak to me until you have been in the trenches. It took courage to speak out. There was blatant corruption, at the highest levels. Everyone else was too afraid. I could not sit by and watch innocent people suffer. Now my life has been ruined. I cannot find a job. My family is in desperate need of financial assistance. I am a pariah in the industry which only recently considered me an expert. No one will touch us because we have been smeared with that latest invective. The accusations are not true. This is what we get for trying to help people.”

…

Should not principles stand on their own? For instance, if I teach my child to always wake up early, to follow a routine of cleanliness in the morning, to take studies seriously, is that not valid instruction? Does it not stand tall based on the merits? I may not necessarily follow everything myself. Perhaps I had a late night. Maybe I feel the need to relax today instead of reading a book. Maybe in my youth I was not as punctual. I was not anywhere near earning the perfect attendance award at school.

At the same time, there is something to be said about personal experience. The words tend to carry more weight when the person delivering them has been through difficulties. If they fought in the trenches, so to speak, then the students have less room to challenge. They consider that the word of authority has some backing, that there is experience which validates the principles.

In the case of the famous Bhagavad-gita conversation, it is like all the sadness and difficulty of the world combined into a single collection and stood as the foundation for the principles presented. I may not have experienced any of the hardships described above. I may have never been on the receiving end of verbal abuse from the spouse. I have yet to dodge projectiles targeted in my direction after an intense argument about why the dishes are still in the sink and not placed in the dishwasher, for instance.

But as a thought exercise, I can assume the burden of all the hardships every person in the world has ever faced. In other words, start from the position of sadness. Carry a pessimistic view of the world and the life experience. Then approach the term of study from that position. Will I still have motivation to do good? What is the point to good if there is so much sadness? Why should I listen to what Krishna has to say when so many seem to ignore His good counsel? There is a large contingent which thinks that He does not exist, that God is merely a figment of the imagination. Divinity is some concept used to rationalize the unexplainable, they claim. The Supreme Lord must be a mythical figure akin to the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

Arjuna is a victim of the worst kind of abuse. He and his family have suffered so much, already. The trauma could bleed over into many lifetimes. Just the image of Queen Draupadi so close to being stripped naked in an assembly of respectable men is enough to cause repeated nightmares. Still, Arjuna approaches Krishna for help. Arjuna asks to have his confusions cleared, his doubts removed, and his hesitation transformed into assertiveness. Just how exactly will that transformation take place? Is there some magic touch from Krishna that will make everything alright? Is that same magic touch available for others to benefit from?

तस्मादज्ञानसम्भूतं हृत्स्थं ज्ञानासिनात्मन:
छित्त्वैनं संशयं योगमातिष्ठोत्तिष्ठ भारत

tasmād ajñāna-sambhūtaṁ
hṛt-sthaṁ jñānāsinātmanaḥ
chittvainaṁ saṁśayaṁ yogam
ātiṣṭhottiṣṭha bhārata

“Therefore the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bharata, stand and fight.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.42)

Krishna passes along the weapon of knowledge. This can be used to slash away lingering doubts. God is real. Dharma is the way to find God. Dharma is the way to stay with God. Dharma is the way forward. Dharma is what Arjuna both learned and subsequently implemented. Dharma stands tall like a pillar for those armed with knowledge. That pillar eclipses the state of sadness, in the land otherwise known as shokadhama.

तब लगि कुसल न जीव कहुँ सपनेहुँ मन बिश्राम
जब लगि भजत न राम कहुँ सोकधाम तजि काम

taba lagi kusala na jīva kahum̐ sapanehum̐ mana biśrāma
jaba lagi bhajata na rāma kahum̐ sokadhāma taji kāma

“For as long as there is not devotion to Shri Rama and the release of material desires, which are like an abode of grief, the living being should not expect to find welfare and peace of mind, even in a dream.” (Dohavali, 131)

In Closing:

Looking to eclipse the sadness,
In this world of madness.

Where changing steadily within,
Chase or lament what has been.

Dharma like pillar standing,
As greatest support commanding.

To even the worst trauma enduring through,
Krishna bringing warrior Arjuna to.

Categories: the five

Tags: bhagavatam, dailyprompt, life, poem, poems, poetry