Conflicts do pose themselves, and strongly too in our mind. They try to swing and swerve the mind. Either the mind tends to melt, or it remains extremely rigid. Both are not auspicious. The right response will be to understand the conflicts and give ourselves to their impact. Allow the mind to look at the world for what it is, not for what it should be. Let all situations, places and persons strike the mind with their respective forces. Have love and express it when the mind is moved by that sentiment. Feel sympathy and express it as much as you can, by words, through actions and sacrifices. Help, if that is possible. Otherwise, express your helplessness. Even if such confession is not verbally made, it should emerge from the mind. Be sympathetic to others’ needs and sufferings. Try to mitigate these to the extent you can. But realize your limitations and come to a harmony with the situation, within your own mind.
Assess your personality with its worth and qualities. Do not negate or condemn any quality, virtue, emotion or other human traits. Instead, love them and express them well, judiciously. Any emotion is a mental urge. Like breath, it has to express itself. Following it by words, physical actions or otherwise, do whatever you can, and stop the process at that . But do not allow the emotions to haunt or assault you. Assimilate it well. Be in harmony with it. Body throws its traits, the mind does its; let the intelligence understand and evaluate the total situation and synthesize one facet with the others. It is like taking a boat across a river, which has its different levels, currents and waves. The boat has to go forward whatever the levels, currents and waves are.
The ability of the mind to host conflicts, and yet continue to perform the tasks ahead, to steer the complex life from stage to stage, situation to situation, is the real psychological stability, spiritual and religious strength, the most effective form of harmony.
I shall present a series of scenes and episodes, to illustrate how this spiritual flexibility and harmony enriches one, and how in its light he is able to conduct his role efficiently.
Before the Kurukshetra war, Krishna, at the instance of Yudhishtra, went as an ambassador of peace to Duryodhana. His attempt proved futile; but Duryodhana wanted to play host to him. Krishna coolly said: “An invitation for taking food is to be accepted when the host will feel heartily happy if the guest takes food from him. Or, the guest must himself be in utter distress that he has no alternative other than to eat at his door. In your case, you are not happy that I accept your hospitality; nor am I in such distress that I am forced to eat from you.” Thus saying, Krishna went to Vidura uninvited and asked for food.
Let us look at the same Krishna facing another scene just after the war was over. Gaandhaari, the mother of the Duryodhanas, looking at the battlefield where lay all her sons dead, was afflicted beyond measure. Krishna was by her side. Unable to control her exasperation, she cursed Krishna: “O Janaardana, why were you apathetic when the bothers were burning with enmity and animosity? But for your neglect, this colossal destruction would not have happened. By virtue of all my austerities, I curse you that will be the cause of destruction of your own clan, and finally meet a lonely inglorious death yourself.” Krishna smiled and accepted the curse, saying: “Who else than me can destroy the Yaadavas?”
And what happened when he was 125 years old? Brahma appeared to submit his appeal that Krishna should now return to his heavenly abode. Krishna agreed and confessed: “As you say, I have fulfilled the purpose of my descent. There is however only one task left undone. My family has become too proud of my glory. Should I depart, leaving them to themselves, they will, like the sea overflowing its boundaries, bring destruction to the entire mankind. So, I shall have to exterminate them, and die myself in the course.” And, this is exactly what transpired.
To find one’s family proud because of his own glory and excellences and apprehending danger to the society on that account; to exterminate one’s own clan so that the society at large would be saved; to meet death oneself as the finale of such extermination – what greater conflict can the human mind even think of? In Krishna, this did not pose any torment or impasse. To build up a fortress for protecting the society, to complete the task of protection, and then to destroy the fortress as well as its builder – this is evidently the greatest dimension of transcendence and harmony one can think of in this human world.
Krishna’s depth of harmony and transcendental outlook can be appreciated well when we think of many rich parents of the present, whose sons are sometimes swelling with pride and destructive tendencies. Even after finding the children maleficent in every way, the parents are unable to extricate their emotional bond with them. They cannot also avoid bequeathing wealth and resources to them. And, the inevitable follows. The parents die or live; the children have their harmful courses, much to the destruction of the society and even to the displeasure of their own family.
This happened even in the ancient past. Dhritaraashtra had often the good sense and love for Pandu putras. He made it known almost every time. Whenever Duryodhana went to the father seeking sanction for one evil design or another, Dhritaraashtra dissuaded the son. Bur Duryodhana would speak insinuatingly and curse his plight in having been the son of such an adverse thinking father. These words enfeebled the father, who would instantly agree to what the son asked for. Evidently, Dhritaraashtra was unable to strike the clarity and find harmony with the conflict adhering to the higher moral dimension, as did Krishna successfully.
The Kurukshetra war exposed us to the gravest of conflicts. The righteous Dharmaputra was made to speak a lie before Drona, his preceptor, that Asvatthaamaa, his son, had died, killing for the purpose an elephant after naming him ‘Asvatthaamaa’. How could Krishna come out with such a suggestion? And how could Yodhishthira’s fidelity to dharma lend itself to such a conflicting course? Even to achieve the cause of dharma, one has to steer through conflicting phases.
What is the light in which Krishna’s behaviour and exploits shine unique? Everywhere it is the history and expression of a magnificent mind hosting harmoniously a multitude of conflicts to win the ultimate cause of dharma. One has to agree with the seeming wrong of one’s action, and yet remain unruffled seeing the higher purpose – the context in which such violation became necessary.
Perhaps the most striking conflict is seen in Bhishma, when he chooses to fight for Duryodhana but holding constantly and firmly that Duryodhana’s cause is immoral and therefore cannot win. On occasions, Duryodhana charged him: “O grandfather, you are merely fighting for me, but at heart you are fostering the enemies. You are not displaying your best then.” The great Kshatriya grandfather used to feel hurt and get instigated to fight better.
One such day, he unleashed terror amongst the enemies. Finding Bhishma unconquerable, Krishna asked Yudhisthira to go the grandfather and ask for the means to conquer him. Great Bhishma was pleased to tell Dharmaputra the only means to defeat himself!
Compared to this transcendental role of Bhishma, Vibhishana is lower in magnitude, yet too much for any moral human mind to bear. He told Raavana about the injustice of the King’s act in abducting Sita and advised that Sita be returned. Raavana disagreed and his wrath finally led to the banishment of Vibhishana. The banished brother took refuge under Rama, and from then on he was a loyal partner and friend of Rama. Throughout the Lanka war, Vibhishana’s role was crucial. But for his timely advice and caution, Rama would not have been able to subdue Raavana at all. How can one ally with the brother’s enemy, to become a party to the brother’s destruction?
People may say that Vibhishana was a betrayer, and his course was unrighteous. But the truth is that, like many others, Vibhishana also tried to protect Lanka’s and Raavana’s interests, but Raavana did not welcome his effort; instead he banished him. What should a lover of the country do, when the country’s interests suffer in its ruler’s hands? Can love for the King subdue one’s love for the country and countrymen? The King becomes a King only because he conducts the country’s affairs and ensures its welfare. Detached from the country’s welfare, can there be any true King at all? The loyalty of any official or even brotherly loyalties have no place if it has to disregard the interests of the country as a whole. When the King stands condemned and the country’s interests are endangered in his hands, the duty of one and all, including brothers and the rest, as citizens of the country or as faithful officials of the kingdom, is to set right the situation. Vibhishana did this and this alone.
However, Vibhishana’s position ever since embodied a grave conflict. Constantly he had to devise means and ways to defeat Ravana’s army, while he must have felt immense sorrow in having to destroy his own close relations, the men of the country which he loved most. And what more, in the end, Rama crowned him as the King, an event which would make many think that Vibhishana’s intention all along was to get the throne, and that alone was the reason for betraying his brother. In fact, such an assessment is wrong. Vibhishana’s only consideration was dharma, and whatever dharma compelled, that alone he did.
The most painful conflict, perhaps, was that of Rama abandoning Sita just after his coronation, when she was carrying his own child in her womb. Imagine his agony in sending a wife, who was innocent, pure, righteous and loyal to the core, to forest. Rama had to live in the grandeur and luxuries of Ayodhya palace bearing all through the agonizing absence of his loyal wife, hosting equally the anxiety about his forlorn Sita left to the hazards of forest life. Can there be any greater conflict – a fate brought about by unflinching devotion to DHARMA?
What is the greatness of mind? Is it to avoid unpleasantness and misfortune, and to have a successful, unhindered course? Or is it the enrichment, expansion and depth, by virtue of which the mind is able to course through any unpleasant situation? To seek a life of mental and moral greatness and excellence is to have the readiness to welcome any kind of conflict.
In fact, conflicts are inherent in the very existence itself. To find conflicts is to be aware of the worldly varieties. To understand conflicts is the first symptom of mind’s growth and expansion. Then, to discover a greater and subtler harmony in assimilating them by rising to a higher level of emotion and wisdom, is the FRUITION of human mind. At no time should a seeker or knower of truth feel that there is a situation which he cannot contain and be in tune with.
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