Morality and Ethics of Bbagavad-Gita
Bijoy Mardi
According to Hindu tradition Bhagavad-Gita is considered to be a most important scripture on which lies all the ethical principles. What are they? In an attempt to understand morality in the context of Bhagavad-Gita we shall focus on these following aspects.
1.
Liberated man
2.
Nishkama-Karma
3.
Lokasangraha
Dharma is considered to be the foundation of morality. And Dharma is
associated with one’s own duty. Duties are prescribed by Gita. Let us remember
we are studying Indian ethics and hence judging this morality from the eyes of
the western rationality would lead this to “vague” and “ambiguity”[1]. “Morality has got multiple association
which exhibits a way of life”[2]. Bhagavad
Gita in its first chapter poses both general and particular conflict of the
empirical and spiritual aspects of human personality[3]. Hence
it prescribes to its believers an “unfailing guide to truth and goodness in the
darkness of doubt, despondency and indecisions”[4].
Once
a person has adopted and chosen a particular profession or way of life, it was
necessary for him to adhere to the duty enjoined upon that profession even at
the cost of his life. Referring to this devotion to duty, it has been remarked
in the Bhagavad Gita that one should prefer death, while performing one’s own
Dharma to a change of professional duty.
DHARMA
Dharma
acts are taken as ways of behaving considered to be ethical or moral to which
approval or disapproval words like good – bad, right – wrong, moral – immoral
are applied.
The
concept of Dharma underlies all ceremonial, ethical, social, religious and
political ideas of Hindus. The Dharma act is chiefly prescriptive[5].
The
Chaturvarnya (fourfold order) was
created by me according to the Guna-Karma-vibhaksha
i.e. by the differentiation of Guna (quality or inclination) and Karma (work or profession)[6].
1.
LIBERATED
MAN
Man’s
potentiality exceeds his actuality. He is never all that he can be[7], or
in other way, were man to become what he potentially is he would cease to be
man. His being as man is his eternal becoming. Man is the being that includes
the potentiality of becoming more that his status as man. Man perfected is more
that man, as Krishna says,
"Rid of Passion, fear,
and wrath, Made of me, taking refuge in Me
Many by the austerity of
knowledge Purified, have come to My estate"[8].
So
a liberated man is one who has the qualities of Samatvam[9]
(the attitude of equanimity), Samadarsini[10] (who
sees everything and everything as equal) and Sarvabhuta ratah hita[11]
(who takes delight in the welfare of all being. A god is a god; but a man is
more than a man. Man can realize the essence of god in him i.e. Ahambrahmasmi. The ideal of superior man has ethical aspects.
In
Bhagavad-Gita the perfected man is described as the man of stabilized wisdom (Sthitiprajna)[12]
He
is presented by Krishna as a man who has overcome the desire of the flesh, who
is at peace with himself. He is independent to pleasure and pain, good or evil,
who has no selfish aims or personal hopes and who makes, no demand of others.
This is the man, says Krishna, who attains peace[13].
SVADHARMA DHARMA
“Better
is one’s own Dharma though imperfect, than the Dharma of another
well-performed. Better is death in one’s own Dharma: the Dharma of another is
fraught with fear; Svadharme ninhanam sreyad, paracharmo bhayavahah”[14]. Not
only is this, but the opportunity of laying down one’s life while performing
one’s duty regarded as a golden chance for attaining liberation.
This
opportunity particularly the Kastriya’s opportunity of dying on the battle
field, is considered very rare and is regarded equivalent to the opportunity of
entering into the open gates of heaven, as it were[15].
Thus
when king Dharmashastrya refers to the battlefield as the field of Dharma, he
has in mind this back ground of duty of courting death as the hightst duty for
a Ksatrya.
“Deviation
from Dharma is regarede as the most hate worthy and heinous crime, both for by
Arjun, the pupil and by Krishna”[16].
2. NISHKAMA KARMA
The
Bhagavad-Gita emphasizes the performance of duties in life without any desire
for fruits and without attachment, aversion and other selfish emotion. “Duty
ought to be performed for the sake of Duty” One must learn to control desires,
thought and consequently actions can be controlled. If one thinks of success or
failure, profit-loss, fame-obscurity while performing action, it means that his
mind is wavering instead of concentrating on the action. He is worried of the
outcome of action. Such an attitude is not the attribute of balanced or
peaceful mind. It lacks concentration and is incapable to produce the best
result. Elimination or suppression of all desires promotes reconstruction or
readjustment of life in general with the help of control of desires. Hence
Karma-Yoga is as important as the Bhakti-Yoga and Jnana-Yoga.
The
path of action is meant for the yogin who attain true knowledge through action
or duty performed without any selfish end[17].
The utilitarianism is beautifully expressed in the following verse of Gita. Man
should enjoy the benefits he receives from nature by engaging in activity and
by rendering service and self-sacrifice. If a person enjoys worldly pleasures
without performing his duties and sacrifices towards gods, i.e. without making
offerings of his action towards nature, he should be considered a thief[18].
The
good who partakes of the remnants of a sacrifice are freed from all sins: but
those sinful person, who cook for their own sake partakes of sin[19]. By
declaring selfishness and hoarding as sin, the Bhagavad-Gita advocates an
ethics which favours co-operation and humanitarianism. The recognition of the
necessity of performing constant action, with a view to produce wealth and food
to bring about material prosperity for the human race, shows that
non-attachment to action means the performance of one’s duty, not merely for
the sack of duty but for social well-being.
3. LOKA-SAMGRAHA
(Loka–
Cosmos and Sangraha – Holding Together, Collecting)
It
is not Karma but the intention that matters. This Karma contributes to
Lokasangraha[20].
We are responsible for each other. There is inter relatedness, interdependence;
so concern for one another is essential. Suporting one another would sustain
the world. When everything is cohesive there is cosmic welfare. In seeking
self-purification, karma-yogins aim to replace all selfish motives with the
desire for liberation while continuing to fulfil their social duties and
obligations.
Bhagavad-Gita
promotes the ideal of the liberated, continuing to work for its benefit i.e. loka-samgraha.
Having surrendered any sense of personal agency, the liberated act with perfect
freedom and spontaneity acts as instruments of the Lord[21].
In order sustain the world it is necessary for anyone to work selflessly. Hence
Krishna speaks to Arjuna, “I should cease to work, these worlds would fall in
ruin and I should be the creator of disordered life and destroy these people”[22].
As the unlearned act from attachment to their work, so should the learned also
act, O Arjuna, but without attachment, with the desire to maintain the
world-order[23].
Bhagavad-Gita also indicates the non-partiality of the divine towards all
creatures – “I am same to all being, to Me none is hateful or dear”[24]. And
eventually Gita defends through the words of Lord Krishna the eternal peace and
salvation to all devotees irrespective of any categories of lower birth, women,
vaisyas as well as sudras[25].
References:
1. Classicle
Indian Ethical Thought by Kedar Nath Tiwari, Motilal Banarsidass Publications,
Delhi – 1998.
2. Ethcal
Philosophies of India by I. C. Sharma, Edited by Stanley M Daugert, George
Allen and Unwin Ltd. London – 1965
3. Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita
(word to word translation) by Swami Swarupananda, 5th edition,
Advaita Ashram, Himalayas, Calcutta
4. The
Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man by Troy Wilson Organ, Ohio University,
Athens, Ohio
[1]
Classicle Indian Ethical Thought by Kedar Nath Tiwari, Motilal Banarsidass
Publications, Delhi – 1998, pg. 3
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Ethcal Philosophies of India by I. C. Sharma, Edited by Stanley M Daugert,
George Allen and Unwin Ltd. London – 1965, pg. 269
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man by Troy Wilson Organ, Ohio
University, Athens, Ohio, pg. 11
[6]
Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita IV/13;
The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man by
Troy Wilson Organ, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, pg. 223
[7]
The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man by Troy Wilson Organ, Ohio
University, Athens, Ohio, pg. 167
[8]
Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita (word to word translation) by Swami Swarupananda, 5th
edition, Advaita Ashram, Himalayas, Calcutta, IV/10
[9]
Ibid, II/48
[10]
Ibid, V/18
[11]
Ibid, V/5
[12]
Ibid, II/54
[13]
Ibid, II/72
[14]
Ibid, III/35
[15] Ibid, III/32
[16]
Classicle Indian Ethical Thought by Kedar Nath Tiwari, Motilal Banarsidass
Publications, Delhi – 1998, pg. 272
[17]
Ethcal Philosophies of India by I. C. Sharma, Edited by Stanley M Daugert,
George Allen and Unwin Ltd. London – 1965, pg. 288
[18]
Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita (word to word translation) by Swami Swarupananda, 5th
edition, Advaita Ashram, Himalayas, Calcutta, III/12
[19]
Ibid, III/13
[20]
Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita (word to word translation) by Swami Swarupananda, 5th
edition, Advaita Ashram, Himalayas, Calcutta, III/20
[21]
Ibid, XI/33
[22]
Ibid, III/24
[23]
Ibid, III/25
[24]
Ibid, IX/29
[25]
Ibid, IX/32, O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of
lower birth--women, vaisyas [merchants], as well as sudras [workers]--can
approach the supreme destination.