Flight, Fright & Fight

 

Flight, Fright & Fight - Summary of Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 1 

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji used to say – What we meet in life is fate, how we meet it is our free will. The first chapter of the Geeta, Arjun Viṣhāda Yoga, demonstrates this very clearly. The purpose of this first chapter is to show to us :

1. what is the human response to any challenge

2. what is the destructive power of any attachment

3. how to diagnose the root cause of our problem 

4. to establish the need for clarity & purity

The first chapter begins with Dhritarāshtra asking Sanjaya :

धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः |

मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय | 

dharma-kṣhetre kuru-kṣhetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ

māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāśhchaiva kimakurvata sañjaya (BG 1.1)

Dhritarāshtra is the old blind king. He is completely blinded by his attachment to his own sons and he acts in a tāmasika way. What is his duty as a king, he is not able to do. And as a result of that, this war has become imminent. From the position of a king, where he could have controlled the entire situation, and the war need not have happened, he comes down to a helpless position to ask his charioteer, ‘what did my children and Pandu’s children do, having assembled in the sacred war-field of Kurukshetra?’

There is regret, there is guilt and his heart is very heavy. This is the ‘flight response’, where he did not do his duty, and as a result, the fight, the war has become imminent. And now there is fright in his heart. 

Dhritarāshtra literally means धृतं राष्ट्रं येन सः (dhritam rāshtram yena sah), who has held the kingdom which is not his. He is the symbol of tamas who makes us question – what is it that we are holding on to? What is the attachment we are holding on to which is preventing us from doing our duties? Whether it is exercise, whether it is spiritual sādhanā, whether it is some achievement in the goal, what is it that we are attached to? What is it that prevents us from doing what we have to do?

The first line of the Geeta, dharma-kṣhetre kuru-kṣhetre, urges all of us, that in each role of life, we must do our duties with dedication & commitment. There should not be any lacuna or lethargy in that. kṣhetre kṣhetre dharmam kuru. 

It is said the Geeta is to tell us what exactly is our dharma. the first word is dharma and the last word is mama. So mama-dharma. What is my dharma? Being so attached to his own son, he was not able to do his duty as a king and he discriminated psychologically. ‘My children and Pandu’s children!’ Attachment does this to us, where it distracts us from our duties, makes us do what we should not be doing and then we land up in regret. When Sanjay was asked by Dhritarāshtra, what did my children and Pandu’s children do, Sanjay replies first about his children. So he speaks about Duryodhana.

Duryodhana is the symbol of rajo-guna, where he is attached to power, position. He is very greedy and insecure. The inferiority that his father had, has influenced him also tremendously. So he continuously compares himself with the Pandavas and tries to prove that he is stronger and greater than the Pandavas. He has jealousy against the Pandavas, and his whole life and his potential was wasted just because of this inferiority and jealousy. It has compelled to do adharma, though he knows that this is adharma. Hence, in the battlefield, there is tremendous fear, insecurity and stress in his mind. And yet he does not exhibit that. In fact, he goes to his teacher 

आचार्यमुपसङ्गम्य राजा वचनमब्रवीत्

āchāryamupasaṅgamya rājā vachanamabravīt (BG 1.2)

He goes to teacher, but instead of surrendering and opening up and seeking guidance, his ego prevents him and he instead taunts his teacher and comes back.

Duryodhana is a symbol of disintegration. He is something else inside and something else outside. Stress, worries, fears inside., but outside there is a false show of strength. The literal meaning of Duryodhana is one who is invincible in war. Yet all his strength was robbed away because of his adharma.

So Duryodhana makes us think – what is it that we are attached to, where we are compelled to do adharmic things. And how it affects our morale, how it affects our inner strength. And when we face challenges of life, how we are not even able to open up and seek guidance. Our own ego prevents us. 

Thus Duryodhana’s response is a ‘fright response’. He is scared from inside. He does not confess to his teacher and that is his ‘flight response’. And he wants to fight and prove his superiority and to destroy the Pandavas. He is so overwhelmed that he does not even know how to conduct himself in front of the teacher. He not only taunts the teacher but he also starts listing the Pandeva warriors – Bhima, Arjuna, Yuyudhāna, Virāta, Drupada, Sātyaki; many names he gives. And he sees that his teacher is very upset with his behaviour. And therefore he lists down the warrior from his side also, just in one verse. For Pandavas there is a long list. In one of the verses Duryodhana even says, our army is very vast but insufficient to win over them. Their army is limited, but sufficient to win. This shows how Duryodhana was feeling deep inside. 

The Kauravas had eleven akshauhinis and the Pandavas had only seven. Still Duryodhana feels weak. Looking at this behaviour of Duryodhana, Bhishma Pitamaha realises that this is going to break the morale of the whole army, and therefore he blows the conch. Technically now, the Kauravas are the aggressors on the Pandavas. Pandavas are the defenders. Once Bhishma blows the conch, many drums and trumpets and many things start blowing. 

It is at time that Sri Krishna and Arjuna seated in this divine chariot, also blow their conches. Many warriors and their names are given, and their conches that they blow, their names are given. And very confidently Arjuna tells the Lord :

सेनयोरुभयोर्मध्ये रथं स्थापय मेऽच्युत

senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me ’chyuta (BG 1.21)

O Achyuta, the one who never falls, please place my chariot between the two armies so that I can see all the warriors who have come to fight me. Bhagawān does his duty as a charioteer, and showing the Kaurava army, he tells Arjuna :

उवाच पार्थ पश्यैतान्समवेतान्कुरूनिति

uvācha pārtha paśhyaitān samavetān kurūn iti (BG 1.25)

O Partha, behold the kurus who are assembled here. These are the five words that Bhagawān spoke - pārtha paśhya etān samavetān kurūn. These are the only five words that Sri Krishna speaks throughout the first chapter. He just listens to all the arguments that Arjuna gives after these five words. And in these five words, it is the last word kuru that triggers the downfall of Arjuna. Suddenly he realises that these are my family members. Bhagawān could have said these are soldiers, but he said kurus. That one word triggered his fall. Arjuna was extremely confident and in fact when Yudhiṣṭhira was feeling low on the eve of the war, Arjuna asked Yudhiṣṭhira, on whose side is Krishna? 

Yudhiṣṭhira says, on our side. 

‘Will Krishna support adharma?’

Yudhiṣṭhira says no.

‘Why are you doubting whether we should fight or not?

So Arjuna has cheered up Yudhiṣṭhira and he was very confident. Arjuna had prepared himself for twelve years in the forest, acquiring divine missiles and weapons, including pāshupat-astra, etc. for this day. And when he is face-to-face with the challenge, Arjuna sees his grand-father, his teacher, his brothers, his uncles, his sons, his grand-sons, all his family members. And that mighty warrior suddenly collapses. 

Pujya Gurudev used to say, before the exam the student is wise, after the exam the student is equally wise, but in the exam the student is otherwise. So Arjuna says to the Lord :

दृष्ट्वेमं स्वजनं कृष्ण युयुत्सुं समुपस्थितम्

dṛiṣhṭvemaṁ sva-janaṁ kṛiṣhṇa yuyutsuṁ samupasthitam (BG 1.28)

Arjuna says, ‘O Lord, I am seeing my own relatives here.’ And he decided that he does not want to fight the war. He makes up various excuses. 

One is to have logical thinking and come to a conclusion. But Arjuna has already come to a conclusion and now he builds up all the excuses. 

This is his ‘flight response’. The attachments in Arjuna invoked the fright in him and hence the flight response. He doesn’t want to do his duty. He wants to go away into the forest.

So he starts describing one by one, various arguments. First he says, the omens are not right. Then he describes the physical symptoms that I am shivering, I am sweating, my skin is dry, my teeth are chattering, I am not even able to hold the bow. The bow falls from his hand. He is not even able to stand and his mind is whirling.

Emotionally, he says, ‘I don’t want victory, I don’t want enjoyment, I don’t want the kingdom. How can we enjoy all killing our own people? It is better they kill us, than we fight them. I don’t even want the three worlds. What to talk about this earth and this kingdom!’

Intellectually he says, ‘They are blinded by greed, but why should we fall them to their level? What will we get by killing these felons? We will only incur sin.’ 

In fact the duty of a kshatriya is to destroy the felons. Here Arjuna has got completely deluded.

Culturally, he says the war would destroy able-bodied, young people; people who are capable of earning, who are dynamic. And with this, there would also be financial losses, psychological trauma of the war, families will get destroyed. And when the families get destroyed, then the family values, the family culture (each family has a unique culture), the family traditions, the values, the disciplines, the rituals, the family deity worship; the specific unique things that each family used to follow, all this is kula-dharma, and all this will get destroyed. Those cultural values cannot be passed on, cannot be practiced. 

And family being the basic unit of society, many families getting destroyed would destroy the whole society. The fabric of society would get completely disturbed. When the families are destroyed, the family values go through destruction. Then there is adharma in the whole society. Because there is no provide, there is no attitude of living without compromise. The honour of the family, the glory of the family is forgotten. There would be widespread adharma.

One would follow corrupt ways. This will also bring danger to the women in the society. They would be left unprotected. And the progress of a society is judged by the security and the safety of the women. Especially when the kshatriyas are destroyed, the protectors are destroyed. There would be widespread abuse and violence on the women. The men and women ratio, the gender ratio will be completely imbalanced. There would be adharma in the whole society. 

Also the varna-vyavasthā will be completely disturbed. People would not be able to follow what their inherent passion is. If people cannot follow what they truly are made for, there would be frustration. Imagine an engineer who is forced to become a doctor and conduct an operation in the operation theatre. Or imagine a doctor who is asked to make a plan and execute the construction of a bridge. How disastrous it would be for the society when people do not do what they are meant for. Such frustrated individuals, when they come together, the general morality in the society also would fall. The young men and women, they mix with each other, blinded just by lust. There is no focus on better evolution, better culture. So naturally, there would be an unhealthy intermingling of individuals with incompatible cultural traits in marriage, living together, trying to start a family; would create a lot of disturbance in the society. 

There would be no satisfaction in work, there is no prosperity in the society. In the families, there is lot of conflict. 

Hence, as a result, the family being the basic unit of society, when that family unit gets destroyed, the culture in the whole society would get destroyed.

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji :

"In the west, the individual is the unit in the community. Each individual has got his own rights and duties. In the east, India and China, and to an extent Russia also, it is not the individual the unit of the society, it is the family. Therefore even today, the family tie is strong and not the individual arrogance. Here (in the west) if a brother is successful and his younger brother is in losses and suffering, the younger brother will not get one cent from the elder brother. The elder brother says, ‘You try your best. It is your luck.’

In India it is not so. If one brother has got a job, all his brothers and other families are together eating from that one income. Therefore even though they say that 27% is the unemployment, 30% is the unemployment, nothing happens there. Nobody starves. Why? If one fellow has got an income, one grandfather has got some pension coming, that will do. The whole family will eat. The family unit. All the beauties of this are forgotten in the modern craze of selfishness that each individual, ‘I and my wife, we will live together, we don’t care what happens to the whole world. And even that, I and my wife also, a sacrifice is necessary, and that is also too much, and therefore. ‘I alone!’. Each individual has become selfish, and therefore there is no integrity of the community, of the society. The feeling that we are all belonging to one family. There is a greater affinity between the members of the family. But if there is so much of overdosage of selfishness has come into the individual, the individual is shattered." 

So, Arjuna gave physical reasons, emotional reasons, intellectual reasons, cultural reasons, social reasons, and he also says, spiritually speaking, when the family traditions break down, each individual becomes highly selfish, individualistic, materialistic. They do not follow the higher ways of life that their ancestors have taught them. Many karmas like shrāddha will not be performed. As a result, even the ancestors will fall. And one would incur more and more sin and ultimately one would go to hell and suffer. 

Finally :

विसृज्य सशरं चापं शोकसंविग्नमानस:

visṛijya sa-śharaṁ chāpaṁ śhoka-saṁvigna-mānasaḥ (BG 1.47)

Arjuna has thrown away his bow and arrow and he is completely dejected, despondent, depressed; and he has come down from the chariot. He has not yet surrendered to the Lord, but he has resigned that I don’t want to fight. Symbolically he has given up his duty as well as his capability of self-effort and purushārtha. From a hero he has fallen into a victim mode. 

When one reads the arguments of Arjuna in the first chapter, one would feel that he is justified in all that he said and that he should not fight the war. Buy Pujya Gurudev says this is called misplaced compassion. It is his duty to fight as a kshatriya, to protect righteousness. But he took the war personally and he got distracted from his own duties because of his attachment to his own people.

For a moment if we think, if Bhishma and Drona were not there, would he have said all these things? So it is the attachment that completely clouded his vision. And the duty of a kshatriya is active resistance to evil. From that state of active resistance to evil, he falls to this passive response where he wants to take flight into the forest. 

Dhritarāshtra, Duryodhana and Arjuna, all the three characters are having some or the other attachment, and each of their attachments leads them only to sorrow. So the principle in life is – Deeper the attachment greater is our sorrow. What exactly is attachment? 

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji :

"Attachment is very well known to every one of you. Every one of us have got some attachment or the other. But the attachment of each individual may be different from each other. You are attached to the mother, another is attached to the father, another is attached to the wife and another is attached to the children. Some are attached to their profession, some are attached to power, some are attached to money or wealth. Think! 

“No Swamiji, you have never told what my attachment is. I am not attached to all these things.” 

“Then in that case, you are attached to your dog.”

“That is right. I am attached to my dog.”

Without some attachment you cannot live. If any one of you says, “Swamiji, I have no attachments”, all that I can tell you is lie down there. After the lecture we will attend to your funeral. Why?

When there is no attachment you are dead! Attachment, everyone has got. Every one of you, think of your attachment. Whatever be that attachment. And try to verbalise what do you mean by attachment. Attachment is a feeling. Luckily, it is not physical. If physically you and I are attached to things, you can’t move about. Because I am attached to my wife and my children and my property and my factory, my business  or my house. How can you move? … attached to.

It is not physical. It is mental. Analyse. What do you mean by in the mind an attachment? A mere though. A stream of thoughts by which we tie ourselves to things and being in the world outside. It is only the mind a stream of thoughts by which we tie ourselves to the word outside. So when I say that I am attached to mother or father or whatever it is, it means that I am complete only with that being or thing. Minus that being or thing, I am the less for it. I am not complete in myself. 

I plus my mother; life is wonderful. Minus my mother, I don’t know what to do.

I and my wife; beautiful life. Minus my wife I have no hope of getting another wife. 

Silly feeling… just a feeling.

This is called attachment. So attachment is a thought bondage. A thought-bondage; what is it? It includes “I” plus “I want”.

Think again and again, before taking down your notes. Think! “I” plus “I want”.

This feeling towards anything in the world or any being in the world is called attachment. "

So beautifully Poojya Gurudev defined attachment as “I” plus “I want”. A psychological dependence. A thought bondage. And it is this attachment that overwhelms us. 

The first purpose of this chapter was to demonstrate the human response to a challenge. All three of them responded differently. 

Dhritarāshtra out of tamas, Duryodhana out of rajas. Arjuna also responded out of rajas. 

But finally we see, in the second chapter we could go ahead and surrender to the Lord. That is when sattva guna in him has helped him to surrender.

Situation remaining the same, the response of each one is as per their mind.

Second : Attachment is the cause of sorrow. Hence in life, we should identify what are our attachments and strive to overcome these attachments. If we justify these attachments, they can bring our downfall and more and more sorrow. And these attachments overwhelm us. We saw that the three characters are overwhelmed by their attachments. Pujya Gurudev used to say, “Let not the storms of your heart cover the sun in your head!”

So the storms of Arjuna’s heart clouded the thinking in the head and he was not able to do his duty. Physically he collapsed. So attachment has a pervasive effect on the personality. Body, mind, intellect; all the three collapse because of attachments. Even in computers, tablets, iPhones, the virus comes in through attachments. 

Third : This also shows us the lack of role clarity. Attachment completely eclipsed the role clarity in Arjuna. The role clarity that he is the soldier to protect righteousness as a duty was eclipsed by his role as a student, as a grandson, as a relative.

In our lives also there is admixture of roles that happen.  Which role should be given priority at what time in our life, we should be clear about that. And most of the time, it is attachment that brings us down. 

We know that we have to prepare, we have to study, but some IPL match is there, and our mind is distracted. We know we have to get up in the morning and let us do meditation first. But we get on with the phone and mind becomes extroverted. Being attached to the role as a professional, I am not able to give enough time to my family. Being very attached in my role as a parent I am not able to see the child objectively and I am not able to give space to my child.

As a student I know that I must study. But coming under peer pressure, I bunk the classes, I don’t pay attention to the studies. 

So different roles get mixed up because of attachment, and hence the need for role clarity in life. There are various roles that we play in life. But the main cause of confusion in the roles is absence of ‘soul clarity’. When soul-clarity is missing, role clarity will be missing.

As Pujya Gurudev used to say, “Non-apprehension of the reality creates the misapprehension.” When I don’t know who am I, one or the other role becomes predominant. I get attached, I derive my sense of identity from it and I am not able to do my duties towards the other roles. So while I may learn how to balance the roles and do my duties in all the roles objectively, I should also enquire into who am I as a soul. What is my true nature? And that soul-clarity is the solution for all the confusions and problems of life. 

Sri Krishna begins his treatment in the second chapter with the knowledge of the soul. Because that is the root cause of all our problems. The diagnosis of the root cause must be done to permanently cure the disease.

One patient went to a doctor and said, “Doctor, please save me doctor! Please help me.” So the doctor said, “What happened?”

“Doctor, my neighbour was diagnosed of typhoid and he died of jaundice. I am very scared doctor. I also have typhoid doctor. Please help me.”

So the doctor said, “Don’t worry. When I diagnose a patient of typhoid, then the patient dies only of typhoid.”

So the diagnosis is very important. What is the root cause of the disease, has to be found out. And the root cause of the disease is ignorance of the Self. As a result of which we think we are this finite limited individual. And then we get confused about our roles. So it is said that our identity determines our purpose. We may have different roles and identities and different purposes in each of them. But what is our true identity, independent of all the other roles we are playing? That identity, we must be very clear about.

As Pujya Gurudev would say, Geeta is the Krishna cure for the Arjuna disease. Arjuna disease is the disease of samsāra that all of us are in. And Krishna cure is the soul-clarity. When we gain the soul-clarity, the non-apprehension goes away. Because the ignorance of ‘Who am I?’ is the cause of all sorrows. When that is destroyed, we are able to pick up our bow and arrow, go ahead and do our duties, attain success and fame. 

Sri Krishna does not just treat the symptoms. He does not give a pep talk to Arjuna that ‘Come on Arjuna, you can do it, it is in you! You have already defeated the Kauravas earlier. Get up! Awaken the potential in you.’

Bhagawān doesn’t give him a pep talk. He gives him Self-knowledge which is the permanent cure of this disease. 

Now we find that in the first chapter, all the three characters had someone or the other to guide them. Dhritarāshtra had Sanjaya, Duryodhana had Dronāchārya, Arjuna had Sri Krishna. But Dhritarāshtra and Duryodhana are not even able to open up, nor get any advice or follow it. But Arjuna opens up to the Lord and Bhagawān gives him the knowledge. That is the power of purity of mind and sattva guna. it is sattva in us that helps us surrender and to admit that I don’t know anything. And hence Arjuna’s vishāda becomes his prasād. His sorrow, his dejection, also becomes a blessing for him because of the sattva guna in him. Literally the meaning of the word Arjuna is – the one who is straightforward; ṛjutvāt arjunah. 

Arjuna did not have an ego issue that how can I open to Sri Krishna. Nor did he have an ego issue that what will the others think. I am a great warrior and amidst the two armies, I am here. If I collapse what will everyone else think? He was straightforward, he opened up his heart and he told the Lord what he felt.

So may the Lord’s grace and blessings be with us so that we may invoke the sattva in us, become straightforward like Arjuna, surrender to the Lord and get cured of this Arjuna-disease.

You can watch the recording here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSIyY3EKU6o