Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)
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gazes that the revelation of the meaning of a civil and domestic war comes home to him, a war in whidi not only men of the same race, the same nation, the same clan, but those of the same fepaily and ^iqusehpld sund upon opposite sides. ATI whom the social man holds most dear and sacred, he must meet as enemies and slay, — the wors hipp ed tether and preceptor, the old friend, comrade and companion in iLjrms, gran^ires, uncles, those who stood in the relation to him of fether, of jon, of grandson, ccmnections by blood and connections by marriage, — all these social ties have to be cut asunder by the sword. It is not that he did not c 33 know these things before, but he has never realised it all ; obsessed by his claims and wrongs and by the principles of his life, the struggle for the rightj^the duty of the Kshatriya to protect justice and the law and fight and beat down injustice and lawless violence, he has neither thought out deeply nor felt it in his heart and at the core of his life. And now it is shown to his vj^jon by the divine charioteer, placecfsensationally before his eyes, and comes home to him like a blow delivered at the veiy centre^qf his sMsational, vital and emotional being.
(Xhe first resuit is a violent sensational and physical crisis which produces a disgust of_the action and its material objects and of life itself. CHc rejects the vital aim pursued by egoistic humanity in its action, — happiness and enjoyment; he rejects the vital aim of the Kshatriya, victory and rule and power and the government of men. What after all is this fight for j.ustice when reduced to its practical terms, but just this, a fight for the interests of himself, his brothers and his party, for possession and enjoyment and rule? But at such a cost these things are not worth having. For they are of no value in themselves, but only as a means to the right maintenance of social and national life and it is these very aims that in the person of his kin and his race he is about to destroy. And then comes the crv qf_the_emotions. These are they for who^ sake ’’life happiness are desired, our “own people”. Who would consent to slay these for the sate'of all the earth, or even for the kingdom of the THE HUMAN DISCIPLE three worlds? What pleasure can there be in life, what happiness, what satisfaction in oneself after such a deed : 'The whole thing is a dreadful sin, — for now the moral sense awakens to justify the revolt of the sensations and the emotions. J[t i^ a sin, there is no right nor justice in mutual ’slaiigKter^'especially are those who are to be slain the natural objects of reverence and of love, those without whom one would not care to live, and to violate these sacred feelings can be no virtue, can be nothing but a heinous crime. Granted that the offence, the aggression, the first sin, the crimes of greed and selfish passion which have brought things to such a pass came from the other side ; yet armed resistance to wrong under such circumstances would be itself a sin and crime worse than theirs because they are blinded by passion and unconscious of guilt, while on this side it would be with a clear sense of guilt that the sin would be committed. •*^nd for what? For the maintenance of family morality, of the social law and the law oi the nation^ These are the velry' standards that will be destroy^ by this civil war; the family itself will be brought to the fSbiiir of annihilation, corruption of morals and loss of the purity of race will be engendered, the eternal laws of the race and moral law of the family will be destroyed. Ruin of the race, the collapse of its high traditions, eSiical degradation and h^Tfor the authors of suchia crime, these are the onl^^ractical results possible' of this monstrous civil strife. “Therefore,*' cries Arjuna, casting down the divine
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