Question 12

QUESTIONER: KRISHNA INSPIRES ARJUNA TO FIGHT IN THE BATTLE OF THE MAHABHARAT. BUT IT IS SAID THAT ONCE IT HAPPENS, KRISHNA HIMSELF PREPARES TO FIGHT WITH ARJUNA. WHAT IS THE MATTER?

The truth is that a person like Krishna never takes anything for granted; he is uncommitted. He is neither somebody's friend nor his enemy. Krishna has no fixed ideas about men or things. He knows a friend can turn into an enemy and an enemy into a friend; it all depends on circumstances.

But as far as we are concerned, we live differently; we take things for granted. We are friends with some and enemies to others. And so when circumstances change, we find ourselves in great difficulty. Then we try to carry on with our old relation ships and suffer. Krishna does not. He allows life to go its way and he goes with life. Even if Arjuna comes to fight with him, he will not waver. He will not have any difficulty; Krishna can fight against Arjuna with the same enthusiasm with which he fights for him.

For Krishna, friendship and enmity are not something permanent, static; they are fluid. Life is a flux, and so it is difficult to ascertain who is a friend and who is an enemy. Today's friend can turn into an enemy tomorrow; today's enemy can turn into a friend tomorrow. So it is always good to deal with both friends and enemies with an eye on tomorrow. To morrow is unpredictable, even the next moment is unpredictable. Everything changes with the changing moment.

Life is always changing; change is its nature. Life is a play of light and shade. Now there is light here and shade there; the next moment this light and shade will be somewhere else. Observe this garden where we are meeting now, from morning through evening, and you will find everything constantly changing; morning turns into evening, day into night, and light into shade. The flower that blooms with the sunrise withers away by sunset.

It is difficult for you to think how Krishna and Arjuna can encounter each other in a fight, but it is just possible. Krishna can very well fight with a friend. In this respect, the Mahabharat is a unique war; it is amazing! Friends are arrayed against friends, relatives against relatives. Arjuna has been Dronacharya's student, and he now aims an arrow at his master. He received so much from Bishma, the eldest of the family, and he is ready to kill him. That way the Mahabharat is a rate war in all history. It says that in life nothing is permanent; everything is changing. Brother is fighting against brother, student is fighting against teacher.

Another remarkable thing about the Mahabharat is that when fighting ends in the evening enemies visit each other's camps, make inquiries about their well-being, exchange pleasantries and even eat together. It is an honest war; there is nothing underhand or dishonest about it. When they fight they fight as true enemies, and when they meet each other they meet without any reservations, without any bitterness in their hearts. There is nothing deceitful in the Mahabharat. The Pandavas don't hesitate to kill Bhishma in the battle, but in the evening they gather together to mourn his death, that they have lost such a valuable man. This is strange.

The Mahabharat proclaims that even enemies can fight in a friendly way. But it is just the opposite today: even as friends we are inimical to each other. There was a time when wars were made in a friendly way, and now even friendship is not friendship; it is just a kind of intimate enmity. Time was when even enemies were friends, and now even friends are enemies.,

And this is very significant in the larger context of life. It is worth knowing that when my enemy dies, something in me dies with him. Not only my enemy dies, with his death I too die in some measure. My being has been bound with the being of my enemy, so with his death a part of me dies at the same time. Not only I lose something with the death of my friend, I also lose when my enemy dies. After all, even my enemy is as much part of my life as a friend is. So it is not good to be very inimical to our enemies, because in some deeper sense even enemies are friends. In the same way, friends are also enemies. Why is it so?

As I have been explaining to you these few days, the polarities into which we divide life are polarities only in appearance, only in words and concepts; in reality they are not. There is no polarity at the depth of life; there, all polarities are united, one. North and south, up and down are all united as one.

If we see the basic unity of life, the war between Krishna and Arjuna will be easy to understand. Otherwise it will be very difficult for us to accept. Even those who are thought to be authorities on Krishna have found it difficult to explain this episode. It is difficult because our concepts and beliefs immediately come in the way when we try to comprehend it. We believe that a friend should always remain a friend and an enemy should remain an enemy. We break life into fragments and put the fragments in fixed categories. But it is utterly wrong to do so. Life is fluid like a river, it is always moving. You look at a wave this moment and the next moment it has moved far away. A wave that was before your eyes in the morning will be hundreds of miles away by the evening of the same day.

On the road of life someone walks with you a few steps and then he parts company. All relationships are transient; you cannot say how long anyone is going to be for or against you. Friends turn into enemies and enemies into friends in a split second. So a person who lives his life like a river makes neither friends nor foes; he accepts whatever life brings. If someone comes to him as a friend, he is accepted as a friend, and if another person comes as a foe, he too is accepted. He chooses nothing; he rejects nothing.