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Krishna

THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman,

Question 3

 

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Question 3

QUESTIONER: IT IS SAID THAT KRISHNA GAVE SUDAMA SO MUCH THAT IT WIPED OUT HIS LIFE-LONG POVERTY. BUT THE SAME KRISHNA DOES NOTHING TO WIPE OUT THE POVERTY OF THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES. IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE IF MAHAVIRA AND BUDDHA DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THIS PROBLEM, WHICH IS THOUGHT TO BE A MUNDANE PROBLEM, BUT HOW IS IT THAT A MAN OF SUCH BROAD VISION AS KRISHNA IGNORES IT? IT IS IRONIC THAT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE DON'T GIVE A THOUGHT TO THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR. KARL MARX, WHO THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT IT, IS NOT A RELIGIOUS PERSON. YOU ARE ESSENTIALLY A MAN OF SPIRITUALISM AND RELIGION WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

This question has been raised often enough. Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Jesus, Mohammed, all can be accused of ignoring the problem of poverty which is so widespread. But there are reasons for it. It was not possible for them to think of this problem, because the social conditions in which they lived did not warrant such thinking. We think as conditions demand. Marx thought of it because an industrial revolution had taken place in the West. Before the industrial revolution nothing could have been done to change the economic conditions of society, even to make a dent on its poverty. It is important to understand.

In the world preceding the industrial revolution, the only instrument of production in the hands of man was his manual labor. And what he produced with his hands was hardly enough to provide him with a decent meal; he could just somehow manage to keep his body together. Such a society was doomed to remain poor; there was no way to eliminate poverty. And the question of equitable distribution of production did arise; they had nothing much in the form of wealth to distribute among themselves. So along with poverty, inequality was inevitable. And I am going to go into it.

Firstly, it was not possible in the feudal society existing before the coming of industrialization to wipe out poverty, because it did not have the necessary wealth. It was possible of course to eliminate a handful of people who were rich; they could have been brought down to the same level as the poor If there was one rich person out of a thousand people, that person could have been reduced to the ranks of the poor, but it would not have made any difference whatsoever to the state of their poverty. Human labor alone could never produce so much that it could raise society above the poverty line. One could think of ending poverty only after machines took the place of human labor in producing wealth. Now a single machine could produce in a day as much as a hundred thousand men could produce with their hands. Only then production of wealth on a large scale became possible and we could conceive that the poor need not remain poor any longer. Now there was no historic need for poverty to exist.

So it was only after the Industrial Revolution that Marx came on the scene. The industrialization of society enabled him to conceive of equality. And if there was a Krishna in the place of Marx he would have thought with greater clarity than Marx did. But Krishna happened long before the Industrial Revolution. One can even ask Marx why he did not come before industrialization.

It is not that in the past man lacked the capacity to think, or that he had no idea of ending poverty. Buddha had it; Mahavira had it. They had their own way of dealing with the problem of poverty. Both Mahavira and Buddha were kings and they voluntarily became poor. They voluntarily renounced their wealth and joined the huge ranks of the poor. Mahavira distributed all his wealth among the poor before he took up sannyas. But poverty remained, it could not be eliminated, their renunciation was no thing more than a moral support to the poor. Mahavira's own psychological pain was gone, but the poverty of the masses continued.

It is for this reason that all the thinkers of the past put so much emphasis on non acquisition, non-possession. They repeatedly said, "Don't hoard wealth." They could not have asked people not to be poor -- that was just unthinkable given the social conditions of their days, but they did ask people not to amass wealth, not to be rich. They could not have done anything more to console the poor than ask the rich not to hoard and flaunt their wealth. All the religions of the past stood for renunciation and non-possession of wealth. They stood for sharing all one had with the less fortunate members of society.

But Krishna, Mahavira and Buddha also knew that non-acquisition and charity were not going to remove poverty from the society. It is like trying to sweeten the water of the ocean with a spoonful of sugar. A Mahavira or a Buddha can give away all they have, but it will not be more than a spoonful of sugar in the vast ocean of poverty. It does not make any difference.

Sages of the past did not think of eradicating poverty because it was not possible under the given conditions.

You also want to know why men like Krishna did not do anything to remove inequality. If it was not possible to abolish poverty, at least inequality should have been abolished. Why did not they give a thought to this problem?

There are reasons why no thought was given to the problem of inequality in society. We have to understand it carefully. The thought of removing inequality arises only when a measure of equality begins to surface in a given society. That there is inequality in the society, this awareness comes only when the society ceases to remain divided between distinct classes and instead is divided into different strata of property-holders. For instance, the wife of a poor scavenger will not feel any envy if she comes across a queen wearing a necklace of precious diamonds; the distance between the two is so vast that the poor woman cannot ever dream of competing with the queen. But the same woman will burn with envy if another woman of her own community visits her with a necklace of ordinary stones. Why? Because she be longs to the same class; the disparity between them is very small and there is a possibility to compete with the other.

As long as society was divided into two distinct classes -- one consisting of the huge masses of the poor and the other of a handful of super-rich, and the gap between the two was unimaginably vast -- there was no way to think of bringing about equality between the rich and the poor. It was just unthinkable that the gap could ever be bridged. So the status quo had to be accepted.

But with the advent of the industrial revolution, gaps began to be bridged and in the place of classes various strata began to be formed. Between the rich at the top and the poor at the bottom, middle strata of income groups came into existence. Between a Rockefeller at the top and a manual laborer at the bottom, there is now a whole army of middle-class people like managers and supervisors with varying scales of income. Society now is not divided into two clearcut classes of the rich and the poor, but into many strata of income groups. The industrial society is not like a two-storied house, it is like a long ladder with many rungs all joined with one another. And because of it every member of society can think of being equal with the one above him.

The idea of equality comes into being when a society is divided not into two classes but into various income groups, all joined with one another like the rungs of a ladder. Unless this happens, the thought of equality cannot arise.

This does not mean that Mahavira, Buddha and Krishna did not talk of equality. They did. They talked of the kind of equality that was possible in their times. It was spiritual equality that they preached throughout their lives. They said that the soul, the spirit of every human being was the same; spiritually all human beings were equal. They could not have said that with respect to external conditions of life like property, houses and clothes, all human beings were equal. Such equality was impossible then. Of course it is quite possible in our time.

But there are things which we cannot think of even today, and the coming generations will surely accuse us for our failure to do so. I will explain it to you with the help of an illustration:

Today a person has to work seven hours each day in a field or factory or office so that he can earn his bread. And we think this is how it should be. But the coming generations will wonder why no one amongst us considered that it is immoral to compel a person to work for a piece of bread. The time is not far away when all production will happen through automation and man will be freed from the drudgery of labor. Then it will not be at all necessary to work to earn one's bread. Human labor will cease to have the value which it has had down the ages. The necessities of life will be available to all without having to work for them. How to spend one's leisure time will be a problem then. not employment. Perhaps those who will demand work will be entitled to less amenities of life than those who agree to go without work. It will look odd if someone insists on having both -- work and the good things of life together.

Already economists of America are grappling with a kind of futurist problem, when complete automation of production will make human labor superfluous and unnecessary. Just twenty-five to thirty years from now a situation will arise when people not doing any work will be paid more than those who work. After automation, a single person will operate a huge automobile factory, which today needs a hundred thousand people to operate it. Then people will begin to ask for work because to live without work will be harder than hard work itself. Besides, people will have to be paid by the powers-that-be so that they are enabled to buy cars and other things produced by automatic factories. These are the futurist problems that the economists are grappling with right today.

For sure, someone in the future is going to ask why men like Krishna, Buddha and Karl Marx did not say it is immoral and inhuman to compel people to work for the basic necessities of life. If people were hungry they should have been provided with adequate food and not made to work seven hours every day. But right now it is difficult to conceive it as a moral or social problem. Today sometimes even people with employment have to go without bread, so the question of getting bread without work does not arise.

Ideas and thoughts are intimately connected with the realities of time and space. The pain of inequality was never felt in the times of Krishna. Even the ache of poverty was not felt the way it is felt today. That is why the slogan of equality is not heard in the days of Krishna. It is interesting to know that a thinker like Plato, who was a pioneer of equality, could not think that slavery should be abolished. He believed that slavery was going to live, because slavery was so common in Greece in those days. Plato thought equality could not exist without the slaves.

 

Next: Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 4

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Chapter 11

 

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 1
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 1, DRAUPADI, WHO IS ALSO KNOWN AS KRISHNAA, HAS BEEN SUBJECTED TO HARSH CRITICISM AND DETRACTION, BUT KRISHNA LOVES HER TREMENDOUSLY. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT HER IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR OWN TIME at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 2
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 2, YOU SAY THAT PERSONS LIKE KRISHNA DON'T MAKE FRIENDS NOR DO THEY MAKE FOES. THEN HOW IS IT THAT HE AS A KING COMES RUNNING DOWN TO THE GATE OF HIS PALACE TO RECEIVE SUDAMA, HIS POOR OLD FRIEND OF CHILDHOOD DAYS AND GIVES HIM ALL THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD IN RETURN FOR A HANDFUL OF RICE THAT HIS POOR FRIEND HAS BROUGHT AS HIS PRESENT TO HIM? PLEASE SHED SOME LIGHT ON THIS SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN KRISHNA AND SUDAMA at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 3
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 3, IT IS SAID THAT KRISHNA GAVE SUDAMA SO MUCH THAT IT WIPED OUT HIS LIFE-LONG POVERTY. BUT THE SAME KRISHNA DOES NOTHING TO WIPE OUT THE POVERTY OF THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES. IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE IF MAHAVIRA AND BUDDHA DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THIS PROBLEM, WHICH IS THOUGHT TO BE A MUNDANE PROBLEM, BUT HOW IS IT THAT A MAN OF SUCH BROAD VISION AS KRISHNA IGNORES IT? IT IS IRONIC THAT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE DON'T GIVE A THOUGHT TO THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR. KARL MARX, WHO THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT IT, IS NOT A RELIGIOUS PERSON. YOU ARE ESSENTIALLY A MAN OF SPIRITUALISM AND RELIGION WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 4
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 4, DOES IT MEAN THAT AN ELITE CLASS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE? at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 5
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 5, I HAVE AGAIN A SMALL QUESTION IN REGARD TO SUDAMA. WHEN SUDAMA CAME TO KRISHNA, HE WAS GIVEN ALL THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD AS A GIFT. HOW IS IT THAT KRISHNA DID NOT THINK OF HELPING HIS INDIGENT FRIEND EARLIER? at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 6
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 6, IN AN EARLIER QUESTION ON DRAUPADI IT WAS SAID THAT KRISHNA HAD GREAT LOVE FOR HER. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT KRISHNA'S LOVE FOR DRAUPADI at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 7
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 7, KRISHNA IS SAID TO HAVE LEFT MATHURA AND SETTLED IN DISTANT DWARKA SO THAT THE WESTERN COAST COULD BE DEFENDED AGAINST EXTERNAL AGGRESSION IT IS ALSO SAID THAT THE PEOPLE OF MATHURA BELIEVED THAT KRISHNA WAS THE CAUSE OF THEIR TROUBLES BECAUSE IT IS ON HIS ACCOUNT THAT KINGS LIKE JARASANDH RECURRINGLY WAGED WAR ON MATHURA. IT IS ALSO BELIEVED THAT KRISHNA SUFFERED DEFEAT AT THE HANDS OF KING JARASANDH, WHICH SHOWS UP HIS HUMAN ASPECT at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 8
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 11: Draupadi: A Rare Woman, Question 8, A LEGEND SAYS THAT KALAYAVAN BELIEVES THAT KRISHNA IS RUNNING AWAY, WHILE IN FACT KRISHNA IS DRIVING KALAYAVAN INTO A CAVE WHERE MUCHKUND IS ASLEEP. THE LEGEND ALSO SAYS THAT AS MUCHKUND WAKES UP HE LOOKS AT KALAYAVAN AND KILLS HIM WITH HIS LOOK. PLEASE EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LEGEND at energyenhancement.org

 

 

 
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