Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2: Verse 31 - Verse 38)

Hello and welcome to The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host Rahul N Singh. Thank you for joining today and for taking out the time to either watch or listen to this podcast. Today we're going to be continuing on with our thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita, and we will be exploring verses 31 to 38. Before that, if you would like to support The Bearded Mystic Podcast, then please do sign up to the Patreon page, the details are in the video description and show notes below. It'd be really great if you can support the show and get some extra content. So let's, start with verses 31.

Since your svadharma as a kshatriya is to fight to protect, honor, and support the lives of innocent beings, you should not fear or hesitate to fight in this battle. Svadharma means one's own path or duty. Everybody has their own path. Nobody applies themselves to a universal base of conduct. Everyone has their individual duty because everyone has an individual circumstance. Nobody has the same circumstances in life. Everyone is different in that regard. So it's really important that we understand that your own path, your own journey is important to you and you have to look at improving yourself. I have to look at improving myself and I have understand that. Now, in the context of this Lord Krishna also mentions how Arjuna's svadharma is being a kshatriya, which means a warrior. He's leading an army and he's going to be taking part in this battle. Therefore we know that his duty, his own personal path is one of protection. It's being established in this verse, the path that Arjuna really should be adhering to. Being a prince, it is important for Arjuna to remember that he is to fight, to protect, honor and support the lives of innocent beings. This means that he must always support those that are oppressed, even if the system may favor us. For example, we may not want to be taxed as much, but we know that taxes actually help the infrastructure of the country. It helps those that are in poverty. It helps those that are struggling to make ends meet. It helps people. We see the positives. So if we do pay an extra bit of tax, we're not really going to be upset about that. But what tends to happen is even though we may benefit from paying less taxes, in terms of a personal point of view, but if you look at the overall picture, it's not so great. Therefore, this is an example we can use. Everyone looks to pay less taxes, but really the good duty of being a good citizen is to pay the taxes that you should pay. Regardless of whether the system favors us, we must always be there to protect innocent people, protect those that have been given hard circumstances, that's beyond their control. Due to the battle, Arjuna has a whole kingdom and people are looking for his guidance. They're looking for his kingship. They're looking for him to lead them in life. Therefore he shouldn't have any fear. If he has fear then this is not going to be good for the kingdom. The kingdom will not be stable. It will always be in chaos or the fear of chaos. And remember when this comes out into the collective, it only creates division. It creates frustration and it can cause disturbance to the peace of that society. we know that he has already been informed by Krishna what his true self is. He knows he's the Atman. He knows that he is Brahman, the pure consciousness, and therefore is not the body. If the body dies, it dies and Krishna will go into that a little bit later. The whole point is that Arjuna has been given the real knowledge, the knowledge of the truth and this has to be his armor. This has to be his weapon and this has to be his way of thinking when he starts fighting in this battle. Only the body and mind knows fear, but our own Dharma never contains any fear. Let me explain that a little bit. Whether we think something is right or wrong, we're able to justify that action. For example, we may claim that we're following our dharma to serve a certain purpose. Say that somebody has harmed us or harmed our community. In that sense, we find that, yeah, we can create a riot, kill other people and and it can be justified. But actually, life has been lost and attached to that life is innocent people who have now lost someone they loved and that's why violence in any form is just not good, when you can talk to people, when you can have a conversation. If you have this false sense of purpose, for example, if someone doesn't accept your religion, you're going to kill them. Or, you know someone has eaten a particular meat that your religion says they shouldn't eat. You cannot justify that action. That karma will always create paap and by creating paap, it's causing suffering and pain to others. So you can have this false sense of purpose. And yes, you are following your own dharma, but your dharma is not that that is eternal, that is attached to eternal principles, principles that stand the test of time. And those principles are always going to be of love, of compassion, of kindness, of understanding. If there is no understanding, at least the attempt to try to understand. That is the path of dharma for anyone and everyone, regardless of your race, regardless of your religion, regardless of what you believe, regardless of your gender, it applies to everyone. Arjuna should not hesitate in fighting in this battle. He has to remember that the Duryodhana refused negotiation and never wanted to compromise. He has to remember this, that every action of compromise to stop this war was done. We must always follow this process of negotiation, of compromise, of debate, of discussion before we even think about harming other people. Arjuna has to remember that every avenue was explored and denied by Duryodhana, therefore he has to fight. We also need to remember that the princes were in exile. The kingdom was rightfully theirs. The kingdom does belong to them and Duryodhana has no right over the kingdom, therefore it was illegal that he occupied the seat, that he occupied the throne. He had taken over the throne that wasn't his. So Arjuna has every right to fight in this war and is able to justify his action, whenever it comes to being questioned. Krishna really is implying that Arjuna should understand that there is a purpose behind the war. Therefore he should not hesitate. Just really emphasizing that. It's not that Arjuna has hatred or wants violence. He would rather have peace, but peace never prevailed. Therefore Arjuna has to make peace with the prospect of war, of battle, of killing the ones that he loves and respects. This is going to be tough for him, but let's understand that Arjuna has no hatred. This is important to understand, and to really check ourselves with. That when we look at other people who do not belong to the same race, to the same religion, to the same gender, to the same sexual orientation, do we have hatred towards them? And if you do have hatred, we have to remember that this will eventually lead to violence. Tell me one person that has had hatred and has not been violent. It eventually leads there. Even if the violence is in thoughts. Arjuna is going to fight for his kingdom, but without hatred for his loved ones, there's going to be no hatred in his heart. This is important to understand. It's very important we understand this message because this message will help us live a more fulfilled life and where we can live in harmony with other people. People like to claim that the Mahabharata as a story is about fighting for one's dharma. One level of that is correct, but it's also a journey towards harmony and there's obstacles towards that harmony that happen. And then there's ways that they try to deal with the obstacles. Now, when the obstacle cannot be removed, then violence is considered as an option. But before that it's not even considered, and this is what people need to understand. A lot of people have some crooked ideas about what dharma means and what adharma means. If you really want to defend the dharma, it's by being compassionate and understanding first, not by reacting and being silly in that reaction. We must never hesitate to help those that need our help. Let's remember that always. If we find that someone in society is being treated with disrespect, without honor, we must uplift them and raise that awareness in society. If some group of people are being harmed in society, speak to the government officials and get something done. Approach the law and get something done. Do not take matters into your own hands and think that you can justify hurting someone. You can't, unless it's self-defense, then that's different. Otherwise, we must have a peaceful mind when it comes to dealing with others and dealing with people that have been oppressed by society. We must empower those that have been forgotten by society or harmed by society. We must always see people as people and not put labels on them. The reason why I say this is because once we put labels on people, we find new ways to hate others and harm others, and have a lack of trust in others. I know people of a certain religion will never trust someone who belongs to an Abrahamic faith. What good is your religion, if that is how you want to conduct your life? That shows to me that you've not really understood what our Rishis and sages have mentioned in the past, and have talked about. They talk from experience. I remember reading something today, Swami Vivekananda was talking about how the scriptures more or less have the same universal principles mentioned in them and the wise person turned to him and said, pick up this book and go through it. And it was a book about when rain would fall and forecasted that. Then the wise man said to Swamiji that now squeeze that book, does any water come out of it? Swamiji said, no, no water has come out of that book. And the wise one said that you may read the scriptures, but until you have direct experience of the truth, the scriptures are just words. Like the words are in the forecast about rain, doesn't mean that rain will happen, doesn't mean that the book will create rain. It's just a forecast. It's just the experience of others and their guesswork likewise, the scriptures that we follow, they're just experiences, but until we experience it, we cannot validate it. And this is what we need to understand. This is dharma, not some other crooked idea. This is the path of religion. I hope we understand this because it's very important that when we're talking about svadharma, your own path, that it has a universal approach to it, a universal principle. Verse 32. O Arjuna, the kshatriyas who give up their lives while fighting for a noble cause are very fortunate. They are immediately transferred through the door of Deva Loka, a sublime realm where they spend their next life in joyful pursuits. Krishna here really is guiding Arjuna to understand that those that die for a noble cause are very fortunate. They're very blessed. Krishna understands that Arjuna doesn't have any desire for the kingdom. He's willing to give that up and he doesn't desire gold. He doesn't desire wealth and therefore he must transcend those very ideas to fight for this noble cause. Even to transcend the desire of not having those desires, he needs to transcend that. Why is the cause noble? As we established earlier, it's about protecting the innocent and giving them their rightful king in this kingdom. This is the whole purpose. Also knowing that Arjuna doesn't care for heaven, still Krishna tells him by fighting for a noble cause he would be immediately transferred to the heavenly abode of the devas, the gods and goddesses. Think about this. What Krishna is addressing is the fear that could be possible. And what he's saying to Arjuna is that, do not worry, even if you die, this is what's going to happen to you if you fight in this battle, this is my guarantee. This is what will happen to you at least when you die. This is the least possibility that's going to happen. You're not going to go to hell. You're not going to face suffering. You're going to at least be in Deva Loka, in that heavenly realm. At the same time he's telling him that you will experience great joy and will be in joy in the next life. The question that I was thinking about was how do we label a noble cause? No matter how wrong Duryodhana was, he will be thinking he is fighting for a noble cause. Right? This is exactly how he would be thinking. But in fact, as established in the last verse, it is adharma. And then what about the army of Duryodhana are they fighting for a noble cause? Each one of them is supporting the one who is following adharma. Remember Duryodhana is fighting in adharma because the kingdom is not his and he's taken over the kingdom illegally. Therefore he's following a path that is against his own path his own journey. He's not meant to be king and he's not willing to even give the size of a needle of land to the Pandavas. This is how cruel he is. Now what about the army? And although they are following their path or duty, it will still not provide them the same benefit as Arjuna because they're still supporting, even if they do not agree, Duryodhana. This is the fundamental reason why they are still not following a true sense of dharma. They're not fighting for a noble cause? Yes, they're fighting and that is their dharma, but it's not for a noble cause. We do know that even Arjuna's teachers, his mentors, his elders, they're not really entirely sure if they are doing the right thing. It's only because they felt obliged to Duryodhana that they're fighting on his side. Even they're confused about whether they're fighting for a noble cause and whether they can say it's noble. Even if the army wanted to support Arjuna, they couldn't because they had to fight for Duryodhana because right now he's illegally taken the throne and they have to follow his every command. This is their dharma. They can't avoid this. The odds really are not favorable to them in the next life unfortunately. Now the question may be, and the conflict may be, if somebody says they will not fight who's part of Duryodhana's army and chooses to move to the Pandavas, would that be correct? In my opinion, it would be because even though it's their dharma to follow the king, they can turn around and say, well, actually for the righteousness of the kingdom, I'm going to side with Arjuna, even though I should be obliged to Duryodhana. And this is why the situation is very gray. It's not black or white. This is life itself. We have to understand there's good and bad to every action we do. But here Arjuna is given a very black and white scenario because there is a clear choice he has to make. But with other people, with the poor army, that's fighting for Duryodhana, unfortunately their situation's more gray. Yeah. It's subject to interpretation and maybe subject to their karma that they do. Although Arjuna may be conflicted right now, he will not remain so with Krishna's grace. He has Krishna with him. He does not need to worry, but on the other side, they will always be in conflict. Once Arjuna is convinced about the knowledge of the Atman. He is not going to then have any conflict. The conflict will be removed because conflict is in the mind. But the other side, because they're in the thought of winning, they're not in the thought of balance. Or they want a particular outcome, so they will always be in conflict in their heart, in their mind and this is why it will not benefit them as they do not know what the true side is and they don't want to support the true side. Some of them won't, some of them will support Duryodhana. Verse 33. But if you do not fight on behalf of dharma in this battle, you will go against your own svadharma and lose your fame and glory. At the same time, you will commit paap activities which produce pain and that will lead to the bondage of negative cause and effect in future lives. Simply Arjuna has to fight in this battle as it will be going against a path that has been set for him. He will lose all fame and glory. Arjuna may not care for it. He may be, unaffected by it, but it has an impact in the future because if he doesn't fight, then it will leave a precedent on what may happen in the future. For example, Duryodhana can end up becoming a dictator and claim that he is a rightful king and he's the only one that should rule. Anyone that challenges must be put into jail. He can do that then. But right now, Arjuna is setting something clear that if there is something wrong, if someone has illegally taken the throne, you can fight them and you must battle them because it's a matter of protecting the innocent. This whole reason why Krishna says the things he does in this verse is because Arjuna has been known to be the greatest Archer, but this respect, this title will be lost because he will not be utilizing his legitimate training. Remember, he's been trained for this legitimately. Everything he's doing is legal. If he doesn't fight in this battle, he will not be utilizing that training and this is what matters most. He will lose that fame and glory. People will not see him as the greatest Archer. They would say, how can you be the greatest Archer, when you could not even fight for what was rightfully yours? At the same time, Arjuna received a boon, a gift from Lord Shiva, a blessing and this was because of his excellent skill and how he was equal to Lord Shiva in a battle over who killed the boar. Arjuna killed the boar, Lord Shiva challenged him, and Arjuna was equal to him and therefore Arjuna is no usual person. He's no usual archer, he's no usual person with Krishna by him. He has the blessings even of Lord Shiva. I want to also raise this, that this shows the equality between Shiva ji and Vishnu, because Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu. Look how, Arjuna accepts this blessing and Krishna allows him to accept this blessing. If Shiva ji was less than Vishnu, then this gift will not be accepted. It is established that Shiva ji and Vishnu are the same If Arjuna avoids the battle then he will be committing paap, activities that lead to pain and suffering, and this will keep him bounded in ignorance as karma will provide the consequences of such action in future lives. So this is not just going to impact him in this life or even the next life, but further lives too, because this conflict within him will play on. He will always be indecisive and this will create havoc for him. Krishna is tackling this indecisiveness. So Arjuna can be convinced of what to do in life, convinced of his dharma and therefore not be bounded in ignorance. One should always respond when one sees the whole situation, and this is what Arjuna will do . Arjuna will see everything without any bias, with objectivity, and will see that the battle needs to happen. He needs to pick up his bow and arrow and start fighting and this is how we need to be in life. See the whole situation before we even react. Take your time, check the situation, let the facts gather. Let law enforcement do what it needs to do, let the situation play out properly. If you're dealing with something, say somebody has lied to you, somebody has stolen from you. Let the situation unravel itself. Then do something, but just because you find someone who's done something wrong, do not go straight to reacting, when you do not know the full picture. We may pretend to think we know the full picture, but eventually we can turn out to be wrong, unless you're willing to accept that you've been wrong, then it's okay. But majority of us, we do not feel this way. So it's best to respond instead of reacting. And this is why in our own lives, we must also remember that we need to look for compromise. We need to look for discussion, negotiation and healthy debates before we even think about harming another soul. Even if the other person's done wrong and maybe all the evidence points to them right now, but let the person speak. Maybe they have a situation, which you do not understand, therefore it's best to make sure you do everything peacefully first, before even thinking of hurting anyone. You know if we did, there would be very little violence in this world because we understand that it's unnecessary. If we harm others without fully understanding a situation, whether through words or through action, we are committing paap. Remember, there's action as an activity, then there's thought as an activity and even intention as an activity, this will have negative consequences in the future. No matter how much you convince yourself that you're right to react. If a thought of reacting comes up, let it dissolve away. Don't give it attention. Verse 34. As a result of neglecting your svadharma, in the future people will only speak of your disgrace on the battlefield, which will ruin your reputation as an upholder of dharma. For an honorable person, such dishonor is a fate far worse than the death of their body. Look at the alternative. At first we saw that that Lord Krishna mentioned that you will automatically enter heaven if you die. And here he is saying, if you run away, this is what's going to happen to you. Dishonor is a fate far worse than the death of your body. Let's unravel this a little. If Arjuna believes that people will praise him for sticking to nonviolence, after all avenues towards peace were exhausted, then he is wrong. He is not right there. Yeah. Every avenue was exhausted. Duryodhana was having none of it. He didn't care that he had illegally occupied the kingdom. He didn't care. Therefore people will not praise him for sticking to non-violence in this situation, they will praise him for being non-violent, while exploring every avenue, letting every avenue, every situation unfold itself. But now the situation has come to a standstill, it has come to a dead end. Nonviolence will not work here, ahimsa will not work here. Right now he needs to understand what is going on. People will remember him for being a coward. They will talk about how he left the battlefield in the nth hour. That's all they're going to remember. That's the memory that is going to stick. That's what the media of that kingdom is going to capture. People will not see him as the upholder of dharma at all. He will be ridiculed. People will cuss him out. Yeah. They will ridicule them, criticize him. His reputation will be lost, if he thinks that his reputation is going to be maintained, Krishna's saying, don't even think this, you were meant to establish righteousness in the kingdom because you are the rightful king, but you're running away. So no, you will lose your reputation. People will create tales about how Arjuna allowed them to suffer. This is how they're going to see it. This is what people remember him for. They will remember how he followed a path that was not his own. He was not to become a renunciant. His path wasn't of renunciation right now. It was one of action. Action isn't about fighting in this battle alone. Remember, he was also part of actions before that, which were avenues towards peace, actions towards peace, negotiation towards peace, discussions towards peace, debates towards peace. Remember, this was all the action prior to this war. Arjuna has to now be convinced that war is the only option now. Duryodhana didn't even listen to Krishna's pleas before the idea of war was even conceived. Just remember that, that even Sri Krishna himself pleaded to Duryodhana to at least divide the kingdom, do something, give them something, you can remain the king, but he didn't want anything of it. He wanted to make sure he had no enemies to his kingdom that no one should fight for it. Now war is inevitable because the kingdom belongs to somebody else. For someone as great, as loving, as compassionate, as honorable as Arjuna, dishonor will be a fate far worse than the death of his own body. The reason for this disgrace being worse for him than death is because he left the innocent. He left by not protecting those that needed him. Dying for protecting the innocent is noble, but escaping this war would be a bigger dishonor, a bigger disgrace and Arjuna leaving this battle will be something that will never escape him. It will be the talk of the town, even if they come across him, as a renunciant, they will say you're that Arjuna who left his people? He will always be given snarky comments, comments that will disturb his peace. So how can he renounce? Even these renunciation will create disturbance. This is what Krishna is telling him. This is what Krishna wants him to understand. Verse 35. The great warriors who previously spoke highly of your character and abilities will assume you left the battlefield out of cowardice. They will deride you and never again speak of you with respect. This is a simple verse to really understand that his peers, his friends, great warriors, his teachers, even those in the opposition will feel that he left out of cowardice. They would speak of him in contempt. They will scoff at him. It's similar to being spat on. That's the feeling that people have towards him. Nobody will speak of him with respect. This is because he didn't follow his dharma. Everyone saw Arjuna as one of the greatest warriors. This is what they perceived. This is what they saw. This is what they felt. But if he left, people would doubt that. They would even doubt their own experiences of seeing him. Even Duryodhana, who fully respects Arjuna as a warrior, even he would lose that respect. It would shock him that the great Arjuna left. That Arjuna forgot his true purpose in this world and therefore, spiritual progress will also be lost. Like I said, how can he remain in peace and without conflict, when people will be cursing him? When people will be condemning him and calling him a coward. He's known for being noble and what he needs to inquire within himself is that what is noble in allowing innocent people to be ruled by a tyrant like Duryodhana? What nobility is in that? This is what he needs to inquire upon. It's the same with life. If something is wrong with society, we must speak up about it. If you see people being oppressed, whether we belong to that particular label and identity, it doesn't matter. If we see others oppressed, even if we belong to the identity or label of the oppressor, even then we must speak out. We must never allow that privilege to oppress others. When we know it's wrong. Once you have knowledge that something is not right, something needs to be done. We see this whenever a horrible tragedy occurs, people gather together and they protest, they raise awareness in social media, wherever their skills can be used effectively with the hope that it will bring systematic change. Yet, if someone has the power to change things and doesn't like Arjuna has then they are a coward. If the president who has the power to change something, if the prime minister has the power to change something that will benefit society and does not, then they are a coward, they have failed the people. Especially if they cannot justify their actions. It's up to the people to hold them accountable. In my opinion, politicians that do that, they're the worst or leaders that do that. Even if you're a leader of a company, they're the worst. This is why politicians really aren't respected anymore because we see that they do not follow their dharma. We see it, we witness it and we know that they prefer to help the few at the cost of keeping the many bounded and insecure and subject to poverty and exploitation. How can politicians allow the 1% to get away with everything and then put laws in effect for the 99%? The 1% can get away without paying any tax, but I can't, I will have the IRS knocking on my door. But the 1%, despite it being public knowledge, that they are not paying any taxes, it is still ignored. Arjuna is doing a similar thing here by not protecting the poor and innocent, by going against what he promised to do. And then the promise was to be a warrior and to rightfully take his kingdom. We know Arjuna wanted to run away because of his love for those that wanted to kill him, that opposed him willingly or unwillingly yet nobody apart from Krishna would understand this. If he ran away, no one else would understand this, except for Krishna. Krishna knew that it was because of the sincerity of Arjuna's love that he didn't want to kill those that even wanted to kill him. But people will not see it that way. Krishna is reminding him about this. That only he would understand, no one else because everyone is in conflict right now. Krishna isn't because Krishna is the person that is giving the knowledge, but at the same time is practicing that knowledge and has made that available, that option available to Arjuna. For Arjuna, this will actually be pretty bad because everyone else can turn around and say they didn't get the knowledge that Arjuna got. Right. The knowledge of Sankhya that Krishna revealed to him. Arjuna can't run away from that fact that despite having the knowledge of Sankhya, he still wanted to run away. Even if Arjuna, as he said earlier in the Gita that he preferred to beg for alms, even then people will remember that this is the person that rejected his own dharma. People will not reciprocate the same feeling of compassion. They may not even give him any food. This may be the reality. Verse 36.

Your enemies will also ridicule you with harsh words and denigrate your ability. As a noble warrior and protector of truth, what could be more humiliating for you? Krishna is laying out what would be the case for Arjuna if he left. He's emphasizing it. So that if Arjuna does leave, he cannot turn around to Krishna and say, you didn't give me this information. He didn't tell me that people would disrespect me, but here Arjuna is given that knowledge. We know that his enemies will ridicule him with harsh words. They're not going to be nice about it. They definitely going to mock him. Like I said, they will cuss him out so to speak, and they will criticize him unfairly because they aren't going to see it from his perspective. Therefore for someone like Arjuna, noble and a protector of truth, what would be more humiliating? What could be more shameful? And this would definitely make him feel absolutely ashamed of himself. Here is someone that would protect the truth and the truth was that the kingdom is his, and that if he is the king, then righteousness can prevail. Then people can be available to deeper spiritual truths. Under Duryodhana, they're not going to get that. We can understand what is at play in this battle. It's not simply a battle over land. It's a battle of ideals, a battle of the truth remaining in the consciousness of society. People would see that he was running away from the truth of his own purpose. We know that Arjuna was claiming what was rightfully his, and that the enemies would mock him for not even putting up a fight towards it. That not even one arrow was used in this battle. They will remember that and mock him for it. They will claim and misinform people that he never cared about them because they will justify it with the action of him leaving and all sorts of conspiracy theories will be made about him. And the question is, could Arjuna live with that. Verse 37.

Listen Arjuna! Either your body will be killed in battle and you will ascend to the joys of Deva Loka, or you will triumph in battle and establish an honorable life here on Bhumi Loka Mother Earth. Therefore, uttishta stand up and fight! We can see that Krishna grabs Arjuna's attention. He's saying, listen Arjuna! Yeah. There's power in his voice. He tells him the scenario and that there are two outcomes in this battle. He has two outcomes when it comes to taking part in this battle. One is that if he is killed, then he will enjoy the joys of the heavenly realm. Eventually, he will come back to the earth, but because of the good karma that he did in his previous life, he will be on that path towards liberation. That is also because Arjuna is now aware that he is the Atman, the pure consciousness within, the inner dweller, thanks to Krishna's wisdom. But say Arjuna is not able to fully comprehend this message. Then he will at least enjoy the realm of the devas, he willstill enjoy heaven. He will still enjoy the heavenly realms and this is what Krishna is guaranteeing him. He's not guaranteeing moksha or liberation right now. But he is saying that even if you do not understand the atman or pure consciousness, just on your actions alone of fighting in this battle and leading the battle, this is what you'll be receiving instantaneously. There will not even be any questions about what you will go to. It will be instantaneous. This is the guarantee. Then Krishna gives the other outcome that Arjuna will establish a great and honorable life here on mother earth. I love that it calls it mother earth, it gives respect to the earth and this way Arjuna would be able to live a life and continue to learn and arrive at self-realization. Then the option will be also available for him to attain moksha, mukti, to work upon himself. Krishna presented to him these two paths that were available and leaving is not an option. Krishna is really establishing in Arjuna's mind, he's going to fight in this battle. Arjuna must stand up and fight. He must get himself physically and psychologically pumped up, ready to lead his side on the battlefield. Verse 38. Treat happiness and distress, gain and loss, victory, and defeat as if they are all the same. Let this conflict be your yoga and you will not create paap. Now, Krishna is summing up how Arjuna must approach this war, what mentality he has to apply, what his psychological understanding must be, what he must think psychologically in this war, in this battle that within him, there should be no conflict of wanting happiness or wanting distress or wanting to gain some thing, or feeling loss when losing something. Neither should he be too happy in victory and then too sad in defeat, he is to treat it the same. He is not going to view it any other way. It's always a conflict between the pair of opposites. He needs to allow that conflict to be his yoga, to be his practice towards union, union in the mind. What Krishna is saying, you will not create paap. He will not produce suffering. If he remembers this. If for a moment if he feels happiness during his victory, he will lose. Then it will become paap. It will become karma. Arjuna needs to treat this battle as his Yoga, his way of uniting with the atman, and fighting with the knowledge that the atman is unaffected by all pairs of opposites. Arjuna has been given this wisdom, but Duryodhana has not been. And therefore Duryodhana will create paap whatever the outcome. But Arjuna won't because he knows the Atman, which he is, is not going to be affected by anything. The atman cannot hurt someone because it cannot be hurt. It cannot give pain because it doesn't feel pain. It doesn't feel happy. Therefore, it will not give happiness to others. It gives this peaceful serenity. This is true ahimsa. What Krishna has given to Arjuna, this knowledge, this Sankhya Yoga is the real weapon, the real army. And that is the knowledge of the self. The atman, pure consciousness and Arjuna has to keep his sight towards doing what is right for as many people. The path that causes the least harm. This is why he needs to focus on. Harm is going to care anyway, but he must commit to the action that causes the least harm. For someone established in Brahman, he doesn't have to worry about the actions of the body. He has to remember, he is not the body. This body is going to be recycled. It does not belong to him. The atman does not own the body. Therefore he can be free of the body. As he knows that he is the atman, pure consciousness, he will no longer fight to be victorious nor will he fight to be defeated. He's just going to simply fight. He's going beyond every form of sense projection because the atman does not have any sense objects. Krishna guarantees that there will be no paap for him. No paap created, no activities or actions that will lead to pain and suffering as long as he maintains the understanding of his true self and continues to unite with that true self. Now we are at the end of this episode, please do remember that a new episode is uploaded every Sunday. You can follow my social media accounts. Do follow my TikTok account or do create some extra content there. And also I will be doing more live sessions there and you can find my accounts details for all my social media accounts in the descriptions and show notes below. Please rate and review the podcast. Thank you very much for listening. Take care. Stay safe. Stay happy. Bye.