Gita, Gandhi and Blood

We have long misunderstood Gita and Gandhi. 

The Gita, doesn't advocate violence, and Gandhi, does advocate violence when necessary. What does this mean? 

The Gita's setting in the war field, a top a chariot has many symbolisms. That man is akin to a chariot. That life is battle field. The purpose of the Gita, was to get a wistful Arjuna, to get up and kill his own kin. This is provocative, even more so for a spiritual scripture. 

Yet the Gita makes a very clear distinction between the violence of the mind and the violence of the material. It prioritizes the first, and trivializes the second. What are we, but flesh and bone, sand and stone? But in our minds, there is a greater violence & suffering due to illusion and delusion. We are not the body, not the mind. We are consciousness, that which arises and dissipates. And hence, one must carry on with one's role in this transitory world, no matter what it entails.

But what about violence? What the Gita advocates is a still mind, a calm mind. One that isn't violated or perturbed, by anger, hatred, jealousy, sadness, fear and hope. It urges for mind that discriminates, between the real, the truth and the transitory. It urges for stillness, for well-meaning, for no ill-will, even against one's own enemy, who's out for your head. Violence when necessary, unavoidable and not an emotional response but one of practical need, doesn't count as violence in the world of illusory form.  

 "I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour" : Gandhi 

With Gandhi, as well, we see an open proclamation for violence, and that violence would be any day better than cowardly slavery. 

And this is how in India, the insistence is always on the mind, heart and soul. That first let the mind be free of violence. Let me be free of all those qualities that beget suffering, in oneself and in others. 

But if and when this transitory, illusory world demands that arms be taken up and blood be drawn, the mind's discrimination must be alert and awake. There is the true freedom from violence. There is peace, non-violence.

And so, one can rather provocatively say that even murder can be non-violent and peace be extremely violent.