BHAGAVAT GITA

Main Message

The Hindu ethics are clearly stated in the Bhagavat Gita. Although the treatise is set against the background of the self doubts which a warrior develops before the commencement of the battle, its message encompasses the whole of human life. Bhagavat Gita prescribes that man should perform his duty without any desire for its fruits, without attachment and aversion, and without getting distracted by selfish and base motives. In brief, duty has to be performed for its own sake. Ultimately, duties have to be performed for realizing the vision of God. Duties are performed for the welfare of humanity and for the good of all living creatures. Gita preaches that the aim of our efforts is not happiness but good; personal and social good are the same. In achieving the highest good, man realises the vision of God.

Gita’s message is that the whole basis of a man’s life lies in action. There can be no life without action. A state of inaction is virtual death. Gita advocates neither quietism nor withdrawal from life. However, the action has to be based on one’s duty.

The Gita does not prescribe asceticism for it is also concerned with performance of duties in society. It does not say that men should get rid of all emotions. One has to control bad emotions such as — attachment, aversion, illusions, fears, lust, grief, anger, hatred, malice and envy. What we would call positive emotions are to be cultivated. These include universal goodwill and benevolence, kindness towards people in trouble, magnanimity, serenity, indifference to worldly concerns, and love and devotion to God. Of course, God is to be reached by serving fellow men. Unlike in Buddhism and Jainism, God is central to the moral system of the Gita.

Paths to Salvation

According to the Gita, there are three paths to the realisation of God. ftarmayoga consists in performing one’s duties disinterestedly (nishkama karma) in the service of God. Bhakti yoga is the route of devotion to God. Jnana yoga is the approach to God based on attaining the enlightenment of soul through

sacred knowledge. Jadunath Sinha says that Bhagavat Gita’s message is closer to Green’s Eudemonism than to Kant’s rationalism or asceticism. Eudemonism is an ethical doctrine that characterizes the value of life in terms of happiness. Happiness here has to be understood in its most sublime forms.

Virtues

Gita associates a man’s station in life, his Varna, and his psychological attributes. In other words, a warrior will have a mindset which differs from that of a Brahmin and a Vaishya. It may seem strange that the mental characteristics or psychological nature of an individual should be linked to his Varna or profession. But we know from experience that one’s profession does leave a mark on one’s character. We may think of psychological types in modern terms. Thus, a military officer will tend to behave in a particular manner. Similarly, politicians and businessmen have characteristic ways of acting. The link between the caste of an individual and his occupation has disappeared even in ancient India. Even Varna membership was no longer a matter of birth, but involved considerable mobility. But leaving aside these factual matters, we can conclude that a man’s vocation broadly determines his duties and attitudes.

The following table shows the virtues which the Gita mentions as characteristic of the three principal groups of the society. Although the association is between Varna and virtues, in the modern context, we can regard these as lists of virtues broadly associated with occupations.

We can see that many of the virtues are relevant to different contexts of modern life.

We may note the parallel between the association of virtues with castes and the virtues which Plato considered necessary for different classes in The Republic. Thus, philosopher-kings possess wisdom; the soldiers possess courage and martial virtues. Traders embody economic values and temperance is a virtue desirable in all the classes.

Action without Craving

The duties which the Gita enjoins are to be performed without any craving for the expected results. A sense of duty should motivate men to action. Their moral duty extends to performing the needed actions; the outcome of their actions depends on divine will. Hence, they have to perform their

actions in a calm and composed manner without getting anxious about the likely outcomes. Concern about the probable results of action, their success or failure, leads to bondage. If one acts without desire for what the action will bring about, then he acts like a Sanyasi or Yogi. This is in fact the Gita’s path to salvation through action.

Positive and negative emotions

As we saw above, the Gita mentions the virtues which an individual possesses by virtue of his occupation. The Gita also lists the desirable positive emotions and the undesirable negative emotions. We can also regard them as generalized lists of human virtues and vices. We outline them below.

¤ Affection, animosity, attachment, aversion, selfishness, arrogance, jealousy, greed, hypocrisy, malice and similar emotions should never drive our actions.

¤ While doing our duties, we should ensure that our mind remains serene and composed.

¤ We should not be obsessed with anxieties about success or failure, happiness or misery,

victory or defeat, profit or loss and glory or humiliation which our actions may bring about.

¤ We should not get unduly buoyed up by success or overly depressed by failure. We should

learn to take such things in our stride.

¤ Human beings, by their very nature, tend to be selfish. But we should sublimate our selfish

propensities by directing them towards service to God and society.

¤ We should not venerate only the external religious symbols. Mechanical observance of liturgical rules or strict adoption of rituals does not constitute the essence of religion. It is necessary to discipline our heart and purify our desires so that our desires flow along moral channels. Sacredness and purity ought to become the attributes of our souls.

¤ Men should not opt out of the challenges of personal and social life. They should not fall into escapism or seek false anodynes. Ideas like divine will or destiny should not be used as pretexts for inaction. Men cannot know divine will. They have to perform their duty without thinking about other matters.

We have outlined the negative emotions and the way to avoid them. Now, we look at the positive virtues which men should cultivate. For easy reference, we have put them in a tabular form.

Comparison with Western Moral Ideals

Philosophers have compared the ethical system of Gita to moral systems of the Western philosophy. The system of Gita does not follow hedonism — which regards happiness as the end of life. Happiness can be given a refined meaning as aesthetic or cultural enjoyment. But even so, it is not covered in

Gita’s message. Nor does it correspond with utilitarianism in any of its forms. However, promoting human welfare is an object which men have to keep in view while performing their duties. As we emphasised,Gitarulesoutennui,escapism,quietism orotherformsofinertia. It propounds an ethicof action based on duty. In this form, it is eminently suitable for people active in various spheres of life. As Kantianism is also based on ‘duty’, Gita’s message has been compared to it. We need not delve deep, into this aspect. Suffice it to say that Kant’s system is worked out without reference to God, whereas realisation of God is a constantly running theme of Bhagavat Gita. Further, though Kantianism differs from hedonism and utilitarianism, it centres on theindividual. Concerns of general social welfare hardly find a direct mention in it. Bhagavat Gita abounds in references to welfare of

human kind and of the whole of living creation.

Other Aspects of Gita’s Moral Message

We may note the other main features of the moral preaching of the Gita. At one level, Gita’s message is addressed to those who are totally concerned with realisation of God. Hence, Gita has passages in which one is advised to avoid excessive attachment to one’s family and close kith and kin. One is also told to treat his family members at par with others. Such idealistic injunctions and a pronounced ‘other worldliness’ may create an impression that the message of Gita, though sublime, is unsuited to the normal situations of social life. The paths of devotion and of knowledge for realizing visions of Brahman also may seem remote from every day human concerns. Like the moral messages of other religions, they appear against settings of ancient societies. However, no religious belief remains static, but is interpreted to suit changing times. The message of Gita, rooted as it is in the concept of human duty, is universal and timeless in its appeal and relevance.