What is Dharma in today’s world? How to fight Adharma? || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  #acharyaprashant  Video Information: 31.08.2024, Vedanta: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida   Context: What is the real definition of Dharma?  What is Adharma?  How to fight Adharma in today's time?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~

Transcript

00:009 months you have given me second life.

00:15I will never ever be able to leave you.

00:19So always stay with me.

00:25Sir my question is, as Shri Krishna is teaching Arjuna to fight against Kauravas, as Kauravas

00:36are against dharma, what should one consider a dharma in real world of today and fight

00:45against with the truth?

00:46Kaurava also denied the rights of Pandavas and one step further they conspired to assault

00:54Kunti, tried to harm Pandavas in every possible way.

00:59There is lot of adharma in everyday life.

01:02Should we keep quiet, sit back, if somebody does adharma with you, even if not at the

01:10level that that was between Pandava and Kaurava?

01:14Dhanyawaad.

01:15There is always only one adharma, to keep a person tied to his or her animal center,

01:42the center of the jungle, the center of prakriti and evolution, that is adharma.

01:52Dharma is an ascension, a rise, a rise towards what you actually are.

02:03What must always still aspire to be, given that you do not start from what you actually

02:17are.

02:23If you look at a human being, his journey according to him starts from the day of his

02:30or her birth, we say I began on such and such day, that's the common understanding,

02:43is it not?

02:44Yes.

02:451st of January 1970, I began my journey.

02:49So when you begin your journey, you do not begin your journey from the right center.

02:57So the entire journey is about reaching where you anyway are always located.

03:09It's about becoming what you anyway are.

03:15It's about unbecoming what you have erroneously become.

03:25So that's dharma, that's dharma.

03:32Why was the war fought?

03:36Because power in the hands of Duryodhana would have meant policies that would have stimulated

03:48the animal center in at least millions of people.

03:57Hastinapur was one of the larger kingdoms and one of the most influential and powerful

04:02ones.

04:06What was happening in Hastinapur would have sent ripples throughout the subcontinent.

04:17It was a very central kingdom, Haryana, Delhi, Western UP, that was the area.

04:26So you see how centrally located it was and very powerful kingdom.

04:35So whosoever controlled Hastinapur would have had a very important and strong effect

04:47on the population of the entire subcontinent.

04:55In his interactions with Duryodhana, in his experience with Duryodhana, Krishna would

05:02have clearly seen how dangerous was it to let power come to this fellow's hands.

05:16Power in the hands of Duryodhana would have meant rampant adharma, all pervasive adharma.

05:29Because we are people who get influenced, yatha raja tha praja, if the state policies

05:43themselves promote adharma, then the effect on the population would definitely be derogatory.

06:02Therefore the war, therefore it was seen that in spite of the number of lives that are likely

06:12to be lost in the war, it was still important that the war be fought.

06:22The war was not at all for the sake of Arjun or the Pandav party.

06:32It was not at all for the sake of giving one back to Duryodhana.

06:39You have been unjust and treacherous all the while.

06:46So let retribution come.

06:48No, that was not what the war was about.

06:54There was nothing personal about the war.

07:00It's not that Krishna had a soft corner for Arjun or favoured the Pandavas more.

07:10Therefore he aligned with the Pandavas.

07:14It's just that power could not come to Duryodhana.

07:19It was certain and therefore the war had to be fought.

07:27It's not about who really was the rightful claimant to the throne.

07:36Even that was not a very important question.

07:41People often quarrel over those details, Dhritarashtra or Pandu and therefore Yudhishtira or Duryodhana.

07:53A lot of people argue over these things.

07:55It was not about Dhritarashtra or his blindness or Pandu or his illness or Yudhishtira or

08:07Duryodhana.

08:10It was not about these fellows.

08:11It was about having the one right fellow on the throne who would help the entire population

08:24navigate the path of dharma.

08:30So I dare say that Krishna would have tried to put a dharmic person on the throne even

08:48if that dharmic person were not the rightful hire by traditional logic or ritual.

09:07Why are we talking of Yudhishtira or Duryodhana here?

09:10Because they were the senior most in their lines.

09:16But had it so transpired that the two senior most brothers on either lines, the Kaurav

09:27line and the Pandav line, were both rank scoundrels, then Krishna would have supported and picked

09:41may be the youngest brother as his choice for the crown if the youngest one were dharmic.

09:57So it's not as if Krishna is trying to settle things in a just way in a matter between brothers.

10:18It is not a thing between two parties of brothers.

10:25It is a thing that concerns an entire population.

10:30Krishna is not saying, you know, you send these people off to the jungle and that was

10:42illegitimate.

10:43Therefore, now you should pay up.

10:47No, no.

10:50It's not that.

10:51Oh, you know, these fellows, they have fulfilled the condition of being away for so many years

10:58in the jungle and then for remaining incognito, for one more year.

11:06So they have fulfilled all the conditions.

11:08So you should give them their territory.

11:11It's not about all that.

11:18Even if traditional justice were to be on Duryodhana's side, Krishna would have still

11:24supported the Pandavas because it's not about traditional justice.

11:29It's about a higher justice.

11:34Traditional justice says give the throne and the crown to the elder most brother, the eldest

11:43son.

11:44That's traditional justice.

11:45Krishna's justice is dharmic, not traditional.

11:52He says the eldest is the one who is the wisest.

12:03Wisdom is the criteria for determining elderliness.

12:14The eldest one by age is not necessarily the wisest.

12:22Wisdom is the touchstone.

12:25I'll see who is the wisest one.

12:29I'll see who is the most dharmic.

12:32And that one I take to be the eldest and he shall rise to the throne.

12:39That's Krishna's justice because to him it's not about these two quarreling parties.

12:46To him it is not about 5 ward people here and 100 ward people there.

12:51To him it is about the millions that are there in the whole country.

13:03We often fail to put the war in perspective.

13:13We miss the bigger picture.

13:18We feel it was about avenging the atrocities that Duryodhana had been committing.

13:24You know he misbehaved with Draupadi.

13:28You know he tried to kill the Pandavas in Lakshagraha.

13:35You know he tried to poison Bheem.

13:43You know he was always being unfair.

13:45He was always conspiring.

13:48Therefore the Pandavas should fight for their own rights.

13:52The war was not about the Pandavas rights.

13:56The war was not to avenge Duryodhana's atrocities against Pandavas in the past.

14:04The war was to stop Duryodhana from wreaking havoc on the entire country in the future.

14:17It was not about squaring the past.

14:22It was about aborting what was coming in the future.

14:35Revenge and retribution, these are small things for a wise man like Krishna.

14:43The wise ones do not get hurt easily.

14:46Why will they clamor for revenge?

14:55What is dharma then?

14:56Please always remember.

14:57The rise of consciousness is the path of dharma.

15:07We begin as animals.

15:13We must end, dissolve as pure consciousness.

15:24That is dharma.

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