r
opposed to one another, Arjuna espied among the
anks
rdered’ one who’s lying here,
d won. So that
Krishna, the human‐born Highest God, by the revelation
of this great esoteric doctrine, changed Arjuna from a
shallow and weak‐hearted man to a deeply thoughtful,
iron‐hearted sage and hero.
“In truth then, the following also holds good —
‘Whosoever commits a crime or causes it to be committed,
whosoever destroys or causes to be destroyed, whosoever
strikes or causes to be struck, whosoever robs the living of
life or takes that which has not been given to them, breaks
into houses or robs others of their property — whatsoever
it be that they do, they burden themselves with no guilt on
hostile forces many a former friend, many a cousin and
comrade of past days — for the Pāndavas and the
Kaurāvas were the sons of two brothers. Arjuna was
moved to the depths of his heart, and he hesitated to give
the signal for battle for he was loath to kill those who had
once been his own people. So he stood there looking
down from his war chariot, his chin sunk on his breast, a
prey to torturesome hesitancy, undecided as to what he
should do; and beside him stood the golden god Krishna,
who was his charioteer. And Krishna guessed at the
thoughts of the noble Pāndava king.
“Smiling, he pointed to the rival armies, and
showed Arjuna how all those beings came into existence
and will pass — yet only apparently do so — because in
all of them only that One lives whose past has known no
dawn, whose future shall know no sunset, untouched
alike by birth and death:
“‘Whosoever holds someone to be a killer,
Or describes as ‘mu
They do not understand the truth of either case.
Come Arjuna! Now begin the fight!’
“Taught in this way, the Pāndava king gave the
signal for beginning the terrible battle, an
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that account; and if someone wer to slaughter every
living thing on this earth with a sharply ground axe and
reduce them to a single boneless mass, to one mass of
pulp, they would be in no way guilty on that account —
they would do no wrong. And if
were to make
their way along the southern ban of the Gangā laying
waste and murdering, they would, on that account, acquire
no bad karma; and if someone were to make their
way along the northern bank of the Gangā distributing
alms and making offerings, on that account they would
acquire no merit. By means of generosity, gentleness and
self‐renunciation, one acquires nothing meritorious,
nothing good.’”
And there now follows the astounding, indeed
frightful,
477th Sūtra.
Which, in its striking brevity, runs: “Rather... on
account of The Eater...”
The meaning of these few words, wrapped as they
are in deepest mystery, the worshipful Vājashravas dis‐
closes to us as follows: “Far removed from any such idea
as that of divine punishment threatening the robber and
murderer, ‘Rather’ is the opposite the case; namely, that
such a one grows to be like God Himself; which becomes
clear from those passages in the Veda where the Highest
God is glorified as ‘The Eater,’ such as:
‘Both the warrior and the brahmin, He eats for bread,
When with death’s garnishing He sprinkles them.’
“As the world has its beginning in Brahman, so
also it has its passing away there — Brahman causing it
constantly to come forth anew and constantly destroying
it. So that God is not only the creator but also the devourer
of all living beings, of whom here only warriors and
brahmins are mentioned as the highest in rank but who
therefore represent all the others.
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someone
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“So also it reads in another passage: ‘I eat them all,
but me they do not eat.’
“These were the very words, as you should know,
of the Highest God Himself when, in the shape of a ram,
he carried the boy Medhātithi to the heavenly world. For,
indignant at his forcible abduction, the latter demanded to
know who his abductor was — ‘Tell me who you are or I,
a brahmin, will strike you with my wrath;’ and He, in the
semblance of a ram, revealed Himself as that Highest
Brahman, as the All in All, in the words:
“‘Who is it that kills and also prisoner takes?
Who is the ram that leads you far from here?
It is I, who in this form appear,
It is I, and I appear in every form.
‘If one feels fear — it be of whatsoever —
That fear is Mine, who also causes fear;
But in the holy greatness lies the difference —
I eat them all but Me they do not eat.
‘Who can know Me?
Who can call Me by My true name?
I strike down all My enemies, yet no one can strike Me.’
“By this time, it must be plain to the dimmest eye
that the likeness to the Brahman cannot lie in being des‐
troyed and eaten — as would be the case were gentleness
and self‐renunciation to be regarded as virtues — but on
the contrary, it lies in destroying and eating all others. In
other words, it lies in using others to the utmost and in
crushing them — while oneself suffering no harm. There
cannot therefore be the slightest doubt that the doctrine of
the punishment of hell for one who commits deeds of
violence is an invention of the weak to protect themselves
from the might of the strong, by intimidating them.
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