WHAT IS HINDUISM?
At the same time the ethicality of military duties and
war is a central question in both the ancient Mahabharata
epic and that part of it which constitutes the Bhagavadgita
itself – which has become perhaps the most well-known
and most-read Hindu religious text and is seen by many as
the ‘bible’ of Hinduism. In it, Krishna persuades the
warrior-king Arjuna that his ethical doubts on engaging in
battle with his kith and kin are unnecessary. In doing so
Krishna uses the Hindu understanding that the Self is
eternal and identical with Brahman – and therefore cannot
be ‘killed’ – as a justification for war, rather than as an
‘eternal truth’ that, if heeded would render the very attempt
to kill others redundant as well as futile.
Yet the Gita itself forms just one part of the larger
Marabharata epic, in which questions of war, peace and the
duties of the king as warrior or Kshatriya are explored
through many different and conflicting voices and
reflections, including pacifistic ones^1.
There have been countless interpretations of the Gita^2 ,
including one by Gandhi himself in which he sees the battle
in which Arjuna is about to engage as a metaphorical one –
an inner battle of the soul. And in its final chapter, Krishna
himself concludes his discourse to Arjuna by saying to him
that “Having reflected upon it in its totality, do as you
please.” (18.63). Commenting on this, the interpretation of
Abhinavagupta^3 is that “...the meaning of this statement is