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Re: Is Sri Krisna moral?

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mcadambi • January 26, 2002 


I do not wish to get into a thread like the previous ones, but I 
strongly feel some fundamental knowledge about comparision is needed 
when comparing religions.

First, The West has a very different view of Reality than the East. 
A Simple Crash Course in Sociology will prove this point which by 
itself is a proof.

To cite an example, the advaithic concepts of drshti-shristi vaada, 
shristhi-dristhi vaada are non-existent in any of the religions of 
the religiously sactioned ethics of the abrahamic faiths.

Further more, the BBC Guide to World Religions writes:

"There are many misconceptions about Hinduism which are the result 
of Westerners trying to force it to fit their ideas of what a 
religion should be like, and trying to push a lot of different but 
related faiths into a single box."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/world_religions/hin
duism_elem.shtml

The material on Hinduism presented by western scholars, philologists 
or even theologians STEMS from the fact that Hinduism cannot be 
compared to any of the abrahamic faiths of the middle east. 

To compound to this fact, Fritjof Capra who authored the Famous 
Book "The Tao of Physics" argues that the western scholars have 
profoundly mis-understood the core-aspects of Hindu Ethics or 
cosmology and metaphysics.

Dharma or Morality is by classified into two broad Categories 
of "SamAnya Dharma" (Common Morals) and "VishEsha Dharma" (Special 
Morals). To answer your question of Morality of Krishna or Arjuna is 
not simple per se. This is because Morality by itself as defined by 
Hinduism is very different from that explained by Thomas Merton or 
any other western scholar.

Krishna, the 9th AvatAra of Sriman Naarayana who is lovingly called 
GiitAcharya condensed the vast Dharma of the Shruthis into a 
colloquy to Arjuna.SMS Chari in one of his telephone lectures has 
empahsised the fact that the Bhagavad Giita cannot be *fully* 
accepted as a "system of ethics". The Giita which is a part of the 
prasthAna traya or triple canon is more of a philosophical text than 
an ethical text. For ethical texts, the Dharma Sastras suit more to 
the point. This does not however mean that the prasthana traya can 
be plainly ignored as to not having an inherent system of ethics. 
The Prasthana traya serve as a fountain head and a primary source of 
inspiration for other hindu texts which are only derivative of the 
triple canon and whose authority cannot supersede that of the triple 
canon. 

The very question of Krishna being immoral than arjuna presupposes 
the fact that the "western scholars" look at hinduism from a 
Christian prepective, which is plainly irrelevant or not required.

To sum, there is a saying in Sanskrit which goes "DharmO Rakshati 
Rakshitaha" which translates to "Protect Dharma and Dharma will 
protect you".

To get a basic understanding of how hinduism by itself places the 
Mahabharata and the Ramayana, please read C. Rajagopalachari's books.
This will help quench most of your queries.

Regards,

Malolan Cadambi


--- In bhakti-list@y..., greg michel  wrote:
> Is Sri Krisna moral?
>  This kind of question come up and was raised by
> western philologists when they analized Gita and
> Mahabharata.
> To Gitra they say that Arjuna presents higher morality
> becasuse he doesn't want to kill his fellow men. 
> To Mahabharata they say when Krsna have given immoral
> tips for Yudhisthira to lie, or to Bhima to attack his
> enemy on legs, which was against ksatriya codecs.
>  What is Vaisnava answers on this points.
> dasan
> Garga Rsi das




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