9/5/2014 No Black and White in Life - Leela Series

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No Black and White in Life
05 Jan 2014 7 Comments
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Just before the Kurukshetra war began, Krishna offered his entire army
to Duryodhana. Sadhguru recounts this situation to illustrate that there
is no black and white in life.
Questioner: If Krishna came to establish dharma, why did he offer
himself or his army to Duryodhana?
Sadhguru: The situation around the Kurukshetra war was such that no
one could remain neutral. You had to choose one side. Being the chief of
the Yadavas, Krishna also had to put his lot either with the Pandavas or
the Kauravas. Personally, he did not want this war and would have
preferred to remain neutral, but that was not possible. He had no hatred
against Hastinapur. He did not just choose Duryodhana; Bhishma,
Dronacharya, Kripacharya many venerable leaders were on the other
side. He was not against them, and they had huge respect for him too.
Both with Duryodhana and with the Pandavas, there was a distant blood
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9/5/2014 No Black and White in Life - Leela Series
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Krishna saw that
human beings are
always a
combination of
everything. That is
why you have to
strive to establish
dharma within
yourself;
otherwise, you
will become
adharma.
relationship. When a relative comes and asks your help, a no would be
difficult according to the Kshatriya dharma.
There was Kshatra Tej, the
dharma for the warrior class, and
Brahma Tej for the spiritual class.
Krishna tried to bring about some
kind of alliance between the
Kshatriyas and the Brahmins.
These guidelines and rules were
created for the society to function
smoothly. They said, a Brahmin
must sit and study the Vedas for a
certain number of hours a day. If
the same dharma was enforced on
a Kshatriya, he may not be
competent to do it, and if he did
this, he would not be a good
administrator and definitely not a
good warrior. The same goes for all
the other classes. That is why they
established different types of
dharmas for different categories of people who had different duties to
perform in the society. But at some point, the Kshatriyas started thinking
only in terms of what is good for them and their dharma without
considering all the others and their dharmas, which disturbed the
harmony in the society. Krishna and Vyasamuni strived to bring Kshatra
Tej and Brahma Tej closer together so they could function as a cohesive
force for the benefit of all.
Since according to the Kshatra Tej, when a relative comes and asks for
something, you cannot say no, Krishna gave them the choice between
himself and his army. From a military standpoint, an army is definitely the
better choice. Duryodhana believed that taking the army was sensible,
though he did not get the first choice and was perturbed about that. When
given the choice, the Pandavas had said to Krishna, Whether we live or
die if we live, we want to live with you. If we die, we want to die with you.
Without you, what will we do? And that is what made the difference for
them.
Now, your question is, If Krishna is standing for dharma, how can he put
his armed might on the side of adharma? He was not a moralistic person
who made black-and-white judgments about anyone. He neither believed
the Pandavas were absolutely pure beings, nor that the Kauravas were
absolute evil. This was not the way he looked at life. He constantly
maintained a good relationship with the Kauravas. Duryodhanas wife
Banumathi was a devotee of his. He did not see the Kauravas as out and
out evil he just saw that they were causing much evil at that time and he
would have liked to put an end to that. This does not mean he held any
kind of hatred or anger against them, nor did he judge them as evil. He
saw that human beings are always a combination of everything. That is
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9/5/2014 No Black and White in Life - Leela Series
http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/no-black-and-white-in-life/ 3/6
You cannot do
love. Love is
much, much
bigger than you.
When you dont
make yourself
important
anymore, love will
happen.
why you have to strive to establish dharma within yourself; otherwise, you
will become adharma. Any human being is capable of becoming adharma
any moment of his life. There is no insurance that you will never fall into
adharma. You have to strive to be aware; you have to strive to be on the
righteous path, or else you will easily slip off. This goes for every human
being, until you attain to such a level of consciousness where you cannot
fall anymore.
In many ways, Krishna tried to encourage Duryodhana to strive for
dharma. Even at that point when he gave this choice between him and his
army, he still tried to avoid the war. In a way, it was a very intelligent move
to give the army to Duryodhana. That way, Duryodhana felt that Krishna
is on my side, thinking the Pandavas were fools to take one person
instead of a 100,000-man-strong army. This could have been something
for Duryodhana to latch on to and bring peace, but it failed.
Become That
Questioner: Sadhguru, you have been talking about three aspects one
is Krishnas playfulness, the second is inclusiveness, and the third is love
and devotion. I have three questions in this context. First, how can one be
playful without losing the intensity that the practices have ignited?
Second, I increasingly tend to do the minimum for friends and family. I
just want to be on my own. Im not sure what is meant by including
everyone. And third, I think the minds constant over-activeness or
judgment hampers love and devotion. So how can these three aspects be
applied in day-to-day life?
Sadhguru: They cannot be applied they can be attained. They are not
some kind of policies or tricks that you apply in your life. You have to
become that. You have to become inclusion. You have to become love. This
is not something that you can do or make use of. It is something that you
surrender to. It is something that you allow to burn you up. You are no
more important.
It is because you are still on the
application level, since you want to
use something, that we gave you
practices. I wish we could abolish
the practices in the program. They
are beautiful; they are definitely
sustaining forces for a human
being, but people evaluating the
program and being there with me
in terms of a takeaway is stupid.
That way, they will not get
anywhere. Maybe their health will
improve, but they will not know
anything beyond that in their lives.
There is nothing to apply. There is
no take away. Dont try to be devout; dont try to be loving; dont try to be
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POSTED IN: LIFESTYLE
TAGS: Forest Flower, krishna stories, mahabharata stories
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Ghajabiram 8 months ago
Surrender as Arjuna surrendered to Krishna totally helpless. Surrender is the last
step in the process of realization. Surrender is what will happen (we can't do it).
We are all Arjunas asking innumerable questions for which surrendering is the
answer. surrender of what to what? Answer is there in the question itself. God
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Image courtesy: Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot, Mahabharata from

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inclusive. You cannot do that. You have to become that. You cannot do
love. Love is much, much bigger than you. You can become a part of it.
There is no method to fall in love. When you dont make yourself
important anymore, love will happen. If you are too full of yourself, there
is no possibility of love in your life. You may know relationships; you may
know give-and-take, but you will not know how to burn. If you dont know
how to burn, you will have no light of your own.
Editors Note: Watch the Leela series, where Sadhguru explores the life
and path of Krishna. Available as a free webstream one part every
week.
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This article is based on an excerpt from the January 2014 issue of Forest
Flower. Pay what you want and download. (set 0 for free). Print
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9/5/2014 No Black and White in Life - Leela Series
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Reply
bless all with Grace.

4


Reply
Ramesh Shivanga 7 months ago
If you live colourful life then their is no black and white in your life...

1


Reply
Krishna devotee 8 months ago
There are various views to this incident. What is written in this post is one of
them. The other view also is that Krishna was planning and orchestrating a clean
destruction of a generation of people or two at that time...to ensure cleansing of
society and its ills. If one goes by that, he could not have remained neutral. Lets
step aside from deifying Krishna for a minute, and go with the fact he was
human. The difference being he was super-human, with foresight and intellect
somewhat unparalleled.

1


Reply
shiva 7 months ago
yes


Reply
Santhosh 8 months ago
The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his
play,
his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation,
his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his
vision
of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is
working or
playing. To him he is always doing both.


Reply
alex 8 months ago
Eat less -Sleep less- talk less


Reply
Gayathri Kumar 8 months ago
To the all inclusive mind,segregation is a non existential word. To deliver the right
treatment to all souls,right action at the right time,completely eliminates concept
of morality.This is the true way to be.But my guru,do tell me,will i be crucified one
day like Jesus Christ for having lived this way? Does it not require an
outrageously daring courage to be so?


Reply
sanjeev 8 months ago > Gayathri Kumar
Sadhguru has said " If I am u r, If u r I am not ". There is nothing to fear
when Sadhguru is the envelope around. Moreover body will any way be
either crucified or burned at the appropriate time, so what to fear about.
So live ur life with full awareness and complete abandon.


Reply
surabhi 8 months ago
How do I burn myself? How can then I not be concerned about myself anymore?
How to become love.. inclusion.. how to make emptying possible?


sanjeev 8 months ago > surabhi
By doing ur Sadhnas regularly u can burn or empty urself. Once you
clearly see experientially that there is clear space between u, ur body and
ur mind, all concerns will be dissolved, ur mind will become empty and
obviously u will become love and all inclusive.
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9/5/2014 No Black and White in Life - Leela Series
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obviously u will become love and all inclusive.

2


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