Page 11 - NAMAH-Jan-2018

Namah Editorial

It was out of compulsion that war was that has to be done is to shift from the ego, that is
advocated in the Mahaabhaarata as a law of the nodal point of dissonance and disharmony,
action in the lower Nature of Ignorance. Even to the Beyond-ego soul-principle or psychic
then the Indian tradition had advocated all being. This movement to the centre of the
means to minimise violence in the lower being allows one access to the higher ranges
Nature. Kireet Joshi lucidly explains how war of consciousness.
was recommended only for the protection of
justice. To minimise casualties, not everyone In doing so, we can also shift from half-
but a section of people were to participate. hearted attempts to maintain health and well-
That was the creed of the Kssatriyahh or Aryan being to a wholistic or integral paradigm of
fighter. Joshi adds: “And even when Sri health. Aggression per se is an important
Krishna asked Arjuna to take up arms, he contributor of our maladies and illnesses
insisted that he should fight without anger, for besides its direct effect, it contributes
without wrath and without any sense of to the unconscious cause of not only frank
revenge. If you read Mahabharata carefully, you psychiatric illnesses but of psychosomatic
will find that Sri Krishna made an extraordinary disorders as well.
effort to avoid a war; it was only when no
other alternative was available that he came to The work to surpass the individual ego, when
advocate war, and that, too, as a means available taken up at a broader scale, paves the way
at that time for a progressive development of for the flowering of world-peace, to raise
humanity towards the ideal of justice and truth above all violence and strife. In other words,
(3).” humanity must be ready to outgrow its ego-
bound limitations along an evolutionary
Aggression therefore can be considered basic trajectory of consciousness.
at the domain of lower Nature but loses its
necessity in the realm of Higher Nature. To References
prepare for a shift in consciousness to the
Higher Nature, the first psychological work 1. Forcina G et al (University of Barcelona).
Social Behaviour of Western Lowland Gorillas,
6 Feb, 2019 [Online] Available from: www.
sciencedaily.com [accessed 1 December
st
2020].
2. The Mother. The Collected Works of the Mother,
Volume 12. 2 ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
nd
Ashram Trust; 2002, p. 438.

3. Joshi, K. Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis.
New Delhi: Nag Publishers; 1996, p.109.

— Dr. Soumitra Basu

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