Why is spiritual backing necessary in the fight against evildoers?

Contents

• 1. Destruction of evil by saints
  • 1.1 Sage Vasishtha
  • 1.2 Jagadguru Shri Shankaracharya
  • 1.3 Saint Eknath
  • 1.4 Samarth Ramadasswami
  • 1.5 Saint Tukaram
  • 1.6 H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj
• 2. Destruction of evil by incarnations
  • 2.1 Shri Parshuram
  • 2.2 Shrikrushna
• 3. Fighting against injustice out of emotion and as spiritual practice (social reformers, patriots and seekers)

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1. Destruction of evil by saints

When we talk about saints most people imagine Them to be of a serene temperament, that They have never recommended destruction of evil, etc. The reasons for this are that either they have not studied saints, have only partial knowledge about Them or have never had the opportunity to be in Their company. Some examples of how saints adopt the code of protecting seekers and destroying evildoers (kshatradharma) are given below.

1.1 Sage Vasishtha

Sage Vishvamitra made umpteen efforts to harass Sage Vasishtha; yet He remained calm. Such stories about Him are well known. But do you know that when He was harassed by demons it was He who asked Rama to slay them? Though Rama performed the action with His bow, yet the thought behind it was that of Sage Vasishtha, the icon of Serenity! This proves that destruction of evildoers is another facet of Sage Vasishtha.

1.2 Jagadguru Shri Shankaracharya

Shri Shankaracharya

Shri Shankaracharya preached the philosophy of non-duality (advait). He advocated that only the Brahman principle is the truth and the universe is illusory (ब्रह्म सत्‍यं जगन्‍मिथ्‍या). He came across a group of thousands of Kapaliks, a sect of Aghoris living in the crematorium. Just as we offer fresh flowers to God everyday they would sacrifice human beings to offer fresh corpses to the female deity. They did this by killing thousands of people. When Shri Shankaracharya saw this He did not stop to think who in this triad is the destroyer, who will die and what is the act of dying; that this triad has to be destroyed or that everything is illusory, etc. on the contrary He organised an army of seekers, attacked the Kapaliks and annihilated them.

1.3 Saint Eknath

Saint Eknath’s Guru Janardanswami was the chieftain of the Devgiri fort. He would sit down and meditate everyday. One night when He was in meditation, the enemy attacked. To prevent a disruption in His Guru’s meditation Saint Eknath led the army against the enemy and returned victorious. You must have heard about the incident in Nath’s life in which He carried water of the Ganges from Kashi, (a place of pilgrimage) in pitchers hanging from a bamboo pole held across His shoulders as He wanted to perform the ritual of consecretion (abhishek) at Rameshvar. On the way He spotted a donkey dying of thirst and offered that water to it. Did He not come across any other thirsty donkeys in His life? He offered the water to that donkey in a state of spiritual emotion (bhavavastha). But we take it literally and do not try to understand the implied meaning behind the act.

There is a similar incident in Saint Namdev’s life. Once when He had just begun eating, a dog snatched the bhakri (Indian bread) from His plate. Fearing that the dog may get a stomachache eating the dry bhakri He ran after it to offer it clarified butter (ghee). Thereafter He came across several dogs, donkeys, cows, etc. in His life who were eating dry bread but He did not follow them all to serve them ghee! That act was also done in a state of spiritual emotion.

1.4 Samarth Ramadasswami

Samarth Ramdas

Ramadasswami Himself has done tremendous work for protecting seekers and destroying evildoers. He made several efforts by touring villages to convince the members of the Maval community to join Shivaji Maharaj’s army. In many places He installed idols of Maruti who symbolises strength and those of Shrirama. When Shivaji Maharaj required advice of any kind Swamiji would provide him the necessary guidance.

1.5 Saint Tukaram

Saint Tukaram

We say ‘Tuka became the peak (तुका झालासे कळस)’, read, sing or hear His devotional songs (abhangs) on the radio, but despite knowing a very important event in His life do not understand its implied meaning. Once as Saint Tukaram was singing devotional songs in a temple Shivaji Maharaj came there. When Ourangzeb’s army got this news it surrounded the temple. When Saint Tukaram realised that now Shivaji Maharaj would be caught He pleaded before Lord Pandurang. He implored to The Lord only once in His entire lifetime and that too to save Shivaji! Even when His family was starving due to a drought He did not plead before Lord Vithoba. He did this for Shivaji because he was the manifest form of the spiritual practice of protecting seekers and destroying evildoers. He was aware of what would happen if Shivaji were to get killed. Were it not for Tukaram Maharaj then Shivaji would never be able to establish a rule of Righteousness and kill thousands of enemies! The saint Himself says -

Softer than wax are we the servitors of Lord Vishnu,
Yet hard enough to break the thunderbolt can we be,
When pleased we will give up everything
But not spare an evildoer.
We are more compassionate than even parents,
But will destroy like the enemy.
Tuka says we are extremely gentle
But the ill effects of others’ wrongdoings reflect on them.

1.6 H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj

H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj

Other saints would praise H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj as - ‘If spiritual love (priti), that is love without expectation were to appear in a manifest form then the net result is Bhaktaraj Maharaj’. Maharaj Himself taught us all the stages of spiritual practice of chanting The Lord’s Name, service and sacrifice of the Absolute Truth, etc. till 1995. Then Maharaj fell sick. During the last eight months of His life we were constantly with Him. It was around that time that compiler began to feel more attracted towards the warrior Arjun instead of the other teachings of spiritual practice like chanting, service, sacrifice and the stance of a spectator (sakshibhav). As a result compiler began wondering whether He was drifting away from Maharaj’s teachings. After entering the field of Spirituality He developed the habit of discussing any different thought that He got, with saints before being blessed by a Guru and with His Guru thereafter. When He spoke to Maharaj in this regard He replied, “Could I not have generated that thought in your mind?” Sometimes instead of replying to a question directly He would ask Him a counter question. Further He said, “From the moment you surrendered your body, mind and wealth to Me every thought in your mind is Mine”. It was then that compiler realised that it was Maharaj who had generated the thought of attraction towards Arjun in His mind. It was because of His ego that He considered that thought to be His own. The reason for this was that He had already undertaken spiritual practice according to the three classes, that is, was conducting satsangs (spiritual meetings) all over as part of spiritual practice of a Brahman, had offered His clinic in Mumbai to the Guru as part of His spiritual practice of a Vaishya and with nothing left had done service with His body as a Shudra by cutting off the thorny bushes, arranging the stones, cleaning the toilets and bathrooms in the ashram and tidying it up; now only the spiritual practice of a Kshatriya remained to be done. No Guru imparts partial knowledge to His disciple. In the last eight months Maharaj made Him develop an affinity for the warrior, Arjun.

Then Compiler recollected two incidents which had occurred in the past. In 1993 Maharaj had asked Him to get two banners done for the Shrirama Navami celebrations in their Kandali (Maharashtra) ashram. The first banner read the following lines from Samarth Ramdasswami’s Shri Dasbodh (20.4.26) -

The strength is in the campaign,
And the person who undertakes it,
However, in order to succeed,
He must have full faith in God.

Then Compiler did not realise anything about any struggle! Because life was Blissful in the Guru’s company. It was only later that He realised that since 1993 Maharaj had been trying to gradually suggest to Him that He would have to enter the struggle. Often we fail to comprehend a saint’s speech. He too did not understand the importance of the banner then. The next banner made things clearer.

The second banner read the following verse from Samarth Ramdasswami’s book Manachye Shloka -

Is there anyone on this earth who can oppose
the devotee of Lord Rama?
The Lord whose glory is sung in all the three worlds,
is proud of His devotees,
Hence He never ignores one who has faith in Him. - 30

Compiler did not perceive its importance then. But later came to realise that Maharaj was only trying to teach that later He would try to start a revolution in society. When you speak against evildoers they will try to attack you. But have no fear. Maharaj had already assured Compiler that He would take care of whoever opposed His devotee. Not just Compiler but several other seekers have had to and will have to face opposition from evildoers, but remember there is someone to protect them. We are carrying out this mission for God so protecting us is His responsibility. God has promised, ‘न मे भक्‍त: प्रणश्‍यति’ meaning My devotee shall not perish. Compiler enjoyed the company of Maharaj for eight years but in all those years He asked Him to get only those two banners done.

Within a few days of this conversation about feeling attracted towards Arjun, Maharaj told Parmanand, the disciple of His gurubrother Bhuranandbaba the following complementing His response to Compiler’s query. He said, “Now you will have to gather people.” Parmanand was an ascetic who remained secluded from people.

Later the following notes jotted down during conversation with Baba on 4/1/1995 were found -

I will not wield a weapon but will narrate four facts of prudence.

This was what Lord Krushna said during the Bharatiya war. The four facts of prudence that Krushna would speak of were with regard to the destruction of evildoers, meaning that Krushna Himself would destroy the evildoers indirectly without wielding a weapon. This was exactly what Baba suggested.

‘In 1998 at Bangalore after the discourse on the day of Gurupournima all seekers were getting doubts clarified from Ms. Mohini Âcharya. Everyone shared their experiences, e.g. to someone Baba’s photograph appeared huge. I wondered why I had not experienced that. That night H.H. Baba appeared in my dream and said, “Why do you want a photograph now? Start preparing to undertake the spiritual practice of destroying evildoers.” Thereafter I could see a war with chariots, bows and arrows and Baba continued to tell something.’ - Mrs. Meghana Gaonkar, Bangalore.

2. Destruction of evil by incarnations

Every incarnation of The Lord has manifested to destroy evildoers. In this context Shri Parshuram and Shrikrushna are discussed here.

2.1 Shri Parshuram

Shri Parshuram

Parshuram has been described thus -

अग्रत: चतुरो वेदा: पृष्‍ठत: सशरं धनु: ।
इदं ब्राह्मं इदं क्षात्रं शापादपि शरादपि ।।

Meaning: Parshuram who is well-versed with the four Vedas and sports the bow and arrow upon His back (that is the one who has the radiance of both the Brahman and the Kshatriya) will destroy evildoers either with a curse or with an arrow.

When fighting, mere use of weapons is insufficient for a seeker. He should have the potential to curse in conjunction with the former. Shri Parshuram single-handedly eliminated the warriors from the earth, circumambulating it twenty-one times. What exactly does this mean? He destroyed the evil Kshatriyas. If He were to destroy all the Kshatriyas on the earth thoroughly even once then not a single Kshatriya would have survived for the second round! However He slew only the evil Kshatriyas. Let us all attempt to destroy the evildoers atleast once.

2.2 Shrikrushna

Lord Krushna

Why do we like Shrikrushna? Is it because He was the crawling infant, the one stealing yoghurt from the pots hung onto the roof or the one playing with a ball on the banks of the Yamuna with His playmates? Definitely not. We do not consider Him an absolute incarnation (purnavatar) simply because He was Radha’s lover or because He performed the divine dance of ras (raskrida) or slew demons like Kansa or Chanur. Several other deities have also slain evildoers. Then what is so special about Krushna? Why do we glorify Him so much? We adore Him because of only one thing, that is because He preached the Gita. If He were not to narrate it then He would be revered like any of the other deities. In the Gita (2:37) He says, ‘तस्‍मादुत्तिष्‍ठ कौन्‍तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चय: ।’ meaning ‘O Arjun, arise and resolve to fight’. We simply read the Gita but do not comprehend anything. Then we attempt to read the Dnyaneshvari (a commentary on the Gita by Saint Dnyaneshvar) which is also beyond our comprehension! So we read commentaries of authors like Sonopant Dandekar, Sakhare Maharaj, etc. on the Dnyaneshvari. When we do not understand even those we just keep the books in the bookcase and simply proclaim that the greatest philosophy in the entire universe lies in the Gita! Spirituality is a science which has to be lived and practised not just read about. What is preached in the Gita is meant for us. It means ‘O Arjun (seeker) arise, make a resolve and prepare to fight the evildoers’.

3. Fighting against injustice out of emotion and as spiritual practice (social reformers, patriots and seekers)

We say that the spiritual practice of protecting seekers and destroying evildoers is necessary and important and evildoers must be destroyed. It is likely that some may then wonder whether we are provoking people to ‘throw away their pens and resort to the gun for the sake of freedom’ just as Vir Savarkar had proclaimed during the Indian freedom struggle. We are doing nothing of that sort as it is not our subject. All that is based purely on emotion. We are well aware that in Spirituality emotion has absolutely no value. However ‘God dwells where there is spiritual emotion’. Spiritual emotion begins where emotion ends, that is why we do not appeal to people’s emotions. Social workers, social reformers and patriots appeal to emotions.

The differences between social reformers, patriots and seekers are enumerated below.

Most social reformers and patriots proclaim ‘we shall do it’. On the contrary seekers undertake services with faith, and spiritual emotion that ‘everything occurs due to God’s wish, He alone is the doer, I am nobody’ that is why God performs His mission for them. Samarth Ramdasswami has explained why the struggles of social reformers and patriots do not yield immediate success in His book Shri Dasbodh (20.4.26) -

The strength is in the campaign,
And the person who undertakes it,
However, in order to succeed,
He must have full faith in God.

If there is no support from God then He says, ‘If you are vain about your capabilities then make your own efforts!’

From the Mughal period till attaining independence in 1947 thousands of freedom struggles have been waged in various parts of India and lakhs and crores of freedom fighters have lost their lives. Why did God not help them? Why does God not assist patriots? Look at it from God’s perspective. The Lord who has created all the countries of the world views all countries with equality. God helps only His devotee. Shivaji Maharaj succeeded in his task because he was making efforts to establish a divine kingdom. Shivaji Maharaj was a devotee of deity Bhavani; hence he could perform such a great mission. Deity Bhavani Herself had gifted him a sword. He emerged victorious with the blessings of two saints - Tukaram Maharaj and Samarth Ramdasswami. Is anything impossible when one is blessed by saints? Will The Lord who milled flour for Janabai, filled the water pots in Nath’s house disguised as Shrikhandya the servant, not do anything for you? If you pray to Him with faith and spiritual emotion asking for the destruction of evildoers then He will definitely do that as well.

Arjun emerged victorious in the Bharatiya war against great teachers like Bhishmacharya, Dronacharya, Krupacharya and an army of eleven hundred trillion by the grace of his Guru, Krushna. Seekers and disciples are always winners because of the blessings of saints, Gurus and God. In short, God assists a devotee and not a patriot.

Social reformers experience failure because they try to make society progress following only ethics. As against this, seekers always emerge victorious. Shivaji Maharaj was successful in his mission because his attempts were to establish a divine kingdom. This means that society cannot progress merely adopting moralistic attitudes, spiritual backing is required. What a towering personality Jaiprakash Narayan had! Yet anarchy prevailed in Bihar even when he was alive. Despite maximal efforts he was not very successful in changing the situation. The success was short-lived. What tremendous moral prowess Sane Guruji had! But he committed suicide early in life at the age of 51 years on 11^th June 1950, consuming 18 tablets of a tranquilizer called Soneril. In the suicide note he wrote that he was committing suicide because his greatest efforts to reform society were in vain and he had now given up hopes that society would ever improve. This means he performed his mission with the expectation of some result. Seekers and disciples carry out their mission as spiritual practice without expecting any results; hence they do not feel dejected.

The table below differentiates between fighting against injustice out of emotion and as spiritual practice.

	Fighting against injustice
	Due to emotion	As spiritual practice
1. Reason for          a.     fighting                                b.	Mostly personal, at times social	A great social cause, e.g. corruption, bribery
	Non-truth (asat) [about the Great  Illusion]	The Absolute Truth (Sat), [compliments spiritual progress]
2. Emotion (bhavana)     or spiritual emotion     (bhav)?	Emotion	Spiritual emotion
3. The one deciding     the reason and time     for the fight	Self or leaders	The Guru or saints
4. Consideration of     ethics	Absent	Present
5. Other spiritual     practices	Generally absent	Present, e.g. chanting The Lord’s Name
6. Minimum spiritual     level required %	30	40
7. Effectiveness of the     fight %	1	100
8. Law of Karma	Applicable	Not applicable. With chanting and obeying the Guru, a non-action (akarma karma) occurs.
9. Assistance by     divine energies	Absent	Present
10. Possibility of being      made a captive /      defeated	More	Minimal due to the bless- ings of saints, the Guru or God. Defeat is possible only due to destiny, not due to wilful action.Saints or Gurus do not interfere with destiny.
11. Nature of the       defeat	External and internal	If by chance one faces defeat it is only external. Internally one achieves victory (Bliss) as one has obeyed the Guru.
12. Effect of defeat	Dejection	Not feeling anything, as the action (karma) is done irrespective of result
13. Example	Freedom fighters	Arjun from the Mahabharat who fought obeying Lord Krushna.

Reference:

‘Spiritual practice of protecting seekers and destroying evildoers’, published by Sanatan Sanstha.

 

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