Do some Hindu scriptures glorify war?
Hinduism, like most religions, believes that war is undesirable and avoidable because it involves the killing of fellow humans. However, he recognizes that there may be situations where war is a better way than tolerating evil. Does this mean that Hinduism glorifies war?
The very fact that the background of the Gita, which Hindus regard as sacrosanct, is the battlefield, and its main protagonist is a warrior, may lead many to believe that Hinduism supports the act of war. Indeed, the Gita does not sanction war or condemn it. Because? Let's find out.
The Bhagavad Gita and war
The story of Arjuna, the legendary archer of the Mahabharata, brings out Lord Krishna's vision of warfare in the Gita. The great battle of Kurukshetra is about to begin. Krishna drives Arjuna's chariot drawn by white horses in the center of the battlefield between the two armies. This is when Arjuna realizes that many of his relatives and old friends are in the ranks of the enemy and is upset that he is going to kill the ones he loves. He is no longer able to stand there, refuses to fight and says he "does not want any subsequent victory, kingdom or happiness". Arjuna asks: "How could we be happy killing our own relatives?"
Krishna, to persuade him to fight, reminds him that there is no such thing as killing. Explain that the "atman" or soul is the only reality; the body is simply an appearance, its existence and its annihilation are illusory. And for Arjuna, a member of the "Kshatriya" or the warrior caste, fighting the battle is "right". It is a just cause and it is his duty or dharma to defend it.
“… If you are killed (in battle) you will go up to heaven. Conversely, if you win the war you will enjoy the comforts of the earthly kingdom. Therefore, stand up and fight with determination… With equanimity towards happiness and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, struggle. In this way you will not suffer any sin “. (The Bhagavad Gita)
Krishna's advice to Arjuna constitutes the rest of the Gita, at the end of which Arjuna is ready for war.
This is also where karma, or the Law of Cause and Effect, comes into play. Swami Prabhavananda interprets this part of the Gita and gives this brilliant explanation: “In the purely physical sphere of action, Arjuna is in fact no longer a free agent. The act of war is upon him; it has evolved from its previous actions. At a given moment, we are what we are and we must accept the consequences of being ourselves. Only through this acceptance can we begin to evolve further. We can select the battlefield. We cannot avoid the battle… Arjuna is destined to act, but he is still free to choose between two different ways of carrying out the action “.
Peace! Peace! Peace!
Aeons before the Gita, the Rig Veda professed peace.
“Come together, talk together / Let our minds be in harmony.
Common is our prayer / Common is our goal,
Common is our purpose / Common is our deliberations,
Common are our desires / United are our hearts,
United be our intentions / Perfect be the union between us ". (Rig Veda)
Rig Veda also established the proper conduct of war. Vedic rules say that it is unfair to hit someone from behind, cowardly to poison the arrowhead and atrocious to attack the sick or the elderly, children and women.
Gandhi and Ahimsa
The Hindu concept of non-violence or non-injury called "ahimsa" was successfully employed by Mahatma Gandhi as a means of fighting the oppressive British Raj in India in the early part of the last century.
However, as historian and biographer Raj Mohan Gandhi points out, “… we should also recognize that for Gandhi (and most Hindus) ahimsa could coexist with a certain understanding of the use of force. (To give just one example, Gandhi's 1942 Resolution of India stated that Allied troops fighting Nazi Germany and militarist Japan could use Indian soil if the country was liberated.
In his essay "Peace, War and Hinduism", Raj Mohan Gandhi goes on to say: "If some Hindus claimed that their ancient epic, the Mahabharata, sanctioned and indeed glorified war, Gandhi indicated the empty stage with which the epic ends - to the noble or ignoble killing of nearly all of its vast cast of characters - as ultimate proof of the madness of revenge and violence. And to those who have spoken, as many do today, about the naturalness of war, Gandhi's response, first expressed in 1909, was that war brutalized naturally gentle men and that its path to glory is red with blood of murder. "
The bottom line
To sum up, war is justified only when it is intended to fight evil and injustice, not for the purpose of aggression or terrorizing people. According to the Vedic injunctions, the attackers and terrorists must be killed immediately and no sin is suffered from such annihilation.