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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00084 Mar 2003

 
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Dear friends in Kuwait,

We here in Kuwait are now well into the 7th day of the War that has
descended upon neigbouring Iraq. No one really knows how much longer
this will go on. Some say it might take 6 weeks; others fear it will
take 6 months. And those who said, in the beginning, that it would
take only 6 short days are now strangely silent...

******************** 

As the War lengthens in duration, everyone is slowly turning to face
the looming question: What will be the "costs of this war"? What is
the price of a 6-week war? And what is the price of a 6-month war? 

The exercise of "damage assessment" has now begun in real earnest all
over the world. Every country and every individual around the world,
like it or not, has no choice now but to sit down to ascertain and
prepare for meeting the costs and consequences of "Operation Iraqi
Freedom". This is inescapable.

Economists are warning us of the following costs:

* global economic slow-down, if not a mega-recession 
* widespread joblessness; low consumer and investor confidence
* higher prices of oil and gasoline
* more terrorism and political instability

Now, these 'costs' above are purely economic. They are probably the
most obvious and easy to calculate. Unfortunately, War has other
not-so-obvious price-tags that none really knows how to assess. Who
can calculate, for example, the amount of carcinogens and noxious
elements that have been injected into the environment around us as a
result of the huge amount of military ordnance dropped in Iraq in the
past 7 days? Who can assess the damage on ecology caused by the
torching of oil-fields a few days ago in the Fau peninsula of Iraq?
Who can price the damage to marine life in the Arabian Gulf caused by
explosive mines we know have been laid on the ocean-floor? 

************************** 

Even more incalculably damaging than economic or environmental costs
of War are to human life are those that we may call "cultural" or
"human" costs. What are these "human" or "cultural" costs? There are
clearly 4 such costs of War and Arjuna recounted them very eloquently
for us in the opening chapter of the Bhagavath-Gita:


kulakshaye praNashyanti kuladharmaaH sanaatanaaH .
dharme nashhTe kula.n kR^its{}namadharmo.abhibhavatyuta .. 1\.40..

adharmaabhibhavaatkR^ishhNa pradushhyanti kulastriyaH .
striishhu dushhTaasu vaarshhNeya jaayate varNasaN^karaH .. 1\.41..

saN^karo narakaayaiva kulagh{}naanaaM kulasya cha .
patanti pitaro hyeshhaaM lup{}tapiNDodakakriyaaH .. 1\.42..

doshhairetaiH kulagh{}naanaaM varNasaN^karakaarakaiH .
utsaadyante jaatidharmaaH kuladharmaashcha shaashvataaH .. 1\.43.. 

*************************

When Arjuna was consumed by the horror of war on the eve of battle at
Kurukshetra it was not the prospect of world-wide recession or the
fall of the Dow Jones index that weighed heavily upon his mind. His
horror was occasioned by 4 profoundly human or cultural costs which
he listed in the above 4 'shlOka-s' as:

(1) "dharma-nashtE" -- the loss of social order and equilibrium
(2) "pranashyanti kula-dharma: sanAtana" -- the destruction of
age-old cultural fabric
(3) "varna-samkara" -- the disintegration of traditional communes
(4) "patanti pitaro hyeshhaaM lup{}tapiNDodakakriyaaH" -- the
cessation of ritual offering to the ancestral dead

When we reflect seriously upon what is presently going on within Iraq
we are struck by the amazing accuracy and deep understanding with
which Arjuna made his assessment of the true and real "costs of war"
--- costs truly more overwhelming and more permanent in consequences
than any that economists remind us of. 

*****************************

Take the first of Arjuna's costs of war, "dharma-nashtE". The first
casualty -- "nashta" -- of War is "dharma".

"dharma" refers to "world order" or "social order". It refers to
institutions and symbols which keep and maintain Order in this world.
The United Nations Organization (UN) has been the greatest single
institution of world order for well over 50 years now in this world.
It was set up after a devastating World War and precisely to enforce
and maintain a global system of order -- a global code of "dharma"
for all nations to swear and abide by.

The UN (and the "dharma" that it symbolized and institutionalized all
these many years) has become the first casualty of this War. The UN
has lost its credibility and neither the victors nor the vanquished
of this war is going to respect it anymore. This is indeed a great
"dharma-nashta" for all the world. Who can can even attempt an
assessment of this grave and grievous loss in terms of dollars, GDP
or stock-index?

*************************

Take next the cost of war Arjuna calls "pranashyanti kula-dharma:
sanAtana" -- the destruction of cultural fabric.

The Sanskrit expression "kula-dharma: sanAtana" in its widest sense
refers to "ancient traditions and cultural mores of a society". A war
destroys ("pranashyanti") this "kula-dharam sanAtana". 

The nation of Iraq belongs to a civilization that is almost as
ancient and rich as the Egyptian, the Indian and Chinese
civilizations. Three great cultures of the past were born and
flourished in Iraq -- the Sumerian, the Babylonian and the Assyrian.
The 'papyrus' was a product of this civilization. The cuneiform
method of writing was founded in this civilization. There are over
3000 sites of great cultural value that dot the vast lands that lie
between the rivers Tigirs and Euphrates. Ancient relics and artefacts
and other priceless legacy of human history lie in these lands. And
the people of Iraq are the bearers of this rich and ancient
civilization... 

This war will destroy such ancient "kula-dharma sanAtana". And it its
place we will only see supplanted the culture of the victors --
symbolized by Pepsi-cola, McDonald's burghers and MTV.

************************

Next on Arjuna's list of the costs of war is "varna-samkara:" -- the
disintegration of traditional communes and the advent of unwanted
progeny.

In every country and society there are different classes and communes
of peoples. In the garden of God a thousand different varieties of
flowers bloom. It is in the nature of God's world that many 'varna-s'
must sprout and flourish. None can wish to stamp out the infinite and
dazzling variety or diversity that is part and parcel of God's scheme
of things in this world.

In this vast mosaic of God's world, people too for ages and ages,
have been born and have come to live in a great and complex variety
--there are tribes, clans, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious and
sectarian groups and communes. Each commune has a right to live under
the sun according to its own ways, faith and hope. To interfere with
this right, and to seek to impose homogenuity upon this world of God
where sheer heterogenuity and variety is His Will and Pleasure, to
seek to impose one's own "American way of life" on the rest of the
world, is surely interference with God's design.

And yet this War will seek to do precisely that... It will interfere
with the different 'varna-s' in and around Iraq, causing their
immediate dissolution and ultimate disintegration. There are Kurds in
the north of Iraq, Turks in the North-west, Shias in the south and
Sunnis in Central Iraq... besides a score of smaller tribes and clans
scattered everywhere in the region whose respective "kula-dharma",
whose ethnic cohesion and cultural identity, will surely be in danger
of dissolution after this War. 

The would-be victors in this War say they will bring "peace",
"democracy" and "prosperity" to the people of Iraq -- (a Russin
diplomat recently asked what kind of "peace and democracy" it would
be that was delivered to the Iraqi people upon the wings of a
Tomahawk missile!). Perhaps, yes, but who will bring back to them
their ancient "sanAtana kula-dharma" once it is lost? And who can
prevent their "varna-sankara:"?

************************

The last one in Arjuna's list of the "costs of war" is the most
terrible one indeed and it is contained in the ominous line: 

"patanti pitaro hyeshhaaM lup{}tapiNDodakakriyaaH" 

The Sanskrit word "lupta" means "aborted", "interrupted",
"disrupted". The word "pinda" means ritual offering to the ancestral
dead.

War brings a rude and immediate end to the gift of customary offering
of love which the Living in all societies offer to the Dead.

It is not only the Hindus who are ardent ancestor worshippers in this
world. Even if their religion did not enjoin ritual worship of
ancestors, we see that many peoples of the world do look up to their
ancestors with pride, gratitude and humility. It is in the nature of
Man to offer obeisance to his forbears, both near and distant. The
Hindus perform annual "shrAdda" ceremony to their ancestors and offer
"pinda" as a mark of respect. But the Christians too visit the graves
of their fathers and place flowers upon the graves in memoriam. The
Chinese and Japanese too are great ancestor worshippers not to
mention the Latin American peoples such as Mexicans and Peruvians.
Even in America one observes 'Father's Day' or 'Thanksgiving', is it
not? What are all these ritualistic gestures for if not to symbolize
Man's loving worship of his forebears? 

Every man -- be he Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist or Jew --
every man knows deep within his heart that he is nothing but a small,
humble link in that long and interminable chain of life called Time:
that his limited time on earth is but a connecting bridge between the
Past of his ancestors and the Future of his progeny. 

The Gita warns us that War -- a war in which the sons of fathers are
killed -- will surely destroy that precious and sacred link between
Man and Ancestry: that irreparable destruction which the scripture
describes as 

"patanti pitaro hyeshhaaM lup{}tapiNDodakakriyaaH" 

************************

Let not these terrible 'Costs of War' the Bhagavath-Gita has
recounted to us fall upon the poor, innocent peoples of our
neighbour, Iraq! May God grant them strength and courage to overcome
this war, this tragedy that visits them.

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan



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