Dispassion As Defence

In the previous column, we saw how Narad Muni asked Raja Yudhishthir if the king accounted for intel from the enemy lines, the timing of the war, and his forces’ willingness to go to war, before marching in. Now, the sage asks, ‘O son of Pritha, do you try to conquer your angry enemies who are slaves to their passions? Do you do it by conquering your own soul and getting mastery over your own passions?’ These two questions form a whole spiritual treatise by themselves. And for Narad Muni to slip it in so coolly in a lecture on administration is just a revealing insight into Hinduism itself! For us, religion and living, religion and art, religion and administration are not two separate things. The crux of every activity contains a spiritual bearing.Through the Bhagavad Gita and every other text, we see a recurring message on sense-control. Here, it is an outright distinguisher between who conquers and who succumbs. Consider the first question, drawing a direct correlation between passion and anger. Isn’t it true that one gets angrier as their desires get denied? So Narad is subtly hinting to the Pandava king that perhaps the enemy who is so angry could perhaps be ensnared in his own passions. All famous villains of yore had a central problem - unending desires. And born from that desire, all its evil cousins - greed, anger, jealousy, delusion, sorrow and so on. As a warfare tactic, a king could also trap his enemy with the very thing he desires.In our daily lives, how often do we become victims of the scamster called Desire? We willingly invite Desire into our minds, give a free tour of our likes and dislikes, and happily chain ourselves to Desire’s demands. Think of all the diets you have broken, all the late-night binge watches, all the jealous acts and rude talk which have ruined some good friendships. Yup, all belong to the leaderboard of the scamster called Desire. In such a mindset, even if someone used our weakness to bait us further, we wouldn’t know. One more sweet is not harmful, right? One more episode is not going to kill my night, and so on. When this is seen at a macro level, we have leaders who fall for bribes, businesspeople who go to unethical ends to increase profits, and industries which make money off our unhealthy addictions. The war is all around us. The mutiny is in our heads, hearts and the world around us. So, how do we conquer this enemy?.As Narad Muni suggests, through mastery over our own mind. Imagine for a person who is strong enough to negate temptations ruthlessly, the battleground becomes a playfield. By mastering my mind, I permit my mind to rein in my senses in the face of desires. ‘An extra gulab jamun is going to do no harm.’ ‘No, thank you, I have had my fill.’ ‘Do you want to watch the next episode?’ ‘No. I have watched one today, and that is enough.’ Build on this thought and attitude and watch yourself become unassailable.Can such a person ever fall for a bribe? Would they ever divert from an ethical course? Is there anything in the world that would convince this person to make a compromise? No. Dispassion works as the strongest defence. Such individuals grow up to become infallible leaders, exemplary for their integrity and discipline. As a country, we certainly have some great examples in our past—Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sri Vallabhai Patel, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam—all of whom never let power taint their tenure or individual desires cloud their decision-making. It is such leaders, Narad says, who can conquer enemies who are already victims of desires.

Dispassion As Defence

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