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Chaitanya Charan · Israel-Hamas Conflict | Bhagvad Gita Perspective | Chaitanya Charan
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The Bhagavad Gita perspective on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Social media and mainstream media is now filled with images of thousands of missiles being sent by the Hamas, which is the Palestinian extremist group in the Gaza Strip, attacking Israel in various cities. How do we see this terrible conflict with which thousands of people have been killed and uncountable number of people have been taken hostages, and the conflict seems to be on the verge of escalating?
I’ll talk about it from three different points, three Ns. The first N is the Nature of the violence, second is the Necessity for confrontational approaches, and last is Need for approaches beyond the confrontational. So first, while violence is an unfortunate and unavoidable part of life in this world, at the same time, the Bhagavad Gita is very careful in ensuring that violence is used within limits.
The Kshatriyas are a specially trained class of people who are meant to protect others from harm and to use force if required for that purpose. They are meant Kshatriya. They are meant to protect others from hurt and Kshatriyas never attack civilians.
That’s why the Kurukshetra war was fought at a particular designated venue, namely Kurukshetra, where the civilians were neither targeted nor killed. But the terrorist violence that we are seeing in these current attacks where missiles are launched indiscriminately, including largely on civilian targets and territories, is the antithesis of Kshatriya violence, where unarmed and unprepared, unsuspecting civilians alone are targeted for the purpose of creating fear and intimidation and terror. So, such violence against civilians needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The second point is the necessity of confrontational approaches at times. While we all would like that conflicts be minimized or avoided or resolved by peaceful means, the reality is that sometimes some people are so maddened by their hunger for power, by their memories of grievance and the cravings for vengeance, or by their extreme ideologies, that they essentially become wicked, and that means that there is no talking sense with them.
In fact, trying to have a peaceful negotiation with such elements ends up essentially appeasing them, and appeasing people who are wicked only empowers and emboldens them to do far worse things in the future. That’s how in one way the Second World War escalated with Victor Chamberlain, the British premier, appeasing Hitler repeatedly while his expansionist activities engulfed much of Europe. So, appeasement will not work with extremist elements, and the need for confrontational approaches to weed out such elements has to be acknowledged. This in fact is the purpose of Kshatriyas.
The Bhagavad Gita says that when such approaches are required, Kshatriyas, the warrior class, they are the martial protectors of society, they do not flinch from violence. They are ready to fight where it is required. Having said that, the third point is […]