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Mind & Consciousnessexploring
2025-07-09
8 min read
What is dharma when survival demands choices that blur right and wrong?
Context: The most profound question about dharma vs adharma, explored through poetry and Krishna's monologue on why he chose guidance over dominance
#dharma#morality#krishna#mahabharata#philosophy#ethics
**The Eternal Question (A Poem):**
*In the tapestry of life, woven with threads,*
*A question persists in the hearts and the heads.*
*Kya sahi, kya galat, a puzzle untamed,*
*Dharma or adharma, in shadows unnamed.*
*In the dance of existence, morality sways,*
*A spectrum of choices in life's intricate maze.*
*Arjuna in turmoil, a warrior's plight,*
*Kurukshetra's battlefield, veiled in moral light.*
*A hungry soul, desperate for a morsel's grace,*
*Steals to survive, a world in embrace.*
*Is it adharma's echo or dharma's call,*
*When survival's the answer, morality may fall?*
*Karna, noble-hearted, yet destiny twined,*
*With Duryodhana, where loyalty's bind.*
*Is it right to stand with shadows dark,*
*Or wrong in allegiance, where virtue embarks?*
*Eklavya, in sacrifice, a teacher's demand,*
*His thumb surrenders to loyalty's strand.*
*Dharma's weight on the scales of respect,*
*Yet echoes of injustice quietly reflect.*
*Parshuram's dilemma, a mother betrayed,*
*By filial duty, a path that he laid.*
*What is right when choices collide,*
*In the tapestry woven, where shadows reside?*
*Kya sahi, kya galat, the eternal debate,*
*In the corridors of conscience, where destinies await.*
*Dharma and adharma, a dance profound,*
*In the heartbeat of existence, a rhythm is found.*
*In the twilight of questions, where answers may part,*
*Seek the truth within, let introspection start.*
*For in the symphony of right and wrong's art,*
*Dharma and adharma find a home in the heart.*
---
**Krishna's Response – As a Man Who Chose Dharma:**
*"You ask why I didn't fight… why I gave my army to the enemy, why I stood unarmed when I could have crushed them. You wonder… what if we had lost?"*
*"Let me tell you this — I had no vision of the future. I wasn't certain how this war would end. I did not see timelines or outcomes laid before me like some puppet-master. I stood in the same chaos as you."*
*"But I knew this:*
*If I had taken up arms,*
*If I had forced a victory —*
*Yes, maybe we would have won faster.*
*But what would we have won?*
*A hollow victory bought through fear? Through brute strength? Through divine shortcuts?"*
*"No. I was not here to prove that the strong win.*
*I was here to prove that the righteous can win — even without weapons.*
*That clarity of mind, steadiness of heart, and truth in action can bend fate itself."*
*"I walked this life as a man.*
*I laughed. I cried.*
*I was bound by choices, by consequences, by time.*
*And in that limitation — I found my power."*
*"Because true power is not in striking down the enemy.*
*True power is in not striking — when you know you can."*
*"You ask what if we had lost?*
*Then let us lose — but with our soul intact.*
*Let the world burn if it must, but let not the fire enter our hearts."*
*"I stood beside Arjuna not to lead him to victory,*
*but to awaken the warrior within him.*
*I gave him no certainty — only clarity.*
*I gave him no weapons — only wisdom."*
*"You see me as a God. But no — I became what you now call 'God' because, when the world demanded rage, I chose stillness.*
*When revenge was easy, I chose understanding.*
*When power begged me to dominate, I chose to guide."*
*"That is the path. That is Dharma.*
*Not safety. Not certainty. But truth — walked fully, without fear."*
*(He pauses. Looks at you deeply.)*
*"Now the question is not why I didn't fight.*
*The real question is — what will you do when your war comes?*
*Will you act from fear? Or from Dharma?"*
*"You don't need to be me.*
*But if you live by truth — maybe, just maybe —*
*one day, someone will call you divine too."*
---
**Reflections on This Profound Teaching:**
Krishna's monologue reveals that dharma isn't about guaranteed outcomes—it's about acting from truth even when victory is uncertain. His choice to remain unarmed wasn't divine omniscience, but human courage to trust in righteousness over force.
**Key Insights:**
• **True power = restraint when you could dominate**
• **Dharma = walking truth without certainty of results**
• **Leadership = awakening others' inner strength, not dependency**
• **Divinity = choosing wisdom when the world demands violence**
The eternal question "kya sahi, kya galat" doesn't have absolute answers—but it has a principle: act from your deepest understanding of truth, accept the consequences, and trust that righteousness has its own power to shape reality.
When your personal Kurukshetra comes, the question isn't what Krishna would do—it's whether you'll choose dharma even when the outcome is unknown.
What do you think?
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