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Hinduism 115
between 200 B.C.E. and 200 C.E.The Bhagavad Gita
contains a number of evocative passages on the
subject of the destructive, apocalyptic side of the
divine nature.
The central narrative of the Mahabharata is
about a civil war and the events surrounding the
culminating battle in an ancient Indian kingdom.
Before the great battle begins, Arjuna, the chief
protagonist, asks his chariot driver, Krishna, to
drive his chariot out between the two armies.
Krishna is a complex figure, who many Hindus
regard as the supreme deity himself. The text of
the Bhagavad Gita contains a conversation
between Arjuna and Krishna that took place on
this battlefield before the fighting broke out.
From his vantage point on the field between
the two armies, Arjuna sees all of his closest
friends and relatives in both armies, and loses the
willingness to fight. He realizes that many of the
people dearest to him are about to lay down their
lives. After unburdening his heart to Krishna
about these matters, Arjuna firmly asserts, “I will
not fight.” Krishna smiles, and then responds to
his friend with an extended discourse on the
nature of life, death, and ultimate reality. With
respect to the soul and death, Krishna reminds
Arjuna of certain truths of classical Hinduism:
The real human being, as opposed to our false
sense of self, is the soul, not the body. The soul,
which reincarnates in different, successive bodies,
is eternal and basically changeless. Because we are
all eternal souls, who can ever really die And for
that matter, who can ever really kill
Krishna further asserts that, as the supreme
deity of the universe, he is about to take the lives of
Arjuna’s enemies anyway. Thus if Arjuna takes up
the fight, he will merely be the instrument of God’s
will. It is in the context of this conversation that, at
Arjuna’s request, Krishna reveals his divine form—
a form that includes the frightening aspect of the
divinity that destroys the world at the end of time:
When I see thy vast form, reaching the sky,
burning with many colors, with wide open
mouths, with vast flaming eyes, my heart
shakes in terror: my power is gone and gone is
my peace, O Vishnu! Like the fire at the end
of Time which burns all in the last day, I see
thy vast mouths and thy terrible teeth....The
flames of thy mouths devour all the worlds.
Thy glory fills the whole universe. But how
terrible thy splendors burn!...Who art thou
in this form of terror (11:25–25, 30–31)
Krishna replies that he is all-powerful time,
which consumes all things, and that he is about to
manifest this aspect of his nature in the midst of
the upcoming battle. After these and many other
philosophical points have been made, Arjuna
agrees to engage in battle.
Perhaps more than in any other tradition, evil
is muted and relativized in Hinduism. This is
partially because, in sharp contrast with Western
religions, time is viewed as a never-ending cycle in
which good and evil rise and fall within a cosmos
that is forever being destroyed and recreated.
These macrocosmic cycles are reflected in the
microcosmic life of the individual in the form of
the reincarnation process. A complex tradition
with ancient roots, Hinduism has many myths of
the demonic. This is partially the result of
Hinduism’s diversity.
One characteristic contributing to Hinduism’s
diversity is that earlier strands of spiritual expression
tend to be retained rather than discarded as
new religious forms emerge. Thus in the wake of
a devotional reform movement, for example,
certain segments of the population might be
persuaded to abandon older practices and ideas
in favor of something new, but other members of
the community will continue in the old ways. As
a result of this trait, ideas and practices that are
very ancient—sometimes thousands of years
old—are still practiced by at least some contemporary
Hindus.
The reader may recall from her or his early
education the notion that humanity made the
transition from tribal lifestyles to the more
complex forms of social organization we call civilization
along four great river basins—in China,
India, Egypt, and what is today Iraq. A civilization
that thousands of years ago existed along the
Indus River in Western India left ruins of sophisticated
cities. One of the bodies of ruins was uncovered
near Harappa; hence this civilization is sometimes
referred to as the Harappan civilization.