GITA 1.38

GITA 1.38

Today's lecture is from Sara Pushkarini in the Sri Soundararaj Perumal temple, Nagappattinam.

 This is the place where the serpent god Sri Adisesha meditated on the Lord and to bless him and all other devotees. One of the requests of Adisesha was that he should be blessed with children and the Lord granted him that. Therefore, this temple is quite famous and it is a belief of the devotees that those who take bath in the temple tank- Sara pushkarini- and pray at the temple are blessed with children. Begetting children is to continue the kula or lineage and so this temple can be said to have close connection with the words Arjuna speaks in the beginning to ensure preserving one's kula or dynasty . Today 41st sloka and first half of 42nd sloka are considered.

adharmabhibhavat krishna

pradusyanti kula-striyah

strisu dustasu varsneya

jayate varna-sankarah

sankaro narakayaiva

kula-ghnanam kulasya ca

When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Krsna, the women of the family become corrupt, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vrsni, comes unwanted progeny. When there is increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition.

Krishna = Hey! Krishna, adharmabhibavat = if, adharma dominated, kula-striyah = women of the family, pradusyanti = will be corrupted. They will lose the dignity. They will be ridiculed and dishonoured. When a family or dynasty is destroyed, its customs will vanish, and adharma will spring up. That will be indicated by the decay of honours of family women. Only when women are honoured, a society will flourish. Varsneya = Krishna!, strisu dustasu = when women deteriorate, jayate varna-sankarah = mix up of varnas. Sankaro = with the mix-up,  kula-ghnanam ca kulasya = both the ruined family and those responsible for the ruin, narakayaiva = will be destined for Naraka or hell. 

After mentioning that destroying a kula, the kula dharma is destroyed and Adharma flourishes, Arjuna continues :"Oh! Varshneya! With the upraise of adharma the women of the family or dynasty are spoiled and this results in unwanted mix up and pollution of varnas which results in naraka or hell for the family members and those responsible for this"[the word varna is not identical with caste and according to scholars varna is identified with one's character and the work or job one is involved]. Arjuna emphasises the importance of women in the society and in families. Long ago in the time of Sri Krishna, the need for respecting women and thereby maintaining the dignity of the family, society and the country was realised. Arjuna is clear that with the deterioration of women, hell will be his destiny and so he does not want to fight. The import of this has been clearly brought out by Swamy Vedantha Desika in his Tatparya Chandrika and by Sri Ramanuja in his Gita Bhashyam. With the advent of Adharma, the women get spoiled.Today women work outside also. A woman who is a mere housewife or homemaker can not say she is idling in the house. Because, administering the house affairs and bringing up children are all done by the women only and these can not be done by the males as efficiently. Right from dawn to dusk, her work is full and if a man gets accolades for his work means his woman or wife is responsible for that and so it is no surprise for the popular saying the behind every successful man there is a woman. Without the proper functioning of the women, no man can boast of any achievement.

Sri Sita was abducted and Sri Rama was in distress without Her. When Vali, the brother of Sugreeva , was killed by Sri Rama, Vali accuses Him of doing improper act of killing him by shooting the arrow from behind a tree. That is he faults Sri Rama of a cowardice like person, in not fighting face to face. This is a raging debate even now as to whether what Sri Rama did was right or wrong. It has been concluded by the affected Vali and his wife Tara that Sri Rama was right in killing Vali in that way.Notwithstanding this, debate continues as to whether Sri Rama was right or not. But Kamba who wrote Sri Ramayanam in Tamil, in the words of Vali mentions that Sri Rama did this improper killing of Vali, because Sri Sita, His soul, was not by His side. The moral is that if women do not cooperate, men are likely to commit mistakes. So a society can be upright only by the behaviour of its women. Arjuna does not care about deterioration of the men, because it can be corrected. But if women are degraded it is impossible to set things right. In Tamil we hear thai pasam but never thanthai pasam. 
Therefore, Arjuna is worried about the degradation of women. 

                                                                 (continued)