Attitudes to War
Attitudes to War
The Rig Veda sets down the rules of war at 6-75:15, and says that a warrior will go to hell if he breaks any of them.
Without such mutual respect and accommodation, people of different tribes with different traditions having different beliefs could not have lived together as they did in history in India. India is one of the countries where people of all religions, Jews, Christians, Muslims, zoroastrians, and the local ones, Buddhists, jains, and Sikhs, or the aboriginals, have lived together peacefully for centuries. Kindly remember that Christianity and Islam reached India within one century of their establishment in the Middle-East.
No, there are no different types of Hinduism.
A key teaching is contained in the story of Arjuna. Arjuna was about to go into battle when he discovered many of his relatives and friends were on the opposing side. Arjuna didn't want to kill people he loved, but was persuaded to do so by Krishna.
Krishna tells Arjuna that he should fight, for the following reasons:
The Rig Veda sets down the rules of war at 6-75:15, and says that a warrior will go to hell if he breaks any of them.
- do not poison the tip of your arrow
- do not attack the sick or old
- do not attack a child or a woman
- do not attack from behind
Without such mutual respect and accommodation, people of different tribes with different traditions having different beliefs could not have lived together as they did in history in India. India is one of the countries where people of all religions, Jews, Christians, Muslims, zoroastrians, and the local ones, Buddhists, jains, and Sikhs, or the aboriginals, have lived together peacefully for centuries. Kindly remember that Christianity and Islam reached India within one century of their establishment in the Middle-East.
No, there are no different types of Hinduism.
A key teaching is contained in the story of Arjuna. Arjuna was about to go into battle when he discovered many of his relatives and friends were on the opposing side. Arjuna didn't want to kill people he loved, but was persuaded to do so by Krishna.
Krishna tells Arjuna that he should fight, for the following reasons:
- it is his duty - his dharma - to fight because he was born a warrior
- he was born a member of a warrior caste and his duty to his caste and the divine structure of society are more important than his personal feelings
- Violence only affects the body and cannot harm the soul, so killing is not a fault and there is no reason for Arjuna not to kill people, nor should he be sorry for those he has killed.
- Behind this lies the Eastern idea that life and death are part of an illusion, and that the spiritual is what matters.