Vedic Psychotherapy on the Battlefield: Krishna's handling of Arjuna's Crisis as per Anubhuti Tantram

Figure 1: Anubhuti Tantram Psychological Profile of Arjuna before the war.

 

What Arjuna faced on the battlefield minutes before the Kurukshetra war can be called in today's terms as a severe psychological crisis. It was not merely a contemplative discussion, but actual physical nervous breakdown ("my body is trembling, mouth dry, unable hold the bow") incapacitating the most critical performer just when needed the most. It would have turned the whole Mahabharata upside down. Krishna's intervention can be viewed as an excellent example of psychotherapy with a unique and only effective solution beyond the reach of modern psychological theories and their techniques. Only Krishna could have pulled Arjuna out of his predicament.

 

In this article, I attempt to explain it using our Vedic-inspired psychology framework called Anubhuti Tantram. This framework helps us understand the severity of Arjuna's problem that extant models cannot even express, let alone solve.

 

Arjuna lost all motivation to fight, and the very thought of the war's terrible consequences pushed him into panic. What to do when all the 3 usual motives to live and work (trigunas) seem insipid and empty? What if the highest cherished purpose of life (dharma) suddenly is in direct conflict with the lives of the most loved and adored ones? What if life forces you to go against the highest ideals that inspired you so far (non-violence, brotherhood, altruism)? Arjuna faced these questions. Had he been self-serving or less empathic or less dharmic, this crisis wouldn't have arisen.

 

Arjuna's is not some imaginary mythical problem. It is similar to what we call nowadays as mid-life crisis - losing all motive to live and work, where all typical motives (personal or family gain, noble purpose etc) seem meaningless and insipid.

 

In a nutshell, Krishna's solution can be summarised in his one shloka:

त्रैगुण्य-विषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन |
निर्द्वन्द्वो नित्य-सत्त्वस्थो निर्योगक्षेम आत्मवान् || 2-45|| 

 

Ken Wilbur, a celebrated Psychologist, stated in a recent talk that Eastern contemplative traditions dismiss the individual ego and its shadow called Persona as illusory. Hence these traditions do not have a mechanism of psychotherapy. 

 

On the contrary, we argue here that what Krishna did is indeed psychotherapy. Krishna's suggested remedy to Arjuna's condition is not meditation, but a shift in attitude to motivate large-scale killing. He showed a fourth alternative motive for action - gunaatiita - that resolves Arjuna's dilemma.  

 

It is high time Vedic psychology is presented as a therapeutic model to counter ignorant rhetoric and to enrich mainstream practice.

Trigunas of Saankhya: The Motives of Action

To understand gunaatiita, we need to understand properly what gunas mean. Gunas are not dravyas i.e., substance or building material of being like clay to a pot. They are gunas i.e. modes of functioning of being. Being is a conscious living organism or Jiva. It has multiple dimensions of existence called Koshas. Each kosha is in turn a self-contained being with its own self-identity, experience, agency etc.
 

Why does a being want to act? What motivates it to act? That's the question. Gunas are posited as the 3 classes of motives in the baddha sthiti or bound state of being. They are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Gunaatiita is the 4th class of motive to act.

Bhagavad gita doesn't give the technical definition of gunas. It only tells how they bind the being.
"nibadhnanti .. dehe dehinam avyayam". For definition, probably one has to go to Saankhya kaarikaa.

Sattvam .. karma-sangena badhnaati, jnaana-sangena cha ..

Sattvam is the class of motives driven by the sense of duty / service to a higher cause / being, or for enhancing one's awareness. Both imply an underlying assumption that I have a higher purpose to strive for, or insufficient awareness to overcome. Both are illusions.

Rajo raagaatmakam .. tRshnaa sanga samudbhavam

Rajas means motivated by the being's urge to acquire, possess and enjoy - bhoga icchaa.

The underlying assumption is that I don't have it, and acquiring it will complete me - another kind of illusion.
Tamas tu ajnaanajam .. mohanam sarva-dehinaam,
Pramaada-aalasya-nidraabhih tat-nibadhnaati ..

Tamas is the class of motives that resists change. It's not only the urge to inaction but also action to maintain status quo. Its underlying assumption is comfort in current state and refusal to see beyond.
 

All three have some self-limitation as their basis - limited icchaa, jnaana or kriyaa shakti- the 3 malas or impurities mentioned in kashmir trika siddhanta.

Tamas is motive arising out of limited icchaa shakti / will. It is to resist change and settle for less.
Rajas is motive arising out of limited kriyaa shakti / capacity. It is to seek self-benefit.
Sattva is motive arising out of limited jnaana shakti / awareness. It is to serve a higher purpose or duty.

Tamas is not necessarily "bad". Sattva is not necessarily "good". 

 

Arjuna is confused because all the three motives he knows are not working for him.

 

Gunaatiita motive is to act just for the joy of acting and participating in the drama, nothing else. Not for a purpose, self-improvement or self-benefit.
Gunaatiita motive is the method of Karmayoga. It is possible even for normal people not just yogis. That's what Krishna suggested Arjuna. 

Arjuna's Psychological State 

The latest modern understanding of psychology models a human being as consisting of three selves:

• Super-self or universal self which is the object of all contemplative traditions
• Ego or individual self which is the socially acceptable "healthy" individual
• Persona or shadow self which is the collection of hidden tendencies that one represses and doesn't want to acknowledge publicly.

In contrast, Vedic tradition offers a more comprehensive, modular and nuanced architecture of being based on koshas. Koshas are multiple dimensions of existence of being, each striving simultaneously for its own fulfillment. Figure 1 shows the psychological state of Arjuna described in the Bhagavad Gita, as per our Anubhuti Tantram psychology framework based on the Vedic tradition.

 

Arjuna's psychological situation becomes very clear as the conflict between the demands of two selves - the dharmic self (vijnaanamaya kosha 4) intent on defeating adharma, and the communal self (manomaya samhati 3a) repulsed at the thought of killing the most beloved in the name of war. Arjuna's rational self (manomaya mati 3b) invents logic ("prajnaa vaadaamshcha bhaashase" BG 2.11) to defend the communal self, saying war will only push the society to more anarchy than kauravas' adharma did. This is a case of a lower kosha dominating and subordinating higher koshas for its own ends. Arjuna is Sattvic in his lower two koshas (praana 2 and anna 1a, 1b) meaning he's not at all driven by individual self-interest but only to serve a higher purpose. 

 

In the case of the other Pandavas, their dharmic self dominates other selves unlike Arjuna so this dilemma doesn't arise for them. However, Arjuna suddenly wakes up to the reality of killing his own elders. His communal self becomes active and throws him into confusion of dharma, paralyzing him to inaction at the last moment. He therefore experiences nirveda / depression in kosha 3b so intensely that it causes physical enervation in kosha 1a.

 

The three-selves model of modern psychology is not adequate to express Arjuna's situation. Its lower two selves lump everything into self-interest which is not Arjuna's issue.

The Diagnosis

Figure 2: The Anubhuti Tantram Scale for Psychological State of Self / Kosha 

In the Anubhuti Tantram framework, we have devised a scale to assess the psychological state of a being in each of its koshas. Figure 2 describes this scale. The objective of a remedy for Arjuna is to lift him from his current Anubhuti of nirveda / resigned to inaction to a desired Anubhuti of utsaaha / enthusiasm to fight. The hurdle is his false conclusion (ajnaana), namely, that the war is futile in achieving its purpose of social welfare. So why fight? The nirveda pulls his kosha 3a into tamas. 

 

Arjuna knows tamas doesn't work because the war has already started. Rajas doesn't work for him because he has no self-ambition ("na kaankshe vijayam .." BG 1.32). Sattva doesn't work for him because the high purpose of social welfare seems to him unachievable with war. Thus confused (BG 2.7), he seeks counsel of Krishna.

The Remedy 

Anubhuti Tantram identifies 3 key classes of remedial strategies for distress:

• overcome the hurdle at a kosha by removing its cause in the same kosha,
• divert the hurdle by giving a strong alternate path to delight,
• transcend the preoccupation of a kosha by showing path to a higher delight, higher purpose of a higher kosha.

Krishna starts his therapy by first pointing out his tamas ("kshudram hrdaya daurbalyam tyaktvottishta" BG 2.3). When that doesn't work ("katham bhiishmam .. pratiyotsyaami" BG 2.4), he tones down Arjuna's distress of loss of loved ones in kosha 3a (overcome strategy), saying loved ones don't disappear on death (BG 2.12) and it's ajnaana to think so. He then arouses rajasic ambition for the benefits of victory ("hato vaa praapyasi svargam .." BG 2.37) and the fear of the sin of non-participation in war (divert strategy). He demolishes the logic of Arjuna's kosha 3b by arousing his sattvic motive for duty as a kshatriya regardless of the consequences of war. 

 

Finally, Krishna points out the fourth highest and foolproof motive for all action as nistraigunya or gunaatiita (".. nistraigunyo bhavaarjuna" BG 2.45). Its approach is to rise above hankering for benefits to any of the koshas, but doing all action as an offering to the divine self within, not with the three lower motives (transcend strategy):

• nirdvandvo - unswayed by attractios and repulsions,
• nitya-sattvastho - in unquestioning service without any personal seeking
• nir-yoga-kshema - purposeless i.e. not attain (yoga) or retain (kshema) anything, but for the sake of participation - just like a flower blooms, a tree grows, a leaf falls.
• aatmavaan - with steadfast attention to the inmost self.

The rest of the Bhagavad Gita elaborates on this approach, its rationale, methods and also demonstrates its luminous effects live to thoroughly convince Arjuna that it's not merely an abstract metaphysical concept but utter reality. Only Krishna could have done this last step.

 

Krishna had to resort to the brahmaastra of all psychotherapy, namely high spiritual outlook only because the lower strategies didn't work for Arjuna.