What is my Karam, my duty?

I used to visit my grandparents in Chandigarh when I was a little girl,  In the morning, my grandmother, Bibbee’s singing, her chanting would wake us up as while doing her chores, her morning adulation, she would be reciting Bhagavad Gita, in Punjabi, her voice quivering a bit!

 

Krishan ji ne rath challaya, Vich maidane lyan khrahaya

Sun kunti de pootr dulare, kyon betha tu himmat hare

 

Krishan was asking Arjun to fight while Arjun was reluctant to pick up his arms, as his enemies in the battle were after all his uncles and cousins.

 

Bibbee had a lovely voice, melodious and strong, and I could clearly visualise Lord Krishan and Arjun standing in the middle of the two armies, having this conversation on a foggy morning with the sun struggling to rise just behind Lord Krishan, and Arjun kneeling on the ground looking hopeless and humble with his hands joined in prayer.

 

Arjun had to kill his enemy, his uncle's sons, to regain his kingdom, otherwise he had to relinquish everything and go away as a coward.  To inspire Arjun to fight this battle of dharam, Krishan is said to have delivered the message of karam yog to mankind, “be unattached and do your duty” (Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verses 47- 48).

 What should he do? I had often wondered. I mean what would I do if I had to fight my family members!

 Arjun won the war, but the price he paid for it was the ultimate- he lost everyone, most of those he had loved, those he had played with, had grown up with.  

And then what was his reward, the kingdom, or nirvana, and was that enough? 

What did he save, his Dharam? Righteousness, the good? 

And what is righteousness anyway? What is ‘right’ enough for us to fight for?

 I remember when I was little, I and my brother, we always fought over many things, and had disagreements as I didn’t always like many things he did! He will be reading story books at night or listening to filmi music on his new transistor, instead of studying, taking money out of my piggy bank, or the classic, running away after eating kulfi from the Sardaar’s shop, without paying, but still he was my brother! I could never dob him in, I couldn’t bear the thought of him being punished. I had to protect him. 

And that is the dilemma that we face at every step or at least many times in our lives, how can we, mere human beings, rise above our humanness, our emotions, our love, our attachments? How do we act rather than react, I wonder?  

Would I do something like what Arjun did? 

I have not found an answer. 

For example, let us say - in our daily life when untoward things happen, cruel things that I know, or have witnessed, happen to other people, then how should I act? 

Someone bullies another person, discriminates against them, attacks them unnecessarily, and I am witnessing! 

Then, what is my duty, my role, as a bystander? What is my duty as a fellow human being, towards them?  

How do I walk the way of action, my Karam, when my instinct teaches me to walk away?

What does Bhagwat Gita teach me? 

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A rewrite of a piece "My Karamveer Bibbee', from Story Seeds 2018