| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| THE IMPORTANCE OF KSHATRIYA DHARMA | |
| Governing
a country requires strong leadership, including a well-trained army
and police force in the modern world, not as forces of tyranny but
for protection. There are many people in society who contain the
gunas (qualities) of rajas and tamas, aggressive and obstinate tendencies which, if not controlled
through clear laws and punishments, will wreak havoc. Sattvic (spiritual) methods like
non-violence work only if there is enough sattva in people to
respond to these, which unfortunately is not always the case.
For this reason traditional Hindu teachings like the Mahabharata emphasize the importance of danda or the use of punishment to maintain law and order (Dharma). The nations of the world are also not sattvic or spiritual entities but worldly, commercial and military entities that are usually neither sympathetic nor conscious of spiritual values. They must be dealt with first by the right diplomacy, which is the role of intellectual Kshatriya. But a good army must be there as well. This does not mean that India should engage in some massive arms race but that it should not be too idealistic or naive in dealing with the nations of the world who follow their own principles not rooted in any Dharmic tradition. Some would also fear that encouraging a Hindu Kshatriya would create a militant Hindu fundamentalism. They might imagine paramilitary Hindu groups, Hindu terrorists, or Hindu Jihads, as is the situation in Islam today. |
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