War is an inherent phenomena in this material world. The individuals, societies, races, nations and ignorant religious fanatics have different interests from that of the Supreme Lord and thus they fight. This is an adharmic war (not based on dharma). Dharmic war (on behalf of dharma) leads to the suppression of such elements. They do not understand their natural position of the servants of the Lord. Therefore as long as there will be lack of this understanding (Gaura Krishna consciousness) the lasting peace is impossible regardless of any political solutions. Politicians need to be guided by spiritually intelligent men (brahmanas) who know the Vedic scriptures and are able to apply them practically.
Dharmic war
According to the Vedic scriptures the war is necessary when the materialism and atheism prevail over dharma, eternal religious principles established by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. This creates an imbalance in the universal order (dharma) which has to be corrected. At that time the ksatriyas (warriors) have to protect the dharma on the battlefield. This was also a duty of Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. He tried to avoid it but Krishna, the Supreme Lord, told him (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 2.27):
jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur
dhruvam janma mrtasya ca
tasmad apariharye 'rthe
na tvam socitum arhasi
One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.
Purport:
One has to take birth according to one's activities of life. And after finishing one term of activities, one has to die to take birth for the next. In this way one is going through one cycle of birth and death after another without liberation. This cycle of birth and death does not, however, support unnecessary murder, slaughter and war. But at the same time, violence and war are inevitable factors in human society for keeping law and order.
Such a war is lead according to the strict principles of the scriptures to avoid the suffering of the civil population (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.7.36):
mattam pramattam unmattam
suptam balam striyam jadam
prapannam viratham bhitam
na ripum hanti dharma-vit
A person who knows the principles of religion does not kill an enemy who is careless, intoxicated, insane, asleep, afraid or devoid of his chariot. Nor does he kill a boy, a woman, a foolish creature or a surrendered soul.
Purport:
An enemy who does not resist is never killed by a warrior who knows the principles of religion. Formerly battles were fought on the principles of religion and not for the sake of sense gratification. If the enemy happened to be intoxicated, asleep, etc., as above mentioned, he was never to be killed. These are some of the codes of religious war. Formerly war was never declared by the whims of selfish political leaders; it was carried out on religious principles free from all vices. Violence carried out on religious principles is far superior to so-called nonviolence.
The role of a pious king is to keep the society in a harmony with the Lord's plan by suppressing the criminal elements. Nowadays the governments are impotent because they lack proper guidance and thus the current world is a hotbed for wars (SB 1.10.25):
yada hy adharmena tamo-dhiyo nrpa
jivanti tatraisa hi sattvatah kila
dhatte bhagam satyam rtam dayam yaso
bhavaya rupani dadhad yuge yuge
Whenever there are kings and administrators living like animals in the lowest modes of existence, the Lord in His transcendental form manifests His supreme power, the Truth Positive, shows special mercy to the faithful, performs wonderful activities and manifests various transcendental forms as is necessary in different periods and ages.
Purport:
As mentioned above, the cosmic creation is the property of the Supreme Lord. This is the basic philosophy of Isopanisad: everything is the property of the Supreme Being. No one should encroach upon the property of the Supreme Lord. One should accept only what is kindly awarded by Him. Therefore, the earth or any other planet or universe is the absolute property of the Lord. The living beings are certainly His parts and parcels, or sons, and thus every one of them has a right to live at the mercy of the Lord to execute his prescribed work. No one, therefore, can encroach upon the right of another individual man or animal without being so sanctioned by the Lord. The king or the administrator is the representative of the Lord to look after the management of the Lord's will. He must therefore be a recognized person like Maharaja Yudhisthira or Pariksit. Such kings have full responsibility and knowledge from authorities about the administration of the world. But at times, due to the influence of the ignorance mode of material nature (tamo-guna), the lowest of the material modes, kings and administrators come into power without knowledge and responsibility, and such foolish administrators live like animals for the sake of their own personal interest. The result is that the whole atmosphere becomes surcharged with anarchy and vicious elements. Nepotism, bribery, cheating, aggression and, therefore, famine, epidemic, war and similar other disturbing features become prominent in human society. And the devotees of the Lord or the faithful are persecuted by all means. All these symptoms indicate the time of an incarnation of the Lord to reestablish the principles of religion and to vanquish the maladministrators. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita.
Srimad Bhagavatam 4.20.14:
sreyah praja-palanam eva rajno
yat samparaye sukrtat sastham amsam
hartanyatha hrta-punyah prajanam
araksita kara-haro 'gham atti
To give protection to the general mass of people who are citizens of the state is the prescribed occupational duty for a king. By acting in that way, the king in his next life shares one sixth of the result of the pious activities of the citizens. But a king or executive head of state who simply collects taxes from the citizens but does not give them proper protection as human beings has the results of his own pious activities taken away by the citizens, and in exchange for his not giving protection he becomes liable to punishment for the impious activities of his subjects.
Purport:
The question may be raised here that if everyone engaged in spiritual activities to attain salvation and became indifferent to the activities of the material world, then how could things as they are go on? And if things are to go on as they ought to, how can a head of state be indifferent to such activities? In answer to this question, the word sreyah, auspicious, is used here. The division of activities in society as arranged by the Supreme Personality of Godhead was not blindly or accidentally created, as foolish people say. The brahmana must do his duty properly, and the ksatriya, the vaisya and even the sudra must do the same. And every one of them can achieve the highest perfection of life - liberation from this material bondage. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (18.45). Sve sve karmany abhiratah samsiddhim labhate narah: "By executing one's prescribed duties, one can attain the highest perfection."
Lord Vishnu advised Maharaja Prthu that a king is not enjoined to give up his kingdom and the responsibility of protecting the prajas, or citizens, to instead go away to the Himalayas for liberation. He can attain liberation while executing his royal duties. The royal duty or the duty of the head of state is to see that the prajas, or the general mass of people, are doing their respective duties for spiritual salvation. A secular state does not necessitate a king or head of state who is indifferent to the activities of the prajas. In the modern state the government has many rules and regulations for conducting the duties of the prajas, but the government neglects to see that the citizens advance in spiritual knowledge. If the government is careless in this matter, the citizens will act whimsically, without any sense of God realization or spiritual life, and thus become entangled in sinful activities.
An executive head should not be callous to the welfare of the general mass of people while he simply goes on collecting taxes. The king's real duty is to see that the citizens gradually become fully Krishna conscious. Krishna conscious means completely free from all sinful activities. As soon as there is complete eradication of sinful activities in the state, then there will be no more war, pestilence, famine or natural disturbances. This was actually prevailing during the reign of Maharaja Yudhisthira. If a king or head of the government is able to induce the citizens to become Krishna conscious, then he is worthy to rule over the mass of people; otherwise, he has no right to levy taxes. If the king looks after the spiritual interests of the citizens, he can levy taxes without difficulties. In this way both the subjects and the king will be happy during this life, and in the next life the king will be able to share one sixth of the pious activities of the citizens. Otherwise, by levying taxes on the sinful citizens, he will have to share the reactions of their sinful activities.
This same principle can be applied to parents and spiritual masters as well. If parents simply give birth to children like cats and dogs but cannot save their children from imminent death, they become responsible for the activities of their animalistic children. Lately, such children are turning into hippies. Similarly, if a spiritual master cannot direct his disciples to become free of sinful activities, he becomes responsible for their sinful acts. These subtle laws of nature are unknown to the present leaders of society. Since the leaders of society have a poor fund of knowledge and the citizens in general are rogues and thieves, there cannot be an auspicious situation for human society. At the present moment the whole world is full of such an incompatible combination of state and citizens, and therefore there is constant tension, war and anxiety as an inevitable result of such social conditions.
Srimad Bhagavatam 4.20.21, purport:
This kind of government cannot check the resultant actions of sinful life, namely war, pestilence, famine, earthquakes and similar other disturbances. Nature's law is that as soon as there are discrepancies in regard to the law of God (which are described in Bhagavad-gita as dharmasya glanih, or disobedience to the laws of nature or God), at once there will be heavy punishment in the form of sudden outbreaks of war. We have recently experienced a war between India and Pakistan. Within fourteen days there have been immense losses of men and money, and there have been disturbances to the entire world. These are the reactions of sinful life. The Krishna consciousness movement is meant to make people pure and perfect. If we become even partially pure, as described in the Bhagavatam (nasta-prayesv abhadresu), by development of Krishna consciousness, then lust and greed, the material diseases of the citizens, will be reduced. This can be made possible simply by broadcasting the pure message of Srimad Bhagavatam, or Krishna consciousness. Big commercial and industrial firms have contributed many thousands of rupees to a defense fund that burns the money in the form of gunpowder, but unfortunately, if they are asked to contribute liberally to advance the Krishna consciousness movement, they are reluctant. Under the circumstances, the world will periodically suffer from such upsurges and outbreaks of war, which are the consequences of not being Krishna conscious.
Srimad Bhagavatam 5.12.7, purport:
The Lord incarnates and sets things in order when things are mismanaged by so-called kings and heads of government. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata. Of course this takes many years, but the principle is there. When the king or governmental head does not follow the proper principles, nature deals out the punishments in the forms of war, famine and so forth. Therefore if the governmental head is not aware of life's goal, he should not take charge of ruling the people. Actually the supreme proprietor of everything is Lord Visnu. He is the maintainer of everyone. The king, the father, and the guardian are simply representatives of Lord Visnu, empowered by Him to look after the management and maintain things. It is therefore the duty of the head of the state to maintain the general populace in such a way that people will ultimately know the goal of life. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum. Unfortunately the foolish governmental head and the general populace do not know that the ultimate goal of life is to understand and approach Lord Visnu. Without this knowledge, everyone is in ignorance, and all society is crowded with cheaters and cheated.
Adharmic war
The root cause of adharmic war is a demoniac (materialistic and atheistic) mentality This mentality is characterized by the egoistic desire for sense gratification ("I am the enjoyer and the controller") at the cost of others, especially the helpless ones (for example animals) (BG 16.9):
etam drstim avastabhya
nastatmano 'lpa-buddhayah
prabhavanty ugra-karmanah
ksayaya jagato 'hitah
Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.
Purport:
The demoniac are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent. The materialists, who have no concept of God, think that they are advancing. But according to Bhagavad-gita, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings. They have no idea how to behave toward one another. Animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all. Indirectly, this verse anticipates the invention of nuclear weapons, of which the whole world is today very proud. At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc. Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here. Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world.
BG 16.16:
aneka-citta-vibhranta
moha-jala-samavrtah
prasaktah kama-bhogesu
patanti narake 'sucau
Thus perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, they become too strongly attached to sense enjoyment and fall down into hell.
Purport:
The demoniac man knows no limit to his desire to acquire money. That is unlimited. He thinks only of how much assessment he has just now and schemes to engage that stock of wealth further and further. For that reason, he does not hesitate to act in any sinful way and so deals in the black market for illegal gratification. He is enamored by the possessions he has already, such as land, family, house and bank balance, and he is always planning to improve them. He believes in his own strength, and he does not know that whatever he is gaining is due to his past good deeds. He is given an opportunity to accumulate such things, but he has no conception of past causes. He simply thinks that all his mass of wealth is due to his own endeavor. A demoniac person believes in the strength of his personal work, not in the law of karma. According to the law of karma, a man takes his birth in a high family, or becomes rich, or very well educated, or very beautiful because of good work in the past. The demoniac think that all these things are accidental and due to the strength of one's personal ability. They do not sense any arrangement behind all the varieties of people, beauty and education. Anyone who comes into competition with such a demoniac man is his enemy. There are many demoniac people, and each is enemy to the others. This enmity becomes more and more deep - between persons, then between families, then between societies, and at last between nations. Therefore there is constant strife, war and enmity all over the world.
SB 4.26.5:
asurim vrttim asritya
ghoratma niranugrahah
nyahanan nisitair banair
vanesu vana-gocaran
At that time King Puranjana was very much influenced by demoniac propensities. Because of this, his heart became very hard and merciless, and with sharp arrows he killed many innocent animals in the forest, taking no consideration.
Purport:
When a man becomes too proud of his material position, he tries to enjoy his senses in an unrestricted way, being influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance. He is thus described as asuric, or demoniac. When people are demoniac in spirit, they are not merciful toward the poor animals. Consequently, they maintain various animal slaughterhouses. This is technically called suna, or himsa, which means the killing of living beings. In Kali-yuga, due to the increase of the modes of passion and ignorance, almost all men are asuric, or demoniac; therefore they are very much fond of eating flesh, and for this end they maintain various kinds of animal slaughterhouses.
In this age of Kali the propensity for mercy is almost nil. Consequently there is always fighting and wars between men and nations. Men do not understand that because they unrestrictedly kill so many animals, they also must be slaughtered like animals in big wars. This is very much evident in the Western countries. In the West, slaughterhouses are maintained without restriction, and therefore every fifth or tenth year there is a big war in which countless people are slaughtered even more cruelly than the animals. Sometimes during war, soldiers keep their enemies in concentration camps and kill them in very cruel ways. These are reactions brought about by unrestricted animal-killing in the slaughterhouse and by hunters in the forest. Proud, demoniac persons do not know the laws of nature, or the laws of God. Consequently, they unrestrictedly kill poor animals, not caring for them at all. In the Krishna consciousness movement, animal-killing is completely prohibited. One is not accepted as a bona fide student in this movement unless he promises to follow the four regulative principles: no animal-killing, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no gambling. This Krishna consciousness movement is the only means by which the sinful activities of men in this Kali-yuga can be counteracted.
SB 8.8.38:
mithah kalir abhut tesam
tad-arthe tarsa-cetasam
aham purvam aham purvam
na tvam na tvam iti prabho
O King, a quarrel then arose among the demons over who would get the nectar first. Each of them said, "You cannot drink it first. I must drink it first. Me first, not you!"
Purport:
This is the symptom of demons. The first concern of a nondevotee is how to enjoy his personal sense gratification at once, whereas the devotee's first concern is to satisfy the Lord. This is the distinction between the nondevotee and the devotee. In this material world, since most people are nondevotees, they regularly compete, fight, disagree and war among themselves, for everyone wants to enjoy and satisfy his own senses. Therefore, unless such demons become Krishna conscious and are trained to satisfy the senses of the Lord, there can be no question of peace in human society or any society, even that of the demigods. The demigods and devotees, however, always surrender to the lotus feet of the Lord, and thus the Lord is always anxious to satisfy their ambitions. While the demons fight to satisfy their own senses, devotees engage in devotional service to satisfy the senses of the Lord. The members of the Krishna consciousness movement must be alert in regard to this point, and then their preaching of the Krishna consciousness movement will be successful.
War prevention
The only real remedy is a higher knowledge and the subtle purification from the material contamination in the heart by the process of devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Lord Gaura Krishna.
Matchless Gifts, ch. 4 (Learning Tapasya, Self-Control):
In answer, Sukadeva Gosvami said that merely counteracting karma, fruitive activities, by other activities cannot bring one's miseries to a final end. For example, the United Nations is attempting to establish peace in the world, but they cannot stop war. War breaks out again and again. After the First World War statesmen and diplomats manufactured the League of Nations. Then the Second World War came, and now they have devised the United Nations, but war is still going on. The actual goal is to stop war, but that cannot be done. By one action war is created, and by another action war is stopped for the time being, but again at the next opportunity there is another war. The cycle of sinful activities and atonement is like that. What we actually want is to be free from suffering and war, but that does not happen.
Sukadeva Gosvami said that one kind of war causes a disturbance, and another kind of war stops it for some time, but that is not the ultimate solution to the problem. Sukadeva states that these troubles happen due to ignorance: avidvad-adhikaritvat. Avidvat means "lack of knowledge." Avidvat-adhikaritvat prayascittam vimarsanam. Real atonement is performed in knowledge. Why is there fighting and why are there miseries? Unless these "why" questions, which in the Vedas are called Kena Upanisad, arise in one's mind, one is not fulfilling the proper function of his human life. These questions must arise: "Why am I suffering? Where from have I come? What is my constitutional position? Where shall I go after death? Why am I put into a miserable form of life? Why are there birth, death, old age and disease?"
From veda.krishna.com
Comment on this Post
Whatever you do, do not commit suicide. It won't help. You will just wake up on the other side and find that nothing has changed. You will still be there with the same unfulfilled urges, with the same frustrations and hang ups, except now you won't have a gross physical body by which to do something about it.
Abortion brings a very negative karma. The child in the womb is a soul, a living being destined for a human body. This is true from the moment of conception.
As a matter of general principle, mundane music, movies and literature are harmful for the development of bhakti. When assessing the devotional worth of a sense object, one must evaluate its effect on the consciousness. If a sense object does not contribute to the positive cultivation of awareness of and love for Lord Gaura Krishna, it is contrary to devotion.
