Karma Without Enmity – In Gita Verse 1.11 All of you must now give full support to Grandfather Bhīṣma, as you stand at your respective strategic points of entrance into the phalanx of the army.
This instruction is given by Duryodhana and not by Dronacharya, his teacher and commander of the army. It should be vice versa. The announcement must be delivered through Dronacharya, his teacher and commander of the army and not by Duryodhana. Whenever someone is given certain responsibility there is some protocol or decorum in the objective world and respect with honour from the subjective world needs to be followed.
He conveyed the message keeping Karma and Respect separate. You must Respect Grandfather Bhīṣma, but not at the cost of your Karma, your Will. When he says this he is clearly conveying that except for my will nothing is important. And your Will is what my Will is.
For Pandava they will respect but when they need to act against that person they will act not with enmity but with respect and love.
Let’s go a little into the past of this incident. Kaurava wanted to attack Matsya, as they came to know that Panvada had taken shelter there during their last year of exile. Bhīṣma with his army went there. At that time with Uttar, crown prince of Matsya, Arjuna went with all due respect for Grandfather Bhīṣma, and Teacher Dronacharya, he fought and won. When he needed to remove the scarf of Hastinapur’s army he did not remove Bhīṣma or Dronacharya’s scarf which was asked by the Uttara Princess and his student. He did his Karma and did not cross the line of respect. On the other hand when the army went back to Hastinapur, Duryodhana demanded that Pandava must repeat their punishments. Everyone said that when they were exposed the one year of exile in disguise was completed. But he demanded that they must repeat the punishment again. Every time in the past also for him his will was more important than anything else.
By giving direct instruction and bypassing the protocol and respect towards Dronacharya, his teacher and commander of the army, he conveyed that his will was important.
Pandava were also following “Respect but do your Karma”. But the approach was different. While doing the Karma never bring Respect in, means, focus on your present moment assignment, even if that assignment is to fight against your elders, then fight but without any enmity. A very intangible line and difficult to follow.
Respect man, love man. Respect his subjectivity, respect his differences. And that is possible only if you respect your subjectivity. That is possible only if you are grounded in your own being and you are fearless.
As I had expressed in Bhagavad Gita Verse 1.8, unless you attune your will with God’s will, which is guided by your subjectivity, you will then be using the divine will for your Karma. That Karma will be done without enmity. That Karma is divine.
In all circumstances we always have a choice to act from our subjectivity. For example someone is trying to abuse you. Immediately we come out with a lot of reasons and excuses for our ill feelings. But in that moment we have missed the opportunity to sharpen our intellect. Once you can see this reality – Immediately you can see that because we did not have patience, we miss the opportunity that the other person has given you an opportunity to sharpen your intellect. If you could see this in that moment instead of feeling ill, you would be grateful to that person for giving you an opportunity to be silent and sharpen your intellect. Have you seen many people when they are abused by the other person they use their intellect without fail and convert the whole abuse in their favour. If someone can do it then why can’t we? Whenever we are given any circumstances and if we act in their circumstances without involving ourselves into any kind of emotion or respect we can do our Karma Without Enmity.
When we act without any enmity that time we are grateful towards the Universe. Karma Without Enmity means Karma In Gratitude.
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