Bannon, Battlefield and Bhagavad Gita

Donald Trump's strategic advisor Steve Bannon expressed his love towards the Bhagavad Gita. The worldview of Bannon represents the views of Bhagavd Gita. This is not the first time, Bhagavad Gita attracted the attention foreigners, in fact Hindu scriptures attracted the attention of Western scientists and thinkers over the past two centuries. Britain's most famous philosopher Aldous Huxley's mind was filled with the ideas of Bhagavad Gita, when he wrote ‘Brave New World’. Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi Germany's influential personality also openly admitted that he got influenced by teachings of the Gita. In addition to this, Robert Oppenheimer’s famous quote after the first successful test of nuclear device" "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." In reality, Oppenheimer uttered the 32^nd verse of Bhagavad Gita’s 11^th chapter!

Even though, Bhagavad Gita is a part of the epic Mahabharata, today Gita almost enjoys a separate entity because of its significance. Arjuna lost his heart to fight, when he saw his own relatives on enemy side, Lord Krishna preached, what is Dharma and why Arjuna should fight. It is not just a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, but it is a light to guide the world with the spirit of 'Dharma' and ‘Righteousness’. This concept of Dharma influenced many leading personalities in both East and western world. Trump's strategic advisor is a new addition to this long list.

Most of the discussions and speeches of Bannon, stressed the concept of 'Dharma' since years. It is hard to find an alternative English word to represent the exact meaning of the word 'Dharma'. Sometimes it means the doing right things, sometimes as a duty and sometimes it may seem doing justice to our work. It includes all the above mentioned meanings and more than that perception. According to Bhagavad Gita, each person has his own ‘Dharma’ based on his nature and he is bound by some social commitments to adhere to it. In the eighteenth chapter, 47^th verse of the Gita explains it is better to follow your ‘Dharma’ imperfectly than performing ‘Para Dharma’ (Others Dharma) perfectly. This logic of Gita influenced the thought process of Bannon to a large extent. You can observe all the Hindu Scriptures have something in common. All the characters of Hindu Scriptures are either fighting for ‘Dharma’ or fighting against it. So everyone is a part of this struggle and Gita considers the whole world as a battlefield to protect Dharma. This concept of ‘Dharma’ might be in the form of Social justice, political interest, military conflict and so on. The thought of Universal war and the world as a battlefield played major role in rationalizing Bannon’s thoughts

Steve Bannon believes the world, especially the western society is in the verge of moral and economic decline. Western world lacks the traditional values and that in turn lead western society towards destruction. Bannon’s concern is the source of all the problems western world facing today is a result of lack of ‘Dharma’. Bannon treats the war of Kurukshetra, the most important part of the Mahabharata, not as mere Pandava-Kauravas struggle for Land, but as a witness to divine ideals, preserved for centuries.

The fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna assures:

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in dharma….and a predominant rise of irreligion — at that time I descend Myself, to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.”

This prophetic reflection of the world-famous lines from the Bhagavad Gita can be found in the thoughts of Bannon. Gita preaches to protect ‘Dharma’ at any cost. If we compare the ideas of Gita to the words of Bannon, " “We’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict…fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that’s starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we’ve been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years” Bannon is a man who describes himself as a weapon to achieve major and universal objective.

There are many voices for and against Bannon’s worldview. Some allege Bannon as a warmonger and always in love with war. It is true that Bannon is greatly influenced by two Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ and Hindu text ‘Bhagavad Gita’. And to some extent he used Huntington’s concept of ‘Clash of civilisations’. Being a chief strategic advisor to US president is not a joke and Bannon can affect the world order to a large extent. Let us hope, the best will come out in the future.

(This article was published in Central Chronicle News paper on 13 February 2017)

      KEERTHIRAJ (prof.keerthiraj@gmail.com)

      

International Relations and Political Science

Alliance University, Bengaluru