Is it violence when Krishna is asking Arjun to fight? || Acharya Prashant (2016)

Questioner: Does Spirituality ask us to be non-violent? And Spirituality also asks us to fulfill our duties. So, in today’s world when we are subjected to any kind of violence, it may be physical, emotional, and mental; how best can we fulfill our duties along with non-violence?

Acharya Prashant: A lot of images are there in your statement. First of all, non-violence is not just a particular code of conduct. Non-violence is just about not seeing oneself as limited. Not unnecessarily building boundaries for oneself.

Allow me to clarify. I said, “Nonviolence is about not seeing oneself as limited and not building boundaries around oneself.” How is that non-violence?

What is violence?

Listener: Seeing other as separate from oneself.

AP: Wonderful. Seeing other as separate. And whenever somebody is separate, what you are saying is, “I am this much and you are outside of me. So, my interests then do not include you. Whatever I have to achieve, in whatsoever ways I have to live, I have to live, be, achieve, and die, all by…?”