War Manuals in Hindu Dharma

© Rati Hegde

One of the reasons why Hindus were able to keep their Dharma alive was that Hindus have manuals for war. Yes! We have manuals for when, where, how, why and who should go for war. We had these manuals from times immemorial and we followed them religiously and with full faith in their potency and wisdom.

Our Ramayana, Mahabharata and Durga Saptashati are veritable Manuals of War. They tell us very clearly the rules to be followed to attain victory.

When the enemy is Duryodhana who didn’t mind pushing lakhs of people into a war, even after Bhagwan Himself offered Peace, using underhanded means to finish off the enemy is Dharma not Adharma.

When the enemy is Raktabeeja who spawns more like himself, everytime he is bled, bleeding such an enemy dry is the only solution.

When the enemy is Ravana, who despite all his knowledge and possessions, becomes a megalomaniac and greedy for more, a simple, straightforward approach and which includes everyone, even the downtrodden, to fight him to the finish, is the best solution.

When a ruler imposes his unlawful will and powers to dominate like Vali, destruction with the use of guerilla tactics is the lawful approach.

When combined powers like that of Tarakasur become overconfident thinking that no one can touch them, even rallying behind a powerful child like Subrahmanya gives victory.

Every great king and queen of ours who fought against the Invaders drew strength from our Scriptures and Devi-Devatas. They fought not for personal gain, but for Dharma & Shaurya. And that is how we are still standing tall while all others collapsed against the cults which are neither Anaadi nor Ananth.

In today’s world we find the equivalents of all the above enemies (even in the form of Nations) and the required solutions too from our own scriptures. We need to reinvent our fights against Abrahamic forces, against the New World Order using our Dharma to defeat such enemies. Yes, the figurehead under whom we fight is most important, but as soldiers we can atleast fight on the right side of Dharma to protect our own civilization and identity.