When Arjuna vowed to kill Jayadratha out of anger and vengeance, was he violating Krishna’s Gita instructions?

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When Krishna told Arjuna that he needs to purify his motivations while fighting, and why did Krishna support Arjuna when he decided to avenge Abhimanyu’s death out of anger? Answer, actually, when Krishna, when Arjuna decided to neutralize Jaidrath for his devious part in having Abhimanyu killed, there was certainly heartbreak and anger and frustration over there. But those were just natural, normal human emotions. And just being spiritual doesn’t mean dehumanizing ourselves.

Nonetheless, Arjuna was not just acting blinded by anger. Arjuna was serving Krishna’s cause for establishing dharma. And during that day, when Arjuna finally did get to Jaidrath and behead him right in front of all the Kaurava warriors who were trying to protect him, that battered the morale of the Kaurava army far worse than anything else.

Any other incident probably except for Bhishma’s fall, the fact that entire Kaurava army couldn’t protect one warrior against Arjuna literally broke the morale of much of the Kaurava army. And the war was more or less decided on that day. Although, of course, the fighting went on for four more days after that.

So now there are two different things to consider over here. One is one’s overall intention based on one’s consciousness in fighting a particular war or doing a particular activity and one’s circumstantial emotions when doing that activity. And in my understanding that we are all subjected to some circumstantial emotions, but we can’t avoid those emotions.

But as long as those emotions alone are not what is driving us to fight or trying to do a particular activity, then that is not considered to be a major problem. The key point is to act according to dharma. And if our emotions help us in acting according to dharma, then those emotions are good.

So out of his heartbreak and frustration on the death of Abhimanyu, when Arjuna was lashing out against his own brothers, Krishna stopped him. But when he decided to direct his anger toward those who were fighting to support Adharma or were themselves the embodiments of Adharma, of vice as opposed to virtue, then that was overall supporting Krishna’s cause. So when we talk about motivation, the motivation is to act in the mood of service.

And so Arjuna’s fighting against Jaidrath on the 14th day of the war is an example of using anger in the service of dharma in general and specifically because dharma was being established on the order of Krishna. So it is using anger in the service of bhakti also. So yes, one’s motivations are important to introspect and check.

But we can’t decide one’s motivations solely by one’s emotions at a particular time. As long as the overall motivations are in harmony with virtuous or devotional principles, then even if circumstantial emotions come up and they sometimes animate those actions, then as long as they are not deviating one from the right course of action, but are animating one in that right course of action, they are considered they are not considered an impediment or a contamination, but they are considered a catalyzer or a positive influence.