To Be a Jedi: Part 3
© Paul F. McDonald
Part of the answer comes in going to a battlefield, although not one from the Clone Wars. The one I'm thinking of is the battlefield of Kuru, where the action of the great Indian epic the Bhagavad Gita takes place. It involves a dialogue between the young prince Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna. The noble is about to go and make war against a ritual clan of his own family, but he finds himself unable to do so. Krishna guides him through his crisis and eventually reveals that he is an incarnation of the Self, the one reality underlying all phenomena. The philosophy set forth is that the only thing that one can do in this illusionary world of multiplicity is not to refuse to act, but rather to play their fictitious role as an individual being to the hilt.
This work of literature came about during a crisis point in Indian society, and it counteracted the growing retreats into monasticism and meditation by allowing one to live in the world with all their might while still doing their spiritual duty. There was also a strong emphasis on detachment from results, for after all, life was but a performance, no matter how skillfully acted. Of course, it is important to recall that the role played would be the one dictated by the four classes of the perpetually rigid caste system. Yet as Joseph Campbell asked about why couldn't the medieval church in the West marry two people who came together of their own passion, one could likewise ask why couldn't this mentality of performing a role while holding to the center be a role that the individual chose for their own.
In keeping with this, we turn to the Jedi Order in the last days of the Old Republic. Not only does it appear mired in a kind of bureaucracy similar to that of the Senate, it also apparently resents those Jedi like Qui-Gon Jinn who follow their own paths. The Jedi master concept is clearly based on Asian ideas of a master, and in most traditions they are not to be questioned. Campbell inquired again and again of whether this approach was viable for a modern Western person, and George Lucas is apparently playing with this in the prequels.
