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Good morning, The Battlefield of Kuruksetra is the setting for the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most sacred and important conversations for Hindus; that between Krishna and his devotee Arjuna. Despite being set on a battlefield, in the 700 verses that make up this treatise on practical spirituality, Krishna advises Arjuna multiple times on the dangers of approaching conflict with an attitude of enmity. In chapter 12 He points out that the mindset of enmity is underpinned by the destructive qualities of fear and rage which we try to justify to ourselves,. Krishna puts it like this: “…..So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed….I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.” In this way, He says, such persons are deluded by ignorance. Krishna recognises there will always be conflicts on an individual or bigger scale. But he emphasises that even when someone is our enemy, if we don’t recognise their humanity, however hard that might be, we will be caught in a cycle of trauma and violence. In Vedic teachings, the laws of Karma state that all actions have a consequence and that which we put out, we will get back. This applies not only to our own lives, but to the generations that follow us. The more we come from a position of enmity the more likely it is that conflict will outlive us, often leading to intergenerational trauma. It is well recognised that those whose parents and grandparents have lived through conflict and trauma are more likely to suffer from mental health problems. It’s frequently seen in the descendants of those who have lived through civil war and also in cases of domestic abuse. As a psychiatrist I see that many people don’t just respond to trauma with anxiety and fear. Many also respond to trauma with rage. That rage when suppressed feels like the heavy weight of resentment and when externalised often leads to verbal or physical acts of violence and aggression. And when future generations of the traumatised carry the unresolved trauma of their ancestors, it can cause the trauma and conflict to continue. Family feuds and global wars seem to be never ending. Whether we understand this as a result of the laws of Karma or human psychology, the end result is the same, people continue to fight a fight that was rarely theirs. As Krishna taught, recognising the humanity of our enemies, difficult as it may be, is one way to break the vicious cycle.