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Blogs by Jerri Blair
The Arjuna Figure 5/6/2017 4:46:28 AM
It's not unusual to see a Christ figure in literary works or great films. One of my favorites is Cool Hand Luke lying on the table after eating fifty eggs to raise the spirits of the men around him in a backwoods prison camp run by a narcissistic warden who is determined to break the spirits of the prisoners in his charge. Another is Randall Patrick McMurphy, a heroic conman committed to a mental ward in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. However, it is rare in Western literature to find an Arjuna figure, and the existence of such a figure is one of my favorite things about my first novel, Justice for the Black Knight.
The central character, Freddie Edwards, is indeed an Arjuna figure. You may ask what I mean by this.
Arjuna is a figure found in the Bhagavad Gita which is my favorite piece of literature in the world. It is a part of the Vedas, the central books that are the guidelines for the Hindu faith. The Gita is also a text that describes the way to follow the path of a yogi in the world. I have always found it a marvelous companion to the Bible when trying to understand the happenings in the world. It is set on the side of a battlefield. Arjuna is a great prince from a noble family that has ruled fairly for generations. A group of very bad people have created an army of men who are terrorizing the countryside, raping, stealing, killing all who came into their path. Arjuna's father amasses an army to destroy the bad people and save the innocent. Arjuna leads the army to the battle side. His charioteer is Krishna, the avatar who is a personification of Vishnu, the Hindu God of Preservation.
Arjuna is a spiritually advanced man, as you would expect of one who is driven by a God. When he looks across the battle field, he sees that all of the bad men are just beings on the path to the Godhead, just as every human being is, and sits down and refuses to fight. He is the picture of Christian compassion, unwilling to kill even his enemies. He says to Krishna that he can not raise arms against other men whose souls are no better or worse than his, who are fellow travelers on the planet.
The Gita is Krishna's response to Arjuna. He explains the law of karma and the roles that men and women must play on their paths through life. He describes the world and its inhabitants and the way to achieve oneness with God. He explains that Arjuna's karma has brought him to the place where he sits, and that all of the others have come there in a similar way, and that at that moment, it is Arjuna's fate to protect those who could not protect themselves. As a result, Arjuna goes out and wins the battle, freeing the people from violence and terror.
Freddie Edwards is clearly an avatar who acts with the best of intention with everything he does. His similarity with Arjuna is captured in the sequences of the book that occur on the front porch when he confronts the old man. He knows the old man is evil and will kill innocents, but Freddie has that same moment of indecision that Arjuna had on the side of the battle field. Another interesting thing about the book is the use of a feminine Krishna figure. If Freddie is Arjuna, then Daisy is clearly Krishna teaching Arjuna the path to karmic purity. That is perhaps a first in literature.
