In a recent article in The Guardian, it was said that Heinrich Himmler, one of the chief Nazis, used to carry around a 'special leather bound edition' of the Bhagavad Gita, and quote from it when his executioners were having moral scruples about the mass-killings that they were asked to do. The implication was that Hindu teachings were used to justify the mass slaughter of innocents. Hindu Voice UK asked indologist Koenraad Elst, who has written extensively on the subject for an in depth response to this particular allegation regarding Himmler and the Gita.

The Guardian claims: "There was a further 'ethical problem' for Himmler: how to make sure that the executioners, while performing these terrible acts, remained human and dignified. His answer was Krishna's message to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita (Himmler always had in his pocket a leather-bound edition): act with inner distance; do not get fully involved."

There are many myths about supposed Oriental and "esoteric" influenced upon the Nazi leaders, particularly Heinrich Himmler. That he "always carried" a copy of the Gita is one. British writer Colin Wilson testifies that he himself always used to carry a pocket edition during his wandering days when he wrote The Outsider; but of Himmler, no photographs are known to show the pocket of his uniform bulging with a luxury copy. He seems to have read the Gita, though, and may have retained the principle of "doing one's duty in a detached manner" from it.

To be sure, that's not exclusively a message from the Gita. He may equally have retained the idea from Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics who were part of the normal humanities curriculum in European secondary schools. Ataraxia, "non-perturbedness" or detachment was the central value in the Stoic philosophy of societal involvement. Against the Epicureans, who sought inner peace in withdrawal from the world and its struggles, the Stoics taught the cultivation of inner peace in the middle of participation in the world's struggles.

Himmler's interest in the Gita had the same motive as his love of Islam, viz. broadening the philosophical basis for a warrior ethic. In his eclectic reading, his interest was mainly drawn to martial religions: principally Islam, the bushido ("way of the warrior") aspect of Shinto and Zen, and possibly also the apocalyptic war doctrine of Tibetan Kalachakra Buddhism.

Now, rest assured that Himmler's cursory acquaintance with the Gita as with many diverse religious writings made no difference to his actual policies. All the same, we may ask the question whether his understanding of the Gita was fair and correct. What policies could one base on the Gita? What doctrine of war does it contain?

In his reply to Arjuna's expression of doubts about the rightness of warfare, Krishna presents the doctrine of reincarnation in a format perfectly tailored to the situation of the warrior on the battlefield. He tells the wavering warrior Arjuna that both dying and killing are unimportant, certainly not matters to get conscience scruples over, because a dying body is nothing more than a coat taken out today to be replaced with another one tomorrow. So, don't be afraid to die, don't feel inhibited to kill.

Note that this is the logical hard core of the reincarnation doctrine. No notion of karmic reward or punishment is introduced here, no notion of a need to liberate oneself from the reincarnation cycle, only the fact of reincarnation is stated. It only comes with its most immediate implication, viz. that life isn't over at death, that death is only an illusion, a temporary interruption rather than an end to life. There is nothing particularly Nazi about this, but it may have a bias to the warrior outlook on life. Krishna and Arjuna were members of the Kshatriya class, as were karma ideologues Buddha and Mahavira. Remember that the Chandogya Upanishad 5.3-10, in the very first mention of the reincarnation doctrine, already ascribes it to the Kshatriya class. It is no coincidence that in Japan, Zen Buddhism rather than Shinto became the favoured religion of the Samurai warrior class. The "total awareness in the here and now" practised in Zen cultivated the mindset most effective in battle, while the Buddhist reincarnation doctrine eased the prospect of killing and dying.

The Gita's setting is not one of slaughtering innocents as in Himmler's camps, merely one of facing adversarial soldiers on the battlefield,-- but the reasoning could easily be extended to innocents. If they get killed, they too are likewise only dropping an old coat in expectation of a new one. No matter who you are and no matter how or when you die, death is always only a temporary phase, a brief interruption in an age-spanning cycle of life. But it remains pertinent that because of the context, the Gita doesn't consider this prospect of slaughtering innocents, except negatively, viz. the killing of innocents is what will follow if Arjuna fails to fight and hands victory to the adharmic (non-ethical) Kaurava enemies. It is only by lifting the Gita out of its context that one could get the impression that it simply glorifies war regardless of who gets killed.

What contrasts Krishna's war ethic from Himmler's is the larger setting, viz. the reasons for the Kurukshetra battle. Krishna first tries everything to avoid the war, including very unequal compromise proposals. He tries to appease the Kauravas because even a certain amount of injustice is preferable to the catastrophe of war. It's only when no reasonable or even unreasonable compromise proves possible, that he decides in favour of war. There is no "war for war's sake" here, no notion of war as an intrinsically good thing, a healthy instrument of Darwinian selection as Himmler saw it. To Krishna, war is a tragic necessity: inevitably promising ruin to many, yet on balance the lesser evil in those particular circumstances and hence an ethical imperative.

Nor does the Gita contain a justification of war in terms of "might makes right", the principle that justified the Nazi plans for the conquest of the lands of the Slavic "inferior races" as living space. In the Mahabharata context of the Gita, the principle of "might makes right" is precisely the position of Duryodhana's party, rejected by Krishna. The whole topic of the Mahabharata is precisely the concept of ethical warfare (dharma-yuddha) as opposed to the self-righteous aggression inflicted by the stronger upon the weaker.