Bhagavad Gita -- Sri Pichumani Iyyengar (Triplicane)

[Guest guest]

[introduction]

 

Sri Pichumani Iyyengar is retired professor of English,

Vaishnav College, Madras. He is a learned scholar in

Vedanta, particularly in the Sri Vaishnava sampradAya.

He is now a resident of Triplicane, Madras.

 

I asked him to write on his favorite topic, Bhagavad Gita,

for the Bhakti list.

 

During our discussions he constantly laments that the views of

advaitins in Gita are much talked about in various platforms like

business meetings, so-called Gita awareness camps conducted by modern

day schools, and Gita discourses mostly aimed at the business society

where real essence of Gita is not propagated.

 

K.M.Narayanan.

 

Email(for bhakti group) nkazhiyur

 

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The Yoga of Arjuna

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Srimad Bhagavad Gita begins in the 25th chapter of Bhishma parva of

Sri Vyasa Bharatam. The 21st chapter of the same parva presents Sri

Dharmaputra with grave doubts about victory in the war. On the other

hand Sri Arjuna, a picture of confidence, assures the brother that

victory could not but be a certainty with the Lord of all creation for

his charioteer.

 

In the 23rd chapter enjoined by the Lord he readily gets down

and prays to Sri Devi Durga for victory. The prayer is readily

granted.

 

The 24th chapter is all too brief, not even ten slokas for a

comment.

 

There could hardly be a better background in contrast than

these two chapters to the volte-face that descends on the noble

Pandava minutes after sure indications of his determination to fight

through to victory.

 

The Lord was born in a dungeon but there was peace at the

place and beyond. The signs were auspicious. So were they when Sri

Arjuna was born. A mahASAstra was born years after, on a chariot from

a dialogue between the divine twins. The music of their births had

been evident throughout in the dialogue.

 

Sriman Narayana must have beckoned His man with a very big 'M'

to accompany him as Sri Arjuna when he came into the world as Lord

Krishna. Swami Vedanta Desika, following in the footsteps of Sri

Bhagavad Ramanuja, says in his mahakavya yAdavAbhyudayam in the 21st

sloka of the 23rd sarga, that marvellous compendium of Sri

Mahabharatam, that Sriman Narayana comes into the world at once as

Lord Krishna and Sri Arjuna -- an incomparable one in an equally

incomparable two.

 

A particular type of communion with the Lord resulting from

the benediction conferred on Sri Arjuna in many wombs must have led

him on to his noble grief on the eve of the great war. Hence this

grief is also yoga. His is the yoga of a born surrenderer surrendering

instinctively to the Lord at birth itself all that he is endowed with

and loving Him with all his being. The Lord too had reciprocated in

abundance Sri Arjuna's love.

 

It was a task even for the Lord to turn this prapanna into an

karmayogin. He had to enjoin him to come down a few steps from his

lofty situation of surrender.

 

When it hots up for the devotees of the Lord as it did for Sri

Arjuna on the eve of the war the only way out is to surrender to

him. The Stotra Ratnam of Sri Yamuna Muni, a saranagati work for its

best part, and Sri Ramanuja Muni's Saranagati gadyam dedicated to Lord

Sri Ranganatha and Sri Ranganayaki on a Panguniuttaram evening. (Like

the Lord's scripture the gadya is a dialogue between the Lord and a

priyAtma of his, quoting extensively from Gita), are perhaps the best

illustrations of the yoga of Arjuna's grief.

 

To attempt a summary of Sri Arjuna's grief: "Lord, all

creation is yours and by Your infinite love for us You are ours. We

could get a whole universe out of that love. Then why this quarrel

with relations like Sri Bhishma and preceptors like Sri Drona over

a strip of land microscopically small compared to the dimensions of

Your love and all that results from it?

 

"I admit that my state of mind out of kArpaNya dosha

(helplessness) is 'klaibyam'; I am already a prapanna. Now on this

field of battle where I am torn between deep compassion and a keen

sense of duty, give me 'panca-samskara' -- take me into Your presence

as Your disciple and teach me how to become a karma yogi." Thus Sri

Arjuna's grief is that part of the mahayoga which includes karma,

jnana, bhakti-yogas as well. It is fit to be studied as carefully as

the mahASAstra from the Lord's lips.

 

His blessings and yours for their strength, the studies

continue. The prayer is that they should for a long time. They are no

labour of love either; only the emoluments are different.

 

[to be continued]