Bhagavad Gita -- Sri Pichumani Iyyengar (Triplicane)

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[sri Pichumani Iyyengar's comments on the Gita, part 2]

 

Sri Krishnaya Parabrahmne Namaha

Srimate Ramanujaya Namaha

 

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Study of "arjuna uvAca" (Arjuna's statements) in Srimad Bhagavad Gita

sans the Introduction and the XI chapter.

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If we leave out the introductory part of the Lord's scripture and the

XI chapter, the slokas spoken by Sri Arjuna in the other sixteen

chapters are twenty five in all.

 

"sthita prajnasya kA bhAshA ityAdi" is the only sloka from Sri

Arjuna in that long second chapter, after expressing his grief in the

beginning. The Lord's answer to the question was on the expected

lines.

 

Then Sri Arjuna discovers that even a student of jnAna yoga

with no desire for the pleasures of the world repeatedly slips into

gross indiscretions. Four of the twenty-five slokas, three from the

third chapter and one from the fifth, read shrill. They could not but;

how could Sri Arjuna who had readily recognised and more readily

acknowledge the Lord of all creation in Sri Krishna strike a strident

tone against what the Lord was saying ?

 

The query from Sri Arjuna in the third chapter towards the end

"Atha kena prayuktoyam ityadi..." might imply the plea; 'If this is

the fate in store for a student of jnana yoga how could the karma yoga

you speak about lead to a knowledge free from it, espe cially in my

case ? I am a kshatrya out to kill a grandfather and a teacher loved

and revered so much by me and others. Lord, my God, I haven't, like

the sages, made the journey to seek you. You have sought me and made

me your closest. What a blessing is t his in addition to being born

while you are here ? You are Kesava the Lord of all creation. You are

Janardana, the Lord who terminates the vicious circle of births and

deaths. How could you then sit there literally and drive me to do this

? How could this g hora karma of killing, even with absolute

detachment, relations and teachers evolve into yoga ? "Avaram bhavato

janma ityadi', the query in the fourth chapter, is the digression Sri

Arjuna was eagerly waiting for after listening to a full chapter on

karma y oga. He asks not from a total ignorance of the answer but his

knowledge of the Lord's avatara rahasya lacks many details. The Lord

after giving those details is back in the same chapter on karma yoga.

 

 

It was soon clear to Sri Arjuna that there was no escape for him

from seeing himself through the war. Hence the question in the

fifth chapter was impersonally phrased though its shrillness was

none too faint. In the sixth and the eight chapters Sri Arjuna's

concern shifted to the world at large, to the world contemporary

and that in the womb of the future.

 

 

Then followed the seven slokas of the tenth chapter. In the

second chapter Sri Arjuna began with the anguished plea 'Katham

Bhismam aham sankhye Dronam cha ishubhip pratiyotsyami ?' and

ended with the fervent appeal to the Lord in the tenth chapter

'Katham vidyam aham yogi twam sada parichintayan ?' These seven

slokas signalled the subsequent flooding of Kurukshetra and the

Lord's creation beyond it with Sri Arjuna's scriptural

ecstasy. The Lord's viswarupa sandarsana in the following chapter

first stirred an d then fed this ecstasy to satiation.

 

 

The pandava had been long in his dialogue only till the Lord

began His own dialogue about Himself and His creation. Sri Arjuna

had again spoken for long only in the XI chapter. Twenty of the

twenty five slokas in the rest of the scripture were spoken

before the Lord's viswarupa sandarsana. The revelation through a

unique vision meant only for Sri Arjuna had left him with very

little to say after the event.

 

This experience would last Sri Arjuna many life-times if he had

indeed still lives to go through. The spell wholesome and divine,

was lasting and it was a surprise that Sri Arjuna was able to

frame three questions and a sloke in the remaining six chapters,

the query in the twelfth chapter being of course the Pandava's

sincere and deep concern for the kaivalya nishta. The Lord was in

the remaining six chapters fast filing in gaps in his earlier

dialogue while Sri Arjuna sat there almost speechless from the

exp erience. For the rest of his life the experience and the

author were the answer to all his questions.

 

God should thus be caught His grace of course contributing to the

catch. "Man mana bhava, mad yaji..' stated the Lord right in the

middle of the scripture and repeated those very sentences in the

stanza immediately preceding the charama sloka adding a solemn

promise to them,' satyam te pratijane priyosi me'. 'As you are

already at loving me, please continue it' is the Lord's prayer to

Sri Arjuna. The Pandava's love sustained the Lord as much as His

love sustained the former.

 

 

 

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A study of chapters 14 and 16 from the uvacha of the father and

the son in Srimat Bhagavadgita and elsewhere

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A good man is pleasantly surprised to find himself energised to

put all his talents to the best use. Dhritarashtra could not

however greet any such pleasant surprise. Treta Yuga glided into

Dwapara Yuga from Maharishi Vashishta through Sri Sakthi and Sri

Parasara to Sri Vyasa and Sri Suka. The real story of Sri

Mahabharatham began with Santanu.

 

 

The queens of Vichitravirya, Santanu's son, had not received the

blessings of Sri Veda Vyasa the way their housemaid did. Result,

a prince was born bind and another leucodermic. The decadence of

the Kurus had begun with Santanu marrying Satyavati. It contin

ued with Amba and Amba and Ambalika closing their eyes to Sri

Veda Vyasa visiting them in disguise. Gandhari, Dhritarashtra's

queen took over from them to continue it. Kunti too, in a strange

way, contributed to it before her marriage to Pandu.

 

It looks as though Duryodhana and Dutsasana were born to expiate

the father's sins of past births by staying irredeemable

evil. Dhirtarashtra expiated his sins by staying for his part

throughout the tragedy totally helpless to his two sons being

permanently redemption-proof. The "mamakaha" of Dhritarashtra,

his "mine" who with the exception of Vikarna, yielded

continuously a worldful of poison of the most virulent type were

born oviparous emerging from a huge shellless egg. The answer to

what they did "kim akurvata" was not just the story of the great

war but the story of Mahabharata itself. The sons had stayed

Dhritarashtra's "mamakaha" in every way curing paradoxically the

father's terminal passive tamas by their cancerous rajas and

tamas.

 

Aprakaso apravruttischa pramado moha eva cha, tamasi vivrudhe

jayante." "Jaghanyaguna vrutistha adho gachachanti tamasaha" ,

"ajnanam tamasappalam." Dhritarashtra is a lasting illustration

of the divine observations in the XIV chapter.

 

 

Dhritarashtra's first major counsel was with Kanika, the son of a

professional gambler. The Kaurava king invited him to advise him

on containing the growing prowess of the young Pandavas entrusted

to his care. Kanika illustrated his advice with Jambukopakhy

anam. Being thus afflicted early in life, the blind man could not

but use in his query the "atmana padam", "akurvata". Even the

Lord of all creation being satra vasya throws up his hands

against the plight of such folks and says "adho gachchanti

tamasaha". This plight of his was Dhritarashtra's aasura sampat,

his evil possession .

 

 

As for Duryodhana if satvaguna was conspicuous in him by its

absence, his tamas was gasping for life without a moment's

respite trampled by an unbridled rajas. His has been a glaring

illustration of rajo guna running amuck all his life against his

enemies. Even his tamas could not break its speed once in a

while. The Lord in the XVI chapter prepared a list of the

propensities of the asuras. Duryodhana had been quire rich in all

of them. He knew only too well that Sri Krishna was too

formidable both for him an d for the rest in the world of men and

elsewhere. He had all along been hoping that the Lord too would

eventually go neutral like Sri Balarama. But the Lord's

forthright and harsh speech at his father's court followed by

Viswarupa darsan had shattered all h is hope. The Lord's

invincibility had at last turned him more vituperative than

Sisupala. Hence Uluka Dutagamanam.

 

Though Dhritarashtra reacted quite differently to the Lord's

Viswarupa darsan at his court receiving it all with immense awe

and reverence, the benign vision and its message were lost on him

as usual and hence the question on this later occasion , "Mamakap

Pandavas chaiva kim akurvata."

 

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>From 'Chapters 14, 15 and 16 and Karna's story'

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The Lord was available in Vibhava as much for Karna and the

Dharatarashtras as for the Pandavas and others. Karna unlike Sri

Vidura got his psyche uncontrollably disturbed by his constant

painful thoughts about his station in life.

 

Drona would not teach him the operation of Brahmastra as he was

no kshatria on the information available. But Karna by hook or by

crook would learn its operation in which Arjuna had already been

an expert. His rivalry with Arjuna was all and hence the end was

all for Karna.

 

Now to go from the concrete to the abstract the Lord's scripture,

the slokas in Sri Gita relevant to this attitude of Karna, the

first of the Kaunteyas , are slokas 5, 7 and 12 in Chapter 14.

 

Karna was left in the lurch about the conduct of dharma from the

moment of his birth first literally drifting down a stream of

murky waters, then down a mighty flood of events against which he

had been as helpless as Dhritarastra.

 

The journey away from the Lord was not over for Karna. Karna's is

the story of an individual born in the Dwapara Yuga of the 28th

chatur yuga of Sweta Varaha Kalpam but bound by the immutable

laws set down by the Lord for the governance of His creation. Wha

t makes Karna different from Duryodhana was his constant struggle

against rajo and tamo gunas, a struggle that was sincere but

unsuccessful. It went unsuccessful because of his invidious

comparison between himself and Arjuna.

 

There is a sanskrit play on Karna very rightly called "Karna

Bharam", Karna's task. It had been an uphill task for Karna to

grow out of what he was born into from the constraints of karma

of some past birth.

 

Satvaguna operated in Arjuna without any effort on his part to

cultivate it whereas Karna would not even cultivate it along with

his skills in archery. Sri Krishna was all for Arjuna, but

Duryodhana was Karna's reliable prop in his disastrous rivalry

with A rjuna. Had he had a proper direction to his sradha it

might have turned him lastingly satvic and Arjuna might have

ceased to be his disastrous obsession.

 

One should not wax eloquent over Karna's boundless munificence

isolating it from the rest of his character. It was a poor

compensation attempted desperately by Karna against all that he

did not want to be, attempted throwing all the rules of sastra to

the w inds. He had tried to be munificent the way Mahabali

did. The harsh fact is that Karna from some past karma then

beginning to operate could not help being asuric throughout his

life through the sun god himself was his father and Kunti his

mother.

 

The Three gunas satva, rajas and tamas do not belong to the

soul. They are part of the prakruti in which the soul has been

lodged. The soul's framework consists of cognition (jnanam) and ,

if he functions properly, its bi-product bliss. He had the chance

th ough no one could say when it was, to choose between the God

the Lord and matter. Guided or misguided by vasana, inclination,

he chooses. Vasana leads to 'ruchi', taste. Taste leads to

sraddha defined in different ways. Permit me e to call it

exertions. Kar na may be greeted by slokas 13,14,15 of the XVI

chapter from the Lord's scripture. A very correct assessment of

Karna's character is got from the famous tamil poet Sri

Villiputtur Alwar in his version of the epic. It is but a phrase

but that phrase sums up all that one has got to know about

Karna. The poet calls him a window dresser. (Puram Suvar Kolam

Seivan).

 

Karna behaved most inhumanely towards the Pandavas at the dice

game between Dharmaputra and Sakuni. His taunting of Draupati

while Dussasana was humiliating her was possible only for a

rakshasa infinitely worse than Ravana. All his acts of

munificence shoul d be evaluated against this heinous behaviour

on his part.

 

Karma is, of course, to be pitied. He pitied himself at length in

his long dialogue with the Lord on the eve of the great war. He

returned from the Lord weighed down by profound and helpless

regrets. Those regrets stayed with him to the end and his sincere

friendship for Duryodhana as well. He fought in the great war

contributing to it vagaries exactly like Sri Bhisma, Sri Drona

and Saliya entertaining no hopes of victory. He like others did

his best, shall we add, in the circumstances but that was

precious little.Karna's exertions in his life should have

followed slokas 23, 24 and 25 of the Lord in the XIV Chapter.