The most pertinent counsel of the Gita

[Guest guest]

Adi Sankara in his bhashya on the gita refers to

the following verse as the 'core essence of the

entire gita, capsuled for our (daily) practice in

search of our salvation':

Chapter 11, Verse No.55.

The actual words that Sankara uses in introducing

this verse are:

sarvasya gItASAstrasya sAra-bhUtaH arthaH

niSreyasArthaH anushTeyatvena samuccitya ucyate.

 

At BITS Pilani where I taught Mathematics for 23

years, students used to ask me (since I was also

teaching the gItA occasionally) to tell them

quickly (!) and in a nutshell (!!) what the gItA

has to say. Usually such conversations take place

when we are all waiting for something and have

nothing else to do (!!!). I refer them to the

above verse of the gItA. It is self-explanatory.

I think there are five teachings of Lord Krishna

to all of us.

1. Doing one's duty without attachment to either

the fruits thereof or to the act itself in terms

of doership.

2. Dedication and devotion to the Supreme with an

attitude of non-duality of the Supreme.

3. An equanimous view of the universe gained by a

constant awareness of the omnipresent brahman.

4. The senses to be put in their place and

deliberate efforts to be consistently made to

transcend the senses as well as rid oneself of

all attachment.

5. The principle of surrender to the divine of

everything that one calls his own and living up

to the surrender.

Everything that the gItA says as a teaching to

humanity is one of these five or a combnination

of them.

All these five teachings are in this verse.

1. matkarma-kRt

2. madbhaktaH

3. nirvairaH sarva-bhUteshu

4. sanga-varjitaH

5. mat-paramaH

 

The verse can now be quoted in full:

 

mat-karma-kRn-mat-paramo

mad-bhaktas-sanga-varjitaH /

nirvairas-sarva-bhUteshu yas-sa mAmeti pANDava //

 

praNAms to all advaitins.

Yours, profvk

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

The simplified URL of my website on Science and Spirituality is

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can also access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice from the same address.

 

 

Talk to your friends online with Messenger.

http://im.