The method of the Gita

[Guest guest]

Sri Krishna starts the Bhagavad Gita with the highest truth, that never was a

person not existent, the Atman is eternal , coming into being and death does not

take place in it. He even talks of the SthithaPrajna state. However after all

this , we find Arjuna still takes Sri Krishna to be the body and asks in the

fourth chapter , that "You are born now, Ikshwaku and others lived eons before

You . So how could You teach them ?"

This raises the question in my mind, that to cure the "Arjuna disease" (as H.H.

Swami Chinmayanandaji puts it) is it necessary to start from the top and work

downwards ,

or is it necessary to take the person where he is and move upwards ?

 

Om,

Anand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Krishna's method of the gItA has two most

distinguishing features. One is, as pointed out

by Anand, the Lord is starting from top down. And

the other is, He uses the spiral method of

teaching. Let me explain.

Why from top down and not the other way? The

method of starting from the abstract level and

proceeding down to the particular is usually

adopted when the student is at an advanced level

of intelligence or well advanced in the subject

under discussion. The other way of starting from

the particular and leading the student to

abstraction is adopted when either you are

beginning a new subject/topic or when the

listener is either of ordinary intelligence or

he is not mature enough or cool enough at the

time to understand the nuances of the subject.

Applying this criterion one is led to believe

that Krishna should have started from

'elementary' ideas and gradually taken Arjuna to

the top; because, the Vedanta that Krishna was

wanting to bring in was a totally major turn in

the conversation and secondly Arjuna had shown

misplaced compassion emanating from a mood of

total immaturity in his outpourings in the first

chapter. Instead, Krishna starts from the top.

The reason is not far to seek. It is an important

factor of human psychology. Have you ever noticed

what you do when you go for condolence on a

bereavement, especially on the day of

bereavement? Have you ever thought about the fact

that, you could never have concluded your words

of condolence without making a few observations

verging on Vedanta (even if you are a total

ignoramus in philosophy or Vedanta)? These words

would be, something like: What can we do? It's

all God's will. … Whatever will be, will be. …

Prarabdham has to be endured. … God's ways are

mysterious. … .

This tells us the following lesson in human

psychology. Whenever we are in a serious

irrevocable crisis, the only words or directions

of solace have to be philosophical.

And Krishna finds Arjuna in an 'almost

irrevocable' crisis. He has to shock him out of

his delusion. Vedanta has to be brought in.

Further, here is an important characteristic of

Hinduism. The Ultimate goal being the release

from the cycle of births and deaths, anything

that brings us back to this ephemeral world of

action and reaction is not the suprememost

dharma. Therefore, spirituality enters the

picture in Hinduism even in secular questions

and matters. Also in Hinduism no question or

practice even at the most elementary level can be

satisfactorily answered without the Upanishadic

philosophy being brought in. Even such obvious

elementary questions like 'Why are there so many

Gods and Goddesses?', 'When was God born?', 'Why

are our prayers not always answered as we want

them to be?' - would need, for their answers, a

basic reference to the philosophy imbedded in

our Upanishads. This is another reason why

Vedanta enters the picture. No surprise that

Krishna wanted to recall the fundamentals first

and make His entire discourse start from basic

maxims like: nAsato vidyate bhAvo … .

Let us go to the spiral method of teaching now.

Krishna is a master teacher. Very early in the

game he just introduces several concepts and

topics, but does not dwell on them deeply; later

he comes back to the same topic more than once

and each time he touches the topic he adds both

information and depth to the idea. For example,

after mentioning the concept of prakRti almost

casually in III- 5, Krishna makes some

categorical statements in III-27,28, 29, and 33,

gives some definitions in VII -4 and 5, comes

back to it in IX-7,8 and 10, but really deals

with the topic in its detail in Chapter 13 and

14, and finally brings all of it together in

XVIII - 59, 60. In teaching Mathematics I have

found the spiral method of teaching to be very

successful and I know a substantial number of the

teaching profession would agree with me. The

spiral method would be very successful especially

when the subject to be taught is either deeply

analytical like Mathematics or profoundly

complicated as Indian philosophy.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

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.

 

 

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