Gita Satsang - Resumption

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Namaste,

 

 

Chapter 2: THE WAY TO THE ULTIMATE REALITY OF LIFE

Arjuna was deep in sorrow. His mind and heart were in conflict. He

could not decide between killing and loving. He had tears in his

eyes. Seeing him in anguish, Shri Krishna asked him the reason for

his despondency in this hour of crisis. He told Arjuna his being in

low spirits was a matter of disgrace for a warrior. This unmanliness

did not become him. He should give up faint-heartedness and get ready

for battle.

 

Arjuna told Shri Krishna there was nothing to gain from killing

Bhishma and Drona. Both were his teachers and worthy of respect and

reverence. This unwillingness to kill them shows Arjuna's greatness

and nobility of character. He was not clear in his mind whether he

should or should not fight. As he could not think of the right thing

to do he asked Shri Krishna for divine guidance. Without waiting for

an answer he told Shri Krishna he would not fight.

 

Shri Krishna noticed the utter confusion in which Arjuna was torn

between the conflicting demands of love and duty. He told Arjuna he

was a wise man and was grieving over nothing. He should not worry

about the living or the dead, for his real self, the Atman, the soul,

is immortal and eternal. It leaves the worn-out body just as human

beings cast off worn-out clothes and take on new ones. The soul

cannot be slain, it is indestructible. It is not slain when the body

is slain, and therefore he should not grieve for the dead. Change is

the law of life and the wise and the learned are not deluded by it.

They take life as it comes.

 

The death of him who is born is certain and so is the rebirth of him

who dies. He brought home to him the truth about the everlasting

nature of the spirit and the permanent and ultimate reality of life.

Arjuna's duty was not to worry about anything but to rise, face the

inevitable and fight.

 

Shri Krishna reminded Arjuna that as a warrior his duty to fight

mattered as much as the fairness of the fight and that if he shirked

it he would be committing a sin. If he did not fight, both his

friends and his foes would call him a coward, and that would bring

him illfame which was worse than death. He should treat pleasure and

pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike and get ready for

battle. This would save him from the sin he would be committing if he

did not act when action became necessary for the fulfillment of his

duty. Whatever the result of a action he should calmly do his duty

without seeking a reward. Arjuna had the right to action and not to

its fruits. He emphasized that the action would have a greater effect

if he put all his energy into it without being distracted by thinking

of the result. Right action was bound to bring right result, so it

was not necessary to run after it. Being successful in the path of

action, he would become a Yogi and that would bring dignity to his

life. The Way to the Ultimate Reality of Life Shri Krishna told him

that those who run after rewards lead a wretched life. A person with

evenness of mind casts away both good and evil. He renounces the

fruits of action and reaches the highest goal called Moksha or

liberation, which is free from all evil.

 

Listening to Shri Krishna, Arjuna asked him how to recognise such a

man. A wise one, said Krishna, has full control over his desires and

makes no demands on others for anything. He is calm in pain and

pleasure. He is neither too happy nor too sad. He accepts what

happens without attachment or repulsion. He is not jealous of

anybody. With a calm mind all his sorrows come to an end and he

attains real peace of mind. Thus he becomes a man of discipline,

having full control over his mind and body.

 

One who does not understand this, Shri Krishna continued, develops

attachment to the senses from which spring desire. From desire comes

anger and anger destroys reason, the intelligence to discriminate

between right and wrong. Such a person loses happiness and peace of

mind which come to those who never think of "I" and "My" and thereby

attain God and Nirvana. The man who rejoices in the Self, is

satisfied with the Self and is content with the Self alone - he has

nothing for which he should work.

 

Whatsoever a great man does, other men follow him and do the same.

Whatever standard he sets up, is followed by most of the men in the

world.

 

[Ch. 3 summary to follow on Nov. 29.