Gita In Daily Life - Ch1 Summary - Part1

[Guest guest]

"amba tvAmanusandDAmi bhagavadgItE BhavadvaeShiNeem"

 

O Loving Mother! I meditate upon Thee -

showering down the amrita of advaita and consisting

of 18 chapters of nectar - upon Thee O Bhagavad-gIta

and Loving Mother ! I meditate.

 

"dharma-kshetra, in the Kurukshetra,

- what are my people and Pandavas doing, Sanjaya,"

the emperor who could not see, asks Sanjaya who could

see.

 

It is interesting that the gita-acharya chose to open

the Smriti with the words 'dharma' and it is a

pleasure to retain the same opening words.

The Following of dharma gives instantaneous results

and enlivens each and every moment. One need not wait

for another moment or another after-life to see what

happens. Dharma-chakra, the rotating wheel of dharma,

depicts one's position in the cosmic cycle with

respect to each and every individual's part to play

so to keep it moving. It is when one takes the role of

personal agency and doership that the wheel stops

rotating for him/her resulting in stagnation and

adharma.

 

The gita-acharya warns us in the beginning itself

that, kurukhsetra is another dharma-kshetra itself and

not to be viewed as anything different.

 

Ironically, the emperor who is blind to dharma refused

earlier the gift of sight to watch the unfoldment of

dharma, due to deep emotional attachment to those

beloved unfortunately pursuing

the path of adharma.

Such is the trickery of adharma that it induces

resistance to dharmic-insight even when offered by the

Lord, as well as inspiring those faithful to the

emperor also to choose blindness for discrimination

out of perceived helplessness, as evidenced in this

case.

 

While his people far outnumbered the Pandavas,

nevertheless, one would know in the depths of their

hearts that dharma would prevail eventually

and hence the interim curioisty on the muscle strength

versus dharma, as if to find it differently this time

also with another short-lived success.

 

Kurukshetra is located some 100 miles from modern

Delhi (Hastinapura)and is located on the banks of the

erstwhile Saraswati river, where Vedic culture was

abundant and even the air sounded rhythmically like

vedic dhwani and smelled like moist earth, made wet by

the holy waters of the river Saraswati. Ironically,

the Kurukshetra-region would

remain as the strategic centre for all future

invasions and wars and it is no surprise that it is

now the capital of the holy land.

 

Many many Sages were born in this region and there is

a living Banyan tree which witnessed the Lord's

teaching to Arjuna.

It is said that Karna wore the Koh-i-noor diamond

(,which was earlier given to him by Sri Krishna,) in

his turban during the war. All other warriors wore

similar jewellery.

 

All the rulers in India gathered in Kurukshetra to

join either of the two great armies. Miles and miles

of armies were arrayed against each other and were

ready to start the yagna.

 

The most mighty Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, Ashwathama,

Duryodhana, Karna, Pandavas and many great heroes

were ready to start at a moment's notice. Sri Krishna

would not touch any weapon nor fight and had taken the

role of charioteer to Arjuna. The previous day, Sri

Krishna, with his divine touch and gentle massaging,

ensured that each horse was inspired and hearty.

 

Bhishma's posture with his weapons was frightening.

Drona is an expert fighter who could send down some

dozen arrows before one could complete one breath

and Karna, trained by Parusarama, was no less equal.

 

Duryodhana counts the mighty heroes of either side and

gets depressed. [1:10]

In his mind, he perceives a defeat already even before

any battle had begun despite his army outnumbering his

rival...

....such is the path of adharma, where every step is a

perceived loss.

 

So foolish was he to ask Drona to guard Bhishma, the

commander-in-chief.

Realizing Duryodhana's position, Bhishma sends out a

mighty lion's roar from his conch and hearing which,

great warriors trembled with fear on both sides.

Others on his side join to start the war of conchs.

 

Sri Krishna, impressed by the Lion's roar of Bhishma,

gently smiles in appreciation and gathers his divine

conch, Srimad Panchajanya. Upon seeing Lord Krishna

reaching out for his divine conch,

Bhishma stops momentarily to watch the divinity with a

smile and folded hands.

Sri Krishna's divine conch sends out a sweet sound and

Arjuna imitates the same with his Devadatta. In the

midst of the lion roars, the sweet divine sounds

dominate without a roar. Bhima follows the roar with

his Paundra.

Duryodhana, with eyes glowing like fire-balls, stares

at bhishma and Sri Krishna.

Bhishma reaches out again for his conch.

 

War of conchs thus progresses with everyone doing

their part to get their roars resounding till heavens,

in the midst of which the divine sounds dominated.

Duryodhana again gets depressed and senses a defeat in

this war of conchs. [1:19]...

....such is the path of adharma, where every step is a

perceived loss.

 

Duryodhana already lost two times even before any

battle started.

 

Arjuna reaches for his weapons and senses a victory

already...

....such is the path of dharma where every step is a

perceived victory.

 

He then wanted to take a good look at all the mighty

warriors who he would conquor and instructs his

charioteer to show him around all of them.

Krishna obliges as a friend and Arjuna takes a good

look of his close relatives.

 

Arjuna gets depressed at the thought of victory over

all those close to his heart and loses discrimination

out of misplaced compassion...

....such are the ways of acts being undertaken for

perceived personal gains.

 

All his life, Arjuna operated more for personal

victories and tries to apply the same technique to a

war of such large magnitude.

Not able to reconcile a perceived personal victory

over his close ones, he gets overwhelmed with grief

and puts down his gandiva weapon.

 

The first preaching starts now [1:40] from Arjuna to

Sri Krishna-

 

"When a whole clan gets wiped out, the preceding and

succeeding all generations would suffer and Arjuna

details how. By this, one verily would go to hell due

to committing a great sin out of desire for enjoyment.

Hence, I would not fight and would let myself be

conquored wuthout resisting."

Saying so, Arjuna throws away his arms and crumbles on

the chariot, overpowered by grief.

 

Understanding Arjuna's deepest feelings, the Lord knew

that no amount of logic or persuation would convice

Arjuna and decides to take a different path. Instead

of argumentation and discussion about his role to

play, the Lord starightaway in the beginning itself,

without wasting any time, starts by imparting

Atma-jnana [ (2:12)...(2.16)...], so that Arjuna could

see things for himself.

 

The entire gIta flows in the form of a dialogue, with

Arjuna asking for clarifications over and over and

SriKrishna answering him again and again patiently and

with Love.

 

With Love,

Raghava

 

______________________

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[Guest guest]

advaitin, Raghavarao Kaluri

<raghavakaluri> wrote:

> "amba tvAmanusandDAmi bhagavadgItE BhavadvaeShiNeem"

>

> O Loving Mother! I meditate upon Thee -

> showering down the amrita of advaita and consisting

> of 18 chapters of nectar - upon Thee O Bhagavad-gIta

> and Loving Mother ! I meditate.

>

 

 

namaste. Some thoughts on the topic and relevance to daily life

 

1. arjuna's viShAdam: The root cause for arjuna's viShAdam is

the attachment that he has toward the cousins, teacher(s) and

the grandfather on the opposite side and the thinking that he

has that he would be responsible for the killing of these people.

This attachment has come out of ignorance. If the opposite army

is constituted of kings entirely unrelated to arjuna, arjuna

would have no qualms about fighting them. Thus the attachment

(which arjuna had) is the root cause for the viShAdam. To cover

up this ignorance (although unknowingly), arjuna quotes from

dharma-shAstrA-s justifying his thinking of withdrawal from

the war.

 

Relevance to the daily life: This is true in modern daily life

as well. Whenever a person slides from his/her moral duties,

he/she quotes the shAstrA-s and tries to justify withdrawal

from his/her duties.

 

Quite often, in our daily life, we exhibit this attachment and

differentiate between family and friends on one side and complete

unknowns on the other. If we come across death in an unknown

family, we do not hesitate to quote (quite genuinely and

correctly) gatasAnagatAsUnca nAnu shocanti panDitAH.... Yet,

when the death happens in the family, we forget BG 2.7 and

will be wallowing in deep sorrow.

 

shri vinobha bhave gave a nice example in his pravacanam on

the gItA. There was once a learned judge who used to give justice

decisions strictly according to the law, giving just punishment

to criminals and acquittals to the innocents. He never wavered

from his duties. One day, he had to preside in the case of his

son being tried for murder. While he should be imposing a

punishment of hanging for this crime, he couldn't do it. And

just like arjuna dropping his gAnDIva in his sorrow, the

judge's pen dropped and he went through the whole set of

emotions just like arjuna. He wrote a lame judgement saying

hanging is an uncivilized punishment and that it is the duty

of the law to abolish hanging, etc.

 

2. kurukshetra: kurukshetra war is not just between pAnDava-s

and kaurava-s. It is a war that takes place continuously within

each jIva between the dharmic and adharmic constituents of the

jIva. This war takes place in a dharmakshetra which is the

jIva. Our body is a kshetra (BG13.1)

 

We can gain lot of insight from chapter 1 by seeing this war,

not as between two warring clans but as a war between the

dharmic forces and the adharmic forces that are there in each

jIva.

 

 

regards

gummuluru murthy

 

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "gmurthy_99" <gmurthy@m...> wrote:

>

>>

>

> namaste. Some thoughts on the topic and relevance to daily life

>

 

 

Namaste, Murthygaru,

 

It is a long long time since I saw a post of yours. Thank you for

coming in and giving your valuable thoughts on Gita in daily life

and pointing out that it is not a war in distant Kurukshetra that we

are talking about, but it is a war which we are daily waging within

ourselves, between the bad vAsanAs and the not-so-bad vAsanAs that

all got entrenched into our own system. I expect to see more of

you during this discussion and we shall value your thoughts as ever

before. Thank you once again.

 

With regards

profvk

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri. Murthy,

 

Namaste.

 

Thanks much for your excellent post. Your message of kurukshetra being

within us is so very appropriate. Our own personal kurukshetras may not

get limited to 18 days but may go on eternally.

 

Other portions of your post throw up some questions and dilemmas.

> ...

> Thus the attachment (which arjuna had) is the root cause for the

> viShAdam.

> ...

> Yet, when the death happens in the family, we forget BG 2.7 and

> will be wallowing in deep sorrow.

 

While fully appreciating the teachings of SriKrishna, I can empathize

with Arjuna's viShAda. Most of the opponents were good and honourable

men whom he loved and of whom shared many fond memories. While not being

adharmis themselves, they happenned to be on the side of adharma. The

pulls of various feelings that Arjuna may have gone through is mind

boggling.

 

For mere mortals as us, is it desirable to develop that kind of

detachment where we don't lament at a dear-departed ? Are not the

various experiences of life including pride, happiness, sorrow an

inherent part of us ? Will not a totally detached existence be nIrasa

(dull) ?

 

I think it is our privilege to indulge in sorrow if there is a death in

the family. It is our love and affection for the dear-departed that is

offered as sorrow. What is probably more important is whether we recover

from it or get washed away.

 

I realize I may inadvertently be jumping the gun. I shall await more

discussions on these when the topic moves on to the characteristics of a

sthithaprajna.

 

Best regards,

Ramachandra

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "K.B.S. Ramachandra" <ram@m...>

wrote:

>

> Dear Sri. Murthy,

>

> Namaste.

>

> Thanks much for your excellent post. Your message of kurukshetra

> being within us is so very appropriate. Our own personal

> kurukshetras may not get limited to 18 days but may go on eternally.

>

> Other portions of your post throw up some questions and dilemmas.

>

> While fully appreciating the teachings of SriKrishna, I can

> empathize with Arjuna's viShAda. Most of the opponents were goo and

> honourable men whom he loved and of whom shared many fond memories.

> While not being adharmis themselves, they happenned to be on the

> side of adharma. The pulls of various feelings that Arjuna may have

> gone through is mind boggling.

>

> For mere mortals as us, is it desirable to develop that kind of

> detachment where we don't lament at a dear-departed ? Are not the

> various experiences of life including pride, happiness, sorrow an

> inherent part of us ? Will not a totally detached existence be

> nIrasa (dull) ?

>

> I think it is our privilege to indulge in sorrow if there is a

> death in the family. It is our love and affection for the dear-

> departed that is offered as sorrow. What is probably more important

> is whether we recover from it or get washed away.

 

namaste shri Ramachandra-ji,

 

Thanks for your comments. Yes, as jIvA-s, we can empathize with

arjuna's viShAdam. But the question need to be asked. Is arjuna's

viShAdam appropriate? Lord Krishna answers empahtically, no,

it is not. The fond memories of arjuna which you alluded to above

are the result of the attachment he had developed over the years,

this being the result of ignorance.

 

I am not sure arjuna has thought of all the pro-s and con-s before

ending up in his viShAdam. I think it is a natural and instinctive

response from him at his level of Self-knowledge (or his level

of ignorance).

 

What I was trying to emphasize was: We do not give the same weight

to the calamity befalling on some strangers to the calamity falling

on us. I cited the example of death in the family. We will not be

as sorrow-stricken from death in a stranger's family as death in

our family. Even though we may not admit it, our feelings are

different both in intensity and in terms of time-span of the

grief in the case of the two situations. In both cases, it is

a loss of life. Lord krishna says in chapter 2 gatasAnagatAsUnca

nAnu shocanti panDitAH. This should apply equally to both

calamities. But we are more disturbed by our calamity. And the

root cause for this is the attachment.

 

Also, please note that it is not the death that causes the grief.

It is the attachment that causes the grief.

 

>

> I realize I may inadvertently be jumping the gun. I shall await more

> discussions on these when the topic moves on to the characteristics

> of a sthithaprajna.

>

 

Yes, I think we may be jumping the gun in discussing the chapter 2

verse here. I notice the essays of chapter 2 have just appeared on

the List and there may be some contextual material relevant to this

discussion.

> Best regards,

> Ramachandra

 

regards

Gummuluru Murthy

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