Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 The Bhagavadgita and modern problems Dr Murli Manohar Joshi The Indian philosophical thought inter alia rests on three treatises known as Prasthanatraya. These are the Brahmasutras, Upanishads and Bhagavadgita. The last work, perhaps the most widely read Bhagavadgita, is a unique work taught by the Lord himself and we may call it a divine dialogue between the Lord and Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra. The Lord chastises Arjuna for running away from the call of duty and then step by step leads him out from frustration and despondency to his divine duty to fight and win. In 18 chapters and 700 verses not only Vedanta but also devotion has been preached by the Lord. Bhagavadgita is the Upanishad, the Brahmavidya and the Yogshastra combined in one. Millions all over the world read Bhagavadgita as a matter of discipline. With his first journey to the West for the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago almost hundred years ago Swami Vivekanand popularised the message of Vedanta and Bhagavadgita in the West and millions find solace in this great work. Mahatma Gandhi followed the teachings of Bhagavadgita in his life. He said: "I find a solace in the Bhagavadgita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all along I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavadgita. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies—and my life has been full of external tragedies—and if they have left no visible, no indelibe scar on me, I owe it all to the teachings of the Bhagavadgita." The beauty of Bhagavadgita, as of other sacred texts is that it is not addressed to any particular denomination or sections of people but to all mankind. Aldous Huxley says, "The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the Perennial Philosophy ever to have been made. Hence its enduring value, not only for Indians, but for all mankind... The Bhagavadgita is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the Perennial Philosophy." The significance of Bhagavadgita is also highlighted by the fact that the great Adi Shankara wrote its commentary about 1200 years ago which was followed by almost all the great acharyas like Anandgiri, Sridhara, Ramanuja and Madhvacharya. Sant Jnaneshwara's Jhaneswari is still read in homes. Similarly, Lokmanya Tilak's commentary on the text has inspired millions of people. Bhagavadgita, as the essence of profound and noblest thought, is as relevant in our times, as it has ever been. We are all Arjuna in our own way facing the Kurukshetra or the struggles of life. We face times of frustrations and disappointments, undecided where to go, sometimes prepared to even give up. Those who read Bhagavadgita, overcome such situations easily because one is reminded that in the call of duty there is no going back. One has to have faith in the Lord and oneself and engage in action as duty without being obsessed with the result. In the course of life we are always in the midst of action. It is important to understand that the binding quality of action lies in the motive or the desire that prompts it. Therefore, the frame of mind behind the act is important and the Gita shows the path of detachment from desires and not cessation of work. Another important point made is that we should never think of inaction. The healthy attitude of the life would be to be even minded in success and failure and the Lord says that evenness of mind is called Yoga. Motivated actions are inferior to those performed in the equanimity of mind. Therefore, in comparison to result seekers, we have to cultivate evenness of mind. The result of this kind of attitude is that the equanimity of mind frees oneself in this life from vice and virtue alike. When ones both good and evil are cast away one reaches the stage of yoga which is the skill in action. In this stage one is rid of selfishness and is incapable of evil. Yoga is evenness of mind in success or failure while the mind rests in God. What is true at the individual level is also true at the level of society. All materialistic societies are running after satisfaction of desires. This has given rise to unprecedented levels of consumption. According to the World Bank, about three billion people worldwide live on an income of less than two dollars per day in 1993. Indeed, nearly 1.5 billion of the world population of six billion is predicted to live in severe poverty at the beginning of the millennium. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing day by day. 800 million people sleep hungry everyday. One billion people around the world suffer from micronutrient deficiency. Global per capita water supplies are declining and are now 30 per cent lower than they were 25 years ago. It is predicted that by 2050, as much as 42 per cent of world's population will live in nations, which will not have sufficient freshwater stocks to meet their combined needs of agriculture, industry and domestic use. If the current consumption patterns continue, the ecosystem that provides us with renewable resources could well collapse long before the world runs out of non- renewable resources. There is thus an urgent need to set up a firm agenda on achieving `Sustainable Consumption' in the next few years at a global level. The reasons for this situation is the unbridled rush for the fulfillment of desires which are the subject of our sense organs. Uncontrolled desires play havoc with the life of the individuals and society and destroys wisdom. There are two different and distinct paths of life: the materialistic and spiritual. The materialistic path perforce leads to baser desires ambition and exploitation. dkeekfJR;---- (16:10-16) Those who follows the materialistic path give themselves up to insatiable desire, full of hypocracy, excessive pride and arrogance, holding wrong views through delusion. Their actions therefore, are of impure resolves. The seekers of material life bound by hundreds of ties of hope, given over to lust and anger, strive to secure by unjust means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments and gratification of their desires. The rich nations and the people with all the resources at their command to fulfil their desire are ever striving for more and more but in the process have lost peace and happiness. In a situation like this all the world has to be aware that peace and happiness is not achieved by pursuing and satisfying desires. Peace is enjoyed by those in whom desires are merged even as rivers flow into the ocean which is full and unmoving. The consumption fuels more consumption and it is a kind of vicious circle and therefore, needs a holistic check because man by nature has few requirements. When these requirements and demands increase the consumption is also increased and as the scriptures say man turns into animal. The solution to this lies in the following verse of Ishopanishad: A The verse says whatever we are able to see and observe is pervaded by divine. It all belongs to Him, we have received everything from Him and therefore, all the bounties of God are to be shared and let there be no greed. In our thought, sharing is important and self consumption comes next. This concept needs to be widely propagated to change the materialistic outlook of the societies. The mankind craves for happiness. This is human nature. But people are often confused about the nature of happiness. Within one's being the `conscious' and the `inert' dwell together. The conscious is always striving to unite with the divine. But the inert, which is also the `maya' craves for the world. As one is influenced by `maya' one is drawn towards the `sansara'. It has to be understood that the worldly desires are gratified by worldly actions but the attainment of the Supreme is not dependent on action. This needs extreme thirst for the divine. In the context of modern problems I am deeply concerned about the quality of the life. The winds of change are devastating and people have hardly any time to think. It is a mad rush of materialism. Bhagavadgita shows us the way out of the predicament and to be on the path of spirituality. One has to endear oneself to the divine to be merged in Him. Chapter XII of Gita is Bhaktiyoga. Step by step, from knowledge, one has to graduate to devotion. The question may be asked who is dear to Lord. The Lord says rs izkIuqofUr ekeso loZHkwrfgrs jrk% (Those who are engaged in the welfare of all beings are able to experience the divine. It is an expression of service to all recognising the divinity in them. In verses 13 to 20 Krishna enumerates the divine traits. He who has no ill will to any being, who is friendly and compassionate, free from egoism and self-sense, even-minded in pain and pleasure and patient. The Yogi who is ever content, self-controlled, unshakable in determination, with mind and understanding given up to Me— he, My devotee, is dear to Me. He from whom the world does not shrink and who does not shrink from the world and who is free from joy and anger, fear and agitation, he too is dear to Me. He who has no expectation, is pure, skillful in action, unconcerned, and untroubled, who has given up all initiative (in action), he, My devotee, is dear to Me. He who neither rejoices nor hates, neither grieves nor desires, and who has renounced good and evil, he who is thus devoted is dear to Me. He who (behaves) alike to foe and friend, also to good and evil repute and who is alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain and who is free from attachment. He who hold equal blame and praise, who is silent (restrained in speech), content with anything (that comes), who has no fixed abode and is firm in mind, that man who is devoted is dear to Me. But those who with faith, holding Me as their supreme aim, follow this immortal wisdom, those devotees are exceedingly dear to Me. This is the quality of man that Gita seeks to preach and even if one is not able to achieve all these virtues and equanimity one should at least be aware of them. The Gita is the philosophy of life. It is in fact for contemplation and application in our day to day working. Those who study the Gita, their outlook in life becomes healthy. I sum up with the words of Sri Aurobindo: "Our object, then, in studying the Gita will not be a scholistic or academical scrutiny of its thought, not to place its philosophy in the history of metaphysical speculation, nor shall we deal with it in the manner of the analytical dialectician. We approach it for health and light and our aim must be to distinguish its essential and living message, that in it on which humanity has to seize for its perfection and its highest spiritual welfare". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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