Hindu Article-Teaching of the Gita

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Teaching of the Gita

 

The Bhagavad Gita is without doubt the most important spiritual text.

Just as Veda Vyasa incorporated the hymn Vishnu Sahasranama with

which Bhishma eulogised Lord Krishna into his Mahabharata, the sage

also had the insight to include the teaching of Lord Krishna to

Arjuna in this epic. To appreciate how he could have reproduced His

teaching so well it must be remembered that Vyasa is revered in

tradition as a manifestation of the Lord.

On the occasion of the teaching of the Gita (Gita Jayanthi), it was

essential to understand the circumstances in which Lord Krishna gave

this sermon to Arjuna in the battlefield to comprehend the import of

His teachings. One would naturally not associate instruction of

spiritual knowledge with a war. Besides, it was not as if Krishna and

Arjuna did not have an occasion to engage in philosophical dialectics

earlier for they had been together for the best part of their lives,

and Arjuna was His dearest friend.

Ramanuja in the prelude to his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the

Gita Bhashya, pinpoints the rationale of the Lord's teaching during

this incarnation, "Under the pretext of removing the burden of the

Earth (but really) for the purpose of becoming the object of refuge

even to (unworthy) people like us, He descended to the Earth and made

Himself visible to the eyes of all men... Under the pretext of

encouraging the son of Pandu to fight, He promulgated the way of

realising God through love (Bhakti yoga), which is fostered by the

ways of knowledge and work (namely, Jnana yoga and Karma yoga), which

has Himself for its object and which is declared in the Vedanta as

the means for the attainment of the emancipation of the soul, the

highest of human ends."

His overwhelming compassion for humanity, which made Him assume a

mortal frame during His advents, is equally matched by His inimitable

quality of easy accessibility (Saulabhya). This was made manifest

when He became Arjuna's charioteer in the war and waited for an

opportunity when he would surrender to Him to teach him.

 

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