SOME THOUGHTS ON BHGAWAD GITA

October 5, 2009

Hari OMMost of us might have read the Bhagawad Gita once at least with

meaning . Some of us might have attended lectures/ satsangs/yagnas on Bhagawd Gita. A few of us might have had occasions to wade through the commentaries on Bhagawad Gita. I presume most of the group members are well familiar with Gita. I want to share with you all, a few of the salient pearls of Bhagawad Gita which have got embedded in my mind. It will be huge task for me to sum up the entire Gita. Let me touch upon

some salient aspects only of Gita.

The Gita is comparable to a bouquet made of the most beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Upanishads. No better commentary on the Vedas has been written or can be written so far other than by the Bhagawad Gita. The knowledge of the Atma and liberation of the conditioned consciousness or jivahood is the highest aim of the Gita. The central idea of the Gita is to remain calm and steadfast in all circumstances,with one`s body,mind and intellect centred at the Divine altar.The Gita avers that the goal of the humans is to realize oneness with the Supreme being. Work, work, work day and night ,says the Gita. The goal of mankind is to attain true Knowledge and attaining freedom while living. The knowledge of the Self -the highest destiny of man, is the ultimate goal. Divinity is present in each and every being . The goal of life is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling/conquering the play of the gunas viz., Satva, Rajas and Tamas.

The Bhagawad Gita or the song of the Lord, brings the Vedik truths from the caves of Himalaya into the active fields of political life in Mahabharata and into the tensions of an imminent war between cousins. On the eve of the war,Arjuna was under the stress of delusion and got shattered in his mental balance and seemed to have lost his capacity to act with right discrimination. Lord Krishna took in hand the despondent mind of Arjuna for treatment with Vedik Truths. The Lord declared the new message of the Gita, which,as you all know is nothing but a reinterpretation of the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads , with proper emphasis upon vital concepts which had got distorted. If the Upanishads are the text book of the philosophical principles discussing man(jiva), world(prapancha) and God(Iswara), the Bhagawad Gita, is a handbook of instructions as to how every human being can live the subtle philosophical principles of Vedanta in the day-to-day world and be a true citizen of the nation. The Gita is not addressed to to the physical entity in Arjuna but to the mental and intellectual constitution of that heroic prince. Gita is not just a message of action but a message of living. And Gita is not a book for casual reading or appreciation. One of the several assertions of the Lord in the Gita is that Niskamya karma (desireless activity) without egoism would purify man`s inner nature and help him to evolve more and more to the status of a God-man. If we try to digest properly the implications of the Gita`s advice in the light of the Vedik lore, it becomes amply clear how actions performed without ego-centric desires purge the mind of its vasanas (deep-seated impressions) and make it increasingly subtle and pure in its sadhana for attaining the Infinite.

It has been stated that the Gita is one of the most authoratitive sources of Hindu doctorine and ethics, and is accepted as such by Hindus of all denominations. A study of even selected verses from the Gita, accompanied by earnest thinking or churning of the mind about those selected verses, will enable us to understand the religion of our forefathers, which is the background of all the noble philosophy, art,literature and civilization that we have inherited. To take the battle of Kurukshetra literally and to interpret all that is said in the Gita in the light of the developments and utterances leading to the war, would not lead one to understand the Gita correctly; rather it would lead him to an erronous understanding. It is true that the teachings in the Gita are of universal validity and would also be applicable to the Mahabharata scene and must help to solve Arjuna`s delusion and doubts. We fail to understand the teachings in the right perspective when we are obsessed with the particular scene in Mahabharata and thereby we seek to interpret the general by the particular. We should forget the battle- scene when we study the Gita as a scripture of Sanatana Dharma. (to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian