Gita Jayanti

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

Dec 15th is Gita Jayanti. The day when Gita was

imparted to Arjuna. Thus, this is the day when the

Mahabharata war started. There are perfect astronomical

records in the Mahabharata and people also remember the

day generation after generation to be precisely

commemorated year after year for thousands of years.

The year 3129 BC has been proposed by several scholars

as the day of the start of the war. You can see one

such analysis at

http://sathyavaadi.tripod.com/truthisgod/papers/020406.htm

 

Whatever be the historical date, etc. let us remember

the Gita, Sri Krishna and his Message on the holy day.

 

With love,

Gomu.

 

Essence of the Bhagavat Gita

----------------------------

 

The Bhagavat Gita is one of the most popular texts. Next to the Bible

it is the most widely translated of scriptural texts. This tremendous appeal

of the Gita is because it deals with a practical problem of life, namely,

how a man can discharge his duties as the member of an imperfect social

order and at the same time attain the highest degree of perfection. The Gita

begins with this ethical problem and in solving this problem, a noble

devotional philosophy is expounded.

 

This problem is graphically depicted at the outset through the predicament

of Arjuna. Arjuna is the leader of the Pandava host, and his whole life has

been a preparation to meet his cousins, the Kauravas, in battle, defeat

them, and wrest from them the kingdom that they had usurped from himself

and his brothers. The scene is cast in the battlefield of Kurukshetra,

where the armies of both the sides have gathered and Arjuna is called upon

to fulfill his historic mission by leading his men against the Kauravas.

Arjuna realises at this critical moment that it is a fratricidal war, and

that its consequence will be the destruction of the very friends and

relatives for the sake of whom men usually seek wealth and kingdom, as

well as social chaos consequent on the holocaust of the flower of Kaurava

and Pandava chivalry. A war-weariness and a world-weariness together come

upon him with a dramatic suddenness. Under their impact he forgets all his

social and family obligations, and wants to take to an ascetic life instead

of indulging in what he conceives to be a senseless carnage under the guise

of duty. He becomes a pacifist and a quietist all of a sudden.

 

The conflict here is between a sudden and purely personal inclination

bursting in one's mind and a social duty, the avoidance of which under

that inclination would have meant ruin to a whole community that had laid

its trust in one. Sri Krishna, though God incarnate, is Arjuna's close

friend, charioteer and spiritual counsellor, and is called upon to resolve

the conflict in Arjuna's mind and restore him to a sense of moral

equilibrium by finding a new sanction for action.

 

Inevitability of action

 

Though the answer to Arjuna's problem is given only at the end, Arjuna is

prepared for it by a series of talks on the inexorable nature of work in

the life of man and the utter futility of Arjuna's resolve to withdraw

from a life of action.

 

Man's body and mind are parts of Prakrti (Nature) which is dynamic in

constitution. As a product of Prakrti, action is the law of life for the

mind and the body, and the very process of living is impossible without it.

And so, its elimination can only mean practice of idleness according to

one's convenience, and he who attempts it under a false impression of his

spiritual greatness, will end in rank hypocrisy and spiritual stagnation.

Only one, who has ovecome the body idea completely and is established in

the sense that he is not the body but the immortal, ever-conscious and

ever-blissful Atman, can be actionless; for, he no longer identifies

himself with the body and mind, the products of Nature.

 

Besides, from the ethical point of view, everyone with a body-consciousness

has to remember that he is living in a community of similar beings governed

by a cyclic law of mutual exchange of services and commodities. If he does

not contribute his share to it by means of work but enjoys the benefits of

others' work for the maintenence and comfort of his own body, he lives the

life of an exploiter and a thief. He has no moral basis and hence no

spiritual progress.

 

Even in the case of a person who has been emancipated from identification

with the body, it is better that he works. He has not the compulsion of

duty as in the case of the ignorant man, but he may feel the compulsion of

love, which makes one work for lokasamgraha (world-welfare). His actions

are not self-centred and so have no binding effect on him. Work therefore

is the law of life for the ignorant, and an expression of love for the

enlightened, the work of the former being self-centred and the latter

God-centred.

 

Necessity of the Doctrine of Nishkama Karma

 

Actions like leading men in war have many evil consequences, though they may

be a part of one's duty. Is not avoidance of such duties better than doing

them and incurring sin? How can their performance promote spiritual life at

all? This question is answered by Krishna.

 

The ideal of a person who is absolutely indrawn and unperturbed, who is the

master of the senses and mind - is so far removed from that of a soldier

engaged in the form of a dreadful action like war, that it looks incredible

that action of that type can ever lead a man to that state if spiritual

excellence. This doubt persists in Arjuna's mind in spite of Krishna's

exhortation to action.

 

In answer to this Sri Krishna propounds the doctrine of Nishkama-karma - the

doctrine of actions done with detachment and dedication to the Lord. Actions

in themselves are amoral, if we eliminate the self-centered agent from them.

Nature's cataclysms with their terribly destructive effect cannot be

classified as moral or immoral. They are amoral. All actions are a mixture of

beneficence and destructiveness as far as their effects are concerned. They

are like the brilliance of fire accompanied by the obscuring cloudiness of

smoke.

 

Work at the human level has various ramifications. There is work done under

compulsion like slave labour, which may be charecterised as submoral in its

effect on the worker. Higher than that is work prompted by the profit-motive

(kaamya karma), on which human civilisation as constituted today is based.

Kaamya karma can take two forms: On one hand there is anti-social work which

is technically denoted as Vikarma or Adharma or Nisiddha-karma; on the other

hand there is socially oriented work which is termed as Dharma. Anti-social

work is done by persons with demoniac nature. Everything they do is for

ostentation and self-aggrandisement and no form of cruel exploitation and

selfish indulgences is repungent to them, provided their pleasure, profit

and ambition are promoted thereby. Such anti-social beings are endowed

with Asuri-sampat (demoniac nature) characterised by pride, greed, passion

and cruelty. Moral and spiritual degradation is the wage for their actions.

 

In contrast are men with Daivi Sampat (divine nature), who follow dharma

or socially oriented action. They too are self centered and seek

pleasure and power, the good things of life, but their pursuit of these

is socially oriented and is regulated by norms that take others and

their needs too into consideration. In return for what they seek and take,

they are ready to give away what is due from them. They observe the

law of Yajna (sacrifice). They are Dharmikaas, men who too pursue pleasure

and power but always subordinate such pursuit to a code of give and take

based on a sense of collective good and of moral responsibility. When their

sense of obligation to society dominated overwhelmingly over the demand for

individual fulfillment, they become elevated into patriots, philanthropists

and votaries of similar other noble values.

 

Arjuna was in his early life a Dhaarmika of this type, when he found himself

all of a sudden in the predicament described earlier, wherein the old

sanctions for action like swadharma (discharge of one's duty), socially

approved pursuit of power and pleasure, communal welfare, patriotism etc

become meaningless as inducements of action. A new sanction has to be

found if Arjuna were to take part in action, and this sanction, different

from even the one applicable to the Dharmikas, is expounded by the

Lord. It is the doctrine of Nishkama-karma, the doctrine of work without

desire, applicable to men who seek only liberation. In expounding it, a

sublime theology and a devotional metaphysics are propounded as the

spiritual rationale of such desireless action. Without the spiritual basis,

desireless action will only be an incomprehensible and a puzzling concept,

as we cannot think of an action devoid of the promoting of some desire or

other.

 

 

Doctrine of Nishkama Karma

 

Arjuna is shown the Cosmic Order of the Universe in which he sees that

all the Kauravas are being destroyed. Krishna tells Arjuna, " Even without

you, all these warriors will be destroyed; you merely be an instrument

in the hands of Nature. "

 

The experience of the Cosmic Order of the Universe opens up a new

dimension before Arjuna. It resolves the difficulty that he is

faced with. Till now his life had been like that of an individual

cell in a body which thinks, out of ignorance that it is an independent

entity, functioning on its own, while in truth it has been but a conduit

and in fulfillment of whose purpose it has been functioning. Arjuna

now realises that he is neither a solitary individual, nor merely a

member of a society, but a cell in the Universe with an apportioned

piece of work to perform, not for his own sake, not even for the

community or country, but for the sake of the Supreme (God) to whom

everything and everyone ultimately belongs.

 

In light of this enlarged world-view, work gains a new sanction and

a new significance. Neither self-aggrandisement, nor even the service

of any worldly cause is its ultimate purpose. The purpose is the

spiritual development of man - to be freed from the hold of the body

and realise one's kinship or unity with the Divine. For he, the jiva

(individual soul), is a spark from the divine fire, but identification

with the body has effaced the sense of his inherent divinity. This

predicament of man, called ignorance, must be due to the will of the

Divine, and only by the will or the Grace of the Divine can he be

redeemed. This grace descends on him who resigns himself to Him with

his entire being - body, mind and soul, and does his duty as an offering

to the Cosmic order. Discharge of the work that devolve on one as duty

without any self centered motive but as an offering to unto the Divine

- to start with, of all results and finally of the agency too - is the

way of this total resignation.

 

Work cannot be accepted or shunned by any mere momentary considerations

of their being good or bad, agreeable or disagreeable. All works, however

good at first sight, carry some bad effects too. In the world there are

four character types - Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra - depending

on the Swadharma (natural duty based on natural tendency). These are not

castes as they are seen today and are neither based on hereditary factors.

The Brahmana is the introvert type, reflective, intellectual and

self-restrained. The Kshatriya is extrovert, flamboyant, lordly, chivalrous

and possesses the qualities of leadership in him. The Vaishya is the

acquisitive type, industrious, organising and enterprising. The Sudra is

the dull type without enterprise or initiative, requiring directions

and fit for routine subordinate work.

 

Work and way of living, suited to these natures and in the line of their

evolution, are their Swadharma inspite of what some may consider good

or bad. For one who accepts and contemplates on the world-view and the

destiny of man as presented in the Gita, the performance of such Swadharma

with detachment and as an offering to the Divine is a potent means to

spiritual evolution. By offering the fruits of his works, man's sinful

tendencies born of physical nature are effaced, and when he is able

to resign his sense of agency too, he realises his unity with the Divine.

 

In the language of the Gita - " From whom proceeds the activity of all

beings and by whom all this is pervaded, worshipping Him through one's

Swadharma a man attains perfection. Better is one's Swadharma, though

defective, than another's duty, apparently well performed. Doing the

duty ordained by one's nature, one incurs no sin. One should not

relinquish the duty born of one's nature, although it may be attended by

evil; for all undertakings are covered by defects. If Arjuna refuses

to fight today, that resolve is in vain as his very nature will compel

him to fight. Fettered by duties born out of his nature Arjuna will

have to fight. "

 

The doctrine of Nishkama karma therefore says that do your duties

according to your Swadharma as an offering to the Divine, which may

also be identified as the Cosmic Order. Offering the fruits of the

action and finally the agency also to the Divine, one attains perfection.

 

--------

Excerpts from " Srimad Bhagavat Gita - The Scripture of Mankind " ,

a translation by Rev Swami Tapasyanandaji,

published by Sri Ramakrishna Math - Chennai.

http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org/

--------

 

 

--

---------------

Email: gokulmuthu

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/gokulmuthu/

---------------