12 September 04
Introduction to Srimad Bhagavad Gita
With the blessings of the Lord and the entire Guru Parambara we will enter into the study
of Bhagavad-Gita, which is the essence of ALL the Vedas. Bhagavad-Gita is a part of
the Mahabharata consisting of 18 chapters and 700 verses. The contents of the Gita can be
presented in very many ways; but we will see it in the following manner. The Gita talks
about three basic principles to be remembered throughout the life; three
lifestyle to be followed and three lessons to be learned.
The three basic principles are 1.One has to be responsible for one's
life. He cannot wash off or hand over that responsibility to others including
God. No body else can or will take responsibility for others life. -
including the wife, children and the parent. So one has to equip himself for that. ALONE
TO ALONE, ALL ALONE IS LIFE. Throughout the Gita Lord Krishna emphasizes this point -
uddhareth athmanathmanam na athmanam avasadayed - one should uplift ones lower self
by the higher self. “Arjuna! I am willing to support you; but you have to do your duty
yourself.” 2. Self confidence thro' faith in God - The second
principle is an extension of the first principle. When one has to take charge of one's
life, the responsibility may appear heavy and frightening. Has he got the strength to face
the various situations in life with limited physical, emotional and intellectual strength?
Hence diffidence is inevitable. Hence Lord Krishna says that you should have faith in God
to boost your self confidence. The real God, which is the inner strength, is within
oneself. Understand God as ones' own inner internal resource. Hence
daily in the morning practice auto-suggestion that “I am confident of facing life with the
help and grace of God. 3. Life of Values (virtues, ethics, moral etc) Virtue
is psychological hygiene; without hygiene the body can never be healthy and strong.
Psychological hygiene is important for emotional health and strength. Krishna himself
highlights these virtues on several occasions. By violating values, one may get more money
and luxury; but peace and happiness can not be gained without it. Value is dharma.
The three life styles that are to be followed in stages or grades. 1. A life of
activity and contribution to the family, society and the world. Every experience in
life has got a hidden lesson, both pleasurable and painful. But if I am not equipped, I
will not be able to learn lessons from such experiences of life. This active life
style of contribution and learning is the first life style. Krishna calls it Karma Yoga
- an active life style of contributions, learning, growing, maturing, ripening, and
getting refined. 2. The 2nd life style is the Life style of re-orientation.
Sri Krishna calls it Upasana Yoga. In this life of re-orientation, I change my
extrovert and outgoing mind towards myself. I have to turn my mind inwards suitable for
self enquiry; otherwise I am not interested to find out “who am I?” What is our internal
composition? What is in my mind? What are emotions? What is knowledge? The enquiry into all
these is the Upasana Yoga. The 3rd life style is the life style in which one is no more
bothered about the things outside. We have got a vast stretch of inner personality to study
five Kosas; and turn our attention towards body, mind and intellect. Hence it is the inward
journey of self enquiry, athma vichara, which we call Jnana Yoga. Hence the
three fold life style to be followed is Karma Yoga ª
Upasana Yoga ª Jnana Yoga.
The three lessons to be learned: 1.Jeeva Swarupam - Our real
nature. Our Vedantic scriptures talk about an invisible, eternal inner reality within
oneself called Athma. Knowing this inner truth is lesson number
one. 2. Iswara swarupam - The real nature of God who is behind the
external phenomena called the world. We will be learning from Gita, that the World is
nothing but a drama, which is taking place in the reality called Isvara tatwam. 3.
The truth of the individual and the truth behind the whole creation -
Jeeva thatwam and Iswara thatvam. The Jeevathma
and Paramathma are one and the same - like ocean water and the wave water are one and the
same. If we successfully go through and assimilate these three lessons, our life's mission
will be accomplished. After fulfillment and poornatwam we will attain Moksha. This
is Gita Sara.
Any scriptural teaching - Gita, Upanishad, Veda - cannot be grasped, if we study them by
ourselves. (Self study). Hence they should be studied under the guidance of a proper guide,
Guru. The teaching should come as a Guru Parambara. There is a method for teaching.
It comes as a dialogue between a Guru and Sishya. We call it samvada - healthy
constructive dialogue. It is not argumentative done with the aim of defeating the other
person with ego. In dialogue light is generated - Guru Sishya samvada. In the Gita
also the same method of teaching is followed. The student who receives the teaching is
expected to think over it for better understanding. In Sastric teaching assimilation is not
an automatic process. In the course of study doubts are bound to arise. The Guru will clear
them by the method of dialogue. The same method is followed in the teaching of Gita. Hence
Bhagavad-Gita is also in the form of a dialogue between a Sishya - Arjuna and a Guru - Sri
Krishna.
Before the dialogue takes place, the student has to go through certain stages indicating
that he is ready to go through the teaching. .Student should have certain qualification for
listening. The guru also requires certain qualification for communicating the teaching -
srothriya brahma nishta is the qualification for the teacher. He must have the
comprehensive, doubtless knowledge about the subjects, he is going to teach. He should also
have the skill of communication - srothrium. He should also follow what he teaches.
Student should also have basic qualification and desire to acquire the knowledge. He should
also have the conviction about the utility of that knowledge,
Generally the Guru and Sishya are brought together through a story or anecdote. The story
is the indirect method of prescribing the qualifications of a teacher and the taught. The
story may be a fact or fiction or a mixture. In Bhagavad-Gita also the first chapter
happens to be such a story-akyayika - Mahabharata battle. Through the battle field
event, Vyasacharya introduces the teacher - Sri Krishna, and the student - Arjuna.
The actual teaching starts from the 11th verse of the 2nd Chapter.
3 October 04
Human beings look upon peace and happiness as the destination to be attained in the future.
Vedas declare that peace and happiness are not products which are to be generated in
future. They are to be discovered as a natural state of mind available
ALL the TIME.
How to discover that - by living a proper way of Life. This proper way consists of two
things. - Right action. Dharma and right Knowledge - Vidya, AthmaJnanam. The
entire Vedas have got only these two topics. The first portion is called Veda purva
which deals with right action namely dharma the other portion is called Veda antha
which deals with right knowledge. When ones' life is governed by dharma and jnanam, then
peace and happiness becomes ones natural state. Emotional slavery is one of the big
obstacles in following this way of life. Emotional slavery is an obstruction to proper
thinking as in a person who has consumed liquor. His intellect is not sober enough to
understand what dharma is; and then a ruler has to resort to that course where violence is
the dharmic duty. Vedas say “Learn to handle your emotional personality, keep your
discriminative power bright and active, and follow a proper way of life. Then you will be
able to discover peace and happiness as a natural state of mind.” This is the basic
teaching Krishna gives to Arjuna. In the battle field, Arjuna is overwhelmed by emotion and
looses his discriminative power and is utterly confused, loosing sight of proper action and
knowledge. Lord Krishna helps him out and gives him the knowledge of dharma and jnanam.
(Hence every chapter ends with the words “iti Srimad Bhagavadgitasu Upanishatsu
Brahmavidyayam Yogasastre Sri Krishna Arjuna samvate……… yogonama……..adhyayah) Gita
has two main aspects - brahma vidya (right knowledge) and yoga sasthram (right
action or dharma).
In the Mahabharata, The Kauravas were adharmic; Pandavas were dharmic people, who were
asking for their legitimate right in a non violent manner. But Duryodhana refused to
oblige. Non-violence is given a great value in our culture. According to our scripture
non-violence has not got an absolute value. One has to try the non-violent methods like
Sama, dhana, and bedha first. If they fail then it is perfectly right to take to
danda- violent method also to preserve and protect dharma. When war is required to
protect preaching of non-violence. At that time it (war) is dharma. In the first Chapter we
are going to see how Arjuna had dharma in his mind in the beginning of the war; but slowly
he becomes a slave to (emotional) attachment of his kith and kin. Because of this misplaced
attachment he preaches Ahimsa in the wrong place, where himsa is his duty.
Lord Krishna corrects his vision. This is the background of First Chapter.