Bhagawad Gita - have we really understood it?

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On the plains of dharmakshetra, kurukshetra, when my offsprings and Pandavas have gathered for a fight, what did they, oh Sanjay?

In and for our times, there are hardly any words that have more power than the very first verse of Bhagavad Gita.

Here’s why I say that.

Mahabharat marked the end of an epoch, rightly suggested by India’s first woman anthropologist - Irawati Karve, a literary genius. According to Joseph Campbell, at the end of each era there emerges a myth with a pedagogy for the changing times.

During Ramayan, clarity of dharma and adharma was never in question. It was conscientious and also uni-dimensional living. Nobility and piety was a given. It is believed that Ravana chose his death in the hands of Lord Ram so that he gets a place in the heaven.

Well, by the time we came into the Mahabharat period, that clarity was fading. And it is devastating to not have that clarity of right-wrong, good-bad, moral-immoral and so on.

No wonder then half the world felt Kauravas were the legitimate heirs and the other half thought Pandavas were on the side of dharma.

Conscience, discriminative intelligence, morality were clearly waning, understanding of dharma was fading and hence the war.

In times to come, each individual was going to fight that war. Humanity was entering a new period of existential nihilism. That was the change of epoch Irawati Karve was talking about.

In the story of Mahabharat, winners lost everything, had only ruins to rule over and losers, the so called adharmi, went to heaven. Disillusionment and nihilism at its peak.

In recent times, TS Eliot has described human life as a Wasteland owing to the death of morality and spirituality on the backdrop of the World War I, the great war of the modern times.

Vedvyasa, however, didn’t stop at painting the nihilism with all the gory details but he serves us by planting a pedagogical text right in the middle of it, reminding us of the purpose of life and a clear path to fulfil it. That text is Bhagavad Gita. Through its core principles of Nishkam Karma (yog), Surrender (Bhakti yog), understanding one’s true nature (Dnyan yog), Life as a Yadnya (Kriya sadhana), he built us a raft to sail through these difficult times.

Allow me to bring in another thread of thought here.

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Indian society was a vedic society and yog was at the heart of that culture (I must say, I am pained to use the past tense here). Yog did not mean body stretching asanas but a process of dissolving our ego and merging our soul with the spirit. The very purpose of life was that integration or the union which in Sanskrit is called yog.

Many scriptures were written to unveil the mystery of life and narrate a process to achieve that ultimate yog. Many scriptures were cosmological as well. But they were all written in a very interesting way. Most of them were in a story format and many were written as allegories.

Bhagavad Gita is no exception. It is an allegorical text. Gita was not written as a niti shastra, definitely not meant to be a lesson on leadership and management as many have imagined it to be.

Gita was a text demystifying life and vedic (upanishadic) philosophy and a process to achieve the yog. When we read Gita in this light, its transcendental nature comes through. And for that transcendence to shine through within us, the reader needs to be Arjuna, a modern day yogi, who in the middle of life’s various dilemmas communes with his higher discriminative, soul wisdom for direction (Krishna).?

Allegorically speaking, Dhritarashtra here represents our blind mind and Sanjay represents introspection. Although the mind of the yogi might still be blind at this stage, it is the only devise available for ascension. Transcendental journey would not being unless, the `old’, withered mind that has experienced the nihilism of life, comes to a place from where it is open and willing to look back and introspect.

The term kshetra is explained in the 13th chapter. Kurukshetra does not (only) mean a province in Haryana but the bodily plain of worldly actions and dharmakshetra means the astral plain; that of our mind, a place where our chitta vrittis as well the higher potential are stored. It’s a place where action impulses are stored.

Kurus and Pandavas represent our sense indulgence, our material desires (represented by Dussasan and Duryodhan) and the forces of discriminative intelligence (Sons of Pandu). They are the two sides of the line – wrong and right, bad and good, immoral and moral. The very sensibility which is lost in our times as mentioned by Irawati Karve and TS Eliot.

In life of a yogi (Arjuna), dharmic war between buddhi and manas is a daily affair. Daily a yogi struggles with the many polarities. On one hand his higher intelligence guides his spiritual actions and on the other hand his worldliness draws his away from the path. Sage Vishwamitra before ascending to the Maharshi-dome had lost this very fight over and over again.

A yogi is bound to feel despondent like Arjuna. Krishna nudges the modern day yogi to fight that war and not chicken out sighting all the `right’ reasons.?

In preparing Arjuna for this war, Krishna representing our own divine intuition developed after deep practice of meditation, guides us to our ascension through a combination of bhakti, karma and dnyan yog. In the process Krishna also bring to us intricate philosophical and mystical understanding of life through Sankya, Dvaita, Advaita and what not.

It is said that the truth is always hidden from common folk. It is for the right reasons. Because there are always some dim-wit who would reduce that highest wisdom into a frivolous management philosophy. That highest wisdom will not come to you unless you are ready for it because common folk will not be able to handle that scintillating wisdom and its luminosity.

Those who are ready for the transcendence have already understood that the purpose of life is to find God or to achieve the yog. They have found a guru and are meditating deeply.

If there is any reader of that nature, he or she might benefit immensely by reading Pranab Gita by Swami Pranabananda Paramahansa or God Talks with Arjuna by Paramahansa Yogananda. These two are the authentic allegorical texts I know of.

Finally, at the cost of repeating myself – Bhagavad Gita is neither Chak de India for anyone to draw management gyan from nor it is a guide book on moral science. It is a spiritual text to help us achieve the ultimate yog –dissolution of our ego and integration of our Soul into the Existence, Consciousness, Bliss Absolute. It is a summary of the entire yogic philosophy.

Even if one person understands what I am saying and reads Gita in the right spirit and allows it guide your sadhana, I would consider it as my humble offering to the holy literature on this Gita Jayanti.

-??????? Rahoul Joshii

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