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..:: The
Bhagavad-Gita ::..
By
Alan Schneider
The illustrious
Bhagavad-Gita, also known as the Song Celestial, Song of
God, and the Upanishad of the Upanishads, is revered
throughout the world as the premier statement of Hindu spiritual
philosophy. Every Guru, Seer, and Yogi of any distinction has produced
a personal interpretation of this Sanskrit classic – they now number
well up into the hundreds of published translations of this single work,
available in over sixty different languages worldwide.
The lyrical cadence of most
of the translations of The Gita, as this document is known in
shorthand to its many admirers, makes it an ideal first subject of
ancient Hindu discourse. The Gita is above
all a composition of Divine Love, complied (and possibly written) by the
Vedic poet and Seer Vyasa, as a portion of a much larger work known as
the Mahabharata, somewhere between the fifth and second centuries
B.C.E. The humble lives of most of the Seers and Rishis (“Wise Ones”)
of ancient India made them hesitant to even assume authorship, or
otherwise take any personal credit, for what they recorded as
spiritual texts – rather, they ascribed the origin of their lives,
beliefs, perceptions, and instruction to God as the source, and
themselves as only the physical means of transferring the information on
the Physical Plane. The Vedic texts were essentially held in common by
the Indian population of the period, and were more often chanted and
sung, than read or recited by specific functionaries like Gurus or
Pujaries (individuals qualified to conduct specific spiritual rites,
known in Hinduism as Pujas).
The Gita is superficially the
wartime dialog between one Arjuna Pandeva, a royal archer, and his
charioteer, none other than Lord Krishna Himself, on the battlefield of
Kurukshetra, where the Pandeva Clan and the rival Kaurava Clan are set
to do battle to resolve the kingship of the province, held by a Kaurava
under very questionable circumstances at that time. The Pandevas
exemplify devotion to the supreme Hindu concept of Dharma, a
Sanskrit concept that has no literal English equivalent, but loosely
means Holy Duty, Divine Entitlement, Sacred Law,
Supreme Ordering Principle, and, literally “that which anchors or
secures”. The Kauravas represent the opposite concept of Adharma
– the entire clan is corrupt, deceitful, dishonest, foul-mouthed, and
disrespectful of even the most basic moral tenets. They cheated their
way into governance of the province by challenging the Pandevas to a
rigged dice game, banished them thereafter, and swindled the balance of
the landholders in the province to retain their political loyalty using
a variety of ruses and inducements. When the Pandevas eventually
realized the deception they had been subjected to, the returned to the
province and demanded the throne, which the Kaurava emperor
Dritsarasthra flatly refused to surrender. The resort to arms became
inevitable and unavoidable in consequence.
On the day the great battle
is to begin, Arjuna instructs Krishna to drive his chariot to a point
between the opposing armies to survey the forces assembled against the
Pandevas. There, he sees many of his old friends, mentors, and teachers
present on the other side, all held in debt to the Kauravas following
years of moral decline and deception. Arjuna is overcome with grief at
the thought of killing so many of those formerly near and dear to him,
and collapses right there, refusing to fight. With this event, the
dialog of the Gita begins, as Krishna begins His explanation to Arjuna
of the roles and responsibilities, the Dharma, of the Ksatriya,
or Warrior, caste (of which Arjuna was a member), and the
absolute importance of keeping Dharma at the expense of all other
considerations, regardless of personal or kinship bonds:
The Gita, Chapter Two, Verse Thirty One:
Considering your Dharma, you
should not vacillate. For a warrior, nothing is
Higher than a war against
evil. The warrior confronted with such a war should
Be pleased, Arjuna, for it
comes as an open gate to Heaven. But, if you do not
Participate in this battle
against evil, you will incur sin, violating your Dharma
And you Honor.
- As Translated and Interpreted by Eknath Eswaran -
Of the eighteen chapters of
the Gita, only the first is historical, providing the background setting
for the subsequent chapters, and this one is only as historical as is
necessary to establish the philosophical circumstances for the
Discourse on Yoga that forms the content of the balance of the
work. Krishna begins this illumination of the Truth of Yoga late in
Chapter Two, after concluding his explanation of the importance of
keeping Dharma, indicated in the passage noted above. The first Yoga to
be considered at this point is Sankya Yoga, the Yoga of Mental
Clarity and Right Thought. This is the foundational Yoga, necessary
before any other can be grasped, and requires a calm and deliberate
focus on the mental aspect of higher consciousness. The
distressed or upset mind cannot reside in Sankya Yoga, and this was
certainly Arjuna’s condition between the armies. Krishna rouses him out
of this depressed emotional state with the call to Dharma, then follows
this with the description of Sankya, considered by many scholars to be
the single most significant passage in the entire Gita. In Sankya, the
essence of Yoga and Hindu cosmology is set forth – the attainment of
detachment from either the rewards or punishments, i.e. the
material consequences, associated with human actions on the Physical
Plane, through focused attachment to God and the Soul (or Brahman
and Atman in Sanskrit terminology) as the two highest forms of
consciousness. Sankya Yoga describes the three fundamental states of
human awareness, known as the gunas – tamas, the ignorant
condition of enslavement to desire and gratification, the improved
condition of rajas, focused in intellectual passion, personal
energy, and social activity, and sattvas, the state of devotion
to goodness, light, and purity. Sankya also details the means of
transitioning from the lower to the higher gunas through spiritual Yoga
and Dharma. In many ways, the chapters beyond chapter two discuss the
extended means of achieving this focus – the Yogas proper – amid the
worldly distractions of the Physical Plane and senses.
Chapter Three begins the
Discourse of Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Action – specifically
referring to the literal courses of action that we choose to follow in
life, and their ultimate consequences for our spiritual development.
Here, Krishna illuminates the all-important Law of Karma – the
underlying law of cause and effect that permeates all of existence.
Actions determine personal, and even social, destiny; nothing ever
occurs in a Karmic vacuum. At the foundation of this concept is the
immortality of the Soul as demonstrated through reincarnation,
establishing the contention that the Soul develops spiritually through
its involvement with Karma and Karmic situations on the Physical Plane
in successive lifetimes. Each time a Karmic “lesson” is experientially
assimilated (i.e. “learned”), the result is the attainment of a higher
level of Dharma and spiritual Self Realization. Until these experiences
are correctly perceived through detachment as described above, and
transformed into Dharma thereby, they remain in place as Karma, subject
to further experience and (hopefully) progressive assimilation in
successive lifetimes. Eventually the Soul, God’s Gift of Original
Consciousness, achieves enough Dharma to enter into reunion with the
Supreme Absolute Truth, and returns Home to its Creator in the state of
Samadhi – full reunion with, and absorption into, the Divine Light.
The essence of Karma Yoga is
Selfless Service to Dharma and, on a worldly level, the many
Souls battling the selfish personal motivations of the ego. By affording
these Souls the example of genuine selflessness in thought, word, and
deed, the successful Karma Yogi sets the model and standards for
Enlightenment for others in the world. This model can, should be, and
often is, augmented by Darshan (sitting in the presence of a
Master and receiving the blessing of instruction and Spiritual
Vibration), Satsang (keeping the company of other like-minded
individuals, such as Devotees), and Puja – rites and rituals,
great and small. In Chapter Three, Krishna says:
The Gita, Chapter Three, Verses Fifteen, Sixteen, and Seventeen:
Every selfless act, Arjuna,
is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead.
Brahman is present in every
act of service. All life turns on this Law, O Arjuna.
Those who violate it,
indulging in the senses for their own pleasure and ignoring
The needs of others, have
wasted their life. But those who Realize the Self are
Always satisfied. Having
found the source of joy and fulfillment, they no
Longer seek happiness from the external world.
- As Translated and Interpreted by Eknath Eswaran -
By
continuously striving to recognize, understand, and implement the
principles of Karma Yoga, the spiritual aspirant, as exemplified by the
Soul, eventually transcends the gunas completely until absolute
liberation and Enlightenment are Realized. It is useful to understand
that we are always practicing some form of Karma Yoga at some
level within the guna system, as the Soul gradually expands and enhances
its influence over the mental processes from incarnation to incarnation.
This is the process of spiritual growth and evolution, leading back to
the Godhead, and Divine Love, Light, and Life.
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2009, by Alan Schneider)
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