As popularly believed, the Gitopadesha is not told over eighteen days of the Great War of righteousness (dharma yuddha). It is not even 700 or one more verses in eighteen chapters. It is just eighteen, or at the most, eight verses that are finally expanded! These are thoughts or ideas about creation, sustenance, development and dissolution and the accompanying problems that the creatures suffer and the solution!
The Gitopadesha has undergone lots of changes and interpretations since first revealed to the great Sages in their meditation, a state of meditative trance (savikalpa samadhi). Many commentators for fear of copyright violation have changed the very title of the chapters! Strictly speaking, the words of Bhagavan should not be altered at any cost! In one of the verses, Bhagavan Shree Krishna asks Arjuna to carefully listen, grasp in totality, do not use your intelligence and apply rules of grammar (sandhi, samasa, etc.) and destroy the meaning and purport. But what is it we are doing here?
The subject matter of the
Bhagavad-Gita is analyzed by different commentators in eighteen chapters giving
them their own captions forgetting what the Lord said. It is unfortunate that
these commentators create confusion in the minds of readers giving any caption
they like and each differing from the other. Hence, one must be careful in
reading the commentaries. There is no explanation coming from any
scholar-commentators as to why this Gitopadesha comes as an interlude in the Bhishma parva
of the epic Mahabharata and whether the war was ever fought! However, everybody
assumes a war, and goes on narrating the names of the warriors and give
description of the bugles and drums without knowing the significance of symbolism involved as in ‘sound’ of the different bugles, drums, etc. as the subtler forces involved in creation! It is the sound that create emotions and the consequent actions
due to inherent ‘desire’.
Thus, the significance of 'symbolism', the esoteric aspects, the hidden secrets are all missing in the translations and commentaries of the Gita
published, so far. These verses, although shown as seven hundred, may be, there are many
verses that are inserted by later authors and this is evident from the fact that they do not fit to the main text.
Bhagavan Shree Krishna has touched upon eighteen fundamental principles that
are later on elaborated by others. There was no need for eighteen chapters, at
all. If Arjuna does not want to fight, it is enough to ask him to take to sanyas, which He does advocate at the end! Instead
of asking Arjuna to simply give up everything and join Him, why should He go on
giving options like karma, bhakti, jnyana, dhyana, yoga etc.! Where is the need for all these alternate
methods? Only one shloka- sarvadharman
parityajya maameekam sharana vrajaa | is enough. The matter is closed.
Bhagavan is always there with him, rather, in all of us as the Atman. Let’s just keep quiet
thinking and praising Him! The job is done! This is said in sarva dharman parityajya maamekam sharanam vrajaa |
Bhagavan Shree Krishna Himself says, "Do not do anything, just keep quiet, and at best, you may chant my name! “Sarvarambha parityagi is
dear to Me”. Hence, it is enough if one just keeps quiet without indulging in sensuous desires and dabbling in worldly matters. But, “It is not that simple. As Bhagavan puts it, “Nobody can
sit quiet without doing anything”! That is the real problem! Thus, the Gita begins
with instructions as to how to keep quiet!
The Bhagavad-Gita starts with a very
meaningful Invocation- “gita dhyAnam” (9 verses)
followed by-
1.
Arjuna vishada yoga Or
Reluctance to Fight the Battle (47 verses): From the first
verse (shloka) to the eleventh comes the introduction of the prominent
heroes and the description of their valor. Then comes the description of the
sounds of the bugle and the drums from 12th verse to nineteenth. The
verses from 20 to 27 is the description of what Arjuna saw and the persons
assembled to fight there. Then comes the sadness, reluctance to fight and his
decision not to fight. Later on, we find how the supreme Lord discards all that
Arjuna witnessed are just his illusion and clarifies that none as such ever
exist!
Thus, what all we find here is just an
introduction to the Gita, a prelude to the Lord’s teachings! So we find in
these verses how Arjuna requests his Charioteer Shree Krishna to take him to the
middle of the Battlefield in order to see who all have assembled and having seen
his teacher Drona, Grand Sire Bhishma, and his cousins, he thinks except
earning sin, there is no point in fighting this battle, lays down his arms, and
sits down! Arjuna is filled with sorrow, vishada,
for having a decision to fight! The decision to fight out was taken after Kaurava
King Duryodhana refused to part with even five villages at the meeting with
Shree Krishna as a Mediator (Krishna
sandhana). This decision came from Duryodhana despite seeing His
(Krishna’s) true divine form (naija bhagavad-svarupa)
challenging the Pandavas to fight, win their kingdom in the war. Thus, both the
armies have arrived at the designated open field ‘kurukshetra’. It is a war of righteousness (dharma) and the field is called ‘dharma kshetra’. There are many versions of the Gita- some of
esoteric nature, treating the entire episode as a symbolism, whereas some
believe that the war actually took place. But, actually nothing of such sort
ever took place according to some researchers! It is a fiction based on partly
some historic fact and partly imagination! The search is still on and many
teams of investigators have traversed the entire field and found nothing of the
sort like bloodshed or even the signs of any remains that would remain after a
war of that magnitude! The site is just a hundred kilometers from Delhi. Recently
a TV crew visited the site and found nothing but a vast field thorny bushes and
scrubs with a few stone pillars called the Pandava pillars! There is nothing to
show here, they said! The location of the battlefield has also been doubted by
many! Many a scholars have come to the conclusion that it is all a fiction!
Nothing prevents our young scholars to take up a through in-depth study of the
scriptures like these and take up excavations of sites as we see many are
already doing in other parts of the world. It is also the opinion of many
spiritual seekers and the upasakas of the Bhagavad-Gita that the battlefield is
our own mind and war takes place within us! All evil thoughts come to us due to
our desire, attachment, anger and prospects of disappointments! We think of the
consequences of our evil thoughts, imagine ghostly consequences, get
frightened, and finally wisdom dawns! Often there are dreams that disturb and make
us get up frightened, sweat, and heart throbbing only to realize it is all the
mischief of the mind. Now, the reality is that Mind (man) is its own enemy! One has to conquer the mind in order to be
peaceful! This is the sum and substance of this chapter. Let us see what
Bhagavan Shree Krishna tells here.
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