The Gita (cotd,)

The Bhagavad-Gita is a beautiful poem that can be put to melodious tune and hear the supreme Lord speak about Himself as to ‘Who He Is’, as also, ‘What this Creation Is’, ‘Who these living beings (jiva rashi) are’, and having come a long way from Him ‘How to Reunite with Him’. There is also a ‘Secret of all secrets’ (guhyatama guhyam) here as ‘the Lord Himself says’! He reveals brahma-vidya and yoga shastra to us all through Arjuna (a deluded Mind!).The supreme Lord imparts this ‘Adhyatma vidya’, Atmajnyan, so that the earthlings as jiva-rashi find solace in distress and revert back to their pure and pristine state, a state of ‘oneness’ with the Lord. This is what this Gita is all about!

   The supreme Lord, takes by His hand all His earnest devotees and leads them Step by step to ‘kaivalya’. He reveals ‘how to get reunited with Him’ through ‘karmasanyasayoga’, bhaktiyoga, jnyanayoga, dhyanayoga, and nirasaktiyoga and total surrender (prapatti)! In fact, He, the Lord, Bhagavan Shree Krishna, makes us realize ‘who we the hapless jivas are’ in the first six chapters of the Gita through imparting ‘atma-jnyan’ and ‘brahma-vidya’. And then, He describes ‘His true nature of formless, attribute-less and eteranl, immortal and immutable state’, as also, ‘the diverse manifest forms’(Bhagavad-svarupa) in the next six chapters. Then, He explains ‘how to reunited with Him with the help  of yoga’. It comes thus as a yogashastra in the last six chapters. This is also a treatise on the principle of tattvamasi !

   The beauty of this divine song is that Bhagavan Shree Krishna is narrating ‘Who He Is’! Hence, this may well be treated as An Autobiography of God. This is a unique unwritten scripture handed down to us, albeit, many authors have twisted and narrated the story according to their own understandings. The printed copies are full of alterations and insertions than what Bhagavan said initially! Many authors have used this scripture to promote their own interest as missionaries laying stress on any one of the concepts such as karmayoga, bhaktiyoga, jnyanayoga or dhyanayoga and have established their own schools! It is strange that none of these schools of thought has ever attempted the last secret of muktiyoga for fear of losing their clients! In fact, the importance of the Gita lies in this last Chapter where the supreme Lord insists that “One who is interested in liberation, emancipation, mukti should give up all worldly pursuits, develop vairagya, and return to isolated places for penance or deep meditation, contemplation on brahmn”. There is no salvation for an embedded jiva from metempsychosis, cycle of births and deaths! Once born here in this death knell (mrutyu lok) all jiva are bound to suffer old age, sickness and death. All are afflicted souls. The cause of suffering is ‘desire’ due to ‘avidya’ and the eternal bondage ensues as a result of the actions and reactions and their consequences. The solution lies in the ‘Realization’ of the true nature of the ‘Self’. Bhagavan Shree Krishna stands here as Yogacharya and teaches step by step how to practice yoga, asana, pranayama and attain to ‘samadhi’.

    Ultimately, ‘Realization of the Self’ (Atma-sakshatkara) in the transcendental meditative mode (samadhi) is extremely important! However, there is a word of caution here. The Bhagavad-Gita is like a mirror. One sees his own face as an index of his mind! When a school boy or girl who sings Chapter 10 or 11 of the Gita during Gita abhiyan week gets applause is so innocent as to know the meaning and import of what is sung by him/her on the stage! An adult who is in a dilemma as to the right situation may take recourse to Gita and may find a solution to the problem. Not all are interested in nirasakti yoga, or sanyas. Life is to enjoy and there is no problem in enjoyment. However, the problem is one of disillusionment, misery, unhappiness, and disappointments even after attainment of the desired objects! Every jiva is born in ignorance (avidya), lives in ignorance (avidya), and dies in ignorance! This ignorance or avidya i.e. knowledge covered by desire, attachment, ego, anger, etc (ari-shadvarga) is the problem. This ignorance cannot be removed unless the jiva takes recourse to Shree Krishna’s teachings. Whether one has lived a successful life or suffered and seeks redemption, the Gita is the only answer if one seeks emancipation, mukti from repeated births and deaths. The Gita starts with the revelations of secrets of creation and ends with dissolution. The relevant verses are given in the text.

   There are several intriguing questions about the scripture presented to us, its author, subject matter, meaning and purport of what the Bhagavan said, etc. All these are all taken up for an in-depth analysis as a spiritual inquiry (nidhidhyasana) here. It is indeed a meditation on God, ‘Gitopasana’. The credit of retrieving these God’s own words as an invaluable guide to mankind from the Shanti Parva of the great epic Mahabharata goes to the credit of Sri Shankaracharya. However, the very authorship of the epic is open to question? These words spoken by the Supreme Lord, Bhagavan Shree Krishna, is definitely not of any ordinary person, but of a mahapurusha, an avatara of Mahavishnu. In fact, the Lord is addressed by several names in the Gita as Govinda, Madhusudhana, Janardana, Achyuta, Ananta, Purshottama, Devesha, etc. In fact, there is a whole lot of a thousand names in the ‘Vishnu sahasranama’ as an adjacent scripture retrieved along with the Bhagavad-Gita! These two scriptures are, indeed, redeeming the jiva from its state of transient existence! The entire scripture is of mythological nature attributed to Sage Veda Vyasa whose very name is an intriguing matter! The relevant verses are quoted here for reference to prove the points. These are matters of esoteric nature and require practice of yoga to understand. The authorship attributed to Sage Vedavyasa is taken up first and the following picture gives us an idea.

   The picture shows Sage Veda Vyasa (whose real name is Shree Krishna Dvaipayana, the Omniscient Shree Hari Narayana, or Badarayana) and Lord Ganapati (with an elephant head symbolic of keen eyes and sharp ears representing complete awareness, pure Consciousness) along with some disciples having a discourse. The Bhagavad-Gita is actually a sort of a monologue, loud thinking of the Learned Sage. It appears as if a dialogue between Bhagavan Shree Krishna as ritambhara-prajnya (pure Consciousness) and Arjuna as manovikalpa (the blemished Mind- full of ego, desire, attachment, anger, and jealousy). But, when we go through the text of the Gita we find that Lord Shree Krishna is imparting his disciple Arjuna about the true nature of the jiva and the transient nature of the world. The Gitopadesha is set to melodious tune making it a ‘divine song’! (Shree Vidyabhushana Teertha has given a musical rendering of this Gita).

   As regards the scripture that has come down to us since the beginning of creation, as a dictation given by Lord Himself, Shree Krishna Dvaipayana, taken down by the scribe, none other than the Deity of the Elements (gana), Lord Ganapati, is an intriguing one! First, it is difficult for us to understand how the supreme Lord Shree Krishna, an avatara of Mahavishnu of Vishnu purana speaks and, second, how a Deity mad of clay and life-force infused into it by the mythological character Devi Parvati of Shiva Purana as Ganapati, writes it! Further, if at all He the Lord Ganapati pulls out his tooth (danta) and uses it as his pen. It is open to question ‘where and what did he inscribe! There is no question about the existence of this spiritual text, but where is its original script? These questions- that of Vyasa and Ganapati, the Mahabharata and the Gita, the characters that are mentioned here, etc. raise a number of doubts! We are not sure as to the very origin of the divine song! Whether the Gitopadesha was imparted in the Kuru-kshetra battlefield for eighteen days, or only eighteen verses are imparted to Arjuna in a whisper in order to encourage him to fight, or whether it is intended to us the fools in search of eternal happiness and bliss living in a transient world governed by limitations of time, space, and causality? That way, the very author Revered Omniscient Sage Veda Vyasa, the renowned author of the Brahmasutras and the Eighteen Epics (Puranas), is also a myth besides his scribe an elephant-headed Ganapati! But, then what is the truth? When t here exists neither a Veda Vyasa a person to dictate, nor a Ganapati to take the dictation who is writing what? It is important to note that the terms 'veda' and 'vyasa' mean, the radius and Circumference in a circle, i.e. the center connected to periphery symbolically representing the ‘totality’ of ‘Knowledge’. The writer is the Deity of the basal plexus, the very support of all that exists as muladhara prajnya. Al the living beings, the jivas exist because of this power (mula adhara Shakti)! The living beings are supported by this power! As a deity of basal plexus (muladhara prajnya) He, Lord Ganapati, is seated at the base of everything that exists. He has written these words of the Lord, Gita as a ‘divine song’, on the Tablet of the Heart of the very jiva that seeks divine guidance/   

   Now, the question arises as to who the author Lord Shree Krishna Dvaipayana is, and what is conveyed by him. 'Dvaipayana' means the island surrounded by two (dvai-) streams (payana), symbolically representing 'One' and 'no other' (Ekam adviteeyam). The Gita covers all aspects of creation (Srushti), sustenance (Sthiti), development (vruddhi) and dissolution (laya) and finally, merger (vilaya). This totality of knowledge is possible only to Bhagavan.

    All the characters that appear in the epics, may it be, Mahabharata, Ramayana, or the Srimad Bhagavata, are totally unconvincing to a discerning mind and intriguing to common man since they are not born as humans! Neither the Fatherless Pandava, nor the Blind King's sons, a hundred Kourava are ever born or die, as the Lord Himself proclaims! Bhagavan Shree Krishna is narrating all about “Who He Is” and “What He has created” in this ‘Divine Song’, the Gita! In fact, He, the Lord, explains in great detail the nature of this world, the magical way He has created it, and what all we think and believe as this phenomenal objective world (jagat). He proclaims that, “He is the Great Lord (Maha Purusha) responsible it!” He even goes to the extent of saying that “He puts the seed of creation and enters His creation, and exists at the core of the substance as the ‘Self’! tat srushtvaa tat evaanupravishat |