Spiritual Essence of the Gita

     It is very difficult to understand the meaning of what is spoken by the Lord, here. Every intellectual person, spiritually trained person or sadhaka, tries his hand first on writing a commentary (Bhashya) on the Bhagavad-Gita. It is the ultimate test for spiritual attainment, perfection, and fulfillment of life on this Planet. We find almost 176,000 titles of Bhagavad-Gita in different languages, styles, prose and poetry forms, with elaborate details, and a number of them with limited explanation, and word by word meaning of words.

     A religious study of this scripture is prescribed for every Vaishnavite (followers of Vishnu) as a part of self-study, svadhyaaya. It is the regular practice to read a chapter or two every day in some religious families and most of the people read a fe verses now and then.

    Although it appears that Hitopadesha begins here with the reluctance of Arjuna to fight the battle and his Charioteer Shree Krishna advising him not to run away from the ordained duty as a warrior, Kshatriya (warrior clan) of the chaturvarna ashrama Dharma, it was in fact, first told by Shri Hari Narayana to Sun-God Surya Deva, who in turn told it to the first human born, Manu with whose name the Manvantara started.  Manu later told this to Ikshvaku whose dynasty still runs and among them the famous are the King Janaka, King, Dasharatha and Sree Ramachandra., Bharata and later on Bheeshmacharya, Pandu and Dhrutarashtra started their own dynasties.

    Again, Arjuna requested Shree Krishna to repeat the Hitopadesha in the presence of his brothers after the war was over. This is known as the Anu Gita. We see a devotee of Krishna, Uddhava came to see Krishna at the end of the Mahabharata War when Krishna was ready to depart from the earth; and again, Krishna repeated the fundamentals of the Gita to Uddhava as the famous the Uddhava Gita. The famous Sage Ashtavakra who is a Bhrahma Jnyaani puts it in a very simple way this whole Bhagavad-Gita as is literally practiced by him in letter and spirit in the famous Ashtavakra Gita. Thus, we find the famous words of Lord Krishna reverberating ever since He first spoke to the Sun-God.

       Although, as a matter of academic interest, the modern historians put the date of this scripture around 3000 to 3500 B.C. (some put it at least 10, 000 years); but, it looks ridiculous to all those who have a spiritual knowledge and experience of a different kind in Yoga. This aspect of divine experience gained from Yoga Sadhana, Hence, meditation aspect is specially addressed to in greater detail in this work.

       Thus, this ‘Gospel of Truth’, spoken by none else than the Lord Himself, is a guide to sane and sensible living on this beautiful, rich and resourceful attractive living Planet Earth. It spells out the secrets of health, happiness, peace and contentment, as also, ways and means of attaining to supreme Knowledge, liberation, ‘Mukti’ or Moksha. Even a light reading of this Text assures supreme Bliss to all those who have trust and faith in Him, the Lord of the Universe.

     There are many versions of the Bhagavad-Gita. Some have presented word-by-word meaning and elaborate explanations to the verses. And, some have strained themselves to provide literal meaning to the Verses / Shlokas and there are seven hundreds of them in eighteen Chapters / Cantos. Many scholars have presented exhaustive dissertations trying to explore the hidden meaning of the Sootras / philosophical formulae of the Upanishad Doctrines in the Bhagavad-Gita. All these efforts are praiseworthy, for they show the interest of the scholars in the Lord’s divine sayings. In fact, the Bhagavad-Gita is the oldest and the most widely-read of the holy Scriptures- both in the East and the West. The most significant aspect of the Bhagavad-Gita is that the reader gets a new revelation every time he goes through the Text; and he gets a different meaning with a deeper insight and greater depth of understanding! But, one has to get into the serious mode of spiritual exercise of transcendental states of existence if one wants to experience the meaning of the statements made in the Bhagavad-Gita. It is simply not possible to ordinary people to know everything about the Bhagavad-Gita in one or two lives! May be, one has to take repeated births to experience the meaning of the statements made in the Bhagavad-Gita and realize for oneself the real meaning and purpose of life. Many spiritually attained persons have successfully tried to gain this insight. Some attained persons /Siddhi Purushas / Yogins or monks devoted to spiritual practices and those who deliver lectures on teachings of the Gita as a part of their mission in life, have done it to some extent. But, there is, so far, none who has realized the full meaning of the last Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, since it is not simply possible to attain to it on earth in the physical human form, that too, in the wakeful daily routine way of life. It is certainly possible for a person who has perfected the teachings of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga Sutra.

       Some scholars like Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Annie Besant, Edwin Arnold and many others have used the Gita to highlight and convey the social and political aspects, whereas, persons like Swami Shivananda and his disciples like Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Bhrahmaananda and his disciples like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Acharya Rajanees, Sree Ramana Maharshi, Jiddu Krishna Murthy, and others have devoted to the spiritual and psychological aspects of the Bhagavad-Gita. Most of them rely on the Commentary of Shankaracharya / the Shankara Bhashya of the Bhagavad-Gita that highlights the Advaita Philosophy. Some of the commentaries / Bhashya particularly that of Shree Madhvacharya (of Karnataka), Ramanujacharya (of Tamil Nadu) and AC Bhakti Vedanta and Nimbaraka or Nimbaditya (West Bengal) have followed Dvaita, Shree Vaishnava and Vishishtaadvaita siddhanta /Doctrines; Chaitanya Maha Prabhu, and others have explored Bhagavata Dharma in the Gita in the light of Dwaita or the Bhedaabheda or Vishishtadvaita Philosophy and propagated in the States of West Bengal, Orissa, and Assam in India.

     Ultimately, one finds that. Shankara’s Commentary / Advaita Siddhanta seem to be very apt one that focuses attention on the Bhagavad-Gita Doctrine as presented in the Upanishads. Many others- both the Eastern and the Western thinkers’, have gone in to the depth of the philosophy of life, as they have found it apt to their knowledge and experience in life. But, none of these is ever satisfactory when we go into the central theme of attaining to Moksh, Mukti, or Self-Realization / ‘Atma Jnyaan’ or ‘Bhrahm Jnyaan’- as propounded in the Fourth Chapter and the last Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita- the ‘Jnyana Yoga and the ‘Mukti Yoga Rahasya’, respectively. This remains an eternal science and an endless quest.