Hara Hara Shankara, Jaya Jaya Shankara

Hara Hara Shankara, Jaya Jaya Shankara

Friday, March 21, 2014

The Beginning

The Beginning

Before we dive into the ocean of GITA to drink its nectar, let us see the circumstances under what was the GITA taught.

The war between the kauravas and pandavas was imminent – All for a piece of land. Arjuna was blessed to have Shri Krishna as his charioteer. On the battle field, when both the sides were just about to start the war, when the air resounded with deafening sounds of the conchs,  of kettle drums and bugles, Arjuna requested Krishna to move to the center of the battle field so that he could, for one last time, have a look at both sides from an equidistant.  Krishna obeyed Arjuna’s commands and moved to the center of the battle field.

That Arjuna who was the embodiment of confidence and valour felt his bow slipping out of his hands. He perspired at the sight, his body started shivering, A sudden sea of emotions overcame him. He suddenly realized that he was to fight with his own grandparents, his own guru, his own brothers. This feeling of Arjuna is not unusual. Many a times we feel confident before exams or even before any major event of our lives. But as the time for execution nears, there is a kind of fear that grips us and we tend to become wavy of our own abilities. Arjuna was no different. Though his best friend and cousin, Lord Krishna was always with him, he failed to take advantage of an absolute surrender towards the Lord. Ego did not spare Arjuna too.

The first chapter is called “Arjuna Vishada Yoga” where Arjuna cribs and laments for the state of affairs. He became disillusioned at the fact that he will be killing his own brethren. He sulked at the thought that there will be widows on both sides due to this bloodshed. And all this was for a piece of land. All this enlightenment dawned upon him at the verge of the breakout of the war. He refused to fight, became adamant that he would take to sanyas and lead a life of recluse.

It was then that Krishna taking up the position of an acharya or Guru, gave a long sermon in the form of the divine song – the bagavad-gita. He starts his discourse only in the second chapter after patiently hearing to Arjuna’s complaints. He then speaks at length about the duties of a kshatriya, the varna dharma of Arjuna. He elaborates about the Karma which each one of us is ordained to do. He extols Bhakti as the sole destination for man to attain his holy feet. He explains the nature of the soul and shows the way to redeem this soul from repeated births and deaths. What to talk of the effort that he has taken to bring back Arjuna from a cowardly person to the a brave warrior !!!. This is the ocean of mercy . If Krishna wanted, he could have changed Arjuna by just his sankalpa, by his mere thought. But then the world would have missed a precious GEM like the GITA. It is for the welfare of the world that GITA was given. We are all Arjunas not knowing what to do in the battle of life. Our senses are our enemies. We have to fight them and this is possible when we use knowledge of GITA as our weapon.

The sage Vyasa who is Lord Vishnu incarnate has divided the GITA is 18 chapters comprising of 700 slokas. He has divided it into broadly three parts as Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. People can follow whichever path they want depending on what is suitable to them. All roads lead to the same destination i.e. moksha.

We are all more than 700 days old. It would surely be unfair our part not to know even a single sloka of this divine song. Our Vedas and shastras are a rich treasure to keep us happy. We need to accept and respect them. The Gita explains the highest essence of the Vedas. It cleanses our heart, removes our sins, enhances the satvic mind and leads us to salvation. When GOD himself came down to lift us from this samsara sagara, we have to acknowledge and at least climb one step towards HIM. So, a shloka a day definitely will keep all evils away.

RAM RAM
  

5 comments:

  1. Inrteresting thoughts are explained in this blog . Well put and I like the way it was carefully crafted to the viewers delight.
    I am enjoying reading these articles and many a thoughts came to my mind.
    1. Why did god create this division in humanity based on Castes ? Why this separation of the same humankind into different communities etc etc.
    2. Why did Arjuna not just stop and give what his grandfathers/gurus/ brothers wanted in the first place - Why did he not just say - " take this material possession i.e the land and leave us alone.

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  2. ..........This is the key as you rightly said

    ""We are all Arjunas not knowing what to do in the battle of life. Our senses are our enemies. We have to fight them and this is possible when we use knowledge of GITA as our weapon. "
    What would make us sensible,
    What would make us sensible to other people's insensibility.

    If I am sensible - it also means other people around me and with me - should understand and behave with their sensibilities.

    If I stood in a line - and 10 other people jumped the line ahead of me to buy the ticket - did they misuse my goodness !
    How do I explain to myself that I did the right thing by missing the train - because I was sensible to let them ahead and buy the tickets.

    Did I really become caught up in this '"kindness" and lose my aggressiveness.

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  3. Shashi, you have asked many Qs. And I will try answering them one by one. The fit I would like to take up is the division of people based on castes, I was just about to write about this when ur Q came up and this definitely needs clarity.
    I will put it as a separate post ..please read it and spread this message about castes. We are highly mistaken, the entire thing is politicized right from the british rule. I would recommend you to read "Voice of GOD" where the kanchi seer, Shri Chandrashekara sawraswati (periva) as we call him has elaborated on the caste system and their advantage. He has spoken at length about why we got this wrong idea that caste is bad and who sow the seeds of distance between man. A must read to get the right facts...

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  4. Kiran, If you can lay hands on "Voice of GOD - Volume 1" to start of with....u are sure to change urself...so effective and logical

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  5. The answer to your second Q is that the pandavas were the right successors to the throne.
    1. Yudhihtra was the eldest among the pandavas and kauravas. So he had a right on the throne.
    2. He was more eligible for the throne.
    3. Duryidhana had done many atrocities aginst them and deserveda punsihment for his wrong doings.
    4. It is the right of a kshatriya to fight for his rights. He cannot be meek and give up. His duty is to fight against injustice.
    5. The fact that arjuna became overcome with emotions is a natural feeling. As i said, when the time for action comes, many of ges all the doubts and try running away from reality.You can also see it from the angle that Krishna wanted to give the GITA to the world and it is his leela thru' arjuna
    6. If Arjuna would not have fought and had given up, imagine the people under the rule of duryodhana. Arjuna did want his Varna dharma was.

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