Bhagavad Gita Insights

By Chaitanya Charan Das

The Bhagavad-gita can be both intimidating and inspiring: intimidating because its message has many levels and its verses have many meanings; and inspiring because it provides us all philosophical light and practical guidance for facing life's challenges.

 

Through one hundred articles, Bhagavad-gita Insights aids in appreciating the Gita as a living book spoken by a loving Lord. Some of the questions addressed here are: 

• Do all paths lead to the same goal? 
• What are the seven meanings of 'karma'? 
• Why is the universal form so ghastly?
• How is detachment different from passivity? 
• Is everything an illusion?
• Are we included in Krishna's circle of love?

Dive deep into the Gita and rise high with the conviction that our Lord stands ready right now within us, as he stood ready millennia ago with Arjuna

• Language: English
• Publisher: kiran nallapareddy
• Release date: Jun 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201331474

Book preview

DEDICATION

Dedicated to

His Divine Grace

AC Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada

The founder acharya of Iskcon

Whose masterly commentary

Bhagavad Gita As It Is

has been my ever-brightening torchlight for exploring the

Gita universe

&

To my many Gita-friends, teachers and readers,

who have inspired me to relish the Gita more and more.

INTRODUCTION

No book that I have read has intrigued, challenged and enriched me as much as the Bhagavad-gita. Every reading of not just the Gita, but even some of its verses, beckons me to go deeper into its timeless message. And yet each question that arises brings with it a sense of excitement and purpose — and eventually a sense of fulfilment as and when I get some insight into the answer, be it through reading the commentaries of the acharyas (scholarly spiritual teachers) or through immersion in the subject and the resulting unpredictable epiphanies, or most frequently through discussions with various other Gita teachers, students and seekers.

In the journey is the joy. This could be a way to describe my experience in studying the Gita. It could also be a contemporary way to phrase one of the Gita’s most well-known teachings: work without attachment to the results (02.47). In Gita study, I find that attachment to gaining mastery in the Gita’s teachings is not just a cause of frustration — it is also a source of distraction from the fulfilment available just through engaging with the Gita. In fact, the Gita is not to be mastered; the Gita is meant to be our master, for it is non-different from its speaker, Krishna, who is the all- attractive supreme divinity.

This brings us to a bhakti-yoga way of understanding the principle: In the journey is the joy. In the bhakti perspective that is at the heart of the Gita and is manifest in its celebrated four-verse essence (Chatur-Shloki Gita), the spiritual journey has a definite end: Krishna. The wise understand Krishna to be the source of everything and offer themselves, head and heart, to him (10.08). Yet Krishna is the end of the Gita not in the sense of the termination of Gita study, but in the sense of the purpose of Gita study. And because Krishna is unlimited, the journey of Gita study both reaches Krishna and yet never reaches him, for he is far too big to be known by anyone except himself (10.14-15). That’s why even the enlightened keep enlightening each other forever (10.09). Thus, the journey of Gita study both has an end and is endless.

In Gita Insights, I focus on questions that would arise in the mind of anyone doing more than a cursory reading of the Gita. Each of these 100 articles has arisen primarily from the quest to answer questions that I have myself encountered, either directly in my reading or indirectly in my teaching when a student asked something for which I didn’t have a ready answer. In the subsequent discussions and deliberations, slowly the answers started crystalizing. The answers became even clearer through my daily service to the Gita in the form of writing a reflection on one of its verses.

Why, one might wonder, does one need to engage so much with the Gita? Because it brings meaning, purpose and fulfilment to my life. After all, the Gita is itself spoken to a person who had lost all sense of meaning and purpose (01.30, 02.06, 02.08). It is amazing, even awe-inspiring, that amid whatever confusion or tribulation may be going on in our life or in our world, if we strive to seriously immerse ourselves in the Gita’s wisdom, we will get a sense that the universe is still meaningful; that our life is still purposeful; and that we can still play a part, no matter how small, in making our corner of the world a better place. Perhaps the greatest gift of Gita study is this quiet conviction that a higher intelligence permeates all of existence and animates the movements of the world toward a benevolent end. I use the word quiet conviction because Gita study doesn’t always provide immediate answers to whatever questions may be plaguing us in our daily life; nonetheless, it infuses us with the faith that life’s struggles are still worth enduring, sacred values are still worth cherishing, noble purposes are still worth pursuing. Perhaps this quiet conviction mirrors what happened to Arjuna too — the Gita didn’t provide any specific answers about why he had been put in a place where he had to fight a heart-wrenching war against his venerable elders like Bhishma and Drona. Yet it did fill him with the clarity and energy to persevere in his duty in a spirit of becoming an instrument of the divine will (18.73).

Krishna himself states that studying his sacred conversation is a way of worshiping him with our intelligence (18.70). In my small way, I have tried to worship Krishna through the writing of this book. After all, if studying requires a steady application of the intelligence, writing requires an utter immersion of the intelligence.

Just as those who worship Krishna in the temple experience joy, faith, upliftment and a panorama of emotions through the very act of worshiping, so too can Gita study offer the serious student an enriching array of emotional and intellectual experiences.

Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita As It Is has been the starter and sustainer of my explorations into the Gita. With remarkable lucidity, strength and effectiveness, he has brought home the Gita’s essential conclusions. It is by his blessings that I have been able to mold my life so that it is centered on studying and sharing the Gita. And it is his blessings I seek the foremost for making this small effort to convey through this book my small reflections on the Gita.

I hope and pray that you as a reader of Gita Insights find answers to questions about the Gita that you had — as well as questions that you never had. And more importantly, I earnestly pray that you gain a taste of the sublime fulfilment available in the very process of seeking answers, be it through the study of the Gita, be it through applying the Gita’s teachings through one’s life or be it through adopting the lens of the Gita to find meaning and purpose amid one’s life’s vicissitudes. I will consider my writing of this book a success if it gives you just a small glimpse of the Gita truth: in the journey is the joy.

- Chaitanya Charan

CHAPTER 1

Why the Gita begins with Dhritarashtra’s words

01.01: Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?

REFLECTION

The Bhagavad-Gita is, as its very name indicates, God’s message in the form of a song. Why does the Gita begin with the words of Dhritarashtra?

To answer, we might look at the narrative framing. The Bhagavad-Gita is a part of the Mahabharata, which describes the events on the Kurukshetra battlefield through a particular frame: narration to Dhritarashtra by his assistant, Sanjaya. And Krishna’s delivery of the Gita to Arjuna is the first major event of the first day of the Kurukshetra war. Understandably then, the Gita’s core message is preceded by a question from Dhritarashtra about the happenings at Kurukshetra (01.01).

Still, such a textual explanation leaves a key question unanswered: Why could the Gita not have started with the battlefield setting itself, maybe with a description of Krishna? It seems odd that a sacred book that is often recited begins with a character who is far from sacred. Dhritarashtra might not be the Mahabharata’s active villain, but he is certainly no hero. He is the passive villain who is the enabler of the active villain: his son Duryodhana.

The answer might lie in Dhritarashtra’s name, whose most common meaning also reflects his mentality: ‘one who holds on to (dhrita) a kingdom (rashtra)’ — that is, an attached king. His attachment to the kingdom had triggered the many events that culminated in the Kurukshetra war, wherein the Gita is spoken. Though he got to hear the Gita, it didn’t change his heart — at least not till his hope for enjoying the kingdom was irrevocably frustrated.

Through Dhritarashtra, the Gita provides a signal example of the mentality to be avoided by those who want to benefit from its empowering, transforming, liberating wisdom. Seen in this light, the Gita’s starting with him is apt, poetically and philosophically.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Gita begins with Dhritarashtra not just for narrative purposes, but also for instructive purposes: to illustrate the mentality that can make us unreceptive to its message.

How the Gita’s first words point to its core theme

01.01: Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?

REFLECTION

In the Bhagavad-Gita’s first verse spoken by Dhritarashtra, the first words mean ‘at the place of dharma’ (dharma-kshetre). In this verse, the blind king asks his assistant Sanjaya about the events on the Kurukshetra battlefield.

Dhritarashtra is infamous as the embodiment of attachment to the Kuru kingdom. And the place where the battle is happening is named after his dynasty: Kurukshetra. Yet that name doesn’t come first from his mouth; instead, the name that comes first is an ethical attribute of that place: it is a place of dharma. Here, dharma can be translated as virtue, duty, religion — essentially, the right thing to do.

Key references to dharma in the Gita

Why does Dhritarashtra refer to the place’s ethical potency first? Because that potency was weighing heavily on his mind. He wondered how it might influence the battle. Would it dishearten his sons, given that they were impious, even vicious? Would it enliven the Pandavas, given that they were pious and virtuous?

Irrespective of whether the effect of Kurukshetra on the warriors was malign or benign, a key event that transpired there did have a lot to do with the name used here for it (dharma- kshetra): a profound discussion about dharma happened there. The Bhagavad-gita was spoken by Krishna to Arjuna. Indeed, ‘dharma’ is the key word in Arjuna’s starting question (02.07) that drives the entire Gita discussion. And the word ‘dharma’ occurs in Krishna’s last instructive verse (18.66). In the last reference to this discussion in the book, Sanjaya calls it a samvada (dialogue) about dharma (18.76).

Not only did the dharma-samvada occur at the dharma-kshetra, but the dharma-samvada fulfilled the import of the name dharma-kshetra. In fact, every place where the Gita is spoken can become a place of virtue — and so can every heart where the Gita is cherished.

IN A NUTSHELL

The Gita’s first word ‘dharma-kshetra’ indicates not just the place of dharma, but also the Gita as an immortal discourse about dharma — the speaking of the Gita at Kurukshetra made it an immortal dharma-kshetra.

Why is the book called Bhagavad-gita when it co ntains words other than those of Bhagavan?

01.01: Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?

REFLECTION

Among the Gita’s 700 verses, Krishna speaks 574 verses, Arjuna speaks 84, Sanjaya speaks 41 and Dhritarashtra 1. When the Gita contains words in addition to those of Bhagavan, can the book be called Bhagavad-Gita? Yes, because the other speakers’ words wouldn’t have mattered much without Krishna’s words, which are the heart of the book.

Consider an example. Suppose an event is called, A talk by popular orator XYZ. In the actual event, the orator won’t be the only speaker; other speakers may include the emcee and guest(s) who introduce or give the vote of thanks. Despite these other speakers, that event can still be rightly called the orator’s talk. Why? Because the other people’s speeches set the scene for the orator’s speech.

In the Gita, let’s see how the other speakers set the scene for Krishna.

Dhritarashtra: His sole words (01.01) constitute the starting question that takes the Mahabharata’s narrative focus to the Kurukshetra battlefield.

Sanjaya: He speaks four times: in the first chapter when the narrative focus shifts from Dhritarashtra’s chambers to the battlefield; in the second chapter when the the main speaker at Kurukshetra shifts from Arjuna to Krishna; in the eleventh chapter when Krishna reveals his universal form; and in the last (eighteenth) chapter when he shares his realizations and concludes the narrative.

Arjuna: He speaks in all Gita chapters except chapters seven, nine, fifteen and sixteen. Among all chapters, he speaks the most in chapter 1, describing the impending fratricide and the consequent heart-wrenching dilemma. Because he asks the questions that drive the Gita’s narrative, the Gita is often called a Krishna-Arjuna conversation (18.74-75).

As these