Bhagavad Gita - As I could Grasp . . .

[ganeshp]

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Gita as I could Grasp​

Introduction:
One, to understand the essence of Gita, must realise the following:

• That there is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead and that is none other than Sri Krishna.
• That we the material entities are part and parcel of Him, co operating with Him to satisfy Him.
• That we are materially contaminated.
• That we have to act as per His orders so that we could free ourselves from the material contamination and satisfy Him.
• That, to act as per His orders, we have to first start chanting His name daily because the referred (Supreme Personality of Godhead) and the referent (His Nama-Name) are one and the same.

There are 5 things viz., Isvara, Jiva, Prakrithi. Time and Karma out of which all the four are Eternal and has no limits except the Karma.

Isvara is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself – the Creator – He has no birth and no death.
Jiva – The Created – he goes through the stages called birth and death – Jiva is Eternal because it is the creation of the Eternal Isvara and His creations are also Eternal. (Unlike Karma)
Prakrithi – The fact that there are numerous and countless creations (Universe) in which His Creations go through the cycle of birth – death – rebirth which has no Beginning and no End.
Time – Another eternal part during which the Prakrithi is driven by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Karma – This is the action of Jiva which are materially contaminated, thus fails to obey and act as per His orders and thus we feel that we are a different person from God. But this is not true. We are part and parcel of Him and we are just the creations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead created by Him to satisfy him. It is His Leela that He sends his creations to the material world and enjoys its actions in this material world which is also His creation. Good deeds done by the Jiva satisfies the God and takes it closer to the God and Bad deeds take it away from Him. Thus Karma is not eternal.

Thus, based on the balance of Bad minus Good deeds our re-birth in this material world is decided.The Supreme Personality of Godhead tells that whoever chants His name at the time of death reaches unto Him directly and there is no re-birth for him. For that to happen, He tells us to keep chanting His Nama when we are alive so that we will not miss to chant His Nama at the time of death.

To understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one must read the “Bhagavad Gita” with a submissive mind i.e. accepting whatever has been told in the Gita AS IT IS without any of his own doubts or ideas or other interpretations being involved. If at all the reader has some different opinion or tries to question the Gita, he can Never come out of this Material Attachment.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Creator and the Enjoyer of his creations and we are the Enjoyed. The Enjoyed gets contaminated easily by the worldly material things but the Creator and the Enjoyer does not get affected by the material things but just simply Creates and Enjoys.

 

[sarma-61]

Gita as I could Grasp​

Introduction:
One, to understand the essence of Gita, must realise the following:

• That there is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead and that is none other than Sri Krishna.
• That we the material entities are part and parcel of Him, co operating with Him to satisfy Him.
• That we are materially contaminated.
• That we have to act as per His orders so that we could free ourselves from the material contamination and satisfy Him.
• That, to act as per His orders, we have to first start chanting His name daily because the referred (Supreme Personality of Godhead) and the referent (His Nama-Name) are one and the same.

There are 5 things viz., Isvara, Jiva, Prakrithi. Time and Karma out of which all the four are Eternal and has no limits except the Karma.

Isvara is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself – the Creator – He has no birth and no death.
Jiva – The Created – he goes through the stages called birth and death – Jiva is Eternal because it is the creation of the Eternal Isvara and His creations are also Eternal. (Unlike Karma)
Prakrithi – The fact that there are numerous and countless creations (Universe) in which His Creations go through the cycle of birth – death – rebirth which has no Beginning and no End.
Time – Another eternal part during which the Prakrithi is driven by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Karma – This is the action of Jiva which are materially contaminated, thus fails to obey and act as per His orders and thus we feel that we are a different person from God. But this is not true. We are part and parcel of Him and we are just the creations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead created by Him to satisfy him. It is His Leela that He sends his creations to the material world and enjoys its actions in this material world which is also His creation. Good deeds done by the Jiva satisfies the God and takes it closer to the God and Bad deeds take it away from Him. Thus Karma is not eternal.

Thus, based on the balance of Bad minus Good deeds our re-birth in this material world is decided.The Supreme Personality of Godhead tells that whoever chants His name at the time of death reaches unto Him directly and there is no re-birth for him. For that to happen, He tells us to keep chanting His Nama when we are alive so that we will not miss to chant His Nama at the time of death.

To understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one must read the “Bhagavad Gita” with a submissive mind i.e. accepting whatever has been told in the Gita AS IT IS without any of his own doubts or ideas or other interpretations being involved. If at all the reader has some different opinion or tries to question the Gita, he can Never come out of this Material Attachment.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Creator and the Enjoyer of his creations and we are the Enjoyed. The Enjoyed gets contaminated easily by the worldly material things but the Creator and the Enjoyer does not get affected by the material things but just simply Creates and Enjoys.

Shri ganesh sir,

From your above post I find that —

• there is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead and that is none other than Sri Krishna
• we the material entities are part and parcel of Him, co operating with Him to satisfy Him
• to act as per His orders, we have to first start chanting His name daily because the referred (Supreme Personality of Godhead) and the referent (His Nama-Name) are one and the same.

You will thus find that the Supreme Godhead has some part of Him contaminated and that the contaminated parts are not under his control.

In addition, you say that we have to go on chanting His name in order that we act as per His orders; how this will happen has not been explained by you – looks strange, prima facie.

Your grasp of the Gita may be 100% correct from one religious pov or another, I can’t say.

But as a somewhat conservative-minded, advaitin tabra, I tend to believe that Gita was included (some scholarly opinion is that the Gita itself, as also very many verses in it, are later interpolations) mainly to project the Krishna character of Mahabharata, which had been that of just a king who was a relative of the Kurus (by which I refer to both Pandavas and Kauravas) and having a partiality for the Pandavas, and trying to help them in many ways and instances, including some which may not be entirely Dharmic, but, nevertheless, “polished” over and justified by stories of Poorva Janma Karmas, curses and so on and so forth.

Without the BG, Krishna of the rest of M. Bh. is a Machiavellian prince of the Yadava clan, and the Vrishni kula or sect. But, once BG got incorporated into the body of M. Bh., Krishna just soared into the heavens, literally!

According to advaitic beliefs, the Supreme Godhead is residing within each and every living being also; the only difficulty being, it is in a strong Safe Deposit Locker and most people have forgotten the key/password for opening this SDL. So, the advice generally given is to meditate, introspect, search inside one’s own self and find out what it is that makes you alive.

Chanting the God’s name, rituals, rites, routines, etc., are merely like disciplines to help one to succeed in such internal quest.

 

[prasad1]

Mr. Ganesh,
Welcome to the forum.
Your point of view is personal to you. I have different analysis of Gita.
Your opinion seems to be colored by the Hare Krishna movement.
Then again a religious philosophy is personal, and it should satisfy your needs.

 

[ganeshp]

My Pranams to you Sir (Sarma),

Thanks for reading my post.

I would like to reply to some of your lines.

You will thus find that the Supreme Godhead has some part of Him contaminated and that the contaminated parts are not under his control.: When we say that we are a part of Him, we mean that we are the created by the creator and hence form part of Him. I also believe that it doesn't mean that He doesn't have control over his creations when we say that "His creations are contaminated", it means that "Everything are His creations and as He gives each of us (His Creation) the liberty to think and act on our own which we(the "created") take for granted and move away from Him by forgetting ourselves in material things.

In addition, you say that we have to go on chanting His name in order that we act as per His orders; how this will happen has not been explained by you – looks strange, prima facie. : Yes. As we have already ourselves separated from Him by involving ourselves in worldly things, we have to first start chanting His Nama, which will be the first step to realize Him and then we will be able to obey His orders and THEN we (once again) reach unto Him (The FINAL Step).

But as a somewhat conservative-minded, advaitin tabra, I tend to believe that Gita was included (some scholarly opinion is that the Gita itself, as also very many verses in it, are later interpolations) mainly to project the Krishna character of Mahabharata, which had been that of just a king who was a relative of the Kurus (by which I refer to both Pandavas and Kauravas) and having a partiality for the Pandavas, and trying to help them in many ways and instances, including some which may not be entirely Dharmic, but, nevertheless, “polished” over and justified by stories of Poorva Janma Karmas, curses and so on and so forth.

Without the BG, Krishna of the rest of M. Bh. is a Machiavellian prince of the Yadava clan, and the Vrishni kula or sect. But, once BG got incorporated into the body of M. Bh., Krishna just soared into the heavens, literally!: I am sorry sir, This is your thought, I cant comment on this.

My Best Regards

 

[ganeshp]

Thank you sir.

Please feel free to share your analysis, if not through this blog, to my mail id - [email protected].

I would like to hear more on these lines.

Also this posting is on the "Introduction" of Bhagavad Gita. I have also started writing my Grasp on the chapters of Gita, which I will share in the coming days.

Pranams.

 

[ganeshp]

Chapter One

The Gita is rendered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, to Arjuna the son of Pandu, in the battlefield of Kurukshethra where the Pandavas and Kauravas fought for the Kingdom of Hasthinapur. Chapter one explains us as how the battlefield is observed by Dhuryodhana the elder son of Dhridharashtra and by Arjuna the son of Pandu and how both of them react to it.

Dhridharashtra, as he is blind and could not see what is happening in the battlefield is seeking the guidance of Sanjaya who has the ability to view the battlefield by sitting beside Dhridharashtra’s throne. King Dhridharashtra asks Sanjaya “After assembling in the battlefield for the fight, what did the Pandavas and the Kauravas do?”

Sanjaya responds, “After seeing the form of armies arranged by the Pandavas, King Dhuryodhana is approaching his battlehead Bishma and conveying that the armies have been arranged in a wonderful manner by the Pandavas in the battlefield of Kurukshethra, and also approaches his Guru Dronacharya to inform him about the arrangement of armies in the battlefield by the Pandavas. Dhuryodhana tells Dronacharya that Dronacharya has made a big mistake by teaching Drushtadhyuma the son of Drupada the art of war as he is the one who has arranged the armies for the Pandavas in a mighty form. Dhuryodhana also tells that he has his own army which has the great Bishma, Dronacharya, and other great warriors who have never lost any battle so far in their life. Saying so he requests all of them to help Bishma in the battlefield to fight against the Pandavas.

Now Bishma blew his conchshell to start the battle which sounded like roar of a lion. Then Krishna and Arjuna blew their mighty conchshell to indicate the beginning of the battle and also the brothers of Arjuna blew their respective conchshells. The sound of the conchshells blown by the Pandavas made a big impact in the hearts of Dhuryodhana which is mentioned in the Gita as the sign of the Kaurava’s defeat in the battle.

While describing about the sounds of the conchshells blown by the Pandavas, the Gita describes Krishna as “Hrishikesha” which means owner of all senses and that He controls the senses of only those Jivas who are His pure Devotees because those who are not a pure devotee of Krishna loses the control of senses and act as per his own sense which is out of the control of Hrishikesha and thus his so called Karma pushes him away from Him.

Once the conchshells were blown, Arjuna wants to see the armies arranged by the Kauravas more closely so that he gets an idea about the same and accordingly asks Krishna who accepted to be as Arjuna’s charioteer and also Arjuna’s friend to move the chariot forward in between the two armies so that he could view all his opponents awaiting to fight with him.

As Arjuna said, Krishna drives the chariot forward nearer to the opponent’s armies. Arjuna now sees in the armies arranged by the Kauravas his own relatives and friendsawaiting to fight against him. He sees his great Guru Bishma, Dronacharya, his cousin brothers Dhuryodhana and his other relatives and friends standing in front of him against whom he has to fight.

Since Arjuna is very kind hearted, his veins in his body started to tremble and he could not hold his own bow in his hand. He felt that it is not good to fight against his own family and friends to gain his kingdom which will be not at all a happy moment since he would have lost his own relatives and friends after he won the battle. He is ready to even go into the battlefield unarmed and get lost in the battlefield. Saying all this to Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead he dropped his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot and decided not to fight.”

 

[sarang]

Recently I came across this in another forum. The issue is why onion and garlic is prohibited for vasishnavites. The writer gave a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is 'it is not acceptable to krishna'. The long answer dealt with various mundane issues.

Many a time, it is easier to accept a solution when it is faith based or given by a person you respect, say your guru. Many NRIs who want to return to india face this dilemma; some have taken the advice of their guru and made a snap decision and never regretted it. And some who took logical decisions are like trishankus, neither here nor there.

Recently, a maharashtrian MS working in Cincinnati, and had the opportunity to join NASA, had returned to his native village on the advice of Sriravishankar, and has won in the local elections.

Mr. Ganesh,
Welcome to the forum.
Your point of view is personal to you. I have different analysis of Gita.
Your opinion seems to be colored by the Hare Krishna movement.
Then again a religious philosophy is personal, and it should satisfy your needs.

 

[KRN]

Sri Krishna in the MAhabharatam

I would disagree with the below view. I have read the Mahabharata in original Sanskrit and Sri Krishna's teaching in the BG appears in several other places as well. In fact it would make a good argument to say that the entire Mahabharata from beginning to end in various places touches upon philosophical narratives relating to the Karma theory we find in the BG. As for the Krishna character, even if we remove the BG, his personality and dharmic orientation suffers no harm, indeed he figures as a truly gigantic intellect, always striving selflessly for dharmic goals. If anyone would like further light on this, I can post specific instances, although the MBH being a vast ocean-like work it is not at all an easy task to comprehensively bring out the various instances where Sri Krishna shines as mentioned above. But really from the time he recognizes the Pandavas as the 5 brothers who are seen together at the Swayamvara of Draupadi(even before Arjuna breaks the bow), Sri Krishna starts his role on behalf of the Pandavas as well as dharma.

One of the Advaitin Gurus, Sri Shankaracharya, has always referred to Sri Krishna as Bhagavan Krishna and in his Gita-Bhashya, one of his most rounded introductions to a Bhashya, he goes into a lot of reasoning and detail on how Sri Krishna was God incarnate who appeared in human form for the protection of dharma, as well as of Brahmanatva. Excellent introduction by a revered scholar.

appears

But as a somewhat conservative-minded, advaitin tabra, I tend to believe that Gita was included (some scholarly opinion is that the Gita itself, as also very many verses in it, are later interpolations) mainly to project the Krishna character of Mahabharata, which had been that of just a king who was a relative of the Kurus (by which I refer to both Pandavas and Kauravas) and having a partiality for the Pandavas, and trying to help them in many ways and instances, including some which may not be entirely Dharmic, but, nevertheless, “polished” over and justified by stories of Poorva Janma Karmas, curses and so on and so forth.

Without the BG, Krishna of the rest of M. Bh. is a Machiavellian prince of the Yadava clan, and the Vrishni kula or sect. But, once BG got incorporated into the body of M. Bh., Krishna just soared into the heavens, literally!

 

[renuka]

I would disagree with the below view. I have read the Mahabharata in original Sanskrit and Sri Krishna's teaching in the BG appears in several other places as well. In fact it would make a good argument to say that the entire Mahabharata from beginning to end in various places touches upon philosophical narratives relating to the Karma theory we find in the BG. As for the Krishna character, even if we remove the BG, his personality and dharmic orientation suffers no harm, indeed he figures as a truly gigantic intellect, always striving selflessly for dharmic goals. If anyone would like further light on this, I can post specific instances, although the MBH being a vast ocean-like work it is not at all an easy task to comprehensively bring out the various instances where Sri Krishna shines as mentioned above. But really from the time he recognizes the Pandavas as the 5 brothers who are seen together at the Swayamvara of Draupadi(even before Arjuna breaks the bow), Sri Krishna starts his role on behalf of the Pandavas as well as dharma.

One of the Advaitin Gurus, Sri Shankaracharya, has always referred to Sri Krishna as Bhagavan Krishna and in his Gita-Bhashya, one of his most rounded introductions to a Bhashya, he goes into a lot of reasoning and detail on how Sri Krishna was God incarnate who appeared in human form for the protection of dharma, as well as of Brahmanatva. Excellent introduction by a revered scholar.

appears

Dear sir,

Well said....Bhagavad Geeta is the Karnamruta given to us by Lord Krishna.

 

[Raghy]

Greetings.

Gita as I understood.

Sri.Ganeshp said -

One, to understand the essence of Gita, must realise the following:

• That there is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead and that is none other than [COLOR=#DA7911 ! important][FONT=inherit ! important][COLOR=#DA7911 ! important][FONT=inherit ! important]Sri [/FONT][COLOR=#DA7911 ! important][FONT=inherit ! important]Krishna[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/COLOR].
• That we the material entities are part and parcel of Him, co operating with Him to satisfy Him.
• That we are materially contaminated.
• That we have to act as per His orders so that we could free ourselves from the material contamination and satisfy Him.
• That, to act as per His orders, we have to first start chanting His name daily because the referred (Supreme Personality of Godhead) and the referent (His Nama-Name) are one and the same.

There is just one god head...but that god head is anyone as you wish. It need not be Krsna at all. In the same Gita he says, you are welcome to worship any god in any form; in the end all such prayers reach me. That means, you may do as you wish and as you desire.

We are not here to satisfy him or any god. We are here to live our own life. We could live the entire life without thinking of god even for one second in the whole life- that does not matter. How we lived is more important.

Materially contaminated? you must be kidding! We are more purer than the devas! well, that's wha most puranas say anyway! In the course of our life if we amass wealth in a non-greedy, just fashion, then we are not contaminated.

Again material contamination and serve him? repeatition.

Sir, god doesn't order anyone. One doesn't even have to chant god's name even once in the whole life time. There is no shortcut to mukthi.

Cheers!

 

[Govinda]

Sri/Sir Raghy,

Your answer/reply seems based on emotion or self-opinion. Could you pl. cite Gita verses to justify your every paragraph/view [since we are referring here to the Gita]? I didnt read the views of other posters in the thread, I will do that and also comment soon.

Thanks,
Govinda.

 

[Raghy]

Sri/Sir Raghy,

Your answer/reply seems based on emotion or self-opinion. Could you pl. cite Gita verses to justify your every paragraph/view [since we are referring here to the Gita]? I didnt read the views of other posters in the thread, I will do that and also comment soon.

Thanks,
Govinda.

Sri.Govinda, Greetings.

I could be wrong in my interpretation of Gita. But then, I thought Gita should be understood for every individual as it applies to that individual anyway. I will get back to you with the verses in my mind. Kindly allow me some time, please ( I am on night shifts now. Waiting for a break). Kindly bear with me.

Cheers!

 

[S.Ramanathan]

While explaining abhirami andhadhi sri sukisivam has said that In what form we pray god we will get the benefits of that form for example If we pray kottravai we will get braveness, if we pray lakshmi we will get wealth, etc.

 

[Govinda]

Sri.Govinda, Greetings.

I could be wrong in my interpretation of Gita. But then, I thought Gita should be understood for every individual as it applies to that individual anyway. I will get back to you with the verses in my mind. Kindly allow me some time, please ( I am on night shifts now. Waiting for a break). Kindly bear with me.

Cheers!

Greetings you too! Take your time.

 

[Raghy]

Greetings you too! Take your time.

Sri. Govinda, Greetings.

Like said earlier in post #12, I could be wrong in my interpretation of Gita verses. I lost motivation and enthusism to take part in discussions. So, kindly pardon me; presently I do not feel like taking part in this discussion ( for that matter, in any discussions). Sorry!

Cheers!

 

[prasad1]

Gadadhara Pandit Dasa: Bhagavad Gita: You Are Not The Body
Bhagavad Gita: You Are Not The Body
Gadadhara Pandit DasaHindu Chaplain, Columbia University and New York University said:
"Krishna dedicates the entire first section of chapter two to explaining this concept to Arjuna and to all the readers. The basic point that Krishna wants to drive home is that we have been identifying ourselves with something that we're not. That we've been identifying with something temporary and material as opposed to something spiritual and eternal. It's a classic case of mistaken identity."

 

[renuka]

Gadadhara Pandit Dasa: Bhagavad Gita: You Are Not The Body
Bhagavad Gita: You Are Not The Body
Gadadhara Pandit DasaHindu Chaplain, Columbia University and New York University said:
"Krishna dedicates the entire first section of chapter two to explaining this concept to Arjuna and to all the readers. The basic point that Krishna wants to drive home is that we have been identifying ourselves with something that we're not. That we've been identifying with something temporary and material as opposed to something spiritual and eternal. It's a classic case of mistaken identity."

That means our life is so real yet so false.

 

[Govinda]

That means our life is so real yet so false.

A small correction..

That means, our self is though finite yet eternal, that all else (our life/body) that are temporary are there to serve and nurture our self.

That also means, the Greater Self (Creator) is the most powerful, eternal, infinite self, that this finite self is there to serve.

maya tatam idam sarvam
jagad avyakta-murtina
mat-sthani sarva-bhutani
na caham tesv avasthitah 9.4 Gita

​

By Me, in My unmanifested form (Brahman), this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.
mamaivamso jiva-loke

jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati 15.7 Gita

The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.
​

HE is the supersoul and all beings are part of Him, and hence subservient to HIM.

 

[renuka]

A small correction..

That means, our self is though finite yet eternal, that all else (our life/body) that are temporary are there to serve and nurture our self.

That also means, the Greater Self (Creator) is the most powerful, eternal, infinite self, that this finite self is there to serve.

dear sir,

Agreed..but does it really just stop there?
I see elements of Vishistadvaita in your post.
So do you personally believe the relationship of the Infinite and Finite just ends there?

Feedback please.