Essential message of Bhagavad Gita (part 2)

Arjuna’s dilemma

In part 1 of the article, we looked at the historical background and the events that lead to the Kurukshetra war. As we saw, Arjuna, on seeing all his relatives, cousins, teachers, elders etc. across the battle line, refuses to fight and lays down his bow and arrow. He feels despondent and dejected and finally requests Krishna to show him the right path:

Arjuna seeks Krishna’s guidance

“I am totally confused about what my duty is, I have lost my mental balance and unable to decide what is right and wrong, and am feeling weak. As your disciple, I request you to please guide me and tell me with certainty as to what is best for me.” (Gita 2.7)

The message of Gita begins with verse 11, Chapter 2. The rest of the Gita is a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna wherein Krishna unfolds the “wisdom of life”. Of course, the main thrust of Krishna’s message is to convince Arjuna that, being a member of the warrior class (kshatriya), it is his duty to fight the war to uphold dharma and root out evil. In the course of his message, Krishna talks about a large number of topics related to life, death, the soul, our duty in life, how to attain salvation and many more.

Spiritual symbolism

Many authors who have written commentaries on the Gita have mentioned that the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas can be considered as a war that is constantly going on within us all the time. Our negative ego and the pure intellect are always vying for supremacy over the other. Unfortunately, in our current situation, it is the ego that ends up being the winner on most occasions. That happens to be the cause of all our suffering.

Paramahansa Yogananda, in his commentary on the Gita, “God talks with Arjuna”, gives a very detailed description of this symbolism. He provides a chart that represents all the major characters in the Gita, starting all the way back to Shantanu, and provides their symbolic counterpart within us all. Below is the symbolism for the most important of the characters that take part in the war:

• Dhritrashtra (father of one hundred Kauravas): negative sense-driven mind (negative ego)
• Duryodhana: lustful desire
• Ninety-nine other Kauravas: sense tendencies
• Pandu (father of the five Pandavas): Buddhi (pure intellect)
• Yudhishthira: vibratory ether element
• Bhima: vibratory air element
• Arujna: vibratory fire element
• Nakula: vibratory water element
• Sahadeva: vibratory earth element

Moreover, Yogananda has provided the following list of 100 negative sense tendencies represented by the 100 Kauravas:

Material desire; anger; greed; avarice; hate; jealousy; wickedness; lust; sex attachment, abuse, and promiscuity; dishonesty; meanness; cruelty; ill will; desire to hurt others; destructive instinct; unkindness; harshness of speech and thought; impatience; covetousness; selfishness; arrogance; conceit; pride of caste or social birth; racial pride; false sense of delicacy; high-handedness; saucy temper; ill feeling; quarrelsome attitude; inharmoniousness; re- vengefulness; sensitive feelings; physical laziness; lack of initiative; cowardice; absentmindedness and mental sloth; spiritual indifference; un- willingness to meditate; spiritual procrastination; impurity of body, mind, and soul; disloyalty to God; ungratefulness to God; stupidity; mental weakness; disease-consciousness; lack of vision; littleness of mind; lack of foresight; physical, mental, and spiritual ignorance; impulsiveness; fickle-mindedness; sense attachment; enjoyment in seeing evil, listening to evil, tasting evil, smelling evil, touching evil; thinking, willing, feeling, speaking, remembering, and doing evil; fear of disease and death; worry; superstition; swearing; immoderation; too much sleeping; too much eating; dissimulation; pretense of goodness; partiality; doubt; moroseness; pessimism; bitterness; dissatisfaction; shunning God; and postponing meditation. 

Main themes in Gita

The Bhagavad Gita, in its 18 chapters and 700 verses, presents a large number of key concepts and themes. Several of the ideas presented seem to be repeated in many chapters with just a slight change in their wording. Some of the concepts like non-attachment, getting rid of desires, unconditional surrender to the supreme Self, etc. appear multiple times in many chapters. I am presenting below some of the key concepts presented in the Gita. I have picked just a few representative verses to illustrate each of these concepts.

Four paths to enlightenment

As per the Gita, the main purpose of human life is to attain salvation so one is freed from the cycle of “samsara” or life-death-rebirth. However, there is no single approach that can be prescribed to attain that goal. Every individual has different tendencies, background, intellectual capability etc. The Gita delineates the following four paths to attain self-realization. We must keep in mind that these paths are not mutually exclusive. In fact, as one goes deeper into their spiritual journey, many of these paths begin to merge together.

Karma yoga

Karma yoga is the yoga of selfless action (niṣkāmakarma). That means one should do all the rightful actions without getting attached to the expected outcome of the actions. We are helplessly driven to action all the time. The actions are propelled by our inherent tendencies, called samskaras, which are driven by the three gunas – sattva (purity), rajas (action) and tamas (dullness).

• Just as the embodied soul continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, the soul passes into another body. The wise are not deluded by this. (2.13)
• Treating pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike, engage yourself in your duty and fight, thus you will not incur any sin. (2.38)
• Your right is for action alone, never for the results. Do not become the agent of the results of action. May you not have any attachment for inaction. (2.47)
• Do your duty to the best of your ability, O Arjuna, with your mind attached to the Lord, abandoning worry and selfish attachment to the results, and remaining calm in both success and failure. Evenness of mind is called yoga. (2.48)
• Everyone is forced to act helplessly, driven by the three modes of material nature (the three gunas); therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment (3.5)
• Therefore, remaining unattached, always perform the obligatory duty. By performing (one’s) duty without attachment, a person attains the Supreme. (3.19)
• Actions are being performed in every way by the Gunas of Prakrti (sattva, rajas, tamas). He whose nature is deluded by egoism, thinks, ‘I am the doer.’ (3.27)
• He who gives up attachment to action and their fruits, is independent and ever content;  such a person though engaged in activity does nothing at all and incurs no Karmic reaction. (4.20)

Jnana yoga

Jnana means knowledge or wisdom. It is not the knowledge that one obtains by reading books or by listening to others. It is the knowledge one attains experientially through deep states of meditation or by understanding the highest truth about our true identity contained in the ancient scriptures. 

Through Jnana yoga, one understands that the soul is eternal, whereas the complex of body, mind, intellect, and the sense faculties are ephemeral. At the time of death, the physical body merges back into the five gross elements whereas the subtle body goes through cycles of transmigration.

• Death is certain for one who is born. Birth is certain of that which is dead. Therefore, you should not lament over the inevitable. (2.27)
• Relinquishing egotism, violence, and self-centered arrogance; abandoning craving, anger, and the selfish power of possessiveness; unselfish and resting in the peace of the supreme vision—such a person is fit for oneness with Brahman. (18.53)
• Constant contemplation on the knowledge pertaining to the Self, reflection for the attainment of knowledge of the truth – this is declared to be knowledge, and what is contrary to it is ignorance. (13.12)

Bhakti yoga

The concept of Bhakti Yoga, yoga of total devotion and surrender to the Lord, plays a very important role in the Gita. In almost every chapter, Krishna urges Arjuna to “surrender to me” in one form of another.

Bhakti (devotion) is a very deep, intense emotion of love of the devotee for the Supreme being. It’s the purest, most beautiful form of love and surrender where the devotee feels a deep, inner connection with God.

• Whatsoever form (of a deity) any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that (same) faith of his firm and unflinching. (7.21)
• Whoever offers Me with true devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I accept this offering made with deep devotion by him who is pure of heart. (9.26)
• He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, ever content, steady in meditation, self-controlled, possessed of firm conviction, with the mind and intellect dedicated to Me, that devtoee is dear to Me. (12.13, 12.14)
• O son of Kunti, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as a sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever austerities you undertake, do all that as an offering to Me. (9.27)

Dhyana yoga

Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita is devoted to the discussion of Dhyana Yoga or how to control the mind so the yogi can dedicate all his actions at the feet of the Lord. Some commentators have labeled Dhyana Yoga as Raja yoga (royal yoga) which is very similar to the yoga described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.

• A yogi should constantly concentrate his mind by staying in a solitary place, alone, with mind and body controlled, free from expectations, (and) free from desire for possessions. (6.10)
• When the perfectly controlled mind, free from longing for all the objects of desires, rests in the Self only, then it is said to be established in Yoga. (6.18)
• In a previous verse Arjuna says that the mind is turbulent and almost impossible to control. In response, Krishna says, undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is restless and difficult to control; but by practice and by dispassion it can be restrained. (6.35)
• Even among all the yogis, he who adores Me with his mind fixed on Me and with faith, he is considered by Me to be the best of the yogis. (6.47)

In part 3 of the article, I will present some of the main themes discussed in the Gita.

To be continued …