The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita : 2. Sri Swami Chidananda

17/07/2019
2. Gita the Mother :

Therefore, it was that the father of our nation the late Mahatma Gandhiji of revered memory said that he regarded the Gita as his own mother, by which he meant to say that his very life had been sustained by the Bhagavad Gita, that his thoughts, his feelings, his philosophy, had been nourished by the soul-elevating and strengthening Upadesha of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. As a representative of our nation Mahatmaji expressed by this utterance what Gita ought to be to every Indian. He desired thereby that every Indian, every son of Bharatavarsha ought to make Gita his own, to enshrine the knowledge and the philosophy of the Gita in the chambers of his heart, to illumine his life by the bright flame of Gita-Jnana. It is this pride of Bharatian culture, this gem in the Bharatian culture, Mother Gita, that has ever been the soul of Indian philosophy.

It is precisely for this reason that, even though it is just a small book of 700 verses, a mere exposition forming part of a greater epic poem, the Mahabharata, yet it has been given the unique place of one among our Prasthanatraya, and no great saint or scholar or Acharya worth the name has failed to comment upon it. Gita has received equal reverence at the hands of every one of the leaders of religion. All great Acharyas, all great saints, all great men of realisation and scholars have ever taken the Gita to be an authority and have also drawn from it and built up their philosophy. What is more: in the West, many a great and deep thinker has not at all hesitated to accept and avow frankly his debt to this great supreme scripture of scriptures. Emerson, for instance, was only too ready to accept that Gita had been a great factor in molding his thought and his attitude towards life. Such is the glory of this great star in the firmament of our Hindu scriptures.

Next : 3. The Scripture for All

To be continued ....

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