A Study of the Bhagavadgita -1.7 Swami Krishnananda
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28/11/2019.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Bhagavadgita - 7
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God speaks to man in the Bhagavadgita.
It is not an individual Krishna that speaks to Arjuna.
The symbology, the cosmicality, the inner suggestiveness that is immanent in the entire epic of the Mahabharatam is something that you have to read between the lines.
Poets do not merely write lines; great poets also write something between the lines.
That is the grandeur of the poet. You may read Valmiki and Vyasa, They do not merely tell you their words, but they also tell you something which they have not spoken through the words; that is the spirit of the poetry.
It is that which is between the lines, in between the words, that stirs you, stimulates you, enraptures you and causes you to read it again and again. The words, of course, are noted everywhere. Every word in the Mahabharatam, can be regarded as unknown to you.
But why is it that Vyasa Maharishi inspires you?
It is not merely the words, but the adjustment of the words, the force that the words are expected to generate by their compilation in a particular manner. That is the poet’s power. Poetry inspires you much more than prose – especially great poetry, epic poetry.
Vyasa’s Mahabharatam, Valmiki’s Ramayanam, or whatever it is, is some such great example which stimulates you from the heart. What is it that attracts you?
It is something you yourself cannot know – a spirit that is operating behind the presentation. The poet’s imagination catches you. The battlefield of the Mahabharatam, the war that was the occasion for the delivery of the Bhagavadgita, is therefore not merely a local event to which we are making reference.
So when you study the Gita, it is not enough if you merely read the words and understand them grammatically. In almost every good translation or commentary of the Gita, you will find exact grammatical meanings of each Sanskrit word are given; the same thing is arranged in a prose order, and you have the translation. This is good enough.
Very few commentaries will go beyond the mere translation and the meaning of the words.
There is an old saying that Sri Krishna alone knows what he said, Arjuna knows something of it, the great Suka Rishi knows it, Vyasa knows it, and nobody else can be said to know it entirely.
The spirit of the cosmos manifested itself at the time of the delivery of the gospel. The Universal Spirit manifested itself at one stroke, as if the whole world stood up and spoke.
Can you imagine how you would receive the gospel if the entire universe stands before you and speaks to you from every corner?
Every leaf in the tree speaks, and every atom vibrates and has a tongue before you, which will give you a message. Everywhere is gospel, the whole world coming from all sides. The entire space is speaking to you. What will you feel at that time?
You will shudder from the roots of your being. This happened to Arjuna when the Cosmic Spirit manifested itself; his very roots shook. You can never imagine a condition in which the whole cosmos will speak to you. You have seen only one or two persons speaking to you, or ten people shouting at you.
This is all that you know. But can you imagine the entire world speaking to you at one stroke – not merely this Earth, but the whole of creation speaking to you from every nook and corner?
That circumstance was stirred up by the conditions described in the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.
To be continued ...
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========================================================================
28/11/2019.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Bhagavadgita - 7
========================================================================
God speaks to man in the Bhagavadgita.
It is not an individual Krishna that speaks to Arjuna.
The symbology, the cosmicality, the inner suggestiveness that is immanent in the entire epic of the Mahabharatam is something that you have to read between the lines.
Poets do not merely write lines; great poets also write something between the lines.
That is the grandeur of the poet. You may read Valmiki and Vyasa, They do not merely tell you their words, but they also tell you something which they have not spoken through the words; that is the spirit of the poetry.
It is that which is between the lines, in between the words, that stirs you, stimulates you, enraptures you and causes you to read it again and again. The words, of course, are noted everywhere. Every word in the Mahabharatam, can be regarded as unknown to you.
But why is it that Vyasa Maharishi inspires you?
It is not merely the words, but the adjustment of the words, the force that the words are expected to generate by their compilation in a particular manner. That is the poet’s power. Poetry inspires you much more than prose – especially great poetry, epic poetry.
Vyasa’s Mahabharatam, Valmiki’s Ramayanam, or whatever it is, is some such great example which stimulates you from the heart. What is it that attracts you?
It is something you yourself cannot know – a spirit that is operating behind the presentation. The poet’s imagination catches you. The battlefield of the Mahabharatam, the war that was the occasion for the delivery of the Bhagavadgita, is therefore not merely a local event to which we are making reference.
So when you study the Gita, it is not enough if you merely read the words and understand them grammatically. In almost every good translation or commentary of the Gita, you will find exact grammatical meanings of each Sanskrit word are given; the same thing is arranged in a prose order, and you have the translation. This is good enough.
Very few commentaries will go beyond the mere translation and the meaning of the words.
There is an old saying that Sri Krishna alone knows what he said, Arjuna knows something of it, the great Suka Rishi knows it, Vyasa knows it, and nobody else can be said to know it entirely.
The spirit of the cosmos manifested itself at the time of the delivery of the gospel. The Universal Spirit manifested itself at one stroke, as if the whole world stood up and spoke.
Can you imagine how you would receive the gospel if the entire universe stands before you and speaks to you from every corner?
Every leaf in the tree speaks, and every atom vibrates and has a tongue before you, which will give you a message. Everywhere is gospel, the whole world coming from all sides. The entire space is speaking to you. What will you feel at that time?
You will shudder from the roots of your being. This happened to Arjuna when the Cosmic Spirit manifested itself; his very roots shook. You can never imagine a condition in which the whole cosmos will speak to you. You have seen only one or two persons speaking to you, or ten people shouting at you.
This is all that you know. But can you imagine the entire world speaking to you at one stroke – not merely this Earth, but the whole of creation speaking to you from every nook and corner?
That circumstance was stirred up by the conditions described in the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.
To be continued ...
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