Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita-2.8 Swami Krishnananda

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18/03.2020.
2. The First Chapter – Vishadha Yogam, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-8.

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1.

#Arjuna was an epic representation of the internal chaos that one may have to face in the beginning of spiritual life. I am describing the initial stages of spiritual life, not the advanced conditions where we are receiving something positively : 

## “Great confusion—I have lost everything. I have lost my father and mother. I have no friends here, and nobody talks to me. I am sick. I have achieved nothing. I have no guidance, no teachings. I will go crazy.” 

###A spiritual seeker may feel like that, and run about here and there. Sometimes, to save themselves from going mad, they go on travelling from place to place. That is also a way. If we are very angry, and take a long walk, our anger comes down. But, finally, these tactics will not take us anywhere. The reason is that we have not properly founded ourselves on the correct appreciation of values.

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2.

*Whether to renounce the world or not renounce the world—who told us what is to be done? 

**Has anybody told us that it is necessary to renounce the world? 

***Something has been told to us by our elders. Something is told in some scripture. Is it because of the statement of some book that we are trying to kick the world out? 

****Or have we got any actual reason for it? 

*****Is there a rational ground for our feeling that the world has to be renounced? 

#I think very few people will give an answer to this question: What is the rational ground for our renouncing the world? 

##Is it because we want God? 

###We will find that this is a very horrible question, and we will not have a rational ground. Let the scriptures say that, let the Bible or the Gita say that, let the Gurus say that; nobody will help us here. When we are drowning, no Gita will come to our rescue. Nobody will come. Our own conscience will come.

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3.

#Thus, Arjuna’s difficulty is a spiritual difficulty; it is a spiritual crisis in which he found himself. In an epic manner, Vyasa describes this chaos of the spiritual seeker who was otherwise very adventurous and who went forward to face the battle of life, but who immediately became diffident and threw down his weapons. 

##“No japa, no meditation, no book-reading helps. I am unable to do anything,” Arjuna said.

To be continued ...

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