The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 6.4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
Chapter 6: Beauty and Duty in the Bhagavadgita-4.
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)
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1.
In the Bhagavadgita we have the presentation of a great beauty, and also the explanation of a great duty. Both these things are there. God is the centre of the supreme duty incumbent upon everyone in creation, and God is also the greatest beauty. The cosmic form, the Visvarupa Darshana, was the pinnacle of beauty, grandeur, and magnificence. It was also the explanation of duty. In that picturesque miracle which is feebly explained before us in the words of the poet, a staggering reality is envisioned. ‘Staggering’ is the only word I can use, because our heads will become giddy thinking that. We will become giddy if we begin to think what beauty is. We will also become giddy if we begin to know what duty is. These are the two things which will make our heads reel. A person who is absorbed in the true conception of duty ceases to be an ordinary human being, and one who knows what beauty is also is not an ordinary individual.

2.
Poets and sages, therefore, are superhuman. They do not speak an ordinary human style, though it appears they employ the medium of human expression through a brush or through a pen. Whatever be the medium that they employ, it matters not; their intention is the same. So the human crowd of individual understanding that brought about that gathering of people in the battlefield of Kurukshetra found that it cannot explain itself. It appeared that everything is clear. In the earlier stages, everything seems to be fine. Yes, we understand, but when we are face to face with a dark screen or thick wall, we find we cannot penetrate through it.

3.
So everything was clear to everybody; otherwise, why should they gather there in such a large crowd? But when the inward constituents of human nature were brought to the surface of direct action, they told each individual, “You are not intended to understand us.” A confused presentation of ideas is the picture of the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita – an individual man speaking, and an individual speaking his ideas of some situation which is not necessarily human and individual.

To be continued ...

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