The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 13.1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, August 11, 2021. 9:33. PM.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
CHAPTER-13. The Supremely Friendly Power - 1.
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)
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The first three chapters of the Bhagavadgita have a more or less technical character, and they are analytic in nature. Ethical, moral, philosophical are the issues that are described and discussed, and the themes get more and more pronounced in seriousness as the teaching proceeds further and further. And, at the same time, it also becomes more and more involved in different kinds of issues, almost making us feel that we are not fully confident as to where we are placed. Our placement in the context of the teachings seems to be difficult to decipher clearly, and a hard nut to crack, as it were, is presented to us in a pithy message that is bequeathed, especially through the Third Chapter. We get frightened, to some extent, because of the feeling of diffidence due to our own finitude, a secret sense of helplessness and a simultaneous feeling of doubt whether anything is possible at all.

In this wondrous atmosphere of intricate arrangements which we call the world, this universe, this cosmos, things seems to be theoretically clear and to some extent intellectually capable of grasp, but they do not appear to be anywhere near our practical life. This teaching has not yet entered our kitchen. It is only in the academy, in the university; but in our bedroom, in our kitchen, on our dining table, it is not there, and the realities are only these little things, not what we hear in the universities. So there is a fear gripping the heart of the student: What about my ability to make this knowledge a part of my program of life?

In spite of listening to any amount of teaching, the fear of weakness consequent upon limitation and finitude in every sense of the term persists. No one can forget that one is limited, finite, and weak in every field of relationship. There is socially a great limitation put on us; physically and mentally we are limited. Even in our understanding through the reason we are limited. Everything seems to be a constraint that has been put on us such that it does not appear that the superior content of this message has any vital relevance to our life.

The Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is an opening of a new avenue. A beam of light of a different character is shed on the floundering mind of the student. A new thought, a new possibility, and a new support seems to be made available to us. It is something about which nothing was mentioned earlier, something which was kept secret up to this time, as it were, the need to mention which evidently did not arise, but the mention of it is imperative in the light of a comprehensiveness of the presentation of the teaching.

To be continued ....

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