Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

01/02/2019 Sri Krishna’s Brindavanam and Dvarka Lilas : 4 The contrary nature that is so remarkably seen in Bhagavan Sri Krishna cannot be seen in anyone else. Whatever he did, and whatever he said, had this characteristic of a blending of contrary features which are not easily reconcilable. Even the Bhagavadgita that he taught is of such a nature: it is a winding argument which leads nowhere, if it is read carelessly. Throughout his life, he played this role of wonderful activity which was justifiable from his point of view, but nobody could understand what he was up to. The first part of the Tenth Skandha of the Srimad Bhagavata occupies itself with these pranks of the child Krishna, and while every action of his was superhuman, he made it still worse by engaging himself in a dramatic performance called the Rasa Lila, which cannot be seen in the life of any other person in the world. Here again we have a mystery that transcends human reason because there are no men and wo

31/01/2019 (Spoken on Sri Krishna Janmashtami, August 25, 1978) 4. This agony can be stated to be a restlessness of the spirit in ourselves. It is not a call from the body or mind merely; it is not the call of outer life merely, but a call of the total that we really are. And this totality is not confined merely to our individual personalities; there is an individual totality. For example, we are totals in ourselves, each person is complete in himself or herself, but we are satisfied with being ourselves alone. We have a social sense which keeps us being head-on into contact with other persons and things in life so that we are not satisfied with our own individuality. This is because the perfection that we are, the completeness that our individuality is, is not a real completeness. It is a segmentation of a larger perfection, as it were, to which we are obliged to move. This is why in spite of individual perfection, academic qualification to the top level, even possession of

30/01/2019 4. 4.1 Krishna met the Pandavas now and then even while they were in exile, encouraging them with comforting words and promise of help to vanquish their foes and regain the kingdom. The incidents of Krishna's miraculous help to Draupadi in the form of unending clothes in the court of the Kauravas and his sudden appearance before her in the forest and demanding of her a little food by the acceptance of which he filled the stomachs of sage Durvasa and his large following of disciples are too well-known to need any description. On the completion of the period of exile by the Pandavas, Krishna arranged for a conference in the court of Virata to decide the question of taking up arms against the Kauravas. As a measure of intelligent statesmanship, Krishna, however, accepted to go for a mission of peace with the Kauravas, though he knew well that the mission was not going to serve its purpose. As he himself expressed in his talk with Yudhishthira, it was more a d

29/01/2019 The Tree of Life : Srimad Bhagavad Gita : 1.9 Chapter- 1: The Twofold Character of Cosmic Life-9. Post - 9. The powers of prakriti are nothing but the powers of the whole of nature. We cannot know what nature is, what prakriti is, because we are a part of it. It is not outside us. This is another difficulty before us. A thing that is outside us can be seen and examined through a microscope or a powerful instrument in a laboratory, but how can we examine that in which we ourselves are involved? A study of nature automatically becomes a study of man. To know things is to know oneself. This uncomfortable truth automatically follows from the fact of the involvement of human nature in cosmic nature. The world is not outside us, nor is it inside us because as a limb of the body hangs inseparably in its relation to the organism of the body, we hang inseparably in relation to nature as a whole. To understand anything will appear to be like understanding everything, just a

14/01/2019 Srimad Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam) Slokam-29. "Samam  pasyan  hi  sarvatra  samavasthitamisvaram, na  hinastyatmanatmanam  tato  yati  param  gatim." hi  sarvatra  =  why  because,  everywhere; samam  sama - svasthitam  =  equally,  equally  situated  ( just  like  one ); isvaram    pasyan  =  seeing  the  Supreme Lord  ( Paramatma ); atmana  atmanam  =  by  atma  ( by  the  mind )  the  atma  ( jiva ); na  hinasti  =  will  not  destroy  ( does not  degrade ); tatah  param  gatim  yati  =  because  of  that,  attains  parama-padham ( then  reaches  the transcendental  destination ). "One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination." Discussion : The living entity, by accepting his material existence as just so much suffering, can become situated in his spiritual existence. If o

13/01/2019 (Spoken on Gita Jayanti in 1973) A Synthesis of Thought and Action-3 3.1 In the life of Bhagavan Sri Krishna we have a pictorial representation of what the Bhagavadgita ideal of life should be, ought to be. We have in the glorious life of Bhagavan Sri Krishna a representation of the doctrines of the Bhagavadgita in practical life. The understanding of the nature of life is a presupposition of understanding the meaning of the gospel of the Bhagavadgita. It is very difficult to make out what is actually the sense that the Gita ultimately conveys to man, on account of which hundreds of commentaries on it have cropped up like mushrooms – not one giving the entire meaning of it, and not any one of the commentaries being capable of being regarded as redundant. Every commentary gives an aspect of the truth of it, but not the whole of it. The Bhagavadgita is such a totality of approach that even Bhagavan Sri Krishna declined to tell it a second time when Arjuna requested

12/01/2019 3. In the battlefield of our life, we are not fighting against other people but we often have to choose between right and wrong and try and do things that are appropriate to situations. Most problems occur in our life because we do not have a guide, a book or a road map that tells us which way to go. If the Bhagavad Gita is followed, listened to and understood, it will help us to make the right choice. It is a very clear guide that outlines for us various alternatives and paths that one is faced with. It clearly demarcates the right path that one should choose when faced with a doubtful situation.  It is said “To be or not to be is the question.” Our situation very often in life is the same, when we do not know how to act, deal with others and face life’s problems. Often we think we know the right path but when it is time to act, we develop doubts. We often have second thoughts and start vacillating. At such occasions the Srimad Bhagavad Gita is our best guide.

11/01/2019 Sri Krishna’s Brindavanam and Dvarka Lilas : 3 3.1 The lilas, or the plays of God in the form of Sri Krishna, have been inscrutable right from the beginning. The very purpose of the play of God is to manifest those realities which are beyond human comprehension—to stultify human thought, paralyse all human action, stun the individual ego, and transform human nature into divine nature. Everything is a miracle right from the beginning of Sri Krishna’s life—his birth in a prison, the prison doors opening automatically, the crossing of the Yamuna River, and the various fantastic scenes that are associated with him in the Vrindavana Lila. Boisterous, naughty and uncontrollable is the nature that Sri Krishna demonstrated right from childhood. He was not a simple, obedient, calm and quiet child. He was disobedient, boisterous, rebellious, independent in every way, and if anybody interfered with his independence, he would react with consternation, a wonder which surpass

10/01/2019 3.1 While the early life of Krishna stimulates the tenderness of divine devotion and love for a spiritual union with God through Madhurya Bhakti or romantic aspiration and a silent melting of oneself in his sweetness, his later life opens an entirely new chapter in the book of human evolution, and stirs in one's mind Aisvarya Bhakti or devotion by an irresistible attraction for the glory of his power and knowledge. 3.2 Krishna closes his sportful life as a child and an adolescent with the destruction of Kamsa, and suddenly assumes a stern outlook of life and turns his attention to the work of freeing the world from all sources of wickedness. The first serious opponent whom Krishna had to meet was Jarasandha, king of Magadha, a worshipper of Rudra and a menace to all good and Sattvika natures. He  attacked Mathura repeatedly and, after being harassed several times, Krishna and his elder brother Balarama determined to rout his forces, sparing his life alone to all

09/01/2019 (Spoken on Sri Krishna Janmashtami, August 25, 1978) 3.1 What I mean to say is, there is a novel feature present everywhere in life, inside as well as outside, which, as I mentioned earlier, is something which can be designated only by the word ‘perfection’. What we want is perfection; it is everything, and nothing short of it. Though the grammatical meaning of the word is apparently clear to all people – we know what perfection means – the deeper implications of this grammatical significance may not be clear to our mental eye. What is the type of perfection that we require? There is, for example, bodily perfection, to take only one example – physical perfection, the build-up of the body in a perfect manner so that it may be regarded as physiologically or muscularly complete in itself. But we will find that this is not the only thing that we need in life. A person who is muscularly fit and bodily perfect may be mentally deficient, and then we will again feel a lac

08/01/2019 The Tree of Life : Srimad Bhagavad Gita : 1.8 Chapter- 1: The Twofold Character of Cosmic Life-8. Post - 8. The mind likes variety because it is a slave of this impulse of self-expression into the variety of experience. We are not masters; we are utter slaves of something which is handling us as puppets. This power is everywhere in the world; it is not only in the body of a particular individual. That is why it is called cosmic prakriti. The gunas of prakriti are cosmic powers which compel every individual, right from the lowest electron to the highest orbs of the solar system. All these are dancing like puppets, marionettes, by the strings that are operated upon by these powers of nature called sattva, rajas and tamas, which are the constituents of prakriti. Visualising this horror of life due to which we seem to have no voice in anything whatsoever in this world, thinkers such as Schopenhauer in the West pictured a dark form before us, and said life is nothing b