The Importance of the Bhagavadgita-1 : Swami Krishnananda

05/02/2019
(Gita Jayanti Message spoken on December 26, 1982.)
1.

The uttered word or the spoken language is essentially a vibration, and when words are spoken by the operation of the mechanism of speech in a properly conducted manner it sets up a power and a force which materialises itself into the effect, the intention behind the word or the speech. There is an old saying of Bhavabhuti, the great poet, that in the case of ordinary people, speech follows existent things; in the case of great Masters, things follow their speech.

We cannot speak things which are contrary to observable facts. We follow the course of nature in the utterance of words. We are conditioned by an external atmosphere and a mandate, and accordingly we utter words or express ourselves. But in the case of the superior ones who are not ordinary persons, things have to obey their words. Whatever they utter will take place, whether or not it is really there at present. Such force of expression, power of speech, is possible only in the case of great Masters who are tuned up in their being with the will of God, the course of nature or the purpose of all existence, as it is called.

Our solemn observation, our worship, our austerity, our ceremony and sanctified behaviour during occasions of divine worship of some kind or the other is an acceptance into our own personal lives of the presence of such miraculous operations behind nature. The observance of the Bhagavadgita Jayanti today as marking the holy event of a great gospel coming into the midst of mankind is such an instance of our humble attempt to participate in something larger than the human realm of life and existence.

The Bhagavadgita was spoken by Bhagavan Sri Krishna. This is what we are told and what we read, and we have also some information about how it all came about some thousands of years ago. Its meaning has become a point of great concentration, study and analysis of research even today due to the self-transcending and intriguing meanings which seem to be hidden beneath its words because these words, recorded for us as the Bhagavadgita, are visible embodiments in the poetic language of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa of some divine miracle which must have taken place at the commencement of that great historical event we call the Mahabharata war.

It has to be considered a miracle because no one can say how Sri Krishna spoke, in what language, what words were used, and how much time he took. There are versions after versions about this mystery, all which do not touch even the fringe of the difficulty involved in understanding how it all came about and what exactly was the method adopted by Bhagavan Sri Krishna in thus speaking this gospel to Arjuna.

Did he speak as we are speaking? In which language did he speak? And naturally he did not speak in verses, because these verses are compositions of the poet Vyasa. Nobody speaks in poems when giving instructions to people. There was some divine insurgence of power, and again we have to come to the word ‘miracle’ for want of better terms, which entered the personality of Arjuna and spoke as God would speak. How does God speak when He speaks to His devotees? What language does He use?

To be continued ...