Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam) Slokam-34. ( Very  important  slokam  ) "yatha  prakasayatyekah  kstsnam  lokamimam  ravih, kshetram  kshetri  tatha  krtsnam   prakasayati  bharata." *( O Arjuna, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness. ) bharata  ekah  ravih  =  O  Arjuna, the  one  only  Sun; kstsnam  imam   lokam  =  this  whole  world  completely; yatha  prakasayati,  tatha  =  illuminates,  likewise; kshetri   krtsnam  kshetram   prakasayati  =  the  atma  illuminates  all  bodies. Discussion : It may be even further postulated that paramatma the all pervading Supreme Soul may be existing eq...

15/05/2019 (Gita Jayanti Message spoken on December 26, 1982.) 5. Thus, the Bhagavadgita, in the language it is written today, is not merely an instrument of communicating divine knowledge to us, but it is divine grace descending upon us. It is holy, supremely sanctified. The vibrations that the Bhagavadgita recitations set up are said to be in tune with, en rapport with, the vibrations which emanated from the mind of Vyasa himself, or perhaps the vibrations of the Supreme Being, the Viratsvarupa, God Himself, when he dictated this great gospel to Lord Ganesha. Sarva sastra mayi gita: All the sciences of human life are explained in some way, in some verse, in some place or some context or the other of the Bhagavadgita. All the shastras are there; you need not read any other book. This one book is sufficient to unravel the mystery of the human predicament. You would have yourself observed that when you glance through any page, any verse, any word of the Bhagavadgita text, you ...

14/05/2019 (Spoken on July 15, 1979.) 2. Hence, the stages of yoga commence right from matters concerning our down-to-earth life. We are not merely conscious of our physical limitations but are also intensely anxious about our social involvements, and we cannot deny this fact. How can we suddenly rise to the universal thought of God? There are occasions when many of us feel that work is a bondage. We have no time due to our being busy in the office or having to do a lot of work in the management of the family, etc. One feels oftentimes tired of this daily routine, and there are occasions when we are impelled by sentiments of renunciation occasioned by the sufferings caused by involvements in work and responsibility. Here we have to strike a very cautious note so that we may not be mistaken in the assessment of the position we occupy in this world. We cannot deny that hunger and fear of death are realities. Opprobrium that can be cast on us by society is also a reality. Thes...

13/05/2019 Chapter 1.1.5 1.Introduction -5. They say this was the condition prevailing once upon a time in the Golden Age of creation; we call it Krita Yuga in Sanskrit. There are four yugas: Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. It is said that in Krita Yuga there was no government. It was not necessary at all, because each one was one hundred percent capable of appreciating the needs of another. It is very difficult to imagine such a state of affairs. Each one knew his duty or her duty. Nobody need say, “Do this”; nobody need say, “Don’t do this.” Everyone knew what was to be done and what was not to be done. That was the golden age of humanity, called the Krita Yuga. But the Krita Yuga did not always prevail. The intrusion of difference in ideologies, ideas and perspectives of life began to show its head in the Treta Yuga. Then there was felt a need to create a force which would bring all these differences into a state of harmony. If two people do not agree...

11/05/2019 (Spoken on Gita Jayanti in 1974) 3. Here comes the Bhagavadgita to comfort us, to console us, to solace us, and to tell us that everything is all right. Nothing is wrong in this world and there need not be despair either in the religious attitude or in the secular attitude. It may be emphasised that here in the Bhagavadgita we have an eternal message of the reconciliation between the empirical and the transcendental, the secular and the religious, the human and the divine, the relative and the Absolute, the visible and the invisible, the matter of fact that is before us and the glorious ideal that is beckoning us with its relentless and resistless force ever since the creation of the world. Now, what is this reconciliation that the Bhagavadgita offers us? What is its message to mankind, to humankind, to everyone? The message is precisely the message of duty because we are faced with a problem of what we are expected to do in this world after we are born. ...

10/05/2019 Chapter-1. Introduction to the Bhagavadgita: 1. Post-1. (Spoken on March 3rd, 1974) The ancient scriptures speak in a triple voice and, therefore, in the study of this great lore we have to employ the triple method of interpretation and evaluation. It is especially the case with such deep and comprehensive spiritual literature as the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita. It is for a want of this comprehensive approach to the subject of these great reservoirs of knowledge that many exponents have emphasised one or the other aspect of the great teachings, and we see divergences among these interpretations of the scripture. This situation has arisen on account of the exponents not paying due attention to the multifaceted form of super-normal wisdom. The wisdom of life, or the knowledge of the Spirit as we are sometimes given to understand, is not ordinary scientific knowledge or an empirical understanding of the things of the world. There is a great difference ...

09/05/2019 Chapter III The Yoga of Action (Karma Yoga) 3. Arjuna said, “If it be thought by Thee that knowledge is superior to action, why then O Krishna, does Thou engagest me in this terrible action (1)? Thou confusest my understanding. Tell me that one way for certain by which I may attain eternal bliss” (2). Lord Krishna replies, “In this world there is a twofold path, the path of knowledge of the Sankhyas and the path of action of the Yogins (3). Man cannot remain even for a moment without performing some kind of action. Everyone is helplessly driven to action by the qualities born of nature (5). That fool, who merely controls the organs of action but continually thinks of the objects of senses is called a Mithyachara or hypocrite (6). “Do sacrifice to the Devatas. They will in turn give you plenty of food and cattle (11). Constantly perform your duty without attachment. You will attain the Supreme (19). Janaka attained perfection by action (20). The great man should s...

08/05/2019 (Spoken on Sri Krishna Janmashtami, August 25, 1978) 8. We are all things at the same time. We are in the earth plane, we are in the astral plane, we are in the celestial plane, and we are also planted in the bosom of the Absolute, even at this very moment. We are not tiny toys pulled by the strings of nature, puppets which are dancing to the tune of forces over which we have no control. Not so is the truth. We have great profundities in us, and we are not such little things as we appear to be on our surface. There is in us that magnificence which can open up the gates of heaven itself, and raise us up to the status of a perfection which will drown us in the bliss unknowable. We are little physical bodies no doubt, we are social units living on this Earth no doubt, but that is not the whole truth of our life. We are simultaneously in all realms of being, even today. By the term ‘we’, I do not mean merely human beings. Everything that is created, right up to the ato...

07/05/2019 (Spoken on September 18th, 1974.) 5. Let each one close one’s eyes for a few minutes and probe into one’s own conscience. Am I in harmony with myself so far as my thought, speech and action are concerned? Do I not speak something which I do not really mean in my mind? Is my action not in harmony with my deepest demands of conscience? When there is a diversity of movement among the three functions – thought, speech and action – there is a split personality created within ourselves. We are not a complete whole. We develop psychopathic conditions. When the discrepancy among thought, speech and action is not very serious, it does not disturb us very much. But when it becomes a habit or second nature, it may go deep into our personality and this split may become the essential nature of our own selves, so that we are not wholes but parts sundered from one another, and that is a psychological malady. So the first six chapters of the Bhagavadgita give a beautiful art of...

06/05/2019 8. Here again we are hypocrites. Our religion is a bundle of contradictions and meaningless performances which cannot take us anywhere, finally. We must be honest to our own selves if we are really lovers of God. Who can love God? It is impossible. We can love only man, woman, children, wealth, egoism and power. What else can we love? Have we ever conceived the possibility of thinking of such a Perfection, which is the very meaning of the demonstrations of Bhagavan Sri Krishna? Sri Krishna had a reason to behave in the way that is described in the first part of the Tenth Skandha of the Srimad Bhagavata, and he behaved in a different way altogether in the Uttarardha, or the second part of the Tenth Skandha. Bala Lila is the predominant theme of the first part of the Tenth Skandha. The maturity of a world-wise householder is depicted in his Dvarka Lila. Sri Krishna’s whole life can be classified into three parts: the Vrindavan Lila, which is also called the Mathura ...

05/05/2019 (Spoken on Gita Jayanti in 1973) A Synthesis of Thought and Action-6. The rightness or the wrongness of an action does not depend upon the pleasure or the pain of the individual concerned in the action; this is the first warning given to us in the Bhagavadgita. We are likely to think that what brings us satisfaction is right and what brings us sorrow or grief, unhappiness, is wrong. This is an unfortunate, hedonistic approach which cannot be ultimately justifiable from the scientific point of view. A scientific principle does not care for our pleasure or pain. When we talk of a scientific principle, we speak of a truth that holds good for every person under all circumstances, irrespective of the emotional condition of the individuals concerned. So our joy or sorrow, personally and individually speaking, cannot become the standard of reference for the rectitude or otherwise of an action. Arjuna thought that it was a horror before him in the form of a war presented b...

04/05/2019 2: The Search For Wholeness-1. The mystery of life is explained, as we noted yesterday, in the first five verses of the Fifteenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. The mystery lies primarily in the fact that the way in which this tree of life grows is a little different from the way in which human minds work. This is the reason why human comprehension cannot fathom the depths of the extendedness and the functioning of the movements of this cosmic tree. Just as the branching of the various limbs of the tree is conditioned by the power that is inherent in the seed which gives birth to the tree, all knowledge and work in this world is preordained and channelised in a given shape by the Original Will which is the seed of this cosmic tree. The world experience is knowledge and action combined. The whole of life can be summed up in knowledge and activity, the understanding and the putting of it into practice in the daily vocations of people. The outlook of life is the knowle...

02/05/2019 10th July, 1968 (Guru Purnima)  The modern man in this present decade of the second half of the 21th century is greatly in need of an effective guide to light. He is groping. He sees only problems everywhere and no solutions are to be found anywhere. He does not know which way to turn, what course to adopt and how to move towards a better state of things. Therefore, his life is filled with restlessness, unhappiness and complication. The Bhagavad Gita contains words of wisdom and practical teachings that contain the answers to the above-mentioned condition of the present-day individual. The Bhagavad Gita is a message addressed to each and every human individual to help him or her to solve the vexing problem of overcoming the present and progressing towards a bright future. This holy scripture is not just an “old scripture”, nor is it just a book of “religious teachings”, nor even a Hindu holy book. It transcends the bounds of any particular religion or ...

02/05/2019 1. Introduction : Today is the most auspicious and sacred day of Sri Gita Jayanti, when one of the most glorious scriptures of the world, which has been blessing humanity by its powerful Upadesha ever since it was expounded to Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra by the Lord. It is the advent of this glorious scripture that we are trying to commemorate today by the Jayanti celebration when we express our thoughts,—reverential and worshipful thoughts—in connection with this scripture as a gesture of our adoration of it, as also a token of our heartfelt gratitude for the blessing that it has been and shall ever continue to be to humanity. Gita has been said to be the very essence of the Upanishads upon which our culture is based. Even now the basis of Bharatiya culture is recognised to be the Upanishads. The Upanishads about which one of the greatest of German savants said: "The Upanishads have been the solace of my life and the Upanishads shall surely be ...