The Essence of the Gospel of the Bhagavad Gita : 2. Swami Krishnananda
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07/09/2019
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The human predicament is portrayed in all its colours and patterns at the very outset, in the very commencement of this gospel, the Bhagavad Gita, which is meant to be an instruction to man in all his walks of life. The problem of man is the conflict of life. Every moment of time we are in a state of conflict. We are in a dilemma. We are sometimes between the devil and the deep sea, as they say. We are caught by two horns of a dilemma, between which we cannot easily make a choice. Sometimes we do not know whether it is better to live or to die. People who have suffered life know what it actually means. “Is it good to live in this world, or is it better to die?” is a question which poses itself before many a mind in this very century. There are occasions when we feel that life has no meaning and no essence, like sawdust. Occasionally we also feel that life has significance and we have to live it to the best of its possibility. These two sides of life’s picture are before us, one smiling and the other frowning. These two aspects of the panorama of existence face us every day in our life, and what we face or encounter the moment we wake up in the morning is a problem.
Sri Krishna, the Lila Purushottama, God sporting the divine play of the cosmos, told Arjuna, “Look at the Kurus in front of you.” He did not say, “Look at your enemies, your opponents.” ‘Kuru’ was the word used—“Look at your own brethren in front of you, your own relatives, your grandfather, great-grandfather, your Guru Dronacharya, your brothers born of the same blood relations.”
To be continued ..
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07/09/2019
(Spoken at a conference in Delhi on December 27, 1973.)
2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The human predicament is portrayed in all its colours and patterns at the very outset, in the very commencement of this gospel, the Bhagavad Gita, which is meant to be an instruction to man in all his walks of life. The problem of man is the conflict of life. Every moment of time we are in a state of conflict. We are in a dilemma. We are sometimes between the devil and the deep sea, as they say. We are caught by two horns of a dilemma, between which we cannot easily make a choice. Sometimes we do not know whether it is better to live or to die. People who have suffered life know what it actually means. “Is it good to live in this world, or is it better to die?” is a question which poses itself before many a mind in this very century. There are occasions when we feel that life has no meaning and no essence, like sawdust. Occasionally we also feel that life has significance and we have to live it to the best of its possibility. These two sides of life’s picture are before us, one smiling and the other frowning. These two aspects of the panorama of existence face us every day in our life, and what we face or encounter the moment we wake up in the morning is a problem.
There is a big question mark before us the moment we wake up in the morning and see the world outside :
What am I to do today?
Am I to lean to the right side or to the left side?
Which would be better for me?
We have the question or problem of the relation of action to knowledge, our duties, our activities in their connection with our personal existence and life. This was the question before Arjuna in the battlefield of the Mahabharata, where he was faced with a system of forces called the Kaurava army. Wonderful was the mental condition of Arjuna. He, as a master warrior, a soldier known in those days, went boldly and heroically into the thick of the field asking Krishna, the charioteer of that beautiful setup on the Pandavas’ side, to place him in the midst of the array so that he may have a glance at what was before him. “Let me look at these forces before I take charge upon them.”Sri Krishna, the Lila Purushottama, God sporting the divine play of the cosmos, told Arjuna, “Look at the Kurus in front of you.” He did not say, “Look at your enemies, your opponents.” ‘Kuru’ was the word used—“Look at your own brethren in front of you, your own relatives, your grandfather, great-grandfather, your Guru Dronacharya, your brothers born of the same blood relations.”
To be continued ..
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