The Relevance of the Bhagavad Gita to Humanity : Chapter 1: Introduction-7. - Swami Krishnananda
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11/09/2019.
Chapter 1: Introduction-7.
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7.1
Now, the Bhagavad Gita is supposed to be a recipe for the solution of the problems of every person. This is something unique about it. It is not intended for me or for you or for anybody; it is supposed to be a universally applicable recipe for the ills of mankind. This is a specialty about it, and that makes it very difficult to understand what its intentions are, because we have never heard that one recipe can be prescribed for every kind of difficulty. Yet, there is a norm that can be prescribed as a basic precondition for individual steps that we may have to take in detail for day-to-day engagement.
7.2
There is what is called medical science, for instance. We cannot say that there are many varieties of medical science. The basic philosophy behind the prescription of medicine is uniform. It takes into consideration the structure and the constituents of the human personality, the conditions that are necessary to cause health, and those conditions which bring about disease. There is a general philosophy of medicine, notwithstanding the fact that different medicines are prescribed for different kinds of illness. These varieties in the prescription of medicine under given conditions of illness do not mean that the basic philosophy of medical treatment is variegated.
7.3
In such a way, we may say there is a final word about the fundamentals of human behaviour and conduct, which norm is laid down in the Bhagavadgita. It is true that the Bhagavad Gita does not tell us how we can cook our food, how we can take a bath, or how we can stitch our shirt; but it lays down certain fundamental, basic principles of human conduct under confrontations and difficulties which are the irreconcilable elements in human society. There were dharma sankatas, as we call them. Dharma sankata means a quandary in dharma. ‘Quandary’ means a difficult situation, where we cannot pass an immediate judgment. Sometimes we are in a dilemma. Either way it is a difficult thing. We cannot go that way, and we cannot go this way.
Sometimes we find ourselves in that state of affairs, and that is a dharma sankata. It is a quandary, a helpless state, a difficult confrontation where it is hard to make out what is the proper step to be taken, because it is a terrible tangle. That tangle was the background of the whole Mahabharata story. It was a tangle, a network, a difficult knot which could not easily be broken through. Very many questions arose in the minds of people, and they were not able to easily decipher the background of the answers for these questions. It required a superior understanding to throw light on these problems. As a judge in a court is considered to have a wider form of understanding, transcending the understanding of the clients, similarly, the person, the personality, the figure that spoke the Bhagavad Gita stood above humanity.
To be continued ....
==========================================================================
11/09/2019.
Chapter 1: Introduction-7.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1
Now, the Bhagavad Gita is supposed to be a recipe for the solution of the problems of every person. This is something unique about it. It is not intended for me or for you or for anybody; it is supposed to be a universally applicable recipe for the ills of mankind. This is a specialty about it, and that makes it very difficult to understand what its intentions are, because we have never heard that one recipe can be prescribed for every kind of difficulty. Yet, there is a norm that can be prescribed as a basic precondition for individual steps that we may have to take in detail for day-to-day engagement.
7.2
There is what is called medical science, for instance. We cannot say that there are many varieties of medical science. The basic philosophy behind the prescription of medicine is uniform. It takes into consideration the structure and the constituents of the human personality, the conditions that are necessary to cause health, and those conditions which bring about disease. There is a general philosophy of medicine, notwithstanding the fact that different medicines are prescribed for different kinds of illness. These varieties in the prescription of medicine under given conditions of illness do not mean that the basic philosophy of medical treatment is variegated.
7.3
In such a way, we may say there is a final word about the fundamentals of human behaviour and conduct, which norm is laid down in the Bhagavadgita. It is true that the Bhagavad Gita does not tell us how we can cook our food, how we can take a bath, or how we can stitch our shirt; but it lays down certain fundamental, basic principles of human conduct under confrontations and difficulties which are the irreconcilable elements in human society. There were dharma sankatas, as we call them. Dharma sankata means a quandary in dharma. ‘Quandary’ means a difficult situation, where we cannot pass an immediate judgment. Sometimes we are in a dilemma. Either way it is a difficult thing. We cannot go that way, and we cannot go this way.
Sometimes we find ourselves in that state of affairs, and that is a dharma sankata. It is a quandary, a helpless state, a difficult confrontation where it is hard to make out what is the proper step to be taken, because it is a terrible tangle. That tangle was the background of the whole Mahabharata story. It was a tangle, a network, a difficult knot which could not easily be broken through. Very many questions arose in the minds of people, and they were not able to easily decipher the background of the answers for these questions. It required a superior understanding to throw light on these problems. As a judge in a court is considered to have a wider form of understanding, transcending the understanding of the clients, similarly, the person, the personality, the figure that spoke the Bhagavad Gita stood above humanity.
To be continued ....
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