The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 3.2. Swami Krishnananda
=======================================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24/10/2019.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -2.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The context in which Arjuna, the hero of this epic, the symbol of humanity in general, finds himself, is the total human situation. It is our situation, and everybody’s. The Mahabharata is not a book giving us merely a story of some historical event that occurred in ancient times. It is an exposition of the nature of the culture of the nation—one may say, the whole of humanity. It is a teaching which is intended to show the path to humanity in its entirety, leading it up to its destination by gradual stages; and the Bhagavadgita is the kernel of this intention of the Mahabharata epic. The purpose of the Bhagavadgita is unique, though it is clothed in an epic colour. Its outer shape is linguistic, artistic, mythological, and is in the form of a narrative, but this is so because of its occurrence in the atmosphere of an epic, a heroic poem, and a tremendous heroism of a peculiar type permeates the whole of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita. It is not a cowherd’s gospel. It is not the gospel of a hermit or renunciate who abandons and cuts himself off from everything. There is a spirit in a state of ebullition, welling up into action of great consequence and moment. We will be stirred up into a tremendous urge for moving forward, as we read through the chapters of the Mahabharata.
The Bhagavadgita is principally a spiritual message, spiritual in the true sense of the term. We have to clear our minds of the usual notions of spirituality and religion. When we take to such textbooks of Yoga as the Bhagavadgita, we have, first of all, to recondition our minds and make ourselves prepared for the reception of this impersonal teaching. We are personal, and the teaching is impersonal, manifest in various stages. Ultimately, it will become totally impersonal, into which the personalities vanish altogether, as if they had never been at any time. But we are hardboiled individuals, our personality is as realistic to us as flint, and so it would not be easy for us, who cling to the status of our individualities, to appreciate and to receive into our minds the great cosmic intention behind the teaching of the Bhagavadgita.
The teacher of the Gita knows this psychology very well. Perhaps he is one of the greatest psychologists we can ever imagine. And so he commences the teaching from the level of the ordinary human being. The feelings of man are to be taken into consideration when he is confronted or dealt with in any manner. And it is the feelings or the groups of the feelings of the individual that work themselves up into action. When we face the world or are busy with the performance of any duty in the world, our feelings guide us along a particular direction. When we are small boys, youngsters, jubilant with youthful enthusiasm, we entertain great hopes and imagine that we have great powers. We make a programme of our life. “Such is to be my achievement in life.” But this enthusiasm is beclouded with a lack of understanding of the nature of the atmosphere in which one lives, to which fact one is awakened gradually as one becomes more and more mature. The boyish enthusiasm subsides slowly, and the maturity of the grey hair begins to speak in a different language and tells us that the world is made of a different stuff altogether from what we imagined earlier when we were not sufficiently educated in the art of living.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24/10/2019.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -2.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The context in which Arjuna, the hero of this epic, the symbol of humanity in general, finds himself, is the total human situation. It is our situation, and everybody’s. The Mahabharata is not a book giving us merely a story of some historical event that occurred in ancient times. It is an exposition of the nature of the culture of the nation—one may say, the whole of humanity. It is a teaching which is intended to show the path to humanity in its entirety, leading it up to its destination by gradual stages; and the Bhagavadgita is the kernel of this intention of the Mahabharata epic. The purpose of the Bhagavadgita is unique, though it is clothed in an epic colour. Its outer shape is linguistic, artistic, mythological, and is in the form of a narrative, but this is so because of its occurrence in the atmosphere of an epic, a heroic poem, and a tremendous heroism of a peculiar type permeates the whole of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita. It is not a cowherd’s gospel. It is not the gospel of a hermit or renunciate who abandons and cuts himself off from everything. There is a spirit in a state of ebullition, welling up into action of great consequence and moment. We will be stirred up into a tremendous urge for moving forward, as we read through the chapters of the Mahabharata.
The Bhagavadgita is principally a spiritual message, spiritual in the true sense of the term. We have to clear our minds of the usual notions of spirituality and religion. When we take to such textbooks of Yoga as the Bhagavadgita, we have, first of all, to recondition our minds and make ourselves prepared for the reception of this impersonal teaching. We are personal, and the teaching is impersonal, manifest in various stages. Ultimately, it will become totally impersonal, into which the personalities vanish altogether, as if they had never been at any time. But we are hardboiled individuals, our personality is as realistic to us as flint, and so it would not be easy for us, who cling to the status of our individualities, to appreciate and to receive into our minds the great cosmic intention behind the teaching of the Bhagavadgita.
The teacher of the Gita knows this psychology very well. Perhaps he is one of the greatest psychologists we can ever imagine. And so he commences the teaching from the level of the ordinary human being. The feelings of man are to be taken into consideration when he is confronted or dealt with in any manner. And it is the feelings or the groups of the feelings of the individual that work themselves up into action. When we face the world or are busy with the performance of any duty in the world, our feelings guide us along a particular direction. When we are small boys, youngsters, jubilant with youthful enthusiasm, we entertain great hopes and imagine that we have great powers. We make a programme of our life. “Such is to be my achievement in life.” But this enthusiasm is beclouded with a lack of understanding of the nature of the atmosphere in which one lives, to which fact one is awakened gradually as one becomes more and more mature. The boyish enthusiasm subsides slowly, and the maturity of the grey hair begins to speak in a different language and tells us that the world is made of a different stuff altogether from what we imagined earlier when we were not sufficiently educated in the art of living.
To be continued ....
========================================================================
NOTE : Recent media reports
1.Anna University to Teach Upanishadas and Gita to Engineering Students
Several political parties, academicians and students’ organisations have condemned the move by the university.
2.DMK chief MK Stalin slams 'mandatory' teaching of Hindu scriptures in Anna University, varsity denies move
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) staged a protest against the alleged imposition of Sanskrit in Anna University and other issues.
3.Earlier, DMK President MK Stalin had condemned Anna University over its decision to include Bhagwad Gita in the curriculum. Seeking governor's intervention, Stalin had tweeted, "It is condemnable to attempt imposition of Sanskrit by making philosophy compulsory in the syllabus of Anna University's CEG campus."
3. People can’t dictate religion: Kamal Haasan slams inclusion of Gita in Anna University syllabus
After Stalin, now Kamal Haasan has raised concerns about the inclusion of Bhagavad Gita in the Anna varsity curriculum saying that one can't dictate religion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPINION :
1.THIS UNIVERSE RESPECTS OUR BHARATIYA HOLY SCRIPTURES THAN ANY THING;
2. NATIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD INTRODUCED LEARNING OF SRIMAD BHAGAVAD GITA AND SANSKRIT;
3. WONDER ARE THESE TAMIL PEOPLE NOT AWARE OF THIS UNIVERSAL TRUTH?
4. ARE THESE TAMIL POLITICS SEPARATE FROM THIS HOLY NATION?
5. WHY TAMILNADU PEOPLE NOT PREPARED REJECT THIS RUBBISH ANTI NATIONAL POLITICS OF SEPARATISTS?
6. EVR ATROCITIES AGAINST TAMILNADU BRAHMINS AND HIS ACCUSAL THEORY OF ANTI RAMAYANAM BY WAY OF HIS DRAMA KEEMAYANAM; NO ONE PROTESTED THEN; WHY? ARE THE PEOPLE NOT AWARE OF THE HOLYNESS OF GREAT EPIC RAMAYANAM. THEN?
7. THE FUNNIEST PART OF THIS STORY THAT WHEN AP NAGARAJAN PRODUCED SAMPURNA RAMAYANAM WITH THEN SUPER STARS TAMIL PEOPLE MADE A HEAVY RUSH TO THEATRES? WHY THIS ATTITUDE? CINEMA IS DIVINE NOT RAMAYANAM IS IT SO?
========================================================================
NOTE : Recent media reports
1.Anna University to Teach Upanishadas and Gita to Engineering Students
Several political parties, academicians and students’ organisations have condemned the move by the university.
2.DMK chief MK Stalin slams 'mandatory' teaching of Hindu scriptures in Anna University, varsity denies move
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) staged a protest against the alleged imposition of Sanskrit in Anna University and other issues.
3.Earlier, DMK President MK Stalin had condemned Anna University over its decision to include Bhagwad Gita in the curriculum. Seeking governor's intervention, Stalin had tweeted, "It is condemnable to attempt imposition of Sanskrit by making philosophy compulsory in the syllabus of Anna University's CEG campus."
3. People can’t dictate religion: Kamal Haasan slams inclusion of Gita in Anna University syllabus
After Stalin, now Kamal Haasan has raised concerns about the inclusion of Bhagavad Gita in the Anna varsity curriculum saying that one can't dictate religion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPINION :
1.THIS UNIVERSE RESPECTS OUR BHARATIYA HOLY SCRIPTURES THAN ANY THING;
2. NATIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD INTRODUCED LEARNING OF SRIMAD BHAGAVAD GITA AND SANSKRIT;
3. WONDER ARE THESE TAMIL PEOPLE NOT AWARE OF THIS UNIVERSAL TRUTH?
4. ARE THESE TAMIL POLITICS SEPARATE FROM THIS HOLY NATION?
5. WHY TAMILNADU PEOPLE NOT PREPARED REJECT THIS RUBBISH ANTI NATIONAL POLITICS OF SEPARATISTS?
6. EVR ATROCITIES AGAINST TAMILNADU BRAHMINS AND HIS ACCUSAL THEORY OF ANTI RAMAYANAM BY WAY OF HIS DRAMA KEEMAYANAM; NO ONE PROTESTED THEN; WHY? ARE THE PEOPLE NOT AWARE OF THE HOLYNESS OF GREAT EPIC RAMAYANAM. THEN?
7. THE FUNNIEST PART OF THIS STORY THAT WHEN AP NAGARAJAN PRODUCED SAMPURNA RAMAYANAM WITH THEN SUPER STARS TAMIL PEOPLE MADE A HEAVY RUSH TO THEATRES? WHY THIS ATTITUDE? CINEMA IS DIVINE NOT RAMAYANAM IS IT SO?
========================================================================
Comments
Post a Comment