The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 3.1. : Swami Krishnananda.

 =========================================================================

=========================================================================

Thursday, December 29,  2022. 06:00.

Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation - 1.

=========================================================================

After the brief introduction to the important features which are predominant in the whole of the Bhagavadgita, we have to enter into the main theme of the exposition. The setting of the occasion of the Gita, the context of the delivery of the gospel, is the human situation, which I tried to liken to the atmosphere of a battlefield, an air of war, conflict and confrontation, to be expected at every step, every moment of time, and under every circumstance. The structure of the universe appears to be such that it faces us as a complex of various layers of conflict which we are supposed to overcome, and which are known as achievements in life. A particular context or situation has an opposing or conflicting context or situation. If this opposition were not to be there staring at every given occasion in life, there would not be any impulse to action. There would be no necessity for any activity. There would be no such thing as achievement.

Achievement is the result that follows the bringing about of a reconciliation or a harmony between a particular position and its opposition, usually known as the thesis counterpoised by the antithesis. The two have to be synthesised. And the whole of the Gita is nothing but this tremendous progressive process of achieving larger and larger syntheses in our life, so that we become an embodiment of synthesis to such an extent that when it reaches its climax or logical conclusion, we achieve a comprehensiveness of being, which is inseparable from a universal synthesis of experience. This may be regarded as equivalent to what we call God-realisation, or whatever one would like to call it.

The aim of the Gita is to lead us up to this universal synthesis or the ultimate balance of things. But for this achievement towards the goal of life we have to move from stage to stage, and the admonition which the Gita gives us at different degrees of this exposition is the Yoga of the Bhagavadgita. Many of us, perhaps all of us, might have had a glance over the various chapters of the Bhagavadgita. We are aware as to what it is about. We know how many chapters there are, and what the First Chapter is telling us, and what the Second Chapter is about, and so on.

Usually, we gloss over the First Chapter. Many exponents and commentators of the Gita have opined that the First Chapter is something like an introduction, and we generally pass over an introduction to the main subject of the text. But this is a mistake. The First Chapter is not an introduction in the sense of a prolegomena or a preface that an author may write to his own book. Vyasa, or Krishna, or whoever may be the author, is not giving a publisher's note in the form of the First Chapter. We would be wondering that at the end of the First Chapter, it is designated as a Yoga: “Arjuna-Vishada-Yoga”. It is a Yoga; a wonder, indeed. It is as much a Yoga as any other chapter of the Gita is. It is an inseparable vital limb of the entire body of the doctrine. It is a Yoga and, therefore, it cannot be escaped or glossed over or passed on.

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.

*****

To be continued

=========================================================================