The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 6.3. : Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) :

CIF campus is always abuzz with activity and yet at its heart it is the serene silence of divinity that rings true for those who tune in.

This last weekend CIF was hosting two camps – the first was the Narada Bhakti Sutra Camp, facilitated by Br. Anand Chaitanya for participants from the upcoming centre at Chinmaya Mission Vellore and members of CM Chennai. 

Participants reveled in the sessions as well as learnt more about the history of Adi Sankara Nilayam and visited various temples in Ernakulam.  

Also on campus was the enthusiastic Youth Alliance team, from Uttaranchal, who made the best use of the various spaces on campus to conduct a fun orientation workshop for young participants from the Southern zone. 

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Wednesday, March 01,  2023. 06:40.

Chapter 6: The Meaning of Duty -3.

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There is a fifth aspect which is generally not mentioned in the commentaries on scriptures. This is what is known as the adhidharma—the Law, the Righteousness of the Kingdom of God, as we generally call it. The Kingdom of God is the adhidaiva, the principal spiritual Reality. The righteousness thereof is the law that operates in the universe. The Vedas speak of this righteousness as the satya and the rita: the Absolute law and the cosmical operative law. As in the constitution of a democratic republic there is a super-departmental power vested with the President, while there is a departmental law operating through the Prime Minister, one not completely dissociated from the other and yet one having a significance of its own independent of the other, likewise, is the  satya and the  rita spoken of in the Vedas. The satya is the super-departmental Absolute principle, we may call it the basis of all law, and the way in which it operates in a particular context of creation is the rita. And one has to abide by this law. ‘Law' has a vast connotation, not easy to comprehend, because it has various degrees of manifestation and action.

Sri Krishna, in his reply to Arjuna, refers to all these aspects, so that the answer of Krishna is a complete encounter to life. He does not leave anything unsaid, because the problem of Arjuna was a total problem and not something that arose from a side of his personality. We would ask what is meant by a ‘total' problem. It is a difficulty that arises in the entirety of the personality—socially, physically, vitally, mentally and intellectually.

Earlier we made mention of the difficulties Arjuna had in his mind in respect of his duty towards human society. He was doubting the consequence that would follow from his engagement in the war. It would be destructive of all moral, social and ethical values; a sin, in a sense. But not merely that; Arjuna was in a worse condition, still. His whole personality was shattered. He was not thinking like a sane person at that moment. The organisation of the personality had given way completely; there was a tendency to disintegration of his individuality. He began to say, “Oh, my body is burning, my hands are trembling, my hair is standing on end, my head is reeling, my mind is unable to think, my reason has failed me.” And what remains in a man, then! Everything is gone. He lost control over everything that he had within himself, and everything that he was. All the five layers of his personality, or the koshas— theannamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, anandamaya, the physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal being—all things were shaken from their roots. It appeared that the very edifice was crumbling; and under those circumstances, what opinion could he express about anything? It was all a bungling, a fumbling and an erroneous viewpoint taken by him.

Such is the fate of a spiritual seeker, also. We are studying the Bhagavadgita as a spiritual gospel, a great torchlight before us in treading the path. It is intended principally for everyone as a seeker of God, for the salvation of spirit. It is not merely history that we are studying or a legend that we are recounting. It is clothed in imagery and mythology and epic magnificence, but its essence, the core and the kernel, is pure impersonal spirituality.

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To be continued

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