Introduction to the Bhagavadgita- Part 1: Post-3.: Swami Krishnananda

Chinmaya Mission: 

63 enthusiastic Chinmaya Yeva Kendras gathered in Krishnalaya for the annual CHYK San Jose retreat. 

Led by Brahmachari Soham (Chinmaya Mission San Jose) and Brahmacharini Stuti (Chinmaya Mission Columbus), the CHYKs studied 20 values from slogas 8-12 of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13.

Each day consisted of yoga, meditation, nature walks, discourses by the brahmacharins, Q&A sessions, group discussions, interactive workshops, seva projects, and fun evening activities. 

Retreat highlights included a hike amongst the towering redwoods of Richardson Grove State Park, a CHYK-led workshop based on the classic “snake” computer game, Antakshari around the campfire, and an open mic night. 

Each attendee also had the special opportunity for small group satsang with the brahmacharins.

The retreat concluded with a puja at the Krishna grove and Guru Dakshina in Gurudev’s Kutiya. With Pujya Gurudev’s grace, the camp was a great success.

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Saturday 15, June 2024 :06:50.
Article
Scriptures
Introduction to the Bhagavadgita- Part 1
POST-3.
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on March 3rd, 1974)

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But we have a third aspect, which is represented in the epics, especially the Mahabharata, whose quintessence is what is called the Bhagavadgita. As a matter of fact, the prasthan-traya is constituted of the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavadgita. These three sum up the entire spiritual wisdom of India. While the Upanishads and the Vedas, as I pointed out, are direct in their approach to the naked truth of things, and while the polemical literature of a logical type is rationalistic in its approach, the Bhagavadgita, which is a beautiful pendant in the garland of the Mahabharata, is of a different type altogether, about which I propose to speak to you for some time, inasmuch as the Bhagavadgita is not only a philosophical guide in our spiritual existence but also a practical handbook—a searchlight, as it were, flooded on the path which we have to tread in the practice of yoga.

The Bhagavadgita has been regarded as perhaps the most comprehensive of scriptures in yoga because it touches all aspects of human life in all its stages and levels. It is considered as a metaphysical text, a practical scripture of yoga, as well as a mystical compendium meant for leading an inner life of the Spirit. Therefore, it is almost everything for a sadhaka. There cannot be a better guide for us than the Bhagavadgita in our practical spiritual life and our life of yoga sadhana because, as a famous verse has it, the Bhagavadgita is not an independent approach in its own manner but is something like the milk of the Upanishads. It is said that if the Upanishads are cows, the Bhagavadgita is the milk of these cows, Bhagavan Sri Krishna is the milkman, and Arjuna is the calf. Such is the comparison made to evaluate the greatness and the importance of this great text called the Bhagavadgita.

This wonderful scriptural guide for us, the Bhagavadgita, occurs in the middle of a famous epic called the Mahabharata. It is unfortunate that students of Indian literature rarely study these textbooks because they have a wrong notion that Indian philosophy means the Upanishads, Acharya Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, etc. In the Mahabharata there is a very pertinent saying which makes out that the Vedas are afraid of people who have not studied expositions like the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita because it is these texts that tell us what the Vedas really mean. Bibhety alpaśrutād vedo mām ayaṃ pratariṣyati (M.B. 1.1.204). The Vedas say, it seems, “Oh this gentleman is coming to kill us because he cannot understand us.”

As the Vedas are revelations of eternal Truth they comprehend all aspects of life, and it is next to impossible for the human intellect to deeply gauge what is all-comprehensive. We never approach life in an all-comprehensive manner at any time. We have only certain routes struck for our practical purposes, and we completely ignore aspects which are not concerned with our pragmatic approach to things. But that is precisely the reason why we fail in our lives. We cannot have that sort of parochial approach to things where things are internally related to one another, a fact which will come to relief when we go deep into their structure.

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Continued

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