The Essence of the Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 08, June 2024 06:10.
Article
Scriptures
The Essence of the Gospel of the Bhagavadgita -6.
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken at a conference in Delhi on December 27, 1973.)

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The army that Duryodhana chose was of no help to him. The very sight of Krishna was enough to paralyse their entire strength. The very look that Krishna cast upon the Kaurava forces withdrew half of their strength. Such was the hypnotising glance that he cast upon them because he was a magnet sitting there, weighty like the earth, immovable like a rock, knowing everything. Ishvara-tattva guiding the destinies of man was seated in the chariot of Arjuna.

This Ishvara-tattva is also located in the very same chariot of our own bodies here. The Mahabharata epic is nothing but an exposition of the battle of human life. It is an answer given to every question that is raised by our minds. It is a solution to every problem that we may have to face in our lives. Arjuna and Krishna, the historical figures that strode the battlefield of the Mahabharata in Kurukshetra, are symbolically represented by the very same Ishvara-tattva and jiva-tattva in our bodies. We as the individual personalities are Arjuna, and there is an invisible power within us directing our destinies. That is Ishvara. This body is the chariot. Life is itself the Mahabharata field. All that we see in front of us are the Kauravas, and the virtuous forces within us are the Pandavas. The sense of righteousness is Yudhisthira. Ability and dexterity in action is Arjuna. Strength and might and adamantine will is Bhima. And the universal guiding light, which is God, is Bhagavan Sri Krishna within us. All the weaknesses of human nature are the Kauravas within us. The jiva is wedded to the five senses, like Draupadi. All these symbolic representations tell us where we stand and how we can act.

We have everything with us except knowledge, even as everything was with Duryodhana except the grace of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. He represented effort without divine grace. Therefore, he failed in his attempt. Duryodhana was not wanting in effort. His army was much larger than the force of the Pandavas, and yet the quantity of Duryodhana was not able to face the quality that was the Pandavas. This quality of virtue and righteousness was receiving perpetual sustenance from the presence of Sri Krishna, God manifest in form. The Pandavas represent virtue, the Kauravas represent the opposite of it; and divine grace sheds its light only on virtue. What is virtue? What is righteousness? It is the urge within ourselves, the tendency in us to walk the path that is in consonance with the law of God. Opposed to it is vice, or evil. That which draws us towards the centre of the universe is virtue. That which urges us backward and drives us away from the centre is evil.

The senses drive us outward to the objects which are supposed to bring us temporary satisfaction. Kama, krodha and lobha—lust, anger and greed—drive us outwardly to the objects of sense, like Duryodhana going for wealth, name, fame and prestige in society. But the simple Pandavas, wearing only a single raiment on their bodies, were entirely dependent on the grace of Krishna, and turned inward rather than outward.

Sometimes you find yourself in the wilderness in the search of divine grace, as the Pandavas found themselves in the forest for thirteen years. When you search for Truth, you will find yourself in a no-man's land, as it were. The world will not help you anymore because the world does not want virtue, it wants only satisfaction of sense. For a time it appears as if evil gains an upper hand and drives you into the forest, and virtue does not succeed. The good men suffer in this world; the evil men prosper. How is it? It is like the prosperity of Duryodhana for the time being and the suffering of the Pandavas in the forest. But in that forest it is that the Pandavas received help from invisible sources. Indra and Varuna and Kubera and Agni and Bhagavan Sri Krishna himself came there, asking if they could give any kind of help. The Pandavas were good children treading the path of righteousness, rather than asking for the pomp and the glory of Duryodhana who wanted only objects of sense and temporal happiness.

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Continued

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