Commentary on the Bhagavadgita: 2-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 18, January 2025, 06:50.
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita: 2-1.
Discourse 2: The First Chapter – Visada Yoga, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-1.
Swami Krishnananda

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Discourse 2: The First Chapter – Visada Yoga, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-1.

The Bhagavadgita is a system of meditation. It is not a story that is being told to us of what might have happened centuries back. It is a concentrated spiritual guide which takes us from the very level in which we find ourselves at any given moment of time and enables us to rise from that level to the next higher level, from the next higher level to a further higher level, and so on, in a graduated manner. There is no double promotion or sudden jumps in the teachings of the Bhagavadgita.

In a way, we may say that the Bhagavadgita starts with the worst of conditions that we can think of. What can be worse than battle? We know that the Gita was not taught in a temple or in a church or a monastery, which would have been the proper place for a teaching on Eternity. Is a battlefield the proper place for a teaching on timeless existence? The reason the Gita was taught on a battlefield is that a spiritual life is not merely an idealism of human aspiration, a possibility of future attainment, but a realism of the present moment. There is no use having ideas of a possible attainment in the future without appreciating its connection with the condition existing today. As it is said, we cannot jump out of our own skin. We are planted on the earth so firmly. Our feet are so sunk in the mire of this physical existence that whatever be the power with which the mind soars into the empyrean of the transcendent, it will not allow us to forget that our feet are in clay. That is the reason why the situation that can be considered as most abominable has been taken as the venue for the teaching of that which is the best of all teachings. It is as if from hell we are rising to the highest heaven.

The conflicts of human society are presented in the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita; and the otherwise very adventurous and enthusiastic spiritual seeker is likely to suddenly find himself or herself in a predicament which would be ruled by the emotions and sentiment rather than reason. Arjuna asked Sri Krishna: “Please place my chariot between the two armies so that I may have a purview of what I am facing.” Sri Krishna could have done this and kept quiet. But he would not keep quiet. He uttered a few words that stirred the emotions of Arjuna: “Look at the Kurus arrayed in front of you!” If at the proper moment I utter one word, it will go so deep into you that you will never forget it. At a proper time I should say that proper word, like pressing a button at the proper moment. The name Kuru refers to the ancestral family from where the Kauravas and the Pandavas both descended. To say, “Look at the Kurus,” is to say, “Look at the field which is filled with your own kinsmen, as you have all descended from the Kurus.” The blood of the Kurus flowed through the veins of the Pandavas and of the Kauravas. It was a family feud, and the name Kuru stimulated sentiments of an emotional concord towards these kinsmen.

Even if we dislike one of our relatives for some reason, we cannot forget that person is related to us. The idea that “he is a relative and known to me, and very much intimate with me” will come up one day or the other, in spite of other factors that may make us dislike that person. This is because blood relations are so very intense in a biological sense. A mother's love for the child is due to the fact that her own biological stuff is flowing through the child—and she loves herself, as it were, in her love for the child. In a similar manner is the love for relations.

Arjuna hated the Kauravas to such an extent that he did not want them to live. And then he thought, “But they are my kinsmen. These are my nephews, these are my brethren, these are my Gurus, these are my teachers; this is the set of people who have brought me up.” There was Bhishma, for instance, on whose lap Arjuna sat as a little baby, and there was Drona, who was the master archer and also the Guru of the Pandavas. It was because of the learning that the Pandavas received from Drona that they were able to stand on the battlefield. Ingratitude is supposed to be the worst of sins. Arjuna felt, “Am I ungrateful to these great warriors who are, first of all, my own relatives, and are most revered elders? There is nothing worse than ingratitude.” The name Kuru stimulated a biological sentiment of affection in Arjuna rather than the rational military spirit with which he wanted to enter the field.

I often feel that the First Chapter is the most important chapter in the Gita, while many people skip it because they think it is only an introduction and start with the Second Chapter. In my book entitled The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita, six chapters are devoted to explaining the First Chapter. No one else has written so much on the First Chapter. The point is, to understand where we stand now is more important than to focus on what we would expect to happen afterwards. Forgetting the present predicament is to become feeble at our base when we try to ascend further and further. Every step that we take in spiritual life should be a firm step. It does not matter if we take only one step, but it should be a firm step. If we hurriedly take steps, there is the possibility that afterwards we may have to retrace our steps. That should not be done. Even if years are needed to take these steps, it does not matter, as long as the little that we have achieved is a firm and solid achievement.

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Continued

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