Commentary on the Bhagavadgita: 2-5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 20, March 2025, 10:45.
Books
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita: 2-5.
Discourse 2: The First Chapter – Visada Yoga, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-5.
Swami Krishnananda

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Before the commencement of the war (this is a little digression from the main point) when all were arrayed on the battlefield, wearing armour, with bows and arrows in their hands and swords drawn—everything was war-hot, and nobody knew what would happen the next moment—Yudhishthira put down his weapons, removed his shoes, put on a single cloth, a dhoti, and in the thick of the array went forward. Nobody understood what was happening to this crazy man; he was walking into the midst of his enemies, who had drawn their swords.

Arjuna said, “What has happened to my brother? Has he gone crazy?”

Duryodhana and others said, “Coward! Coward! The coward is coming. He is afraid. Seeing, us he is afraid. He is coming to sue for peace.”

Krishna said, “I am aware of what it is. He is neither a coward, nor has he made any mistake. He is following a great tradition of paying obeisance to elders.”

We have to pay obeisance to our elders. This is one of the great dharmas of India. He went and prostrated himself before Bhishma.

Yudhishthira said, “Bless me for success,”

“Not as long as I am alive,” Bhishma replied.

“Then what?” asked Yudhishthira. “When shall I have success? How will I defeat you?”

“This matter we shall discuss later on,” said Bhishma.

Yudhishthira then went to Drona and prostrated himself before him. “Please bless me for success.”

Drona replied, “Nothing doing, as long as I am on the field.”

Yudhishthira then went to Kripacharya, who said, “No success for you as long as I am here.”

The world will tell us, “I am not going to leave you so easily like that.” It catches hold of us, with all our sentiments and desires and longings and social relationships. The gold and silver, and the milk and honey of this world are not easy to abandon. There is a joy in being an important person in the world. There is a satisfaction in being a king, an emperor or a ruler of a country. There is a satisfaction in being a very wealthy person, a millionaire rolling in gold. Can we say these are not satisfactions? And if this temptation is thrown at us—suppose we are offered a gold throne—what will we say, my dear spiritual seeker? We will hesitate.

It is said that Satan showed a large field of gold and silver to Christ, and said, “Take this for yourself. Convert stone into bread, etc. You are a master. You have attained great siddhis. Now what further meditation? Stop it. Do some good work for people who are suffering.” This was told to Buddha also, in a different way, and this will be told to every one of us.

Arjuna was an epic representation of the internal chaos that one may have to face in the beginning of spiritual life. I am describing the initial stages of spiritual life, not the advanced conditions where we are receiving something positively: “Great confusion—I have lost everything. I have lost my father and mother. I have no friends here, and nobody talks to me. I am sick. I have achieved nothing. I have no guidance, no teachings. I will go crazy.” A spiritual seeker may feel like that and run about here and there. Sometimes, to save themselves from going mad, they go on travelling from place to place. That is also a way. If we are very angry, and take a long walk, our anger comes down. But, finally, these tactics will not take us anywhere. The reason is that we have not properly founded ourselves on the correct appreciation of values.

Whether to renounce the world or not renounce the world—who told us what is to be done? Has anybody told us that it is necessary to renounce the world? Something has been told to us by our elders. Something is told in some scripture. Is it because of the statement of some book that we are trying to kick the world out? Or have we got any actual reason for it? Is there a rational ground for our feeling that the world has to be renounced? I think very few people will give an answer to this question: What is the rational ground for our renouncing the world? Is it because we want God? We will find that this is a very horrible question, and we will not have a rational ground. Let the scriptures say that, let the Bible or the Gita say that, let the Gurus say that; nobody will help us here. When we are drowning, no Gita will come to our rescue. Nobody will come. Our own conscience will come.

Thus, Arjuna's difficulty is a spiritual difficulty; it is a spiritual crisis in which he found himself. In an epic manner, Vyasa describes this chaos of the spiritual seeker who was otherwise very adventurous and who went forward to face the battle of life, but who immediately became diffident and threw down his weapons. “No japa, no meditation, no book-reading helps. I am unable to do anything,” Arjuna said.

In this condition, our only resort is the Guru. Fortunately, Arjuna had a good Guru; and, fortunately, he had the sense of feeling that it was necessary to surrender himself; and, fortunately, he knew that his egoism was not going to work any longer. Had his self-confidence continued and had he stuck to the wrong arguments that he put forth in the First Chapter, nothing would have come out of it. However, some sattvic karma rose up, and he felt that it was necessary for him to know what was to be done.

Arjuna asked Sri Krishna, “In this chaotic condition of my mind, what is my duty? I surrender myself to you, great Master. Please tell me.”

The answer of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is, “You understand nothing. You draw conclusions without proper understanding of the structure of life and your relationship to people or things in general. This is a very sorry state. How can you draw conclusions without proper premises? If you draw a conclusion based on a wrong premise, the conclusion is also wrong. Therefore, all that you have been told up to this time is without any foundation because you do not know either yourself or the world.”

What is the meaning of knowing oneself and the world? These questions will be answered gradually in the Second and the Third Chapters. The Second Chapter will tell us what we are, and the Third Chapter will tell us what the world is.

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Next

Discourse 3: The Second Chapter Begins – Sanhkya Yoga

Continued

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