Commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita: 2-6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday 06, April 2025, 14:30.
Books
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita: 2-6.
Discourse 2: The First Chapter – Visada Yoga, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-6.
Swami Krishnananda

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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

The Second Chapter Begins: Sankhya Yoga, The Distinction between Purusha and Prakriti.

Continued

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