In the previous episode, we had laid the foundation for the Bhagawad Gita to take off. We’ve seen how Sanjaya is the person who is going to narrate this entire “Charitra” to King Dhritarashtra as part of his explanation of the live proceedings at Kurukshetra. As Sanjaya commences his explanation, it is already the end of the tenth day of the war, however, King Dhritarashtra wants Sanjaya to explain everything from the beginning. Hence, Sanjaya commences his explanation about the war proceedings in a very detailed fashion, which actually begins from the famed Bhagawad Gita. Now, as we move on into this accord of Sanjaya, we’re going to witness the greatness of the Bhagawad Gita and the context in which it comes. We might be wondering what is this Bhagawad Gita doing amidst a battlefield. How did this take birth? Who said what? Why did Bhagawan Krishna talk amidst the battlefield? What led Him to talk all whatever He has spoken for 700 shlokas? What did Arjuna do? We would have all these questions in our mind, don’t we? Hence, let us see the answers for these questions one after the other.
But before that, we shall set the foundation for the detailed Bhagawad Gita discussion. As we’ve seen earlier, it is nothing but a detailed conversation between Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna. Arjuna is going to ask a few important questions to Bhagawan, and subsequently, Bhagawan is going to give detailed answers for all these questions. In the previous episodes of our Mahabharata project, we’ve seen the same kind of question-answer sessions happening between kings and sages. For instance, Yudishtra himself had been involved in several question-answer sessions earlier, like how we saw the “Yaksha-Prashnam”, wherein Yudishtra answers a few questions of Yama-Dharma Raja. In similar lines, we’ve seen several conversations between Yudishtra and many great sages like Sage Vyaasa himself! All these descriptions that we’ve seen earlier are all very pertinent points when it comes to several aspects of “Dharma”. Of course, these sages whom we’re talking about, are extremely strong in their “Tapas” and “Penance” and every word that comes out of their mouth is like gold! However, when it comes to the Bhagawad Gita, these answers are directly coming from Bhagawan’s mouth, isn’t it? Hence, we can understand the significance behind it. Of course, if we’ve to compare these answers with those of several sages, several answers will have a lot of similarity in description. However, as I had mentioned, since these answers are now directly coming from the source itself (Bhagawan), the Bhagawad Gita assumes enormous significance!
Thus, to give a snippet into what the Bhagawad Gita talks about – It is a complete package of how a person should lead a life in this world and what are the different ways through which a person can attain the highest “Moksha”. It talks about the “Karma Yoga”, “Gnyaana Yoga” and the “Bhakti Yoga”, which we’re going to discuss in a great detail as well. Through these three “Yogas”, Bhagawan Krishna explains how one can attain the highest goal of life through any one of these paths. Bhagawan is going to give an exhaustive explanation as to how performing our “Karma” itself can take us all the way to “Moksha”, along with “Bhakti” and “Gnyaanam”. The Bhagawad Gita, as mentioned earlier, can also be referred to as the “Keshava-Arjuna Samvaadham” or “Krishna-Arjuna Samvaadham”, or simply put in simple terms, a dialogue between Bhagawan Krishna and Arjuna. In fact, one of the main purposes behind Bhagawan Krishna’s incarnation is to gift the Bhagawad Gita to the entire world by using Arjuna as His divine instrument! We’ve seen earlier that Bhagawan Krishna is none other than Bhagawan Narayana of the Bhadrinaatha Kshetra and Arjuna is none other than “Nara”, who is the disciple of Bhagawan Narayana. Thus, this “Guru-Sishya” relationship that Nara and Bhagawan Narayana share at the Bhadrinatha Kshetra, continues in the Dvaapara Yuga as Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna! Thus, Bhagawan Krishna assumes the position of the “Guru” or the divine Spiritual Master and Arjuna assumes the position of His divine disciple! Hence, the Bhagawad Gita on the whole illustrates how a disciple should conduct himself in front of the Guru.
So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further and see from where Sanjaya is going to start this accord! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 