In the previous episode, we had witnessed the conclusion of the first “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita – The “Arjuna Vishaada Yoga”. Here we’ve seen Bhagawan Krishna taking Arjuna in between the two camps, and makes Arjuna look around to take an overview. As Bhagawan Krishna takes Arjuna in between, He strategically parks the chariot right in front of Bhishmachaarya and Guru Dhronachaarya, which triggers Arjuna’s emotions! He starts trembling with fear and sadness that if this war is going to proceed as per plan, he will be solely responsible for the killing of all his family members standing around him on either side! “How can I be responsible for the destruction of my entire clan? If all these people are dead, who will take our “Nitya-Karma” forward? All the generations of people are standing here at the verge of destruction! If this happens, all of us would be entering the treacherous “Naraka Lokha”, won’t we? Moreover, what am I going to gain by ruling a kingdom after killing all these people standing here? Whom will I go for advice? Whom will I be able to entail as my kith and kin after this war?” These are the questions that Arjuna is asking Bhagawan Krishna as he puts down his powerful “Gaandeepa”, declaring that he is not going to fight this battle!
Moving on thus, we are now going to witness Bhagawan’s important answer to all of Arjuna’s questions. In fact, this is where we’re going to actually commence the divine Bhagawad Gita. Now if we’ve to summarize the crux of what Bhagawan is going to tell here, it is very simple – If one has to attain the highest “Moksha”, he / she has to surrender to none other than Bhagawan Narayana (Bhagawan Krishna). For this, Bhagawan talks about three different “Yogas” through which we can reach Him – The “Karma Yoga”, “Gnyaana Yoga” and the “Bhakti Yoga”. The crux is very simple – We have to keep doing our duty “Karma” with the adequate knowledge (“Gnyaanam”) and awareness about Bhagawan, thereby, transforming our actions into devotion (“Bhakti”) towards Bhagawan and offering all our actions to His divine lotus feet! This is what we’re going to witness in detail for the next seventeen chapters of the Bhagawad Gita.
Now as we move on further, we can split the entire eighteen chapters of the Bhagawad Gita into three divisions – First six, middle six and the final six. Readers should be extremely attentive to details from here on, as we’re going to discuss very important points starting today. If we miss the continuity here, it becomes difficult for us to catch up. If we aren’t able to understand this current “Adhyaaya” properly, we will be clueless as to what Bhagawan is talking in the subsequent “Adhyaaya”. Hence, my humble request to all readers is to take down notes as and when you read through each and every episode here. As these are Bhagawan’s words directly, understanding them will be quite a challenge for all of us. In fact, as we may be knowing, this Bhagawad Gita text is one that has been researched heavily all over the world by eminent scholars for hundreds and thousands of years now! Still, not many people have been able to get to the depth of what Bhagawan has spoken about! However, what we are trying to do here is to get a glimpse of what Bhagawan has said. Of course, we should not stop with this alone. We should read a lot of other commentaries written by eminent “Mahatmas” like Bhagawan Adi Shankara, Ramanujachaarya, Madhvachaarya, etc. wherein, they have taken each and every shloka of the Gita and have performed a detailed analysis on them! If “Mahatmas” talk about the Gita, they will interpret it in a simple language which ordinary people like us can understand. However, the original Gita is directly from Bhagawan Himself, isn’t it? Hence, the language will be a bit tough, but we shall make a conscious effort to decipher and understand what Bhagawan is trying to explain. Of course, this can only be possible with His divine “Anugraha” and hence, for today, let us pray to Bhagawan Krishna for His divine “Anugraha” before we commence our detailed understanding on the Bhagawad Gita text! Stay tuned for the commencement of an interesting accord from Bhagawan Krishna from the next episode onwards! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 