In the previous episode, we had witnessed a brief summary of what we’ve seen from the first till the third “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita. The first one (“Arjuna Vishaadha Yoga”) spoke about how Arjuna started trembling with fear and put down his “Gaandeepa” upon seeing Bhishmachaarya and the others standing in front of him. The fear was not because of lack of confidence in fighting the war, but because Arjuna was of the opinion that by killing everyone, he would end up committing a great sin! The second one (“Saankhya Yoga”) is wherein Bhagawan explains the “Deha-Atma-Viveka-Gnyaanam”. Third in the line was the main “Karma Yoga” wherein Bhagawan explains how one can attain the “Atma-Saakshaakaaram” by performing our “Karma” (Actions) meticulously with a detached mind. In due course of yesterday’s episode, we had also witnessed a few clarifications with regards to how we perform our “Karma Yoga” without bothering about the results. Bhagawan clearly explains the difference between going behind short-term goals vs. long term goals.
So here, Bhagawan explains that we need to leave behind three important characteristics if we’ve to be successful in whatever we do. First one is the “Kartruthva Buddhi”, which means, having a feeling that I’m the one who is accomplishing anything and everything in life. Second one is the “Mamatha Buddhi”, which means, having a feeling that whatever I do is part of “my” “Karma”. Third one is the feeling that I should go behind smaller milestones and get carried away by achieving them, by forgetting the long-term goal completely. Thus, in the third “Adhyaaya” Bhagawan drops a huge bombshell for Arjuna, who was trying to escape somehow from the battlefield, on the pretext of performing the “Gnyaana Yoga” to attain “Atma-Saakshaakaaram”. Bhagawan says that the “Karma Yoga” is the only way for him to attain his end goal, and “Gnyaana Yoga” does not find a place here for him at all! Now this is where Arjuna gets stuck completely, and Bhagawan Krishna clarifies further that even for great “Gnyaana Yogis” in this world, “Karma Yoga” is essential! If these great people have to survive in this world, they should also perform certain duties, and these duties will also come inside the ambit of “Karma Yoga” only.
Now with this clarity, as we move into the fourth “Adhyaaya”, we might have a doubt, which is very important to be addressed. For the past 30-odd episodes, we’ve been witnessing a detailed description of the Bhagawad Gita as part of our Mahabharatham project, isn’t it? We’re going to take another 100-odd episodes to completely discuss the Bhagawad Gita, even if it is going to be in brief only. If we ourselves are taking a lot of time to discuss these 700 shlokas, how much time did Bhagawan and Arjuna take to discuss this first-hand? Even if this would have taken a day or two for them to complete, what were the others in the battlefield doing till then? Did they have a pen and a paper to take down notes like we do? 🙂 All of them are having their weapons in hand, ready to fight the war, and at this crucial time, Bhagawan and Arjuna are standing in the middle of the battlefield and talking all sorts of “Tatvaartha” and “Vedanta”! How is this even possible? If at all it was possible, what were the others including Duryodhana, Bhishmachaarya, Guru Dhronachaarya, etc. in the camp doing and how did they react? What did Yudishtra do at this time?
Now this is a very important question and there are several answers to it. First possible answer for this is that nobody was waiting for the entire 700-shloka Bhagawad Gita to get over. Maybe, Bhagawan Krishna would have taken just 15-20 minutes to finish the entire accord to Arjuna. We might wonder how this is possible! Even if we chant only the shloka part of the Bhagawad Gita, without any descriptions, it would take a minimum 2-3 hours, wouldn’t it? If that is the case, how can Bhagawan finish the entire accord within just 15 minutes? This is where the difference lies between “Pandithas” (Learned scholars) and normal people like us – “Pandithas” can grasp many things with just a wink of an eye! They need not have any detailed descriptions of anything. If we look at this angle, since Arjuna is a “Panditha” himself, Bhagawan Krishna might not have wasted time in explaining all these aspects in so much detail. He would have conveyed a majority of these items with just a wink of His eyes, and Arjuna would have understood it quite clearly! This is one way of looking at it.
Secondly, if Bhagawan Krishna would have offered the entire Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna as His “Maha-Prasadham”, He can directly transfer all the contents of it into Arjuna’s brain within a few minutes without any effort, can’t He? Afterall, Bhagawan Krishna is the supreme Lord of this world and if He thinks that this should be imparted to Arjuna within 5-10 minutes, can’t He accomplish it? He is a “Satya Sankapla” and whatever Bhagawan thinks, is going to happen in this world! Even for us, in this technology world, we are able to transfer so much data from one corner of the world to the other within seconds, aren’t we? If this can be possible, why can’t Bhagawan transfer all this data in the Bhagawad Gita into Arjuna’s head with ease?
Of course, all these are probable answers only and these are debatable in nature. We can keep talking about all these things for episodes together, but this is not the sole motive for us here. Our aim is to somehow grasp atleast some portion of the content in the Bhagawad Gita, if not fully, and employ this content for the betterment of our spiritual progress. So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall take this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 