Bhagavad Gita is a part of the famous epic, Mahabharata of the ancient India written in Sanskrit by the great seer Vedavyasa. Some opine that it was written about twenty five centuries back, though the period is not correctly known. Bhagavad Gita contains seven hundred stanzas covering eighteen chapters. The book is in the form of a discourse between Sri Krisna, a great prophet (Guru) and Arjuna, an eminent warrior and devotee of Sri Krisna; on the eve of the war of Kuruksetra between the Pandava and Kaurava armies.
Bhagavad Gita is an outstanding classical work and an invaluable contribution to the cultural history of the world. It gives a very deep and comprehensive analysis of human problems in physical, psychological and spiritual existence of mankind and suggests many a practical solution to overcome the problems. The book is still considered as a holy scripture by many people, the world over. It has been translated into almost all leading languages of the world and that very many studies have come up on its importance and contemporary relevance. It really unfolds a great treasure of knowledge and practical wisdom and provides a soothing experience to all types of readers. The present study is a new approach mainly confined to the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the book.
The term spirituality has been misconceived by many and so is the concept of God. Spirituality refers to the march towards the Divine consciousness and nothing else. It stands for refining one’s mind, making him humble and value oriented.
Most of the people worship God as the Supreme power. A very few regard Him as the Supreme consciousness that controls all powers. This is the concept of God as enshrined in Bagavad Gita and in most of the Eastern philosophies. But unfortunately this concept has not been well revealed by the Western philosophies. Hence there exists many a controversy, being conceptual differences.
One who is enlightened by spiritual wisdom, i.e. real knowledge, sees and loves the entire humanity equally and in unison. A power worshiper tries to gain power and to control others in every possible field. He does not know that power is only an attribute of God and that it is not God. He strives to amass wealth, power, name and fame and is very much concerned with the mundane enjoyments and pleasures. On the contrary a spiritualist leads a life, even with minimum requirements; truthfully, humbly and peacefully.
An Occultist is one who has attained some strange mental powers by certain secret psychic practices. He makes others believe that he has gained some Divine powers and that the ignorant start worshipping him as or equal to God. This is wrong and it would turn into, anti-spiritual and anti-God. A yogi is spiritual, a siddha need not be.
The Vedic concept of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ seems to be illogical according to Bhagavat Gita; as the soul is only a small particle of the Divine self. A drop of water cannot be the ocean. When Aham (The ego) becomes nil or disappears one’s soul merges with the Supreme consciousness. The power worshipers might have misused this Vedic dictum to declare themselves as God. Occultism and the urge for power are the root causes of all the evils in the society. Hence God is got to be identified as the Divine consciousness and not merely power, as being conceived by many.
The concept of Purusa is very relevant in Bagavad Gita. Purusa refers to the Supreme consciousness (The God) and Prakriti, the Supreme power. Worshipping of Purusa only is spiritual.
The entire revelations of the gospels of Bagavad Gita cling around the five principles of moral obligation (Dharma), right action (Karma), right knowledge (Jnana), freedom (Swatantrya) and peacefulness or bliss (Ananda). Man has to progress in the three fields of this existence; physical, intellectual and spiritual to become perfect. Physical and intellectual progress is necessary for his successful worldly life. But spirituality blends these two realms (physical and intellectual) harmoniously making one’s life really meaningful and successful.
Moral obligation is the duty assigned to every person on the basis of his conduct and status in the society. A student’s moral obligation is to study well while a teacher’s is to be committed to his profession. The parents’ obligation is to properly look after their children, while a social worker’s moral obligation is to stand for the welfare of the society. Thus the term moral obligation has different meanings on the basis of the respective social status of the individuals. However the ultimate duty or moral obligation of every individual is to attain total freedom of his soul.
Right action refers to the action being performed without attachment and bondages to the soul. The Atma (soul) is, a true particle of the Supreme being, present in everybody, under the control of the operative principles of Prakriti (Nature), active in his mind. The soul longs for freedom from bondages while the mind binds it again and again. Right action unties the bondages and releases the soul to ultimate freedom.
Right knowledge (Jnana) means the knowledge relating to the Supreme consciousness. Jnana according to Bhagavad Gita is the right knowledge of the Supreme and vijnana, the analytical knowledge. Thus knowledge as referred to in Gita is the knowledge of the Divine consciousness.
Freedom of the soul refers to the freedom from all bondages that prevent the soul from moving towards the Supreme Self.
Peacefulness or bliss is the ultimate state of one’s soul getting merged into the Supreme.
Yoga is the communion of the soul (unit self) with the Supreme consciousness. The practice of yoga is a sacred mental exercise imparted by a true Guru capable of leading the spiritual aspirants to attain the Supreme Self.
Faith refers to one’s belief without empirical evidences. Faith in God is not necessary to lead a peaceful social life, provided one is value oriented. But faith in the Divine Self helps one to keep his inner personality peaceful. One may realize this truth only in his later stage of life span, consequent on his life experiences.
Many of the authors, who interpreted and studied Bagavad Gita, have not well revealed the implied spiritual truths and meanings contained in it. Some consider Bagavad Gita as a guideline for the healthy social life. Yet some consider it as an effective approach to the problems of war and conflict. But Bagavad Gita covers almost all the human problems in physical, intellectual and spiritual realms and hence is comprehensive. Bagavad Gita spends most of its discussions on the psychological and spiritual aspects of human beings, mainly the conflict within the human mind. The great seer, Vedavyasa might have meant war as a continuous conflict taking place between the good and evil forces within one’s mind and in the collective mind of the society. To know the real wisdom of Bagavad Gita one must approach it with purity of mind and humbleness.
In the present study a humble attempt is made to throw some light upon the psychological and spiritual aspects of Bagavad Gita with a view to making aware the common readers the implied meanings of it. This study is made as simple as possible eliciting the core ideas of the stanzas without merely insisting on the word meanings. Brief interpretations are also given wherever found necessary. I would be satisfied if anybody finds it worth to know the real sprit of Bagavad Gita with the help of this humble attempt.
I am very much thankful to Sri K.U Udayan, Dr. E.S Rajendran, Dr.K.V Janardhanan, Sri K.C Radhakrishnan and Dr Vandana for their sincere encouragements and services rendered to me for the accomplishment of this work. I am also grateful to my beloved young friends Sri K.V Sooraj and Sri Mohit Rajan, representing the new generation for their services and help in this regard.
Sadanandan E.V
The Mahabarata war of Kuruksetra is to begin. The great saint and seer Vedavyasa appears in the court of Drutarastra, the king of Kauravas and tells him that he would give him the divine power to see the fight going on far away in the battle field of Kuruksetra. But the king denies the offer. Giving the divine power to Sanjaya, the king's loyal champion, Vedavyasa leaves the court. Sanjaya also leaves the king, giving him a general description of the war.
The term yoga refers to the union of individual soul (unit self) with the Supreme (Paramatma). The Seers, the wise and the devotees of God incessantly try to attain the state of communion of their souls with the God, the Supreme consciousness. Those who try for the communion of soul by acquiring right knowledge of the Paramatma (Supreme) are called the Sankhya. Sri Krisna tries to reveal the secret of Sankhya yoga in this chapter. We are fortunate enough to know it through the discussions of Arjuna and Sri Krisna.
The important methods of yoga are Karma yoga and Janana yoga, though there are other ways such as Bhakti yoga(Yoga of devotion), Samnyasa yoga(yoga of total surrender), Karma Samnyasa yoga etc. We know that all the developments of human society are based on karma(action). Even our life on earth is to do action. It is stated that the ultimate aim of our birth is to attain God, after shaking off all bondages, being attributed to our karma. Karmapasa is the bondage preventing us from realizing God and uniting with Him.
There seldom exists right knowledge or right action alone. Right action and right knowledge are jointly called JnanaKarmayoga. Samnyasa refers to one's total surrender to God.The way by which one can lead to a peaceful life, surrendering himself to God is discussed in this chapter. What is important is yoga i.e. the union of soul with the God. The ultimate goal of every soul is its communion with the Supreme consciousness.
Actions are performed with the help of sensory and motor organs and the mind. But the question is how an action affects a person; positively or negatively. Negative or positive impact of the action on individuals brings bondage to one's soul. Action bringing bondages to one's atma (soul) are not desirable. Karma samnyasa yoga stands for, internally surrendering the fruits of action unto the God, so that the atma shall not be affected by the bondages formed by actions.
The words 'Atma samnyama' refer to the control of one's mind. It looks for as to how mind can be withdrawn from sense objects and can be directed towards the Supreme. A man's mind is generally filled with a number of thoughts, positive and negative. 'Dhyana' refers to meditating upon God the infinite love and consciousness. It is the true dhyana or meditation.Naturally all the thoughts are related to mundanities and attached to sensual desires.
Jnana refers to the overall or complete knowledge. The analytical knowledge is called vijnana; specific knowledge. For example a peepal tree is usually very big and shady. The knowledge regarding the particular family of the tree, the quality and nature of the leaves, the possible age of the tree, the structure and nature of the roots etc; refers to vijnana or analytical knowledge. Jnana in Bagavad Gita stands for the knowledge of the Supreme, the formless and attribute less Divinity.
The term 'Akshara' refers to the imperishable and everlasting one. Imperishable one is Paramatma, the Supreme entity. It is the infinite without beginning or end. 'Kshara Brahma' is the one being formed and getting changed into enumerable perishable forms. There are two other classifications of Brahma; Nirguna Brahma and Saguna Brahma. Nirguna Brahma is a state of Supreme consciousness (God) without the influence of Prakriti, the natural forces.
The term Rajavidya or Rajayoga refers to the noble yoga or the great yoga method. Guhya refers to the secret of yoga. Yogavidya is great and secret. It is imparted by great masters or Gurus to their disciples directly and secretly. There cannot be any agent to a great Guru. All are not eligible to practice yoga vidya. The eligibility is to be attained by a certain level of purification of one's mind. It is the minimum qualification required for imparting Yoga vidya to an aspirant.
Vibuthi refers to God's qualities and bounties. In this chapter there is a detailed discussion of Parmatma's powers, qualities, gifts, glories etc. There are many who worship God as power and wish to attain power. They worship God for material gains. But there are a very few who worship God as the ultimate truth responsible for all material and immaterial manifestations. They consider God as consciousness, the owner and the controller of all powers.
The Lord, Sri Krisna has revealed the secret of the universe and spirituality, also about the power of the human mind and its helplessness etc. through the ten previous chapters (I-X). But Arjuna was not fully convinced. Therefore Sri Krisna was compelled to give Arjuna the vision of his universal person making him ready for the performance of his moral obligation to fight against Kauravas.
Bhakti refers to the ardent reverence to some person, concept or God. A pious man is simple and humble and not necessarily be a scholar; and that a scholar (jnani) need not be a pious devotee (Bakta). A wise scholar tries to remove all his doubts in the path of spirituality by logic and reasoning and by acquiring knowledge. But a pious devotee of God is unconcerned with such knowledge, as he has already surrendered everything unto God.
Ksetra refers to a particular realm or plane (Mandalam). It is to be understood as a place of worship. He who knows about Ksetra is Ksetrajna. Many of us conduct our worship in temples where images (idols) of Gods are consecrated for worship. Some worship their selected images of Gods in private prayer rooms at their homes. Some others worship God chanting His name always secretly.
Gunathraya refers to the operating principles of Prakriti .Sattva guna (Sentient force), Rajo guna (mutative force) and Tamo guna (static force) the forces constituting Prakriti. 'Siva Saktiatmakam Brahma', means that consciousness and power together constitute Brahma. In Nirguna Brahma the forces of Sattva, Raja and Tama are dormant and not active. There the Supreme consciousness alone is felt and experienced by the purified individual soul.
Parmapurusa (Supreme consciousness) is Purushotama. The process of attaining Purushotama is Purushotama yoga. It is the most desirable and greatest of all yoga practices. The aim of a true spiritual aspirant is to attain Paramapurusa who is beyond the purview of the forces of Prakriti. The Purusa is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. It is a process to attain or become one with the Supreme Purusa.
The terms 'Div' refers to light and the term divine is related to it. Therefore Deva or God means the divine (light). The opposite word of Deva is Asura which means darkness or ignorance. Asuras are those who stand against virtue and virtuous persons. They are negative in character. Those with divine qualities march towards the Supreme light while those who with Asura qualities move only all along darkness or ignorance. People of Asura qualities make all the troubles to those with virtues.
Sradha refers to one's belief and faith and 'thraya' to the three forces of Prakriti. The minds of individuals can be categorized into three on the basis of the intensity of the influence of the forces (gunas) of prakriti in them. They are Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika. If an individual's mind is dominated by Sattva guna rather than Rajo guna and Tamo guna he is said to be Sattvika. Where Rajo guna is dominant, he is called Rajasika and Tamasika in whom Tamo guna is the dominating force.
The term 'moksha' refers to the liberation of one's soul from his mind which is under the grip of the forces of Prakriti. Nyasa stands for the surrender. Total surrender to God is samnyasa. Once the ego, the mind and the intellect of a person are surrendered unto the Supreme; it is said to be samnyasa. It helps to liberate one's self from the operative principles of Prakriti. The forces of Prakriti in one's mind torture the soul continuously and that the soul intensely desires for the liberation or total freedom from the mind.