Geeta Dhara – Gurukul

2.21 – “How can he, O Parth, who is conscious of the Soul within as imperishable, permanent, birthless, and immutable, kill or move another to kill?”

Arjun is addressed as Parth, for he has made a chariot of the earth-made body and is preparing to take a perfect aim at the Supreme Spirit. The man who knows that the embodied Soul is indestructible, permanent, beyond birth, and unmanifest-how can he make others slay or be a slayer himself! Destruction of what is indestructible is impossible. And, being beyond birth, the Self is also never born. So why grieve for the body?

2.22 –“Like a man who puts on new garments after discarding his worn out clothes, the embodied Self, also, casts off tattered bodies and transmigrates into other bodies that are new.”

The Soul rejects bodies that have been ravaged by old age or some other disease and dresses himself in new apparel just as a man throws away old, torn clothes and puts on new clothes. But if new clothing is needed only when the fabric of old clothes is weakened, why do young children die?

These “garments” have yet to grow and evolve. It was said a little earlier that the body rests on sanskar, the impressions from action attained in the course of a previous existence. When the store of sanskar is depleted, the Self discards the body. If the sanskar is of two days’ duration only, the body will be on the brink of death on the second day itself. Beyond sanskar there is not even a single breath of life; sanskar is the body and the Self assumes a new body according to his sanskar.

According to the Chandogya Upanishad,” A man is primarily his will. As is his will in this life, so does he become when he departs from it.”It is the firmness of his will in one life that determines what a man will be in the next. Man is thus born in bodies that are shaped by his own will. So death is a mere physical change: the Self does not die.

2.23 –“This Self is neither pierced by weapons, nor burnt by fire, nor made damp by water, nor dried up by wind.”

Weapons cannot cleave the Self. Fire cannot singe him. He cannot also be drenched by water, nor withered by wind.

2.24 –“The Self, which cannot be pierced or burnt or made wet or faded, is uninterrupted, all-pervasive, constant, immovable, and eternal.”

The Self cannot be cut or pierced through; he cannot be burnt; and he cannot be soaked. Even the whole firmament cannot contain him within its expanse. The Self is beyond doubt, ever-fresh, omnipresent, immovable, constant, and everlasting.

Arjun has pronounced family traditions to be eternal. So, according to him, the war will destroy Sanatan Dharm itself. But Sri Krishn finds it an example of ignorance and points out that the Self alone is eternal.If we do not know the means by which we can realize our Self and his goal, we have no inkling of Sanatan Dharm.

That which is eternal is so strong and impregnable that arms cannot pierce it, fire cannot burn it, and water cannot wet it. Nothing that belongs to the material world can touch it, let alone food and drink.

Some such misguided traditions had prevailed at the time of Arjun, too, and he was obviously one of their victims. So he tearfully whines to Sri Krishn about the eternal nature of family rites and customs. The war, he says, will destroy Sanatan Dharm, and when this is lost, all the members of the family are bound to end up in hell. It is evident that what Arjun is talking about is some customary beliefs of his time. That is why the spiritually adept Sri Krishn refutes him and points out that the Self alone is perpetual. If we do not know the way to this embodied God, we are yet uninitiated into the spirit of Sanatan Dharm.

2.25 –“Knowing that the Self is unmanifest, a non-object to the senses, incomprehensible because he is a non-object to the mind, and changeless, (O Arjun), it does not befit you to grieve (over him).”

The Soul is unmanifest and not an object of the senses. He cannot be grasped by the senses. He is present even when there is the association of senses with their objects, but he cannot be comprehended. He is beyond thought. He is eternal and he is present even when the mind and its volitions persist, but he is beyond perception, enjoyment, and access. So the mind has to be restrained.Sri Krishn has told Arjun that the unreal has no existence and neither is the real ever nonexistent. The Self is that reality. It is the Self that is changeless, constant, eternal, and unmanifest. They who know essence have found the Self adorned with these traits. Not linguists nor the affluent, but only seers have known the unique character of the Self.

[As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Paramhans]

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“Humble Wishes”

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2.16 – “The unreal has no being and the real has no non-being; and the truth about both has also been seen by men who know the reality.”

The unreal has no existence; it has no being and so bringing it to an end is out of the question. On the other hand, there is no absence of the real in all time-past, present or future. Arjun then asks Sri Krishn whether he is saying this as an incarnation of God. Sri Krishn’s reply to this is that the distinction between the real and the unreal has also been revealed to sages who have realized the true nature of the human Soul as identical with the Supreme Spirit pervading the universe.

2.17 –“Know that since the Spirit which pervades the universe is imperishable and immutable, no one can effect his destruction.”

That which spreads through and is present in every atom of the universe is indestructible. No one is capable of destroying the imperishable principle.

2.18 –“Fight, O Bharat (Arjun), because while the bodies which clothe the Soul are said to come to an end, the embodied Spirit itself is for ever, indestructible, and boundless.”

Arjun is exhorted to get up and fight because all these physical bodies that embody the indwelling, boundless, and eternal Spirit are said to be ephemeral.

This Spirit, the Self, is imperishable, and it cannot be destroyed at any time. The Self is real, whereas the physical body is subject to death, and so unreal and nonexistent at all times.

Sri Krishn’s injunction to Arjun is, “Fight because the body is mortal.” But it is not evident from the exhortation whether Arjun is required to kill only the Kaurav. Aren’t the men on the side of Pandav, too, “bodies”? Are the Pandav immortal? If physical bodies are mortal, who is Sri Krishn there to defend? Is Arjun not a body, too? Is Sri Krishn there to defend that body which is unreal, without being, and unceasing? If it is so, may it not be assumed that he too is ignorant and lacking in discrimination, the power that distinguishes between the visible world and the invisible Spirit. Doesn’t he himself say later that the man who thinks of and toils only for the physical body (3.13) is ignorant and wanting in discernment? Such a wretched man lives in vain. There is also another problem. Who really is this Arjun?
As it was said in Chapter I, Arjun is an embodiment of affectionate devotion. Like a faithful charioteer, the revered God is always with his devotee. Like a friend, he guides him and shows him the right way. We are not a physical body. The body is a mere garment, a dwelling for the Soul to live in. The one who lives in it is the affectionate Self.The physical body was sometime back called “unceasing.” Elemental wars and slaughter do not destroy the body. When one body is forsaken, the Soul just assumes another body. It is with reference to this that Sri Krishn has said that there is change from one body to another just as a man grows from childhood to youth, and then to old age. If you hack a body to pieces, the Soul just puts on another body like a new apparel.

The real base of the body is constituted by sanskar, the merits-the influences and impressions-earned during a previous existence. And sanskar rests upon the mind. Perfect subjugation of the mind, so that it can be changeless, firm, and constant, and the dissolution of the last sanskar, are all different aspects of the same process. The disintegration of the last crust of this sanskar marks the end of physical existence. To bring about this dissolution we have to undertake aradhana, worship and adoration, of the desired God.Sri Krishn has named it action (karm) or the Way of Selfless Action (Nishkam Karm Yog). In the Gita, he has from time to time urged Arjun to wage war, but in the entire poem there is not one verse that supports the idea that its war is a physical war or in any way related to the idea of actual bloodshed.Evidently this war is the war between the opposed impulses of righteousness and unrighteousness, the forces of piety and those of impiety, that is fought within man’s Soul-the seat of all thought and feeling.

2.19 –“They are both ignorant, he who believes that the Self slays and he who thinks that he is slain, for he neither slays nor is he slain.”

He who regards the Self as the slayer and he who regards him as the slain are both unaware of his real nature, for he neither kills nor can he be killed.

2.20 – “Neither (ever) born nor dying, neither at any time coming into being nor ceasing to be, the Self is birthless, perpetual, unchanging, and timeless, and he is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.”

The Self, the God within soul, is neither at any time born nor does he at any time die, for what he undergoes in the name of death is a mere change of apparel. He cannot also be anything other than Self, because he is birthless, permanent, eternal, and primeval. Disintegration, death, of the body does not annihilate the self. The Self alone is real, timeless, unchanging, and eternal. Who are you? A follower of the eternal Dharm? What is for ever? The Self. So you are a follower, a disciple, of the Self. The Self and Brahm (God) are synonymous. And who are you ? A worshipper of the eternal Dharm. What is immutable? The Self, of course. That is to say that you and I all are adorers of the Self. But if we are not familiar with the spiritual path to the eternal truth, the way of following the dictates of the Self until he is one with the Supreme Spirit, we have nothing that is worthy of being described as changeless and everlasting. We are on trial for the final absolution and in close proximity to God if we pine for him, but we cannot be deemed as having been admitted as long as we are credulous enough to accept blindly one wrong convention or the other masquerading as Sanatan Dharm.

Be it in India or any other country, the Soul in all is identical. So, if anywhere on the earth there is a man who is aware of the true nature of Self and his ultimate goal, and who is eager to take to the way which will eventually lead his Self to the Supreme Spirit,he undoubtedly also belongs to the fold of Sanatan Dharm-the changeless and eternal. 

[As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Paramhans]

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“Humble Wishes”

2.11 – The Lord said, “Although sorrowing over those who ought not to be grieved for, you yet speak wise words; but the discriminating mourn over neither the living nor those who are dead.”

Sri Krishn tells Arjun that while he grieves for those who are unworthy of such grief, he also speaks words of wisdom, but men of discernment mourn neither for those whose souls have departed nor for the ones who are living. They do not grieve for the living because they shall also die. That means that Arjun only talks like a wise man; he does not know the reality.

2.12 –“It is not that either you or I, or all these kings, did not exist in the past, nor is it that our being will come to an end in the future.”

It is not,Sri Krishn explains, that he, the accomplished teacher, or Arjun-the devoted pupil, or all these kings with the vanity that is characteristic of rulers of men, did not exist at any time in the ages to come. The accomplished teacher is for ever, and so are affectionate disciples as well as rulers who symbolize the perversions of passion and moral blindness. Here, besides throwing light on the permanence of Yog in general, Yogeshwar Krishn has particularly stressed its existence in the future.

2.13 –“Since the embodied Spirit passes through infancy, youth, and old age in the body, and then transmigrates into another body, men with steadfast minds do not grieve over his passing away.”

As the embodied soul waxes from childhood to youth, then wanes to old age, and assumes one new body after another, wise men are not prey to infatuation. At some time a man is a boy and then he grows into a young man. But does he die by this? Then he grows old. The Self is ever the same; only the condition of the physical body in which he resides goes on changing. There is no crack in him when he changes over to a new body.
This change from one physical body to another will continue until the Soul is united with the Supreme Spirit who alone is beyond all change.

2.14 –“There are sensations of heat and cold, and of pain and pleasure, O son of Kunti, as senses meet their objects. Bear them patiently, O Bharat, because they have a beginning and an end, and are transient.”

The contact of senses and their objects, which generates pleasure and pain, and feelings of cold and warmth, is occasional and momentary. Arjun should, therefore, abandon them. But instead of that, he is shaken by the mere thought of pleasures that are derived from the union of senses and their objects. The family for the sake of whom we yearn for pleasures and the teacher, whom we revere, both represent the attachment of senses. But the causes of this attachment are momentary, false and perishable. Neither shall our senses always meet with objects they enjoy, nor shall they always be capable of enjoyment. So Arjun is counselled to give up sensual pleasures and learn to withstand the demands of his senses. But why is Arjun counselled thus? Is it a Himalayan war in which he has to endure cold? Or is it a desert war in which he has to suffer heat? As knowledgeable people say, the actual “Kurukshetr” has a moderate climate. During the mere eighteen days that is the total duration of the Mahabharat war, is it possible that seasons will change: that winter and summer will come and go? The truth is that endurance of cold and heat, of happiness and sorrow, of honour and dishonour, depends upon the seeker’s spiritual endeavour.

The Gita is, as we have seen more than once, an externalization of the inner conflict that rages within the mind. This war is the war between the gross physical body and the Self which is aware of his identity with God.It is a conflict in which ultimately even the forces of divinity grow inert after they have subdued unrighteous impulses and enabled the Self to become one with God.

When there remains no impiety, what else is there for pious impulses to fight? The Gita is thus a picturization of inner conflict that rages within the mind.

2.15 –“So, O the noblest of men (Arjun), one who is possessed of equanimity in pain and pleasure, and firm, and untormented by these (feelings produced by the meeting of senses with their objects), deserves (to taste) the nectar of immortality.”

The steadfast man, who regards sorrow and happiness with equipoise and is not troubled by his senses and their association with objects, is worthy of the state of immortality that realization of the Supreme Spirit brings.

Here Sri Krishn refers to an attainment, namely amrit, literally the drink of immortality. Arjun had thought that in return for the war he would be rewarded with either a heavenly abode or the authority to rule over the earth. But now Sri Krishn tells him that his prize will be amrit rather than the pleasures of heaven or earthly power.

[As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Paramhans]

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“Humble Wishes”

2.6 -“I hardly know which is better, their (the Kaurav’s) conquering us or our conquering them – even Dhritrashtr ’s sons -who are our enemies, and yet after killing whom we may not wish to live.”

Even possession of the hoped-for delights is not assured. Arjun is at his wit’s end as to what course of action can bring him glory, for whatever he has said till now has been proved to be only ignorance. He does not also know whether he will rout the Kaurav or they will rout him. Dhritrashtr’s sons, after slaying whom he should not desire to live, are arrayed against him.

What shall he live for if his feelings of attachment represented here by his kinsmen, all of them progeny of Dhritrashtr’s ignorance, are destroyed ? At the same time, however, it occurs to Arjun that what he has said now may be also false. 

2.7 -“With my mind swamped with feeble pity and confusion regarding duty, I entreat you to instruct me as to what is definitely conducive to my glory, for I am your disciple and have taken refuge in you.”

With his heart enfeebled by pity and his mind clouded with infatuation in regard to dharm, Arjun begs Sri Krishn to tell him the means that will definitely be the most conducive to what is supremely propitious for him. But why should Sri Krishn do this?

According to Arjun, it is Sri Krishn’s duty to show him the right path because he (Arjun) is a disciple who has found shelter under him.

Furthermore, he needs not only instruction but also support when he stumbles. He is like the man requesting a helper to place the load on his back, help him in securing it there, and also to come along with him, for who will put back the load in place again if it slips down. Such is Arjun’s abject submission to Sri Krishn. 

At this point Arjun’s surrender is complete. Until now he had thought himself an equal of Sri Krishn in merit and, in fact, even superior to him in certain skills. But now he really puts himself at the mercy of his charioteer.

An accomplished teacher dwells in his disciple’s heart and is always by his side until the goal is reached. If he is not there by his side, the pupil may falter in his quest. Like the guardians of a maiden who protect her till her marriage, an accomplished teacher acts as a charioteer who skilfully maneuvers his disciple’s Soul safely across the perilous valleys of nature. 

2.8 -“I do not see that obtaining an undisputed and profitable dominion over the whole earth or, (for that matter) even lordship over the gods, can cure the grief that is wearing out my senses.”

Arjun cannot believe that even a secure and lucrative realm extending across the whole earth or even an Indr-like lordship over the gods of heaven can help him get rid of the sorrow that is withering his senses. If his grief is unabated, what shall he do with all these acquisitions? He begs to be excused from fighting in the war if these are to be his only rewards in return. He is utterly disheartened and he does not know what to say after this. 

2.9 -Sanjay said,” After having thus spoken to Hrishikesh, Arjun, the conqueror of sleep and destroyer of foes, told Govind (Sri Krishn) that he would not fight, and then he fell silent.”

So far Arjun’s attitude has been determined by the Puran, which contain ordinances for ceremonial acts and sacrificial rites as well as the enjoyment of benefits arising from a due performance thereof. In these works, heaven is the ultimate goal: but Sri Krishn later enlightens Arjun that this line of thought is mistaken.

2.10 -“Hrishikesh then, O Bharat (Dhritrashtr), with a smile as it appeared, spoke thus to him (Arjun) who sat mournfully between the two armies.”

Sri Krishn, knower of secrets of the innermost heart (Hrishikesh), speaks smilingly to the grieving Arjun.

“Most revered Swami Adgadanand Paramhans”

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“Humble Wishes” 

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CURIOSITY ABOUT ACTION
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In the nature of a preface, Chapter 1 presents the seeker’s doubts and confusions. The participants in the war include all of the Kaurav and Pandav, but Arjun alone is subject to misgivings. However, Arjun is the very embodiment of devotion as a wayfarer on the path of spiritual quest. It is his love for God that inspires him to get ready for the war between matter and spirit. The initial stage is thus of love, adoration. My revered teacher used to say, “Believe that adoration of the Supreme Spirit has commenced when, even while one is leading the life of a householder, there are signs of weariness and tears, and sentiment so powerful that it chokes the throat.”Manifold strands are entwined in love: of dharm, precept, restraint, pious association, and sentiment.

In the first stage of spiritual seeking, attachment to the family looms as an obstacle. At the outset everyone wishes to achieve the ultimate reality, but the worshipper is overtaken by despair when he realizes that after going a certain length of the way he will have to sever all his ties of attachment to the family. So he learns to be contented with whatever customs he had followed earlier. He even cites prevailing customs to justify his infatuation, just as Arjun does when he insists that family rites are Sanatan Dharm. The war will cause the extinction of the Sanatan Dharm itself and, along with that, destruction of families and loss of civilized ways. Far from being an independent view of Arjun, his ideas only reflect some inherited creeds he had acquired earlier before approaching an accomplished teacher such as Sri Krishn.Mired in these traditions, men devise numerous religions, sects, groups small and large, and castes beyond reckoning. Some press the nose while others pierce their ears, while yet others lose their dharm because they are touched by someone, or because their food aid drink are defiled.

2.1 – Sanjay said,”To him (Arjun), whose eyes were brimming with tears of grief because he was overcome by pity, Madhusudan spoke thus.” 

2.2 – The Lord said,”From what cause, O Arjun, does this unmanly (un-Arjun-like), heaven-barring, and shameful despair come over you at this perilous spot?”

Sri Krishn uses the term”visham” for the place where Arjun and he are at the time. Besides meaning “difficult” or “dangerous,” the word also means “unique” or “unequalled.”

So Sri Krishn really wishes to know that which has caused spiritual ignorance (agyan) in Arjun in this unusual, unparalleled setting. The setting is one, the like of which, can be found nowhere else in the entire world, because it is the sphere of spiritual striving towards an unworldly, celestial goal.

In such a universal and undisputed setting, how has spiritual ignorance come over Arjun? Why does Krishn call Arjun’s views spiritual ignorance? Has Arjun not said categorically that it is his heartfelt wish to defend Sanatan Dharm ? Is it spiritual ignorance to be resolved, body and soul, to protect what Arjun believes to be the immutable, eternal dharm?

According to Sri Krishn it is so, for it has not been the practice of those who truly deserve to be called men. Neither does it provide access to heaven. It is also not conducive to glory. The one who keeps firmly to the path of righteousness is an Arya. In Hindu scriptures, instead of referring to any race or stock, “Arya” denotes an exceptionally cultivated man who adheres scrupulously to dharm. If dying for one’s family were not an instance of ignorance, Sri Krishn adds, sages would have practised it.

Had family traditions been the ultimate reality, they would have been used as a ladder for climbing up to heaven and salvation. When Meera sang her songs of divine adoration, people declared her insane and her mother-in-law condemned her as a destroyer of the family.But no one today remembers the mother- in- law for shading copious tears of concern about the well being of her family and safety of it’s honour,while the whole world cherishes the memory of Meera. 

After all,how long can we remember the man who is concerned only about his family?Is not evident then that customs which bring neither glory nor sublime happiness,and which have at no time been accepted by an Arya( a man of Dharm),must be a kind of ignorance? 

2.3 – “Don’t give in, O Parth, to unmanliness for it does not become you. So, O Parantap, stand up and drive away this disgraceful weakness of your heart.”

Sri Krishn exhorts Arjun not to yield to impotence (klaibyam). Is Arjun impotent-lacking in virility? Are we virile men? An impotent man is one who is devoid of manliness. All of us, according to our wisdom, do what we believe to be manly. A peasant who sweats day and night in his fields, tries to prove his manliness by his labour. Some demonstrate their manliness in commerce and yet others try to prove that they are real men by abusing their powers.

Ironically, however, even after this lifelong display of manliness, we depart but empty-handed at the end. Is it not obvious then that all this is not true manliness? True manliness is Self-knowledge: awareness of the Soul and its divine origin.

To cite yet another example from the Brihadaranyak Upanishad, Gargi tells Yagnvalkya that a man, though endowed with sexual prowess, is yet unmanly if he has no awareness of the embodied Soul. This Self is the real man (Purush), radiant and unmanifest. The endeavour to know this Self is true manliness (paurush).

It is because of this that Sri Krishn asks Arjun not to surrender to impotence. It is unworthy of him. He is a scorcher, a formidable vanquisher, of foes. So he ought to reject his grovelling feebleness and stand up for battle. He should give up his social attachments, for they are mere frailties. 

2.4 – Arjun said, “How, O Madhusudan, slayer of enemies, shall I shoot arrows in
the battle against men like Bheeshm and Dron who deserve only my honour?

Arjun addresses Sri Krishn as Madhusudan, destroyer of the demon of ego, and wants to know from him how he can fight with his grandsire Bheeshm and teacher Dron. Both are deserving of only reverence.

Dual conduct, as we have seen, is Dronacharya: the conduct that arises from the feeling that God is separate from us and we are separate from him.

But the consciousness of this duality is also the initial urge for spiritual accomplishment. This is Dronacharya’s excellence as a teacher. And then there is Bheeshm, the very image of delusion.

So long as we stray from the right path and are under the sway of delusion, children, family, and kinsmen all appear as our own. The feeling that they belong to me-are mine, is the medium through which delusion works. The deluded man regards them as worthy of worship and clings to them, for that one is father, the other one grandfather, and still another the teacher who has taught him.

But after spiritual attainment there is neither teacher nor pupil, and the Self who has gained awareness of the essence, of the Supreme Spirit, is left all alone.

When the Self is absorbed in God, neither is the teacher a preceptor nor the disciple a receptacle.This is the state of the most exalted excellence.

After assimilating the teacher’s excellence the disciple shares it, and the distinction between the teacher and the pupil is obliterated.Sri Krishn says, “Arjun, you shall dwell in me.”

Arjun will become identical with Sri Krishn, and the same is true of every sage who has known attainment.In such a state the teacher’s existence merges into, and his magnificence flows spontaneously like a crystal stream through, the disciple’s heart.

But Arjun is yet far from that state and at present he exploits even the teacher’s office as a shield to ward off participation in the war. 

2.5 – “Even to live in this world as a mendicant begging for alms is better than killing teachers, for if l kill them all my joys and riches and desires in this world will be drenched in (their) blood.”

Arjun prefers life of a beggar who lives on alms to killing his teachers. Rather than meaning “to beg for livelihood”, “begging” here denotes soliciting great men-through rendering even a half-hearted service to them-for favour of propitious fortune.

Food is the only God, after partaking of which the Soul’s hunger is assuaged for ever. That he should, even though in small measures, continue to taste the manna of God’s excellence by serving and soliciting a sage, without having to part with his family, is the craving behind Arjun’s tearful appeal. Don’t most of us do the same? It is our aspiration that we should gradually, at some point, achieve spiritual liberation without having to destroy ties of familial love and attachment. But there is no such way for seeker who has achieved a higher level of accomplishment than this and is strong enough to face war raging on the battlefield of his heart. Soliciting and imploring like an alms man rather than doing something on one’s own is like begging for food like a mendicant.

In the ” Dhamnadayad Sutt” of Majjhim Nikaya, Mahatma Buddh has also declared the food obtained by begging inferior because it is like flesh received as alms.

How will he profit, Arjun asks, by killing his teachers? What else can the world reward him with for this crime but the unnatural enjoyment of bloodstained pleasures of sensual gratification and material prosperity? 

It appears from this that he perhaps believes that loving adoration of God will augment his worldly happiness. So his only achievement even after the most strenuous struggle,he believes,can be nothing more than enjoyment of riches which sustain the body and sensual pleasures. 

                                                         

The Geeta is an investigation of the war of kshetr-kshetragya: of the conflict between the material body, engaged in action, and the accomplished Soul that is ever conscious of his oneness with the Supreme Spirit. A song of revelation, it strives to demonstrate what God must be in all his divine splendour. The sphere that the song celebrates is a battlefield: the body with its dual, opposed impulses that compose the “Dharmkshetr” and the “Kurukshetr.

The first chapter, as we have seen, elaborates respective structure and base of the strength that characterize the adversaries. The sounding of conches proclaims their valour as well as intentions. There is then a review of the armies that are, to fight in the war. Their numerical strength is estimated at approximately 650 million, but the number is really infinite. Nature embodies two points of view, relevant to the opposed impulses that clash on the field of action.

There is first the inward looking mind that always aims at realization of the Self and looks up to the adored God. On the other hand, there is the outward looking mind, preoccupied with the material world and dominated by unrighteous impulses.

The first enables the self to be absorbed in the most sublime dharm that is embodied in God, whereas the second contrives illusion (maya) by virtue of which the material world is taken as really existent and distinct from the Supreme Spirit. The initial step of the spiritual wayfarer is to seek moral excellence so as to subdue unrighteous impulses. Subsequently, with the perception of and union with the immutable, eternal God, even the need for righteousness is done away with and the final outcome of the war between matter and spirit is revealed.

Saying this he sinks despairingly in the rear of the chariot. In other words, So he pleads with Sri Krishn and wishes to be enlightened on why they (Sri Krishn and he), men of sagacity, should be bent upon committing the heinous sin of destroying their family. According to his view of the issue at hand, even Sri Krishn is about to become an accessory to the crime. Finally, he asserts adamantly that Destruction of family and caste traditions by war is thus destruction of the eternal dharm itself. And when dharm is lost, women of the family grow unchaste and there is a sinful intermingling of classes which must drive both the family and its destroyers to hell for an indefinite time. Attachment to the family proves an obstacle in the primary stage of the worshipper’s devotion to the desired goal.He is shaken when he discovers that he shall have to part with his near and dear ones and treat them as though they had never existed. He finds nothing but unpropitious harm in his act of destroying his own people. Like Arjun he, looks for an escape into prevailing traditions.Looking at the armies on the battlefield of life we see our own families, and they have to be destroyed.

Commentators have called this first chapter of the Geeta “Arjun Vishad Yog.” “Vishad” is grief.Arjun is a symbol of tender, affectionate devotion. Grief is the motive as well as instrument of the devotee who is concerned about the preservation of the Sanatan Dharm.Goswami Tulsidas has said, “Full of grief is my heart since I have only led my life without love of God.”A man sinks into grief because of irresolution. Arjun is apprehensive of varnsankar, of intermingling of classes, for such hybridization only leads to damnation. He also grieves because he fears for the safety of Sanatan Dharm. So the title “Sanshay Vishad Yog,” is appropriate for the chapter.

Thus concludes the First Chapter, in the Upanishad of the Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta, on the Knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, the Science of Yog, and the Dialogue between Sri Krishn and Arjun, entitled:
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“Sanshay Vishad Yog” or “The Yog of Irresolution and Grief”
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Thus concludes Swami Adgadanand’s exposition of the First Chapter of the Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta in “Yatharth Geeta”.
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HARI OM TAT SAT

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“Humble Wishes”