Geeta Dhara – Gurukul

Sri Krishn is imperishable, birth less, and pervading the breath of all beings, but he is manifested when he restrains materialistic attachments by atm-maya. One kind of maya is the moral ignorance that makes one accept the reality of the material world, and which is the cause of rebirth in low and inferior forms. The other maya is that which Sri Krishn calls yog-maya, of which we are unaware. This is the maya of Self that provides access to the Soul and leads to awareness of the Supreme Spirit.It is by the operation of this yog-maya that Sri Krishn subdues his three-propertied nature and manifests himself.

Sri Krishn says in Bhagwad Geeta:
*
*
ajo’pi sann avyayātāmā
bhūtānām īśvaro’pi san,
prakṛtim svām adhiṣṭhāya
sambhavāmy ātmamāyayā

“Although imperishable, birthless, and God of all beings,I manifest myself subduing the materialistic world of nature by the mysterious power of atm-maya.’’
*
*
People usually say that they will have a vision of God when he manifests himself through an incarnation. According to Sri Krishn, however, there is no such incarnation as may be seen by others. God is not born in a corporal form. It is only by gradual stages that he controls his three-propertied nature by the exercise of yog-maya and manifests himself. But what are the circumstances of such manifestation?We will find in this verse which is one of the most popular verse of Bhagwad Geeta.

He says:
*
*
yadā-yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata,
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadā’tmānam sṛjāmy aham

“Whenever, O Bharat, righteousness (dharm) declines and unrighteousness is rampant, I manifest myself.”
*
*
Sri Krishn tells the devout Arjun that when hearts fall into inertia in regard to the Supreme Spirit, the most sublime dharm, and when the pious are unable to see how to cross safely to the other bank, he begins to shape his form in order to manifest himself. Such a feeling of weariness had come to Manu. Goswami Tulsidas has written of his grief-laden heart because his life had passed without contemplation of God. When despairing tears flow from the eyes of loving worshippers because of their overpowering feeling of helplessness at their inability to steer across unrighteousness, God begins to mould his form into a manifest shape. But that also implies that God manifests himself to only loving worshippers and only for their well-being.

God’s incarnation comes about only within the heart of a blessed worshipper. But what does the manifest God do?

Sri Krishn says:
*
*
paritrāṇāya sādhūnām
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām,
dharmasansthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge-yuge

“I manifest myself from age to age to defend the pious, destroy the wicked, and strengthen dharm.”
*
*
God manifests himself as a saviour of saintly men. He, the adored, is the one God after attaining whom there is nothing else to contemplate.Sri Krishn assumes a manifest form from age to age to destroy impediments that obstruct the smooth flow of righteous impulses such as wisdom, renunciation and restraint, as also to annihilate the demoniacal forces of passion, anger, attachment and repugnance, and to reinforce dharm.”Age”, as used by Sri Krishn here, does not refer to historical ages like the Golden Age (Satyug) or the Iron Age (Kaliyug). It rather alludes to the stages of rise and fall, of the waxing and waning, of dharm through which human nature has to pass. These are stages of dharm and the human heart has to progress through them. Goswami Tulsidas has written about it in Ram Charit Manas (7. 10)- the devotional retelling and translation of the Indian epic, Ramayan from Sanskrit into the language of the people by the poet Tulsidas.” The stages of dharm undergo variation in every heart at all times, not because of ignorance but because of the operation of the divine power of maya.” This is what has been named atm-maya in this verse. Inspired by God, this knowledge is the one which makes the heart a veritable dwelling of God. But how can one know through which Stage one is passing at the moment?

When virtue and moral goodness (sattwa) alone are active in the heart, when passion and ignorance have subsided, when all fears are stilled, when there is no feeling of repulsion, when there is the necessary strength to rest firmly on the signals that are received from the desired goal, when the mind is overflowing with happiness-then alone is one enabled to enter into the Golden Age. On the other hand, when the forces of darkness (tamas), combined with passion and moral blindness (rajas), are sweeping through, when there are animosities and conflicts all around, the worshipper is passing through the Iron Age (Kaliyug). When there is predominance of ignorance and abundance of lethargy, slumber and procrastination, that is the stage of the Kaliyug of dharm. The man passing through this stage does not do his duty even though he knows it. He knows what he is forbidden to do, and yet he does it. These stages of dharm, of its ascent and descent, are determined by innate properties. These stages are the four ages (yug) according to some, the four classes (varn) according to others, and the four levels of spiritual seeking-excellent, good, medium, and low-according to yet others. In all the stages God stands by the worshipper. Nevertheless, there is a plenty of divine favour at the highest stage, whereas the assistance appears to be meagre at the lower stages.So Sri Krishn tells Arjun that a worshipper who is earnestly devoted to his ultimate goal is a sage, but he can be saved only when the flow of divine impulses such as wisdom, renunciation, and self-restraint, which provide access to the object, is unimpeded. Similarly, doers of wicked deeds are not undone just by the destruction of their nonexistent mortal bodies, because they will be reborn with the same wicked impressions (sanskar) they had earned in the previous life, and do the same evil which they had done before. So Sri Krishn manifests himself in all ages to destroy moral perversions and to strengthen dharm.

Installation of the one changeless God alone is the final destruction of evil.In brief,Sri Krishn has said that he manifests himself again and again, in all circumstances and categories, to destroy evil and foster good, and to strengthen faith in the Supreme Spirit. But he does this only if there is profound regret in the worshippers’ heart. So long as the grace of the worshipped God is not with us, we cannot even know whether evil has been destroyed or how much of it still remains. From the beginning to the moment of final attainment, God stays by the worshipper at all stages. He manifests himself only in the devotee’s heart. Doesn’t everyone see him when he manifests himself?According to Sri Krishn it is not.

Humble Wishes!!!

As expounded by Swami Adgadanand Paramhans,most revered Gurudev.

God’s incarnation, his gradual manifestation through profound remorse, and his works-eradication of hindrances which generate evil, provision of the essentials of Self-realization, and reinstatement of dharm- are not like the birth and deeds of mortals.

Sri Krishn says in Bhagwad Geeta:
*
*
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvataḥ,
tyaktvā deham punarjanma
nai’ti mām eti so’rjuna

“He who has perceived the essence of my radiant incarnations and works, O Arjun, is never born again after discarding his body, but dwells in me.’’
*
*
Perceived only as abstractions, God’s incarnation and operations cannot be seen with physical eyes. He cannot be measured by mind and wisdom. God, so inscrutable and mysterious, is perceptible only to him who has known the reality. Only he can view God’s incarnation and works, and once he has made this direct perception, he is not born again but dwells in Sri Krishn.When seers alone can see God’s incarnation and works, why do we have these crowds of hundreds of thousands of men awaiting the birth of God so that they can see him? Are we all seers? There are many who masquerade as sages, mainly by dressing as holy men, and who claim that they are incarnations, and whose agents resort to publicity to prove it. The credulous rush like sheep to have a view of these “God-men,” but Sri Krishn affirms that only men of perfection can see God. Now, who is this man we call a seer?Giving his verdict on the real and the false,Sri Krishn says that the unreal has no being and that the real has never been nonexistent in all time-past, present and future. This has been the experience of seers rather than of linguists or wealthy men. Now he reiterates that although God manifests himself, only perceivers of essence can see him. He has been united with ultimate reality and become a seer.

We do not become seers by learning to count the five (or twenty-five) elements.Sri Krishn further says that the Soul alone is the ultimate reality. When the Soul is united with this Universal Spirit, he too becomes God. So only a man who has realized the Self can see and comprehend God’s manifestation. It is evident therefore that God manifests himself in a worshippers’s heart. At the outset the worshipper is not able to recognize the power which transmits signals to him. Who is showing him the way? But after he has perceived the truth of the Supreme Spirit, he begins to see and understand, and thereafter when he discards the body he is not reborn.Sri Krishn has said that his manifestation is internal, obscure, and luminous, and that the one who sees his radiance becomes one with him.Sri Krishn only means by this that if men do the ordained task, they will find that they too are radiant. What others have the potential to be,Sri Krishn already is. He represents the possibilities of mankind-their future. The day we achieve perfection within ourselves, we will also be what Sri Krishn is; we will be identical with him. Incarnation is never external. If a heart is brimming with love and adoration, there is a possibility of its experiencing the divine incarnation. All the same Sri Krishn provides solace to the common people by telling them that many have realized him by treading on the ordained path.

Humble Wishes!!!

As expounded by Swami Adgadanand Paramhans,most revered Gurudev.

Many who have taken refuge in Sri Krishn- with single-mindedness and complete detachment, freed equally from passion and passionlessness, fear and fearlessness, anger and absence of anger, and purified by knowledge and penance, have attained to his state. It is not that only now it is so. This canon has always been in operation. Many have attained to his state before.

Sri Krishn says in Bhagwad Geeta:
*
*
vītarāgabhayakrodhā
manmayā mām upāśritāḥ,
bahavo jñānatapasā
pūtā madhāvam āgatāḥ

“Free from passion and anger, wholly dedicated to me, finding shelter in me, and purified by knowledge and penance, many have realized my being.’’
*
*
But what is the way?Sri Krishn shapes himself and appears in a heart that is filled with profound sorrow at the predominance of unrighteousness. It is people with such hearts who realize him. What Yogeshwar Krishn had previously called perception of reality he now calls knowledge (gyan). God is the ultimate reality. To perceive him is wisdom. Men with this knowledge therefore realize him.

Sri Krishn says:
*
*
ye yathā mām prapadyante
tāns tathai’va bhajāmy aham,
mama vartmā’nuvartante
manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvasaḥ

“O Parth, as men worship me, even so do I accept them, and knowing this the wise follow me in every way.’’
*
*
Sri Krishn rewards his worshippers according to the nature of their devotion; he assists them in the same degree. It is the worshipper’s dedication that is returned to him as grace. Knowing this secret, the righteous conduct themselves with single-mindedness according to the way laid down by him. They who are dear to him act according to his way. They do what he ordains them to do.

God shows his favour by standing with the worshipper as a charioteer; he begins to walk along with the worshipper and manifest his glory. This is the form of his loving care. He stands up for the destruction of forces that generate wickedness and to protect righteous impulses that provide access to reality. Unless the worshipped God acts as the earnest charioteer who alerts at every step, despite his dedication and closing his eyes in meditation, and all other endeavours, the worshipper cannot cope with the adversities of the material world successfully. How is he to know how much distance he has covered and how much more remains to be covered? The adored God stands inseparably with the Self and guides him: that he is now at this point, that he should do this, and walk like that. Thus the gulf of nature is gradually bridged and, guiding the Soul ahead by gradual steps, God at last enables him to merge into him.

Worship and adoration have to be performed by the devotee, but the distance on the path which is covered by the devotee is only by God’s grace. Knowing this, men who are pervaded by divine sentiment through and through follow Sri Krishn’s precept.

Humble Wishes!!!

As expounded by Swami Adgadanand Paramhans,most revered Gurudev.

Sri Krishn represents himself as the maker of the four classes. Does it mean that he has divided men into four rigid categories determined by birth? The truth is rather that he has divided actions into four classes on the basis of inherent properties. All the same, as he tells Arjun,he-the imperishable God-is a non-agent and should be known as such.

Sri Krishn says in Bhagwad Geeta:
*
*
cāturvarṇyam mayā sṛṣṭam
guṇakaramavibhāgaśaḥ,
tasya kartāram api mām
viddhy akartāram avyayam

“Although I have created the four classes (varn )-Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudr-according to innate properties and actions, know me the immutable as a non-doer.”
*
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The innate property (gun) of a being or of a thing is a measure, a yardstick. If the dominant property is that of ignorance or darkness (tamas), it will result in an irresistible inclination to laziness, excessive sleep, wantonness, aversion to work, and compulsive addiction to evil in spite of the realization that it is evil. How can worship commence in such a state?We sit and worship for two hours and we try to do it with the utmost earnestness, and yet we fail to secure even ten minutes that are truly propitious.The body is still and quiet, but the mind which should be really quiet soars aloft weaving webs of fancies. Waves upon waves of speculation toss it. Then why do we sit idly in the name of meditation and waste time? The only remedy at this stage is it dedicate ourselves to the service of wise men who dwell in the unmanifest and of those who have gone ahead of us on the path. This will subdue negative impressions and strengthen thoughts that are conducive to worship.

Gradually, with the diminishing of forces of darkness and ignorance, there is the growing sway of the quality of rajas, and a partial awakening of the property of good and moral virtue (sattwa) as well, because of which the worshipper’s ability is elevated to the Vaishya level.Then the same worshipper begins spontaneously to imbibe qualities such as control of the senses and to accumulate other virtuous impulses. Proceeding further on the path of action, he is endowed with the wealth of righteousness. The property of rajas now grows faint and tamas is dormant. At this stage of development the worshipper steps on to the Kshatriya level. Prowess, the ability to be immersed in action, unwillingness to retreat, mastery over feelings, the capacity to carve his way through the three properties of nature-are now the inherent features of the worshipper’s disposition. With yet further refinement of action, sattwa makes its approach, at which there is the evolution of virtues such as control of the mind and senses, concentration, innocence, contemplation and abstract meditation, and faith as well the capacity to hear the voice of God-all qualities that provide access to Him. With the emergence of these qualities the worshipper comes to belong to the Brahmin class. This, however, is the lowest stage of worship at this level. When ultimately the worshipper is united with God, at that point-the highest point-he is neither a Brahmin, nor a Kshatriya, nor a Vaishya, nor a Shudr.So worship of God is the only action-the ordained action. And it is this one action that is divided into four stages according to the motivating properties. The division was made, as we have seen, by a saint—by a Yogeshwar. A sage dwelling in the unmanifest was the maker of this division. Yet Sri Krishn tells Arjun to regard him, the indestructible and maker of varn, as a non-doer. How can it be so?We will see this in next verse.

Sri Krishn says:
*
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na mām karmāṇi limpanti
na me karmaphale spṛhā,
iti mām yo’bhijānāti
karmabhir na sa badhyate

“I am unsullied by action because I am not attached to it, and they who are aware of this are in the like fashion unfettered by action.”
*
*
Sri Krishn is unattached to the fruits of action. He says that the deed by which yagya is accomplished is action, and that the one who tastes the nectar of wisdom generated by yagya merges into the changeless, eternal God. So the final consequence of action is attainment of the Supreme Spirit himself. And Sri Krishn has overcome even the desire for God because he has become identical with Him. So he is also unmanifest like God. There is now no power beyond for which he should strive. So he is untouched by action, and they who know him from the same level, from the level of God realization, are also not bound by action. Such are the realized sages who have reached the level of Sri Krishn’s accomplishment.

Humble Wishes!!!!

As expounded by Swami Adgadanand Paramhans,most revered Gurudev.

It is the ordained action,
rather than mankind,
that
Yogeshwar Krishn has divided
into
four VARN or classes.

A worshiper with inadequate knowledge is at the Shudr stage.
So it is incumbent on him to begin his quest with rendering of service
as required by his native ability,
for thus alone can the proficiencies of the
Vaishy, Kshatriy,
and
Brahmin classes be gradually inculcated in him.

Thus only will he be enabled to ascend step by step.
At the other end,
the Brahmin too is flawed
because
he is yet distant from God.
And, after he has merged with that Supreme Being,
he ceases to be a Brahmin.

“Varn” denotes “form.”
A man’s form is not his body but his inborn disposition.

Sri Krishn tells Arjun in the third verse of Chapter 17 :

“Since the faith of all men,
O Bharat, is according to their inherent propensity
and
man is essentially reverent,
he is what his faith is.”

Every man’s character is moulded by his faith
and
the faith is according to his dominant property.

Varn is thus a scale,
a yardstick,
to
measure one’s capacity for action.

But with the passing of time we either grew oblivious of
or
discarded the appointed action,
began to decide social status
by heredity-thus treating
varn as caste,
and
laid down rigid occupations and modes of living for different men.

This is social classification,
whereas the classification
made in the Gita
is
spiritual.

Moreover, they who have thus twisted
the meaning of varn have also distorted
the implications of action.
With the passage of time,
thus,
varn
came to be determined by birth alone.

But the Bhagavad Gita makes no such provision.
Sri Krishn says that he was the creator
of
the fourfold varn.

Are we to assume from this that there was creation
within the boundaries of India alone,
for castes such as ours cannot be found
anywhere else in the world?

The number of our castes and subcastes is beyond counting.

Does this mean that Sri Krishn had divided men into classes?

The definitive answer to this is found
in the thirteenth verse of Chapter 4,
where, he declares:

‘‘I have created the four classes (varn)
according
to innate properties and action.”

So he has classified action,
not men,
on the basis of inherent properties.
The meaning of varn will be understood without difficulty
if we have grasped the significance of action,
and the import
of
varnsankar will be clear
if we have comprehended
what varn is?

One who deviates from the way of ordained action
is
VARNSANKAR.

The true varn of the Self is God himself.
So to stray from the path that takes the Self to God
and
to be lost in the wilderness of nature
is
to be
varnsankar.

Sri Krishn has revealed that no one can attain to that Supreme Spirit
without
setting upon the way of action.

Sages of accomplishment who are emancipated
neither gain from undertaking action
nor
lose by forsaking it.
And yet they engage in action for the good of mankind.
Like these sages,
there is nothing that Sri Krishn has not also achieved,
but he yet continues to labour diligently
for the sake of men who lag behind.

If he does not perform his given task well and earnestly,
the world will perish
and
all men will be varnsankar
(Bhagavad Gita- 3:22-24).

Illegitimate children are said to be born when women turn adulterous,
but
Lord Krishn affirms that all mankind is under the threat of falling
into the varnsankar state
if the sages who dwell in God
refrain from fulfilling their obligation.

If these sages desist from the performance of their assigned task,
the unaccomplished will imitate them,
discontinue worship,
and for ever wander in the maze of nature.

They will thus become varnsankar,
for the immaculate God
and
the state of actionlessness can be achieved
only
by an undertaking
of
the ordained action.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~

_/l\_
Humble Wishes!!!

1.”The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of
life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.”

– Herman Hesse (1877-1962), German poet and novelist, awarded the Nobel
Prize for literature in 1946,

2.”In the great book of India,the Bhagavad-gita, an empire spoke to us,
nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene,
consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in
another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed
of the questions that exercise us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson Eminent American Thinker

3.Atomic Bomb:
“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky
that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One…”

(Robert Oppenheimer, 1904 – 1967, quoting the Bhagavad Gita)

4.”In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal
philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, since whose composition years of the
gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and
its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is
not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its
sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well
for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of
Brahma, and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the
Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his
crust and water—jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his
master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The
pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.”

-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American Philosopher, Unitarian,
social critic, transcendentalist and writer. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson
who aroused in him a true enthusiasm for India.

5.”The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of
the Perennial Philosophy ever to have been made. Hence its enduring
value, not only for Indians, but for all mankind. . . . The
Bhagavadgita is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the
Perennial Philosophy.”

-Aldous Huxley very beautifully remarked.

6.”Warren Hastings, while forwarding a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita [by
Wilkins] to the chairman of the East India Company, in course of an
introduction stated that the work was “a performance of great
originality, of a sublimity of conception, reasoning and diction almost
unequalled, and single exception among all the known religions of
mankind of a theology accurately corresponding with that of the
Christian dispensation and most powerfully illustrating its fundamental
doctrines.” (OP. cit., 33).

7.Well aware of the Gita’s universal bearing, Hastings included a
prophetic expression in his preface:

“The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive when the British
Dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist, and when the sources
which it yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance.”

8.As one scholar has written:

“No text could, by its profound metaphysics and by the prestige of its
poetic casting, more irresistibly shake the hold of the tradition of a
superior race.”

-(Raymond Schwab, The Oriental Renaissance: Europe’s
Discovery of India and the East, 1680-1880, New York: Columbia
University Press, 1984, 161)

9.In 1832, a French translation of the Bhagavad-Gila was made directly
from the Sanskrit by Jean-Denis Languinais and published posthumously.
Languinais had written of the “great surprise” it was “to find among
these fragments of an extremely ancient epic poem from India. . . a
completely spiritual pantheism. . . and. . . the vision of all-in-God .

. .-“(Art, Culture and Spirituality: A Prabuddha Bharata Centenary
Perspective (1896–1996),

10.Jacob Wilhelm Hauer (1881–1962), a modem German Indologist,
afforded the Bhagavad-Gita, a pivotal role in the spiritual life of
Germany. An official interpreter of faith in Germany, Hauer described
the Gita, as “a work of imperishable significance” that offers:

11.”not only profound insights that are valid for all times and for all
religious life, but it contains as well the classical presentation of
one of the most significant phases of lndo-German religious history. .
. .It shows us the way as regards the essential nature and basal
characteristics of Indo-Germamic religion. Here Spirit is at work that
belongs to our Spirit.

– (S. Radhakrishnan in his Introductory Essay to
The Bhagavad-Gita, eleventh impression 1997, New Delhi: Harper Collins
Publishers India, 1993, p. 11)

12.-Hauer declared the central message of the Gita:

“We are not called to solve the meaning of life but to find out the
Deed demanded of us and to work and so, by action, to master the riddle
of life.” (op. cit., p. 11)

13.-Thoreau paid ardent homage to the Gita and the philosophy of India
in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers:

“Most books belong to the house and streets only, . . . .But this . . .
. addresses what is deepest and most abiding in man. . . . Its truth
speaks freshly to our experience. [the sentences of Manu] are a piece
with depth and serenity and I am sure they will have a place and
significance as long as there is a sky to test them by.”

14.-Max Müller

“all my interest in the Aryan is . . .Wilkin’s Bhagavat Geeta;
Burnouf’s Bhagavat Purana;, and Wilson’s Vishnu Purana—yes and a few
other translations.”

15.He credited a work he had read in his youth for the spark of
enthusiasm he received for the Gita: “I remember I owed my first taste
for this fruit to Cousin’s sketch (Victor Cousin’s Cours des
Philosophies), in his first lecture, of the dialogue between Krishna
and Arjoon, and I still prize the first chapters of Bhagavat as
wonderful.”

(Letters of Emerson, VI:246; I:322-3).

16.”The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive one, of the
summaries and systematic spiritual statements of the perennial
philosophy ever to have been done”

-Aldous Huxley

17.”It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained
work. I don’t know whether to praise more this translation of the
Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless
fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita
with such an important voice and style. . . . It will occupy a
significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man
for a long time to come.”

-Dr. Shaligram Shukla Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University

18.”When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created
this universe everything else seems so superfluous.”

-Albert Einstein

19.”When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face,
and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita
and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the
midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will
derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

20.In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal
philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern
world and its literature seem puny and trivial.”

-Henry David Thoreau

21.Maharishi calls the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature
and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed
to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.”
Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the
needs and aspirations of everyone.

-Maharshi Mahesh Yogi

22.The Gita was preached as a preparatory lesson for living worldly
life with an eye to Release, Nirvana. My last prayer to everyone,
therefore, is that one should not fail to thoroughly understand this
ancient science of worldly life as early as possible in one’s life.

– Lokmanya Tilak

The Geeta is not a holy book that belongs to any one individual, caste, group, school, sect, nation or time. It is rather a scripture for the entire world and for all times. It is for all, for every nation, every race, and for every man and woman, whatever be their spiritual level and capacity. Irrespective of this, however, just hearsay or someone’s influence should not be the basis for a decision that has a direct bearing upon one’s existence.Sri Krishn says in the last chapter of the Geeta that even just hearing its mysterious knowledge is indeed salutary. But after a seeker has thus learnt it from an accomplished teacher, he also needs to practice it and incorporate it into his own conduct and experience. This necessitates that we approach the Geeta after freeing ourselves from all prejudices and preconceived notions. And then we will indeed find it a pillar of light.

– Paramhans Swami Adgadanand jee,My spiritual mentor.

To regard the Geeta as just a sacred book is not enough. A book is at best a sign-post that guides readers to knowledge. It is said that one who has known the truth of the Geeta is a knower of the Ved-which literally means knowledge of God. In the Upanishad Brihadaranyak, Yagnvalkya calls the Ved “the breath of the Eternal.” But all the knowledge and all the wisdom that the Geeta embodies, we must always remember, comes to consciousness only within the worshipper’s heart.

Its universality makes the Geeta unique among the eminent sacred works of the entire world. That also makes it a yardstick by which the veracity of every corner can be tested and judged. So the Geeta is that touchstone that vindicates the substance of truth every where and also resolves disputes arising from their sometimes incompatible or even contradictory assertions.The uniqueness of the Geeta is that it rises above temporal questions and reveals the dynamic way by which man may achieve perfection of the Self and final absolution. There is not a single verse in the whole composition that is concerned with sustenance of physical life.On the contrary, each verse of the Geeta demands of its disciples that they equip themselves and get ready for the inner war-the discipline of worship and meditation. Instead of embroiling us in the irreconcilable contradictions of heaven and hell, it is concerned exclusively with demonstrating the way by which the Soul may attain to the immortal state after which there are no shackles of birth and death.

Men fall prey to doubts, not only because many different views are held on a given subject, but also because of the fact that the same principle is often enunciated in different ways and styles at different times. Quite a good many existing commentaries on the Geeta are touched by the current of truth, and yet if one of them-even a just and correct interpretation-is placed among a thousand other interpretations it is almost impossible to recognize it for what it is. Identification of truth is an onerous task, for even falsehood wears the “brows” of truth. The many expositions of the Geeta all profess that they represent truth even though they may not have any inkling of it. As against this, even when quite a good many interpreters did succeed in coming by this truth, for a number of reasons they were prevented from giving a public utterance to it.

The much too common inability to get at the meaning of the Geeta in its true perspective may be attributed to the fact that Sri Krishn was a yogi, an enlightened sage. Only another great and accomplished Soul-man of knowledge and discernment-who has gradually attained to the ultimate spiritual goal discoursed upon by Sri Krishn can realize and reveal the real intent of the Yogeshwar when he preached to his friend and disciple Arjun. What is within one’s mind cannot be fully expressed by mere words. While some of it is communicated by facial expression and gestures, and even by what is named “eloquent” silence, the rest that is still unexpressed is something dynamic and seekers can know it only through action and by actually aversing the path of quest. So only another sage who has himself trodden the path and arrived at Sri Krishn’s sublime state may know what the message of the Geeta really is.Rather than just reproducing lines from the scripture, he can know and demonstrate its intent and significance, for Sri Krishn’s insights and preceptions are also his insights and perceptions. Since he is a seer himself, he cannot only show the essence but also awaken it in others, and even prompt and enable them to embark on the way that leads to it.

Humble Wishes!!!