Gita Sara - Introduction to Bhagavad Gita

As a high school student, I have so many things to do. I have to study for my quiz on Monday, I have got my music practice today, and on top of that I have to attend Bala Vihar today at 10AM on a Sunday!!

Our sales are down more than 30% from last year. If this continues for a few more months I don’t know what will happen to my job. It is really stressful to be on these video calls from eight in the morning till seven at night. I just want all these things to end and for us to just get back to our normal pre-pandemic life.

I came to Boston for three months to be with my daughter and grandson. Now it is more than eight months and I cannot get back to India. I miss my daily trips to the temple, my walks, and my friends. On top of that it is really getting cold - not sure how i am going to cope with the winter here.

Giving Gita discourses over Zoom to followers in US!! I am just a Swamiji here in Chennai - I don’t know anything about technology. I am just too stressed about operating all these gadgets. I would rather use my spare time to meditate.

These are common questions that we seek answers for. Whether you are a student or working or retired - life is always stressful. It is an endless grind of activities - physical, mental, emotional, and social.

We get by each day based on our prior experience or what we have learned from our parents, friends, and family. Is there not a User Manual for Life? Something that can guide us when we are confused, somethings that can articulate the right from the wrong, something that will help us handle the emotional roller-coaster of life and even our own personal and professional ups and downs.

The answer is a resounding yes!! Bhagavad Gita - The Celestial Song - the sacred text of Sanatana Dharma is definitely such a text. In this book, we draw inspiration from this sacred text, but also combine it with the modern management and scientific disciplines to offer practical tips on how to lead your life - may be a little bit stressful than if you were not exposed to this text.

Bhagavad Gita

The four Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Atharva, and Sama - are the authoritative sources of the ancient teachings of India. These texts were transferred from one generation to the other through word-of-mouth or strictly speaking through a rigorous system of chanting. Students learnt these in a residential schools (called Gurukula) learning under a Guru or learned teacher. Veda Vyasa is said to have curated these teachings and compiled them in a written format.

The Vedas are composed of four parts

• the Samhitas or mantras

• the Aranyakas or the rituals and sacrifices

• the Brahmanas or commentaries on the rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices

• the Upanishads or the philosophy and spiritual knowledge.

The Vedas are considered to be srutis or “what is heard” as opposed to all other texts that are referred to as smritis or “what is remembered”. One type of smriti is called Ithihasa or “as it happened”. India's two greatest epics - the Mahabharata and Ramayana are ithihasa's. Mahabharata, with more than 100,000 verses is the longest poem ever written. The story revolves around the feud between two branches of the Kuru family - Pandavas and Kauravas. It is also a story about good and evil and the triumph of good over evil. However, the story is not black and white and captures various shades of gray. Veda Vyasa was credited to be the original author of this epic.

Bhagavad Gita is a part of the epic Mahabharata and appears right in the middle of the eighteen cantos of Mahabharata as the sixth canto. It consists of 18 chapters and 700 verses. It is a conversation between Arjuna and Lord Krishna. Gita is considered to be both an upanishad with an exposition of the philosophy of absolute truth and our essential oneness with it and also as a yoga sastra providing practical guidance on how to lead our life and how to attain the absolute truth.

Sastra has two meanings - a scripture that teaches us what is good for us and a science that talks about a subject in its totality. Yoga means to unite with the Higher. So Bhagavad Gita is both a scripture and a science that teaches us how to lead our life and become one with the totality.

Gita - The inner battle and the outer battle

The entire Gita is an allegory of the day to day challenges we face in life. Gita starts with a majestic description of a medieval battle scene. Two factions - Pandavas and Kauravas - from the same Kuru dynasty, along with their supporters, are lined up against each other. Arjuna - a noble and accomplished warrior, whose charioteer is none other than Lord Krishna, is facing the army of his opposition the Kauravas. As he inspects the people on the other side, Arjuna has a crisis of confidence, is stressed and does not want to fight his own cousins. Gita is the advise that Lord Krishna imparts to Arjuna at the battlefield.

The battlefield signifies our everyday challenges - both the good and the bad. Pandavas represent the forces of righteousness and Kauravas the forces of ignorance. The game of dice played between the leaders of the two factions culminates in the war. The game of dice represents the uncertainties of life. Arjuna represents the ordinary man or the ego and Krishna represents the wisdom of the Self or the inner voice.

The chariot represents the human body; with the five horses representing the five sense organs. The reins are the five senses being held by the mind and the intellect.

This allegory is useful in interpreting the messages of Gita for our everyday challenges. The eighteen chapters of Gita can be summarized with one three-word sentence: “That thou art” or in Sanskrit “Tat tvam asi”.

• First six chapters cover “tvam” or everything about oneself;

• Second six chapters cover “tat” or everything about the creator or Brahman;

• Last six chapters cover “asi” or the equivalence between the Self in us and the Self everywhere or Brahman.

The first six chapters, called karma marga, is the “path of service” to humanity. The second six chapters, called Bhakti marga, is the “path of devotion”. The last six chapter, called Jnana marga, is the “path of knowledge”. The traditional teachings of Bhagavad Gita follows a sequential explanation of each of the chapters and the verses within each chapter.

Such an explanation takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride where some verses and lessons are targeted at the mundane level, while the very next verse might be from the viewpoint of a realized master; other verses will be from the perspective of a seeker trying to gain liberation and identify with the totality.

Gita as Yoga Sastra: Multi-Stage Life Journey from Cradle2Grave

Marketers typically segment customers based on their life-stage, to determine their preferences and needs to target the appropriate products. These stages typically tend to be children, teenagers, single, married, family, retired, old age etc. The Vedantic system categorized these stages, called ashrama, as follows:

• Brahmacharya (student/teenager) - someone who is focused on education and is practicing a life of celibacy;

• Grihastha (householder) - someone who is married and leading a family life;

• Vanaprastha (forest dweller) - someone who has given up the worldly life;

• Sannyasa (renunciate) - someone who has renounced material possessions and is focused solely on spiritual pursuits.

The messages of Gita apply to each of these four stages; however, they have not been addressed sequentially from one stage to the next. In the subsequent articles I will examine how we can take some of the verses of Gita and apply them to the different stages of life.

Gita as Yoga Sastra: Multi-Life Journey from Jiva to Moksha

One of the key tenets of Vedic belief is that our current life is just one of many lives. We are trapped in an endless cycle of birth and rebirth. It does suggest ways of liberating oneself from this endless cycle. This liberation of the "life as we know it today" to our "true nature" is described as moksha. In his classic text on Panchadasi, written in the fourteenth century by Swami Vidyaranya, he discusses seven steps to this liberation or moksha.

1. Bondage (Stages 1 to 3)

• Ignorance (agnanam)

• Veiling or concealment (avaranam)

• Projection (vikshepa)

2. Liberation (Stages 4 to 7)

• Indirect knowledge (agnanam)

• Direct knowledge (avaranam)

• Freedom from limitation (moksha)

• Total fulfillment (tripti)

Rather than following the seven stages to moksha we simplify it into three stages

1. Secular: Someone concerned more about this life and how to seek material wealth, fulfillment and happiness in this life.

2. Seeker (Saadhak) : Someone who is seeking the path of liberation or moksha in this life (preferably) or others.

3. Seer (Sthithaprajna): Someone who has already attained moksha but is still transacting in this world to help others.

The diagram below shows the multi-life journey from the two perspectives.

Discussion

I will look at how Gita applies to the secular, seeker, and seer across all of the four stages of life over the coming weeks. Rather than sequentially going chapter by chapter I will select a few topics and share how Gita helps us face life, no matter where we are in the lifecycle of the Jiva (e.g., secular, seeker, or seer) or the lifestage of this life (e.g., brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and moksha). I will do this by selecting atleast one verse from Gita for each topic, share a story, have a discussion, and end with key takeaways and exercises for the week.

Key Takeaways

• Bhagavad Gita is both a sacred text and a manual for living

• The ‘outer battle’ of Gita is an allegory for our own ‘internal battles’

• 3S (Secular, Seeker, Seer) journey for J2M (Jiva to Moksha)

Exercise for the week

When you have an ‘inner battle’ anytime this week

• Pick Gita, open to any page, read the page and see if it makes sense for your situation