Paste your text in heThe Bhagavad- Gita is known as one of the oldest religious scriptures in the world. In its text it contains the direct message of God. It is a channel of communication between God and his closest devotee (Jayaram, 2000). This ancient religious scripture is also known as ‘Gitopanisad’. It is the very heart and core of Vedic Knowledge and also one of the most important ‘Upanishad’s’ in Vedic literature. The original narrator of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Sri Krishna, and he is known as the supreme God in this scripture. (Prabhupada, 1991:3). Action, devotion, and knowledge are the philosophies of the Bhagavad Gita (Sivananda&Sreenivasan, 1989:4). This paper will analyze the core philosophical themes within the scripture and how each one can be incorporated into human life.
The Bhagavad Gita originally appears in the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata narrates to us events leading up to the present Age of Kali. It was at the very beginning of this age, about five thousand years ago, that Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to his devotee and friend Arjuna. The conversation they had is one of the greatest religious and philosophical dialogues known to man and it happened just before a war could begin, a great fratricidal conflict between 100 sons of Dhrtarastra (the Kauravas) and the opposition their cousins the Pandavas or sons of Pandu (Prabhupada,1991:12).
Arjuna didn’t want to partake in the war. He didn’t understand why he had to fight his family and kill for the sake of a kingdom that he didn’t want. In his books, killing is considered evil and sinful, especially killing a family member. Lord Krishna then starts to explain to Arjuna why it is his dharmic duty to fight and how he must fight to restore his karma. Krishna first explains the samsaric cycle of birth and death. This cycle is used to allow a person work of their karma that they have built up through lifetimes of action. If an individual’s actions are selfless in service to God, then he/she can slowly rid themselves of their karma. Eventually leading to a dissolution of the soul and an end to the samsaric cycle. If the individual acts selfishly then he/she puts themselves in further karmic debt. Krishna then states three important concepts that are used to achieve this dissolution of the soul. They are renunciation, selfless service and meditation. Krishna states a truly divine human finds peace in completing action in the highest service to God. A person must never fall prey to the respective traps of the three gunas. The first is ‘rajas’ (anger, ego), the second is ‘tamas’ (ignorance, darkness), and the third is ‘saatva’ (harmony and purity), (Gradesaver.com, 2016).
After this deep explanation Arjuna still needs convincing of Lord Krishna’s divine powers. So Krishna shows Arjuna his divine and powerful form then only does Arjuna realize what enlightenment can bring him union, and now he has complete faith. The Gita ends with Krishna telling Arjuna he must choose the path he wants to take, be it good or evil, as it is his duty to partake in the war against the Kauravas for his kingdom. By doing that he is establishing the balance of good and evil, fulfilling his dharma and offering the deepest form of selfless service. Arjuna understands what Lord Krishna is stating and proceeds into battle (Gradesaver.com, 2016).
According to Jayaram (2000), ‘the antiquity of the Bhagavad ‘Gita is hidden in tradition, ancient scriptures, myths, and legends’. This books knowledge, history and content is linked strongly and closely to the life of Lord Krishna (Jayaram, 2000). The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. It contains 18 discourses of a total of 701 Sanskrit verses. Lord Krishna revealed philosophical, insightful, and spiritual truths and he explained the exceptional secrets of Yoga, Vedanta, Bhakt and Karma during the instructive and important talk he had with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. All the wisdom and knowledge of Lord Krishna was recorded as the ‘Song Celestial’ by Bhagavan Vyasa to benefit mankind at a large scale. This ‘song celestial’ was presented to humanity to guide them in their daily conduct of life, spiritual upliftment and self-realization. The full benefit of the Gita is that it is the science of the soul (Sivananda & Sreenivasan, 1989:3).
The Gita is a book of discovering your own individuality and inward travel into the home of God. It guides a person to move from sadness driven mortal existence to a never ending and happy life. Desire is what drives all human actions. By getting rid of the desires, and at the same time not forgetting the actions, a person can free themselves from the slavery that desire driven actions can cause. This gives us freedom from the struggling and striving that our egoistic actions comprise of and it also reduces our inner anxieties and frustrations so that we can have a normal, stable and peaceful life (Jayaram, 2000).
The knowledge, teachings and philosophies of the Bhagavad Gita are universal and for all people in the world to use. Its message comprises of solace, freedom, salvation, perfection and peace for all human beings (Sivananda & Sreenivasan, 1989:4). The Bhagavad Gita focuses on basic concepts like our existence, our way of life, the meaning of the true self, our true relationship with God, the truth about action and inaction, the correct significance of knowledge and ignorance, the instinctive qualities of man and how the actions connect him to the mortal world, the nature of devotion, and the significance and purpose of Maya (Jayaram, 2000).
The Bhagavad Gita states that the outer world is illusory but not because it doesn’t exist but because it isn’t stable, unbalanced, and always changing. The outer world is seen as temporary and not permanent; because of this it cannot be seen as a reliable source of truth and shouldn’t become the purpose of a persons life. An individual who makes the external world the basis of his/her life is bound to suffer because he/she will partake in desperate actions to hold onto his/her unstable possessions and go through constant anger, jealousy, envy, fear and anxiety, he/she will experience negative emotions (Jayaram, 2000).
Therefore the Bhagavad-Gita searches for an everlasting reality that ensures a more significant, stable, and peaceful life. It rids us of untruthfulness and anything negative and reveals the shining self that we all have within us as the center of truth and permanence that we shall discover. In order to discover the Supreme Self that we all have within us, we must have an understanding of the hidden self (Jayaram, 2000).
Ancient scholars of the Bhagavad Gita argue that it features three primary teachings, they are called the ‘the three secrets’. These three secrets are known as guhya (secret), guhyatara (more secret), and guhyatma (most secret). The first secret is about duty. An individual must do his/her duty in accordance with regard to his/her nature. The second secret has to do with the hidden self. Within each of us lies a real self and a hidden self. The hidden self is entirely different from the external false self. People need to come to terms with the differences between the internal self and external self. The third secret is about God being present everywhere at the same time (Jayaram, 2000).
The Bhagavad Gita is described as the cream of the Vedas, and the essence of the Upanishads. It is a universal scripture that all people can make use of. It contains an unbiased explanation of the philosophy of action (karma), devotion (Bhakti) and knowledge (jnana).together with an amazingly interlaced combination of these three philosophies (Sivananda & Sreenivasan, 1989:4).
Man is a composite of three very important factors. The first is will, the second is feeling and the third is cognition. There are three kinds of nature, the active, the emotional, and the rational. There are three Yogas. The first is Jnana Yoga for an individual of enquiry and rational and rational nature. The second is Bhakti Yoga for an individual of emotional nature and the third is Karma Yoga for a person of action. The Bhagavad Gita formulates the theories of the three paths without creating issues among them. It combines the philosophy of action, devotion and knowledge. All three must flow together if an individual wishes to attain perfection (Sivananda & Sreenivasan, 1989:7).
Sivananda & Sreenivasan (1989:4) state that ‘you should have the head of Sri Shankara, the heart of Lord Buddha and the hand of King Janaka’. The foundational teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is the achievement of supreme blessedness of life- perfection or eternal freedom. This may be accomplished by an individual doing his prescribed duties of life. Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: ‘Therefore, without attachment, constantly performing action which is duty, for, by performing action without performing attachment, man verily reaches the Supreme’ (Sivananda & Sreenivasan, 1989:7).
The main and only purpose of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita is the solution of the conflict of duties which every individual encounters at some point of their lives. The solution comprises of a combination of knowledge, action and devotion. The path of knowledge is a solution to many world problems (Raju, 1992:283). The path of knowledge causes a person to given up ordinary attachments and to act without expecting anything in return. The goal of the path of knowledge is self realization. The knowledge of transcended nature of the self which makes a person selfless and removes all negative thoughts of the mind. The person who has this knowledge is free from all bad consequences of action.
The 19th verse of the fourth discourse, entitled the ‘Path of knowledge’ states that ‘He whos actions are all free from the harkering for desires, whose actions have been burnt by the fire of knowledge, him the wise call a sage’. Thus when a person with this knowledge engages in action, this person isn’t doing anything, because he is content and has no worries about consequences. The actions of this person are like an offering to the fire of knowledge. It is said that ‘He who is devoid of attachment, whose mind is established in knowledge, and who does work as a sacrifice (for the lord)- his entire action melts away’ (Raju, 1992:285).
Present times consist of mental torture, psychological adjustment, divided families, divorce, split personalities and disintegrated societies. All of these issues show that man has lost his balance of mind and his scientific knowledge is disabled (Raju, 1992:286). In the domestic, social, national and international areas of life there is a great need for people with balanced minds and spiritually sound who can instill the spirit of self devotion and self sacrifice in every other person by imparting this true knowledge to help satisfy the need for self control, duty and social well being instead of unlimited freedom and limited rights. The path of knowledge would never deny the rights of man but will make them appreciate and enjoy their rights more than they ever have (Raju, 1992:287).
The path of action, Karma Yoga mean achieve liberation and is in conjunction with diversity of action, which man must a success and lead a phosphorous life and also gain freedom (Raju, 1992:288). The Bhagavad Gita states that man should enjoy the benefits he gets from nature by partaking in activity and by serving and self sacrifice. If an individual enjoys pleasure that he gets from nature without doing his sacrifices and offerings towards God as well as not making any offerings of his actions towards nature, he should be considered a criminal or a thief. The activity known as sacrifice towards God also means sharing the benefits you have achieved in life with other people, especially those that are in need. However, the people eho enjoy natures pleasures and does his duties and offerings to God as well as shares his benefits with other people for actions that he performs, basically the people who are selfless are freed from all sins (Raju, 1992:289).
True knowledge of Brahman and knowledge of the world makes man not give up action but to give up attachment towards action. If an individual thinks that by not partaking in activity or not doing his or her duty, he/she reaches a position of immobility, by thinking this he/she would definitely delusional. In order for a person to attain perfection he/she must participate in activities and fulfill his/her daily duties, they cannot just give it up. A person who gives up any form of action is inferior to Karma (Raju, 1992:288). Those people who adopt self control, continues to perform all activities without getting attached to them. An individual doing his daily duties is unavoidable according to the Bhagavad Gita both to gain liberation for the maintenance of an individual’s bodily existence (Raju, 1992:289).
The path of devotion, the Bhagavad Gita speaks of deep love and devotion to God and it points out that God is omnipresent and resides in each and every one of us (Raju, 1992:292). When a loyal and true devotee strongly wants to see God in front of him and remain close to him for worship and meditation, he gets unlimited joy, power and inspiration. Gods presence can only be felt by a sincere devotee who surrenders himself to the Almighty and dedicates all of his thoughts, feelings, and actions towards God, making him worthy for fulfillment of the Divine purpose. Those who don’t believe that God exists have never put in the effort to experience the power and knowledge of God that actually resides inside them. They forget that no one can have a direct experience with God (Raju, 1992:293).
A true devotee, one who loves God whole heartedly and has strong faith and belief in God is returned with love and a feeling of peace from God. A true devotee is one who is non envious, friendly, caring, loving, compassionate towards everyone, sympathetic in pain and pleasure, forgiving, always content with what they have, and is of sound mind and dedicated to God (Raju, 1992:295).
The Bhagavad Gita is seen as a guide for our use in our everyday lives. Its purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is not a part of our human nature or a part of our desires and expectations in life but it is the whole of what we need and what we are. People have received lots of inspiration from this book, a single verse can be so knowledgeable. People have found something in that has set their hearts on fire and it helps them with everyday difficulties. The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to be kind towards every living thing, always be friendly to others, be generous and always help people who are in dire need of your help, always forgive, always be charitable and do not become attached and cling on to the material world (Slideshare.net, 2012).
The Bhagavad Gita is like handbook for life for example, when you purchase a device or appliance, you get a manual that instructs and shows you how to use it. So in the same way God created the world and puts us here. God should tell us the purpose of life and how to live it, but he doesn’t. Then you have the Bhagavad Gita which is such an instruction manual for anyone and it has all the answers for life (Stephen-knapp.com, 2016).
In conclusion to this, the core philosophies provide great insight into the nature of our everyday lives and help us understand liberation. If you read the Bhagavad-Gita regularly, your attitude and thinking will definitely change. The Bhagavad-Gita is a Godly message from God himself for troubled mankind and it helps us find solutions to our every day conflicts and problems in life. It also helps us balance our lives with our spiritual needs. The Bhagavad-Gita isn’t meant for religious propaganda. It is a book of duty, devotion and liberation and its philosophies incorporate our lives in a major way (Hinduwebsite.com, 2016).
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