The Bhagavad Gita: Our social studies text books tell us that it is the holy book of Hindus. Should one read the scripture as a religious book then.. that would be a little odd because the Gita predates organized religion itself. It was written 500 years before Jesus Christ. A thousand years before Muhammad-the prophet and over 2000 years before Hinduism itself was a thing. Reading it as a book of religion also does not quite explain its consistent sustained appeal over 2 millennia not just among the people of its own community but with people across the world. So, reading it as a religious book is a sort of limiting way to read the Gita. What then is the magic of this slim volume of poetry. What is it about this age old conversation between two best friends Krishna and Arjuna that make people return to it generation after generation, return to its shining moral compass for guidance, whenever they are beset with despair or doubt.
Here's the secret, the Gita strength lies in the fact that it concerns itself not just with the metaphysical but with the very physical, not just with the other worldly but with the very worldly, not just with the afterlife but with the life itself. So what are the alternative ways to read the Gita then if not just as a holy book? Let's see; so the Mahabharata, as most of us know is one of the great epics of India and the Gita is part of it so the whole story is centered around a great war, one that is fought between two sets of cousins. On the one side are the Pandavas who are up bright, noble, righteous on the other side are the kauravas who are not. Now the only two characters that we are going to concern ourselves here are the pandava prince Arjuna, who is the greatest archer in the world and his friend and mentor Krishna, who is his designated charioteer during the war. Now the war is about to begin and when our hero Arjuna loses his nerve. The sudden realization that he is about to destroy half of his closest family strikes him like a thunderbolt, and sick with despair, he lays down arms and turns to his friend Krishna for guidance. The two of them have a conversation and we know that conversation today as the Bhagavad Gita.
Now, during the course of conversation there is plenty of descent and disagreement. Krishna harangues Arjuna even heckles him at times, Arjuna argues, challenges Krishna but through all of this neither of them is ever offensive, needlessly aggressive or confrontationist which makes the Gita, a primer on the art of civilised debate-one that should be essential reading for everyone.
The Gita, during this conversation what do these two talk about, essentially its Krishna speaking and he is telling Arjuna why he should stand up, pick up his bow and fight, he is telling him that if he doesn't do that he would be failing in his duty as a warrior, a king, a leader of men and upholder of truth and justice. So, this is a difficult conversation for Krishna because he is his friend and he is very depressed but Krishna does not pull up his punches, he does not hesitate to call up Arjuna's weaknesses, he does not hesitate to dismiss his excuses and he concerns his non-warrior like behavior but he does all of this with great compassion and understanding and he stands patient and steadfast by Arjuna's side while he works through his confusion. He uses every trick in the book to get to the Arjuna, he is sometimes hectoring, sometimes sweetly re-assuring, sometimes devious or sometimes he is frankly over-whelming and finally when he has Arjuna's attention. He presents to him options, recommendations advice but he respects his friend enough to let him make the decision in the very end to fight or not. What is the Gita then, but a handy manual in the best practices in friendship.
Any skill can be mastered through practice, if you are disciplined enough to do a thing over and over again then that skill will become second nature-a part of muscle memory, a habit. The Gita says that even picking the right action and doing the right thing is a habit and habits developed in childhood are the hardest to break and that is why it is an essential volume to growing up. The Gita tells us that the most important battles are not those that we fight with others but are those that we fight with ourselves. The enemy, the kaurava is not the person outside but he is inside us, he is our own doubts, fears and insecurities, our own irrational loves and hates. Sure, they all feel like family as we've lived with them for so long. The trick is to identify of what they are and then vanquish them ruthlessly. The Gita is therefore to treat us on the art of real war.
Why are we Indians the way we are, blame it on the Gita. The Gita tells us that we shouldn't fright about things that we cannot control perhaps, that's why Indians are so comfortable when things don't work according to the plan. The Gita tells us that there are million roots to nirvana and that no one roots is superior to any other perhaps that’s why we're comfortable surrounded by multiplicity of ideas, thoughts, notions, faiths, beliefs, practices. The Gita tells us that the soul is bound to live through several lifetimes before it comes to the end of its journey perhaps that’s why Indians don't play so high premium on punctuality and that's why Gita is also the insider's guide to the Indian minds.
Do you seek contentment- According to the Gita, you must put everything you have into everything you do but there's is no bigger fool than you if you imagine that just because you put your efforts the outcome will be something that you desire. Understand says the Gita that something’s lie within your control like your efforts but something’s most certainly do not like the outcome therefore focus on your efforts and let go of the outcome. In other words, play to play, don’t play to win.
The universe says the Gita gives us so many things for free, the life giving sun, the nourishing rain, the fertile earth. We would be nothing but the common thieves if we did not give back in equal measure and how do you equate it. Simply by doing your own duties well, to the best of your abilities and shouldering your responsibilities with a smile and doing your every action with an attitude of gratitude. Only if you do that is the ancient cycle of give and take between gods and men kept in motion and only if that cycle is kept in motion will the world not descend into chaos.
Now, What is wisdom, what is the ideal man, human being suppose to be like, what should you aspire for if you want like the ideal person. According to the Gita, when you see the world as it really is then you attained the status as the ideal human but what does that means, it means you see a bit of yourself in everything around you and a bit of everything around you in yourself. It means you are able to look beyond the differences on the outside to the sameness on the inside, with conviction the entire world is my home and every creature in it is my family. This makes the Gita the ultimate equal rights manifesto.
The Mahabharata, all thousand versus of it was expressively written to contain 700 versus of the Gita just as a tree creates as a juicy fruit to household, protect and disperse it's seeds. The storyteller of the Mahabharata sets up this grand canvas, paints an engaging narrative, populates it with the most memorable characters, brings us to the brink of the great war and then introduces to the versus of the Gita which makes it "how-to" guide for humans. The Gita tells the story of the great tree with its roots in the heavens and its branches on the ground, so thick to these branches grow on the ground, so deeply embedded are they in the earth that we get deluded, we think that the source of sustenance of the tree is the earth itself, we chase after the low hanging fruit without seeking the source of their sweetness, which is that great trunk rising to the sky. Don't do that, says the Gita, keep your focus on the great truck rising to the sky and once you find it, hold on tight.
Hare Krishna!
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