Surrendering to Lord Krishna in devotion is the essence of Bhagvad Gita
-Veerendra Ekbote
Bhagvad Gita is a spiritual, divine, transcendental dialogue between Lord Krishna who is referred as Bhagvan or Supreme Personality of Godhead instructing his dearmost friend and disciple Arjun in the midst of two armies on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjuna after seeing both the armies assembled on the battlefield of Kurukshetra ready to fight became overwhelmed with compassion and dropped down his Gandiva bow and was unable to fight the war against his Kuru kinsmen, brothers relatives, friends and teachers on the other side. To avoid bloodshed and loss of many lives he asked his charioteer friend Lord Krishna of the consequences of war if he will leave the battlefield without fighting and whether such an act will be right on his part in upholding Dharma or religious principles.
Lord Krishna then started imparting his transcendental narration of the Bhagvad Gita to dispel the ignorance of Arjun caused by the illusory material nature in which the eternal Spirit Soul misidentifies himself with the temporary destructible material body wherein he performs Karma that makes him attached and further entangles him in the repeated cycle of birth and death caused by the reaction of his Karma or actions. Arjun was a great devotee of the Supreme Lord and through him all the conditioned fallen Souls in the present age of Kaliyuga received this transcendental and divine message of the Supreme Lord Krishna.
Bhagvad Gita was spoken by the Supreme Lord Krishna to awaken and enlighten Arjun on the path of Self realization and transcendence and make him understand the temporal nature of material energy that acts under the 3 modes of material nature which are mode of goodness, passion and ignorance. Under the influence of these 3 modes of material nature the material body performs various actions and gets its reactions likewise that causes bondage in the material world wherein the Spirit Soul instead of getting liberation is entangled in the cycle of transmigration of Soul in which the Spirit Soul accepts various material bodies in 8400000 species until he achieves human form of life. Lord Krishna therefore explains to Arjun that he need not grieve on the loss of his own Kuru brothers and kinsmen fighting against him as they all are irreligious and by vanquishing them on the battlefield Arjuna is performing his duty as a Kshatriya for establishing Dharma by which he will earn fame, prosperity and his lost kingdom after the battle but by not fighting against the aggressors and leaving the battlefield he will face infamy of running from the battlefield.
To overcome the despondency of Arjun the Supreme Lord in the beginning 6 chapters of Bhagvad Gita described the relationship between temporary material body which is ever changing and is subjected to misery of birth, death, old age and disease and of the eternally existing Spirit Soul and the SuperSoul that exists together. How Karma or actions performed in attachment to material body bounds the Spirit Soul to material nature and how actions performed in detachment and surrendering the fruits of action to Supreme Lord in Karmayoga a person achieves transcendence is explained in 5th chapter that is Action in Krishna consciousness or Naishkarmya. The eternal nature of the Spirit Soul and its characteristics is explained in 2nd chapter wherein the Spirit Soul always remains constant, eternal, transcendental to material nature and at the time of death it accepts new material body or either gets transferred to the spiritual world as according to his Karma. Since the Spirit Soul is part and parcel of the SuperSoul, the SuperSoul being situated in the heart neutrally guides the Spirit Soul in all his lifetimes until the Spirit Soul achieves liberation by the process of meditation or Dhyanyoga which is explained in 6th chapter of Bhagvad Gita.
The Supreme Lord Krishna understands that his dear friend Arjun or a man of occupation will be unable to do the Dhyanyoga process of meditation in which a person has to control his senses for long hours, concentrate the mind and achieve him finally is difficult in this present age. Therefore the Supreme Lord imparts Arjun the knowledge of the Absolute in the 9th chapter in which the Supreme secret knowledge regarding the Self and of establishing relationship with the SuperSoul is revealed to Arjun which is also known as Empirical knowledge or Gyanyoga or Rajyoga which helps a Sadhak or devotee in knowing the Supreme Lord through knowledge about him which ultimately leads to devotional service unto the Supreme Lord. Lord Krishna says that one who is in knowledge of me is very dear to me and is able to transcend the modes of material nature.
In the 10th chapter Lord Krishna describes his many opulences to Arjun and after hearing those opulences Arjun want to see the Supreme Lord’s universal form which he never showed to anyone. Bhagvad Gita is the only transcendental literature in the world spoken by the Supreme God Krishna himself in which he describes his own opulences in the previous 10th chapter and in the next 11th chapter Lord Krishna shows his universal form to Arjun on the battlefield of Kurukshetra by imparting divine vision to Arjuna which Sanjay could also see while he was narrating the incidents occurring at Kurukshetra by the mercy of Vyasdeva. In the universal form Arjun could see many heads, many hands, many legs, the entire cosmic manifestation in the Supreme Lord and the residents of the heavenly planets bowing and showering flowers to the Supreme Lord. After the universal form Lord Krishna showed his 4 handed Vishnu form and once again assumed his original 2 handed beautiful Shyamsunder Krishna form which is loved by his devotees.
As a devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna, Arjuna in 12th chapter entitled Bhaktiyoga asked that who is considered to be the best among devotees, the one who worships your personal form or the one who worships your impersonal feature. Lord Krishna replied that a devotee who regularly worships my personal form with faith and devotion is considered to be the best amongst the devotees. Lord Krishna then explained one who worships my impersonal feature for him liberation is very difficult and because of his impersonal consciousness unto me he becomes embodied once again into the material world. Lord Krishna in this chapter explains the importance of devotional service unto him and how it can be achieved. Lord Krishna says, oh Partha, I become the swift deliverer to who is entangled in the ocean of material existence and relieve him for he invests his mind and intelligence in constantly chanting my holy names and by investing thus he surely attains me without fail. Thus the Supreme Lord assures us that chanting of the holy names is the easiest, sublime way to reach the spiritual world and revive our lost relationship with Lord Krishna in the spiritual world. This was exemplified by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in 15th century through his Sankirtan movement by chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra which has the potency to deliver the fallen conditioned Souls of Kaliyuga to the spiritual world.
Lord Krishna then explains the qualities of a devotee or a Vaishnav who is performing devotional service.
Through all the chapters of Bhagvad Gita there is a central theme in which Arjuna is a Spirit Soul or a disciple and Lord Krishna is the SuperSoul or instructor or Guru. In the Bhagvad Gita Lord Krishna like a spiritual master or Guru imparts transcendental knowledge to Arjun and makes him fight the Kurukshetra war. He makes Arjun realize his original nature to be a Spirit Soul and as a Kshatriya his occupational duty is to fight and that is his greatest service to Lord Krishna or SuperSoul. Lord Krishna therefore in the 18th chapter mentions the duties of the four social orders and Bhagvad Gita instructs that everyone must follow his occupational duty or Dharma which will satisfy the Supreme Lord and surrender the fruit of our actions to Krishna in devotion or Naishkarmya is the central theme of Bhagvad Gita. Knowledge of Self realization is Gyanyoga wherein a devotee considers himself to be part and parcel of Krishna and surrenders his fruits of action to Lord Krishna in Karmayoga by remaining detached that ultimately culminates in Bhaktiyoga wherein a devotee becomes self-realized, performs his occupational duties and surrenders the fruits of his action to Krishna and performs Krishna conscious activities throughout his life considering that everything belongs to Krishna and he is only using whatever is given to him by Lord Krishna for the maintenance of his Spirit Soul and body and for performing devotional service which satisfies Lord Krishna.
|| Manmana Bhav MadBhakto Madyaji Mamnamskuru |
Mamevaishesyi satyam te pratijane priyoasi me || 18.65 Bhagvad Gita
|| Sarvadharman Parityajya mamekam sharanam vraja |
Aham tvam papebhyo mokshayishyami mam shuchaha || 18.66 Bhagvad Gita
|| Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare |
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare ||
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