Sanjaya said -
Having seen the army of the Pandavas drawn up
in battle-array,
prince Duryodana then approached his teacher and spoke (these)
words;
Dhrtarastra was blind from birth. Unfortunately, he was also bereft of spiritual vision. He knew very well that his sons were equally blind in the matter of religion, and he was sure that they could never reach an understanding with the Pandavas, who were all pious since birth. Still he was doubtful about the influence of the place of pilgrimage, and Sanjaya could understand his motive in asking about the situation on the battlefield. Sanjaya wanted, therefore, to encourage the despondent king and thus assured him that his sons were not going to make any sort of compromise under the influence of the holy place. Sanjaya therefore informed the king that his son, Duryodhana, after seeing the military force of the Pandavas, at once went to the commander in chief, Dronacarya, to inform him of the real position. Although Duryodhana is mentioned as the king, he still had to go to the commander on account of the seriousness of the situation. He was therefore quite fit to be a politician. But Duryodhana's diplomatic veneer could not disguise the fear he felt when he saw the military arrangement of the Pandavas
The Bhagavad-Gita (also referred to as Gita) is a spiritual dialogue between Lord Krishna, a Hindu incarnation of God and Arjuna, one of the heroes of Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic. In seven hundred verses, omniscient and adorable Veda-Vyasa embodied the entire Vedanta philosophy. The aim of this famous Bhagavad-Gita is the supreme Bliss, a complete cessation of samsara or transmigratory life and of its cause. So, the Bhagavad-Gita (otherwise known as Upanishad of Upanishads or Brahmavidyayam yogashastra -a textbook on the supreme science of yoga ), is considered as one of the three pillars of Hindu religion (Upanishad and Bhrahma Sutra being the other two).
THE WAR WITHIN
If we wish to understand the spiritual meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita we must forget everything about the actual Mahabharata war, the stories of Arjuna and Lord Krishna, and the Pandavas and Kauravas. Chapter I leaves us acutely aware that we are on a battlefield, waiting for a catastrophic war to begin; but once Lord Krishna begins his instruction, we leave the battlefield behind and enter the realms of philosophy and mystic vision. The great Mahabharata war in the Gita is symbolic of the great spiritual struggle of the human soul. The struggle the Gita is concerned with is the struggle for self-mastery. It was Vyasa's genius to take the whole great Mahabharata epic and see it as metaphor for the perennial war between the forces of light (good) and the forces of darkness (evil) in every human heart. Arjuna and Lord Krishna are no longer merely characters in a literary masterpiece. Arjuna becomes Everyman, asking the Lord himself, Sri Krishna, the perennial questions about life and death - not as a philosopher, but as the quintessential man of action. Thus read, The Bhagavad-Gita is not an external dialogue but an internal one: between the ordinary human personality, full of questions about the meaning of life, and our deepest Self, which is divine. The whole purpose of every experience, every activity, every faculty, is to turn the human being inward and lead him back to his divine source. The divine dialogue takes place in the depths of consciousness and that Lord Krishna is not some external being, human or superhuman, but the spark of divinity that lies at the core of human personality. This is not literary or philosophical conjecture; Lord Krishna says as much to Arjuna over and over : "I am the Self in the heart of every creature, Arjuna, and the beginning, middle, and end of their existence".
The Bhagavad-Gita is not a book of commandments but a book of choices. It does mention sin, but mostly it talks about ignorance and its consequences.
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna about Self, the forces of mind, the relationship between thought and action, the law of Karma, and then concludes,
"Now Arjuna reflect on these words and then do as you choose". The struggle is between two halves of human nature, and choices are posed every moment. Everyone who has accepted this challenge will testify that life offers no fiercer battle than this war within. We have no choice about fighting; it is built into human nature. But we have choice of which side to fight on. But we should understand that the choice we make is on the good side. For that we should seek the grace of Lord to give knowledge to distinguish and identify
good from evil. Thus the
Bhagavad-Gita places human destiny entirely in human hands. Its world is not deterministic, but neither is it an expression of blind chance; we shape ourselves and our world by what we believe and think and act on, whether for good
(God) or for ill (Devil).
Sri Shankaracharya's is the earliest extant commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita. In which he writes: "The famous Gita-Sastra is an epitome of the essentials of the whole Vedic teaching; and it is very difficult to understand. Though, to afford a clear view of its teaching, it has been explained word by word and sentence by sentence, and its import critically examined by several commentators, still I have found to the laity it appears to teach diverse and quite contradictory doctrines. The Gita-sastra expounds the two-fold (Jnana-Yoga and Karma-Yoga) Dharma, whose aim is the supreme bliss. It expounds specially the nature of the Supreme Being and Reality known as Vasudeva, the Parabrahman. Thus the Gita-Sastra treats of a specific subject with a specific object and bears a specific relation (to the subject and object). Knowledge of its teaching leads to the realization of all human aspirations. " (from "The Bhagavad-Gita" with a commentary of Sri Sankaracharya").
Verse 2 and Introduction: Contributed by Udaya Tantry
(Verses 1 to 4 from Chapter 1 will appear with an
Introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita.)
Note: Please send your comments, suggestions and further addition for this verse to gitasandesha@yahoo.com