5 Here Yogi is the one who has actualized the self, and who, with
practice rises up the ladder of spiritual heights, leaving behind all the
traces of bondage and performing his duties as sacrifice (*Yagya*), an
offering to God: Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever
thou offerest, whatsoever thou givest, whatsoever thou doest of austerity,
O Kaunteya, do thou that as an offering unto Me. Thus, shalt thou be
liberated from the bonds of action, yielding good and evil fruit; thyself
harmonised by the yoga of renunciation, thou shalt come unto Me when set
free. (1905: 9.27-28). The only wisdom* Bhagavad Gita *deems fit for any
seeker is knowing the true nature of matter and soul, the body as a field
(of activity), and God as Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent. And this
practice involves evolving the pure (*Sattvik*) element of one’s nature
through preventing the passion-oriented and dark qualities from
influencing the mind. And this further, according to Krishna, necessitates
purity of knowledge (of the all-pervading yet distinct Absolute Self),
purity of action (ordained according to the dominant material element),
purity of actor / doer (steadfast, mentally equable, and cut off from
causes of bondage) and purity of Reason (sound judgement): The relinquisher
pervaded by purity, intelligent and with doubts cut away, hateth not
unpleasurable action nor is attached to pleasurable. Nor indeed can
embodied beings completely relinquish action; verily he who relinquished
the fruit of action he is said to be a relinquisher. Evil and mixed
threefold is the fruit of action hereafter for the non-relinquisher; but
there is none ever for the renouncer. ( 18.10-12).
Such recommended relinquishment (*Tyaga*) as a pre-condition to mental
renunciation can be attained through any method of the following three
practices and contemplation: Devotion (*Bhakti Yoga*), Wisdom (*Gyan Yoga*)
and Action/Duty (*Karma Yoga*). When we actually come to reflect upon it in
the context of today’s technology ruled world, reading Gita is like
traversing through a digital narrative on a computer monitor which allows
us the free choice of routes or path through various nodes. We take the
route of our choice and meet the result that is corresponding to our
choice. Notably, Krishna recommends *Karma Yoga *which lets the
intellectually steadfast (*Sthitpragya*) purify their beings at their own
pace, adjusting the distribution of qualities (*Guna*), tilting the
balance in favour of *sattva*, while performing their ordained duties.
They, while being in a gamut of spiritual variables; different, gradually
evolving stages, advance from attachment to relinquishment to inner
renunciation to ultimate divine bliss and still be outwardly active for the
welfare and harmony of society: They who worship the Indestructible, the
Ineffable, the Unmanifested, Omnipresent, Unchanging, Immutable, Eternal,
restraining and subduing the senses, regarding everything equally, in the
welfare of all rejoicing, these also come unto Me. ( 12.3-4).
6 This becomes the underlying principle of all that Krishna elaborates
on an ordinary person’s spiritual journey and destination. And the sole
purpose of the whole discourse is to reiterate and uphold this principle.
During the Bhakti (devotion) movement of the mediaeval India, various
saints and devotees like Surdas, Raskhan, Raidas, Rahim, Bihari, Mirabai,
Karmabai et all, surprisingly irrespective of their region, religion, caste
and gender, articulated and lived in what some devotees now call Pure/
Krishna Consciousness. Various translations and analytical commentaries
have been written on it in India; right from the sages of Indian order of
monks like Shankaracharya, Sridhara Swami, Madhvacharya, Vivekananda, Sri
Aurobindo, to various social and political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and
Vinoba Bhave. Various sects of Krishna devotees like ISKON, Hare Krishna
are spread all over the world, preaching and practicing his teachings.
Besides the above listed Indian thinkers, German physicist Albert Einstein,
American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, French-German
theologian Albert Schweitzer, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, German-Swiss
author Herman Hesse, American author Ralph Waldo Emerson, Austrian
philosopher Rudolph Steiner, English author and philosopher Aldous Huxley,
and Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess have acknowledged the influence
of *Bhagavad
Gita *as didactic guide to spiritual evolution.
7 Although this all-inclusive concept of soul, told in the now almost
defunct script Sanskrit, risks misinterpretation and unanimity may not
exist in their perceptions about its propositions, this apparent lacuna
also provides flexibility as towards expansion of meaning natural for any
scripture. What Joseph Campbell says about mythology holds true for this
sacred scripture, *Bhagavad Gita*, too; that it is. a poetic, supernormal
image, conceived. In depth, but susceptible of interpretation on various
levels. The shallowest minds see in it the local scenery; the deepest, the
foreground of the void; and between are the stages of the Way from the
ethnic to the elementary idea, the local to the universal being, which is
Every man, as he both knows and is afraid to know. It is beyond the
limited scope of an article to cover all the research studies on *Bhagavad
Gita *so a restrained list of a few representational studies has been taken
into account. In addition to the various disseminative approaches to *Bhagavad
Gita *directed towards man’s initiation into self-realization, there have
been other scattered and selective methodologies confirming the perennial
relevance of its deliberations in various fields of human activities;
mental, emotional, physical, within or without. Sri Swami Sivananda asserts
that. a busy man with an active temperament will be greatly benefited by
the commentary of Sri Gangadhar Lokamanya Tilak, entitled *Gita Rahasya*. A
man of devotional temperament will be attracted by Sri Sridhara.s
commentary, and a man of reason by that of Sri Shankara. (*Bhagavad Gita*).
A.V. Srinivasan in his book, *The Bhagavad Gita: A Thread through the
Eighteen Gems *pronounces: .So, the message of Gita is detached dynamism,
egoless activity, efficiency, and courage and self-realization [.] This
unique Hindu gospel... does not require anyone abandoning their jobs or
fleeing from families, tampering their plans, disturbing their own faiths
[...] The object of Srimat Bhagavad Gita is to remove our ignorance.
(Epilogue). Vamsi Palem stresses the doctrine of charity (alms giving
in *Bhagavad
Gita*) as a means to eternal peace for the soul, in her comparative
study *Bible,
Bhagavad-Gita, and Billionaires. *Franklin Edgerton calls it. the Bible of
India. in his own translation (Edgerton 1994: x). Venkoba Rao declares Gita
to be. the masterpiece of psychotherapy., picking up the role mind has been
assigned in bewildering the soul and block its understanding of itself
(Venkobrao 2002: 32).
On one hand, Michael C. Dilbeck traces Mahrishi Mahesh Yogi.s theory
of Vedic Psychology in *Bha-gavad Gita *in terms of its emphasis on. full
integration of life. by establishing the individual consciousness in the
field of core consciousness which the Maharishi calls. the unified field of
natural law. On the other hand, John S. Hagelin contemplates on the
Maharishi’s hints at the unified field of modern theoretical physics (
shetra shetragnya) and the field of pure consciousness. Moreover, this
basic model of the initiation into self-realization leading to attunement
with the Supreme Consciousness pervading everything becomes the basis of an
ecological survey of *Bhagavad Gita’s* for some. Arne Naes, who gave us the
concept of ecosophy, owes his inspiration from Gita to Mahatma Gandhi.
*Bhagavad
Gita *6.29 sums up, according to Naess, the maximum of self-realization. It
expresses the idea that all is connected to everything else and therefore
that the self-realization of any living being is part of the
self-realization of each one of us. Interestingly, Bhattathiri asserts that
Krishnas motivational discourse on the process of managing life consisting
of matter and soul: .The *Bhagavad Gita*. enlightens us on all managerial
techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in
place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation.
He also explores. alternate paradigms for better management practices. in
his theory of dispassionate action, sacrifice, duality of cosmic spiritual
element and equanimity.
8 Emphasizing the import of *Bhagavad Gita *in imparting the crucial
aspect of spiritual well-being to the concept of health in Indian
psychiatry system, Ravi Shankar Rao reckons that .in addition to the
formation of the physical, emotional and intellectual personality is the
uniqueness of the Atman in creating the spiritual personality. The
cognitive restructuring done by Krishna on Arjuna by taking Him through the
Yoga of Jnana, Bhakti, and Karma provides a holistic framework conducive to
freedom from psychological conflicts. However, such fragmentary approaches
to *Bhagavad Gita *may not do justice to such a vast matrix of spiritual
ideology, as they do not strive to take in the discourse as a whole and,
overwhelmed by a present or perceived crisis of a personal or collective
life, seek instant remedies. Although seemingly unrelated, it can be
clearly understood by an analogy that even a layman can comprehend. It is a
comparison of these selective approaches as allopathic ways of curing, and
a holistic approach as the homeopathic method of healing. Whereas the
former seeks the preventive techniques for symptomatic treatment, the
latter goes by etiological diagnosis for the holistic treatment of a malady
by taking into account all the innate constitutional complications.
Certainly, even with the caveats of the secondary effects, if one is most
suitable for immediate respite for physical trauma, the other’s therapies
suit best for the physical or psychological illnesses born out hormonal
imbalances. Ananda K. Pandurangi nails it when he stresses that the *Gita*,
besides being a Hindu philosophical scripture, is also. a work of theology,
spirituality, human psychology, and ethics.
9 *Bhagavad Gita *is supposed to work like a time-tested therapy for
the salvage the desire-afflicted soul by building up the complete immune
system. Initially, an aspirer may wish to withdraw for fear of its being a
long, challenging process, of making wrong choices and of not meeting
success, but the last chapter, the 18th, sums it all; it takes total
obedience, reliance and surrender of self to the Self for eternal peace and
bliss: Merge thy mind in Me, be My devotee, sacrifice to Me, prostrate
thyself before Me, thou shalt come even to Me. I pledge thee My troth; thou
art dear to Me.: 18.65). The statement of purpose of this narrative is
openly and succinctly informed by Krishna in the form of a question;
whether Arjuna had heard it with one-pointed mind, and whether his
delusion, caused by his unwisdom has been destroyed. And with Arjuna’s
response in affirmation, this dialogue on highest for wisdom (*Brahminy)
comes* to an end. Therefore, as a whole, it perfectly exemplifies a session
of deep psychotherapy which, instead of admonishing, emotionally
blackmailing or inflating his ego, makes Arjuna introspect and know himself
as a soul not in subjugation but dominance over the body. And this surely
helps him to heal essentially by broadening his worldview, the purpose of
his life and the pleasure lying therein albeit hard earned: Which at first
is as venom but in the end is as nectar; that pleasure is said to be pure,
born of the blissful knowledge of the SELF (18.37).
10 Initially, it is inevitable for an aspirant to be bewildered at the
range of a complex field of cosmic experience with the intricacies of
different energies at work. Sorting the various levels of the creation in
abstract terms may not be inspiring for many. A number of exegeses put an
ordinary being in the predicament of judgement. Although mystifying,
grasping the enigma of soul, G d and universal existential oneness is akin
to walking a tightrope and the fascination does not last long for most of
us. In fact, Krishna, an all informed Yogi, apprehends this and predicts
the impracticality of expecting one and all to actually cross the
threshold, step into the maddening whirlwind of conflicting tendencies and
alternative dynamisms and work their way through it; identifying the
suitable mechanism, synergising with the uplifting forces and either
getting stuck midway or ending up being established in the whole. He
acknowledges the complexity of understanding this mysterious, elusive and
subtle phenomenon of self: As marvellous one regardeth him (the soul); as
marvellous another speaketh thereof; as marvellous another heareth thereof;
yet having heard, none indeed understandeth ( 2.29); Among thousands of men
scarce one striveth for perfection; of the successful strivers scarce one
knoweth Me in essence. (7.3). He chose only Arjuna to enlighten with this
decisive wisdom, and he calls Arjuna the best of his lineage and the
sinless one who qualifies for it. The skeletal framework of *Bhagavad Gita*,
the treasure house of universal wisdom, is succinctly stated in the fifth
chapter:
11 He who is harmonised by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the
senses subdued, whose SELF is the SELF of all beings, although acting he is
not affected. .I do not anything., should think the harmonised one, who
knoweth the Essence of things; seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating,
moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, giving, grasping, opening and
closing the eyes, he holdeth: The senses move among the objects of the
senses. [.] Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform action and even by
the senses, for the purification of the self [.] The harmonised man, having
abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the eternal Peace; the
non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound. Mentally
renouncing all actions, the sovereign dweller in the body resteth serenely
in the nine-gated city (body), neither acting nor causing to act (12-13)
[.] Verily, in whom unwisdom is destroyed by the wisdom of the SELF, in
them wisdom, shining as the sun, reveals the Supreme. Thinking on THAT,
merged in THAT, established in THAT, solely devoted to THAT, they go whence
there is no return, their sins dispelled by wisdom (5.7-9,11, 12-13, 16-17).
12 On the surface, it appeals like any scriptural template for an ideal
life which an ordinary person engaged in the quandary of worldly affairs
routinely hears dutifully, follows ritually and feels devotional to as
well. But it is rare that he thinks he can afford to contemplate following
it steadfastly. Krishna, having surveyed human life through ages, as the
Supreme Lord as well as His personalised, incarnated (*Avtar*) form, knows
about this attitude of humans and dispels it too by suggesting the fourfold
paths to free their soul from the sensory and mental bondage and help
salvage other soul too. We have the ingredients and He, the recipes. We can
choose the one that is best suited to our taste and temperament and work
upon it. Followed faithfully and substantively, the combination of the
prescribed ingredients will result as tasty as the recipe giver assures. Of
course, the resultant taste might vary if we put much or less, carefully or
casually, disinterestedly, passionately, or passively, and do not cook it
thoroughly. Krishna proclaims the corresponding relation between the degree
of spiritual growth in a man and the nature and extent of his efforts. The
worship of the Gods is not quite useless. The worshippers do attain results
suited to the form of worship, but they have to return to this world after
a time. ( 9.24). The analysis of the formulations of *Bhagavad Gita *reveals
their deep link with a mechanism of action to foster well-being, and their
positive effects on an individual as well as a community.
KR IRS part2 ends 13223
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