Bhagwat Gita is harbinger of divine wisdom

One of the greatest achievements of the rishis of our pious land India has been its exploration of the inner recesses of human mind and its evolution. To quell the restless mind and to fulfil this need of human emancipation was what they felt is important. It is in this context that the Bhagavad Gita becomes useful as a manual of self-knowledge as it offers every seeker the divine path to be a change unto himself.

The Bhagavad Gita is the perennial idea and has a wider appeal as it gives glimpses of the spiritual path to be followed and emulated in life. It uplifts the seeker from the lower levels of renunciation to the loftier heights where desires are dead and yet the seeker dwells in calm and ceaseless contemplation while body and mind are actively performing the duties that befall their lot. It is because of this that since ages it has been recited, memorised, translated, commented upon and followed. The important aspect of it has been its revelatory origin as it is directly spoken by Lord Krishna for the benefit of humankind.

The Bhagavad Gita, the great song, occurs in Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata. This great hand book of practical living marked a renaissance in Hinduism. It contains 700 shiokas spread across 18 chapters. Apart from the Bhagavad Gita there existed other Gitas such as Vyadh Gita, Ganesh Gita, Ram Gita, Shiva Gita and many more. But the uniqueness of the Bhagavad Gita is that both story of Mahabharata and the poem of Gita complement each other in so much so that it becomes an organic whole devoid of which the others would have lost its meaning.

Bhagavad Gita teaches: 

Self Control, Value of Austerity. Principles of Non Violence, Nature of Truth, Compassion, Obedience and Putting up fight against unrighteousness, Set in the midst of a battlefield, Gita quells the repressive and agitated mind of Arjuna who in the war zone of Kurukhshetra, sees a vast array of army on both sides to slaughter the other one Hence, Krishna speaks as a God to remove the veil of ignorance and acts as a moral compass to beleaguered prince Arjuna.

Arjuna the warrior prince, has to follow the duty of destroying the usurpers who were none other than his Machiavellian cousins in the battlefield. But he faces a moral dilemma at the beginning of the battle and decides not to participate. It is at this crisis that Sri Krishna intervenes and goads the withdrawn Arjuna to fight for righteousness, befitting the stature of a warrior In order to address the psychosomatic problems of Arjuna, eternal wisdom is shared by Lord Krishna through the verses of the Gita which act as a perfect diagnosis for the warrior What makes this situation peculiar is that all humans face such withdrawal syndromes in their lives and it is the wisdom or the true knowledge which turns things into the desired direction The analogy of Arjuna is the story of all humanity It is in this perspective that eternal wisdom of the Gita acts as a succour for humanity.

The verses of the book are woven extraordinarily well and it appears as fresh as it was spoken during Mahabharata. Such is the obvious message of Lord Krishna that innumerable wisdom seeking souls have followed teachings of the Gila to bring true enlightenment in their lives The Gita exhorts humans to work for the welfare of humanity on the basis of nishkam karma - selfless action, free from any selfish motive as it sees all humanity through the prism of Unity.

The Bhagavad Gita essentially remains a manual for Karma Yoga as it addresses to the seeker to realise the Absolute without giving up an active life in the world It simply says surrender everything before Lord Krishna as an offering of love and that act shall emancipate one from the myriad cycles of being and becoming.

The Bhagavad Gita clears that consciousness is the root of all and what is required is to realise this essential nature. Therefore, looking outside for profit, prestige, pleasure and power should not be the only purpose within to realise the true self and the law of karma which binds us like an intricate spider's web cast upon us.

Mahatma Gandhi often found solace in the Bhagavad Gita He wrote "When disappointment stares me in the face all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita I find verse here and verse there, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies and if they have left no visible, no indelible scare on me, I owe it all to the teachings of Bhagavad Gita."

The universal values Bhagavad Gita enables the struggling soul in the world of casualty to overcome the thorny path of life and follow the teachings which shall lead to peace ultimately.

Therefore, to all the souls let the teachings of Bhagavad Gita be the harbinger of the divine wisdom in our lives and let it open the floodgates of values with which we can serve our family, society, nation and humanity so as to bring peace around.

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The views expressed in the Article above are Sunil Raina Rajanaka    personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:- Sunil Raina Rajanaka and  Koshur Samachar 2018, January