Summary

  • Ch. 1: Arjuna feels despondent on seeing his family and friends ranged in battle against each other
  • Ch. 2: When he seeks Krishna's advice, Arjuna is told that only the physical self perishes, whereas the Spirit is immortal. Krishna exhorts Arjuna to do his duty as a warrior.
  • Ch. 3: Karmayoga. Arjuna asks, if knowledge is suprior to action, why he should engage in battle. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good, but without attachment to results is the appropriate course of action.
  • Ch. 4: Krishna reveals that He has lived through many births, always teaching Yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of accepting a teacher.
  • Ch. 5: Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act. Krishna answers that both ways may be beneficent, but that acting in dispassionate and detached manner is superior.
  • Ch. 6: Krishna describes the correct method of meditation and self-control for achieving that special state of consciousness which allows self-control and helps to reach the Supreme Being.
  • Ch. 7: Krishna speaks to Arjuna about the path of knowledge.
  • Ch. 8: Krishna defines the terms Supreme Spirit, the philosophy of duty, the spirit of the Imperishable and the Unmanifest and explains how one can remember him at the time of death and attain His supreme abode.
  • Ch. 9: Krishna explains panentheism, "all beings are in Me" as a way of remembering Him in all circumstances. He posits that He exists and interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well.
  • Ch. 10: Krishna describes his various manifestations and how He is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds.
  • Ch. 11: On Arjuna's request, Krishna displays his "universal form", a theophany of a being emitting the radiance of a thousand suns, containing all other beings and material in existence.
  • Ch. 12: Krishna describes the process of devotional service .
  • Ch. 13: Krishna describes nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Path Of Love

Arjuna asked: 'My Lord, which are the better devotees who worship You, those who try to understand You as a Personal God, or those who worship You as Impersonal and Indestructible?'

Lord Sri Krishna replied: 'Those who keep their minds fixed on me, who worship me always with unwavering faith and concentration; these are the very best.

'Those who worship me as the
Indestructible, the Undefinable, the Unmanifest, the Primeval, the Immutable, the Eternal;

'Subduing their senses, viewing all conditions of life with the same eye, and working for the welfare of all beings, assuredly they come to me.

'But they who thus fix their attention on the Absolute and Impersonal encounter greater hardships; for it is difficult for those who exist in the corporeal sense to realise me as being Intangible.

'Those who surrender their actions to me, who muse on me, worship me, meditate on me, with no thought save of me,

'Arjuna, I rescue them quickly from the ocean of life and death, for their minds are fixed on me.

'Then, let your mind cling only to me, let your intellect abide in me; and without doubt, you will live hereafter in me alone.

'But if you cannot fix your mind firmly on me, then try to do so by constant practice.

'And if you are not strong enough to practise concentration, then devote yourself to my service, perform all your actions for my sake, and you will attain your goal.

'And if you are too weak even for this, then seek refuge in union with me, and renounce the fruit of all your actions with perfect self-control.

'Knowledge is superior to blind action, meditation to mere knowledge, renunciation of the fruit of action to meditation, and where there is renunciation, peace will follow.

'He who is incapable of hatred towards any being, who is kind and compassionate, free from selfishness, without pride, equable in pleasure and in pain, and forgiving,

'Always content, self-centred, self-controlled, resolute, with mind and reason dedicated to me, such a devotee of mine is my beloved.

'He who does not harm the world, and whom the world cannot harm, who is not carried away by any impulse of joy, anger or fear, such an one is my beloved.

'He who expects nothing, who is pure, watchful, dispassionate, unruffled, who renounces all imitative, such an one is my beloved.

'He who is beyond joy and hate, who neither repines nor desires, to whom all good and evil fortunes are the same,
such an one is my beloved.

'He who treats friend and foe alike, who welcomes equally honour and dishonour, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, who is enamoured of nothing,

'Who is indifferent to praise and censure
, who enjoys silence, who is contented with every fate, who has no fixed abode, who is steadfast in mind, and filled with devotion, such an one is my beloved.

'Those who love the spiritual wisdom as I have taught, whose faith never fails, and who concentrate their whole nature on me, they indeed are my most beloved.'




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Why The Geeta? Why now?

I took to reading the Geeta seriously in 2007. The idea of putting it on the WWW is not original. But I am doing it anyway as a labour of love. Just another excuse to read over and over again the wonderful words of this song divine which are a source of inspiration and of solace.
The context is a scene of battle, but that is only a metaphor for the greater battle that goes on within each one of us: the battle between our higher and lower selves, between desires and detachment, between our material and spiritual selves, between our physical senses and cosmic intuition.
There are five basic concepts: the Supreme Being, the Soul, Matter, Action and Time. In a sense, the entire divine symphony contains variations on these five basic themes.
The Geeta's greatest quality is its non-sectarian and non-dogmatic world-view. Exhorting action above mindless worship, it offers to its reader a whole new way of life; one that is free of fatuous rituals. What needs to be remembered while reading the Geeta is its emphasis on action and self-discipline.

Caveat emptor

This blog contains only a simple translation of the Geeta. I do not offer any commentary on the text (as yet). However, you are more than welcome to leave a comment on your understanding of a particular verse or chapter.

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