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.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Spirit and Matter

Arjuna asked: 'My Lord, who is God and what is Nature; what is Matter and what is the Self; what is it that they call Wisdom and what is it that is worth knowing?'

Lord Sri Krishna replied: 'Arjuna, the body of man is the playground of the Self; and that which knows the activities of Matter, the sages call the Self.

'I am the Omniscient Self that abides in the playground of Matter; knowledge of Matter and of the all-knowing Self is wisdom.

'What is called Matter, of what is it composed, whence it came, and why it changes, what the Self is, and what is its power - I will now briefly set forth.

'Seers have sung of it in various ways, in many hymns and sacred Vedic songs, weighty in thought and convincing in argument.

'The five great fundamentals (earth, fire, air, water and aether), personality, intellect, the mysterious life-force, the ten organs of perception and action, the mind and the five domains of sensation;

'Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, sympathy, vitality, and persistent clinging to life, these are the constituents of changing Matter.

'Humility, sincerity, harmlessness, forgiveness, rectitude, service of the Master, purity, steadfastness, self-control;

'Renunciation of the delights of the senses, absence of pride, right understanding of the problems of birth and death, of age and sickness;

'Indifference and non-attachment to sex, progeny or home, equanimity in good fortune and bad;

'Unwavering devotion to me, concentration on me and me alone, a love of solitude and indifference to social life;

'Constant yearning for the knowledge of the Self, and pondering over the lessons of the great Truth - this is Wisdom, all else is ignorance.

'I will now speak to you of that great Truth that man ought to know, since by its means he will win immortal bliss; that which is without beginning, the Eternal Spirit which dwells in me, neither with form, now without it.

'Everywhere are its hands and feet, everywhere it has eyes that see, heads that think, and mouths that speak; everywhere it listens; it dwells in all the worlds; it envelops them all.

'Beyond all senses, it yet shines through every sense-perception. Bound to nothing, it yet sustains everything. Unaffected by the Qualities (the gunaas), it still enjoys them all.

'It is within all beings, yet outside; motionless yet moving; too subtle to be perceived; far way yet always near.

'In all being undivided, yet living in division, it is the upholder of all, Creator and Destroyer alike;

'It is the Light of lights, beyond the reach of darkness; the Wisdom, the only thing or that wisdom can teach; the Presence in the hearts of all.

'Thus have I told you what Matter is, and the Self worth realising and what is Wisdom. He who is devoted to me knows; and will certainly enter into me.

'Nature and God have no beginning and that the differences of character and quality have their origin in Nature alone.

'Nature is the Law which generates cause and effect; God is the source of the enjoyment of all pleasure and pain.

'God dwelling in the heart of Nature experiences the Qualities which Nature brings forth; and His affinity towards the Qualities is the reason for His living in a good or evil body.

'Thus in the body of man dwells the Supreme God; He who sees and permits, upholds and enjoys; the Highest God and the Highest Self.

'He who understands God and Nature along with her Qualities, whatever be his condition in life, he does not come again to earth.

'Some realise the Supreme by meditating, by its aid, on the Self within, others by pure reason, still others by right action.

'Others again, having no direct knowledge but only hearing from others, nevertheless worship , and they too if true to its teachings, cross the sea of death.

'Wherever life is seen in things movable or immovable, it is the joint product of Matter and Spirit.

'He who can see the Supreme Lord in all beings, the Imperishable amidst the perishable, he it is who really sees.

'Beholding the Lord in all things equally, his actions do not mar his spiritual life but lead him to the height of bliss.

'He who understands that it is only the law of Nature that brings action to fruition, and that the Self never acts, alone knows the Truth.

'He who sees the diverse forms of life all rooted in the One, and growing forth from Him, he shall indeed find the Absolute.

'The supreme Spirit, o Prince! is without beginning, without Qualities and Imperishable, and though it be within the body, yet it does not act, nor is it affected by action.

'As space, though present everywhere, remains by reason of its subtlety unaffected, so the Self, though present in all forms, retains its purity unalloyed.

'As the one Sun illuminates the whole earth, so the Lord illumines the whole Universe.

'Those who with the eyes of wisdom thus see the difference between Matter and Spirit, and know how to liberate Life from the Law of Nature, they attain the Supreme.'

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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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