The Bhagavad Gita In Brief

I am guessing many of you have never read the Gita, but at least some have felt they should have made an attempt. I’m in the category that tried, made some progress (making notes and all), then quit. Until recently, that is.

A late evening attempt to decipher the Sanskrit text with a friend resulted in a renewed surge of interest, and I decided to just go ahead and finish the project. It’s done now and what follows is my roadmap of the 18 chapters of the Gita – with some shlokas to highlight the path - for those wishing to delve in and explore further.

Chapter 1: Setting the stage. Surveying the armies at Kurukshetra, Arjuna is overcome by grief when he realizes what the war will entail. Good for him.

Standard interpretations speak of this as ‘weakness’ on Arjuna’s part. Au contraire, I find the very human anguish, the questioning of a war which entails the mass slaughter of kinsmen and loved ones for the sake of a kingdom, coming from a man who is expected to be a relentless killing machine, to be one of the brilliant character touches that makes the Mahabharat great. Krishna responds, and the main Gita begins.

Chapter 2: The soul stuff. “As a person casts off old garments and puts on new ones, so the soul leaves one body for another” and “Weapons do not cleave the soul, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, nor wind make it dry” (Shlokas 22 and 23).

Get the point? Krishna is saying that Arjuna won’t really be killing his loved ones, just destroying their bodies. The soul is the real thing and that’s safe. Of course, if one doesn’t buy the soul stuff, this argument goes for a toss, along with much of the Gita.

Chapter 3: All work and no attachment makes Jack a Karmayogi. To be accurate, this starts off in chapter 2 with the famous “Karmanyevadhikaraste, ma phaleshu kadachana” (Chap 2, Sh 47). Acting without attachment – one of the central principles of the Gita.

To be honest, I find Karmayoga unconvincing. Why would one do anything if one has no interest in the results?

Furthermore, how is one supposed to act? The answer, as per Gita, is to follow ‘swadharma’ – nebulously interpreted as ‘one’s innate nature’ or ‘duty’, it’s never quite clear. “Better is swadharma, though carried out imperfectly, than the dharma of another carried out perfectly”(Sh 35).

Highly unsatisfactory. This suggests that people are born with some kind of innate duty (who dictates what that is?) and one should ‘just stick to it’. More problematically, if you interpret swadharma as ‘duty’, what if that duty conflicts with basic human values like compassion, love, loyalty and so on? This is really Arjuna’s question and Krishna never quite answers it, IMO.

Chapter 4: Krishna to the rescue !! “Yada yada hi dharmasya...” is right here ! (Sh 7 & 8)

The rest is largely a rehash of Karmayoga. Apparently, Arjuna is not convinced first time, and I don’t blame him. Apart from all the swadharma issues there’s the growing problem of “Who should take responsibility for one’s actions?” - very relevant when battle is about to commence. Well, over the past two chapters, there have been growing hints that humans are mere intermediaries and God is the ultimate source of all actions, so the answer is.....

Chapter 5: Blame it all on God!! Or at least, if you do, the responsibility won’t stick to you. “He who works, resigning his actions to God, is not touched by sin, even as a lotus leaf is untouched by water” (Sh 10).

Chapter 6: Introducing Mr. Detachee, aka, the Yogi, “to whom a lump of mud, a stone and a piece of gold are the same”, “who is equal minded among friends and foes” (Sh 8 & 9), “who does not rejoice on obtaining what is pleasant nor sorrow on obtaining what is unpleasant”. Personally speaking, I am more for rejoicing on getting the pleasant and staying calm in the face of the unpleasant, rather than zoning out equally on both. But this picture of the Yogi, devoid of worldly attachments, is a familiar presence in our culture.

The rest of the chapter is about what the Yogi should do – Dhyanayoga, meditation in the grand old style. “Holding the body erect and still, looking fixedly at the point of his nose, serene and fearless, firm in the vow of celibacy, let him sit, his mind turned to Me alone” (Sh 13 & 14). The ultimate goal of all this –“Thus making the self ever harmonized, the yogi experiences the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal. He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me: I am never lost to him nor he lost to Me” (Sh 29 & 30).

The story so far: Act without attachment, remember that all actions are rooted in God, then focus, focus, focus on God. At this point, the reader may well ask, “So who is this God person anyway?” We’ll see.

Chapter 7: Ok, so let’s talk God. Here goes.

“I am the origin of the universe and its dissolution as well. There is nothing whatsoever higher than I. All that exists is strung on me like gems on a string.” (Sh 6 & 7).

Straight to the point and no mincing words either. That’s pretty much the message in this chapter. But some interesting asides exist.

Firstly, some glimmerings of the concept of Maya which hides the true form of God from the world. “Deluded by the three gunas, the world does not recognise Me who am above them. This divine Maya of mine is hard to overcome.” (Sh 13 & 14)

Secondly, an interesting piece about tolerance of worship for other gods, but emphasizing that they are inferior. This is clearly the period when the existing Vishnu and Shiva cults were taking over from the old Vedic deities.

“Those whose minds are distorted by desires resort to other gods, observing various rites. Whatever form a faithful devotee wishes to worship, I make his faith firm. But temporary are the results of their worship. Those who worship the gods go to them, but My devotees come to Me.” (Sh 20 to 23)

Chapter 8: Not too much going on here, frankly. The main point seems to be “He who utters Aum at the moment of death come to me” (Sh 13) and “having come to Me, they do not get back to rebirth” (Sh 15). The rest is a rehash of chapter 7.

Chapter 9: Panentheism. Distinct from pantheism (no ‘en’), which identifies God and the universe, panentheism is the belief that God pervades the universe, but also transcends it. Here it is, loud and clear.

“By Me is all the universe pervaded in My unmanifested form. All beings abide in Me, but I do not abide in them. My spirit which is the source all beings, sustains them, but does not abide in them. All beings pass into Me at the End, and I send them forth again at the Beginning” (Sh 4 to 7).

The superiority of bhakti to God over Vedic rituals is re-emphasized very explicitly.

“The knowers of the Vedas who drink the soma, pray for the way to heaven. They reach the holy world of Indra and enjoy the pleasures of the gods. Having enjoyed paradise, they return to the world of mortals again. But to those who worship Me alone, I bring attainment of what they have not.” (Sh 20 to 22).

Chapter 10: This is just God going ‘I am the Greatest”, over and over. “Of the Adityas I am Vishnu, of the heavenly lights I am the Sun, .....of the gods I am Indra....... of weapons I am the thunderbolt” and so on and on and on. Finally ends with, “I support this entire universe, pervading it with but a fraction of Myself”. Enuff said.

Chapter 11: Vishwarupa!! The grand climax of the Gita. Arjuna gets to see the Cosmic Form of God.

Imagine that! A mind-blowing, soul-searing, all-encompassing vision of Ultimate Reality, of All That Is or Was or Ever Will Be!!! What could ever be more awesome and humbling, more ecstatic and terrifying, more devastating and transformative than that?! What an absolutely brilliant concept.

Unfortunately, followed up by poor execution. It starts off well enough with, “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to blaze forth at once in the sky, that might resemble the splendour of the Exalted one” (Sh 12), but is followed by a huge overload of anthropomorphic imagery – eyes, hands, stomach, mouths, teeth, garlands and such. Just doesn’t do it for me.

IMO, contemplating the Hubble Ultra Deep Field or zooming into the Mandelbrot set can convey a far better picture of what Vishwarupa might have been like. :-)

(Deep field: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/wallpaper3/opo0428b.jpg Every little speck in the image is a galaxy!

Mandelbrot set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAJE35wX1nQ )

Brief Interlude: So, now with the Cosmic Form shown and described, does the Gita end on a high note? Alas, no. Seven more chapters follow. Many of them are just remixes of the old ones, and give the impression of being added on to make the magic number, 18.

Chapter 12: Strong advertisement for bhakti. Devotion to a personal God (Ishwara) is declared at the outset to be superior to contemplation of the impersonal Brahman. And what is the ideal bhakta like ? “He who behaves alike to friend and foe, who is alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain” (Sh 18)... sounds familiar? Yes ! Mr. Detachee from chapter 6 is back.

Chapter 13: Just Sankhya philosophy – Purush and Prakriti. Prakriti is dynamic and everchanging, ceaselessly bringing forth myriad different forms. Purush just sits around, observing and unobserved, unaffected by anything that happens. Yet, somehow, Purush is supposed to be the better of the two. Possibly because He is the Man.

Chapter 14: More on the three gunas – sattva, rajas, tamas – first seen in chapter 7. Sattva is goodness, rajas is passion, tamas is darkness/ignorance. Most of the chapter is an elaboration on what qualities are associated with each. But towards the end, Arjuna asks, “What are the qualities of one who has risen above the three gunas?” Turns out, this is someone who “regards pain and pleasure alike, treats alike a lump of mud, a stone and a piece of gold, who...” ok, ok, we got it, we got it. It’s Mr D. again.

Chapter 15: Remember the cosmic tree? It’s this very interesting image of the reality as an inverted tree, with its roots originating in Brahman, its leaves and branches constituting the world. Quite a unique picture, really. (Ok, there’s Yggdrasil of Norse myth, but it’s the right side up). I had no idea the image was in the Gita, so that was interesting.

But what are we told to do? “Cut off this firm rooted tree with the sword of non-attachment”. Uh-oh, it’s the D-word again. The rest of the chapter is about how the Lord dwells in all things and suchlike, but we’ve seen this all before in chapters 7 to 9.

Chapter 16: All about the daivic (divine) and asuric (demonic) natures intrinsic to human beings. The message: Daivic nature, very good, very good, Asuric nature, very bad, very bad.

Chapter 17: Rather artificial classification of diets, forms of worship, types of penance etc as sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. Don’t know why this wasn’t just attached to chapter 14. Sudden digression into the meaning and significance of “Aum Tat Sat” at the end.

Chapter 18: The finale, and a fairly eclectic mix of previous material. The three-way classification of the last chapter goes on for a bit. We have the three kinds of knowledge, three kinds of work, three kinds of understanding and so forth.

Karmayoga and swadharma re-appear, but this time, the dharma is laid out by caste in shlokas 42 – 44. (I really don’t buy that stuff.) A bit of Dhyanayoga pops in. Then, a particularly strong form of ‘God is responsible for all action’ – “The Lord abides in all hearts, driving them as machines” (Sh 61). The implication is that if Arjuna refuses to fight, the will of God will compel him.

And finally, “Fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, prostrate thyself before Me. Abandoning all duties, come to Me alone for shelter. I shall deliver thee from all evils” (Sh 65 & 66).

In conclusion: Thus, ultimately, it is ‘Surrender to Me and do My will’.

How disappointing! So much better would have been, “Use your new knowledge, think carefully and make up your own mind.” Don’t you think so?