KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY FOR UNDERSTANDING GITA BETTER
Before, mentioning certain important points, knowledge of which is necessary for readers of this great sermon to understand the same in a better way, let me give historical background of it. This sermon, popularly known as the Bhagvad Gitaa is a small portion of the epic of Mahabhaarat of Aryavratt country. The importance of these historical facts will be understood on calling of the war as ‘righteous’ by Lord Krishan.
In a family, there were two brothers. In this country, generally, the eldest son is used to be the king after death et cetra of the father. But, since, elder brother was blind from birth, younger brother was made the king. It was decided by the elders of the family that out of two brothers, whosoever will give birth to a child first, his that son will become the next king. Out of the sons of these brother, the eldest son was that of the younger brother. His name was Yudhishadar. Eldest son of the elder brother, whose name was Daryodhan refused to accept words of the elders of the family and was not ready, at all, to accept Yudhishadar as the would-be king. He tried to kill all his cousins twice but failed. In order to solve the problem, the elders of the family partitioned the kingdom and made Yudhishadar the king of a part. But, Daryodhan, by deceitful ways seized the kingdom of Yudhishadar through the play of gambling and promised to give the kingdom back to him on completion of exile period of thirteen years. Even after successful completion of the exile period, Daryodhan refused to give back the kingdom without a war. Lord Krishan, who was, also, a relative of the family went to Daryodhan as a messenger of peace and pleaded for giving only five villages to Yudhishadar and his four brothers and not to talk of war. But, Daryodhan refused this proposal and war became inevitable. These historic facts are sufficient to establish that the path of Daryodhan was unrighteous.
KNOWLEDGE OF CERTAIN BASIC CONCEPTS
1 In order to understand a discourse or a book, the purpose of giving that discourse or that of writing that book along with the circumstances in which that discourse was given or that book was written assumes too much importance, which cannot be refuted in any way. This sermon, which is called as Bhagvad Gitaa had a definite purpose and was given by the king Krishan in the beginning of the Great War between two families, who were descendants of king Bharat. At the time of the war, all the members of the families stood opposite each other. A great warrior, Arjun got perturbed on seeing the kiths and kins standing opposite each other to kill one another. On seeing the perplexed state of Arjun, King Krishan gave this sermon to make him understand that his this behavior is neither righteous nor a reason of increase of his fame. Whole of this discourse given by king Krishan is known as ‘Bhagvad Gitaa’. This sermon is a part of the great epic called Mahabhaarat. To draw any other meaning from the words of this sermon than to inspire Arjun to fight, will be wrong. This sermon enabled the warrior Arjun to fight dissolving all his doubts in a rational manner. His doubt was resolved by answering all the related points, although some of them were related to the context in an indirect way, only. At the end of the sermon, Arjun agrees that all his doubts have vanished and he is ready to fight without any doubt, whatsoever.
Since, every writer explains the purpose of creation of his work in its beginning and in the end, he explains the fulfillment of his purpose, beginning and end of a book should be studied for a number of times to have clarity of objective of the writer.
Some translators, in order to support their ideology, have tried to change the very purpose of delivering this discourse.
2 It has been endorsed by Lord Krishan that every word of this sermon is in accordance with Vedaas and works of rishis.
But, some translators have drawn the meaning of this sermon very much against vedaas. Major controversy is regarding meaning of God. Below, we give the meaning of this term as propounded by vedaas:
MEANING OF THE TERM GOD AS PROPOUNDED BY VEDAAS
- There are three eternal entities, namely, God, Soul and Nature in its original state. Eternal means they are beginning-less, endless and have not been created by any other entity.
- He is one, pure, body-less, sinless, poet, very intelligent, base of others and is a reason for His own existence. He has provided different things to the beings, perfectly in accordance with their earnings.
- He is non-moving but still remains ahead of all moving objects. He Himself remains motionless but makes the other things move.
- He is not the subject of senses or in other words, He cannot be felt through sense-organs.
- God is all-pervasive. He pervades everything (including filthy things) of this world.
The above attributes of God have been delineated to enable the readers to judge themselves the words of the translators, who are hard-bent to prove that this sermon was given by God and Lord Krishan and God are one and the same entity.
3 Since, this sermon was told to the Arjun, who was expected to have known the basics enshrined in vedaas et cetra, it was not necessary on the part of Lord Krishan to explain in detail each and every word of his sermon. Likewise, readers of this book are expected to know the basic knowledge of the vedaas and other works of rishis to be able to understand the spirit of Gitaa.
4 It is very much agreed that this sermon was given to establish the truth. We agree to this fact for the only reason that this sermon was in accordance with vedaas.
5 Some translators are of the view that whatever has been said in this sermon is complete in all respects or perfect. Such persons have, not only, lowered the greatness of the Gitaa, but also of other literature of this country.
6 Originally, the epic of Mahabhaarat had only, ten thousand shalokaas but, now, it contains approximately one lakh shalokaas. Bhagvad Gita is a part of this great epic. Possibility of impurities in the Gitaa cannot be ruled out. There is a shalok in Mahabhaarat, which means that, if the Gitaa is read or studied, then there is no need of studying other literature. If, it could be true, then why the help of other literature is taken for understanding the Gitaa.
UNIQUENESS OF THE BAGVAD GITAA
- Doubt of Arjun was not of win or defeat in the war. He was not afraid of the great warriors, fighting in his opposition. His doubt was whether war had any wellness of the nation, race and family of his opposition. He raised the doubt on the very purpose of killings. Some feel that non-killing is not a symptom of cowardliness or weakness. Somewhat similar thought came in the mind of Arjun. But, Lord krishan controlled the situation by delivering this sermon. History tells that after the war of Mahabhaarat, this country enjoyed peace and happiness for three thousand years. It is because of the wrong principle of non-killing in every situation that our country had surrendered before goons and anti-social elements. History reveals that such an attitude has weakened the peace-loving people of our country. Gitaa inspired Arjun to fight for the spread of truth, justice and righteousness. Greatness of this work lies in this fact, only.
- Generally, there is a notion that path of salvation is very much different from the path of violence. This sermon enables one to come out of notions of false non-violence, false death and false peace and tells the path of salvation through violence and in this sense this successful attempt is really unique. This sermon has placed the true meaning of violence and non-violence before the human society.
- The sermon enshrined in the Gita establishes successfully as to how by taking decision for taking part in war with pure and steady intellect for righteousness and dutifulness, one can go towards development of soul.
Leave A Comment