The Spirit Of Spirituality: The Holy Bhagwad Gita

Introduction

Today, on the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti, I am humbly penning down my journey with the Gita. The celebration of holy Bhagavad Gita birthday is revered as Gita Jayanti. The auspicious day is marked on the Shukla Ekadashi falling on the 11th day of the waxing moon, also known as Margashirsha month as per Hindu calendar.

I am sure almost every house has a copy of the Gita. The pious among us see it as God and worship it and the so called atheists among us mock it as a superstitious book. Almost no one with the exception of the supremely endowed Jnanis, has made an effort to understand this wonderful scripture.

The Bhagwad Gita.as the name suggests is the Song of the Lord. It is an integral part of the Mahabharatha which was written by the Sage Ved Vyasa. Whereas the Mahabharatha has about 100,000 verses, the Gita constitutes a small portion of the Mahabhartha and has about 700 verses. The Bhagwad Gita was told at the beginning of the great war between the righteous Pandavas and the wicked Kauravas right on the battlefield between the 2 warring armies by the Blessed Lord Shri Krishna to Arjuna, the Pandava warrior.

The Bhagwad Gita told between 2 armies symbolically tells of the constant battle between the good tendencies and the evil tendencies in each of us and shows a practical way to get over this duality. It gives a clear picture of what true happiness is and how to attain that true happiness. The first word of the Gita is Dharma and the last word is Mama. Mama in Sanskrit means Mine and Dharma refers to "essential nature". So the Gita elucidates very clearly what my essential nature is and how to realize it.

My Journey

I am pretty sure I was exposed to the Gita pretty early in my childhood. My mother used to teach me prayers and for as long as I can remember, I recall chanting the first verse of the Gita. But, I think my next major step was probably when I was about 9 years old. My mother enrolled me in a Gita chanting class. There was a lady called Shrimati Annapoornamma who used to teach us the recitation. She had a golden voice and we used to repeat after her. I must have memorized the first 30 verses. Then, for some reason I cannot recall, we stopped going and my journey with the Gita took a significant pause.

As I grew up, I recall seeing the Gita book at home, but never made even the slightest move to read it. During my teen years and lasting for almost the next 15 years, I was an atheist, barely participating in religious functions or even going to temples. If at all I went to a temple, it would be to see the pretty girls who used to be there. Post marriage and especially, after our child was born, some semblance of belief in God and performing rituals started. I was slightly more open minded about going to temples. But, so far, there was absolutely no reconnect with the Gita.

In my late 30's, I emigrated to the USA and like most typical Indians who miss the country started frequenting centers of Indian culture here, prominently the various temples. One significant event that rekindled my interest in the Gita happened when the famed Udipi Mutt opened a place of worship quite near our house. We used to go there every week especially because we wanted to expose our daughter to the Indian culture. Sometime in 2002, His Holiness Shri Sugunendra Teertha Swami who was the Pontiff of this place started introductory classes on the Bhagwad Gita. I used to attend the weekly lectures and was pleasantly surprised that it was so meaningful. I had barely gone for couple of weeks when I had to move to Atlanta for an assignment. I came back from Atlanta in late 2003, lost my job soon after and was partially employed till end of 2004. During this time, my focus was more on sustaining myself and our family. Hence any study of the Gita was ruled out.

In late 2004, I got a very good job and as luck would have it, attended a residential program on spirituality at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam (arshavidya.org) run by his Holiness, Swami Dayananda Saraswati.I have to thank my wife for this. She literally kicked and cajoled me to the course. The residential program was again an eye opener and further kindled my interest in spirituality. It is said that when one is ready, a teacher or Guru will surely appear. The same happened to me. I read in an issue of Business Week about an Indian spiritual teacher, Swami Parthasarathi who was transforming US corporations. I googled and was pleasantly surprised to know that his disciple (Shri Gautam Jain) was conducting courses near my house. Both my wife and I started attending the Bhagwad Gita classes sometime around end 2005, early 2006.

At the same time, my mother's health was deteriorating and I visited India in February 2006. I was speaking to a dear friend of mine and talks turned to spirituality. My friend is a silent social worker doing charitable activities without ever publicizing it. He presented me a copy of The Holy Gita by Pujya Swami Chinmayananda of the Chinmaya mission. I returned to the US, but could not spend much time reading the book. We continued attending the Gita lectures and my interest was growing. During summer, when my wife and child went to India, I started reading the Gita. Once I started, it was just impossible to put it down. In a strange way, it was like reading a mystery novel. Only here, the mystery was to find out the real me and my purpose in life. Every chapter, every verse of the Gita is a gem. Though I could barely understand many of the concepts, I just kept reading because I wanted to finish it fully once and get a gist. Sometime in August 2006, I came to the last chapter. I used to read it for several hours every week. I marveled at the phenomenal knowledge and the deep compassion of Lord Krishna and his desire to uplift all of us. As I came to the final verses, I was crying. I did not want this to end at all. Finally I finished the book.

We continued going for the Gita classes for almost 6 years. Sometime around end of 2011, the Gita class ended and it had given me a solid foundation for further studies. During this time, I also read the Iskcon version of the Gita. I also listened to the complete lectures on the Gita by Swami Tadatmananda of Arsha Bodha. These lectures ran into several hundreds of hours,but were brilliant and took me a step further into understanding the Gita.

I still continue my Gita studies. I am currently reading, God Talks With Arjuna by Swami Yogananda Paramahamsa (https://books.google.com/books/about/God_Talks_With_Arjuna.html?id=dKYfdbxnukkC) . I have again enrolled in the weekly online course (vedantausa.org) on the Bhagwad Gita. With all due respects to all my teachers, mentors and the various books, I am giving below a summary of the Gita:

Summary

The Gita has 18 chapters which can broadly be divided into 3 groups of 6 chapters each. The way Shri Vyasa has organized these chapters map into the Maha Vakya, Tat Tvam Asi. Each of the Vedas has great statements and some of these statements are called Mahavakyas or supreme statements because in 3 words these sentences explain the essential nature of the relationship of the individual soul and the Divine.

The first 6 chapters of the Gita cover the essential practices that a sadhak has to undertake so as to prepare for the divine journey. This covers practices like Karma Yoga which talks of selfless service without any expectation of fruits, Bhakti Yoga which promotes an attitude of gratitude and Jnana Yoga which helps individuals discern what is Real from the Unreal. So this set of 6 chapters essentially covers "Tvam" which is effectively You and Me.

The next 6 chapters cover the nature of the Supreme. Here the Gita talks of the presence of the supreme consciousness in everything in this universe and beyond. The Blessed Lord in this set of 6 chapters dramatically shows Arjuna his cosmic form (Viswaroopa Darshana) and Arjuna is dazed beyond words. Hence this set of 6 chapters covers the Tat or That.

The final 6 chapters establishes the connection between the individual and the Supreme and hence is referred to as the Asi or Art. Hence in these 18 chapters, Vyasa Muni brings out the full meaning of Tat Tvam Asi or That Thou Art.

Interestingly the 18 has other connotations. In the Mahabharatha war the Kauravas or the un-righteous army had 11 divisions and the Pandavas representing the righteous army had 7, adding up to 18. This symbolizes that in each of us, the evil tendencies are more than the good tendencies. There are 18 maha puranas. Finally if we look at the structure of the individual and God, we as individuals are made up of 5 action organs, 5 sense organs and 5 life forces which make up 15 elements. In addition to these 15, we have the mind, intellect and the ego, all put together 18 elements. The Gita succeeds in making a true reader aware of the impermanence of each of these 18 elements by themselves and as a group, but at the same time gives a practical method to leverage these elements to attain supreme bliss.

With this, I conclude my brief introduction to the Bhagwad Gita.

Om Poornamadah Pooranamidam Poornath Poornam Udachyathe

Poornasya Poornam Adaya Poornamevava Vasishyathe

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As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality