Om Paarthaya pratibodhitaam Bhagavatha narayanena swayam
Vyasena gradhitaam puraana muninaa madhye Mahabharatam!
Advaitaamruta varshineem Bhagavathee ashtadasaa adyaayineem.
Amba twamanusandadhaami Bhagavadgeete bhavadwashineem !!
This verse is from Gita dyana. The Lord himself gave Bhagavad-Gita.
Arjuna was just a pretext and through him the entire mankind benefited when
Lord Krishna gave Bhagavadgita to rescue people from daily mundane life,
conflicts of everyday life, and to motivate people to reach their destination
that is self-realization. This was given in 18 chapters and Vyasa compiled this
beautifully. Lord Krishna showed Arjuna the universal secret and how to reach
that highest state by sadhana. The universal soul (Paramatma) is the only one
that exists and we are all part of that and understanding this Paramaatma is
the main goal of teachings of Bhagavad-Gita.
Sri Shirdi Sai reiterated the concepts of Bhagavad-Gita by
living not just by preaching. He showed
us how to maneuver this conflict ridden life. He also showed the means to have
a balanced life even in the mist of conflict. So we surrender to our Samardha
Sadguru Sri Sainath Maharaj, so that we can get his blessings to understand the
real meaning of this great scripture and incorporate into our daily life.
The great epic Mahabharata praises Bhagavad-Gita as “Sarva
Saasthramayi Geeta”. Truly this is a masterpiece and is the essence of all
Upanishads. This teaches the discipline
that we all need in our life so that all our ducks are in a row. That’s why the
saying goes as “Gita Sugita”. The Bhagavad-Gita teaches us the way of life,
goal of life and how to reach that goal. If we adopt this great scripture as
our guide we do not need anything else in our lives. In Varaaha Purana, Lord
Maha Vishnu says “Gita is my abode, I depend on this, and this helps me with my
job as preserver of all the worlds”. What other words do we need to praise the
greatness of this incredible Scripture.
Mahabharata is also called as Panchama Veda” that is 5th
veda. Lord Krishna elegantly crafted the essence of all the Upanishads in the
form of Bhagavad-Gita so that we do not have to scramble for the ultimate
knowledge. Mahabharata has 18 Parvas (chapters) and Bhagavadgita is also
compiled in 18 chapters. This came
directly from the Lord himself. So many great minds wrote the commentary on
Bhagavad-Gita so that we can understand the meaning. They paved the way for us
and we will continue to travel in the similar path which is time tested. We will
pray to all those great souls to give us the strength, endurance and give us
their blessings.
Great Scholars say that there is nothing that you cannot
find in Mahabharata. Everything is available in Mahabharata. Righteousness was
given a major role in the epic. Bhishma, Drona and Karna followed the Dharma to
the best of their ability. They tried to be righteous in their own way. Unfortunately they were on the wrong side of
the equation. They were assisting ADHARMA (Unrighteousness) and this got him in
trouble. In a similar way lot of people think that they are living better and
they are good people. We do not harm anyone, we do not expect from other people
and we try to live as righteously as possible. So what’s wrong in this? But
question is why do we suffer still? We are crippled sometimes with opposites of
life. We face conflict in our life constantly. Is this good or bad for me? Is
this the right thing to do or not? To choose
between two good things also creates conflict. We are totally disabled at times
with these issues. That means we are not perfect or not in balance with the
nature. We are not in balance with our surroundings. We have to know more about
this life and we cannot blindly follow other people who also do not have a clue
about this life. We can face these difficulties or pairs of life with patience
only with right knowledge. So this right knowledge is given to us through
Bhagavad-Gita.
The Mahabharata war took place for 18 days and on the 10th
day the great Bhisma fell to the ground. Then Sanjaya came back from
Kurukshetra to King Dhrutharaashtra in Hastinapura to convey the bad news. That
really depressed the King but he had some hope left. So he wanted to know the
whole story of war from the beginning. This is how Bhagavad-Gita started and
there are close to 700 verses in this great scripture. The whole scripture can
be divided into three segments. First 6 chapters were described as Karma Yoga,
next 6 as Bhakti Yoga and last 6 chapters as Jnana yoga. Vedas can be roughly
told as Karma Kanda, Upaasana Kanda and Jnana Kanda. No matter how much we are
good at performing the ritualistic karmas and pujas without Jnana (knowledge)
we cannot attain the salvation. This knowledge is called as Yogam.
Yogam means the merge with the absolute. How did we take
birth? Where did we come from? Why we got caught up in this birth death cycle?
How do we get out of this? All these questions are answered with clarity in
Bhagavad-Gita.
Bhagavad-Gita helps us to navigate the conflict ridden ocean
of life. It teaches us to convert regular action to karma yoga, regular
devotion to Bhakti Yoga. Then we develop proper intellect so that we become
eligible to attain the knowledge that is Jnana. When we do sadhana with right
Jnana then we will experience the truth. This sadhana is then called Jnana
Yoga. But there are so many obstacles in the path. In the last chapters of
Bhagavad-Gita we learn how to untangle ourselves from these so called Gunas
(qualities), characters, and vasanas (impressions). Such is the greatness of
this gospel of God.
OM SRI SAMARDHA SAINATH MAHARAJ KI JAI!
