Gita- Sugita

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 5^th 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!