Bhagavad gita what is

He sees arrayed against him friends, teachers, and kin, and believes that to fight—and likely kill—these men would be to commit a grievous sin and could bring nothing good even if he were to win the kingdom back. See also Need a Good Read? Start with These Yoga Books. Take Ralph Waldo Emerson. The first stanza reads:. The poem owes a great debt to the Gita as well as the Katha Upanishad. Emerson was not merely trading one trinity for another.

They found his poem impenetrable and comically nonsensical. Parodies were published widely in newspapers across the country. To do this, he must temporarily give Arjuna the gift of mystic insight, for it is impossible to see Krishna in his glory with the naked eye. What Arjuna sees is a multiform image that can barely be described.

You have never changed; you can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial, you do not die when the body dies. Arjuna is a member of the warrior class; the battle is the very reason of his existence within this particular order now. The third reason Krishna gives is that inaction is impossible. Withdrawing from battle is in itself a conscious decision; not choosing is still a choice.

This is, in a way, a criticism of some world-views, such as asceticism, which claim that leaving everything behind is inaction. Withdrawing from society is always a deliberate act. Another reason given by Krishna is that the source of evil is not in actions, but in passion and desires, the intentions behind the actions. This brings the dialogue to the last reason.

The fifth and last reason is that there are ways to act where we can do what we have to do without getting bad karma. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains three ways to act without getting bad karma. The first way is Jnana yoga the way of knowledge. This idea is based on the Upanishads and holds that life and death are not real.

Selfhood is nothing but an illusion. All we see are manifestations of the one. Once we realize that the one is behind all things, we can escape the bad karma from acting.

He definitely makes it clear that when you actually have the choice to wish for something in life then why run after petty things? Why not wish for the highest seat available in the creation, the seat of the Brahman? He lovingly invites you to His heavenly abode. It is up to you to decide. He has even elaborated the highest achievable positions, in almost every category, that you can desire for. Srimad Bhagavad Gita is not only a book of wisdom.

The entire absolute knowledge is revealed by the Lord in the second chapter only. After that, he takes on the challenge to satisfy the queries of Arjuna and makes sure that there is not even an iota of doubt left, in Arjuna, that remains unanswered.

He keeps on delivering until Arjuna is convinced that he is ready to take on the world with the divine knowledge that he has just received.

India, the land of mystics and spiritual seekers, has nurtured a civilization that follows the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal culture. He has been a Truth Seeker since his early childhood. He has been groomed by his spiritual mentor Dr. He prefers to write under hi pen name 'tatsat', in the lowercase! Arjuna is a seeker and so he decodes what he hears to find a solution to his problem. Dhritarashtra is not interested in what Krishna has to say. In fact, Dhritarashtra is fearful of Krishna who is fighting against his children, the Kauravas.

The quest for objective truth what did Krishna actually say? The quest for subjective truth how does The Gita make sense to me? It allows everyone to discover The Gita at his or her own pace, on his or her own terms, by listening to the various Gitas around them.

Objectivity is obsessed with exactness and tends to be rather intolerant of deviation, almost like the jealous God of monotheistic mythologies. But meanings change over time, with the personality of the reader, and with context. Subjectivity challenges the assumption that ideas are fixed and can be controlled; it celebrates the fluid.

Modern global discourse tends to look at truth qualitatively: it is either true or false. That which is objective is scientific and true. That which is subjective is mythic and false. Hindu thought, however, looks at truth quantitatively: everyone has access to a slice; the one who sees all slices of truth is bhaga-van.

Limited truth is mithya. Limitless truth is satya.