Substance of Geeta
From Bhagavadgeeta
The Lord of the GIta:
The Lord of the GIta is Krishna who is one of the several manifestations of Lord Sriman nArAyaNa known variously as Vishnu, Govinda, Madhava etc., The word Sriman nArAyaNa easily qualifies as One who is the consort of Sri - the Goddess MahA lakshmi or Periya pirAtttiyAr or SriDevi nAchhiyAr. According to VishvakSEna samhitha, Sri Devi nAchhiyAr is the means to approach the Lord. She plays the role of a mediator between the Lord and us. This need is arisen out of the mutually contradicting traits of the
- Lord who possesses the Supreme Self will and independence to punish us for our sins in order to deliver justice.
- Jivatmas who are characterized by innumerable sins accumulated from innumerable births.
This mutual conflict is resolved by the mediation of the Divine mother- Periya pirAttiyAr(SrI lakShmi). The word NarayaNa denotes that He is the Supreme Lord and possessed all auspicious attributes and is antithesis to all inauspiciousness. Hence the name Sriman nArayaNa(nArAyaNa associated with SrI lakShmi) who is ocean of Mercy, alone is the object of meditation.
That Lord – our eternal and only benefactor is full of knowledge and bliss – infinite in measure. He is the Master of all the worlds, the souls (jIvAs) ranging from the ignorant worldly beings like animals, plants, humans and the demigods, those who have reached Him and those who are eternally always with Him like SrI lakShmi. That is to say there is absolutely nothing which is not in His control. He is the Supreme and the Only Cause of everything. He is endowed with a supremely beautiful, enchanting and attractive form and adorns many enchanting ornaments infinite again in measure and radiance. He possesses many weapons like the disc, conch, bow, mace and sword which are ornamental to the eyes of devotees and threatening to the demons.
THE ETERNAL LOVE :
In spite of The Lord being an ocean of auspicious qualities, the souls of this material existence have no means to enjoy His form, qualities and glory. The Lord of SrI vaikunTa(The eternal abode of the Lord attended by the eternal consorts and associates of the Lord) extends His presence in the entire universe as antaryami, being the internal soul of all living and non-living beings. Although He is omni present and pervaded all through the material and spiritual realm, His form being in-perceptible for conditioned souls, He is rendered inaccessible for us.
When a soul is liberated from the bondages of material existence, it can attain the eternal abode of the Lord. But there is no such possibility for conditioned souls. To shower His grace on such unfortunate conditioned souls like ourselves, in the pretext of rescuing the demigods like Brahma, Rudra and the other celestials, and the ending the cruel rule of the demonaic beings on this earth, He made Himself accessible to all as Sri Krishna – enacting several exploits flooded with divinity intrinsic to Him alone. He moved with the herds of cattle, played with the simple minded herdsmen and captured the hearts of several inmates of Vrepalle(Brindavanam). All this is done by the Lord out of His own love, not because of our qualification. He wanted us to approach Him. As we failed to rise up to Him, He came down to us to lift us up. He enjoyed the devotion of the GopikAs(cowherd girls), and His activities with them are flooded with emotional outburst of mutual exchange of love.
He relished the reverence and affection of AkrUra, MalAkAra(flower garland maker of Mathura) and many other devotees. In fact, it was like He was leaving His children of Srivaikunta only to spend a little time to extend His company to His children on earth who were unable to come to Him. This was the highest point of Motherly Love. It appears as if all the killing of demons, the likes of Kamsa, Mushtika and ChANura to establish rightousness in this world were just an excuse to be with us and attract us towards Him.
Many authorities exclaim, although at various instances Lord undertook various incarnations to protect us, unlike in any incarnation, kRuShNa exhibits such a kind of soulabhyam(availability) and souseelyam(to ignore one’s own greatness and be an equal among even the lowly ones) that such an exhibition may not be possible to be repeated in any other incarnations. All the alwars, particularly nammalwar used to be ecstatic in love of kRuShNa that he used to become unconscious at the contemplation of incomparable exploits of this Lord. Lord SrImAn nArAyaNa poured out His supreme love for all conditioned beings in kRuShNa incarnation, and the same can be experienced in the divine song sung by Him- SrImad bhagavadgeeta.
What is the Gita?
It is the essence of the MahAbhAratha. If the MahAbhAratha is churned with knowledge, we get two treasures – one is the Bhagavadgeeta and the other being Vishnu SahasranAma. The former was preached by the Lord. The latter was taught by BhIshma which the Lord Himself listened with delight. The Gita is the eternal teaching of the Lord as kRuShNa.
The answers to the five important questions like
- who am I?
- who is the Lord?
- What are the means to attain the Lord?
- What are the obstacles?
- What is salvation or Moksha?
are dealt in a very elaborate manner .
The Gita picks significance in that it has the spiritual science revealed by the Master of the science – the Lord Himself. So it rules over other texts in importance. It is no exaggeration that the Gita is the ultimate scripture on the Vedantic system, and it is an irrefutable fact. Hence it is no surprise that it springs out spontaneously on everyone’s lips-scholars to laymen that it is the Gita the prime Holy Scripture of the Vedanta.
The Gita contains the revelations regarding the Karma and gnAna yOgas, proceeding thereby to explain the Bhakthi Yoga-or the path of devotion which must be followed to attain the unceasing company and services of the Lord.
The Lord out of His unbounded comforting and sustaining grace, benevolence and love for the fallen and the ignorant – exercised to teach the world the universal truth in a simplified fashion, using a perturbed Arjuna as the representative of this world and taught him all that is necessary to be known and practiced by every human being who walks in this world.
For saving people of this world from the wrath of materialism, the Lord played such roles of a simpleton like a messenger, a charioteer etc; Hence He is called Uttaman or the Greatest person.
One who lives for himself even at the cost of others is the worst person. One who is self-centered is inferior. One who lives for himself as well as others is a moderate person-who is neither great nor inferior. One who lives for others even at the cost of Himself is the Greatest Person or Uttaman.
The Lord who is the Supreme Master lowered Himself to the state of a messenger of the pAMDavas and the charioteer of Arjuna etc.
One who controls all let Himself be controlled by Arjuna. He lowered Himself to teach us, so that He could lift us up. The words of compassion that flooded out of His divine lips for the benefit of the world is this Bhagavad Gita.
Thus begins the Song divine – The bhagavad Gita which has 18 chapters...
