The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 13-1: Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday 05, February 2026, 05:30.
Books: Bhagavad Gita
An Exposition of the First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 13-1: Swami Krishnananda.
Discourse 13: The Supremely Friendly Power:1.
Swami Krishnananda.

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The first three chapters of the Bhagavadgita have a more or less technical character, and they are analytic in nature. Ethical, moral, philosophical are the issues that are described and discussed, and the themes get more and more pronounced in seriousness as the teaching proceeds further and further. And, at the same time, it also becomes more and more involved in different kinds of issues, almost making us feel that we are not fully confident as to where we are placed. Our placement in the context of the teachings seems to be difficult to decipher clearly, and a hard nut to crack, as it were, is presented to us in a pithy message that is bequeathed, especially through the Third Chapter. We get frightened, to some extent, because of the feeling of diffidence due to our own finitude, a secret sense of helplessness and a simultaneous feeling of doubt whether anything is possible at all.

In this wondrous atmosphere of intricate arrangements which we call the world, this universe, this cosmos, things seems to be theoretically clear and to some extent intellectually capable of grasp, but they do not appear to be anywhere near our practical life. This teaching has not yet entered our kitchen. It is only in the academy, in the university; but in our bedroom, in our kitchen, on our dining table, it is not there, and the realities are only these little things, not what we hear in the universities. So there is a fear gripping the heart of the student: What about my ability to make this knowledge a part of my program of life?

In spite of listening to any amount of teaching, the fear of weakness consequent upon limitation and finitude in every sense of the term persists. No one can forget that one is limited, finite, and weak in every field of relationship. There is socially a great limitation put on us; physically and mentally we are limited. Even in our understanding through the reason we are limited. Everything seems to be a constraint that has been put on us such that it does not appear that the superior content of this message has any vital relevance to our life.

The Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is an opening of a new avenue. A beam of light of a different character is shed on the floundering mind of the student. A new thought, a new possibility, and a new support seems to be made available to us. It is something about which nothing was mentioned earlier, something which was kept secret up to this time, as it were, the need to mention which evidently did not arise, but the mention of it is imperative in the light of a comprehensiveness of the presentation of the teaching.

There is a supremely friendly power operating in this universe. We are not likely to be aware of this fact always. We have a natural feeling, mostly, that we are totally friendless in this world. When there is trouble, we shall not receive help from anybody. We shall be left to our fate when things come to a head. We may have tentative assistances, and a type of help we may expect from human society. We do have friends in this world, but they are conditionally arranged friends. Unconditional assistance we cannot expect.

There are occasions in life when we seem to be drowning in grief, as if death has gripped our throat and nobody will look at us except the jaws of death. At that time, we do not seem to have any kind of real relations with things. Our natural feeling is, many a time, submerged in the veneer of an outer pleasantness of human relationship. This pleasantness is an outer coating; inwardly there is the bitter pill of the medicine of the hard facts of life, which are not always available on the surface of apparent human relationships.

One need not despair. The one who gives this message, the Bhagavadgita, is a representative of the true friendship in this cosmos. Sri Krishna is considered as the permanent friend of Arjuna. Nara and Narayana are said to be inseparable brothers, inseparable friends, inseparable in every way, with Narayana representing God, Sri Krishna representing the very same thing, and Arjuna, or Nara, representing man – yourself, myself and everybody. There is an inseparable friendship that is at the base of our relationship with a secret power in this world, which is a totally outside matter for our day-to-day practical existence.

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Continues

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