The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita : 1&2. Sri Swami Chidananda

Saturday, June 20, 2020. 09:14. AM.

1. introduction : 

Today is the most auspicious and sacred day of Sri Gita Jayanti, when one of the most glorious scriptures of the world, which has been blessing humanity by its powerful Upadesha ever since it was expounded to Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra by the Lord. It is the advent of this glorious scripture that we are trying to commemorate today by the Jayanti celebration when we express our thoughts,—reverential and worshipful thoughts—in connection with this scripture as a gesture of our adoration of it, as also a token of our heartfelt gratitude for the blessing that it has been and shall ever continue to be to humanity.

Gita has been said to be the very essence of the Upanishads upon which our culture is based. Even now the basis of Bharatian culture is recognised to be the Upanishads. The Upanishads about which one of the greatest of German savants said: "The Upanishads have been the solace of my life and the Upanishads shall surely be the solace at the time of my departure from life." Gita is said to be the very cream and the essence of the lofty wisdom of these Upanishads. So in the Gita we have got the wisdom of the Upanishads in a nutshell. We have access to the best, the most precious gems that are to be found in the mine that the Upanishads are.

2. Gita the Mother :

Therefore, it was that the father of our nation the late Mahatma Gandhiji of revered memory said that he regarded the Gita as his own mother, by which he meant to say that his very life had been sustained by the Bhagavad Gita, that his thoughts, his feelings, his philosophy, had been nourished by the soul-elevating and strengthening Upadesha of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. As a representative of our nation Mahatmaji expressed by this utterance what Gita ought to be to every Indian. He desired thereby that every Indian, every son of Bharatavarsha ought to make Gita his own, to enshrine the knowledge and the philosophy of the Gita in the chambers of his heart, to illumine his life by the bright flame of Gita-Jnana. It is this pride of Bharatian culture, this gem in the Bharatian culture, Mother Gita, that has ever been the soul of Indian philosophy.

It is precisely for this reason that, even though it is just a small book of 700 verses, a mere exposition forming part of a greater epic poem, the Mahabharata, yet it has been given the unique place of one among our Prasthanatraya, and no great saint or scholar or Acharya worth the name has failed to comment upon it. Gita has received equal reverence at the hands of every one of the leaders of religion. All great Acharyas, all great saints, all great men of realisation and scholars have ever taken the Gita to be an authority and have also drawn from it and built up their philosophy. What is more: in the West, many a great and deep thinker has not at all hesitated to accept and avow frankly his debt to this great supreme scripture of scriptures. Emerson, for instance, was only too ready to accept that Gita had been a great factor in moulding his thought and his attitude towards life. Such is the glory of this great star in the firmament of our Hindu scriptures.

To be continued ...