The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 1.4 Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission :

Chinmaya Mission center in Ahmedabad resounded with the Jnana Yajna "Geeta Padho Aage badho!" based on Shrimad Bhagavad Geeta. 

The speaker, Swami Avyayananda, expounded on various topics such as leadership, parenting, student life, saying no to stress, thinking right, and turning toward happiness, disseminating powerful insights to all listeners present. 

The practical tips and relevant examples from the scriptures on the topics given by Swamiji were generously accepted and made people understand the significance of studying Geeta in their current lifestyle. 

Listeners not only soaked in the beautiful lawns of ParamDham but also showed deep gratitude for being able to attend such insightful spiritual talks. 

Swamiji also engaged devotees through guided meditation sessions based on "Bodha Saar" in the morning. 

The entire program was an incredibly enriching experience, to say the least!

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Wednesday 21, Feb 2024 07:30.

The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity-4.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 

Chapter 1: Introduction-4.

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Now, the subject on which I was supposed to speak a few words to the people who wanted to listen to me was 'the relevance of the teaching of the Bhagavadgita to humanity'. There was no need for the gospel of the Bhagavadgita if there was no occasion for conflict of ideas and ideologies. It was not a harmonious way in which people were thinking. There was a difference of opinion, and each one was sticking to his gun, as it were. Each one was saying, “I am right”; therefore, there was a necessity to decide what is actually to be done under those circumstances.

In a case that is brought before the court, for instance, the contending parties always hold that they are right. Each party argues the righteousness of the cause or the point that they make out, and both are right. This is what they are emphasising. Each party says, “I am right.” Now, if both are right, they cannot differ; but in their conception of the rectitude of their behaviour, they do differ. So the difference has to be bridged by a cementing link, which is the judicial pronouncement. Such a situation arose in humanity when the golden age descended into the denser form of human thought, when such recognition and appreciation of one in respect of the other was not possible. It was not accepted by a certain state of mind that such a one hundred percent cooperation with another is going to be for one's welfare. “My welfare does not lie in my totally agreeing with another. It mostly depends on my sticking to my own point of view.” This is the beginning of dissension among people. If each one starts thinking like that, there is tension in human life. This can lead to more and more concrete manifestations of the tension, which we call battle and war, which leads to any kind of consequence.

Such a state is pictured before us in the Mahabharata. It is nothing but a whole epic of the battle of human existence, which necessitated the bringing into the picture of human thought the gospel of the Bhagavadgita, which tells us what we have to do under a given condition. The whole of our life is a confrontation. Today we are living in a world in which we are faced with confrontations of different types, and our duties, our performances and execution of our daily vocations have mostly taken the form of a confrontation, rather than a smooth-sailing affair. It is not a happy thing, because we have to be cautious and vigilant in our daily attitudes and performances. This is the state of affairs today, especially in humanity at this moment.

Some such thing is before the mind of the great author of the Mahabharata epic. Similar is the Ramayana. These two standard epics present before us a portrait of the human predicament, which calls for certain deep thinking on the part of everyone as to what one should do under a given condition, and the given condition is some kind of confrontation, though the nature of the confrontation may vary. It is something like saying that so many people are ill; they are sick, but it does not mean that everybody is sick in the same way. One man has one kind of illness, another has another kind of illness, a third has a third kind. They may be different types of patients from the point of view of the varying categories of illness, but the fact that they are ill is a common factor that is ruling over all of them. So everyone has one kind of problem or the other.

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Continued

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