Essence of the Geeta - Prof V Krishnamurthy

October 24, 2011

Previously, I posted Prof V Krishnamurthy's favorite Geeta shloka. To be fair to him, the Professor was not entirely satisfied. To do justice to the Geeta, he went on to describe the five central doctrines of the Bhagavad Geeta. The foundation of this understanding on Adi Shankaracharya's Geeta Bhashya in the introduction to Chapter 11. Let me be clear that the following is based on my notes and are not direct quotes of what the Professor said.

According to what the Professor said at the International Gita Forum held on October 22 in Singapore, the Geeta covers 5 main topics:

1. Karma Yoga as crystallized in Geeta 3-30. See the post the Profesor's favorite verse linked above.
2. Bhakti Yoga as crystallized in Geeta 9-27.
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ||९-२७||
yatkaroshhi yadashnaasi yajjuhoshhi dadaasi yat.h .
yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkurushhva madarpaNam.h .. 9-27..
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give in charity, whatever you practise as austerity, O Kaunteya, do it as an offering to Me.

3. Yoga Sādhana or control of the mind and the senses. If I remember right, he quoted Geeta 6-25
शनैः शनैरुपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया |
आत्मसंस्थं मनः कृत्वा न किञ्चिदपि चिन्तयेत् ||६-२५||
shanaiH shanairuparamed.h bud.hdhyaa dhR^itigR^ihiitayaa .
aatmasa.nsthaM manaH kR^itvaa na ki~nchidapi chintayet.h .. 6\-25..
Little by little, let him attain quietude by his intellect held firm; having made the mind established in the Self, let him not think of anything.

4. Brahmabhāva, the constant aspiration to see the One self in all as described by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Geeta 6-29
सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि |
ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्मा सर्वत्र समदर्शनः ||६-२९||
sarvabhuutasthamaatmaanaM sarvabhuutaani chaatmani .
iikShate yogayuktaatmaa sarvatra samadarshanaH .. 6-29..
With the mind harmonised by YOGA he sees the Self abiding in all beings, and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.

5. Prapatti or surrender. For this, he quoted what is probably the most quoted Geeta verse, 18-66
सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |
अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ||१८-६६||
sarvadharmaanparityajya maamekaM sharaNaM vraja .
ahaM tvaaM sarvapaapebhyo mokShyayishhyaami maa shuchaH .. 18\-66..
Abandoning all DHARMAS, (of the body, mind, and intellect) , take refuge in Me alone; I will liberate thee from all sins; grieve not.

This as a beautiful bird's eye view of the Bhagavad Geeta. The shlokas quoted above are not the only ones that expound these doctrines. We will certainly be seeing these shlokas again.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post.

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

September 12, 2011 I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF . The full text sourced from wikisource is below: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And los...

Geeta Dhyānaṁ 2 - Vyāsā's Vast Intellect

January 7, 2013 Previously on Geeta Jayanti, I had posted on the eternal debt of gratitude to Mother Geeta that is the basis of Geeta Dhyānaṁ. I love Param Pujya Gurudev 's commentary on the Geeta Dhyānaṁ. Pujya Gurudev's commentary is after the introduction to the Bhagavad Geeta in the commentary on Chapters 1 & 2 published by the the Chinmaya Mission. I personally believe it should be a book by itself. After invoking Mother Geeta, we now pay tribute to the wise Vyāsa Rishi - the Guru whose Jayanti marks Guru Pūrnima every year. Pujya Gurudev starts His tribute to Veda Vyāsā in his commentary on the 1st verse of the Dhyānaṁ. Vyāsa, the father of the Vedās, who, first collected, edited and published the Veda texts and who thereafter, gave us the dialectics of Vedānta in his Brahma Sūtra, himself a great man of realization, was indeed well fitted for the job. The ancient seer had both the mastery of the theoretical science of religion - Hinduism and also the practical expe...

Philip Glass and "Satyagraha", the Opera

May 27, 2012 The famous music composer Philip Glass composed an Opera called Satyagraha on Mahatma Gandhi's movement against the South African apartheid laws (strictly speaking the system wasn't officially called apartheid until ater the Second World War). I was intrigued by this because the Wikipedia entry for this opera says that the opera is sung in Sanskrit. Yet the link to the libretto (the latin name for the lyrics of an opera) on the Metropolitan's website, shows the text in English. Act 1 of opera is titled "The Kuru Field of Justice" begins with Gandhiji narrating, "I see them here assembled, ready to fight, seeking to please the King’s sinful son by waging war.” And thus addressed by Arjuna, Krishna brought that splendid chariot to a halt between the two armies. In front of Bhisma and Drona and all the rulers of the world, he said, “Behold Arjuna, these kinsmen assembled here.” And the Prince marked on each hand relatives and friends in both a...

Everyday Geeta

Search This Blog