Spirit Musings: The Bhagvad Gita

Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Bhagvad Gita – Chapter 1

This article is taken from Guru30's blog. You can access the full write up here. It's good read to understand a little about hinduism. The Bhagvad Gita – Chapter 1:

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I do not know if I’m qualified enough to write on something as vast as scriptures. But from the little that I have read, I would like to share with you some things that I have learned. Every one of these treasures has profoundly affected me and I believe that it has made me a new man. The one that I have understood to some extent is the great scripture Bhagvad Gita. So let me try to extrapolate my understanding of the same. Those who have already read this great book, please feel free to skip this article.

The Bhagvad Gita is a a part of the great epic ‘Mahabharatha’. I have not read the Mahabharatha, but I do know some background about the same. Allow me. The story is of two kings – Dhrithrashtra and Pandu. Their dynasties are termed as Kauravas and Pandavas. The eldest son of Dhritharashtra is Duryodana and that of Pandu is Yuddhishtra. The two dynasties engage in war over land issues. The Pandavas (Yuddhishtra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakul, Sahadeva) ask their right to 50% of the land from Duryodhana, who simply refuses to give even 5 villages. Hence there is a war for what is rightly theirs.

Now let’s focus on the war. The war takes place in a place called Kurukshetra, a place in UP(Uttar Pradesh) in India. The Kauravas (Duryodhana’s team) is headed by the great grand sire Bhishma. On his side are also other famed warriors like Karna and Dhronacharya. Similarly on Pandavas side are also many famed warriors but the most dexterous being Arjuna, the brother of Yuddhishtra. Driving the chariot of Arjuna is the incarnation of God, Lord SriKrishna himself. Before the war is about to start, Arjuna requests the Lord to drive his chariot to the middle of the battlefield to view the mighty armies.

The story is being narrated to Dhrithrashtra (who is in the Kingdom and he is also blind) by Sanjaya, who has the supernatural vision to see the war sitting besides Dhritharashtra in the Kingdom. Sanjaya is away from the battlefield but can see clearly the scene and narrates the same to the blind king.

As the Lord drives the chariot to the midst of the battlefield, Arjuna sees all kings and their followers assembled in glory. And then something strange happens – he gets overawed by emotions. He sees all people in the battlefield being his relatives, his gurus, his cousins and his very own people. And the mighty warrior falters for the first time in his life. He loses his will to fight these people and gets confused about his duty. He does not know clearly where it lies. Whether to fight or be killed. He would prefer to be killed, than killing his kin or backing away from the battle. As his knees grow weak, he succumbs to his emotions and asks the Lord to guide him during this emotional turmoil.

He pleads to God (Lord Krishna) to show him the way. What follows is a series of versed narrated by the Lord himself to clear his confusion.

Continuation in the next article. Please give me a weeks time to collect my thoughts together.

Thanks for having read this far. Hope you will find this interesting.

Best Wishes,

Guru30

Original article here

Chapter 1