ll sacred books are primarily excellent literary creations. The proponents of religions are highly inspired souls. Out of the ecstasy of their singing in a state of blessed enlightenment, have emerged the great scriptures of the world.
The Bhagavad-Gita the Song Celestial is a song sung by none other than God Himself.
It abounds in amazing expressions and
possesses all the qualities that any acclaimed poetic composition can boast of.A good poem seems to talk about simple, commonplace, wellknown themes, but it is so fertile with implied meanings that it leads us to the realization of profound truths of life. We are fully aware of the fact that as we are born, we are sure to die. We hardly ever realize and appreciate this stark truth. We are prone to live in this world with the assumption that we have entered this world not to leave it abruptly one day. We see death and destruction taking place all around us, but we live forgetful of the fact that they are going to devourusonedayortheother,LordKrishnabringstousthisobvious, but ever forgotten fact in:
eÉÉiÉxrÉ ÌWû kÉëÑuÉÉå qÉ×irÉÑkÉëÑïuÉÇ eÉlqÉ qÉ×iÉxrÉ cÉ |Death is certain for all those who have taken birth and being reborn is inevitable for those who die. You, should not, therefore, grieve over the inevitable.
Death is a mystery. It causes dread in us all. But how often do we realize that it is a natural and inevitable phenomenon? Propounding the theory of rebirth, Lord Krishna beautifully says that just as childhood, youth and old age are natural changes that occur to human body, death (rebirth) is also a natural and inevitable change. It has not to be grieved upon.
A human being is born into this world, he lives through his childhood, becomes a young man and grows old. Is he aware of these changes? Does he know when exactly he has entered the adult phase from childhood? And when exactly has he become an old man? He does not bemoan these changes. In fact, if these changes do not occur in their expected turns, the individual gets worried. If a girl, at the right age, does not attain puberty, her parents get frantic. A boy who does not get hair on his upper lip and cheeks and chin in his adolescence virtually dies of shame. So inevitable is entering another body.
The famous English poet John Donne in his celebrated poem, “Death,benotproud”acknowledgestheimmensepowerofdeathand finally strikes the nail on its head saying that it need not be boastful of its sway as, after death rebirth is as inevitable.
Death bee not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet thou canst kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which thy picture bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do goe,
Rest of their bones, and souls deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, Kings and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleepe past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
God is present in all the created beings. But then, why is there so much evil? Why are there so many trials and tribulations? How is it that the entire world abounds in sorrow?
‘This’, here, can be taken to refer to Divinity existent in all beings; ‘That’ is Maaya or illusion which takes the form of attachments (Vaasanas).
In three extremely apt and unparalleled similes, Lord Krishna enunciates the intensities of these attachments that keep one away from the Divinity within. The ‘fire-smoke’, the ‘mirror-dust’ and the ‘embryo-amnion’ similes are, by no means, casual or accidental innovations. They are not superficial comparisons. They have deep meaning implied in them. Godliness in some beings is enveloped by Vaasanas as fire is kept latent and unseen by smoke. In course of a short time, the smoke dispels itself and the fire is bound to emerge in all its brightness and heat. A little effort of fanning the smoke away will, of course, hasten the emergence of fire. In the same manner, in the case of some blessed souls, Godliness lies hidden in a thin veil of attachments. When he sheds them away, he comes out in his true nature.
In the case of some others, the attachments are like dust that has settledonamirror.Unlikesmoke,thedustdoesnotgetitselfremoved. A conscious external effort has to be made to rid the mirror of the dust-cleaning it with a piece of cloth or a brush. The effort, however small, has to be made. Otherwise it will persist even against terrible storms and violent winds. Such people awaken to Godliness only if they put in conscious and conscientious efforts to overcome their ignorance and attachments.
There are yet others whose attachments are comparable to the amniotic cover that surrounds the embryo in its womb. Breaking it open and emerging from it is the great act of taking a new birth - much more difficult, complicated and painful than the emergence in the earlier situations.
In the entire concept of the ‘ Bhagavad-Gita’, there is an imposing dramatic irony. From page to page, we see that it is not only an instruction from Lord Krishna to Arjuna but it is indirect instruction in toto to Dhritarashtra as well. It is Dhritarashtra who bestows upon Sanjaya the facility of Divya Drishti (ÌSurÉ S×ÎwOû)which enables him to see any phase of the war. He is required to act as an observer and obviously on Kauravas’ side. Naturally the tilt of his reporting should have been in favour of Kauravas. But, at the end of the ‘Gita’, Sanjaya submits to Dhritarashtra in all humility but with the firmest conviction.
Wherever there are Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the Lord of Yoga and Arjuna equipped with Gandiva, victory, glory and unfailing righteousness will surely be there - this is my conviction.
Thus, even before the start of the war, Sanjaya predicts in no uncertain terms the victory of the Pandavas, to none other than Dhritarashtra himself. Can there be any more striking instance of dramatic irony anywhere in all world literature?
Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two Theosophists, brothers, both unmarried. They talked to me about the Gita. They were reading Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation – The Song Celestial – and they invited me to read the original poem with them. I felt ashamed as I had read the poem neither in Samskrit nor in Gujarati. I was constrained to tell them that I had not read the Gita, but that I would gladly read it with them, and that though my knowledge of Samskrit was meagre, still I hoped to be able to understand the original to the extent of telling where the translation failed to bring out the meaning. I began reading the Gita with them. The verses in the second chapter
If one ponders on objects of the sense, there springs
Attraction; from attraction grows desire,
Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds
Recklessness; then the memory - all betrayed –
Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,
Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone
made a deep impression on my mind, and they still ring in my ears. The book struck me as one of priceless worth. The impression has ever since been growing on me with the result that I regard it today as the book par excellence for the knowledge of Truth.
~ From Gandhiji’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth