Tag: Ayurvedic Treatment

Chapter 2, Verse 45

 

trai-guṇya viṣayā vedā 

nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna 

nir-dvandvo nitya satvastho 

nir-yoga kṣema ātmavān

 

The Vedas deal with the three gunas, O Arjuna. You must free yourself from the three gunas and from all duality. Abide in pure sattva; never care to acquire  

things or to protect what has been acquired; be established in the Self.

 

“The Vedas deal with the three gunas,” which are sattva, rajas, and tamas. “You must free yourself from the three gunas and from all duality.” Here Lord Krishna says that everything in this world functions because of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Even the Vedas talk about these three gunas. But Krishna says, “If you want to rise, you have to go above the three gunas.” If you are trapped in the game of the three gunas, you will always have judgement. The tamas is always judging the sattva and the sattva is always judging the rajas, and so on like that. Each one is thinking, “Oh, I am sattvic.” The tamas always hate the sattvic and rajasic. 

 

Recently somebody was talking with a friend about some food and asked, “Can I eat this?” The other one said, “That’s very rajasic!” There is always a fight between rajas, tamas, and sattva. These three gunas, these three qualities, are the three qualities of the mind. It’s not the outside thing that we are eating or drinking. No! It’s the attitude of the mind, how one perceives things and how much one is hanging  

onto judgement. One is continuously judging, “This is like this and this is like that.” 

“Abide in pure Sattva.” Sattva is the state of the Self. Whoever abides in the Self, “never cares to acquire things or to protect what has been acquired, but is established in the Self.” The one who is free from this game of the three gunas, the one who has risen above these three gunas, is fully centred in the Atma. Here the word, Atma, means the Divine, God, Narayana Krishna Himself. As long as one has not controlled the mind, one is in the body consciousness. Here the Lord says, “Move from the body consciousness: focus, centre yourself, establish yourself in the Self.” If these three gunas, these three qualities are under control, one can rise above them. Know that God is above these qualities. And God is in all, everything: sattva, rajas and tamas.

 Slowly, slowly, Krishna is bringing Arjuna out of his depression. He is revealing to him the Atma. Later on, He will reveal to him God Himself.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verses 42-44

 

yām imāṁ puṣpitāṁ vācaṁ 

pravadanty-avipaścitaḥ 

veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha 

nānyad astīti vādinaḥ

 

kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parā 

janma-karma-phala-pradām 

kriyā-viśeṣa bahulāṁ 

bhogaiśvarya gatiṁ prati

 

bhogaiśvarya prasaktānāṁ 

tayāpahṛta cetasām 

vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ 

samādhau na vidhīyate

 

Flowery speech, O Paartha is uttered by the unwise who rejoice in the words  

of the Vedas, declaring, “There is nothing superior to this!” They are full of desires and have Heaven as their goal. They teach rebirth as the result of actions and engage in various specific rites for the attainment of pleasure and power. Those who cling to pleasure and power are attracted by these teachings and are unable to develop the resolute will of a concentrated mind.

 

Many people say that the world is unreal. These people who believe that the only goal of life is to attain Heaven are ignorant of the Truth. They are so attached to the teaching of the four Vedas, that they use this teaching for their own personal gain. Krishna says, “People often talk, talk and talk using flowery speech. Don’t be bewildered when somebody just, ‘blah blah blah’. In this world, there are many wise and very knowledgeable people, but their knowledge is only based on books. They think that they know everything, just because they have mastered the books.” Here, Lord Krishna says, “O Paartha, the words which these people are saying are unwise, because they don’t really know about the Vedas. They are just taking what they have read in books and then they put it in nice words. But if they don’t have devotion, if they don’t have love and surrender to God, this is nothing. Whatever these people do, they do it for their own selfish gain. They only desire to reach Heaven.”

 

Do you know the saying, “an empty drum makes lots of noise”? Lord Krishna is referring to this. Many people can talk, talk, talk, but they don’t even know what they are talking about. They are very educated and intelligent, but they are not realised. They can give big lectures and use flowery speech. They can go on for hours talking, but their goal is completely different. Lord Krishna says, “These people are unwise. Don’t listen to them. They do not have single-pointed devotion to God. They are just here to criticise others. They are here to point their fingers at others. This is due to their own ignorance and their own imbalance. This is because they don’t have full faith in their own religion. That’s why they use words to divert the mind. And people who have similar interests will follow their advice.”

 

“They teach rebirth as the result of actions and engage in various specific rites for the attainment of pleasure and power.” Here you see that these are very self-centred and egoistic motives. When people are not doing things for God-Realisation, but only to attain material pleasures, they are not really wise. They are ignorant. These people  

will always say that there is nothing higher than Heaven. They don’t even talk about God. They don’t even know God; they want only the fruits, the gifts which God will give them. But they don’t want God Himself. True knowledge is when you desire God  

Himself. You look beyond the pleasures of the world. You look beyond the reality of this world. You do your dharma in this world, but you remain untouched by this world. This is what brings salvation and this is what men should strive for – to attain the Divine, attain the supreme goal of life.  

When one becomes focused on realising God Consciousness, one is free. But if one hangs onto these words and desires worldly enjoyments and power, then the mind is far away from God. One can’t attain the Divine. There are so many people in the world – sometimes they can fill an entire stadium with people. But what are

their minds focused on? What are their goals? People who have this kind of mind will always run to the people who speak flowery words and attach themselves to the world of enjoyment; and they will lose themselves. For them it’s very difficult to realise God. Due to their ignorance, they will always be looking at outside things. But one has to look for the Divine within oneself. 

 

“Those who cling to pleasure and power are attracted by these teachings and are unable to develop the resolute will of a concentrated mind.” Those people who are always focused on the outside goals, will only attain the goals of the outside. But the one who is seated within himself through yoga, through sadhana, through the love for God, will serve Him, love Him, develop this relationship with Him, first of all inside the heart. This one will be free.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 41

 

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir 

ekeha kuru-nandana 

bahu-śākhā hyanantāśca 

buddhayo’vyavasāyinām

 

In this practice, O Arjuna, the resolute mind is one-pointed; the thoughts of  

the irresolute are many-branched and endless.

 

Bhagavan Krishna says, “Because you are not attached to your actions, and you are not attached to the results of your actions, the mind becomes one-pointed. The intellect which determines only one thing, remains unshakeably fixed on it.” The mind becomes one-pointed on God and on God alone. Remaining steadfast in God, nothing can shake that person. Vyavasāyātmikā buddhir. The resolute mind is single-pointed. When the mind is settled for meditation, when the mind is calm and is focused on one goal, nothing can move its single-pointed devotion. The same is true when one surrenders to one spiritual path and looks only to that path; when one has found his way, his path in life, there’s no need to look elsewhere. Then one becomes strong. But if following one path, one still puts his nose in many places, he won’t move anywhere. Lord Krishna says that “the resolute mind is one-pointed.” The one who has found his way, the one who has surrendered to his spiritual path, will find Satchitananda within, will find the Divine in one’s path itself, because the mind has fully given itself to this path.

Vyavasāyinām refers to those who do not possess this resoluteness, whose minds are deluded by feelings of diversity, and ignorance, and are deeply attached to enjoyment of the world. These people will never find peace, because they are always moving, shopping from left to right, jumping from one boat to the other, from one enjoyment to the other. They engage themselves in so many things that they can’t focus themselves anymore. Someone who does hundreds of mantras in their sadhana, doesn’t get the benefit of the mantras, because each mantra vibrates differently. Whereas when you take one mantra, and focus on one mantra, it becomes more powerful. Then you have the full benefit of that mantra, which is much more than 100 mantras. Then the Guru Mantra or the Paramparam Mantra can help you. 

 

Krishna says that “the irresolute are many-branched.” They don’t know this. They have so many things to do: today I’m here, tomorrow I’m there; I’m in this way, I’m in that way; I take this teaching from here, I take that teaching from there. Then there is a big mishmash of everything, a biryani of everything, and they don’t know anything. But the wise one is single-pointed. Even if there is a big mishmash of everything, the wise one will be able to take it and separate everything. This is yoga! Yoga doesn’t mean to sit down and do some exercises. To the western mind, yoga means physical stretching exercises, doesn’t it? No! That is why Atma Kriya Yoga is not based on what you do on the outside, but what you do on the inside.

 

Atma Kriya Yoga is to rediscover the Atma, focus on the Atma, focus on the Self, focus on the Divine within the Self. If you are focused on this Consciousness like this, then it’s much better. It will bear its fruits. It’s much stronger than having hundreds of paths which will not lead you anywhere. I always give this example – there are two boats next to each other. One boat says, “I am going to England.” The other boat says, “I am going to France.” You are standing on both boats and the boats start going. Sometimes you can continue on both boats together. But when the boats start going their separate ways, what will happen? Either you choose one boat or you fall down! This is what Krishna is saying to Arjuna, “O Arjuna, when your mind becomes single-pointed towards God Consciousness, it’s not jumping on this and on that. When the mind is focused, you have control of the mind. You will not be able to destroy the mind, but you can control it. You can focus it! And that is yoga. Learn to focus the mind.”

The mind of Arjuna is not aiming to get something, like an object; it is not aiming to get other people’s recognition. Krishna is very happy to see this in Arjuna, “Now you are ready for even greater things.” If somebody has this kind of determination, spirituality becomes very easy. If you have expectations on the spiritual path or on any path, it always brings sorrow. Because you expect, “Ah, I will get this,” “I will do that”, “I will do this”, “I will do this meditation and it will bear this fruit.” But when you don’t get what you expect, what happens? You become miserable. Then you don’t have any more faith. Single-pointed devotion is also taught in the Bible. It’s so beautiful. Christ says, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can do wonders.” Isn’t it true? Christ doesn’t ask much! He just asks you to have faith. Have this determination. Have this focus! He doesn’t ask you for a lot, just be single-pointed! Don’t jump left and right. 

 

Often people put many other things first in life. Sometimes they put love. Then other times it becomes hate. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they don’t agree. They are always moving from one thing to another. These people have ‘cañcala’ – restlessness. (v. 25) Cañcala is a Hindi word describing somebody who is not stable, who is always flickering. You should not trust these people. Sri Krishna sees this single-minded devotion in Arjuna and He is very happy. He says, “This is good determination! Let’s strengthen this determination.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 40

 

nehābhikrama-nāśo’sti 

pratyavāyo na vidyate 

svalpam apyasya dharmasya 

trāyate mahato bhayāt

 

On this path, no effort is lost, no obstacle prevails; even a little of this  

practice delivers one from great fear.

 

“On this path, no effort is lost.” This is Karma Yoga. Krishna says that regarding whatever you do in this world – when you sow a seed in the land, there will be the result of the seed. Even if you fail to protect the seed, it will grow. So on this path of Karma Yoga, there is no loss of any effort. Nothing is lost.

 

“… no obstacle prevails; even a little of this practice delivers one from great fear.” Here Bhagavan Sri Krishna says that if you do a little effort, if you have first shown interest, even just a little interest, and done a little practice – you have shown the willingness to advance. This will help bring liberation, salvation to your soul. “No obstacle prevails.” There are no rules that will stop you. There are no rules for specific times, because salvation is beyond time. Krishna says, “a little of this practice” brings a big help. 

 

The effort that you do in life has a great impact on your life. It delivers one from great fear, from not attaining one’s goal. Even if you are doing your duty, without even knowing why you are doing it, it will help in contributing to your advancement towards God Consciousness. It is said that when you start to do a little practice, there will be no problems. Because even if a test comes, you will not perceive it as a problem. You will embrace it and you will go through it. Like infinite waves in the ocean, countless waves of life and death; appear and disappear, you will move without fear; you will prevail. This is the knowledge that I want to give you.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 39

 

eṣā te’bhihitā sāṅkhye 

buddhir yoge tvimāṁ śṛṇu 

buddhyā-yukto yayā pārtha 

karma-bandhaṁ prahāsyasi

 

O son of Pritha, this knowledge which has been taught to you so far concerns Sankhya. Hear now the teachings concerning yoga, for if you are in yoga, by this intelligence, you shall cast away the bondage of karma.

In this verse here, you can see that Arjuna is progressing from one step to another. Krishna sees that Arjuna is ready for the next step. He says, “I have been teaching you the yoga of the Self. I have just talked about how you will realise yourself: what you have to do, what you have to let go of, how you have to accept. Now I’ll talk about something greater, because I see that you have the attitude of equanimity inside of you. Now, we can move to the next teaching. Due to this attitude which you have cultivated, Arjuna, now we will talk about the yoga of equal attitude.” 

 

Yoga means equanimity. Due to ignorance, one perceives the duality of this world, one perceives difference or diversity. But looking at it from the soul’s point of view, through Realisation, one gains true Knowledge. One will perceive no difference between one’s soul, the Atma and Paramatma. One will see that one is just a part of Paramatma, the Supreme Soul. The only difference which the soul will perceive, is in the quantity. But more than that, no. Because all the qualities which are in Paramatma, are in the Atma. One who is completely absorbed in this Divine Self, in God Consciousness, finds this unity everywhere. There is no trace of ignorance. Krishna says, “Hear Me! Now is the time to teach you how to attain this unity. Now I see that you have this interest and that you want to go deeper to possess this knowledge of the soul; and you are willing to do it. You have no conflicting feelings of heat and cold, or pleasure and pain. You don’t desire heaven and you don’t desire the kingdom. You are ready to know that, beyond all this, there is something greater.” Krishna advises Arjuna, “This attitude of equanimity which you have, is your spiritual discipline. Now I start telling you about the Jyaana Yoga and the Karma Yoga.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 38

 

sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā 

lābhālābhau jayājayau 

tato yuddhāya yujyasva 

nainaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi

 

Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to your soul and then turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.

Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Awake, My dear! Realise, that all this is just a drama put on by Me.” Later on, He will say, “I am the One who does everything, not you.” Here He is just telling Arjuna to awaken, “See it from the point of view of your soul. Don’t see only what your mind perceives.” The Lord again tells him, “Fight Arjuna! ‘Turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.’ Treating pleasure and pain alike, O Arjuna, get ready and do your dharma!” He says, “Don’t bother about whether you want to gain the kingdom of Heaven. You don’t desire the kingdom, so you want to run away from the kingdom. So if you don’t desire all these things, if you don’t want the kingdom, then it is easy for you, no? Just fight! And, cultivate the feeling of equanimity. You shall engage in this fight. I’m not telling you to fight to gain something. I’m not promising you anything, but just fight! Don’t think about how you fight. You already know you don’t desire anything. That’s good! That’s the first thing. Very good! Just please, fight! Lift up your weapon and fight. That’s the only thing I am asking you. If you just do what I tell you, it will bring everlasting and supreme peace.”  

Here, Krishna is saying, “My dear, I am the Guru and you are the disciple. Your duty is just to listen. As the Guru, I am ordering you to fight, so don’t even think about it. You have already decided that you don’t want anything. In your mind, you have thought about it and you know you don’t want anything. This is good! Then just do what I am guiding you to do. I am showing you the path to supreme peace.” Bhagavan Sri Krishna continues, “If you fight, if you fight in this spirit, no guilt from committing any sin will arise in you.” This is Krishna’s reply to Arjuna’s question in the first chapter. He says, “There will be no sin involved if you do your dharma. If you participate in the battle, treating pleasure and pain, ‘victory and defeat equal’, with this attitude, you will not be bound to the results of the battle. No karma will be created. You will not be responsible. There will be no slight trace of karma arising when you do your dharma. You will be completely released from the bondage of action.” Karma arises due to expectation; when one expects in whatever one does, one creates karma. Karma binds and makes one suffer. But if one does one’s duty, if one does anything in the spirit of serving the Lord, one doesn’t create any karma.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 37

 

hato vā prāpsyasi svargaṁ 

jitvā vā bhokṣyase mahīn 

tasmād uttiṣṭha kaunteya 

yuddhāya kṛta-niścayaḥ

 

If slain, you shall win Heaven, if victorious, you shall enjoy the Earth;  

therefore, arise, O son of Kunti, and resolve to fight.

 

As you saw earlier, Arjuna is confused in his mind and even wants to run away from fighting. Here Krishna says, “Your state of confusion has been removed, which means that you will now win the battle, you will conquer the Kauravas. You will be victorious.” He says, “You shall enjoy the Earth, – therefore arise, O son of Kunti, and resolve to fight. You will be victorious in this battle and you will also be victorious in Heaven. You will win both ways.” So this removed Arjuna’s worry about whether he would be victorious or not. Here Krishna says it, “You will be victorious!” Because He knows that Arjuna will have full victory over the Kauravas. This is a tricky point. Krishna says, “You shall win Heaven.” He doesn’t say, “You have already won Heaven.” He is saying this in a way that shows that He already knows that they will win. He says to Arjuna, “You are the victorious one. Because this war has already begun, this war has already ended.” 

 

Physically, the war has not yet ended; but spiritually, Krishna has already revealed the future to him. Krishna says, “If slain, you shall win Heaven, if victorious, you shall enjoy the Earth.” Here Krishna uses the word “if.” He says, “If you die, you will go directly to Heaven.” That’s good! It’s a passport! A visa! He tells Arjuna, “If you meet your death on this battlefield, you will not be a loser. You will get a direct passport to Heaven. Whereas, if you win the battlefield, if you don’t die, you will inherit all the sovereignty of the Earth. You will be the king of this Earth.” Again Krishna says, “Shake off your faint-heartedness! Take up your position in this chariot and be determined to fight!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 36

 

avācya vādāṁśca bahūn 

vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ 

nindantas tava sāmarthyaṁ 

tato duḥkhataraṁ nu kim

 

Many unseemly words will be spoken by your enemies, slandering your strength; what is worse grief than that?

 

You see, Krishna is using the feeling of guilt, the knife, and putting it inside again. He says, “If you run away from your enemies, the infamy of the public scandal will cause acute distress. It will be terrible. Duryodhana and the other Kauravas will use this; they will enjoy this. They will ridicule you and not only you – they will also ridicule your whole family. They will say to your other brothers, ‘Your brother, Arjuna, ran away.’ They will start calling your family, even your mother, many names. They will speak words of reproach and defame you. If you lose fame, Arjuna, how would you take this?”

 

You see, the Pandavas also cared very much about their fame. Krishna says, “This will bring great suffering to you, Arjuna. Whereas these enemies who you are concerned about will be joyfully happy; they will plot and use this to do more mischief. They will use it for their own purpose. They will say that Arjuna was not a warrior.” Krishna reminds Arjuna, “They will even dishonour your holy bow. They will say many disrespectful things about it. How could you bear that? If they talk badly about your Gandiva, could you bear this? You know how powerful your Gandiva is! How strong it is! You will not be able to bear this disrespect to your Gandiva.” Pointing to his bow, He says, “There is nothing worse than running away. So look Arjuna, open your eyes! See that when you accept what God is giving you to do, it will bring you great honour to you. But the opposite of that, what will it be?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 35

 

bhayād raṇād uparataṁ 

mansyante tvāṁ mahārathāḥ 

yeṣāṁ ca tvaṁ bahu-mato 

bhūtvā yāsyasi lāghavam

 

The mighty men will think you fled from the battle through fear, and you, whom all think highly of, will allow a stain to fall on your honour.

 

This verse is also about Arjuna’s honour, about how people will look at him. Krishna says, “‘The mighty men’: Bhima, your brothers, Bhishma, Duryodhana, Drona and many others – they all have great esteem for you. If you run away, they will have an extremely low image of you. They will be broken! They will be shocked if you run away out of fear!”

Raising the question of fear on the battlefield, Lord Krishna says, “In this state of mind, Arjuna, you are being disgraceful, because a warrior should not have fear. These people will look at you and say, ‘My goodness! Where did this fear come from?’ They will never believe that your motive in fleeing battle was to protect them. How could they know that? For them, you ran away because of cowardice. They will never know your true motive. When the other Pandavas see you sad and running away out of fear, they will be pitied by the Kauravas and will also develop compassion for them, and then this whole war will be completely different. This war is to be a dharmic war and restore balance. But there will be no dharmic war. Automatically there will be adharma.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 34

 

akīrtiṁ cāpi bhūtāni 

kathayiṣyanti te’vyayām 

saṁbhāvitasya cākīrtir 

maraṇād-atiricyate

 

Besides, men will recount your perpetual disgrace, and to an honourable man, dishonour is worse than death.

 

Here Krishna is using reverse psychology, talking about guilt in another way. He says to Arjuna, “If you don’t do your duty, you will lose your reputation and you will be exposed to sin. People will talk badly of you, but not only that, the rishis and the celestials will all look at you in a questioning way. Your ancestors will also be crying. So, get up and fight! Don’t let people talk ill of you. You are from the warrior clan!”

 

“…dishonour is worse than death.” It is very important to understand that, during this time, people were very concerned about their honour and about giving their word. When they gave their word, they kept it. They would rather have died than not have kept their word. The Lord reminds Arjuna, “It will be painful to lose people’s respect and be dishonoured: better death than dishonour.” 

 

Krishna tells him that if he runs away, he will not be able to walk in this world because everybody in every corner will be saying nasty things about him. Krishna doesn’t leave it there. He says that even in Heaven, they will say bad things about him. He says, “Forget about your honour here on Earth: ‘men will recount your perpetual disgrace.’ For time immemorial, people will remember it. And this will not only react here, it will also react in Heaven. Imagine that one day you will go to Heaven, and there they will also nag you! When you are dying here, you think you will go somewhere and be free, but this will continue with you there.”

 

Know that this is very important to understand. To run away from certain things, people often kill themselves, they commit suicide. They think, “Ah, I have escaped!” Yes, in this life, people have run away. Do you think that their problem has left them? No, it has not left them! It will continue and become even worse! Krishna says, “They will also be nagging you in Heaven.” This means that in the next life, it will be worse.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 33

 

atha-cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ 

saṅgrāmam‌ na kariṣyasi 

tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca  

hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi

 

But if you do not fight this righteous battle, then you have abandoned your  

duty and virtue and your glory, and you shall incur only sin.

 

Here Lord Krishna reminds Arjuna, “If you don’t learn to accept what God is giving you in life and run away from your duty, run away from your dharma, then you are committing a big sin.” If you don’t first accept what God is giving you to do in life, and you don’t realise your dharma, you will fail in life, and you will ‘incur only sin’.

 

It is because of the fear of sin that Arjuna wants to run away from fighting. But here Krishna turns it around and says, “No, My dear! You will commit sin if you run away.” First Arjuna wants to run away, fearing the sin and the guilt that will come upon him. But Krishna says, “No way, don’t do that! It will be not virtuous to do such a thing. If you run away, you will not awaken.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 32

 

yadṛcchayā copapannaṁ 

svarga dvāram apāvṛtam 

sukhinaḥ kṣatriyāḥ pārtha 

labhante yuddham īdṛśam

 

Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Arjuna, to whom a war such as this comes of its own accord; it opens the gates to Heaven.

 

Here again, Bhagavan Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, “Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Arjuna, to whom a war such as this comes of its own accord;” He says, “Look! You should be rejoicing! You have not come here to make the war happen, but it came to you! It gives you the opportunity to do your dharma. You should welcome this opportunity to do your dharma. You should accept it! Welcome it!”

 

“…it opens the gates to Heaven”: when you do your duty in life, accepting what God is giving you to do, it draws you closer and closer to God-Realisation. By accepting what God is giving you in your daily life, you are opening the gates to receive more. By showing that you are doing your duty; by accepting what God gives you in life – you are showing God that you are ready for a greater purpose in this life, for greater work. Krishna says, “If you run away from this, it will not bring you any good. It will pain you. It will be unrighteous. Especially on such an occasion, where doing this duty will help you open all the doors to Heaven.”

He says, “Accept life. Accept whatever God gives you. Declaring this war will open the gates of Heaven.” 

You know, in war, they often check how you died – whether you were running away from the war or you were facing the war. They check this in a war, no? To see if you got the bullet from the front or from the back. If the bullet came from in front of you and the enemies were in front of you, then you will get lots of praise. But if the bullet came from behind and the enemy was behind you, that’s a problem. Your name will not even be mentioned – because that means that you were running away. When one meets one’s death in a righteous war, one obtains direct access to Heaven. This is Karma Bhumi, Punya Bhumi, so because of all this good merit, one will go to Heaven. Happy are the Kshatriyas who have such an opportunity! Not all Kshatriyas get the opportunity to fight in a righteous war. Only the fortunate ones get to do such a duty. 

When I refer to a righteous war, I am not talking about a religious war. Don’t mix these up. Righteous is beyond religion. Nowadays war is due to religion: one religion claims it is better than another. Then they make a war and each side says that it is fighting for the right cause. No! This has nothing to do with a righteous war. A righteous war, a holy war, is the dharma that one has to do in life. That’s why Krishna says here, “If you run away, you will not do your swadharma, you will not do your duty. Especially when it is coming to you. You are not making the war, you are not the cause of the war, but this war has been given to you to fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 31

 

sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya 

na vikampitum arhasi 

dharmyāddhi yuddhāc-chreyo 

‘nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate

 

Looking to do your own duty, you should not tremble; there is no greater  

good for the Kshatriya than righteous battle.

 

Krishna again reminds Arjuna of his duty as a Kshatriya, as a soldier. He says, “There is no greater thing for a soldier to do, than to fight. You should not divert yourself from your aim. Knowing now that the soul is immortal and that the body is separate from the soul, why do you lament? You should go and fight! Don’t just stand there and think! Don’t continue to analyse the problem from many different points of view. You are from the warrior caste, so do your duty! This is the natural duty of a Kshatriya – to not run away from a battle. If ‘the Kshatriya’ starts running away from the battle, all is finished! Then all that you have worried about will happen. It will not happen because you are fighting, but because you are running away from fighting.”

 

In Chapter 1, Arjuna says to Lord Krishna that society will be destroyed and so on, and so on, and so on, if there is a war. Here Krishna says, “Hey listen! Society will not get destroyed because of this war. It will get destroyed if you run away, if you don’t  

do your duty as a warrior.” Imagine you are at the doctor’s and the doctor puts you on the operating table. He has already put you to sleep, then he cuts you open and in the middle of the operation he says, “Oh, no, I can’t look at it! I am running away.” You can’t run away from doing your dharma, your duty. God has given each person their dharma to do in life. You have to do your duty! My duty is to sit here and talk to you, so I am sitting here and I am talking to you. Your duty is to listen, so you are listening. Your duty in the outside world is to do what God has given you to do as your daily duty in life. You have to learn to accept it. That’s why Krishna says, “You have to accept your duty as a Kshatriya. There is nothing more wonderful and righteous than to do your duty.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 30

 

dehī nityam avadhyo’yaṁ 

dehe sarvasya bhārata 

tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni 

na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

This dweller in the body of everyone is eternal and indestructible, O Bharata, therefore, you should not grieve for any creature.

 

Here Krishna explains that the soul, the dweller in the bodies of all living entities, can never be killed. The Lord says that in the bodies of all human beings in this world, there resides only One Supreme Soul. It is only due to ignorance that one sees differences in the diverse bodies. In reality, there is no diversity: there is only One Supreme Soul which we are all connected to, and which we are all part of. What is in me, is in you. It is in Arjuna. It is in Krishna. Lord Krishna reminds Arjuna, “I am in everyone as the Supreme Soul, Paramatma.” Every Atma is part of Paramatma: every Atma is part of this cosmic body which makes Paramatma, the only One Reality. He uses the word ‘indestructible’: this ultimate reality, the soul, can never be destroyed. It can never be destroyed by anything or by anyone. Again and again Krishna says, “Don’t grieve. Arjuna, prepare yourself to fight!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 29

 

āścaryavat paśyati kaścid enam 

āścaryavad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ 

āścaryavac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti 

śrutvāpy-enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit

 

One sees it as a mystery or one speaks of it or hears of it as a mystery, yet none truly know it. That Self, which we look on and speak of and hear of as that which is wonderful, beyond our comprehension, no human mind has ever known this Absolute.

 

Here Krishna says that the soul is something wonderful and that it’s very rare to meet an individual in this world who has perceived the true wonders of the soul. The soul is not a worldly object. He says, “None truly know it,” because the soul cannot be perceived by the senses, the mind or the intellect. To know something, you usually need the mind, no? But how can the mind perceive something that is beyond the mind? The soul is transcendental and unique. It is the only reality that abides eternally within the consciousness of every human being. The only eternal reality is the Atma. How can one even marvel at the wonders of the soul if one is so much focused on the outside world? And to just describe the soul, does not mean that one is truly perceiving the wonders of the soul. 

 

“That Self, which we look on and speak of and hear of as that which is wonderful, beyond our comprehension, no human mind has ever known this Absolute.” Here Krishna says that all words are limited. We are using beautiful words to describe the soul, but the soul can’t be comprehended by words. We can only use words to explain. But the one who has truly realised the soul, doesn’t even talk about it, because there are no words to describe it. The moment you start talking about the soul, it becomes unreal. Krishna says that to perceive the soul, one has to go deep inside and enter into the quietness. Then one can see the brightness of the soul and one can marvel at the wonders of the soul. Whoever has experienced this knows that you can see it. You don’t need to talk about it. It’s emanating from deep within you to the outside. This Realisation of the soul emanates from the person who is in this Reality. So it’s not about words. Yet one can feel the soul, one can see it. 

 

There are a few special people in the world who possess such virtue and purity of heart, that when they hear a description of the soul, they spontaneously experience the true wonders of the soul. Because of their faith in God, their reverence for God, just hearing about the wonders of the soul creates a great bhav inside them. This is very rare. Krishna says, “No human mind has ever known this,” because it is beyond the mind.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 28

 

avyaktādīni bhūtāni 

vyakta-madhyāni bhārata 

avyakta nidhanānyeva 

tatra kā parivedana

 

Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, unmanifest likewise are they in disintegration. What is there to be grieved at, O Bharata?

 

In the beginning, before birth, the soul has no connection with this body. “In the middle”, when the body gets manifested, the soul still doesn’t have any connection to the body. And after death, the soul will maintain no connection to the gross body. The soul manifests in a body to do its karma, to finish the karma which had been created in past lifetimes, yet it remains untouched by anything. Then the soul frees itself upon passing from this body: it doesn’t hang onto the body. The Atma goes through this process. Lord Krishna says that this is like a dream world: the dream world is non-existent before and after the dream. It is only during the dream that the dreamer seems to have a relationship with the body. It is only during the dream that you feel that everything is real. But in reality, it is not! You don’t have any connection to that dream. So why do you lament? A dream is only for a short period of time.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 27

 

jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur 

dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca 

tasmād aparihārye ‘rthe 

na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

Death is certain for those who are born, and birth is certain for those who die; therefore what is inevitable ought not to be a cause of your sorrow.

 

There are many people and schools of thought who don’t believe in liberation, in salvation. They always think that they have to be reborn, that they can’t attain the Lord. They bind themselves to this wheel of life and death. They are in ignorance of liberation, in ignorance of attaining the Grace of God. 

 

Krishna asks, “Why are you crying, Arjuna? Birth and death are conceived only in ignorance.” If one is in ignorance about liberation, one will never attain it. People who believe that they can’t run away from birth and death – because of their belief – they are stuck in that reality. If people want to believe that, why should you grieve? The drama of birth and death has nothing to do with the soul. The only aim of the soul is to attain the greatest perfection, to attain the Supreme Lord, Narayana Himself. Nothing else matters. Krishna says, “Whoever wants to go into this drama of birth and death – it is their choice!” Some of the Kauravas had the knowledge of the Self: Bhishma Pita knew, Dronacharya knew, Kripacharya knew. But they willingly chose to play their roles in the drama and be on the Kauravas side. Krishna says, “If they have personally chosen this side, why are you grieving? They are fully aware of their choice to be on the Kauravas side. So don’t grieve for that.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 26

 

atha cainaṁ nitya jātam 

nityaṁ vā manyase mṛtam 

tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho 

naivaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

Even if you think of the Self as being constantly subject to birth and death,  

still, O mighty-armed, you should not grieve.

 

Here the Lord explains that the soul is not “subject to birth and death”, what dies is only the body. But you as the soul, you are eternal. He says, “Don’t grieve, My dear, because grieving makes you weak.” Learn to accept this as the Will of God. And when you learn to accept life – everything that happens in life as the Will of God, as a present from God – then you will be free from grief.

 

Krishna says, “Grieve not, ‘O mighty-armed’.” Again Krishna is addressing Arjuna as the, “mighty-armed,” mahābāho. He means, “You are strong! You are not weak.  

Don’t go into weakness.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 25

 

avyakto’yam acintyo’yam 

avikāryo’yam ucyate 

tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ 

nānuśocitum arhasi

 

It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable, so is it described;  

therefore, knowing it as such, you should not grieve.

 

Here Krishna asks Arjuna, “Why are you grieving, My dear? Why are you crying? The soul ‘is unmanifest, it is unthinkable’”. The soul can’t be conceived by the mind, the mind can’t comprehend it. The mind can’t understand the soul, because the soul  

is beyond the mind.

 

If you are looking at the soul only from the point of view of the mind, do you think that the mind can understand the soul? A mind which is always moving around is, ‘cañcala’, “restless,” dancing and jumping like a monkey, from one thought to the other. How can the mind, which is in constant movement, be still and perceive the unmovable? The mind will always move from one thing to another until one has gone deeply into the sadhana, deeply into meditation and calmed the mind. Only then will the soul reveal itself. But before that, if the mind is still jumping around, the soul is unknowable.

 

Krishna says that the soul “is immutable.” Everything which is mutable is bound by the mind, and whatever is from the mind is bound by Maya Prakriti, bound by the laws of Nature. The soul is completely separate from Prakriti. It undergoes no transformation, in any circumstance. When one realises the soul itself, one knows that it is eternal, omnipresent, immovable, everlasting, unmanifested, unthinkable and immutable. So, Krishna asks, “Arjuna, why are you grieving?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 24

 

acchedyo’yam adāhyo’yaṁ 

akledyo’śoṣya eva ca 

nityaḥ sarvagataḥ sthāṇur 

acalo’yam sanātanaḥ

 

It cannot be cut, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried.  

Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, ever-existing.

 

Krishna continues explaining that the soul cannot be destroyed by any weapon because it is indivisible, unmanifest, constant and immutable. Krishna says that weapons don’t have any power to destroy this reality. Here the word ‘weapons’ also refers to karma: Krishna means that karma has no power to destroy the soul. Krishna uses the words ‘stable’, and ‘immobile’ to describe the soul. The soul is still and motionless. The soul is ever focused in the stillness. Whatever is moving, whatever is bound by vibration, is in constant change, and whatever is in constant change, has a limited existence.

 

“All pervading.” This means that there is no place where the soul is not present. The cosmic Soul is present everywhere. If you are realised, you don’t need to move from one place to another; you don’t need to dance from left to right. This is why the saints don’t need to go around to ten places: just by sitting in one place, they observe everything within the Self. This is the story of Maha Vishnu, explaining about the Gita and why He always stays in one place with His eyes closed. While His eyes are closed, He is in His eternal, true aspect, one with everyone, and everything. In that state of oneness, He is constantly energising the word of the Gita. Like that, one who is centred in the Atma, perceives the oneness – not out there, but inside oneself.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 23

 

nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi 

nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ 

na cainaṁ kledayanty-āpo 

na śoṣayati mārutaḥ

 

Weapons cannot cut it, nor the fire burn it, nor do the waters drench it, nor  

the wind dry it.

 

Overtaken by his feelings for his relatives, Arjuna asks, “How can I kill them?” He starts to worry and grieve, thinking, “How could I do that?” Lord Krishna reminds him that weapons cannot cut the soul, nor can fire burn it. Referring in this verse to fire, water, and wind, He explains that the elements don’t have any effect on the soul: neither fire, water, or wind, can do anything to the soul. He says, “Even if the body is cut into pieces by a weapon, the soul is not. Even if the body is burned, the soul will not be burned. Even if water dissolves the body, the soul is not touched by it.” 

 

During the time of the Mahabharat War, the elements were used as weapons.  

Here Krishna says that even if a weapon of water is thrown at the body, it will never dissolve the soul. Even if the weapon of air, the Vayu Astra, is thrown at the body, it will not dry up the soul. The soul will always remain untouched by these elements. Krishna explains why the soul is superior to the elements. The body is made up of the five elements. Since these elements are already present inside the body, how can these elements destroy the soul? Even if you throw a fire, a bomb, or a missile at the body of a realised person, this won’t affect him. If you send a water or wind weapon at a realised person, it will have no effect on him. You will often see this in the lives of saints. For example, there is a beautiful story of Saint Haralambis who lived in Greece. 

 

During World War II, the Nazis went there and the local people told him, “Don’t light the candles of the church, they will kill you.” He didn’t listen and completely ignored them. So one fine day, what did he do? The soldiers waited for him near the church and after he had finished lighting all the candles, they started shooting at him! At that moment, Haralambis was laughing like crazy! He ran towards them and took from his pocket all their bullets and threw them at the soldiers. Fire didn’t have any effect on him. Nothing can affect one who is centred in the Self. The same was in the life of the Greek Saint, Papa Nicholas Planas. When he was walking outside and it was raining very much, he always stayed completely dry. This shows that the qualities of the soul can also affect the physical body. The soul has full power over the elements. It is beyond the elements. The soul is the great controller.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 22

 

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya 

navāni gṛhṇāti naro’parāṇi 

tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny 

anyāni sanyāti navāni dehī

 

The embodied soul casts away old bodies and takes up new bodies, as a  

man changes worn-out clothes for new.

 

Here Lord Krishna says, “When one’s clothes get old, one changes them for new ones. Like that, when your body becomes old – but you still have karma to work out, and you are not yet fully realised – you will take another body. You will come back again into this material field to continue to advance, until the full Realisation awakens.” But then, one will ask, “What is the full Realisation?” Is it the Realisation of the Atma or of the mind? It is the Atmanivedam: the Atma Itself surrenders to the Supreme. Krishna refers to the body as old worn-out clothes. The body will go through the same cycle of birth, life, and death, again, again and again. This kind of suffering is because you are trapped in the game of Maya. But, you are meant for something greater.

 

When the body gets old and it is time to take a new body, it is like when a mother changes the clothes of her child and the child cries. I have seen this with my niece. She cries crazily when her clothes are dirty; but afterwards, when she has new diapers, she is relaxed. Isn’t it like this? A baby will cry when he has dirty diapers, but when the mother changes them, the baby is again happily quiet. When the body gets old, when you have finished with the changes, this means that you are advancing towards a new body, which will be even better! This is preparing you for a better life in the next body, where you will be free from certain dirt and be fine.

 

The mother stays indifferent through the cries of her child because the mother is concentrating on the welfare of the child. Even so, God, for the good of the Atma, for the good of the Jiva, cares little for the tears of the body, because He knows what is best for each person. That is what Christ also means when He says that when one asks the Father for something, will the Father deny it? The Father will give, but according to what is needed to be given. Death can be very terrible sometimes for someone and one will ask, “Oh my goodness! Why this and that?” But the Eternal Father knows that when life has come to an end, when the game of life in this body is finished, one has to move on to the next body – until one fully attains the Divine.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 21

 

vedāvināśinaṁ nityaṁ 

ya enam ajam avyayam 

kathaṁ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha 

kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam

 

Who knows it as immortal, eternal, imperishable, spiritual existence, how  

can that man slay, O Paartha, or cause to be slain?

 

In this verse, Bhagavan Sri Krishna brings to Arjuna’s attention that the one who has the true knowledge of the soul, can never think of harming anyone, or cause anyone to be killed. The thought of harming another person will never arise in the mind of one who has realised Brahma Jyaan or Atma Jyaan – because he is aware. If one has the knowledge that one is not the body, mind or intellect, rather the soul, one will never identify oneself with what one sees on the outside, and believe that one can kill. Krishna is saying that there is only one Consciousness that remains – the existence of the Spirit only, everywhere. And this Spirit can neither die nor harm anyone or anything. Krishna is reminding Arjuna again and again: look, if you come to the Realisation of the Self; if you come to the Realisation that there is only one Divine Spirit, then who is killing who? If you are ignorant of the Atma, the soul, of course then you will see everything from the point of view of the outside world. But if you have the knowledge of the Self, and if you realise the Self, then you rise above this. Krishna says, “Knowing this truth, why are you grieving? Why are you crying? Why are you going into this weakness?” Remember that Krishna is talking to a soldier on the battlefield. Know that Krishna is also talking to each spiritual seeker. Why do you fear to let go? Why do you fear to transcend the outside reality? Devote yourself completely to your sadhana! Embrace life and let the Divine reveal Himself to you.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 20

 

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin  

nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ 

ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo 

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

 

This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, everlasting; it is not slain with the slaying of the body.

 

This part is so wonderful. Krishna says that the soul was never born: we can’t even say that we are born from God. All we can say is, “We come out of Him.” The soul is never born, nor does it die. Krishna is saying that the soul is not something which is passing by or has modifications with birth and death. Death doesn’t have any grip on the soul: even birth doesn’t have any grip on the soul. It is ever-free.

Modifications are only for the body. Krishna says that all that is “passing away will never come into being again,” meaning that what one has gone through before, it won’t happen again. These modifications, these changes which happen to the body, once they are finished, they are gone! You were a baby, then you are middle age, then you get old: can you reverse the process? No, you can’t. But the Atma, is separate from that.

 

There are the six modifications which the body goes through: birth, becoming, growth, transformation, decay, and destruction. These modifications have nothing to do with the soul. The soul is ever-free from them, “It is unborn, ancient and everlasting.” ‘Unborn’: the soul was never born. We can’t say that the soul is born from God. No, it came out of God. You can say that you are born from someone, like a child is born from the mother. But the Atma is an everlasting image of God, an ever-lasting drop of Himself. It was never born. It is everlastingly present inside. It’s not something which is separate from God; it’s eternally a part of God Himself – whether one thinks about it or not, whether one is aware of it or not. ‘Ancient’: the soul is beyond time. We can’t say, “You are a young soul,” or “You are an old soul.” You hear this very often in the esoteric world. “This person is an old soul, he is very wise.” But this kind of wisdom is based on the outside, or what one hears, or perceives only with the mind. Here Krishna is reminding Arjuna that the soul is eternal – it’s not young or old. It doesn’t decay. Usually when the body dies, it decays, is destroyed and is finished! The soul doesn’t go through these kinds of transformations. It is everlasting; it is never destroyed. Even if the body is slain, the soul is not.

 

Here Krishna again explains that even if you cut the body, nothing will happen to the soul. Again and again, He is repeating this to remind Arjuna that the Satchitananda is inside of him. But here, Krishna is not using the word ‘God’. He is not using the word ‘Paramatma’. He will use these words later on. Here He is just trying to reason with Arjuna and explains that within this body, there is something greater, which we call the Atma. That is why the yoga of Chapter 2 is called the yoga of the Self. The only thing that you have to do is to realise the soul, the Atma, the Self. This body has been only given to you to realise this truth.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 19

 

ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ 

yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam 

ubhau tau na vijānīto 

nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate 

 

He who regards this (the soul) as a slayer, and he who thinks it is slain, both of them fail to perceive the truth. The soul does not slay, nor is it slain.

  

The Atma is in the killer, and the Atma is in the one being killed. But the Atma is not perishable. Those who think that the soul of the slayer or the soul of the slain are limited or perishable, are in deep confusion.

 

Krishna says that an ignorant man attributes the functions of the body to the soul. He says, “Look, you should not mix up the body and the soul. Your soul is the Great Observer, it observes things; it comes here and does its dharma, but it remains separate from the mind, the intellect, and the body. It is something apart from who you are. The one who thinks that the slayer is the soul is completely mistaken, and the one who thinks that the soul is killed, is completely mistaken.” This does not mean that now that you can think, that, “We are eternal. It’s okay to go and kill people!” No, it doesn’t mean that one can start killing others. Here Krishna is talking from the point of view of a warrior, a yoddha. He was on the battlefield. He says, “Look, how can you kill the soul? The soul is eternal, it’s not perishable. How can you say that the killer is the soul, or the person? Which one is the killer? The soul or the person? Neither. The killer is the body; but the soul has nothing to do with the body. The soul doesn’t kill; it is separate from this reality.” 

 

Here Krishna explains that the soul doesn’t go through any modifications. The soul in itself is pure and is not even modified by the effects of karma. Even if it is always moving from one body to another, the soul is ever-free. Last week, someone asked me, “Are we liberated or not?” I said, “The Atma of everybody is realised. Everybody is free, because you are part of God. And that part of God which is present inside of you, is forever realised. It is ever-lasting and is fully realised.” In your sadhana, what you do is, you polish the outside to get rid of all the karma. Later on, Krishna explains this with an analogy: “If a mirror is covered by dust, the mirror is not touched by the dust; the mirror always stays behind the dust. But when the dust is cleaned away, then the mirror appears clear.”

 

This is the beauty of the Gita: here Krishna describes the soul as being like a mirror. This shows that people already knew about mirrors at that time. It’s true! In the west, they say that mirrors were invented 2000 years ago. They don’t know that 5000 years ago, Krishna had already spoken about mirrors in the Gita. Five years ago, scientists discovered a piece of glass that was 2000 years old. They came to the conclusion that this was the oldest glass that had ever existed. But in India, glass existed 5000 years ago! Imagine how advanced this culture was! In Krishna’s time, in Dwapara Yuga, people had a certain knowledge. That was why Krishna could talk about the Self. Arjuna knew about the Self; he had the knowledge that he was the Atma, that the Atma and the body were completely separate. Krishna was only there to remind him of this truth.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 18

 

antavanta ime dehā 

nityasy-oktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ 

anāśino’prameyasya 

tasmāt yuddhyasva bhārata

 

Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. Therefore, fight, O Bharata (Arjuna).

 

“Finite bodies have an end,” Krishna says, “All bodies, which have been created from matter, from the five elements, ‘have an end’.” Everything which is matter, will return to matter. Here the Lord is saying that the mind, the senses, and the physical body are all perishable. Whatever you see outside is perishable, has its limit and will have its end. But you are here to use these limitations to do your duty, to do your dharma. This infinite, the Atma, which is present inside of you is the Reality. He says, “Don’t be in ignorance. Know that you are eternal. Know that you are indestructible. So fight!”

 

Here Krishna is not only talking to Arjuna, He is talking to everybody, “Don’t go into your weakness, My dear children. It is Me who is seated within you. Look at life. Face it! Be strong! Know that I am with you. And know that we have this deep, eternal relationship together, that we are always next to each other. You are not alone because I, the Supreme Spirit, am ever-present with you.” Don’t look at the outside and become miserable! Don’t look at the effort that you are putting into your sadhana; just do it! Do your maximum! Don’t go into your weakness when you do your sadhana, but be in your power! Only then will you realise your Self. Only then will God reveal Himself to you. Don’t look at the outside world. Don’t listen to ‘x, y, z’. Go with your feeling. Open your heart and be powerful! Be strong! So Krishna says, “Arjuna, don’t show any hesitation or unwillingness to engage yourself in the fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 17

 

avināśi tu tad viddhi 

yena sarvam idaṁ tatam 

vināśam avyayasyāsya 

na kaścit kartum arhati

 

Know that to be imperishable from which all this is extended. Who can slay the immortal spirit?

 

Whatever is perishable, like the body, the senses, the mind, all these objects of enjoyment, and pleasure – all these are under the control of Prakriti. And Prakriti is under the control of the Spirit, which means under the control of the Consciousness, the life principle.

 

“Know that to be imperishable from which all this is extended.” All matter, everything which is created, comes from the non-created: all emerges from only One Reality, God, the Immortal One, the Supreme Spirit. Everything comes from Him. Everything is just an extension of Him. The one who is realised in this immortality, attains the true Self. He sees that the same Narayana Krishna that is outside, is also inside. And not only in himself, but everywhere, in everything. The seers, the yogis, and the saints know and see this Truth. They know that everything which is created, everything which is on the outside, is an extension of only Him, and it is only Him that is present in everything. 

 

Krishna says to Arjuna,“No one can bring about the destruction of the indestructible.” How can you kill the Atma? You can’t. At that moment, Arjuna is very worried about what will happen to the Atma of Bhishma. Will he go to Hell? Krishna says, “No. How can he go to Hell? He can’t.” It’s not because of his actions on the outside that he will go to Hell: his essence is only the Supreme Spirit. The soul, which is under the control of the Immortal Spirit, how can it be destroyed? It is not a material object. The soul is not something material that you can cut with a sword.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 16

 

nāsato vidyate bhāvo 

nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ 

ubhayor api dṛṣṭo’ntas 

tvanayos tattva darśibhiḥ

 

That which really is, cannot go out of existence, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The end of this opposition of ‘is’ and ‘is not’ has been perceived by the seers of essential truths.

 

This means that everything which is limited, will be destroyed. And what is not limited, the Atma, cannot be destroyed; it is ever-existent. You will realise the eternity of the soul only when you rise above the duality of the real and the unreal. Why would non-existence exist? Non-existence is not real. By non-existence, Krishna is referring to the body and referring to all the people on the battlefield. He says, “These people are not real. They appear to exist, but they are not real. The only reality behind all this is the Self. Look beyond this duality. Perceive that which is beyond what your mind is showing you. The soul doesn’t go through these changes; in all circumstances, it never ceases to exist.” It is unchangeable.

 

Arjuna is feeling much grief that he will have to attack Bhishma Pita. His grief is not so much for the other Kauravas. The most important thing to him is his relationship with his great uncle. He fears that if he kills him, what will happen to his soul? In the first chapter, Arjuna says, “The ancestors will go to Hell.” So he fears that the soul of Bhishma, who is a great being, will go to Hell. Krishna tells him, “No. Bhishma Pita is as pure as the river Ganga. The purpose of his existence here is to do what I have commanded him to do. Nothing can exist without Me willing it that it exists. Everything exists because I will that it exists. But you have to see that it is My Will. If you don’t see that it is My Will, you are stuck in the real and the unreal; and you can’t distinguish between the real and the unreal. The saints and the seers, the wise ones have always reached this conclusion: everything else outside changes; but everything comes from only One Reality, which is God. There is only One Reality, My Reality, nothing else. This is the Truth. This is the essential Truth.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 15

 

yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete 

purus‌aṁ puruṣarṣabha 

sama duḥkha sukhaṁ dhīraṁ 

so’mṛtatvāya kalpate

 

The man who these do not trouble or pain, O lion-hearted among men, the firm and wise who is equal in pleasure and suffering, makes himself apt for immortality.

 

Krishna addresses Arjuna as lion-hearted among men. He is reminding Arjuna, “You are like a lion! You are strong! You are not weak. You are powerful! Be firm and wise.”

 

“The man who these do not trouble”, yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete, means the one who is not troubled by pleasure and pain. The best and most excellent of men are beyond pleasure and pain. It is easy for them to rise above these opposite qualities, to rise above these dual experiences.

 

The realised soul doesn’t go into the drama of life. He sees pleasure and suffering equally. The one who makes himself ready becomes ripe. He becomes aware to receive the knowledge of the Self.

 

Krishna is pushing Arjuna. He says, “Don’t just talk about what is right and not right. Make an effort to change. See it from another point of view, so you can rise above this limitation. Make an effort to see that these objects of the senses, these objects of pain and pleasure are just limited. Today they are here; tomorrow they are not here. If you can change this feeling in the mind, if you can rise above it, from then on, you will see everything as equal. Only then will the immortality of the soul be revealed to you. But if you are attached to the duality, you are not ready for it.” You see, here it is very important to know that people may talk a lot about Realisation, but if they are not realised, what good is that?

 

Krishna says, “Make yourself ready. You have been given a life here to make yourself ready to receive the Grace of God.” Krishna doesn’t only talk about the immortality of the Self: He also talks about attaining the Grace of God. But in this verse, He is not talking about attaining the unlimitedness of God; rather He says, “Make yourself apt for immortality.” However, Arjuna is so focused on the outside reality, that it is difficult for him to think about anything else.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 14

 

mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya 

śītoṣṇa sukha-duḥkhadāḥ 

āgamāpāyino’nityās 

tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

 

The interaction of senses and objects, O son of Kunti, give cold and heat,  

pleasure and pain, transient things which come and go. Endure them, O Arjuna.

 

Mātrā sparśās means ‘the contact of the senses with material objects’. Whatever comes into contact with the senses, into contact with the mind – heat, sound, touch, colour, taste and smell – these are the products of the senses. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are always part of our experience. If one gives attention to the outside, to the sense organs, and the sense objects, one becomes bound by the opposites of duality, like cold and heat, pleasure and pain. Whoever is focused on living only in the external world, will attain only limited things. One will not be aware of the greatness, the eternity of the soul. This duality of experience, also brings joy, grief and so on. This is not for realised people. When you realise that the object is just passing by and changes, you should not allow the mind to dwell on this. It is unhealthy to dwell on this.

 

Describing the contact between the senses and the object which naturally comes and goes and the limitations of Nature, Prakriti, Krishna asks Arjuna to ignore this: “this will only bring pain.” He advises Arjuna to not concentrate on them, to not rejoice in them or grieve over them. Know that these experiences are there, but don’t go into them. If you start feeding them, if you feed the negative qualities, if you go into them – you are trapped. You are trapped in the drama of the mind. And the mind will make you dance to its tune. And once you are dancing to the tune of Maya, all is finished!

 

Here Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Overcome pleasure and pain. Go out of this drama of duality and remind yourself that you are eternal.” Again and again He is repeating the same thing: the eternity of the soul. Sometimes you have to repeat something ten times for somebody to get it. The mind is like this. Until it accustoms itself to a certain reality, that reality is easily forgotten and the mind jumps around.

 

In Chapter 1, again and again Arjuna is reminding Krishna of his grief and sadness and so on – he is finding many excuses not to fight. The Lord is doing the same thing with Arjuna, but in a reverse way, reminding him that, “All that you have been talking about is not real, is not the reality. It is just passing by. You are here to witness this. You are the great witness.” It is only when you realise that you are the Great Observer that you can observe life and not be trapped in the drama of it. When you are apart from it, then you observe. When you are in your sadhana, when you are sitting in meditation, who is perceiving everything? When you are doing your Atma Kriya Yoga, of course, the mind is perceiving the physical state; but when you look deeper inside, on the inside there is somebody else watching. Who is watching? That is the great Self. The great Self is always watching; the Great Observer is always watching and observing life, how life is going. Now it’s observing and hearing in this body; before it was observing and hearing in another body. And those who have not yet attained the Grace of the Lord, will later be in another body. Of course you will go through an evolution.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 13

 

dehino’smin yathā dehe 

kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā 

tathā dehāntara prāptir 

dhīras tatra na muhyati

 

As the soul passes physically through childhood, youth and old age, so it  

passes on to the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not  

allow himself to be disturbed or blinded by this.

 

Krishna says, “It is unwise to suffer, thinking that by changing one’s body, everything is lost. Why are you grieving? Why are you sad about this? Childhood, youth, and old age don’t belong to the soul.” When are you growing up, what is growing? The body. Once you were a baby; maybe now you are in youth; later you will be in middle age; and later on, you will become old… some of you are already old now. But these changes are not for the soul. Your Atma is eternal! The Atma is still the same. For all which is created, change is only on the outside. The body changes. Nature, Prakriti changes. The soul itself never changes.

 

When the body dies, the soul goes and takes another body. The one who is unaware of this truth, the unwise, grieve over this transition from one body to another. The wise never do so. The one who is wise, “the self-composed man”, the one who is longing for Realisation, the realised one, sees the world completely differently. Krishna says, “Arjuna, you are realised. Don’t see the world in a low state of mind. Don’t be blinded by how everybody else sees the world. Let this knowledge which is inside of you awaken. See that the soul is eternal. Even if the soul moves from body to body, this eternity of the soul – that’s what is the Reality.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 12

 

na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ 

na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ 

na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ 

sarve vayamataḥ param

 

There was never a time that I did not exist, nor you, Arjuna, nor these kings  

of men; nor is it true that any of us shall ever cease to exist hereafter.

 

“There was never a time…” This is so beautiful. Here Bhagavan Krishna reveals to Arjuna the quality of the eternity of the soul. He says, “There was never a time when you nor I did not exist. We all existed even before our birth, before we manifested in these bodies. And we will carry on existing even after these bodies disappear. Even though the body dies, the soul is eternal, it will carry on living. So Arjuna, you should not grieve for these relatives or fear their destruction.”

The soul is eternal: one has to come here; one does one’s duty, one’s dharma; and then the body dies. But the soul remains eternal. Before this lifetime here, you were somewhere else in another body; but now you are here in this body. You will continue in this cycle of birth and death until you finally attain the Lord Himself. Krishna is pacifying Arjuna saying, “They all existed before. Even you. Even Me, I always existed. We are just playing this game, this drama. When this body is finished, we will still carry on living afterwards. So why do you grieve for that? Awake! Realise yourself! The nature of the soul is eternal.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 11

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ 

prajñāvādāṁśca bhāṣase 

gatāsūn agatāsūṁśca 

nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

 

The Lord says: You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn for either the living or for the dead.

 

Now is the beginning of the Gita. The real Gita starts now with the smile of the Lord. All that came before was just a preparation for this. 

The Lord says, “You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom.” You see, Bhagavan Krishna has been watching and observing Arjuna all the time. The Great Observer always observes life and sees life. He observes how life is going on. Your true Self, the Atma, is always observing life from within you. Krishna says, “You grieve, ‘yet you speak words of wisdom’. You know about life, you have the right feeling inside but when you speak, you say something stupid.” You have the deep feeling inside that you should not do something! But you do it anyway! And then afterwards you say, “Oops, terrible! I did it again!” Learn this great wisdom. You have the wisdom, you have the knowledge, you have the feeling inside you.

 

“The enlightened man does not mourn for either the living or for the dead.” Krishna says, “There is no beginning and there is no end. There is no birth, there is no death.” Krishna is going slowly with Arjuna, saying, “Let Me give him the knowledge step by step.” He is gradually taking Arjuna from the state he is in before. The utmost thought in Arjuna’s mind, at that time, has been about the destruction of the family, the destruction of the race and the inevitable consequences of the war. In Chapter 1, he says that the war will bring confusion; it will cause the downfall of the castes; and the ancestors will go to hell. Krishna has said, “You are wise. Mourn not.” That is what Christ says in the Bible. When the disciple came to Him and says, “First let me go and bury my father, then I will come,” Christ says, “Let the dead bury themselves.” 

 

If you want true wisdom, know that there is no birth and no death. You are the Atma, you are eternal. For the Atma, there is no beginning, there is no end. So why do you mourn? You have come here to attain a higher reality; you have come here to do a higher work than what you realise. Krishna tells Arjuna that the wise never grieve in this way. The one who has the knowledge of the Self, the realised one, the Jivan Mukta knows that the Atma is eternal and that there is no point in mourning or grieving. The wise person, the paṇḍitāḥ, knows that God is the embodiment of true knowledge, Satchitananda. The wise person knows that it is only Him who is abiding in everything. He is the Self of all. He is the indestructible Absolute. Whatever is created – the body or whatever you see in the outer world – is not permanent. He says, “Do ‘not mourn for either the living or for the dead.’ Whatever is created, will be destroyed.” Everything in this world keeps changing. The only one who is not changing is God. The body is temporary, it goes through changes and dies. It doesn’t stay.

 

The association, the link between the body and the soul, is like a dream. Sometimes you dream of something and in that dream, everything appears so real: you are running, you are very active and very busy in that dream; you feel it! But when the dream ends, you wake up, and realise, “Oh, it was a dream.” When you are in that dream, you don’t see reality. But when you are out of that dream, you are back in reality. Krishna is talking about birth and death, about living and not living. This is similar to dreaming. When you are in a dream, everything is imaginary; but when you come back to reality, you realise that it was just a dream. So awake! An awakened man, enlightened man knows that a dream is only a dream and he stays out of that dream.

Krishna says, “So Arjuna, why are you in these circumstances in grief? You are wise, you should not be in grief. In your words when you speak, you are grieving. But there is much Truth inside you; there is much wisdom inside you. You are not just stupidly saying all these words. You have great compassion for others; you care deeply for others. But do you really want to help others? First help yourself! If you help yourself and become strong, then it will be much easier to help other people.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 10

 

tam uvāca hṛṣikeśaḥ 

prahasann iva bhārata 

senayor ubhayor madhye 

viṣīdantaṁ idaṁ vacaḥ

 

To him thus depressed and discouraged, Krishna, smiling, O king, speaks these words between the two armies.

 

Here, Sanjaya is expressing interest in seeing the Lord smile. The smile of the Lord is saying, “Hey, now you are ready!” It has been Arjuna himself who has requested Lord Krishna to bring the chariot between the two armies. Arjuna has first been in the spirit of challenging: but when he sees the two opposing armies, he falls into a depression. He becomes very disturbed and grief-stricken. It is this Arjuna who now asks the Lord to guide him and to remove from him the pain which is overwhelming his mind. So Krishna smiles.

 

When the Guru sees that the disciple is really ready, he has the same smile! The disciple can ten thousand times ask, ask, ask, ask, and the Guru will give whatever He has to give. But when the disciple is truly ready, even without asking, all will be given. This is the smile that Lord Krishna gives to Arjuna. He says, “Ah! I see that now you are  

ready.”

 

When one is confused, there is only one thing one has to do: hold tightly to the Feet of God. This is a natural state, you know? Whenever something goes wrong, who do you call? You say, “Oh my God!” You don’t say, “Oh my mother! “Oh my father!” or “Oh my friend!” You don’t do that! When your mind is battling, when you see that you are confused, when you see that something inside is coming up, the first thing you say is, “Aaaahh! My God!” This is a natural reaction – you just do it; maybe you don’t even realise that you are doing it. But this is when the soul reacts and says, “God, you are the creator! This is a reminder that You are the Ultimate. In every situation, You are the Ultimate! In good situations, You are the Ultimate! In bad situations, You are the Ultimate! And beyond that, You are still the Ultimate!” This is the state that Arjuna is expressing. The Lord is looking at this mental state of Arjuna and laughing. He says, “Yes, My dear, I can now see that you are ready to receive the greater knowledge of the Self. You are ready to fight and transform yourself.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 9

 

sañjaya uvāca 

evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśaṁ 

guḍakeśaḥ paraṅtapa 

na yotsya iti govindam 

uktvā tūṣṇīṁ babhūva ha

 

Sanjaya says: Gudakesha (Arjuna), terror of his foes, having thus spoken to Krishna, then says to Krishna, “Govinda, I will not fight!” and becomes silent. 

 

Here Arjuna makes his decision, and says, “I’m not ready to fight! I’m happy with my normal, mundane life. I don’t want anything else. I don’t want to go deeply into spirituality. I don’t want to discover my true Self. I’m happy living life; waking up in the morning; having my breakfast; going to work; coming back from work; enjoying the TV and sleeping.” Again, next day the same routine. “Then I look forward to the weekend: I will go to the pub, I will drink; I will lose my mind; I won’t even know what happened. I will go completely into delusion; then I will come back home,” – if you come back home, or maybe you will sleep on the road; or wake up in somebody else’s bed or somewhere else, not even knowing what has happened. Sunday, I will relax; Monday, the same routine – and, “I’m happy with that.” This is the delusion in the world. Who wants to change when people have created their own reality of happiness? No one wants to change.

 

So here, Arjuna says, “I don’t want to fight! I want to listen to you.” That’s why he becomes silent. He is praying to the Lord. Sanjaya says to the king, “After taking refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, after surrendering to the Lotus Feet of the Lord, Arjuna waits for His guidance and instruction. And he becomes silent.” This is what Krishna has been waiting for, that Arjuna silence himself a bit and be ready to listen.

 

Here Sanjaya refers to Krishna as Govinda. The truth about God is known only through the Vedas. Krishna is Govinda, the Lord of the Vedas. He is the incarnation of the Vedas, the living Vedas. It is through the study of the Vedas that He is to be known. The study of the Vedas has only one aim: to attain the Grace of Narayana Krishna. 

 

Arjuna has become silent. He has made himself ready. Sanjaya is excited inside and is eagerly waiting to see what will happen next. He says, “Okay, now Arjuna is in silence after expressing himself and going through all this delusion.” Sanjaya himself is getting excited. You know, it’s like when you are watching a nice movie and you’re wondering what will happen next and at that moment they put on a big advertisement and you have to wait. Such is the state of Sanjaya. He has been closely watching this big movie, he sees the climax coming soon and asks, “Ah, what will be next?” He has very deep anticipation; he is waiting for what will come next.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 8

 

na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād 

yacchokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām 

avāpya bhūmāv-asapatnam-ṛddham 

rājyaṁ suraṇām api cādhipatyam

 

Even if I should attain rich and unrivalled kingdoms on Earth or even the sovereignty of the gods, it would not take from me this sorrow that dries up my senses.

 

Here Arjuna asks, “What am I doing in this battle where I will gain only earthly things? Even if I attain ‘sovereignty of the Gods’, lordship over the Gods, and become like Indra, that will not remove this grief, which is drying up my senses. Please Lord, help me! Remove this grief! Give me everlasting happiness and bliss. That’s what I’m longing for. I’m not longing for material gain and I’m not longing for Heaven. I long to hear You. I long to be out of Maya. I want to be free from this delusion.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 7

 

kārpaṇya doṣopahata svabhāvaḥ 

pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma samūḍha cetāḥ 

yacchreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me 

śiṣyas te śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

 

It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me, my (true heroic)  

nature; my deluded mind is bewildered in its view of right and wrong. I ask  

You which may be the better – tell me decisively. I take refuge in You as a  

disciple. Enlighten me.

 

The first word here, kārpaṇya, means “poorness of spirit.” “It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me, my (true heroic) nature.” Arjuna knows that his noble nature, his powerful nature, has fled.

“…my deluded mind is bewildered in its view of right and wrong.” He is seeing what is right and what is wrong from the point of view of the mind. His mind is showing him what is right and what is wrong – not his heart, not his consciousness.

 

“I ask you which may be the better – tell me decisively. I take refuge in you as a disciple. Enlighten me.” Here Arjuna is making himself ready. He says, “Look, I am truly confused. I feel terrible. I don’t know where I stand.”

 

In the Gita, Krishna often calls materialistic people who are attached to the world ‘kripana’. They miss the purpose of life and depart from this Earth without knowing God, without Realisation. Arjuna is neither greedy nor miserly. It is not out of greed that he is in this state of confusion. His attachment to the world is not for his personal benefit. When you want to find God, if it is for personal gain, and done with pride, it will not lead you anywhere. But if it is to surrender to a greater cause, even if it is not done correctly, if it is not for your personal gain, it will bear its fruit. Arjuna had a great nature. He didn’t want to enjoy himself. He was not thinking, “Oh, I will fight this war for my own enjoyment.”

 

Here he is saying, “I don’t know what is right, You are Krishna, You are God Himself! But You are telling me the opposite of what I am thinking.” Very often the Guru says something which is the opposite of what the devotee thinks, and the devotee says, “Ah! How is this possible?” But then you must ask: who is the Guru and who is the disciple? Here it’s the same thing. Arjuna is expressing something and expecting Krishna to say nice words to him. But Krishna doesn’t say any nice words to him, so he is taken aback, he is shocked! This also humbles Arjuna so that he is able to accept the Lord as his Guru. He surrenders to Lord Krishna and says, “Enlighten me.” This shows that Arjuna is very wise: but he is not yet enlightened.

 

Arjuna was Krishna’s best friend. Both saw each other as, “We are best friends.” They always had great respect for each other, but it was mostly as friends, as cousins. They did not have a Guru-disciple relationship. But now Arjuna has changed. In the past, Arjuna always felt equal to Krishna. When they sat and ate, even when they slept, they would sleep in the same room, on the same bed, for they were friends.

However, Arjuna’s confused state makes him realise that even if one thinks of one’s self as being equal to God, God is superior. Even if His actions are the same, in all His actions, He is far superior to the human way of understanding. That’s why Arjuna says, “I take refuge in You as Your disciple.” Arjuna doesn’t say, “Because You are my best buddy, I am going to listen to You now!” No! To take refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to take refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Guru, one has to put away one’s own pride and one’s own thinking. Arjuna says, “Advise me! Counsel me now! Instruct me! Before I was thinking of You as being the same as me, but now I realise that You are far superior to me.” That’s why Lord Krishna also says, “My devotees, who are completely surrendered to Me, are far superior, because I live in them, and they live in Me.”

Arjuna has now realised that Krishna’s advice is very important and that he needs to be guided by a true guide: and this true guide, is Krishna Himself. Only through that, will he be taken out of his grief and be able to attain the Divine, be able to attain this inner strength so that he can move fearlessly and fight. Who else there can be his best teacher? It is not Dronacharya, not Kripacharya, not Bhishma. It is God Himself. 

Even though Krishna has been Arjuna’s best friend, now He becomes his Guru. The instruction of the Guru is like a seed which is planted in fertile land. If the disciple’s heart is like a stone, nothing will grow from it. Do you know the parable in the Bible of the sower? Christ says, “If you throw seeds and they fall on dry land, nothing will grow; if they fall on stones, nothing will grow; but if they fall on fertile land, then they will grow and will bear fruit.” 

 

Here, Arjuna and the Lord are playing the drama of the Guru and the disciple. When one is ready deep within one’s heart, when the heart becomes like fertile soil, then one is ready to receive: before that, no. Therefore Arjuna says, “Lord, I am Your disciple. Take me as Your disciple. I take refuge at Your Feet.”

 

There are many types of disciples and many types of devotees. It also depends on one’s self-effort and how one is centred: is one centred in the ego, is one centred in pride, or is one centred in the spirit? This verse also says that whoever is not ready will  

look elsewhere for things to please themselves. They will not look for the Satguru. But when they are ready, they will look for the Satguru. And once they find the Satguru, they will have the benefit of having the Guru always with them.

 

Here, therefore, Arjuna declares his discipleship and surrenders to Krishna. He says, “I am not only Your disciple, but I have taken refuge, I have surrendered to You.” What does it mean, ‘to surrender’, ‘to take refuge’? You can be a disciple, or you can even be a part-time disciple who is not surrendered. But Arjuna says, “More than just as a disciple, more than just as a devotee, I surrender myself to You.” In the last part of the verse, the word ‘prapannam’, means to take refuge, to surrender to God. It is  

not just the willingness to surrender, it is also accepting that He is greater. When a disciple takes refuge in the Guru, the disciple must completely accept the superiority of the Master. This is what Arjuna is accepting. He says, “I am surrendering to You, and I accept Your superiority: only You can take me out of this ignorance. I throw myself at Your Feet. You are God.” With this, Arjuna’s eyes are brightened and his mind is completely transformed. His whole attitude has changed. With folded hands, he knows that by taking this role of the disciple, that the Lord, the God Almighty, the omniscient and the knower of all hearts, has taken the form of the supreme Master. And that He, who is full of Love, greatness, virtue, knowledge, He who is non-attached,who can’t be touched by karma, by anything, is his dear friend. And from being his best friend, He has become the supreme Guide and the supreme Divinity.”

 

This is the greatness of the Guru. The Guru does not have just one role. He is not just a teacher. He takes different forms, a multitude of aspects. Because the life of the Guru is not for Himself, but for others. The help and support, the knowledge, the power, the affection that the Guru has for the devotee is amazing and exquisite.

 

Here Arjuna is also expressing his desire to know more, and he also has in his heart the attitude of surrender to the Lord. When one has this desire to know more, to go deeper and deeper, to not just know in the mind, but deep within the heart, one will happily surrender their life to God. One knows that the only aim in life is Him, is to completely surrender to Him. Then one is ready to receive the true knowledge.

When one is not ready, when one still dwells on the outside knowledge, when one still dwells on things which one thinks are good for oneself, one will always say, “I want this, I want that; I want this and I want that.” They will never ask, “What does God want from me?” In their delusion, they will always think that they are right and that it is  

God’s Will for them. But this is just an image that one creates in one’s mind. 

Later on, we will see how Krishna enlightens Arjuna and makes him receptive so that he can receive this gift of surrender. He explains to Arjuna what it means to surrender all his duty to Him.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 6

 

na caitad vidmaḥ kataran no garīyo 

yadvā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ 

yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmas 

te’vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭhrāḥ

 

Nor do I know which is better for us, that we should conquer them or they  

conquer us. Before us stand the sons of Dhritarashtra, who if we slay, we  

would lose all desire to live.

Here again Arjuna is showing that he is in a state of confusion, because he is still very attached to the outside. You see, if somebody is not fully dedicated, they always go into a state of confusion. They are not making themselves ready. Arjuna is in this state and says, “I don’t yet know if we will be the winners or they will be the winners. Here are the sons of Dhritarashtra on the battlefield in front of us.” He is still trying to find ways to not fight them. He is indicating that he has the choice: either to fight or not to fight. If he doesn’t fight, it will be a great offence of a Kshatriya, of a fighter, to not fight and to run away from the battlefield. How will he face his family? How will he face his people? If he runs away and doesn’t fight, it will also be a great sin and an evil act. This state of confusion makes him unsure.

 

In the next part of the verse, Arjuna says, “Before us stand the sons of Dhritarashtra, who if we slay, we would lose all desire to live.” Arjuna knows what to do, but at the same time, he is expressing confusion. In the state of confusion there are always two parts in it. There is a knowing, there is a self-confidence, that, “Yes, I feel what is right to do!” The feeling of the heart is there and you know that it is right. But then the mind starts to reason. There is a fight between what you feel in your heart and what your head is saying to you: this makes the state of confusion. If your feet are more in the outside world, of course, then the mind will win. But if the feeling is stronger, then you will try to take the right decision. The state of confusion is the beginning of one’s path, the beginning of one’s search. In our confusion, we keep asking, “Am I right to be on this path or not? Am I right to do this or not?” Even the word of the Guru, at that moment, won’t mean much to the disciple, because he is still searching. He is still wandering. And the outside samskaras are still very powerful. The attachment to the outside world is still so strong that one can’t really think or see.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 5

 

gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvān 

śreyo bhoktuṁ bhaikṣyam apīha loke 

hatvārtha kāmāṁs tu gurūn ihaiva 

bhuñjīya bhogān rudhira-pradigdhān

 

It is better to live in this world even on alms than to slay these high-souled  

gurus. Slaying these gurus, I would only taste blood-stained enjoyments in  

this world.

 

Here Arjuna is referring to Kripacharya, and Dronacharya: “These people are worthy to be praised and worshipped.

How will I slay them? How will I be free from that sin? Even though these noble characters have fallen low, I can’t dishonour them. Even though I am a Kshatriya, even though I am a warrior, I would rather live on alms than commit this great sin for enjoyment and pleasure.”

 

Here, we have to see that Arjuna had very high knowledge. For one who is realised, the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ become one. However, Realisation also means that one has to let go of everything. Arjuna was wise, because he knew this. But here he is saying,

“How can I let go of all this? I can’t let go of it! It’s not right, if out of revengefulness, I massacre these elders who are worthy to be praised. How will I enjoy what I gain? I will not get salvation or good merit from this and will not even enjoy the kingdom which afterwards will be mine. I will feel guilty.”

 

As in Chapter 1, Arjuna is still continuing to try to reason with Krishna. He is still very attached to the world, though not just blindly. He is saying, “I want to fight and I don’t want to fight.” He is still in this unsettled state of mind, with, one foot in and one foot out of the war.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 4

 

arjuna uvāca 

kathaṁ bhīṣmam ahaṁ saṅkhye 

droṇaṁ ca madhusūdana 

iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi 

pūjārhāv-arisūdana

 

Arjuna says: How, O Madhusudana, shall I strike Bhishma and Drona with  

weapons in battle, they who are worthy of worship?

 

Kathaṁ means ‘I am surprised’. Arjuna says,“I am surprised! How can I kill these people? They are not demons! They are not really my enemies! On the contrary, they are the great elders who are worthy to be put on the altar and be worshipped. This is terrible! It would be a big sin if I attack them! We should have respect for our elders.” As I said in Chapter 1, the elders were well-respected at that time. When you talk to elders, you should speak to them respectfully. Using harsh or abusive words is a sin. That’s why Arjuna says, “These elders are worthy to be worshipped and we shouldn’t do anything disrespectful. We don’t even dare look in their eyes!”

 

Here again, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Madhusudana, “the slayer of enemies.” He says, “How powerful and great You are! How will I pierce them with my arrows?” He is surprised that the Lord Himself is telling him to fight them – because he knows that these people were the gurus, the teachers. Arjuna says, “We can’t attack them!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 3

 

klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha 

naitat-tvayyupapadyate 

kṣudraṁ hṛdaya daurbalyaṁ  

tyaktvottiṣṭha parantapa

 

Fall not from the virility of a fighter and a hero, O Paartha! It does not befit you.  

Shake off this paltry faint-heartedness and arise, O scourge of your enemy!

 

Lord Krishna addresses Arjuna as Paartha, which means son of Pritha (Kunti). He says, “You are the son of a brave lady. You are the son of Kunti, who is a true Kshatriya, a true warrior. Your mother is so strong! You are a hero! So don’t go into this state of cowardice; don’t let yourself be overtaken by weakness. You possess great valour and are skilled in fighting. Let go of this ‘faint-heartedness and arise!’ You strike fear into the hearts of your enemies; you strike terror into the hearts of great heroes. The moment they hear of you, they are scared! The moment they think of you, their hair stands on end! ‘Scourge of your enemy!’ The moment they hear your Gandiva, they have a powerful image of you. But if you are trembling and your Gandiva is falling from your hand, what will they think of you? This is not worthy of you, My dear.”

 

Then Krishna addresses Arjuna saying, tyaktvottiṣṭha paraṅtapa, “Attack them!”  

Here Krishna did not only mean to attack the outer enemy. He also meant to attack and remove one’s negative inner qualities. The enemy is not only outside; it is inside each of us. Look at your inner enemy. Remove it! Attack it! Don’t be afraid or weak. Remove all this stuff inside! Be in your power! Krishna addresses Arjuna as paraṅtapa. Arjuna had this name because in the past he had killed many demons. Krishna says, “All the demons you have killed, all the other big, big baddies – you have terrified them all. So get up! Stand up! Arise! This is not the place for weakness! Fight!”

Here Krishna is going very slowly with Arjuna. When one goes on the spiritual path, one always looks at what one will lose, and thinks, “Okay. I’m losing this and I’m losing that.” But if you want to go deeper to attain God Consciousness, to attain the Grace of God, there should not be weakness in your spiritual sadhana. You have to go forward with strength, with full trust; and with that trust, you know that God is with you. Here, God Himself is reminding Arjuna, “I am with you, all the time. And not only now. I was always with you – even when you were killing all the big, big demons, all the evil people. I was there with you. I am ever with you. You are My creation. You are in Me, and I am in you. We are not separate. We are never far away from each other.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga 

Chapter 2, Verse 2

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ 

viṣame samupasthitam 

anāryājuṣṭam asvargyam 

akīrtikaram arjuna

 

The Lord says: When did this dejection come to you, this stain and darkness  

of the soul, in the hour of difficulty and peril, O Arjuna? This is not the way  

cherished by the noble man: this mood came not from Heaven, nor can it  

lead to Heaven, and on Earth it is the forfeiting of glory.

Here Lord Krishna Himself starts speaking. He says that Arjuna’s heaviness of heart and low spirits are due to over sentimentality. He says, “You have made yourself weak. It is your willingness to become weak!”

 

Krishna continues, “I am taken aback! I am shocked to see that here, in the middle of the battlefield, you are in such a state! This state is very dangerous and difficult! We are in the middle of the battlefield and now you feel like this? If you would have felt like this before coming on the battlefield, I would understand. But now we are here. This is not a noble feeling. It is not the feeling of a noble man. There is no place for sadness, cowardice or pain on the battlefield. Elsewhere, yes! There is a place for everything. But this is completely out of place here! How can you fight all these great heroes if you are so faint-hearted? With a heart like this, it is very difficult to fight. Where did you get this faint-heartedness? Where did it come from?” Krishna has never known Arjuna to be like this – very sentimental and soft-hearted. Calling this dejection and faint-heartedness of Arjuna unworthy of a noble soul, He says, “If you are like this, how can you even talk about gaining Heaven?” If you are weak, you can’t expect God-Realisation! If you are weak, you can’t expect God to act through you! He will not reveal your dharma to you! God knows that there is no use in throwing pearls to pigs. They will not know what to do with them. They will trample over them; they will not value them. Arjuna’s faint heartedness is not worthy of a warrior on the battlefield.

 

If you are weak on your path in life, you can’t do anything. If you are weak on your path towards God-Realisation, how can you attain God? Krishna says, “I am really amazed. O Arjuna, this is not the way cherished by the noble man: this mood came not from Heaven, nor can it lead to Heaven. This weak kind of mood, this weakness will not lead you anywhere. You are noble.” “Noble” here doesn’t mean that one is of the noble or royal class. By saying to Arjuna, “You are noble,” Krishna means, “You are strong, you are powerful! You are dharma! You have the knowledge of the Self. This is not the place for weakness. This kind of thing will not inspire others. All know you as a great warrior.”

 

Do you remember before the war, when King Virata’s son was going to fight the Kauravas? Arjuna was still disguised as the woman, Brihannala. Though he was dressed as a woman, everyone was always talking about how strong he was. When Arjuna told the son of King Virata, “Go and get my bow, my Gandiva,” he asked, “How will I know what your bow looks like?” Arjuna said, “There is a tree in front of me. Go! You will find my bow there. It is as tall as a palm tree.” That’s how tall the bow of Arjuna was! So you can imagine how tall the Pandavas were! How strong and powerful they were! 

Lord Krishna continues, “This weak kind of mood will not lead you to Moksha. There are four types of noble qualities in life: Moksha (salvation); dharma (virtue);artha (wealth); and kama (enjoyment). This is not how to achieve them! To attain these noble qualities, you have to be strong in life! How can you talk about attaining salvation when you are in this pitiful state? Especially at this odd hour, when you are on the battlefield, My dear!” In Chapter 1, I said – what if you go to the doctor and the doctor just starts crying with you – how can the doctor help you?

Here Krishna becomes the Guru and says, “Look at this world! These excuses are nothing. Your dharma is to fight!” This could appear very terrible! Some people would say, “But Krishna is God, He could change everything!” Of course He could change everything! He can change everything by His will. But, no. He planned to give this knowledge to the world, to remind the world of this knowledge.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 1 

 

sañjaya uvāca 

taṁ tathā kṛpayāviṣṭaṁ 

aśā-pūrṇā-kulekṣaṇam 

viṣīdantam idaṁ vākyam  

uvāca madhusūdanaḥ

 

Sanjaya says: To him thus invaded by pity, his eyes full and distressed with  

tears, his heart overcome by depression and discouragement, Krishna speaks these words.

 

In this state, Arjuna is completely distressed and overtaken by faint-heartedness.  

Looking at his friends and relatives, he starts to cry. He is not just talking, he is crying terribly. He is overtaken by grief and fear that the family will be destroyed. That will bring great sin and negative karma to him, to his family, and to their descendants. It will be complete destruction. In this verse, it is very important to understand why Sanjaya doesn’t call the Lord, ‘Krishna’. Instead he refers to Lord Krishna as madhusūdanaḥ, which means the slayer of Madhu. Madhu was a very fierce demon who was killed by  

Krishna.

 

Sanjaya is reminding Dhritarashtra, the evil-minded, blind king, that Lord Madhusudana Himself, Sri Krishna Himself who had slain the demon Madhu, is there as Arjuna’s charioteer. He is warning Dhritarashtra saying, “He killed this terrible demon – so what about your sons who are on the battlefield? They’re nothing compared to the demon Madhu! This great demon had been terrorising not only the people, not only the world, he had even been terrorising the devas in Indra Loka! How powerful Krishna is! And look at your sons, what are they? Sorry, they are a bunch of idiots. Even when Krishna went to see them as a messenger of peace, they chose to be blind. They have such stupidity, they don’t see. They don’t see that the great Madhusudana is here as Arjuna’s charioteer.”

 

Everybody, including the Kauravas, knew what Krishna had done in His youth in Vrindavan. They knew about all the demons He had killed. But they still chose to be ignorant. Sanjaya continues, “The slayer of that great demon is here. Surely the Pandavas will be victorious! The Pandavas will win! Don’t count on your sons to win!”  

It is this Lord – the One who killed the demon Madhu – it is Him, who will now talk to Arjuna, who is depressed and unwilling to fight. Sanjaya warns, “Dhritarashtra, be ready, because all these tyrants, all these persecutors, will be removed. If the Lord Himself has chosen to be present here, how could your sons be victorious? They can’t  

be!” Sanjaya is reminding him that even if Arjuna is overtaken by distress and faint- heartedness, Krishna is there to change everything.

 

Sanjaya was revealing this to Dhritarashtra after the tenth day of the war. He said, “If you want peace, tell your children to stop. There is still time! Your hundred sons have not yet been slain. As long as Bhishma Pita was still fighting, nothing could happen to any of them, because he was a big shield for them. But now, what will happen? Now it’s imminent that your hundred sons will die.”

 

You see, when people start on the spiritual path, when they feel this inner strength, even if they look outside and feel pity for others, the negativity of the outside will not affect them. They will be strengthened; they will have a shield around them and feel protected.

Bhagavad Gita, 

Chapter 1, Verse 47 

sañjaya uvāca

 

evam uktvā’rjunaḥ saṅkhye 

rathopastha upāviśat 

visṛjya saśaraṁ cāpaṁ 

śoka saṁvigna mānasaḥ

 

Sanjaya says: Having thus spoken on the battlefield, Arjuna sinks down on  

the seat of the chariot, casting down the divine bow, his spirit overwhelmed  

with sorrow.

 

Sanjaya sees Arjuna fall down into the seat of his chariot, overwhelmed with  

sorrow, in a state of complete dejection. Arjuna puts down his bow and loses himself, miserably concentrating on all this negativity, and feeling pity for himself. When one  

has self-pity, one looks for many excuses to not do one’s duty. This is true for Arjuna.  

He has created all this fantasy inside his mind: the horrible picture of the destruction of the family, the horrible scene of the ancestors. The film, the drama, which is turning inside his brain, makes him feel terrible, completely depressed. Here ends the first chapter of the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita: the chapter on Arjuna’s Dejection.

Here you have seen that Arjuna expresses all the qualities that one has in oneself. Arjuna doesn’t represent only himself, he represents everyone. Every day, every person goes through these states. Arjuna here is not just Arjuna; he is each one of you. He shows each state that you go through in life. In Chapter 2, we will see what Bhagavan Krishna has to say to Arjuna. Because in such a state, one forgets that God is there in front of you. In that state, one sees oneself as alone, and even forgets about God. Though God is there in front of you, the mind is so clouded, the mind is so blind, that one can’t think and one can’t see.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 46

 

yadi mām apratīkāram 

aśastraṁ śastra-pāṇayaḥ 

dhārtarāṣṭrā ran‌e hanyus 

tan-me kṣemataraṁ bhavet

 

It would be better for me that the sons of Dhritarashtra, armed as they are,  

should slay me as I am, unarmed and unresisting.

 

Even before the war has started, Arjuna says, “I will give up my arms. I will not  

fight. I will offer myself as a sacrifice to the opposition. I offer myself unarmed to them, unresisting. If they kill me, such a death will be a blessing for me. And we will not get the sin of slaying the family or killing the sons of Dhritarashtra. If they kill me first, there will be no war; the war will end now. This will save the lives of our friends  

and family.”

This is the supreme state of sacrifice, sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. That is what Christ also teaches , “A true friend will give his life for the sake of a friend.” Arjuna feels this out of compassion, not out of weakness. For it is due to compassion that we all have a relationship with each other. Due to this compassion, Arjuna says, “I will offer myself. And if I offer myself, if I sacrifice myself, it will also create good punya and I will attain heaven.” He knows that the Lord of lords is sitting in front of him, that he is talking to the Lord of lords. But the mind of one in that state doesn’t perceive clearly. That’s why Krishna remains quiet and thinks, “It’s of no use talking to him now.”

 

Still Arjuna continues, “At least my mind will be at peace.” If he gives himself to them, it will appease the army of the Kauravas. If he goes there without resistance, it will bring good punya, good blessing to the family. It will be a great act of heroism. 

 Later on Krishna puts him down saying, “What heroism are you talking about? This is cowardice!” 

 

Sanjaya has been narrating all this. He looks at Arjuna who is in complete depression and has terrible chaos inside himself. Sanjaya is very eager to hear what the Lord, Bhagavan Krishna, will say to Arjuna.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 45

 

aho bata mahat pāpaṁ 

kartuṁ vyavasitā vayam 

yad rājya sukha lobhena 

hantuṁ sva-janam udyatāḥ

 

Alas! We were engaged in committing a great sin, we who were endeavouring  

to kill our own people through greed for the pleasures of kingship.

 

Arjuna says, “Alas!” Out of wonder and great sorrow, he expresses himself as if this sin has already happened: “We were engaged in committing a great sin.” This shows that Arjuna and the Pandavas have great knowledge and virtue and that they are very careful about doing anything which will bring bad karma to them. They are aware of the effect of karma. He says, “We will have to repay the karma. We will also have to suffer for that karma. And not only in one life, but for many lifetimes we’ll have to come again and again to repay this great sin which we will be committing. This karma will be very dreadful. We will not be free!” 

 

“Greed for the pleasures of kingship”, here Arjuna is saying that one becomes blind and commits dreadful sin because of greed for the kingdom, for the throne. He says, “We will be enjoying the throne; and this enjoyment will be like lust, which will destroy us. It will bring us really terrible karma later on.” Because Arjuna is aware of the effect of the karma, he says, “It is better that we don’t fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 44

 

utsanna-kula-dharmāṇāṁ 

manuṣyāṇāṁ janārdana 

narake’niyataṁ vāso 

bhavatīty-anuśuśruma

 And men whose family morals are corrupted, live forever in Hell.  

Thus have we heard.

 

Here Arjuna says that those who have lost their family tradition and live in vice, fall into Hell. These poor souls will suffer the torture of Hell for an indefinite length of time. So, be careful! If you do bad, your ancestors will also roast in Hell for a long period of time! This Hell is similar to Hell described in Christianity. But the difference is that in Christianity, you’ll stay in Hell forever. Whereas here, you are sent to Hell – for a holiday. 

 

You have to understand that in the pitris tradition, we do Shraddha ceremony to the ancestors. The gratitude that we show to our ancestors is very important. By doing  

good in this world, our ancestors also profit; in return everybody profits, because the ancestors give us their blessing.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 43

 

doṣair etaiḥ kula-ghnānāṁ 

varṇa-saṅkara-kārakaiḥ 

utsādyante jāti-dharmāḥ 

kula-dharmāśca śāśvatāḥ

 

By these misdeeds of the destroyers of the family, leading to the confusion  

of the castes, the eternal laws of the clan and moral law of the family will  

be destroyed.

In that moment, Arjuna is just seeing his own fear. Out of fear, out of sadness, out of guilt, he doesn’t want to take this responsibility upon himself. He has already created a certain drama inside of himself: that the Varna Dharma, which is taught in the Vedas will not be respected; the eternal law of the clan and the moral law of the family will not be respected; the duties of the castes and the elders will not be respected. The elders of the family were the ones who were strict about maintaining family customs and they were respected. 

Arjuna says, “Bhishma is here in front of us. He is Dharmaraj. He is the one who has kept the clan strong. If he is dead, who will keep this clan relationship tight and strong? Who will keep this tradition?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 42

 

saṅkaro narakāyaiva 

kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya ca 

patanti pitaro hyeṣāṁ 

lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ

 

This confusion leads the family and the destroyers of the family to Hell; for  

their ancestors fall, deprived of pinda (rice offering) and libations. 

As I said earlier, the pitris were very important in the tradition at that time. Arjuna asks, “To whom shall we offer pinda? A pinda is a rice ball. In the Christian orthodox tradition, in the ritual for the departed ones, you always offer wheat, koliva, to the departed souls. In the Hindu tradition, it is similar, but the offering is made of rice. This is offered to the departed people along with water, tilatarpana. Before the Navaratri celebrations, we do the Shraddha ceremony to the ancestors. Arjuna asks, “But if there is a mixture of cultures, to whom shall we offer the Shraddha? Each culture comes from a certain family lineage. If this lineage is broken, to whom shall we offer?  

If all the families are mixed, the race will be of completely mixed blood. There will be no dharma at all. There will be disrespect for the scriptures. The ancestors on the other side will be very sad and that will create much unhappiness in this world.”

In his confusion, Arjuna tries to find all kinds of excuses not to fight. He sees that Krishna is just looking at him, not bothered about these things. Arjuna is using all kinds of words to please Krishna, to make Krishna agree with him. Like I explained earlier, when one is in a depressed state, he will look to everybody else to acknowledge  

his depression. Arjuna is depressed and trying to make Krishna say, “Poor you! We will not fight.” He is trying to make Krishna acknowledge that whatever he is saying is right. He is in a state of deep confusion and the Great Doctor is sitting there with him! Do you think that the Great Doctor would just sit there, start crying with him and  

say, “Oh, my God! Oh, Arjuna, you are right, let’s go back!” No, no, no, no, no! Not a chance, not a chance! 

Arjuna continues on and starts talking about the women. He says to himself,  

“Let me use this approach now. Maybe this will have an effect on Him.” He knows that Krishna loves to protect women and children, “He is the protector of women, so let me use this excuse.” So he says, “When the family is destroyed, the women will be corrupted!” Krishna just looks at him and says, “Okay, yes. Okay, fine. Move on.” Arjuna continues, “The children will be corrupted! They will not know which bloodline they come from!” Krishna says, “Poor Arjuna, you are a super-confused man!” Arjuna sees that this is not working.  

“So let’s try another approach.” Arjuna incontinues trying to make Krishna feel  

guilty, so He will say, “Okay, fine, let’s go!” Arjuna has used the excuse of the women, he has used the excuse of the children, and finally he uses the excuse of the ancestors.  

Krishna says, “Oh, My goodness! These people have already died. Move on, finish with that!” But Arjuna persists, “The ancestors will be deprived of pinda and liberation.” At that moment, Krishna is probably thinking, “You don’t know anything: these people  

are already dead! They have moved on with their lives. So, move on!” Arjuna thinks, “Maybe there is still another card I can play. Let’s try it!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 41

 

adharmābhi-bhavāt kṛṣṇa 

praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ 

strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya 

jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ

 

Owing to the predominance of lawlessness, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt; women corrupted lead to the confusion of the  

varnas (castes).

 

With the disappearance of family tradition, men and women will lose restraint in  

their activities, and be tempted by vices.  

There are different kinds of families. ‘Family’ means not only the individual family,  

it also means the spiritual family. ‘Family’ means a gathering, where you spend most  

of your time.

 

Arjuna says, “Through unrestrained activities, vices will arise and this will result  

in sin. Sin will spread throughout all of society. The moral values will be thrown out:  

the respect between men and women; the respect of children for their parents; the  

respect between all people.” People who have no moral values will make fun of  

others. That’s why, when you are on the spiritual path, people make fun of you saying, “Ah, look at this person. He is stupid because he has become spiritual.” They call you  

all kinds of names. They can’t respect others. The world is nowadays like this – not  

always, but most of the time it is like this. When you are on the spiritual path, it doesn’t  

matter which religion you are, other people make fun of you because those people  

have turned towards materialism. People’s minds have turned towards the outside  

and they don’t bother about respect. They don’t care.

Arjuna is still trying to find excuses to stop the war. He says, “Krishna, if there is war, women will be corrupted. They will not be faithful. The social conduct which holds the family together will not be there anymore. Women used to carry the responsibility of holding the family together. If the women themselves are corrupted, then the whole family, everything is finished.” This is greatness: here Arjuna is praising the important role of women. How important it used to be at that time! The mothers and sisters were the ones who maintained this tradition. Arjuna says, “If these women get corrupted and start mixing, adultery will take over.” Here he is also talking about the purity of the different castes: when all the castes start to mix, there is a mixing of blood. The purity of the race is changed.

 

At that time, the tradition of the pitris was very important: the tradition of the  

‘ancestral fathers’ was strictly kept. Even Krishna Himself strictly respected this  

tradition. How they worshipped the ancestors was very, very important. Arjuna asks,  

“Whom will we worship? Each person’s ancestors will be different. If this gets changed, what will be our path?” Krishna says, “You should not bother about all these things. This is not about that: it is about dharma!” Arjuna’s mind is completely confused. He is still trying to find many excuses not to fight.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 40

 

ula-kṣaye praṇaśyanti 

kula-dharmāḥ sanātanāḥ 

dharme naṣṭe kulaṁ kṛtsnam 

adharmo’bhibhavaty-uta

 

In the annihilation of the family, the eternal traditions of the family are  

destroyed; in the collapse of traditions, lawlessness overcomes the  

whole family.

 

There was a custom handed down from generation to generation which helped  

to maintain a high standard of conduct in the family and prevented men and women  

from going astray. Here is this verse, Arjuna says that it’s important to hold tight to that  

custom, otherwise “lawlessness overcomes the whole family.”

 

You see, in ancient times, the elders of the family were treated with great respect.  

Whenever people had any questions, they would always go to the elders of the family.  

Since there was great respect, whatever the elders said was always accepted. Arjuna  

continues, “This tradition will end and there will be corruption in the family. There will  

be no virtue. The incentives which compel man to stay on the path of virtue and avoid  

sin will be gone. These virtues are: fear of God; command of the scriptures; fear of  

violation of the family traditions and state laws; fear of physical injury. When these  

traditions end, even the respect for God is not there! And if we don’t show respect  

to others, how will we expect others to respect us? If we can’t respect the law of the  

country, then the whole country will be in chaos. If out of fear of injury, one starts  

killing, where is the good in this? Everything starts with the family.”

 

Arjuna is focusing on how important it is for everyone in the family to do their  

duty. “If one person is doing adharma, it also affects all the people around you. And  

when the people around are affected, it affects all the surroundings.”

 

Once there was a man giving a discourse. He was talking and he had a great  

regret inside of him. They asked him, “Why do you have this regret?” He said, “I  

regret one thing in my life: I have not changed myself. When I was young, I was very enthusiastic and in this enthusiasm, I wanted to change the world. So I tried to change my town. I tried, tried, and tried, but after some time, I could not. For years, I tried to change my friends, but I could not. Then I tried to change my family. I tried for many  

years, but I could not. Finally, I was left completely alone.

 

“In my loneliness, I realised that I couldn’t change anybody but myself. Now that I  

have seen this, I am looking at the world and see that time is running out. I don’t have  

much time left. If I would have first changed myself, this would have automatically  

made an impact on my family, it would have made an impact on my friends, on the surroundings and on the town. I wanted so much to change everybody else, but not  

myself.”  

You can’t change others. Once you change yourself, everybody else will change.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verses 38-39

 

yady-apyete na paśyanti 

lobhopahata cetasaḥ 

kula-kṣaya-kṛtam‌ doṣaṁ 

mitra-drohe ca pātakam

 

kathaṁ na jñeyam asmābhiḥ 

pāpād asmān nivartitum 

kula-kṣaya-kṛtaṁ doṣaṁ 

prapaśyadbhir janārdana

 

Although these, with a consciousness clouded with greed, see no guilt in  

the destruction of the family, no crime in hostility to friends, why should we  

not have the wisdom to recoil from such a sin, O Janardana, we who see the evil in the destruction of the family?

 

Here again, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Janardana, the killer of evil people. Arjuna says, “We who see the evil in the destruction of the family.” Arjuna sees that such evil action by Duryodhan and his friends is most reprehensible, but that it is not unnatural for them, because their greed has fully destroyed their power of discrimination. They  

can’t discriminate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’. They don’t have any feeling: they don’t have any family-oriented feeling; they don’t know how to do good for others. 

Duryodhan was always and only concerned about himself and nobody else. He used the people around him for personal gain. Even Duryodhan’s counsellors couldn’t see the great evil which this war would create for themselves, for their own families, for the race. If one is just concerned about personal gain for oneself in a very  

egoistic, greedy and arrogant way, one can’t even think of his mother, of his father or anyone – only of himself. Even if this war would bring complete destruction to the race and great sin to themselves, they didn’t care.

 

Arjuna and his brothers are not blinded by greed. There is no presence of greed in Arjuna. He is not doing this for personal gain. If he will fight, he will fight to serve the Kauravas! He says, “I want to serve these people: there is Bhishma, the grandsire, Dronacharya is my teacher, Kripacharya is my teacher. We should worship them.”  

Arjuna is saying that everything we do is for the sake of serving others. A mother serves her child. Even if the mother sees it as a duty, it is serving. Also when you work, you are serving someone. There is service from the beginning to the end, because life itself is service. Then you learn that you have to serve a greater cause. You have to  

serve to attain the Grace of God, to attain the Grace of Krishna, to attain the Grace of Narayana. Otherwise service is fruitless. Arjuna continues, “They are blind, they can’t see. But we can clearly see the evil and the disaster which this war will bring to the family and the race. That’s why I don’t want to fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 37

 

tasmān nārhā vayaṁ hantuṁ 

dhārtarāṣṭrān svabandhavān 

svajanaṁ hi kathaṁ hatvā 

sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava

 

Sin will take hold of us in slaying them, though they are the aggressors. So it  

is not fit that we kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our kinsmen; indeed how may we be happy, O Madhava, killing our own people?

 

Arjuna is looking into his own sad, mental state, and seeing the physical condition to which he has been reduced. He tells Krishna, “We should not go forward with this war. It would not be fitting to kill these people.” Again and again, he is trying to make himself believe that he can go sideways. But there is no point in going sideways.  

Krishna says, “Look forward, don’t go sideways! If there is a big fire, go through the fire! I am with you, go!” Will Arjuna listen? Will he go sideways or will he go through the fire? With trust in the Lord, you go through the fire.

 

Arjuna says, “We, Pandavas, will all be sad. How can we be happy?” He doesn’t say, “I”; he is speaking for all the Pandavas. He says, “If we kill them, we will not be happy in this life, or in the next life, because we will take on the karma of killing them.  

Above all, it is not about the karma, is about the guilt which will arise.” When guilt arises, it stays forever. Every little moment, every little thing that happens will remind one of that guilt. Arjuna says, “It will be terrible because of the guilt.”

 

Krishna is just listening and waiting for Arjuna to finish with his cry. It is like this in life. If you try to reason with a person who is in this state, it’s of no use. The Lord is just watching and saying, “Okay, carry on. Do you have more? Send it! I am listening. I am patient.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verses 33-36

 

yeṣām arthe kāṅkṣitaṁ no 

rājyaṁ bhogāḥ sukhāni ca 

ta ime’ vasthitā yuddhe 

prāṇāṁs tyaktvā dhanāni ca

 

ācāryāḥ pitaraḥ putrāṁs 

tathaiva ca pitāmahāḥ 

mātulāḥ śvaśurāḥ pautrāḥ 

śyālāḥ sambandhinas tathā

 

etān na hantum icchāmi 

ghnato’pi madhusūdana 

api trailokya rājyasya 

hetoḥ kiṁ nu mahīkṛte

 

nihatya dhārtarāṣṭrān naḥ 

kiṁ prītiḥ syāj-janārdana 

pāpam evāśrayed asmān 

hatvaitān ātatāyinaḥ

What is a kingdom to us, O Govinda, what enjoyment, what is even life? Those

for whose sake we desire a kingdom, enjoyments and pleasures, they stand

here in battle, abandoning life and riches – teachers, fathers, sons, as well as

grandsires, brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and others of

kin; these I would not consent to slay, though myself slain, O Madhusudana,

even for the kingdom of the three worlds, how then for Earth? What pleasures

can be ours after killing the sons of Dhritarashtra, O Janardana?

In this verse, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Govinda, the One who is the knower

of the Vedas. Arjuna knows that pleasures and riches are not permanent. Deep in the

core of the mind, deep in the feeling of the heart, everyone knows that one should

not be attached to these things. But one gets trapped into pleasures and enjoyment.

One has the deep feeling that one should not do this, but one always follows what the

mind is saying. Because the mind is always focused on gaining, on having more and

more and more things that one can’t even use. We never listen to the feeling in the

heart. The heart knows that nothing is permanent. That’s why Arjuna says, “For what

use will all this be? Today we are enjoying it, but tomorrow we will not be here. Now

we are fighting a big war, but tomorrow we will have to let go of everything.”

For example, you are working in the outside world, no? People in the outside

world work all day. It’s slavery. Day and night they work, seven days a week they go

and work. You ask them, why are you working? They say, “We are doing it for the sake of our children,” or “We are doing it for the sake of something else.” You may ask,

“What do you gain by doing that?” It is good to work, it is very important to work, yes!

But if you become a slave to work, it has lost its meaning, life itself has lost its meaning.

You are running after gain, and gain, and gain. What will we still have tomorrow? You

don’t know when life will end.

Two years ago, a girl I knew in Mauritius was crying, crying, and crying. I asked,

“Why are you crying?” She said, “My dad is terribly sick and I think he will die. The

saddest thing is that just last week he stopped working, and planned to enjoy and go on nice holidays. But he is very ill and in the hospital.” You can’t predict! You can’t say,

“Yes, now I am doing this, and later on, I will do that.” The time is now – this is the only

reality! You work and get a lot of money, then when you want to enjoy that money,

life leaves you. Who will enjoy that money? Your children? They will have to earn their

own living one day, because everybody has to make their own path in life. Hold on to

the Feet of the Lord, attain Him, do your dharma! In the mind, always focus on Him!

Serve Him! Do whatever you do with His blessing and His Love!

“Those for whose sake we desire a kingdom”: here Arjuna says, “I want this

kingdom not for myself, but for them! Those for whose sake we desire a kingdom,

enjoyments and pleasures, they stand here in battle, abandoning life and riches. I

want all these things for them, but now it is finished! How will they enjoy it? How will

we enjoy it?” To enjoy, we also need other people to enjoy it. If the people are not

there, how will we enjoy? This shows the impermanence of this world, where one

is always running after things, sorting out this and that – but at the end, everything

is taken away. When death comes, all is gone. The only real enjoyment is to enjoy

every second in remembering the Divine – so that on the other side, you can carry on

enjoying His blessing.

Arjuna says, “These I would not consent to slay, though myself slain. I would rather kill myself than kill these people.” He would rather oppose himself than his relatives who were fighting on the opposition’s side. “What will this do? I want to fight and get my kingdom, yet I am doing this for their sake, not for my sake. If I kill them, for whose sake will I do it? For myself? I don’t need it!”

“These people, who are my teachers, fathers, sons, as well as grandsires,

brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and others of kin; these I would not consent to slay, though myself slain, O Madhusudana, even for the kingdom of the three worlds.” Arjuna continues, “Even if I get all the riches of the three worlds, why would I kill these people? It will bring no good in this world or the next.”

The three worlds: when one surrenders to the spiritual field, one receives great

boons on the physical, the mental, and the spiritual levels. Arjuna says, “The blessings are not permanent in the three worlds. I am not desiring the riches of the three worlds.”

It is very important to know that in his confused state, Arjuna is also rising at the same time. Even if all this sadness and all these negative thoughts are arising inside of him, in reality, they are purifying what is deep inside of his heart and bringing it out. Even on the spiritual path, people always want to gain certain things. Even in this, if what you do is not in the service of God, what you gain becomes useless. Everything that you gain on the physical, mental and spiritual levels has to be for the service of God.

Then it has its use. But if it is for personal gain, for personal benefit, it loses its value.

That’s why here, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Madhusudana, the slayer of the demon Madhu, the slayer of ignorance – to remind one that one can be in ignorance even

on the spiritual path by getting attached to benefits, punya. One gets attached to the blessing, to the spiritual gain, to the siddhis or whatever. The only aim is to attain

God’s Love and God’s Grace. That’s the only aim of the soul: to attain Him.

Arjuna says, “What pleasures can be ours after killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?”

Ever since they were young, the Kauravas had been trying to kill the Pandavas. But here, Arjuna forgets about all this. That’s what compassion does: out of compassion, you feel for others. If you don’t have compassion, you are proud. If Krishna had not made this compassion arise in the heart of Arjuna, had not put him in such state, Arjuna would be very aggressive and proud of himself. Krishna is making Arjuna say

all this. Arjuna addresses Krishna saying, “O Janardana, what pleasure would there be in killing these aggressors, these sons of Dhritarashtra?” But it is not about killing them, it is about transforming them.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 32

na kānkṣe vijayam kṛṣṇa 

na ca rājyaṁ sukhāni ca 

kim no rājyena govinda 

kim bhogair jīvitena vā

Nor do I see any good in slaying my own people in battle; O Krishna, I desire not victory, nor kingdoms, nor pleasures.

In his mind, in his mental agony, he was already torturing himself. He was already seeing the slaughter of all his family, friends and relatives. This picture, that they were already dead, had been imprinted into his mind. The image in the brain is the focus of the future. In his mind, this goal had already been fixed and that was where life would carry him.

Later on, in Chapter 11, Krishna will show his Vishwa Swarupa, His true Cosmic Form, to Arjuna: in that Vishwa Swarupa, He will show that all the Kauravas are already dead. At that moment, Krishna will ask Arjuna, “Who killed them? Did you kill them? Or did I, the Lord that sustains everything, the Lord that sustains life and death? You tell Me!” At that moment, Arjuna will realise and clearly see – not with the physical eyes, not with the mind, but with the eyes of the soul – that it was all in the plan of God, everything.

But here, Arjuna’s mind was very busy, hanging onto so many torments. “Why should I fight? What should I do? What will happen to them if they die? Why should I kill them for earthly pleasure, material gain, for the kingdom? What will I gain by killing my dear ones? There is nothing good in killing.” Here, however, the killing was not just to kill, it was to transform. You can’t kill the negative qualities when they arise inside of men – because by killing, you utilise another negative quality, and two negative qualities can’t kill each another. You must transform negative qualities. By transforming a negative quality which arises, it is weakened. And when it is weakened, it can’t feed on anything. Then you can say that you have mastered it.

The word ‘pleasure’ is used in this verse. Victory is not only a victory; there is pleasure in victory. There is material gain in it. But when one is happy, one gains everything anyway. Arjuna said, “Why should I want all this? I will not be happy.” Inside his mind, he had already programmed himself that he would not be happy killing his relatives. “Life will be terrible. Life will be of no use if I kill them.”

It’s like when you go on the spiritual path, your friends change. Your old friends start accusing you-friends who you used to sit, eat, have fun, and party with. But when you change your life, your old friends are not happy. They start rebelling, and start to give you ‘good’ advice to not become spiritual, to not stay firm on your path. How many of you, when you started on your path, have experienced that people discouraged you? Your own family will discourage you. Your friends will ridicule you, will call you all kinds of names. How many of you? All of you! This is what was also happening inside Arjuna. The mind of Arjuna was rebelling against himself saying, “Look what you will lose!”

Also, when you go on your spiritual path, you reflect on it. You think, “Oh, I have to change my life. Now that I am following this Swami, I have to become vegetarian, because He is asking me to become vegetarian. Oh, my poor meat!” You always look at what you will lose; you don’t see what you will gain by transforming yourself. People are always like this. They don’t see the benefits. They always see first what they are losing. Note one thing: on the spiritual path, you never lose, you always gain. In reality, the thing which you transform, which you let go of, gives you strength in letting it go. Without doing that, you’ll not move forward in life. It doesn’t matter how your life is. Spirituality means being strong in your daily routine, wherever you are, whenever you do your dharma. That’s what the dharmakshetra stands for – when you start doing your dharma in life, you enjoy what you are doing, you enjoy what God is giving you. Then you become strong. You don’t go into the weaknesses and just sit and cry. No, you go into your power.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 31

nimittāni ca paśyāmi 

viparītāni kesava 

na ca śreyo’nupaśyāmi 

hatvā svajanam āhave

I am not able to stand and my mind seems to be whirling; also I see evil omens, O Keshava.

The word nimittāni means omens. It was like an eclipse shaking the earth. Arjuna said, “I see omens which are not good, but evil. I don’t comprehend it. My mind is turning and I can’t stand.” He was looking at all the inauspiciousness, saying that all that would happen would not be good. In his mind, he already saw that this war would bring unhappiness. He would not feel happy killing his brothers. “If I kill them, there will be lots of violence. And if I kill them with violence, this will be a big pressure on me and I will repent. I will live with a guilty feeling my whole life because I have killed my brothers, uncles and grandfathers. How could I live my life like this? The guilt will always play in my mind.” Arjuna was already thinking before the war how he would feel afterwards. He was not concentrating on what he should do in the present. He was focusing on what might be afterwards. In his mind and in his heart, he knew that the Pandavas would win. He knew that they would be victorious and that all the Kauravas would be annihilated.

But he was already taking the side of the guilty feeling in his heart. He was letting guilt awaken – especially in his mind. He said, “My mind is whirling. dizzy and turning.”

He lamented, “In their absence, life will be miserable, life will not have any purpose. Bhishma gives us joy. He is our great leader. We all look up to him. Once he is dead, to whom shall I look?” This is how life is. People always look at others as examples, not knowing that they have to look at themselves. They have to become an example themselves. We take the example from others so that we can change. We take the example from leaders, so that we can become leaders. We take the example from Masters, so that we can become Masters. You study under teachers at school; maybe one day you will also become a teacher. Of course, you have to perfect yourself in that, then you become a leader or a teacher. You don’t go into your weakness.

Thinking that life without his relatives would be terrible, Arjuna said, “How

could I kill? By slaying them, who will profit? Nobody will profit from it.” Inside his mind, he was already creating a story. The mind is always running ahead, creating a certain reality. And this certain reality was awakening negative feelings inside of him. At that moment, he forgot that he was there as a warrior. He forgot what the Kauravas had done to his wife. He forgot what they had done to them throughout their entire lives. That’s why he said, “I don’t feel that we should fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verses 28-30

arjuna uvāca

drstvemam svajanam kṛṣṇa 

yuyutsam samupasthitam

sīdanti mama gātrāṇi 

mukham ca pariśuṣyati 

vepathuśca śarīre me 

roma harṣaśca jāyate

gāṇḍīvam sramsate hastāt 

tvak caiva pari-dahyate 

na ca śaknomy-avasthātum 

bhramatīva ca me manaḥ

Arjuna said: Seeing my own people, O Krishna, arrayed for battle, my limbs collapse and my mouth is parched, my body shakes and my hair stands on end; Gandiva (Arjuna’s bow) slips from my hand, and all my skin seems to be burning.

In this verse, Arjuna wanted to show that the indiscriminate slaughter of all the fighters in the great Mahabharat war would be extremely terrible for both sides. He knew that the warriors present before his eyes, his relatives and dear friends would all be dead. He knew that these people in front of him were there to be killed. You all know that if there are certain negative qualities inside of you, you have to change and transform them. So he knew that these people would be dead.

“My limbs collapse and my mouth is parched, my body shakes and my hair stands on end; Gandiva (Arjuna’s bow) slips from my hand, and all my skin seems to be burning.” This verse also shows how compassionate Arjuna was, how much compassion he had in his heart. This shows that Arjuna was not only weak. No! What he was expressing here was full compassion. It’s so beautiful to see that he cared for these people. He was very compassionate and expressed what he was feeling. And he was also saying. “Yes, I already know what will happen later on.”

Arjuna said, “My limbs collapse and my mouth is parched. I don’t have any power anymore to fight these people. I don’t have any strength to fight them. By looking at them, I get weak, I go into my weakness of the heart. How will I kill them?” Lord Krishna showed all this to Arjuna and gave him a choice. Later on, you’ll see that Lord Krishna will give Arjuna the Gita and show him how to rise above this. But first he showed Arjuna his weakness, because if you don’t know your weakness, you’ll not be able to overcome it! You’ll overcome it only by acknowledging that you do have a weakness! Everybody has a weakness! If you look deeper into that weakness and strengthen yourself, you’ll not be weak anymore. You will be strong and mighty. People look at their weakness and sit and cry. A warrior should not do that! In this war between the mind and the consciousness, you have to be strong. Strong in your sadhana! Strong in loving God, so that you can spread the Love of God! If you are weak, you can’t spread the Love of God. When Arjuna said to Krishna, “Lord, please help me, I am weak,” he was acknowledging his weakness; he saw that, “I don’t have any power by myself and I am asking You for help. If I am asking You, it means You have the power to change this in me! You have the power to transform it in me! You have the power to give me that power! That’s why I am asking You for help.”

“My body shakes and my hair stands on end.” These were signs of weakness. “My limbs are trembling.” Arjuna was reduced to a very terrible state: he could not even stand by himself; his weapon was falling from his hand. He said that through the dreadful effect of the war, his mind was like a boiling cauldron. This mental agony had made his mind restless and he could not concentrate on anything. The effect of the mental agony had made him weak. This shows how powerful the mind can be.

If the mind withdraws itself into its good qualities, withdraws itself into strength, into positiveness, it energises oneself. But if it is focused on the negative qualities, it drains one of energy and makes one weak. That’s why later on in the teaching, Krishna will say, “A controlled mind is your best friend, and an uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy.” In this state, Arjuna could not control himself. But this was Krishna doing it all! Krishna was preparing Arjuna so that He could later give him the Gita.

There were three Krishnas in the life of Krishna. The first one was the child Krishna, the Bala Krishna, the Leela Dhara, who performed the dance of the Leela, the Bala Raas with the gopis in Vrindavan. The child Krishna left Vrindavan to go to the ashram of Sandipani. When leaving Vrindavan Krishna said, “I am leaving Vrindavan, but I am leaving this Krishna here.” He separated Himself from this part of Himself, saying, “I leave this part of Me here. This part of Me will be eternally present in Vrindavan!” Even now, the dance of the Maha Raas is still happening in Vrindavan because that part of Krishna is still alive there. The scripture, the Shreemad Bhagavatam relates the childhood of Krishna, the Leela of Krishna.

Then there was the second Krishna, Dwarka Krishna. This was the King Krishna, who was responsible for ruling the kingdom. The third Krishna was the Gita Krishna, the Upadesh Krishna, the Teacher, the Guru, the Jagadguru.

Krishna was preparing Arjuna to receive the great knowledge of the Gita. Not only Arjuna! This was just a show, just a drama which He Himself put on! Through this drama, Krishna would give this knowledge to humanity, to every human being in this world. What Krishna taught in the Gita is the essence of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads, The Bible, and the Koran: everything is present in it. Here Krishna was also teaching how to go beyond weakness. He said to Arjuna, “Let go of this weakness, you’ll be strong.” This was the Gita- Krishna, who would change everything!

Once Parvati asked Shankar, “Oh, My dear, sweet Lord Shiva, tell me what great merit, what punya You have, that people pray to You and worship You? Shiva spoke to Parvati saying, “Devi, the merit which I received was through the Gita. It is through this merit of the Gita that people worship Me.” The knowledge of the Gita was not only given during the time of Arjuna, this knowledge existed before. Later on in another chapter, you’ll see that Lord Krishna Himself said, “It was Me Myself who has given this knowledge to Surya Dev.”

Shankar Bhagavan explained the greatness of the Gita to Parvati. He said, “Listen, Devi, I will tell You something. Once Mahalakshmi was pressing the Feet of Mahavishnu and a question arose in Her mind: “Lord, can I ask You one question?” And Mahavishnu said, “Yes, of course!” “Can You tell me why You sleep? You sleep on Adhishesh. Why do You sleep? Sleeping is for human beings, for the demons, for low creatures. You are the Lord of the universe and everyone meditates on You. Why are You sleeping?” At that moment, Mahavishnu started laughing and said, “Hey Janani…” He addressed Her as Janani, Mother of the Universe, the universal Mother, “Hey Janani, I am not sleeping. Even if My eyes are closed, in reality, when My eyes are closed, I withdraw Myself into My Cosmic Being, which is Narayana. In that Cosmic Being, My energies are always flowing, energising every universe, energising all, energising everyone. That’s how I maintain everything in balance.”

Mahalakshmi said, “But I thought You are the Lord of the Universe! Everybody has to meditate on You. Why then is there another energy? You are talking about another energy which is superior to You.” Mahavishnu explained, “This energy is not superior to Me. It is no different from Me. It is the same energy. This is how I distribute energy in the universe, how I maintain the functioning of this universe. I see the inner sight of everything and this energy flows, this cosmic light flows to all. This cosmic light flows more to the ascetics because they are fully surrendered. To the other people, the energy flows in less quantity, to energise them for daily activities. Like that, I maintain everything, without Me being part of it. I just observe the flow of this cosmic light, and that cosmic light flows to all. That’s how all is united, because everything is made up of this cosmic light.”

Mahalakshmi was not completely satisfied, so Mahavishnu continued explaining, “In this cosmic Self, the natural form of the soul is different from the forms of the deities and the universe. Pure knowledge is My most pleasing form.” Mahalakshmi was wondering, “Okay, but what is this pure knowledge?”

Mahavishnu explained to Her, “The most wonderful and pleasing form I have incarnated into is the form of the Word as the Gita.” That’s why the Vedas first start with the Word. Even The Bible, the Old Testament begins, “The Word incarnated.” Mahavishnu said, “The most wonderful and the most pleasing aspect of Myself is the Gita itself.

He explained the 18 chapters of the Gita: “The first five chapters of the Gita are My mouth. The next ten chapters are My ten arms. One chapter is My stomach and the other two chapters are My neck. The knowledge of the Gita, the words, and the meaning of it are in My heart and in everybody’s heart. This knowledge destroys sin and renders salvation, not only to the person who is hearing it, but to the whole of humanity. One who with calm mind, studies and listens to one or one half of a chapter, or a quarter of a chapter, or a part of these slokas, is entitled to receive salvation.

The Lord continued, explaining the story of Soma Sharma. In one of his incarnations, Soma Sharma incarnated as a goat. In that incarnation, he was so ill-treated that he died. In the next incarnation, he incarnated as an ox. In this life, he was also very ill-treated. He was working for a very mean person who would not feed him well and gave him so little grass, that he was starving most of the time and became very, very weak. One day he was lying down by the side of the road and everybody was pitying him and trying to help him. They saw that he was very weak and that he would probably die, but they could not do anything for him. At that time, there was a prostitute lady who saw this ox by the side of the road. She felt great pity and said, “What can I give him? What do I have to give him so that he can die peacefully?” This lady had gained some merit, some punya, in her past. She went to him with an open heart, a heart full of love, and said, “Listen, my dear ox, I can’t offer you anything because I am poor and I am a sinful person. But what I can offer, I will offer you: if I have ever done anything good in my life, I offer you all the good merit of my life.” The ox passed away, having received the good merit of this prostitute lady. Due to this good merit, he reincarnated in a Brahmin family and his father called him Soma Sharma. He was very wise and could remember his past life. He felt so grateful to this lady that he decided to go and visit her. He went to her house, knocked at the door, the lady opened it and exclaimed, “Oh, beautiful man!” He said, “No, no, no, it is not what you are thinking!”

He started relating his story, “Listen, I will tell you something. Maybe it will sound weird to you. Some years ago, there was an ox dying by the side of the road. At that moment, you came and said that if you ever had any good punya, any good merit in your life, you would offer it full-heartedly to this dying ox, so that it could die in peace. That dying ox was me!” The lady was taken aback. Then she remembered and said, “But I don’t know what good punya I had! I don’t know what good merit I had that I could have offered to you. I have lived a sinful life. The only merit I have in my life is that my neighbour has a parrot, and every day this parrot repeats the whole of the first chapter of the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita. And everyday I just sit and listen to him. Apart from that I don’t have any good merit.”

Hearing this, Soma Sharma and the lady went to the parrot. Soma Sharma asked the parrot, “What is the greatness of this chapter?” The parrot started talking and said, “In my last life, I was a brahmin and my father forced me to memorise the first chapter of the Gita. But because I rebelled against my father and was bad, I was reborn as a bird.

The only good thing that has stayed from my past life is that I can chant and recite the first chapter of the Gita. And that’s what I always do.”

Hearing these stories, all three were mesmerised. All three were so joyful that all three of them attained the Lotus Feet of the Lord. All of them attained salvation. This is the greatness of listening to the Gita.

In verse 30, Krishna was trying to remind Arjuna who he was: “Throughout many lifetimes, you were not just a normal person, you were doing My work.” Of course, Krishna would not proudly say, “Surrender to Me!” He was making Arjuna ready. You see, God waits patiently, through lifetimes. He prepares one and makes one ready, so that He can manifest through that person. You are all sitting here today and it is not just a coincidence! It is not just because you are on holiday or you have the money that are sitting here. No! It is because He wanted you to be here. Without Him willing you to be here, you would not be here. And this is why He put Arjuna there on the battlefield. He was talking to Arjuna and removing all his negativity. Just as He was removing all Arjuna’s negativity from inside of him, also here, right now, all your negativity is being removed from inside of you. He is removing the seeds of negativity inside of you.

Here Arjuna expressed how his skin felt like it was burning. He was feeling this in his body, but it was a quality of the mind: the burning skin, the parched mouth – these were all signs of restlessness, which one must not have on the spiritual path. One has to move forward like a lion. Your aim must be clear. You must know your aim and focus on that. You can’t focus and know your aim with weakness, but with strength.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 27

śvaśuran suhṛdaścaiva senayor-ubhayor api 

tān samīkșya sa kaunteyaḥ 

sarvān bandhūn avasthitān 

kṛpaya paraya’viṣṭho 

vişīdann idam abravīt

Seeing all these kinsmen standing thus arrayed, Kaunteya (Arjuna), invaded by great pity, uttered this in sadness and dejection:

Arjuna was very sad and went into his weakness. As a warrior, one can’t go into one’s weakness. Imagine that you are in a war, everybody is there on the battlefield in front of you, and you just sit and cry. It is like going to a doctor and saying, “I am sick. I have this terrible illness. Please help me!” Imagine that the doctor just sits and cries with you. What will happen? You’ll be shocked! You’ll become more depressed. Your illness will get worse! Arjuna saw that many people would die. He felt pity and his heart pained him. He was overtaken by emotions which would stop him from fighting. So he became cowardly, very soft. If you are soft, you can’t help anyone; you have to be strong. Here Krishna reminded Arjuna that he would not move forward if he was weak.

Yet Krishna allowed this feeling to awaken in Arjuna because He was purifying him. He was showing him, “Look at this clearly. It is not outside; it is inside of you. These people who you see outside of you, why do you feel this connection with them? Because they are inside your heart. These negative qualities that you see outside, in other people, they are not outside: they are inside of you. If you want to transcend them, you have to dig them out from the inside. You have to remove them from deep within. Not just superficially, by the mind saying, “Ah yes, I have changed, it is finished! Good! Now, God loves me! Ah, God loves me! I love God!” No, it doesn’t work like that! Because loving God, has to come from inside. For Him to manifest Himself, for Him to come to you, to run to you, a great amount of sincerity, strength and power has to be there!

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 26

tatrapasyat sthitān pārthaḥ 

pitṛn atha pita-mahān 

ācāryān mātulan bhrātṛn 

putrān pautrān sakhims tathā

Then Arjuna saw standing on opposite sides, uncles and grandsires, teachers, brothers, cousins, sons and grandsons, comrades, fathers-in-law, benefactors.

Looking at the other side, Arjuna said, “Oh, I know these people!” When one starts on the spiritual journey, one has to first strengthen oneself before going to help others. You have to first remove your own negativity, change it, and then, when you are strong enough, you go and help other people. Otherwise you will get drowned in their negativity. Here Arjuna looked at all these people and said, “Oh my goodness! I know these people! These people are my great-uncles, like Bhishma, Somadatta, Bahlika. These are my teachers, Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Purujit. Shalya is the brother of our dear Madri. How can I go and fight them?”

Everybody has a certain connection to their own negativity. For example, if we decide to make a debate of gossiping, everybody will be full of energy to participate. If we start discussing negative things, everybody will put their part into it and make a biryani out of it.

However, when you start self-analysing, you become the observer. When you start to observe, you start to see clearly within the core of your heart, within your consciousness. And you say, “Sometimes I consider these qualities to be very good qualities; but in reality they are not. I thought that they were good qualities at that time, but in reality, they were not.” Like that, Arjuna saw everybody in front of him and felt deep regret because he had spent his whole life with them. When you spend your whole life with somebody, how can you be detached from them? These people had been together their entire childhood; they had grown up together and now they were fighting! You are born with all your negative qualities. They are dormant inside you. Throughout many lifetimes you have carried them with you, but when the time comes for you to remove them, you just sit there and say, “No, I can’t do it!” The same was true for Arjuna. He was just sitting there saying, “I can’t do it!” because he was still holding onto his weaknesses. Last week, when we were in Kiel (Germany), somebody asked me, “Swamiji, how can I love myself?”

I asked him the question, “How can you love others, when you don’t love yourself?” Love starts with you! All these good qualities, all the qualities which God has given you, starts with you. Why is it easy to love others, but when it comes to loving yourself, you only look at your bad qualities and meditate on them and say, ‘No, I can’t love myself!’ That has to transform.

The Gita is about the Self, you know? It is about seeing the Lord within you. When you see Him within you, then you will perceive Him everywhere, in the flower, in the deity, in everyone. Know that deep within, it is the same Narayana who is seated in each one’s heart. He is the One who is talking, the One who is listening, the One who is acting. You will see only this four-handed Narayana Himself who is doing everything. But for that Reality to reveal Itself, one has to train oneself. One has to train one’s mind not to hang onto these negative qualities. You have to focus and transform the mind. At that moment only, the Divine will reveal Himself. Seeing this sadness arising inside himself, Arjuna carried on in his weakness, saying, “No, I can’t do that!” It is like when you say, “I want to love myself but, oh my goodness, I have this and that bad quality. I can’t love myself.” You say, “Ah Swamiji, I can’t love myself!” And then you go on in your weakness.

Bhagavad Gita 

Ajuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1: Verses 24-25

sanjay uvāca

evam ukto hrṣikeśo 

guḍākeśena bhārata 

senayor-ubhayor madhye 

sthāpayitvā rathottamam

bhişma drona pramukhataḥ 

sarveṣāṁ ca mahīkṣitām 

uvāca pārtha paśyaitān 

samavetān kurūn iti

Sanjaya said: Thus addressed by Gudakesha (one who has overcome sleep: Arjuna), Sri Krishna, O Bharata, having stationed the best of all chariots between the two armies, in front of Bhishma, Drona and all the princes of this Earth, said, “O Paartha (Arjuna), behold these Kurus gathered together.”

Here Sanjaya called Arjuna ‘Gudakesha, which means the conquerer of sleep. Arjuna had conquered sleep. That was why he could carry on with his activities without taking any rest. This is what Kriya does! If one sleeps too much, one is drained of life energy. If one sleeps less, one is full of energy. In all his activities, Arjuna never felt oppressed from too much sleep. Calling Arjuna ‘Gudakesha, Sanjaya was saying that the sons of Dhritarashtra would never overcome Arjuna, because Arjuna was ever alert. There was not one moment when he was lazing around. He was always ready!

Lord Krishna said, “Behold these Kauravas who have gathered together here.” Krishna had placed the chariot between the two armies as Arjuna had asked because these were the rules of the charioteers. The charioteer had to do what the warrior requested. So Krishna brought the chariot to a standstill there between the armies and said, “Behold them! Be careful of them!” His words had deep meaning. Krishna used the word ‘Kurus, because, even if they were all from the same Kuru dynasty, many of them had sided in a completely wrong way. He said, “Behold, all these people! Most of them are your family It was an invitation for Arjuna to see that, though these were his close friends, his close family, within their hearts they were not really family. Why did Krishna do that? It is very interesting! Because Krishna knew that Arjuna held them very dear, that he still had certain feelings for them, which had to be removed.

Arjuna had deep identification and attachment to his family. He had love for them. It is like your love for the negative qualities in yourself. Why do you think the negative qualities always come back again and again? Because of your relationship with them. Because you like to call them and awaken them. You like to see them. That’s why. Until they are completely killed and removed, they will stay there. Sometimes you don’t want to see them, but they are there. Lord Krishna knew that these qualities were present deep inside of Arjuna’s heart. He wanted to uproot them completely, from deep inside. Krishna wanted to remove this blood affection, this blood relationship. He used Arjuna as an instrument to show what Christ taught: “Whoever is worthy of their fathers: and mothers, they are not worthy of Me. Whoever is attached to anything, is not worthy of Me. I have come to separate the daughter from the mother, the son from the father” Isn’t that what Christ said? Krishna was teaching the same thing to Arjuna. How can one be surrendered to the Divine, if one is still attached to perishable things? How can one surrender to the Divine, how can God reveal Himself in His fullness, when one is hanging on to limitation?

Arjuna’s heart pained him because of his compassion. Krishna wanted to remove all this dejection, all these thoughts from his mind, all these thoughts of relationships from deep inside. Only then would Arjuna be ready to receive the Brahma Jyaan. Krishna was preparing him! Until all these negative things are uprooted from the heart, how can Divine knowledge be given to someone? Christ talked about not giving knowledge to somebody who is not ready. It’s like ‘throwing pearls before swine’ That’s how it is! If one is not ready, whatever you say, one will again become blind.

Krishna brought the chariot between the two armies to remove all these negative qualities, one by one, to clarify the mind of Arjuna, so that later on, he could receive the Amrit of the Gita, he could receive the Lord Himself in the form of the Gita.

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verses 21-23

arjuna uvāca

senayor-ubhayor madhye 

ratham sthāpaya me’cyuta

yāvad etān nirikṣe’ham 

yoddhu-kāmān avasthitān 

kair-mayā saha yoddhavyam 

asmin rana-samudyame

yotsyamānān avekṣeham 

ya ete’tra samāgatāḥ 

dhārtarästrasya durbuddher 

yuddhe priya cikīrṣavaḥ

Arjuna said: O Achyuta (the faultless, the immovable), station my chariot between these two armies, so that I may view these myriads standing, longing for battle. I wish to see who I am to fight, and look upon those who have come here to champion the cause of the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra.

Interesting! Here Arjuna was addressing Lord Krishna as Achyuta. Achyuta means the one who is never vanquished, ‘the faultless, the immovable’ It means one who never suffers a fall, who remains ever-established in the Self, who is never dissassociated from His power and Glory. Addressing Lord Krishna here as ‘Achyuta’, Arjuna revealed his knowledge of the Glory and Reality of Lord Krishna and called Him, “Lord, my God!” He knew that his own charioteer was none other than the Lord Narayana Himself.

Arjuna asked Krishna to “Station my chariot between these two armies.” Of course, Arjuna knew who he was going to fight. But he asked Krishna to “Please bring the chariot and place it between the two armies, so that I can see the people face to face, so that I can look deeply into their eyes and see who these people are.”

This is often the situation in life. Testing times may arise in the form of troubles. Often one doesn’t want to see and tries to bypass it, tries to go sideways. But life is like this. Life is a great lesson. If you don’t face your problem, if you don’t face your negative quality and look at it in the eyes, you’ll never become strong. If you always try to go sideways, you will not learn anything.

Arjuna said, “Place me between them. Let me see – face to face, eye to eye- what are these qualities, what is this pain. Let me go above it, rise over, master it! “I wish to see who I am to fight”: here it was not about fighting, it was about transcending. “What will I transcend? Which quality?” This was self-analysis. This was the point where Arjuna was analysing. Arjuna here represents self. observance. Observe all your qualities your good qualities and your not good qualities and then, you, yourself, can know how to overcome them, how to transcend and transform them. In this request to come personally on the battlefield himself and come to grips with seeing these people in front of him, Arjuna was not scared. This showed his strength.

Note that one part of the war had already started. But there is another important point: Arjuna had not yet shot his arrow; for him personally, the war had not started. On the Kauravas’ side, it had started, but Arjuna had not shot his arrow. The bow was in his hand but he had not yet put the arrow in his bow and shot it. He wanted to self-analyse, to analyse the situation first. He was not like a mad person, who would just say, “Yaahh! Let’s run!” In the Middle Ages, people ran like crazy onto the battlefield because somebody had said, “You have to fight!” No! Here there was a certain strategy. You see, 5000 years ago, they had this strategy! They already had this respect at that time.

Arjuna continued, “And look upon those who have come here to champion the cause of the evil-minded.” Other translations use the words ‘the criminal one: This translation is so beautiful! This translation is really nice: it says, ‘the evil-minded one’. The evil-minded king, Duryodhan, represents the mind that is blinded by pride and ego. All that emerges from a mind that is evil, can only be evil. Everything that comes from a mind that is negative, will be imprinted with this negativity. Duryodhan’s evil-mindedness attracted all the evilness around him. The mind is a big magnet that attracts. If the mind is negative, it will attract negative. If it is positive, it will attract positive qualities. And if it is focused on God, it will attract God.

That’s what they say, no? “Control the mind!” When you go on the spiritual path, you receive a mantra to chant. For what? For the mind to concentrate on the Lord, to concentrate on God, so that the mind can be diverted from the normal daily routine and transform itself into a different state. Here, Arjuna was observing. Every day, in daily life, you also have to observe; observe your good quality and your not-so- good quality. When you learn to observe, you will also learn to overcome, transform, and transcend these qualities. So Arjuna said, “Let me observe those assembled here. Let me observe and inquire, who are these fighters? Who are these great heroes?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 20

atha vyavasthitan dṛṣṭvā 

dhārtarāsṭrān kapi-dhvajaḥ 

pravṛtte śastra-sampāte 

dhanur udyamya pāṇḍavaḥ 

hṛṣīkeśam tadā vākyam 

idam āha mahi-pate

Then, beholding the sons of Dhritarashtra standing in battle order, and the flight of missiles having begun, the son of Pandu (Arjuna), whose emblem was an ape, took up his bow and spoke these words to Sri Krishna, O King:

Hanuman was on the flag of Arjuna. Hanuman represents power and strength. Sanjaya showed this to Dhritarashtra saying, “As promised, Hanuman has placed Himself on the flag of Arjuna, and from time to time, Hanuman roars from the flag.” Sanjaya used the word kapi-dhvajaḥ meaning “from time to time he roared”, showing that Arjuna had the attribute of strength.

But seeing that all the Kauravas were ready with their weapons to begin the battle, Arjuna started to feel sad. Certain emotions started to take over inside his heart. He spoke to Krishna again calling Him, hṛṣīkeśam, ‘the controller of the senses Using the word hṛṣīkeśam, Sanjaya was saying that the controller of the senses, the knower of all hearts, was Him, the charioteer of Arjuna. He was reminding Dhritarashtra that the Pandavas would win. When a good quality awakens, the Divine is present. And if this quality is energised with bhakti, with devotion, then the Lord Himself will be one’s charioteer. Being the charioteer means that the Lord is the power, the strength. When one has the willingness, it is the Lord who gives the power to move forward. So, Sanjaya reminded Dhritarashtra that Arjuna had God as his charioteer and had Hanuman on his flag. Wherever there is Hanuman, nothing can go wrong. He is the protector, the strength, the ocean of wisdom. And with that fully, one can expect victory! Hanuman was powerful and completely surrendered, as was Arjuna. Hanuman was surrendered to Lord Rama; Arjuna was surrendered to Lord Krishna. Here Sanjaya was reminding Dhritarashtra that this charioteer was not a normal person: it was God Himself sitting there in the form of Sri Krishna. How could there be defeat? There could not be any defeat! There would be only victory!

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 19

sa ghoṣo dhārtarāṣṭrānāṁ 

hṛdayāni vyadārayat 

nabhaśca prthivīm caiva tumulo’bhyanunādayan

That tumultuous uproar, resounding through earth and sky, tore the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra.

When all the conches of all the Pandava heroes sounded together, the sound was so powerful, so deep and dreadful that it filled all the regions of heaven and earth. Even Indra was scared. This sound echoed, spreading in all regions causing terror and fright to the sons of Dhritarashtra and the other fighters. At that moment they all felt, “Oh my goodness, this sound is too strong!” At that moment, the soul inside each of them knew that it was the end. They felt their hearts being torn and great oppression inside of them. When you go on your spiritual path, with full force, this power will remove all negative things. If you don’t let the negativity take control, if you don’t concentrate on the negativity, but concentrate on moving forward on your spiritual path, that strength will erase everything. There is not much to do, really, just one thing: have confidence, have trust and the rest, He will take care of. This is the assurance that He gives. In the Bhakti Yoga chapter later on, you’ll see that Krishna says, “Whoever surrenders to Me, I am more surrendered to them. And I give them strength and power.”

This doesn’t mean that when you start your spiritual practice, it happens only for yourself. When you start to dive into this ocean of Love that you have inside of you, everybody around you will profit from that even the people who don’t want to, the people who are negative. If you are positive, it will beam forth like a light in the darkness. In brightness, you don’t notice light, but in darkness, the light shines much more. That’s what is explained here. This sound was so terrible and frightening to the ones who had fear inside. This is how one has to go on the spiritual path. This is how one has to move in life, with full force. One has to always be ready!

When you go with full force on your spiritual path, nothing can move you! Nothing that people can say, nothing that people can do, can make you move from your path. That’s what Christ said about having faith. About building your faith on a rock so that nothing can move you! If you build your house on sand, it will break. If you build your house on a rock, it will be very strong. This sound that they were talking about is the inner strength. When you have inner strength, it’s not only in your heart. Your whole being will be full of energy! From the head to the toes, you’ll be full of energy. Because that energy is not from the outside, it is from deep within. This energy is from God Himself, from Krishna Himself: it beams out and gives you the support, gives you the strength to move forward. But you should not look at your weakness, even if you see the weakness. It is part of you, yes! But hang onto your strength!

Here the sons of Dhritarashtra were looking at their weaknesses. When they saw the power of the Pandavas arising, they started to compare. We also often compare ourselves to others: “Why is that person far more advanced in spirituality? Why is he beaming with so much joy and life?” There is this comparison that starts happening. But when there is comparison, you don’t move; you are frozen, you have fear inside of you! That’s what happened in the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra. Seeing that the Pandavas were strong and advancing, they started to have fear. Fear nothing!

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verses 17-18

kāśyaśca parameṣ-vasaḥ 

śikhandi ca mahārathah 

dhṛṣṭadyumno virāṭaśca sātyakiś-cāparājitaḥ

drupado draupadeyāśca 

sarvaśaḥ prthivi-pate 

saubhadraśca mahā-bāhuḥ 

śankhan dadhmuḥ pṛthak pṛthak

And the King of Kashi the supreme archer, Shikandhi the mighty warrior, Dhrshtadyumna and Virat; and Satyaki the invincible; Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, and the strong-armed son of Subhadra-all, O King, blew their various conches again and again.

The mighty warrior Shikandhi: you know the story I told earlier, how she had been transformed from a woman into a man and went to fight. The entity who had transformed Shikandhini through a sex change said to her, “You will have only one day.” Of course, one day was not enough. Meanwhile Kubera had cursed this entity. When this entity got the body of a woman, he wanted to tempt Kubera to get all his wealth. Kubera got angry and cursed him saying, “From now on, you’ll stay a woman forever!” Because of that curse, from that moment on Shikhandini stayed a man. He remained Shikhandi. And you know very well how he killed Bhishma. So each great archer, each great warrior-“Dhrshtadyumna, Virat, Satyaki the invincible, Drupada and the sons of Draupadi” – all of them blew their conches. “All, O King, blew their various conches again and again.” In this part, Abhimanyu, the son of Subhadra, is described as ‘the strong-armed son. Do you know how Abhimanyu was killed? You know. Please, tell the story!

Mayuran: The Kauravas had Dronacharya as the head of all the armies, as a commander and so he arranged the whole Kauravas’ army into a chakra formation, and very few people knew how to fully penetrate this chakra formation and also come out of the chakra formation alive. One of those people who did know, from the Pandavas side, was Arjuna, but unfortunately Arjuna had been challenged to fight somewhere else. So he left to go to a different part of the battlefield to fight his own battle over there.

So as a result, Yudhishtir and the Pandavas were in a lot of panic and a lot of distress because this chakra formation seemed impenetrable to them; they couldn’t find a way to get in, and this chakra formation was coming closer and closer. And so they begun talking amongst themselves as how they would deal with this situation and it was at this point that Abhimanyu, who was Arjuna’s son, said that he knew how to get in the chakra formation. Once, when he was in the womb of his mother, he overheard Arjuna discussing with Krishna the idea of the chakra formation, how to get into the chakra, and how to breach it. But he never quite heard the end of the conversation, he never knew how to get out of the chakra formation. So his knowledge was not fully complete.

So he told this to Yudhishtir at that time, and after some thought they realised that all they needed was just to get into the chakra formation; once Abhimanyu had gone into the chakra formation, they would be right behind him and he would be supported by all the Pandavas. And so this is what they did. So Abhimanyu led the attack and he knew exactly how to get into the chakra formation. But he didn’t know how to get out.

But as he got in, immediately another warrior from the Kauravas’s army called Jayadratha managed to seal off the chakra formation. So Abhimanyu managed to get in, but the Pandavas couldn’t follow him because of this warrior called Jayadratha. Because Jayadratha had been gifted with this great boon that on this special day he would be able to withstand an attack from the Pandavas for a whole day. So the Pandavas couldn’t break into the chakra formation and that meant that Abhimanyu was left on his own.

As a result he fought very valiantly, he destroyed many enemies, but everybody was – Dronacharya, Karna, all of them were suffering because of Abhimanyu’s skill, and as a result they all grouped together, all at once. They attacked him at once, from behind, from front, they surrounded him and Abhimanyu was unarmed.

They kept on firing arrows and sending different warriors to attack him, and eventually Abhimanyu was slain. But the whole situation was completely adharmic and against everything they had agreed to beforehand about how the war would go ahead. So it was a very tragic ending to Abhimanyu’s life.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verses 15-16

pāñcajanyaṁ hṛṣikeśo 

devadattam dhananjayaḥ 

paundram dadhmau mahā-śankham bhima-karmā vṛkodaraḥ ananta-vijayam rājā 

kunti-putro yudhisthiraḥ 

nakulah sahadevaśca 

sughosa mani-puspakau

Sri Krishna blew his conch, Panchajanya, Arjuna blew his, named Devadatta; and Bhima of terrible deeds, blew the great conch, Paundra. King Yudhishtir the son of Kunti, blew his conch Ananta-vijaya, and Nakul and Sahadev blew their conches, Sughosha and Mani-pushpaka.

pañcajanyar hrşikeśo: here Krishna was referred to as hrsikeśo which means the senses, and the Lord, the controller. Hrṣikeso is next to the word pañcajanyaṁ.

Pañcajanyaṁ was a demon who had the form of a conch. Pancha means five, the five senses. Pañcajanyam hṛṣikeso means, “You, the controller of the five senses, who is the repository of joy, happiness and power, who is the power that accompanies one in one’s life.” He is not just the controller of the senses. He is the One who accompanies each one in life. He is the One who gives joy to life. He is the One who our joy stands on. Hrṣikeso is also translated as ‘the curly-haired one’ or ‘the short-haired one’. Krishna’s conch was called pancajanyam, victory over the five senses.

The conch of Arjuna was called devadatta, “given by the gods.” This conch that Arjuna blew was given to him by Indra. In this verse, Arjuna was referred to as dhananjayaḥ – the winner among all kings, the winner of all competitions. Arjuna represents unflinching devotion and surrender. He was mighty, wise, and knowledgeable.

“Bhima of terrible deeds, the great conch Paundra,” Bhima was sometimes terrible in his deeds. Whenever people heard of him, they had fear inside of their hearts. They got scared just hearing of Bhima. ‘Bhima’ means somebody who possesses extraordinary power. Bhima also stands for trustfulness and transparency, Bhima could eat a lot of food and digest anything – that’s why

he was called vṛkodaraḥ. His conch was huge and very powerful. When it was blowing, everything around started vibrating and this struck fear in people. That’s why the conch was called paundraṁ. “King Yudhishtir, the son of Kunti, blew his conch Ananta vijaya…” It is very important to note that in this verse, Sanjaya referred to Yudhishtir as the son of Kunti. He separated the three sons of Kunti and the two sons of Madri. All of them were Pandavas, yet Nakul and Sahadev were from Madri, the second

wife of Pandu. Pandu represents the pathfinder, able to guide, able to open ways. The name itself means that one has a great desire for order; one is cooperative, sympathetic to others, able to balance and to adapt. All five Pandava brothers possessed these qualities. Yudhishtir represents all that is righteous, merciful, charitable, and just, in man. Nakul represents focus, patience, unconditional love, respect and success. Sahadev represents joy, helpfulness and kindness. The five Pandavas were the manifestation of Lord Krishna Himself. The head of Lord Krishna was Yudhishtir; the body was Bhima; the heart was Arjuna; the hands were Nakul; the feet were Sahadev. That is why, later on, in another chapter, Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna that their relationship was not just for this lifetime; it always was, from time immemorial. Every time He came, Arjuna always came. Krishna said, “You don’t remember, but I do remember everything!”

Anta-vijayam raja- here Sanjaya was addressing Yudhishtir as ‘king. During the war, Yudhishtir didn’t have any kingdom because Indraprastha had been taken by the Kauravas. But here Sanjaya said, “King Yudhishtir blew his conch. He was the righteous king. He will be the king!” He was reminding Dhritarashtra that Yudhishtir had all the qualities in his body that a king possessed. Nakul and Sahadev also now blew their conches announcing that the war was to start.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 14

tataḥ śvetair-hayair-yukte 

mahati syandane sthitau 

mādhavaḥ pāṇḍavaścaiva 

divyau śankhau pradadhmatuḥ

Then, seated in their great chariot, harnessed to white horses, Madhava (Sri Krishna) and the son of Pandu (Arjuna) blew their divine conches.

Sri Krishna sat in his chariot holding the reins, controlling the five horses. When the Lord perceives that one is making an effort to change, He is the controller of all. Pāndavaścaiva: Arjuna was seated with Him in the chariot and they blew their divine conches. This denotes that when one shows interest in changing, the Lord Himself gives strength, power, energy and faith to that person who is willing to change. He gives one power to control the senses: the five horses pulling the chariot represents the five senses. Later on Krishna will explain that to control the mind, one must control the senses. To control the mind is very difficult until you have learned to control the senses. If you control the senses, it’s very easy to control the mind.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 13

tataḥ śankhāśca bheryaśca paṇavānaka-gomukhāḥ sahasaivābhyahanyanta sa sabdas-tumulo’bhavat

Then conches and kettledrums, tabors and drums and horns, suddenly blared forth, and the clamour became tremendous.

Bhishma started roaring like a lion, blowing his conch to announce the beginning of the war. From everywhere, all the army, all the generals, all the commanders of the army, from every corner started to blow the conches, trumpets and musical instruments which belonged to the different groups of soldiers. They all made a loud sound, and this sound was so terrible that it echoed and re-echoed through the entire region and the sky. Imagine all these people blowing conches: so powerful and so strong must have been this sound, at that time, that everything around started to tremble! And not only there on the battlefield, but also in the heavens. The gods were eagerly waiting, looking down, “What is this?” All the devas were present. Even Indra was trembling in his kingdom, hoping that this war would not come up to his loka. Such was the power during that time! It didn’t happen just in this physical world. It also happened in the spiritual world. Because, as I said, this great army was not made up of normal people; they were superhuman beings. They were the manifestation of devas and deities. When this sound vibrated, it vibrated throughout all creation.

When we do Kriya, what do we experience? What awakens first are the sounds. What sounds awaken when you do Kriya? You hear the thunder, you hear the ringing of the bells, you hear… What else? How many sounds do you hear before the sound of OM? Tell! Say! These are the seven sounds that resonate in the spiritual field: conches, flutes, trumpets, crickets, bells, lutes and the thunderstorm. You hear the inner sounds, the flow of the inner sounds that announce – yes! – the victory of the Self! The awakening of the Divine Consciousness! These are the sounds that one hears when one conquers all the other qualities.

The sound was clamorous and powerful! It announced the beginning of the war. They used the conch to announce the beginning and the end of war. The sound is OM. This sound which vibrates, shows that at the end, no matter how big the battle is, how strong or difficult it is, one finds one’s way. At the end, everything resounds in the cosmic sound. At the end, it is through this cosmic sound that one attains Realisation. This cosmic sound is the word of God Himself. The conch and the bell are not just mere instruments. When one blows the conch, it awakens the Divinity inside. It awakens clarity inside. It vibrates and the vibration, when one blows the conch, also vibrates in your brain. The same is true of the bell. The bell is not just made for fun. You know, when we go to the church, to the temple, do we ring the bell – ting, ting, ting – and that’s it? No! The bell’s sound has seven vibrations. It vibrates and reacts on the seven chakras inside. The same is true of the sound of the conch. This sound is very important. Blowing the conch was not to scare others and show one’s power. No! This was for themselves. It made them strong and clear. So, everybody from both sides started blowing their conches.

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verse 12

tasya sañjanayan harṣam 

kuru-vṛddhaḥ pitämahaḥ 

simhanādam vinadyoccaiḥ 

śankham dadhmau pratāpavān

To cheer the heart of Duryodhan, the mighty grandsire (Bhishma), the Ancient of the Kurus, resounding the battlefield with a lion’s roar, blew his conch.

This verse is very interesting, because Bhishma knew why Duryodhan wanted to protect him. Duryodhan was not saying, “Protect my great uncle for the sake of protecting him. No! Protect him because it is good for our profit. We can use him!” This made Bhishma very agitated, but he didn’t want to show that he was agitated. He thought, “Let me flatter Duryodhan a bit, let me show him that I am interested in his fight.” To show Duryodhan, to cheer him up, he roared like a lion and blew his conch very powerfully!

The Ancient of the Kurus: here Sanjaya was calling Bhishma Pitamah an elderly man, because he was very old. He was the great-uncle of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He was glorious. He saw that Duryodhan was saying all this, not out of joy, but out of his anxiety. You see, when you are anxious, you may say something bad. You may go around and say, “Ah, you know that person? He’s very bad,” and talk negatively about the person. What would be your next action? Would it be to go and poison other people’s minds? By poisoning other people’s minds and hearing from them, “Oh you are right!”, your feeling of guilt might go away and you might create the illusion, “Yes, I am right!” Then, you feel might good with that negativity. It becomes your own reality. That’s why, when people gossip, they like to take the gossip from here to there, from there to here, to get acknowledgement that what they are doing is right.

Here Duryodhan was doing this to get some acknowledgement that what he was doing was right. Of course, Bhishma was not stupid. He knew what was happening, and he saw that anxiety. He saw that Duryodhan praised the Kauravas in order to encourage them to fight. He saw that he had been exhorting Dronacharya and all the warriors to protect him. But Bhishma also wanted to show him, “I don’t need protection from anybody. I am powerful enough to protect myself.” Due to that, he started roaring very loudly and blowing his conch with great strength to show how powerful he was. At that

moment, Duryodhan said to himself, “Oh, yippie! I have conquered this old man now! Oh, I have him in my grip!” – not knowing that Bhishma was just doing this as a show, to make him happy.

The battle would start only when all of them blew their conches together, to announce that the battle was starting. If one side didn’t blow their conches, they would not start the battle. These were the rules of that time. It was important to show this excitement, to awaken this excitement, not only in Duryodhan, but in all the people around, because the war would take place –

it was predestined to take place.

Even if the Lord Himself tried to stop it, adharma was still there. Adharma had to be removed. This unrighteous thing which was present inside the people had to go out, had to be completely vanquished. When you go on the spiritual path, you can’t hang onto your negative qualities. You have to get rid of them. How will you get rid of your negative qualities? By being positive. By awakening all the good virtues inside of you. This is how you will become free from all these qualities. This is how, on your spiritual path, you can advance and really purify yourself from all these negative things and free yourself. Only then will the Grace of God shine through.

When you start on your spiritual path, you have a battle: you perceive all the negative qualities within more strongly. Sometimes you’ll awaken a quality which has never been there before. But this is the purification that one goes through; this is the Kurukshetra that you go through, the Dharmakshetra that you go through. You uproot, one by one, all these qualities and transform them. You transform them until finally you have the Love of God that stays. That’s Realisation! To receive His Grace.

To manifest His Love and to beam His Love. And that’s the duty of each human being. To love as your Father loves. That’s in The Bible, Christ said it. You are made in the image of God. As God loves, you shall love. Because that’s the gift He has given you. And this Love will not awaken with all the negative qualities. When the mind is not totally focused on Him, He will not manifest.

Here Bhishma was blowing his conch and showing greatness. The spiritual path is like this battle: when you are on the spiritual path, you see the negativity. How do you go into it? Last week in the Satsang, someone said, “I don’t love myself. I don’t trust myself.” For love to awaken, you have to first find it inside of you. For trust to awaken, you have to first find it inside of you. You have to let go of your weakness. When you are very proud, you are very strong; but in love also, you are strong.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 11

ayaneșu ca sarveşu

yathā-bhāgam avasthitāḥ 

bhișmam evābhi-rakṣantu 

bhavantaḥ sarva eva hi

“Therefore, all of you standing in your respective divisions in the different fronts of the battle, guard Bhishma.”

Here Duryodhan addressed his people saying, “Whatever you do, never lose sight of Bhishma!” Why did he say that? He knew that the only person who could kill Bhishma, Shikandhini, was there in the Pandavas’ army. She was the only one, who could kill Bhishma, whether he wanted it or not. This was because in her past life when she was Amba, she had wanted to marry Bhishma, and he had refused to marry her. Out of anger, she cursed Bhishma saying, “I will be the only one who will be able to kill you. You will die by my hand.” She did her penance with one aim only: to kill Bhishma. So she was later born to the King Drupada, as a daughter. Drupada had actually wanted to have a son, and Lord Shiva had blessed him to have a son. Drupada said, “But I didn’t get a son, I only got a daughter.” He never liked her, but Lord Shiva’s blessing couldn’t be undone. Draupada only wanted a son to have his revenge on Drona. Of course, with Lord Shiva’s blessing, the male quality was very strong in his daughter. Duryodhan knew that Bhishma would only put down his weapon if she came in front of him, because of the past life. That’s why he said, “In every way protect Bhishma.” Shikandhini represents knowledge and compassion. If knowledge arises, the knowledge of the Self, the knowledge of knowing and reaching God, all the other negative qualities will disappear, no? That’s why Duryodhan said, “Protect Bhishma! Protect the ego! It doesn’t matter what you do, protect him. He is our strength! To maintain that strength, we have to be around him, protecting him. We should not let Shikhandini come near him!”

Shikandhini was born for this one aim – but women were not allowed on the battlefield. And her only aim was to be on the battlefield. She went and did great penance before the war so that she could transform into a man. She did penance, but the penance was stopped many times and she was very disappointed. She prayed to Lord Shiva and said, “You promised that I would be a man, but just having the qualities of a man is not good enough. The other warriors will not allow me on the battlefield because my physical body is still like a woman’s.” So she continued her intense penance. Finally, there was a yaksha: a yaksha is not a demon, it was an entity who took pity on her and said, “Shikhandini, I have seen your penance. I felt pity for you. With my magical power, I will change you into a man. Actually, we will do a sex change.” They didn’t do any operations at that time. The yaksha said, “But there will be one condition: you will be a man for only one day. After that day, you will change back again to a woman.” Shikandhini accepted and said, “Fine!” She was very happy. It was the ninth day of the war. She said, “I will try everything possible to kill Bhishma.” From Shikandhini she became Shikandhi.

That night Krishna was talking to the Pandavas and said, “Only Shikandhi can kill Bhishma, nobody else!” At that moment, Shikandhi came and it was settled that the next day he would be in the same chariot as Arjuna. Bhishma would be killed. When Bhishma saw Shikandhi, even though she was in a man’s body, he addressed her as a woman and said, “Lady Amba, fulfil your wish, the reason why you have come. I am putting down my weapon.” He willingly put down his weapon, because for him, it was not Shikandhi, it was Amba, from her former life. He put down his weapon and she shot the first arrow into Bhishma. That’s why in this verse Duryodhan said, “No matter what, there should not be any loopholes. You have to always be alert. If you see Shikandhi, drive her away from Bhishma with all your force.” Otherwise, the Kauravas were not scared of anything from the Pandavas, because they knew that Bhishma could fight all of them. He was so powerful! The only fear they had was of Shikandhi.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 10

aparyāptam tad asmakam 

balam bhiṣmābhirakṣita 

paryāptam tvidam eteṣām 

balam bhīmābhirakṣitam

Unlimited is this army of ours and it is marshalled by Bhishma, while the army of theirs is limited, and they depend on Bhima.

Duryodhan explained, “Our army is huge. It is very well-protected because we have Bhishma as the commander.” He said, “Our army is superior in force, far superior to the Pandavas. We have Bhishma, who can’t be killed. Who can kill Bhishma? Bhishma can be killed only when he wants to be killed. Nobody can remove the weapon from Bhishma’s hand until he himself puts it down, which in this war, will never happen.” They were very proud, very enthusiastic that Bhishma was there. It was still before the war and Bhishma was still on his feet. Duryodhan said, “Who can overrun Bhishma? Nobody!” Who can overrun the ego? The ego is so big, you know? It takes time.

Bhishma had fought great battles against Parashuram Himself and won. Parashuram was considered a great warrior, a great disciple of Lord Shiva, an incarnation of Mahavishnu Himself! Yet Parashuram Himself had lost fights with Bhishma. Bhishma was very powerful! His ego was very powerful. “How can we lose? We can’t!” Duryodhan showed how great his army was, again reminding Dronacharya that, “We have more people. We will finish these Pandavas because we are more powerful.” This is how the ego and pride make one believe that one is great. But humility dissipates all these other qualities.

Duryodhan continued, “It will not be a wonder if we crush their army. They really have only one strong person in their field; their army is only protected by Bhima. He is powerful, but he can be killed. Our army can’t be killed, because Bhishma will die only when he wants to die. It will be easy to conquer them. We only need a great tactic. Their army is weak, vulnerable.”

Bhima represents trustfulness and strength. Duryodhan said, “Bhima has got a strong body, he is very powerful, but he is not a good warrior. He doesn’t have the knowledge of the army.” Bhishma, on the other hand was very knowledgeable, very intelligent and wise. He had the knowledge of scriptures. He was intellectual, whereas Bhima was the opposite. Duryodhan continued, “Our army is far better, because we have the best general, Bhishma. Bhima, what does he have, apart from his big body? We can conquer the army of the Pandavas.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verses 8-9

bhavan bhiṣmaśca karnaśca 

kṛpaśca samitiñjayaḥ 

aśvatthāmā vikarṇaśca 

saumadattas tathaiva ca

anye ca bahavaḥ śūrā 

madarthe tyakta-jivitāḥ 

nānā-śāstra praharaṇāḥ 

sarve yuddha-viśāradāḥ

Yourself, Bhishma and Karna and Kripacharya, the victorious in battle, Ashvatthama, Vikarna, and Saumadatti also; and many other heroes have renounced their life for my sake, they are all armed with diverse weapons and missiles and all well-skilled in war.

Here Duryodhan was saying, “You are also great!” naming him first in the verse. “You are not the greatest, yet you are great.” Then he praised Bhishma, who was the great-uncle of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Bhishma represents the ego. He was very powerful. He was considered the greatest of all in the Kuru dynasty. He was very virtuous. He had value. He was a renunciant. He had endurance, forgiveness, compassion, tranquillity, self- control, truthfulness, non-violence. He had contentment, equanimity, strength, righteousness, majesty, great humility, large-heartedness, popularity, correct words in speech, courage, continence, indifference to worldly attachment. He was very knowledgeable. He had great wisdom. He was very devoted to his parents. He knew about the scriptures. He was devoted to his teachers. Above all, he was very dedicated to God. This was a great ego; ego is also in man. It can or cannot change.

When Krishna was going to kill him, Bhishma said, “I am very virtuous; have renounced everything.” All of his life, he possessed all these qualities that I have just told you about. Krishna said, “No, no, no, My dear. You have all these qualities, yes! You can talk about them. You can show people that you have these qualities. But on the spiritual path, it doesn’t mean anything. If you have not gone above all these qualities, if you still hang onto these qualities how does this help you?” Krishna pointed to him and said, “Look, you always talk about all these things, yet you are so attached to the seat of Hastinapur! You have virtue, compassion, tranquillity, self-control, all this; but what is this attachment to the seat of Hastinapur? That doesn’t mean anything.” Bhishma said, “Well, I have done everything for the sake of the kingdom.” Then Krishna said, “A true knowledgeable person is one who can have the knowledge and renounce that knowledge in one second. That’s what knowledge is. If you are hanging onto your knowledge, if you are holding tight to that knowledge, what knowledge are you talking about? How virtuous can you be? True knowledge means that whatever you have, you can renounce it. That’s the true renunciant. Yes, you have all these virtuous qualities, but you have not renounced anything!” Bhishma said, “Yes, I was always doing what was right for the seat of Hastinapur, for the kingdom, for the throne of Hastinapur.”

That’s how the ego makes you think and feel, that you are the best among men. You are the most knowledgeable of all. You have knowledge of everything. And that blinds you. Even if you have many good qualities, if you are egoistic, all these good qualities are nothing – because it is all self- centred.

Duryodhan said, “We have Karna,” who was the eldest son of Kunti. Karna represents the unsettled mind, which doesn’t know where it belongs, whether on the right side or the left side. Sometimes it is on both sides! It is also the mind that pushes people, pushes one to do evil, to excite evilness.

Because Karna was this unsettled mind, Krishna went to him before the war, to remind him that he was not a charioteer’s son, he was not Radheya, he was not the son of Radha. (This Radha was not the ‘Radha, Radha’ we sing of; Radha was a common name at that time.) He was Kaunteya, Kunti’s son. Krishna reminded Karna of this and said, “Karna, I will tell you the truth. You are always unsettled. Who are you really? Nobody knows who you are. They all know that you are not the direct son of the family who found you when you were small; this is a common story.

Who are you really? Where can you find yourself? In which context can you focus yourself? Look, you are Kaunteya. You were born from Kunti. You were born from royalty. You can turn to your royal lineage and claim it.”

You see, when the mind is unsettled, you will always make the wrong decision. Even if somebody is telling you a good thing, you won’t hear it. Even if you know that something is wrong, you will always accept it, because it is more pleasing. That’s why Krishna went and tried to settle him down and told him, “Listen, Karna, you are not one of the Kauravas. You are the son of Kunti. Being the son of Kunti, you are the elder brother of the Pandavas. Come and join us! Come! Change! Join the Pandavas and focus yourself!”

When the mind is unsettled, you can focus it. Through your sadhana, through your spiritual practices, you learn to focus it. But until the mind is settled properly, you battle, no? When you start on the spiritual path, your mind is always unsettled and asking, “What am I doing? Am I really on the right path? Am I following the right Master? Am I doing right? What will my friends say? What will my parents say? What is this? What is that? And how is this and how is that?” There is so much jumping, jumping, jumping. But when the Master came, when the Guru came, when Lord Krishna came to him He came to remind him of who he was. “Kunti embodies the power of dispassion. You are born of dispassion. You can also become focused.” But when the mind is jumping around, it will not listen, even if you give good advice. You have seen that when somebody is angry and you try to reason with the person, what happens? You make it worse. It was like this. Here Lord Krishna was reminding him, “Calm down! Oh, Karna, you can belong to the right side. You don’t need to be on the left side. Because of this unsettledness – who are you? Where do you belong? You can decide. There is still hope. The hope of change!”

Of course, when you tell good things to somebody, they will always do the opposite. When Karna was alone and nobody was with him, who sided with him? Duryodhan! When you are not settled, you’ll always have someone who will flatter you and try to get you. Karna didn’t have the support of the good ones, so he had the support of the bad ones. He gave his loyalty to the bad ones, and fell into the Kauravas’ side. As Bhishma Pitamah knew who Karna was, he didn’t allow him to participate in the war. Karna joined the army only on the eleventh day. He had been there before, but he only went on the battlefield on the eleventh day.

Then there was Kripa, Kripacharya, the brother-in-law of Dronacharya. During the time Kripacharya was staying with Dronacharya, he became very good friends with Bhishma. Bhishma put him in charge of the training of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Kripacharya didn’t really participate in the war because he was always considered to be an outsider. He was second to Dronacharya. He was always behind Dronacharya. Kripacharya represents envy. He was quiet. As we say, “Be aware of the calmness of the water. Because when the water is calm, you don’t know what may come out of it, or how deep it is.” Here the verse says, “Kripacharya, the victorious.” Kripacharya was a great archer and was always victorious wherever he went to fight. It’s funny! Kripa means Grace. He had Grace. But how did he use Grace? This is very important! He was a great scholar in the Vedas. Kripacharya was not killed in the Mahabharat war. Kripacharya is one of the immortals from that time who is still alive today. And the funny thing is that he is still around Kurukshetra.

Then Duryodhan said that there was Ashvatthama, the son of Dronacharya. Ashvatthama represents rage, wrath. He is also one of the immortals – he is still alive. But he is not alive through Grace. He is still alive because he was

cursed. And he is alive…well, somewhere.

There was also Vikarna. Vikarna was one of the sons of Dhritharastra. Why was Vikarna mentioned in this verse and not the other sons of Dhritharastra? Vikarna is mentioned because during the time when they tried to remove the clothes from Draupadi in the court – apart from Vidura, who was against it and who had raised his voice and said, “No! You stupid, don’t do that!” – Vikarna was the other one who said to Duryodhan, “It is wrong what you are doing! Even if you have won everything through gambling, what you are doing is wrong!” He stood against his own brother. That’s why Duryodhan mentioned him in this verse, to show that he was always opposed to Duryodhan. But he was not only good! He was also bad! He represents the cruel mind which – even if it uses good words – will dagger you. He will say, “Please come! You are my dear one. I love you very much. Come, come.” But he will put a dagger in your back.

Duryodhan continued, “There are many more heroes who have sacrificed their lives for my sake.” You see, pride has many friends, and most of these friends have qualities similar to him. Because of his arrogance, Duryodhan attracted similar people with similar qualities. Most of these qualities, which were supporting him, were in the form of his own ninety-nine brothers.

Dushasana: his name itself says everything. If you translate the name, if you break the name in two, what does it mean? ‘Dush’ means evil, evil- minded and ‘asana’ means ‘the seat’; Dushasana was ‘the seat of evil. He was always aggressive. These are the hundred qualities which were present in the hundred sons of Dhritharastra: aggressive, aloof, arrogant, belligerent, big-headed, bitchy, boastful, bone-idle, boring, bossy, callous, cantankerous, careless, changeable, clinging, compulsive, conservative, cowardly, cruel, cunning, cynical, deceitful, detached, dishonest, dogmatic, domineering. evil-minded, finicky, flirtatious, foolish, foolhardy, fussy, greedy, grumpy, gullible, harsh, impatient, impolite, impulsive, inconsiderate, inconsistent, indecisive, indiscreet, inflexible, interfering, intolerant, irresponsible, jealous, lazy, machiavellian, materialistic, mean, miserly, moody, narrow-minded, nasty, naughty, nervous, obsessive, obstinate, over-critical, over-emotional, parsimonious, patronizing, perverse, pessimistic, pompous, possessive, pusillanimous, quarrelsome, quick-tempered, resentful, rude, ruthless, sarcastic, secretive, selfish, self-centred, self-indulgent, silly, sneaky, stingy, stubborn, stupid, superficial, tactless, timid, touchy, thoughtless, truculent, unkind, unpredictable, unreliable, untidy, untrustworthy, vague, vain, vengeful, vulgar, weak-willed.

Duryodhan said, “There are other heroes who have renounced their lives for my sake; they are all armed with diverse weapons and missiles, and are all well-skilled in war.” So the Kauravas were not alone. They had numerous mighty armies. Many similar-minded kings had come with big armies to support this evil-minded person. He was like a magnet.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 7

asmākam tu visiṣṭā ye 

tān-nibodha dvijottama 

nāyakāḥ mama sainyasya samjñārtham tān bravīmi te

On our side also, know those who are the most distinguished. O best of the twice-born, the leaders of my army; these I name to you for your special notice.

Here you see the cunning mind of Duryodhan saying, “I want to control the mind of Dronacharya.” But because Dronacharya was free from these things, he didn’t bother about them too much. He knew how powerful the Pandavas’ army was. He knew why Duryodhan was using all this flattery to get his attention. Duryodhan said, “Listen, I have told you about this great army of the Pandavas, but in ours also, there are many good, strong people, equal in all the qualities. We have many great heroes and fighters.”

He used the words viśiṣṭā ye pointing out that, “In our army we have supreme heroes, steady, strong, intelligent people. We have courageous, energetic and knowledgeable people who have all the knowledge of fighting and the army.”

Tan-nibodha dvijottama: nibodha means, “the people I am going to mention to you now are very excellent and prominent fighters. In their army, they are considered to be very great ones, very strong ones and they have great merit.”

He spoke of all the best of the twice-born. You have to understand that the twice-born, the Brahmins, were considered to be very important. He addressed Dronacharya as being best among men, really saying, “Oh you, who are a brahmin, you are better than the others.” What did he mean by “best of the twice-born”? When you are first-born, you are human; second-born means that also have the divine knowledge inside of you. You are aware of God you Consciousness. But coming from pride, his words didn’t have any power. Coming from pride, his words didn’t mean anything. Pride was flattering greed. Each one was playing on the other saying, “I am better than you.” There was the one who was proud and the one who was greedy. Which one would say, “Yes, you are better.” Neither of them! Duryodhan was still trying to use flattery to enrage Dronacharya. But each one was only saying, “I am better than you. I know about all this.” It didn’t help much.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verses 4-6

atra śūrā maheṣvās 

bhīmārjuna sama yudhi 

yuyodhāno virāṭaśca 

drupadaśca mahārathaḥ

dhṛṣṭaketus-cekitānaḥ 

kāśi-rājaśca vīryavān purujit-kunti-bhojaśca 

śaibyaśca nara-pungavaḥ

yudhāmanyuśca vikrānta 

uttamaujāśca viryavān 

saubhadro draupadeyāśca 

sarva eva mahārathāḥ

Here in this mighty army are heroes and great bowmen who are equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna. Yuyudhana, Virat and Drupada of the great chariot, Dhrishlaketu, Chekitana and the valiant prince of Kashi, Purujit and Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya, foremost among men; Yudhamanyu, the strong, and Uttamauja, the victorious; Subhadra’s son (Abhimanyu) and the sons of Draupadi; all of them of great prowess.

Here Duryodhan continued talking to Drona. In this verse, you’ll see that the words merge: bhīmārjuna sama yudhi. The merging of the words bhīmārjuna means that the war had not yet started: Bhima and Arjuna were still discussing. Bhima and Arjuna were the great ones and there were others in this army equal to them. Bhima was the most powerful, and Arjuna was the wisest.

“Yuyudhana, Virat and Drupada of the great chariot.” Yuyudhana was another name of Satyaki. He was a disciple of Arjuna and was very dear to Krishna. He could fight any number of warriors single-handed and was very powerful. Satyaki is the quality that is present in men as truthfulness. Virat is bravery, virtue. The Pandavas stayed incognito for one year in Virat’s kingdom and it was Virat’s daughter, Uttara, that Abhimanyu married. Duryodhan again reminded Drona, “Here is also Drupada, your friend.” Dhrishlaketu was the son of Shishupala, who was killed by Krishna. Chekitana was a great, powerful king, a commander. He commanded all the seven akshauhinis of the Pandavas. He had great control and understanding. “And the valiant prince of Kashi”: in this verse, the name of the King of Kashi is not mentioned, but in reality, it was Krodhaantha. ‘Kroda’ means anger, and ‘anta’, the one who destroys – ‘the destroyer of anger.

Purujit and Kuntibhoja came from Kunti-Bhoja, the kingdom that Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, came from. Purujit represents the quality that conquers material desire. They were the maternal uncles of the Pandavas. Shaibya was the father-in-law of Yudhishtir. He was a very powerful fighter and a man of great character. That’s why he was called ‘foremost among men’, ‘best among men’; in human qualities he represents contentment. “Yudhamanyu, the strong, and Uttamauja, the victorious”, the mighty and valiant. They were two princes, great fighters, and had great strength. What do they represent? Yudhamanyu represents loyalty and Uttamauja represents sincerity.

Abhimanyu, the son of Subhadra: Subhadra was the wife of Arjuna, the sister of Krishna. Abhimanyu represents leadership, excellence. Abhimanyu was killed very atrociously by the Kauravas.

The sons of Draupadi: Draupadi had five sons, one from each of her husbands. The name of the son of Yudhishtir was Prativindhya. He represents eternalness. Sutasoma from Bhima represents flexibility; Srutakarma from Arjuna represents purification; Satanika from Nakul represents excellence and calmness; Srutasena from Sahadev represents tolerance and patience.

They were all great heroes who were well-versed in the scriptures and in the science of arms. Even when they were still young, these commanders were all capable of commanding 10,000 bowmen. That was why they were called Maharathi: sarva eva mahārathāh. They had great control. They were fighters.

Duryodhan here again tried to remind Drona, “How powerful these people are and how strong! Even if their army is small, they have strength.” Seeing that Drona was not touched by all this, Duryodhan continued to flatter him. He tried to use beautiful words and flattery, trying to find a way to influence Drona.

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verse 3

paśyaitām pāṇḍu-putrāṇām 

ācārya mahatim camūm 

vyūḍhām drupada-putrena 

tava śişyena dhimatā

“Behold this mighty host of the sons of Pandu, O Acharya, arrayed by Drupada’s son, your intelligent disciple.”

Duryodhan was very clever. He wanted to excite Dronacharya and remind him of his vow of revenge against Drupada. He wanted to put the full spirit of revenge inside of Dronacharya. That’s why he said, “drupada-putrena”, referring to the son of Drupada named Dhrishtadyumna. He said, “Drona, look there! In front of you, there is the son of Drupada, your best childhood friend, who is now your enemy. Fight him!” With this cunningness, Duryodhan wanted to awaken revenge, “Wake up! Be vengeful!” That’s why he said ‘the son of Drupada.

When they were young, Dronacharya and Drupada had been best friends. Dronacharya’s father, Sri Bharadwaja, was the guru of his son and of Drupada. Drona and Drupada studied together and were best friends during their whole youth. Later on, Drupada became the king. Dronacharya remained very humble. He was the son of the great sage, Sri Bharadwaja, and was a simple person. He had a problem, so one day he went to his friend, King Drupada, to ask him for some advice. When he got there, Drupada didn’t acknowledge him as being his friend. Drupada had become very proud of his kingly status and when he looked at the poor brahmin, he didn’t feel like saying, “Yes, he is my friend.” Rather, he said, “He’s not my friend.” Dronacharya was very hurt, and said, “I will overthrow you!”

Drupada represents faith and strength, and Dronacharya greed. When greed arises, it overruns faith. When you are a pillar, you are strong in your true faith; but when greed is there, it will try to battle faith. Faith doesn’t acknowledge greed. That’s why Drupada said, “No, I don’t know you.” So because of that, Dronacharya said, “I will take revenge!” Dronacharya brought Arjuna to fight King Drupada. Arjuna won and Dronacharya took over the kingdom of Drupada. Sometimes greed can be very powerful, but Dronacharya was very good towards Drupada. He said, “When you were the king, you didn’t acknowledge me as your friend, but I acknowledge you as myfriend. I will not take over your whole kingdom. I will only take the northern part of your kingdom; you can keep ruling the southern part of your kingdom.” But King Drupada was very hurt. He did a big yagna, a fire ceremony, hoping that through the blessing he would have a son who would kill Drona. But he didn’t get a son. A daughter came out of the fire, by the name of Shikhandini. Shikandhini was the one who would later kill Bhishma Pitamah, Bhishma, the great seer, the mighty Bhishma. But to kill Bhishma, later she would have to become a man. This will come later on in the Gita. Now, however, Drupada was not happy having only a daughter. He carried on doing his ritual. Finally, a son, Dhrishtadyumna, came out of the fire. He was born with only one purpose: to kill Dronacharya.

Everybody knew why King Drupada had done this yagna. This yagna had been done to get the son who would kill Dronacharya. That’s why in this verse, Duryodhan said, “Look, Dronacharya, here is the son of Drupada!” This is very important: Duryodhan used the words, “the son of Drupada” “drupada- putrena”. He didn’t say the name of the son, Drishtadyumna, even though he knew the son’s name. He was reminding Dronacharya that the son was born only to kill him! That’s why he was created. Duryodhan was saying, “See what I am seeing! l am telling you this because the son’s purpose is to kill you. You have to be revengeful. You have to kill him.” In his cunningness, Duryodhan wanted to brainwash Dronacharya. He was reminding him that Dhrishtadyumna was very clever and a master in archery, “He is the commander of the Pandavas army. He is here to kill you.”

Duryodhan used the word tava sisyena dhimatā, “your intelligent disciple” your talented student. He was referring to the Pandavas saying, “The Pandavas were your favourite students, people you have favoured throughout your life. Look what they have become! They have put the one who will kill you in the front lines.” Dhrishtadyumna represents humility. The Pandavas have put humility in front. Duryodhan continued, “How clever they are! Don’t be weak! You have to wake up and fight them!” He tried to get the attention of Drona, he tried to take control of him. He said, “Look at the mighty army of the Pandavas, the mighty hosts of the sons of Pandu.”

Let’s look at their army. In Sanskrit, an army unit is called akshauhini. The Kauravas army had eleven akshauhini and the army of the Pandavas had only seven. The army of the Pandavas was smaller than the army of the Kauravas. That’s why it is said, “You just need a little goodness to win. You don’t need a lot. A little goodness can overcome all the bad qualities inside of a man.”

Here Duryodhan also used the word ‘mighty’ describing the army of the Pandavas. Even though the Kauravas’ army was bigger than the Pandavas’, the arrangement of the Pandavas’ army was far better. They were more disciplined than the Kauravas. The Kauravas had a big army, but they were completely like the Kauravas themselves; whereas the Pandavas were very disciplined. You see, these are the good qualities in man. When you culture good qualities, you are disciplined, but when you culture negative qualities, it is a mess. Duryodhan was pointing out to Drona, “Look at this big army we have, it’s a complete mess! But this little army of theirs is well-arranged.”

Let’s look at the size of the armies in the Mahabharat war. The Pandavas’ army had 7 akshauhini, which is 153,090 chariots with charioteer riders. They had 153,090 elephants plus the riders. They had 459,270 horses with horse riders. They also had 765,000 soldiers walking on foot, plus 450 more backing them. All together it made 1,530,000 soldiers and 900 reserve soldiers. The Kauravas army had 240,570 chariots and charioteers, 240,570 elephants, 721,710 horses and 1,200,850 walking soldiers. All together there were 2,455,700 soldiers in their armies. These were extremely big armies. Considering how many millions of people were there, we can say that the Mahabharat was the biggest war that has ever been fought until now. You won’t get millions of people in a war nowadays, even if there are that many people in the world. That’s why Duryodhan, in his cunningness, said to Dronacharya, “Look at the Pandavas’ army! We have a big army, but their little army is much more disciplined and organised.” He wanted to get the attention of Dronacharya and to push him to the limit.

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verse 2

sanjay uvaca 

drishtva tu pāndavāneekam 

vyoodham duryodhanstadā

āchaaryam upasangamaya

rājā vachanam abraveet

Sanjaya continued: Then the prince, Duryodhan, having seen the army of the Pandavas arrayed in battle order, approached his teacher, Dronacharya, and spoke these words:

In the translation, here is the word ‘prince’; but in the Sanskrit verse, raajaa vachanam, ‘raja’ actually means king and refers to the king, Duryodhan. Why does Sanjaya refer to him as ‘raja’? Because Duryodhan was a great man of state. His father, Dhritarashtra, was blind, so it was actually Duryodhan who was controlling the kingdom. His blind father, Dhritarashtra, represents the blind mind. What comes out of the blind mind is pride. Duryodhan represents this great pride that is born from the mind. When the mind is very active, one becomes proud, proud of many things: proud of knowledge, proud of what one has.

The army of the Pandavas was arrayed in a very special formation. Seeing this orderly formation, Duryodhan felt much nervousness and anxiety inside himself. Anxiety appears when one is proud. Even if pride appears very strong on the outside, in reality, it has a lot of weaknesses in it. Why does pride arise? Do you think it is out of strength? No! In reality, pride arises due to the weakness that one has inside. Even if somebody says, “Ah yes, I am very proud of this and I am very proud of that”, you can feel that this pride is actually weakness. When pride arises, people think, “Yes, I am very confident!” No. It’s the mind that perceives pride as being confidence. In reality, one is running away from something, from the opposite of pride, humility. When one is running away from humility, one only appears to be very grand and confident.

Seeing the army formation of the Pandavas, Duryodhan became anxious. When you start on the spiritual path, your pride sees all your good qualities, but then the mind becomes anxious. This pride tries to make you reason, tries to make you go sideways in a cunning way. That’s why Duryodhan rushed to Dronacharya, the great teacher of both the Kauravas and the Pandavas.

Dronacharya represents attachment to the material. He represents the greed in man. Dronacharya also had good qualities. He was a great teacher of military science. Sometimes he would even advise Bhishma. He was the royal guru. But when the pride of Duryodhan saw the greed in Dronacharya, he said, “Let me go and feed his greed. Let me corrupt him. Let me change him. Let me excite him!” Actually, Dronacharya didn’t want to fight, but he was bound by his duty. He could not quit his position and say, “No, I can’t!” Being the guru, he had to be there to advise.

Duryodhan approached him and tried to poison his mind. Duryodhan only wanted to please himself. He knew that this great teacher had taught the Pandavas how to fight. Seeing how the Pandavas’ army was arranged, he asked the teacher, “How can we use this army formation for our own purpose?” He didn’t approach the teacher to say, “Oh teacher, look, your best friend’s son is there, on the battlefield.” He went there for his own personal gain. Dronacharya was the second commanding officer of the army and Bhishma was the first commanding officer. Duryodhan knew that Dronacharya would become the first commanding officer of the army after Bhishma. So he wanted to be on good terms with him. Duryodhan started to honour Dronacharya and praise him. He tried to impress Dronacharya with nice words.

Bhagavad Gita 

Arjuna Vishaada Yoga

Chapter 1, Verse 1

dhritarashtra uvāca

dharmakshetre kurukshetre

samavetā yuyutsavah

māmakaah paandavāshchaiva

kim akurvata sanjaya

Dhritarashtra asked: On the field of Kurukshetra, the field of the working out of the dharma, gathered together, eager for battle, what did they do, O Sanjaya, my people and the Pandavas?

Dhritarashtra asked Sanjaya what was happening in the war, what was happening on the battlefield. This verse starts with Dharmakshetra. ‘Dharma’ means righteous, ‘kshetra’ means the field the field of righteousness. Kurukshetra: ‘kuru’ comes from ‘ku’, ‘kriya’, to do, to act, to work; ‘kshetra’ is the working field. Dhritarashtra asked, “What are my sons and the Pandavas doing?”

The moment Dhritarashtra used the words Dharmakshetra, Kurukshetra, he knew automatically that the place, the battlefield was not just a normal place. The battlefield was a holy place. This Kurukshetra was not just a normal place where they had chosen a field to have a war. It was a place where dharma was fulfilled. It was a place where one was liberated. That’s why it is said that whoever dies at Kurukshetra, even nowadays, is elevated into higher spheres, or liberated according to their merit, their punya. Kurukshetra is also referred to as Punyakshetra, because on this field one gets good merit, good punya.

What was this field where the war happened? The war has different meanings. One of the meanings of this war is life, where the good side fights with the not-good side. This war is not outside, it is also here, in this body. Your physical body is the dharmakshetra. You have incarnated to do your dharma in this field. That’s the dharmakshetra. Life is dharmakshetra. You have come to fulfil the Divine purpose. When you are in tune with your true Self, you realise what is your true purpose in life: to attain the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to attain His Grace. And that’s what dharmakshetra is reminding you. Do your dharma! Awake! This dharma can be done with the greatest gift which God has given this field, this body. And when you start doing your dharma, you’ll – get good merit, you’ll get good punya! But, if you run away from your dharma, then you turn towards the dark side.

In this verse, Dhritarashtra referred to his sons, gathered on this battlefield. This battlefield represents the battlefield of life. On the field of life, you have both: the good and the not-good, the good and the bad. Dhritarashtra said, “My people,” meaning his sons and the Pandavas, and asked, “What are they doing?” Dhritarashtra had a hundred sons and the Pandavas were the five sons of his brother, Pandu. And now, there was war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

What does the blind king represent? This blind king, Dhritarashtra, represents the mind the mind which is blind and wants to stay blind. The mind is hanging on to the outside so much that it has power only when it is focused on something exterior: on the material, on relationships, on gaining this or gaining that. This is the nature of the mind. The mind is blind. When Dhritarashtra asked, “What are my sons doing?” don’t think that he was very concerned about the Pandavas. He was only concerned about his sons. He was more bothered about, “What will I gain?” Somebody with a crooked mind will always try to find what he will gain. This is avariciousness. He was not concerned about the war before, but when he saw that he would lose something, then his mind felt threatened, his mind started to react. In his mind he had doubts and asked, “What is happening? Now that Bhishma has fallen down, what is the reaction of my sons? What is the reaction of the Pandavas? Surely, this must cause a reaction in their minds. With the fall of Bhishma, did my sons realise that they have to change or not?” The mind is always the same. The mind thinks, thinks, thinks, and thinks, but when you try to control it, what happens? It’s a fight, no? It rebels!

He continued to inquire: “Will there be changes happening to my people and the Pandavas?” Both families were from the Kuru dynasty. But the king refused to recognise the Pandavas. The mind doesn’t recognise the good qualities which are present in oneself. The mind can only look towards the senses, looking always towards the outside. The Self, the positive qualities which are present inside, are not comprehended by the mind. So, then Sanjaya continued saying:

Bhagavad Gita