Bhagavatgita is the most cherished sacred scripture of Hindus. The title means the song of the Lord. It is embedded in the longest epic of the World Mahabharata. Bhagavatgita often called as Gita in short is only about the length of St. John's Gospel in the New Testament.
Mahabhatata means the great war of Bharatas. It tells the story of war between two celebrated royal families Kaurav (Dhritarastra's 100 sons known as Kuru Princes) and Pandav (Pandu's 5 sons known as Pandav Princes) of the great plain of Hastinapura, northen India. Kuru princes were all bad and the worst was Duryodhan and Pandu princes were all good in character. Arjuna one of the middle one in age in Pandu princes, is the real hero of Mahabharata. He is a young man of dauntless bravery, generous and tender hearted and easily moved to compassion. As the princess grew to manhood, there was increasing jealousy and hostility between them as Duryodhana tricked out of their prospects. And Pandav princes were compelled to raise arms against their own cousins for justice. This brings us to the end of the fifth chapter or Parvan to use the technnical term of the Mahabharata and it's in the sixth that we meet with the Bhagavatgita.
Kuru's and Pandav's armies are in the battle array and the war has already been declared. Arjun is seated in his war chariot accompained by Krishna(Lord) as his charioteer. Krishna has refused to take up arms on either side since he's closely related to both side princes. The trumpets are blowing and all eyes are on Arjuna whose responsibility is to commence the battle on behalf of Pandav. But at that very moment, he hesitates.
His heart has been smitten with compunction. He forsees the death agony of innocent warriors of both sides for nothing rather than the mighty lust of their leaders. He thinks to wage war against one's own kinsfolk for love of earthly power is an evil work. He is filled with revulsion and fells sick in his heart. It's his noble spirit, Krishna says. Arjun has forgotten for the moment one of the most fundamental doctrines of Indian religious belief that life goes on however often the body that's its vehicle dies and makes way for another. In other words, Indian religious belief advocates immortal human soul.
The individual human soul can never cease to be. It's industructible. It's not born, nor can it ever die. No dart can pierce it. No flame can consume it, no water drown it, no scorching breezes dry it up. It's eternal, incomprehensible altogether deathless. Why make such a fuss, then about killing a man or in getting killed? It's only the body that's involved in the slaying, the spirit goes on to inhabit another body. The end of birth is death and the end of death is a new birth.
Finally two armies are free to fight and slay and be slain. The pandava brothers are eventully victorous. The tremendous epic concludes with their renunciation of the gained kingdom and their ascent to heaven. But all this is comparatively unimportant. The real worth of the ancient poem lies in Gita. The inculcation of bhakti, love of God menifested in human form is the great doctrine of the Bhagavatgita that has become incorporated in the spiritual ingeritence of the Hindu people.
The main theme of the content of Bhagavadgita is the explanation of five basic concepts of Truth. They are Ishwara (The supreme controller), Jiva ( living beings, soul), Prakriti (nature, matter), Karma (action) and Kala (time). At the time of hesitation to wage war, Krishna counsels Arjuna on various aspects of Dharma with do's and don'ts. What action should he raise and how time controls all.
The pre-christian scripture Gita ia a dramatic poem. It's one of the widely accepted and renouned holy books in the World that deals with the absolute truth. From the verse of this religious scripture, one can get solace and begins to smile even in the midest of overwhelming tragedies.
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