Gita 18.50 The Gita’s purpose is not to describe spiritual paths but to analyze them for making an informed choice

Transcript

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18.55 here Krishna is speaking about how we can attain perfection and he is telling that he will summarize that process siddhim prapto one will attain that perfection siddhi itha brahma the perfection of attaining brahman brahman refers to spiritual reality spiritual level of existence so how one can attain spiritual existence siddhim prapto itha brahma itha apnoti nibodhame itha apnoti nibodhame nibodhame bodha means to enquire, to get the knowledge, to enlight buddha is one who is enlightened bodha means one who enlightens bodhayanta parasparam Krishna has spoken in the 10th chapter 9th verse machitta madgata pranam bodhayanta parasparam kathayanta shyamam ityam tushyanti charam antichyam he has said that bodhayanta ha those who can in this way enlighten themselves those who enlighten each other that is great devotees dedicated devotees they dedicate their lives to Krishna they constantly think of Krishna and they enlighten each other so I will explain to you nibodhame so itha apnoti nibodhame samasena eva kaunteya samasena means in summary the Bhagavad Gita is not a detailed book outlining any spiritual path because Arjuna is not unaware of spirituality Arjuna is primarily indecisive as unable to decide which spiritual path to follow when we have say two career options and we don’t know which career option to choose at that time what we primarily need is some counseling about the pros and cons of various career options so that we can choose the right one we don’t really need detailed explanation about how to pursue a particular career that knowledge of course is required but that can be got elsewhere or that we may even have it say if a child in a family has a mother who is a doctor and a father who is an engineer and the child is now confused should I become an engineer or a doctor then for choosing among these two the child will have to work towards understanding the in a holistic sense the pros and cons so after understanding the pros and cons the child will choose and the counselor may tell also briefly the counselor is helping them make a decision may tell them briefly that this is how you can go about this path so for Arjuna his confusion was should he fight the war or should he not fight the war and among those two options choosing one option was not easy so to choose the right option he had to focus on moving steady he had to understand the pros and cons so that is what the Bhagavad Gita is all about and of course to give those pros and cons the Bhagavad Gita elaborates a world view which the parts of which the components of which are known to Arjuna also but the integrated framework and how how within that integrated framework various items fall where that is what he needs to understand and that is what the Bhagavad Gita offers to him so here in we see the basic principle that none of us can ever go beyond the basic principle is that everyone of us has to deal with specific issues and nishtha jnana siddhabara whatever path we follow we need some knowledge for that jnana and we need some faith nishtha when we are choosing a particular career knowledge alone is not enough along with knowledge we need faith because we just don’t know somebody may say that after doing this career, after choosing this career after choosing this particular path you can get a lucrative job and you can have prestigious society you may even have a chance to travel across the world now whether all that is going to actually happen or not we can’t know in advance we have to take a leap of faith of course that faith is not blind it can be educated faith, it can be reasonable faith faith that is based on proper analysis and that faith may also be confirmed by the experience of the others and in due course it may be confirmed by our experience also but still there is faith that is vitally needed so Krishna has various verses which act like thought flow providing verses so sometimes when a subject is intricate then sometimes in a book or in a class speaker may tell we have spoken till now I have completed this point now I will go on to this point now we have analysed this subject then we will go on to that subject so that kind of analysis or understanding helps us to move forward steadily in whatever we are doing it helps us move towards greater clarity and comprehension of the subject matter being studied therefore by pursuing this holistic kind of understanding we can progress in our spiritual life also so when Krishna is giving us the Bhagavad Gita which is like a spiritual guidebook he provides flow verses which can aid us in comprehension