Gita Verses 1 The Context – Gita 1.1

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is more of setting the stage for the discussion. So we’ll go little faster and once we come to the philosophy and the wisdom we will go sooner So the Bhagavad Gita is a text with 18 chapters in it and it has 700 texts which are often called as verses the word the Bhagavad Gita itself the name refers to Gita is song Bhagavad is God or divinity so the divine song the song of God these are some of the English translations of this words and it’s a Eastern philosophical classic it discusses yoga karma bhakti destiny identity ultimately it discusses the what might be the most important question of life you know what makes life meaningful that what is it that we can do so that our life is lived most meaningful especially when we are faced with difficult situations in our life and its first chapter is largely putting the setting where this conversation is happening so there are 46 verses in the first chapter and these are actually about as I said there is the context and then there is the text so the context is largely put in chapter one and then the actual text goes over the next 17 chapters from chapter 2 to chapter 18 and here the Gita is put as a conversation within a conversation so the core conversation is between Krishna and Arjuna and we’ll talk about these two characters in due course but Krishna refers to the divine the divinity who descended to the world Arjuna refers to the human being you could say the he represents all of us and beyond that there is a bigger conversation which is between a king Dhritarashtra and Sanjay so this first verse is be spoken by Dhritarashtra to Sanjay and Gita’s context is that it is spoken just before a climactic war the Gita is a part of a much bigger book called the Mahabharata and the Mahabharata is considered one of the longest poems in world history it has a hundred and ten thousand verses which is bigger than the Iliad in the Odyssey combined together and multiplied by seven times and within that it is among the middle books the sixth book which is called in that it is a certain set of 18 chapters is what this book is all about and in this book in the Mahabharata there are two sides they are cousins they are called the Pandavas who are broadly the virtuous side and the Kauravas who are the vicious side and they are having a climactic battle in a place called Kurukshetra and the Kauravas the father is Dhritarashtra and he is having this discussion with his assistant Sanjay so the Gita begins with that point and that’s why the first verse is that Dhritarashtra is talking with Sanjay now the war itself is happening at a place called Kurukshetra and this place is not important but the broader context is and so this is where the Krishna Arjuna discussion is going to happen there is another place which is the capital of the city it’s called the capital of the kingdom Hastinapur and that is where Dhritarashtra and Sanjay they are having their discussion so war were more like sporting context contest so war was not involved involving civilians that’s why it was decided at this particular place we will fight while the two armies are assembled in the first text the question that is being asked by Dhritarashtra to Sanjay it’s you know you could each text you could put into four parts there are four lines and sometimes it’s helpful to analyze a text in terms of what it is saying so Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra so at Kurukshetra so which is the place of virtue the word Dharma is quite critical in the Bhagavad Gita it will come on many occasions let’s and it can be translated in different ways but at this point its translation is broadly virtue the place of virtue of piety of sanctity Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra Samaveta Yudhsava so assembled to fight so I’m doing approximate translation over here just to get us a sense of what is happening so the place is described the first line and in the activity you could say more of the intended activity that’s described in the second line mamakaha Pandavas chaiva this is this is my sons versus the Pandavas they are assembled so you could say that here the if you consider a movie the protagonists who are the characters involved as described keep a poor but the Sanjaya what did they do so there’s a actual activity so there was they assembled to fight but what did they actually do there is a question so it’s an interesting setup over here at one level the question the last was is a question the question can seem either redundant that okay they assemble to fight and what they do it like somebody assembled in a party and to dance and what they do somebody came sat down on a to eat a feast and what did they do so it can seem either completely redundant what’s the point of asking the question so so is it redundant over here so this first question while it is largely about the context it also contains a indication towards the text so the idea is that if somebody is asking a redundant question they all sat down to eat what came a so what happened what did they do so now the question could mean that there is some unknown or unpredictable factor involved is to give a maybe a little graphic example suppose in this party where everybody’s sitting to have a feast maybe there is a time bomb that is kept over there and that’s going to explode did it explode what happened so that now the question is not exactly did the time bomb explode what actually happened over there so there is when there is an obvious and there is a question with an obvious answer that suggests that there is something more going on over there either the person is foolish to ask that question or there is something more over there so it’s foreshadowing in a very indirect way and the foreshadowing word here is Dharma so Dharma is virtue and it’s interesting that this is called a place of virtue so the idea is that every place can have its own influence you know suppose two people go to a very scenic hill station and there they are they are going to have some very heavy-duty high-octane confrontation negotiation maybe you say America and Russia have a go to Camp David and they want to have some discussion or somewhere like that now if it’s a very scenic peaceful place then if there’s a confrontation in a peaceful place then or confrontational discussion in a very peaceful place and the question might come up okay did the peaceful place have some effect did just being in that serene natural environment who the temperatures of the people did they decide that maybe we shouldn’t be fighting so like that the point over here is Dharma the place of Dharma the word is Dharma Kshetra the place of Dharma did this have an effect and if yes it had an effect what was the effect so they came to fight but did they actually fight or did they have some rethinking about it and this is where the Gita actually addresses a very important ethical question about war and this will be a consistent theme in the first chapter but when a war is about to happen and wars can be brutal so generally it’s best if wars can be avoided if issues can be resolved peacefully so the question here is that there is one side which is virtuous and there is one side which is vicious and the place of Dharma is going to affect both of them or is it going to affect either of them so the vicious side could decide that maybe their voice decreases and they say maybe let’s not fight if their animosity that might they might think let’s not fight or it could also happen that the virtues people maybe they are affected by the place of Dharma now if it’s a virtuous fight how my virtuous people are there how might they be affected their intention might increase no virtues in our side we will win so let’s fight or it could be that is this really worth fighting for is is it is all this bloodshed and violence is really worth it that kind of question could also come in them so the point is that here the whole idea is in that particular place that Dharma how did it affect them keep a cool water what did they do did they go along with the predicted plan of fighting or was there some unexpected effect and if that was expected unexpected effect was there what was that effect so the virtues that confidence could increase or you could say they’re so much like their hesitation or their reservation that could increase or for the vicious that could be like a deterrence so any of these could happen and that’s the question that is being raised over here and the subsequent verses will describe how who was affected by the events over there and that way this whole series the first words it’s it’s pregnant with a lot of symbolism there is a explicit wording of the words but there is an implicit message within that and as I said the Dharma the word Dharma Dharma is sometimes translated as religion sometimes translated virtue but Dharma is also translated as in this concept the right thing to do the responsible thing to do and the whole Gita which will be spoken over there is about how to determine the right thing to do the here right right thing to do is discussed not so much in a moral sense morality is definitely there but it’s more a sense of meaning what is the most meaningful thing to do life when we are faced with difficulties so we discuss broadly three points we discuss broadly the intro to the text that it has 18 chapters 700 verses it’s a part of the Mahabharata and then we discussed also the setting of what is being spoken over there and then we discuss the the the implicit question the unasked question and the asked question that the implicit question points to some unpredictable factor that is what did they do after they assembled for the battlefield or assembled to fight the unpredictable factor the wild card that is the place of virtue the place of Dharma what did how did it have an effect and then we discuss the possible effects on those who are virtuous their confidence might be increased or there you could say that their hesitation might increase and for the vicious maybe the deterrence might increase among them so how it affected either of them that’s what will be described in the subsequent words thank you very much Hare Krishna