Essence of Gita 1 – Love is eternal

Today we will discuss essence of the Gita's essence is to be condensed to one word that word will be love, the Gita explains that love is the highest reality that beyond whatever seems attractive whatever captures our heart underlying it all, unifying it all is love and love is the deepest longing of our heart and Bhagavad Gita explains that what is the deepest longing of our heart is also the deepest reality of life now what love is and how love is the highest reality that requires philosophy to understand and Bhagavad Gita's philosophy is actually a prelude to its message of love so the Gita begins with a very dramatic setting there is a terrible fratricidal war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas two sets of cousins which is about to take place on the battle of Kurukshetra and in this battle field the Bhagavad Gita message unfolds Arjuna who is about to fight the war and he is the foremost commander, foremost fighter on the side of the Pandavas who are virtuous and who are fighting the Kauravas who are vicious Arjuna on seeing how warriors have assembled on both sides and how these warriors are actually related to him and related to each other and he sees almost seven generations of relatives going up to his great grandfather, down to his grandsons so when he sees this he starts feeling oh what a colossal fratricide is about to happen here how can I endure it how can I be a cause of it and with this understanding he gives various reasons why he should not fight and he puts aside his bow he has raised his bow to fight but by the end of the first chapter he puts aside his bow विष्वित्यस सरं जापम् शोक सरं विग्णवान सहाम् and it is at this point that Bhagavan Shri Krishna who is the supreme lord descended in the world as an avatar as a divine descent starts speaking and he starts his spiritual wisdom, starts sharing it from the 10th verse of the second chapter onwards and intermittently Arjuna asks questions and Krishna gives answers and by the end of the Gita the last verse describes यत्रयोगेश्वर क्रिष्णो यत्रपार्थो दन्धरः तत्रश्रीविजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवानी तिर्म तिर्मम यत्रयोगेश्वर क्रिष्णो that where there is Krishna the supreme mystic and where there is Arjuna the supreme archer यत्रपार्थो दन्धरः तत्रश्रीविजयो भूतिर्वानी there there will be wealth there there will be victory there will be all opulence over there ध्रुवानी तिर्म तिर्मम ध्रुवानी तिर्म तिर्मम this is my understanding of it now Sanjay is speaking this so the Bhagavad Gita is spoken at two different narrative frame has two nested conversations it begins with Dhritarashtra asking and Sanjay answering and then Sanjay is reporting the conversation that is happening at Kurukshetra between Krishna and Arjuna so the point is 18.78 in the Bhagavad Gita is stating that Arjuna has lifted up his bow that means Arjuna has become ready to fight and this from discouragement to confidence the discouragement as symbolized by Arjuna putting aside his bow and his encouragement his confidence as represented by Arjuna picking up the bow that is a graphic demonstration of the transformative power of love the Bhagavad Gita's message of love can transform us from disillusionment to enlightenment from diffidence to confidence from confusion to determination as it did to Arjuna so the Gandiva's Arjuna's bow celebrated bow named Gandiva represents at a generic level our determination our determination to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming obstacles and that determination can often get lost but when we meditate on the timeless spiritual wisdom of the Gita then we get strength to again resume our duty to do the right thing so Mahatma Gandhi said that when doubts haunt me when disappointment stares me in the face when I see not a ray of hope in the horizon at that time I remember a verse from the Gita and I start smiling in the face of overwhelming disappointment so those who meditate on the verses of the Gita may derive fresh insights from it, fresh wisdom from it everyday so the Bhagavad Gita what does it tell us by which it can bring about such transformation such encouragement such illumination as happened to Arjuna at one level now Arjuna's arguments may seem reasonable oh why should one fight for fight against one's relatives for some property isn't it better than to be peaceful yes certainly if the Kurukshetra war had just been a property dispute then the conversation which preceded the fratricidal war over a property dispute that conversation would hardly ever have been immortalized the Bhagavad Gita's essence rises far beyond its battlefield setting yes the battlefield is the setting in which the Gita's message is spoken but the setting is not the substance the setting is meant to attract us by the sheer drama and trauma of the setting to catch our attention and focus on the substance so the Bhagavad Gita tells Arjuna and through Arjuna all of us that love is an enduring reality when it is based on reality if love is based on a foundation that is not an enduring reality then that very love can become the cause of disappointment and frustration so the Bhagavad Gita begins by telling Arjuna oh you are affectionate towards your relatives, towards your elders yes but understand who they are they are not their physical shells they are their spiritual selves they are eternal and indestructible so Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that that the soul cannot be destroyed by any weapon whatsoever and Arjuna you are that soul and those whom you love are also souls that are indestructible and as the Bhagavad Gita message progresses it explains that our longing for love stems from our spiritual core, our soul and the body is as it is right now just an insensitive dress just as we give up old dress and take a new dress similarly the soul gives up old body and takes a new body so if we restrict our love for a person to simply the dress of the person suppose somebody comes to meet then we just oh how beautiful your dress is oh how unclean your dress is and we don't ask the person do you want some water do you want some food, how are you doing we don't care for the person we just focus on the dress of that person then our love is incomplete and misdirected similarly if we restrict our love for others to simply their physical shells then our love is incomplete and misdirected we need to love the complete person and that love for the complete person is based on an understanding of what the complete person is and the Bhagavad Gita expands our conception of life in terms of both its breadth and its length normally we think of the length of life as beginning from birth and ending in death but the Bhagavad Gita explains that that death is not the end death is a transition and birth is also not the beginning birth is simply the entry the soul has existed in many lives before and the soul will exist for many lives afterwards so in this way the Bhagavad Gita expands our conception of life in terms of length, we are eternal beings we are not just bundles of protoplasm who are somehow flapping around and who can be finished with just a bug or a bank no we are indestructible beings when we understand for example when we discover say that we have a talent one day we go to a party and there is a harmonium over there and suddenly a person starts playing that and we find that we are playing very well and we would be delighted to discover that we have something which we did not even know that we had so if some unknown relative dies and leaves a big inheritance for us we would be so happy to know that to get that inheritance so if we had some asset which we did not know about and when we come to know about it it is such an enriching enlivening and empowering experience so then what to speak of some skill or some asset if we understand that we ourselves have a side to us that we didn't know of and that side is indestructible that side is indefatigable that side is transcendental then how good we will feel so that is what we are Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that when we understand that we are the soul it is an amazing thing to contemplate, to see, to hear to perceive so now this soul which is our core is actually the foundation for the life of love so when we understand our spiritual identity and we understand that our identity as soul is indestructible and our longing for love comes from that soul then we can direct that longing in the eternal realm where it can find lasting fulfillment thank you, we will continue in our next session on the further teachings of the Gita Hare Krishna.