If the Gita is contextual, why is it considered such an important scripture?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if the Bhagavad Gita is contextual then why is it given so much importance actually the context is not essential substance when the context is a substance literally when Arjuna is fighting a war should we all also fight a war no, because there is a political activist who said India’s greatest wonder after independence is that it did not follow the Bhagavad Gita because if we had followed the Bhagavad Gita within 24 hours of the creation of Pakistan we would have conquered Pakistan that is the idea of the Bhagavad Gita just an idea of what we should have thought as we say Bhagavad Gita is not a book of violence nor is it a book of silence it is a book of transcendence so now how that transcendence can be practiced will vary depending on the circumstances so another devotee from West Africa was telling me that there is in West Africa there is hardline religion 60% of the people are Christians 35% of the people are Muslims and both are hardline so often there is violence so the government gave a sort of informal appraisal of Islam saying that among all the religious groups that are there your group has never been involved in any rioting or violence all other groups have done something so now he said what is significant is that your group is based on a book which talks about violence and still you don’t know the context so how is that? because the context is a particular context for a particular purpose so we should always need to understand the difference between the context and the substance so the Bhagavad Gita if you see the context of the violence none of the Acharyas whether it be Advaitins like Shankaracharya or Advaitins like Madhavacharya nobody has said that violence is necessary so they have all differentiated the context and the essence so that differentiation is very much required and as far as people quoting the Bhagavad Gita against our renouncing the world is concerned yes we have to understand that the Bhagavad Gita says Sarvabhagavad Gita and we just surrender and we are giving up all varieties of life so what actually speaking even as renunciating is not literally renouncing the world because renunciation is going all over the world we are practicing bhakti in the renunciation there is a difference renunciation means we are actually practicing bhakti and the uncool way the way that we have performed bhakti is in the renounced ashram Pramacharya ashram so the Bhagavad Gita’s message is not just Karma Yoga Karma Yoga is talked about actually when I talk about karma my emphasis was not so much on the path of karma as in the mystery of bhakti it was on the path of action in the world the Bhagavad Gita does not ask us to renounce the world rather it asks us to act in the world so in that sense it is hold up it is not basically Karma Yoga is not talked about as the conclusion of the Gita anyway wherever Karma Yoga comes up sooner or later after Bhakti Yoga comes up third chapter 3.9 3.9 is myself, my karma and this Bhagavad Gita itself then there is again in 18th chapter and that goes ultimately from 18.41 starts but again 18.25 goes to and then 18.56 myself that whatever Karma Yoga is so Karma Yoga is not a mystery of Bhagavad Gita the context is definitely that we should engage in the world we should act in the world but the message is not to act at the Karma level or even at the Karma Yoga level Karma level means Karma Mani don’t act in the world at the Karma Mani level don’t act in the world at the Karma Yoga level but act in the world at the Bhakti Yoga level and that is what we want to do even in the renounced order, what to speak of the householder order we are acting in the world and we are trying to help raise the consciousness of the world in whatever way we can so the differentiation between the context and the essence is essential for understanding anything and that is actually a part of the education in Shastra and if somebody says that Bhagavad Gita doesn’t ask us to renounce the world yes, but it does ask us to engage in the world, not just to make a bribe, but for raising our consciousness and raising others consciousness and we found that the best way we can do that is through the renounced order so the Bhagavad Gita does not reject renunciation for a sake it rejects renunciation in terms of inaction by accepting the renounced order we are automatically in the world we are changing the world any other questions?