Teachings of the Gita

“The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the perennial philosophy ever to have been made. Hence its enduring value, not only for Indians, but for all mankind...The Bhagavadgita is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the perennial philosophy.”
–Aldous Huxley

The Bhagavadgitaor Song Celestial, a Gospel of philosophical Hinduism, is among the greatest religious classics of the world. Described by James W. Douglas as the “supreme literary expression of Hinduism,” it is rightly regarded as the quintessence of the Upanishads, that deathless cultural spiritual heritage of Indians.¹ It does not represent any sect of Hinduism, but Hinduism itself. What is more important, it does not represent merely Hinduism, but religion as such “in its universality, without limit of time or space ... ... …”

The seven hundred verses of the Gitaform Chapters XXIII-XL of the Bhishmaparva of the Mahabharata, one of the two national epics of India. They are believed to have been composed by sage Vyasa, the legendary author of the Mahabharata. The traditional teacher of the Bhogavadgita, Lord Krishna, is believed to have taught the Gita to the third Pandava, Arjuna, as the Bharata war was about to begin. But he could not have certainly recited the whole of it on the eve of an armageddon. As pointed out by Dr. Radhakrishnan, “He must have said a few pointed things which were later elaborated by the narrator into an extensive work.” ²

The Bhagavadgitais later than the early Upanishads in point of time. But it precedes the development of the six orthodox Hindu philosophical schools and their formulation in Sutras (aphorisms). It may, therefore, be assigned to the 5th century B. C. The alteration of the text during the subsequent centuries cannot, however, be ruled out.

The Gita together with the Brahmasutras and the Upanishads, constitutes the Prasthanatraya of the Vedanta. The three form a trilogy and are looked upon as the basic scriptures of philosophical Hinduism. They are all highly authoritative. “The Bhagavadgita and the Upanishads,” observes G. W. Russell, “contain such God-like fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel their authors must have looked with calm remembrance through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such certainty of things of which the soul feels to be so sure.”

The Bhagavadgita, it must be noted, is not a scriptural work. Nor is it a theological treatise. It occupies a middle position between scripture and theology and is not so much a philosophical treatise as a religious classic and in the words of Aldous Huxley, “contains the poetical qualities of a scripture as well as the methodicalness of theology.”

The significance of the Bhagavadgitahas been summed up by a German scholar J. W. Hauer in the following words, “We are called (in the Bhagavadgita)not to solve the meaning of life but to find out the Deed demanded of us and to work, and so, by action, to master the riddle of life.” ³

The Bhagavadgitais an inexhaustible store-house of valuable lessons of profound wisdom, which heeded and acted on, will go a long way to solve the day-to-day problems of our personal lives and cure the imbalance and hysteria from which the modern man suffers. By removing the malaise from which the contemporary society suffers, they (the teachings of the Bhagavadgita)will restore the balance of our sickly world.

One of the problems the Gita responds to is the “classic Hindu identification of action with bondage to a lower self.” Action kindles passion (the desire for one’s own ends), which, according to the law of Karma, binds its doer “to the self-centred cycle of his own deeds.” The Mundaka Upanishad, the earliest Hindu response to the problem, prescribes total abstinence from work. To attain Moksha (Liberation) one must renounce all activities and pursue a wholly contemplative way of life. But this is a counsel of perfection, which cannot be practised. “None can live without work even for a moment. Natural impulses overpower man and induce him to work.”⁴ Whether we want it or not, the eyes must see, the ears must hear and the body must feel as long as we are alive. Lord Krishna, therefore, exhorts Arjuna, “Do always the duty allotted to you. Action is better than inaction. The physical life itself cannot be sustained without action.” ⁵

The Gita prescribes a golden mean between action with passion and utter inaction. We must work as long as we live. But we must not think of the results of our work. We must work in a spirit of detachment, which alone can open the golden gate to the Kingdom of God, which is in fact within us. Krishna, therefore, exhorts Arjuna to work without caring for results. You have a right to action alone, but not to its results. Let not results be the motive of your work. Nor should you be attached to inaction. Fixed in yoga, go on doing your duties. Give up attachment unperturbed by success and failure. “Evenness of mind is called yoga.” ⁶ He further advises Arjuna, “So do your duty in a spirit of detachment. Man achieves liberation, the goal of human life, by work without attachment to the results thereof.” ⁷ This is quite in keeping with what the Isopanishad says in its opening verse, “The whole world is the garment of the Lord. Renounce it, then, and receive it as the gift of God.” ⁸

The cultivation of the habit of work in a spirit of detachment will culminate in the conquest of one’s own mind, which is the greatest of all conquests. A man who has conquered his own mind, has in fact conquered the whole world. ⁹ Such a man is the ideal man according to the Gita–a Sthitaprajna or a man with steadfast wisdom. Such a man remains unperturbed under all circumstances. Adulation and condemnation are all alike to him. Pains and pleasures have no difference for him. The Bhagavadgita elaborates this ideal in a number of verses. ¹⁰

Nature compels us to work in one way or another as long as we are alive. The instinct to work is in fact a part of our being. “The problem of liberation therefore is not simply one of action, but of right action, and the Gita says action is liberation when one has renounced its fruits.” ¹¹ We should set before ourselves the ideal of “nishkama karma” i.e, self-less or disinterested work. We cannot remain without working; because God has implanted in us the desire to work. Whether we want it or not, we have to work. Lord Krishna, therefore, tells Arjuna–“What you do not wish to do through delusion, you have to do against your own will, fettered by your own acts, which are born of your nature”. ¹² Man is driven to work by the compulsive power of his nature. The heart of man is at the centre of action. All work must be purified of attachment. It then becomes real “Puja” or worship. But it is easier said than done. The Bhagavadgita, however, shows the way. We must sublimate all our acts by surrendering the results thereof to God. Lord Krishna advises Arjuna, “Dedicate to me whatever work you do, whatever food you eat, whatever offering you make (to the gods), whatever you give away in charity ; austerities you practise.” ¹³ Once the hankering for the fruits of one’s actions is conquered, one can easily concentrate one’s entire being totally upon union with God. This union is further facilitated by absolute and unquestioning surrender and genuine, whole-hearted devotion to God. Krishna thus tells Arjuna, “Dear that you are to me, I promise you truly that you will come to me by fixing your mind on me, by devotion to me, sacrificing to me and by prostrating yourself before Me.” ¹⁴

This doctrine of absolute surrender to God leads naturally to another conclusion. To all intents and purposes, man is but a tool in the hands of God. This has been emphasized by the Gita also in another context where Krishna tells Arjuna that overpowered by pride man regards as the doer (of deeds). ¹⁵ It is in fact God within man, who guides and controls all his activities. Krishna tells Arjuna that God abides in the hearts of all beings, that he makes them (beings) turn round by his power as if they were mounted on a machine. ¹⁶

The Bhagavadgita expounds and emphasizes the great doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It is, according to the Gita, “Unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval” and “is not slain when the body is slain.”¹⁷ It is invincible to weapons. Fire does not burn it, water does not make it wet nor does air make it dry.¹⁸ It is ever-lasting, all-pervading, unchanging, immovable and the same forever. ¹⁹

What, then, is death? The Gita asserts that it is only a change of an old and infirm body for a new one. Just as men discard worn out garments and put on new ones, so also does the soul take a new body when the existing body is old, infirm and incapable.²⁰ The soul, in other words, is distinct from the physical body. It is deathless. It has no beginning, no end.

We hear an echo of this in the Pali literature in the Buddhist nun, Patachara’s consolation to bereaved mothers.

“Weep not, for such is here the life of man
Unasked he came, unbidden went he home
Lo ask thyself again whence came thy son
To bide on earth this little breathing space
By one way come and by another gone……..
So hither and so hence–why should ye weep?” ²¹

The Buddha too had consoled Kisa Gotami (Krishna Gautami) in much the same language, who had lost her only son and requested the Blessed One to bring him to life.

The Bhagavadgita clearly anticipates Communism minus its crudities and cruelties. We read in the Gita that a learned Brahmin with humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a Chandala (an outcaste) are all equal in the eyes of the sages. ²² The verse in which we read it thus preaches in unambiguous terms the equality of all life, human and otherwise, and goes beyond Western Communism, which seeks to bring down all to the same level by oppressive brute force. In strong contrast stands the above message of the Gita in which there is no question of coercion and oppression. One can look upon all as equal only when one realizes the Vedantic teaching that life is one and indivisible. But this realization comes only after long years of arduous spiritual training and discipline. It never comes to most of us. But the Asian, African and European Communists are trying force to reach this goal. It reminds of a mystic song of Medieval Bengal “Will you fry the bud of mind in fire? (Nithur garaji tui ki manas mukul bhajbi aguney?) Instead of trying to change the heart of man, i.e., change him internally, they are trying to change him externally. It is a classical example of post hoc ergo propter hoc, of putting the cart before the horse. And what is the result? After years of massacre–according to recent expert study, 36 million people have been liquidated in China alone since 1949 when the communists came to power in that country–and repression these countries are as far from the goal of equality as ever. Their attempt as equality is doomed to failure unless they change their way, which is wrong on the face of it. Inequality is no less rampant in the Communist countries than in their non-Communist counterparts. We can deny that an uncrossable, unbridgeable chasm yawns between the Commisars, the new bureaucrats and the new rich on the one hand and the common citizens on the other, and the party bosses on the one hand and the cadres on the other? Thought is regimented, the press and the intellectuals are gagged. “A hundred flowers do not bloom” as in the democratic countries. Thousands rot in concentration camps. The party line must be toed unquestioningly. The large majority of the people eke out a miserable living while an elite minority roll in luxury. The majority have to do the biddings of the minority. Old classes have been liquidated no doubt. But their place has been taken by new classes. These unfortunate and perhaps unforeseen developments are to be blamed on the eagerness of the Communist leaders for quick results. They have begun from the wrong end by forcing external changes to the neglect of the internal.

To accept equality as the Law of Nature and an attitude of equality to all are possible only for men with discernment, which has to be acquired by strenuous efforts, by prayers and meditation. Blinkers drop off our eyes when discernment has been acquired. Ignorance is best dispelled by prayers and meditation. As Henry Adam puts it, “After all, man knows mighty little, and may some day learn enough of his own ignorance to fall down and pray.” ²³ Through prayer and meditation alone can man realize that there is no great or small, no high or low in God’s creation, that every thing and every individual is best in its and his or her place. The realization does not come quickly, but once it comes, it lasts for ever. It transforms the person who realizes it and is reflected in his or her everyday life. It will do away with the storms and stresses in our lives and make the world a much better and happier place to live in.

The Bhagavadgita breathes so profound wisdom of perennial value in most of its seven hundred verses, wisdom beneficial for the life here on earth as well for the life hereafter that it is by no means possible to compress its whole message in a single article. It is certainly not possible for the present reviewer. A passing reference to some of the other teachings of the Gita may, however, be made here. Thus, we hear the Vedic Rishi’s voice in the following verse, which proclaims the unity of Godhead and demonstrates the catholicity of the Song Celestial, “As men approach Me, so do I accept them; men on all sides follow my path, O Partha (Arjuna ).” ²⁴

God, says the Gita, favours all earnest and sincere seekers. He grants the heart’s desire of all. “The Gita,” says Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, “does not speak of this or that form of religion but speaks of the impulse which is expressed in all forms, the desire to find God and understand our relations to Him.” ²⁵

God is one. So too is religion. The religion which is not the religion of all men is pseudo-religion. But the manifestations of religion are many and varied. Rightly does the Atharva Veda say, Ekam jyothi bahuda vibhati, i.e., the same light appears as many. ²⁶ Light, though one, appears different, we know, to different persons according to circumstances. It is thus yellow to a man with jaundice and dark to one with dark glasses on. The Vedas say elsewhere that sages call the One (God) by many names. ²⁷

The presence of God in all things, all beings, all places and at all times and His acceptance of whatever is offered to Him with sincere devotion are among the finest teachings of the Gita. Krishna thus tells Arjuna, “The man who visualizes Me everywhere and in everything is not lost to Me. Nor am I lost to him. The Yogi, ‘who established in oneness (with Me)’ worships Me in all beings, lives in Me, all his activities not withstanding.” ²⁸ We read further in the Gita that God accepts whatever the pure in heart offer him with devotion–a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water. ²⁹

The Gita further emphasizes that everyone, whether pious or otherwise, a saint or a sinner will be liberated if he has wholehearted love for God and unquestioning faith in Him and worship Him with single-minded devotion. Krishna’s final exhortation to Arjuna is–“Abandoning all duties come to Me alone for shelter. Be not grieved, for I shall release thee from all evils.” ³⁰ Absolute self-surrender to God is the key to the portals of the city of God. A man with all his imperfections, all his defects and draws, has nothing to fear. Devotion to God will burn away the dress and leave him purified, if the vilest man worships Me with single-minded devotion, he must be reckoned as righteous, “for he has rightly resolved.” ³¹ He becomes righteous before long and obtains lasting peace. Kaunteya (son of Kunti, i.e., Arjuna), know it for certain that my devotee perisheth not. ³²

What a heartening, what a consoling message! God does not abandon anyone, not even the vilest and most hardened criminal or the worst sinner, if he has faith in God and love for Him. Every sinner has a future. Once a sinner, not always a sinner. Did not the highway robber Ratnakara become sage Valmiki, the traditional author of the Ramayana, through his faith and single-minded devotion to Rama (God)? The Gita does not condemn the sinner to perdition as scriptures of some other faiths do. Many of the problems of our inner lives will be solved if we imbibe the spirit of the Gita. It will give hope, faith and courage to us and help us to look upon life and its problems with equanimity unperturbed.

It has been rightly enjoined that the Gita, which has come out of the mouth of Padmanabha (Lord Vishnu) should be studied well and carefully. The study of other scriptures is superfluous.

Gitah sugitah kartavyah
Kimanyaih sastravistaraih
Yah swayam Padmanabhasya
Mukhapadmat vinihsritah.

¹ Sarvopanishado gavo dogdha gopa1anandonah
Partho vaisah sudhirbhokta dugdham gitamritam mahat.
² S. Radhakrishnan-The Bhagavadgita, p. 13.
³ S. Radhakrishnan-The Bhagavadgita, p. 14.
⁴ The Bhagavadgita,      III, 5
⁵ Ibid                            III, 8
⁶ Ibid                            II, 47 and 48
⁷ Ibid                            III 9 and 19
⁸ Tr. M. K. Gandhi quoted in Vincent Shean, Lead Kindly Light, pp. 190-91. The original verse is-
Isavasya midam sarvam yetkincha jagatyam jagat
Tena tyaktena bhunjithah ma gridhah kasyasvi ddhanam.
⁹ Cf. Jitam jagat kena mano hi yona –Sankaracharya.
¹⁰ The Bhagavadgita, II, 55–72 and XII, 19
¹¹ James W. Douglas in Gandhi Marg (New Delhi), April 1971, p. 94.
¹² The Bhagavadgita, XVIII, 60.
¹³ Ibid               IX, 27.
¹⁴ Ibid XVIII, 65.
¹⁵ The Bhagavadgita,     III, 27.
¹⁶ Ibid                           XVIII, 61.
¹⁷ Ibid II, 20.
¹⁸ Ibid                           II, 23.
¹⁹ Ibid                           II. 24.
²⁰ Ibid                           II, 22.
²¹ Psalms of the Sisters-Ed. Mrs. Rhys Davids, p. 78
²² The Bhagavadgita, v. 18.
²³ Henry Adams–Quoted in S. Radhakrishnan, The Bhagavadgita, p. 181.
²⁴ The Bhagavadgita, IV, II (Tr. S. Radhakrishnan)
²⁵ S. Radhakrishnan–The Bhagavadgita, pp. 158-59.
²⁶ The Atharva Veda, XIII, 3, 17
²⁷ Ekam sadviprah bahudha vadanti
²⁸ The Bhagavadgita, VI, 20-31 29
²⁹ Ibid IX, 26
³⁰ Ibid               XVIII, 66 (Tr. S. Radhakrishnan)
³¹ Ibid IX, 30
³² Ibid IX, 31