Most of us have heard the story of the centipede who, when requested how he managed to stroll with so many legs, may not achieve this, however tangled his legs hopelessly within the try and intellectually determine it out and ended up on his again, helpless. This isn’t in contrast to the one that makes an attempt to plumb the depths of oriental scriptures. Instantly it turns into evident that they include incalculable layers, almost all symbolic in nature. Moreover, the meanings of the symbols aren’t constant, altering in accordance with the degrees on which they happen. For instance, on one stage water symbolizes the thoughts, on one other stage the fixed flux of samsara, and on one other the refined life-currents often called prana. This being the case, our Western
linear mode of thought turns into as entangled and disabled because the fabled centipede. Figuring out this to be so, I’ve determined to keep away from the Lorelei of refined symbolism and focus as an alternative on the clearly sensible aspect of Krishna teachings within the Bhagavad Gita. Having acknowledged this, in full consistency with oriental thought, I shall contradict myself and contemplate the symbolism encountered within the first chapter of the Gita Who Wrote Mahabharata.

We discover ourselves on Kurukshetra, a area of impending battle. It isn’t as huge as our
Hollywood-epic-shaped minds may think, as could be seen for oneself by a go to
to Kurukshetra, now additionally a sizeable trendy metropolis in Northern India, not very removed from
Delhi. At one finish is a hillock topped with an ideal tree underneath which the customer finds a
life-sized replica in marble of the kind of chariot used within the battle. That is
the vantage level from which Arjuna, the nice warrior, and Sri Krishna regarded out
over the sector. In the present day its tranquillity is charming, regardless of the sturdy feeling within the air
that one thing tremendously momentous occurred there within the distant previous. It’s
each superior and soothing.

For background data concerning how the battleground got here to be thronged
with troopers, chariots, elephants and the opposite paraphernalia of a lethal struggle, see
the introductory essay, “Gita and Mahabharata” in Swami Prabhavananda’s
unparalleled translation The Tune of God. That is the interpretation I’ll
be utilizing in these essays on the Gita. Suffice it to say that the 2 opposing armies
are very simple to morally establish. The Kauravas, led by the murderous Prince
Duryodhana, are essentially evil, though many honorable men have, by
numerous sophisticated alliances and obligations, discovered themselves amongst their ranks.
The Pandavas, headed by the virtuous and noble Yudhisthira, the eldest brother of
Arjuna, are embodiments of all that’s good, amongst them being the divine Sri
Krishna himself who selected to be the charioteer of Arjuna.

The symbolism just isn’t very arduous to determine (leaving apart the advanced matter of
assigning a symbolic that means to each individual named within the battle narrative).
Kurukshetra is the personality-particularly the thoughts (mind)-of the person,
woke up seeker for increased consciousness. Such a seeker, decided to finish the
whirling cycle of beginning and dying, finds that his aspiration itself has impressed
opposition from inside his personal thoughts and coronary heart, the place good and evil, fact and
falsehood, ignorance and knowledge, just like the Kauravas and Pandavas, have drawn
themselves up in readiness for a battle that should finish within the annihilation of 1
aspect or the opposite. Much more daunting is the truth that a lot thought-about “good” is
discovered lining up in assist of negativity, and a lot of the “Pandava” aspect will even be
blotted out within the eventual transmutation of the person into the next state of
being itself, a lot because the endearing methods of infancy and childhood should be
eradicated on the introduction of maturity and changed with utterly totally different
virtues.

Within the chariot set betwixt the 2 armies we discover Arjuna and Krishna. Many
interpretations of those two pivotal figures are doable, almost all of them appropriate,
however the phrases of the Mundaka Upanishad, written lengthy earlier than the Gita, are definitely
worthy of our consideration.

“Like two birds of golden plumage, inseparable companions, the person self and
the immortal Self are perched on the branches of the selfsame tree. The previous
tastes of the candy and bitter fruits of the tree; the latter, tasting of neither, calmly
observes.

“The person self, deluded by forgetfulness of his identification with the divine Self,
bewildered by his ego, grieves and is unhappy. However when he acknowledges the worshipful
Lord as his personal true Self, and beholds his glory, he grieves no extra.”

These two paragraphs are an ideal abstract of your entire Gita. Arjuna is the
bewildered and sorrowing atma, the person self, and Krishna is the divine
Paramatma, the Supreme Self from which the atma derives its very being and
existence. Forgetful of its true nature as a part of the Infinite Spirit, the finite spirit
passes by numerous experiences that confuse and ache it, producing completely
false conclusions that compound and perpetuate the confusion and ache. Solely when
the attitude of the Divine Self is entered into, can its troubles stop. We are able to additionally
consider Arjuna as our decrease mortal self, and Krishna as our increased immortal self.
Krishna and Arjuna thus symbolize each God and Man and our personal (presently) twin
nature as mortal and immortal. Holding this attitude earlier than us, the following
dialogue which types the Gita is to be seen each as God’s communication to human
beings and the communication of our personal divine self with our human self-liberation
of the spirit (moksha) being their sole intention.

Within the opening verse of the Gita, King Dhritarashtra, father of Prince Duryodhana,
asks his minister and charioteer, Sanjaya: “Inform me, Sanjaya, what my sons and the
sons of Pandu did, once they gathered on the sacred area of Kurukshetra, looking forward to
battle?

The phrase Swami Prabhavananda renders “sacred area” is
dharmakshetra-the area of dharma. Dharma normally means the suitable
approach of thought and motion, however it may well additionally imply the correct expression of 1’s
personal dominant character, for dharma additionally means “high quality.” This whole world is a
dharmakshetra, a area upon which we act out the character of our inside
makeup-i.e., the standard of our feelings, thoughts, mind, and can (not our final
being as spirit). We as people are every a dharmic area, expressing the reality
of our current stage of evolution.

As already mentioned, once we take inventory of the inside battle, we establish with each
sides. Considering that if they’re dissolved or destroyed “we” will stop to exist, we
are appalled and really feel that our very existence is threatened. Then, like all human
beings who don’t like the reality once they see or hear it, we grow to be “confused”
and attempt to keep away from the disagreeable prospect. Bitter as dying appears the inside battle, so
we shrink from it and desperately attempt to discover a approach out.

So does Arjuna. In a prolonged and impassioned monologue he presents to Krishna his
“confusion,” which is known as a plea to inaction, to avoidance of battle, pondering that
such a damaging situation is peace, whereas peace is a constructive state, not the mere
absence of unrest and battle. It’s also reached solely by unrest and battle,
nonetheless little we like the actual fact.

Working away from religious obligation-and due to this fact religious life itself-is a
frequent exercise of the awakening soul, which brings all its ingenuity to bear on
justification of such avoidance. Arjuna veils his aversion with phrases of compassion
for others, when actually he’s the only real object of his “compassion.” He merely
doesn’t want to see others undergo as a result of that may make him suffer-and really feel responsible
for his or her struggling. Krishna makes this clear to him. The Stoic, Epictetus, was as soon as
visited by a man who instructed him that he liked his daughter a lot he had run from
the home slightly than see her affected by sickness. Fastidiously, gently but firmly,
Epictetus led him to grasp that it was his self-love that motivated him, not
love for his little one.

It’s the identical with us; ego-involvement-addiction, actually-grips us, and we’re the
solely ones who can free ourselves from it. And battle is the one means.