According to our visiting Doctor Kusum, on this midnight Krishna was born. I wanted to ask her if she was there. So why are we starting so early when we should be starting at midnight? Krishna has become famous because of the Bhagavad Gita, and nothing else. It is one of the most beautiful scriptures to read. No other scripture comes close to the Bhagavad Gita in the beatitude of explanations about many aspects of life.The sole purpose for the Gita is to be found Chapter 1 Verse 47. Had it not been for this chapter and verse, the Bhagavad Gita would have concluded with Chapter 1 verse 46. But it exists because Arjuna was suffering due to the fact he had to fight against his teachers, his grandsires, his uncles, his cousins, and his nephews. The verse reads as follows: “Having thus spoken in the midst of the battlefield, throwing down his bow and arrows, Arjuna sank down on the seat of the chariot, his heart overwhelmed by sorrow.”I think this is the most beautiful aspect of the Bhagavad Gita because we do the same thing so often when we are faced with a problem. The first thing we do is drop everything.
But Krishna, from Verse 48 onwards, has given us a precise method overcoming this kind of sorrow. He starts by saying to Arjuna, “From whence has this weakness come to you at this difficult time? It is not befitting you, who are of noble character. It does not lead to heaven and can only cause you disgrace”. Krishna is reminding Arjuna that he is a warrior and such sorrow is not befitting of such a position. Arjuna responds thus: “Indeed, rather than to slay these noble teachers, it would be preferable for me to be a beggar here on earth. Having slain the teachers with desire for personal gain, I would only enjoy on earth delights tainted by my actions”.
Krishna tells Arjuna to have no attachments to the actions of the gunas - the three attributes that the human form enjoys: tamasic, rajasic or sattvic. What is tamasic? I like to refer to food because all of you understand food. When you have spicy food, meat, chicken, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, those are tamasic. When you have a variety of food on the table, like, brinjal, potato, muffin puri, samoosa, salad, fruit, it is called rajasic. But when you have just enough food just to satisfy you and not just to fill your stomach, that is sattvic.
So Krishna is telling us that we are confused by the three gunas. Once we have learned of the absolute reality, we should avoid creating conflict in the minds of dull-witted individuals. Know that it is better to do one's own dharma than to do the dharma of another. We discussed this in one of the talks during Gita Week. Krishna says that we should not have sorrow. We must be informed that whenever there is a diminishing of dharma and a predominance of unrighteousness, then He will descend for the purpose of establishing righteousness and dharma. He says: “Why are you so afraid? I am the giver of dharma, of righteousness, I come age after age, wherever and whenever there is a decline in religion, and in righteousness, then I descend to bring about correction, to eliminate misgivers and re-establish dharma or righteousness”. Then Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him about action and inaction. And Krishna says, “About action and inaction, even the intelligent are confused in telling the difference,” and he follows that with an explanation of the differences, the knowledge of which will free one from misfortune.
Arjuna asked Krishna how it would feel if he could see the Lord in his true form at that moment. Krisha tells him that it would be like the brilliance of a thousand suns rising at once. We can't even handle one sun, can you imagine a thousand suns? That is the intensity and the potency of Sri Krishna. He has that kind of energy. Krishna concludes by saying that this is only possible for those who follow the virtuous path of immortality, taught by the Lord in the Gita, and with complete faith serve the Lord with an undeviating devotion, transcending the gunas, to reach the Lord who is the fundamental aspect of the immortal and immutable Brahman, of dharma and bliss. We must abandon all virtues and surrender to the Lord alone, then liberation from all evil and grief will be possible, and delusion will vanish by the grace of the Lord.
You came here for seven days so by now I'm sure that you understand the Bhagavad Gita. If you don't then we have the Essence of the Bhagavad Gita in 43 verses, called Nonsense Sense Essence. Before you read it you're loaded with nonsense, after you've read it once you'll get some sense, and when you've read it properly, you'll get the essence of it!
Hari Krishna!
