IndiaPost.com - If Gita is understood well, everything is understood well

Gita-sugita kartavya

kim anyaih sastra-vistaraih

Praising the Bhagavadgita, this verse says that the Gita has to be studied well, gita-sugita kartavya; what will you gain by studying other books in detail, kim anyaih sastra-vistaraih? This verse presents the Gita as a book to be studied, a book containing everything that one has to know through the scriptures [Vedas]. It doesn't belittle the efficacy or the necessity of studying other scriptural books; it only points out that the study of the Gita amounts to the study of other scriptures.

What constitutes a scripture?

A scripture is something that has a message with a lasting, universal value. What is relevant now, may not be relevant later; nor may it have been relevant before. A scripture's message should be relevant to me as an individual and to you; it should be relevant to anyone at any time and place.

Only when a message addresses certain problems that are always there for a human being does it have lasting relevance. Because the Vedas and the Gita have that kind of a message, they are a scripture.

The Gita is recognized and highly respected by the scholars and the devoted lay public in India because of its two main topics: yoga-sastra and brahma-vidya. Together they form the body of knowledge which is very important for every individual.

The knowledge meant to make a person mature as an individual is called yoga-sastra. A mature individual is one who is free from conflicts, fear, agitation, guilt, and hurt. Brahma-vidya is knowledge of the whole, the knowledge that liberates a person.

A person who has become mature by yoga has something more to accomplish - total freedom, generally called moksha. To know Brahman is to know the truth of oneself as the whole, as complete. The discovery of this fact frees you from all sense of limitation and isolation.

So the first message of the Gita, yoga-sastra, helps you to gain maturity as a person, as an individual. It helps one to become relatively composed, tranquil, alert and free - in short, a cheerful person. You are then fit to gain brahma-vidya, knowledge that you are the whole, knowledge that frees you from the notion of being a small, limited, mortal being.

These two topics of the Gita, which form the very essence of all four Vedas, make the Gita a scripture with a message that is relevant for everyone. The Gita itself is set in a battlefield, not in the Himalayas, or in a forest. Arjuna is face-to-face with a problem born of conflict between his familial affections and the call of duty.

On one side, it seems to be necessary for him to perform his duty, which is to fight the war. Then, there is another equally powerful pull - his affection for his family and teachers and his own self respect, which conflict with the concept of duty. Caught between the horns of duty and affection, Arjuna is confused as he stands between the two forces on the battlefield.

When Arjuna looked, he found highly respected people like Drona, his own teacher, Bhishma, his grandfather, and many relatives and acquaintances with whom he had to fight. He said, "What is the use of fighting all these people?

Without killing them, I'm not going to get the kingdom back. And what is the use of getting the kingdom back by destroying the people in whose company I would be happy?"

While caught between the call of duty and his emotions, Arjuna begins to appreciate a fundamental problem, the problem of a human being.

That problem takes possession of his mind and he wants to find a solution. Finding a teacher in Lord Krishna, he presents himself to Krishna as a Sisya, a disciple. Arjuna was always a devotee, but not a sisya; he finds himself a sisya on the battlefield. Lord Krishna accepts Arjuna as a disciple and teaches him in the succeeding 17 chapters of the Gita.

Throughout the Gita the yoga-sastra is given; telling one the ways and means to be a mature person free from conflicts, fear, hurt, and guilt. Along with the yoga message is the brahma-vidya, knowledge of the reality of yourself being the essence of everything, your being the whole.

The Gita has all that is to be learned from the four Vedas, which are a vast literature. Therefore, the Gita has to be studied, and if it is understood well, everything is well understood.