Geeta is a celestial ode composed by GOD himself, which forms chapter 25 to 42 of the Bhismaparva of the epic MAHABHARAT. This book, which taught to imbibe spiritual values in life so as to make them an essential part of the art of living, created a practical evolution in Hinduism which made a road for generations of Hindus after the Puranic period.

Whereas Upnishads analyze the acute nature of Jeev, Jagat and Brahma, Srimad Bhagvadgita is the directory for those subtle philosophical principles, which can be successfully practised by mankind in his day-to-day practical life.

Maharshi Ved Vyas through this divine ode has brought the deep knowledge, which was earlier confined in the far off lonely and serene caves, to the political arena that   was to appear as a war between cousins.  Due to adverse effects of mental pressure Arjun broke down and lost his ability to perform his rightful duty reasonably. In such adverse situation Lord Sri Krishna preached frightened and despondent Arjuna by imparting to him the Vedic knowledge called Srimad Bhagvadgita.

Practical use of Tattva-gyan is Dharma. With the passage of time and changed situations, philosophy is required to be redefined or reinterpreted. The religious seers and experts guide the general public as how to put in practical use the old and ancient knowledge in the current scenario.

In the light of Vedic knowledge, if we want to understand Geeta, it would be clear that work and duties done without pride (ego) and without expectations of fruits (Nishkama Karma) result in abandonment of desires arising from sense organs. This way the mind becomes pure and subtle and becomes worthy of acquiring pure BLISS. To understand this one will have to think deeply about the mind and it’s working in our day-to day life.

Mind is the person. As is the mind, so is the person. If the mind is peaceful or disturbed, so is the person peaceful or disturbed. To understand mind, we can divide it into two parts. One part is related to outside world (Jagat) from where it gets inputs or impulses. Through the second part - after having received the inputs from the outside, it reacts to these inputs. In Vedant we call these two parts as MIND and INTELLECT.

In a person, when Mind and Intellect join together and work in tandem , such a person is called fully healthy or equanimous. However, in moments of doubts his Intellect controls his mind. The unfortunate part is that among majority of persons their Mind and Intellect do not co-ordinate or do not work in tandem. The reason for this indifference is person’s EGO and his self interests. The more the distance between Mind and Intellect of a person, so will he be misguided and confused. So also his EGO will increase and his desires and expectations would be of baser values, which get reflected in his day-to-day life.

In wakeful state we experience the outer world (Jagat) with the help of our five organs of senses (Gnanendriyas) through which innumerable feelings of different objects reach our mind and after having passed through the layers of our self-centered desires reach the depths of our intellect. These, then, interact with the accumulated  

 experiences found stored in our Intellect in the past. The reactions are then expressed in the outer world through the medium of our five organs of actions (Karmendriyas).

Every moment a person encounters different kinds of stimuli, which are the cause of different types of sensations and desires in him. When these reactions reach the Intellect, they not only increase the already accumulated desires but get affected by the existing desires. When action is taken as a consequence of these desires, they are already influenced by the existing impressions in our intellect.

All the time we continue to gain experiences and react to situations according to our earlier experiences. In the process we add to the impurities in our desires. As a result, our intellect gets more and more saturated with these vitiated desires that make our intellect confused, dull and opaque. Due to this confusion and opacity in our Intellect we are unable to know the real CHAITANYA (BRAHMAN) who is residing in our heart. As per Vedanta, actions done under the influence of EGO and SELFISH MOTIVES generate more desires under whose influence we are unable to perceive our pure divine nature.

Bhagavad-Gita teaches us ’YOGA’. If we practice this YOGA, we can establish a harmonious relationship between the Mind and Intellect. Thereafter, the disciplined mind works as per the directions from the Intellect. The distance and misbalance between Mind and Intellect can be reduced or curbed with the control of egoistic desires in us. In Geeta it is termed as ‘BUDDHIYOGA’.

When the Mind and Ego are united and thus balanced, a person is skillful in his actions:

YOGAH KARMASU KAUSHALAM – (Gita-II-50)

Then his mind reacts to the outside stimuli in an intelligent way and the resultant actions diminish his store of accumulated desires as well. Thus, his Intellect gets purified and his intelligent actions diminish his desires. His Intellect gets honed-up and becomes more and more pure, sharp and bright.

Shankaracharya has stressed this point in his commentary on Geeta. He advocates doing selfless work without egoistic touch but with dedicated mind to God. This results in internal purity. According to per him, before the quest for ATMA-TATTVA” one must rectify and purify his Intellect. In spiritual sense a person’s Intellect (Buddhi) is the only weapon with which he can drive away his accumulated desires. But the unfortunate part is that an average man, due to his ignorance, misuses this effective weapon and harms himself. With his selfish actions he goes on accumulating more and more desires.

      To decrease this accumulation of desires nature provides ample opportunities to ‘Jiva’ by providing him chance to acquire different forms of bodies through births and rebirths. Gita advocates that neither we should abandon action nor should we abandon this world (Jagat). With skilful use of our intellect we should utilize this human birth in such a way that by doing rightful and selfless actions we can purify and rectify disturbances in our ‘Chitta’.

Modern psychology books describe the destructive results due to suppression of our mental feelings. In our life many times we have suppressed our feelings unknowingly. Such suppressed feelings have huge potential of generating destructive forces within a person, which await their expression or outburst. If this force is not used properly, it may destroy the person himself. The same happened with Arjuna who was constrained by his elder brother Yudhishthira’s policy of peace at all cost” with regard to the right of kingdom of Pandavas. He could express his suppressed feelings to some extent during his stay in forests while in exile. During the last phase of their stay, Pandavas had to serve as servants in the palace of King Virat. During this period Arjuna had to suppress his feelings to a much greater extent. But, when Duryodhana attacked King Virat, Arjun got a chance to express his anguish by fighting bravely against the Kaurava armies.

After spending an arduous and painful life during exile, Pandavas reached their land to regain their kingdom but their cousins, without any justification, refused point blank to hand over half of the kingdom in violation of what was agreed upon earlier. Not only this, they refused to listen to any reason or make any compromise of any sort. This resulted in explosive feelings in the heart of the great warrior Arjuna. King Dhritrashtra, perhaps, had an idea of the internal explosive feelings of Arjuna and so, before the declaration of war, he sent SANJAY as his emissary to Arjuna with a secret message for him.

As per Mahabharat, both the forces of Pandavas and Kauravas face each other in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, ready for war. Arjuna, the key player in Pandava forces, finds his brethren and revered seniors before him from the other side. His emotions influenced by the deceitful message from Dhritrashtra through Sanjay, created a doubt in Arjuna’s mind and his explosive feelings got a different direction and his emotions suddenly got better of him. He realizes the futility of war. He sees before his mind’s eyes death, destruction and disaster on a large scale. He turns spiritual and resolves to renounce the battlefield. His friend and mentor, Sri Krishna, pities Arjuna and gives the message of Gita ending with Reflect upon it and act as you choose”. What is the effect of Gita coming straight from Sri Krishna’s mouth on Arjuna, the ardent disciple? He says, My delusion is destroyed. I have regained my memory – Smritilabdha – through your grace.”

As per Gita the stages leading to self-ruin of a person can be summarized as hereunder:

-          Brooding over the objects of senses, man develops attachment.

-          From attachment comes desire;

-          From desire sprouts anger;

-          From anger proceeds delusion;

-          From delusion comes confused memory or smritibhransha;

-          From smritibhransha comes the destruction of reason;

-          From destruction of reason the man perishes.

Recovery of memory- smritilabdha motivated Arjuna to engage in battle, but now he fights in dispassionate mode of action, the mode of Karma Yoga. He fights in Krishna’s shadow of grace, acting solely as a blessed instrument of God to reset a disturbed cosmic order- dharmasansthapanarthya.

What is that ultimate memory that Krishna inspired in Arjuna to guide him towards right action? In the typical paradox of cosmic truth, ultimate memory is the same as original memory. This relates to the truth of the essentiality of creation, non-duality (Advaita). Sustenance, guidance and positive energy flow from the renewal of memory of oneness and unity. All belong to the ONE, not as parts, but rather as ONE. Each of us, jointly and severally, is ONE. The prelude to the Upanishads enunciates the equation of Vedanta: One minus One equals One. That is a whole, this is whole, from that whole has this whole issued. When this whole issues from that, what remains is a whole”. It is maya that blurs the memory of oneness; it induces notions of difference, self-interest and rival interest. The spiritual journey consists of constantly renewing this memory until it firmly lodges in the mind. This is called sumiran, a corruption of the word ‘smaran’ or remembrance. Sages across religions have hailed its value. Immersed in sumiran one gets established in bhakti or devotion, because the point of bhakti is ananyata or ‘non-otherli-ness’

(The author, an Engineer-cum-Industrialist by profession is a man of varied interests in the fields of education, social work and spiritual awakening. He is an active member of Bharat Vikas Parishad and Chinmaya Mission. His book ‘GRACEFUL AGING’ is a tribute to his rich experience of an eventful life)