The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

PREFACE

The, Sanskrit in which the Geeta is bodied forth is so simple and lucid. If we but make a patient and careful perusal of its syntax and the etymology of its words, we can understand most of the Geeta by ourselves. But the difficulty is that we are disinclined to accept what these words really signify. To cite an instance, Krishn has declared in unambiguous terms that true action is the undertaking ofyagya. But we yet persist in asserting that all the worldly business in which men are engaged is action. Throwing light upon the nature of yagya, Krishn says that while many yogi undertake it by offering pran (inhaled breath) to apan (exhaled breath), and many sacrifice apan to pran, yet many others regulate both pran and apan to achieve perfect serenity of breath (pranayam). Many sages resign the inclination of their senses to the sacred fire of self-restraint. Thus yagya is said to be contemplation of breath of pran and apan. This is what the composer of the Geeta has recorded. Despite this, however, we adamantly hold that intoning swaha and casting of barley grains, oil seeds, and butter into the altar-fire is yagya. Nothing like this has been even suggested by Yogeshwar Krishn.

How to account for this all too common failure to comprehend the true meaning of the Geeta? Even after a great deal of hair-splitting and cramming, all that we succeed in getting hold of, is nothing more than the external framework of its syntactical order. Why perforce, we should find out, do we find ourselves deprived of truth ? As a matter or fact, with his birth and growing up a man inherits the paternal legacy of home, shop, land and property, rank and honour, cattle and other livestock, and now-a-days even machinery and appliances. Precisely in the same way he also inherits certain customs, traditions, and modes of worship: the evil legacy of all the three hundred and thirty million Hindu gods and goddesses who were identified and catalogued long ago as well as of the innumerable various forms of them all over the world. As a child grows up, he observes his parents’, his brothers’ and sisters’, and, his neighbours’ way of worship. His family’s beliefs, rites, and ceremonies are thus permanently imprinted on his mind. If his heritage is worship of a goddess, all his life he recites only the name of that goddess. If his patrimony is worship of ghosts and spirits, he cannot but endlessly repeat the names of those ghosts and spirits. So it is that while some of us adhere to Shiv, some others cleave to Krishn, and yet others cling to this or that deity. It is beyond us to forsake them.

If such misguided men ever get a propitious, sacred work like the Geeta, they fail to grasp its real import. It is· possible for a man to give up the material possessions he has inherited, but he cannot rid himself of inherited traditions and creeds. He can relinquish material belongings that are his legacy and go far away from them, but even there he is doggedly pursued by the thoughts, beliefs, and usages that have been ineradicably engraved on his mind and heart. He cannot after all cut off his head. It is for this reason that we also construe the truth contained in the Geeta in the light of our inherited assumptions, customs, and modes of worship. If the scripture is in harmony with them and there is no contradiction between the two, we concede it’s veracity. But we either reject it or twist it to suit our convenience if this is not the case. Is it surprising then that more often than not we miserably fail to comprehend the mysterious knowledge of the Geeta ? So this secret continues to remain inscrutable. Sages and noble teacher-preceptors, who have known the Self as well as his kinship with the Supreme Spirit, are on the other hand knowers of the truth that the Geeta embodies. Only they are qualified to say what the Geeta proclaims. For others, however, it remains a secret which they can best resolve by sitting devotedly as earnest disciples near some sage of awareness. This way of realization has been repeatedly emphasized by Krishn.

The Geeta is not a holy book that belongs to any one individual, caste, group, school, sect, nation or time. It is rather a scripture for the entire world and for all times. If is for all, for every nation, every race, and for every man and woman, whatever be their spiritual level and capacity. Irrespective of this, however, just hearsay or someone’s influence should not be the basis for a decision that has a direct bearing upon one’s existence. Krishn says in the last chapter of the Geeta that even just hearing its mysterious knowledge is indeed salutary. But after a seeker has thus learnt it from an accomplished teacher, he also needs to practise it and incorporate it into his own conduct and experience. This necessitates that we approach the Geeta after freeing ourselves from all prejudices and preconceived notions. And then we will indeed find it a pillar of light.