Srimad Bhagavat Gita Commentary by Anand Om Sankaran-Chapter 1

Vagarthaviva Sampruthou Vagagartha Prathiparthaye

Jagata Pitharou Vande Parvathi Parameshvarou

(from Raghuvamsha prayer sloka)

Preface:

I will start penning my thoughts on Bhagavat Gita in order to document my spiritual journey thus far and near future. I am starting this with humble namaskarams to divine and my Guruji.

Chapter 1:

The chapter starts with Dhrtharastra asking Sanjaya to describe the situation in the war. Sanjana goes on to relate the people, place  and adds color commentary to each person. Then, he pays attention to what Duryodhana says to Bhisma and the chapter ends with a monologue from Arjuna to Krishna.

Vedantha and Vedas impart “purna vidya” to us. Purna vidya is complete knowledge. Purna vidya is knowledge that one is nothing but self. Any other understanding of our state is not “Purna vidya”. All the utterances from Dhrtharastra (physically and mentally blind), Sanjaya, Duryodhana or Arjuna is from a state of “ignorance”. Ignorance or lack of knowledge leads to delusion, depression and sadness. It is interesting to note that in sloka 20, the flag of Arjuna is described to have a monkey picture on it! Others have pointed out that it was Lord Hanuman himself. When one has ignorance, even divine’s arrival in our lives is not recognized!

The 1^st chapter is a great introduction or setup for majority of us who dwell in state of ignorance and hurt for a major part of our lives. It is very interesting that beginning to true knowledge happens usually after a life event which shakes one up! It almost feels like that event becomes a yagna (sacrifice) to get that knowledge. The yagna could be in the form of selfless seva, nishkamya karma or punya karma. I would submit that Arjuna had worked tirelessly on his valor/skills and in last 13 years had to endure lots of hardship even though he had capability to take on Duryodhana and his armies earlier. He did follow the rules of the dice game and went away to exile. Even accomplished men such as Arjuna haven’t been able to conquer their mind. This just gives us perspective of how difficult it is control the mind. Adi Shankara in Vivekachudamani, talks about one taking a billion lives to get out of this cycle of birth and death. So chill, this Vedanta game is not easy folks! Contemplating on these thoughts itself must have taken 1000s of lives for us to get to this position. We are already blessed!