Bhagawad Gita - Ch.1 - Verses 15-22,

Greetings Advaitins:

Swami Venkatesananda's commentary to Gita is an excellent one. His book was

forwarded by the two great exponents of Gita - Swami Chidananda, President the

Divine Lyle Society (World Headquqters),Rishikesh India, and by Swami

Chinmayananda, Founder of World-Wide Chinmaya Mission. Many of you might have

read the books by Swami Chidananda and Swami Chinmayananda. The Divine Life

Society (founded by Swami Sivananda) has started posting Swami Venkatesananda's

translation and commentary everyday from the new millennium. This daily readings

from Bhagavad Gita is available at the

Website: http://www.dailyreadings.com/Jan_Gita_2000.html

The readings from January 5th and January 6th corresponds to this week's Gita

Satsang discussions. I request every member who is participating in the Gita

discussions to bookmark the Website address given above and follow the

discussions.

Ideally one of the members can come forward and post the materials from this

site that corresponds to our Gita Satsang discussions. This is a great

opportunity for someone who wants dedicate some time to public service and

attain mental purification and real happiness. Any such offer of help should be

spontaneous in the spirit of Bhagavad Gita. I am quite confident that someone

will certainly come forward.

regards,

Ram Chandran

========================================

Translation and Commentary from Swami Venkatesananda: ( reproduced for

discussion purpose and all use for commercial purpose is strictly prohibited -

Copyrighted Material)

5th January: Chapter I: 14-19

Then, Krishna and Arjuna, seated in their magnificent chariot, yoked with white

horses, blew their divine conches.

Krishna blew the pancajanya, Arjuna blew the devadatta and Bhima of terrible

deeds blew the greatconch pauvdra.

Yudhisthira blew the anantavijaya, Nakula and Sahadeva blew the sughosa and

manipuspaka.

The king of Kasi, an excellent archer, Sikhandin, the mighty hero, Dhrstadyumna

and Virata and the unconquered Satyaki, Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, and

the mighty-armed Abhimanyu blew their respective conches.

That tumultuous sound rent the hearts of the Kauravas, making both heaven and

earth resound.

Commentary

The Lord's conch is called pancajanya, the matrix of the five elements or

tanmatra. The sound thatissues from his conch is the supreme Om-kara, the

vibration which is the origin of all creation. Arjuna's chariot has the Lord

himself as the charioteer. The Kathopanisad likens the senses to horses and the

intelligence to the charioteer. When the Lord himself is the charioteer, it is

no wonder that the steeds are white, a color symbolizing purity. If we hand the

reins of our mind over to the Lord, then it is certain that our senses will be

purified and all their functions will be pure and sinless. The end of the night

and the dawn of the day are unwelcome events to thieves and prostitutes. Even

the auspicious sound of the conches of the Lord and his devotees pierce the

hearts of the wicked .Fear is not outside but within them.

6th January: Chapter I: 20-23

Then, seeing the people of Dhrtarastra's party standing arrayed and the

discharge of weapons about to begin, Arjuna, whose ensign was that of a monkey,

took up his bow and said the following to Krishna:

"Place my chariot in the middle of the two armies, 0h Krishna, so that I may

behold those who stand here desirous to fight, and know with whom I must fight,

as the battle is about to commence.

For I desire to observe those who are assembled here to fight, wishing to please

the evil-minded Duryodhana."

Commentary

Arjuna is the son of Pandu, the "white" king. White is symbolic of purity. The

offspring of purity are virtuous qualities. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is the

disciple, the seeker. He represents the good man who, as yet, is not steady in

his wisdom - alluded to by the restless monkey ensign! Only by the grace of God

is it possible to curb this restless tendency of the mind. Otherwise, like

Arjuna, who at this juncture is enthusiastic about the righteous war but later

changes his mind, we too will swing constantly between zeal and despair in our

spiritual life. The Lord is ever ready to save his devotee. In fact, he

rejoices to be the devotee's servant! The Lord of the universe condescends to

become Arjuna's charioteer. What humility! What love! God's love of the devotee

is immeasurably greater than even the greatest devotee's love of God. Countless

stories are current in India to show that the Lord is ever ready to serve the

devotee in every way.

Greetings:

The theme of great books are always revealed in the first paragraph and Gita is

no exception. First, the genius of Vedavyasa is fully revealed when he

introduced Gita in the middle of the greatest War of mankind, Mahabharat.

Second, Vedavyasa chose two contrasting characters - the ignorant Dhrtarastra

and the perfect Yogi, Sanjaya. Third, the entire Mahabharat War including Gita

was narrated by Sanjaya from divine vision. According to Mahabharat (written by

Vedavyasa), the divine vision was sanctioned by Vedavyasa to Sanjaya and not to

Dhrtarastra.

Why didn't Vedavydasa give the divine vision to Dhrtarastra so that he can see

what is happening during the War? The reason is quite simple. It is not upto

Vedavyasa to sanction anything to everybody! Ishwara Kripa is only available to

those who seek it with the correct attitude of mental preparation. There is a

beautiful passage in Yoga Vasishta about Lord Rama's visit to Sage Viswamitra's

Ashram just before his marriage. When Sage Vishwamitra made the announcement

about Sri Rama's arrival, all his disciples wanted to offer residence to Sri

Ram. Sage Viswamitra describes the requirements so beautifully. Sri Ram will

reside in the hearts of everyone who is kind, noble, dedicated and pure. Same

is true for Jesus and he is always there in the hearts of those who are kind,

noble and pure.

Those who possess the mental attitude to witness event without getting attached

only deserve the divine vision. Sanjay was able to witness the war and was able

to narrate the happenings without emotions! Dhrtarastra on the other hand was

not able to overcome the agony of losing the kith and kin during the war.

Something more needs to be said about the blindness of Dhrtarastra. He was not

just physically blind, he was spiritually blind! Physical blindness is never

detrimental for spiritual progress. Vedavyasa uses the dramatic character of

Dhrtarastra to communicate why spiritual progress is the most important goal

for the mankind. The entire Gita was in fact strictly to benefit those of us

who suffer due to our attachments to the happenings around us. Sage Vyasa

wants us to attain the mental attitude of Sanjaya and get rid of the Dhrtarastra

tendencies.

If we revisit the starting verse of Gita (Chapter 1 Verse 1), we will be able to

appreciate and understand the implied meaning of this verse. Dr.

Shankaranarayanan a great scholar who has translated Shankaracharya's original

commentary interprets the very first verse spoken by Dhrtarastra as the

following:

O Sanjaya ! What did the selfish intentions and the intentions born of wisdom do

in the human body which is the field-of-duties, the repository of the

sense--organs and in which all the murderous ones passions and asceticism etc.

are confronting [each other].

The literal translation is the following:

Dhrtarastra said:

1.1 Sanjaya ! What did my men and the sons of Pandu do in the Kuruksetra, the

field of righteousness, where the entire warring class

has assembled ?

Revered Ram Chandran,

Thanks for posting the link to the site. I would be

very glad to serve the members of this list by posting

articles from Gita Daily readings. As Swami

Venkatesananda is also one of my favorite authors, I

feel it is like guru seva to do this. Awaiting your

suggestion.

Regards,

Viji.

> Ideally one of the members can come forward and post

> the materials from this site that corresponds to our

> Gita Satsang discussions. This is a great

> opportunity for someone who wants dedicate some time

> to public service and attain mental purification and

> real happiness. Any such offer of help should be

> spontaneous in the spirit of Bhagavad Gita. I am

> quite confident that someone will certainly come

> forward.

>

> regards,

>

> Ram Chandran

>

> ========================================

> Translation and Commentary from Swami

> Venkatesananda: ( reproduced for discussion purpose

> and all use for commercial purpose is strictly

> prohibited - Copyrighted Material)

>

>

> 5th January: Chapter I: 14-19

>

> Then, Krishna and Arjuna, seated in their

> magnificent chariot, yoked with white horses, blew

> their divine conches.

>

> Krishna blew the pancajanya, Arjuna blew the

> devadatta and Bhima of terrible deeds blew the

> greatconch pauvdra.

>

> Yudhisthira blew the anantavijaya, Nakula and

> Sahadeva blew the sughosa and manipuspaka.

>

> The king of Kasi, an excellent archer, Sikhandin,

> the mighty hero, Dhrstadyumna and Virata and the

> unconquered Satyaki, Drupada and the sons of

> Draupadi, and the mighty-armed Abhimanyu blew their

> respective conches.

>

> That tumultuous sound rent the hearts of the

> Kauravas, making both heaven and earth resound.

>

> Commentary

> The Lord's conch is called pancajanya, the matrix of

> the five elements or tanmatra. The sound thatissues

> from his conch is the supreme Om-kara, the vibration

> which is the origin of all creation. Arjuna's

> chariot has the Lord himself as the charioteer. The

> Kathopanisad likens the senses to horses and the

> intelligence to the charioteer. When the Lord

> himself is the charioteer, it is no wonder that the

> steeds are white, a color symbolizing purity. If we

> hand the reins of our mind over to the Lord, then it

> is certain that our senses will be purified and all

> their functions will be pure and sinless. The end of

> the night and the dawn of the day are unwelcome

> events to thieves and prostitutes. Even the

> auspicious sound of the conches of the Lord and his

> devotees pierce the hearts of the wicked .Fear is

> not outside but within them.

>

> 6th January: Chapter I: 20-23

>

> Then, seeing the people of Dhrtarastra's party

> standing arrayed and the discharge of weapons about

> to begin, Arjuna, whose ensign was that of a

> monkey, took up his bow and said the following to

> Krishna:

>

> "Place my chariot in the middle of the two armies,

> 0h Krishna, so that I may behold those who stand

> here desirous to fight, and know with whom I must

> fight, as the battle is about to commence.

>

> For I desire to observe those who are assembled here

> to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded

> Duryodhana."

>

> Commentary

> Arjuna is the son of Pandu, the "white" king. White

> is symbolic of purity. The offspring of purity are

> virtuous qualities. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is

> the disciple, the seeker. He represents the good

> man who, as yet, is not steady in his wisdom -

> alluded to by the restless monkey ensign! Only by

> the grace of God is it possible to curb this

> restless tendency of the mind. Otherwise, like

> Arjuna, who at this juncture is enthusiastic about

> the righteous war but later changes his mind, we too

> will swing constantly between zeal and despair in

> our spiritual life. The Lord is ever ready to save

> his devotee. In fact, he rejoices to be the

> devotee's servant! The Lord of the universe

> condescends to become Arjuna's charioteer. What

> humility! What love! God's love of the devotee is

> immeasurably greater than even the greatest

> devotee's love of God. Countless stories are

> current in India to show that the Lord is ever ready

> to serve the devotee in every way.

>

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