BhagavadGita

A detailed Summary of BhagavadGita

The Bhagavad-Gita begins with the preparation of battle between the two opposing sides: on the left stands the collected armies of the one hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and on the right lies the soldiers of the Pandava brothers. Warring relatives feuding over the right to govern the land of Kurukshetra, both forces stand poised and ready to slaughter one another. The warrior Arjuna, leader of the Pandava armies, readies himself as his charioteer, the god Krishna, steers toward the opposition when the armies are ready to attack. Arjuna stops Krishna short before the two sides clash together. Hesitation and pity creeps into Arjuna's heart as he surveys his family and relatives on the other side; he loses his will to win at the cost of the lives he still loves. As Arjuna sets down his bow and prepares for his own death, the god Krishna begins his council with Arjuna, where Krishna uses various ideas on action, self-knowledge, and discipline to reveal to Arjuna the freedom to be attained from the suffering of man once Arjuna finds his devotion to Krishna.

Before Krishna begins his teachings, Arjuna analyzes his emotions and describes to Krishna the way his heart feels. "Krishna, I seek no victory, or kingship or pleasures"

As Krishna continues his discourse, he begins to talk about the divine and demonic qualities inherent in all of man. "All creatures in the world are either divine or demonic;" (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 133). Apparently, all creatures are naturally good or evil. "...do not despair, Arjuna, you were born with the divine" (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 133). Born with the quality of good or evil, the individual is fated to be what is in his nature. If it is his duty to be evil, then it is at evil that the man will succeed. Krishna states that living in evil leads to the bondage of the self in worldly things. Unable to free himself, the demonic man is forced to repeat the cycle of life and death in an everlasting pattern as Krishna casts each evil man back into demonic wombs. Krishna also identifies the evil man as a slave to his own desires. Controlled and dictated by futile efforts, "they hoard wealth in stealthy ways to satisfy their desires" (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 134). The god also warns against three gates of hell: desire, anger, and greed. The renunciation of these allows for the release of the self.

In the fifth teaching, Krishna calls for the release from attachment and the fruit of the action, saying that once this occurs, then joy is found in the detached individual. Yet, freedom can not be achieved through renunciation alone; it is action with discipline that is essential for the success of the enlightened.

The discussion of passion in the fourteenth teaching illustrates one of many inconsistencies in Krishna's argument. "Know that passion is emotional, born of craving and attachment, it binds the embodied self with attachment to action" (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 122). Previously, Krishna counseled that a strong detachment from action, as well as from the fruits of action, is necessary for the success of the endeavor. In a sense, Krishna says that passion creates the drive and will needed to accomplish an action. "When passion increases, Arjuna, greed and activity, involvement in actions, disquiet, and longing arise" (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 122). Exactly what merits the longing remains to be seen; Krishna gives the impression that this craving may deal with the fruits of action, a clear contradiction to Krishna's past words. In this sense, Krishna describes a unit of the three qualities that bind man to the self. Including passion, lucidity, and dark inertia, these qualities (while being praised by Krishna) must be transcended for the achievement of liberation.

"Krishna, my delusion is destroyed, and by your grace I have regained memory; I stand here, my doubt dispelled, ready to act on your words."

In the seventeenth teaching, Krishna discusses the differences in the nature of man. As stated before, these three aspects (also thought of as aspects of faith) are lucidity, passion, a

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Approximate Word count = 1908
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion