|
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
- Narayanam namaskratya narain caiva narottamam I
- devim Sarasvatim Vyasam tato jayam udirayet II [1][2]
The Srimad Bhagavadglita is one of the most brilliant
and pure gems of our ancient sacred books. It would be
difficult to find a simpler work in Sanskrit literature or even
in all the literature of the world than the Gita, which explains
to us in an unambiguous and succinct manner the deep and
sacred principles of the sacred science of the SELF (Atman),
after imparting to us the knowledge of the human body and
the cosmos, and on the authority of those principles acquaints
every human being with the most perfect and complete
condition of the Self, that is to say, with what the highest-
manhood is, and which further establishes a logical and
admirable harmony between Devotion (bhakti) and Spiritual
Knowledge (jnana), and ultimately between both these and the
duties of ordinary life enjoined by the Sastras, thereby inspiring
the mind, bewildered by the vicissitudes of life to calmly and,
what is more, desirelessly adhere to the path of duty.
Even if one examines the work looking upon it as a poem, this work,
which simplifies to every reader, young or old, the numerous
abstruse doctrines of Self-Knowledge in inspired language and
is replete with the sweetness of Devotion plus Self-Realisation,
will certainly he looked upon as an excellent poem. The pre-eminent worth, therefore, of a book which contains the quintessence of Vedic religion, uttered by the voice of the Blessed Lord can best only be imagined. It is stated at the commencement of the Anugita, that after the Bharata war was over, and Sri Krsna and Arjuna were one day chatting together, Arjuna conceiving the desire of hearing the Gita. again from the lips of the Blessed Lord, said to Sri Krsna : — " I have forgotten the advice you gave me when the war commenced ; so, please repeat it to me. " In reply the Blessed Lord said to him that even He could not repeat that advice in the same way, because on the previous occasion the advice had been given, when His mind was in the highest Yogic state (Ma. Bh.5. Asvamedha. 16, stanzas 10-13). Really speaking, nothing was impossible for the Blessed Lord, but His answer that it would be impossible for Him to repeat the Gita, clearly reveals the excellent worth of the Gita. The fact that the Gits is considered by all the different traditionary schools of the Vedic religion for over twenty-five centuries to be as venerable and authoritative as the Vedas themselves is due to the same cause ; and on the same account, this work, which is as old as the Smrtis, has been appropriately, though figuratively described in the Gita-dhyana as follows ;—
sarvopanisado gavo dogdha Gopalanandanah I
Partho vatsah sudhir bhokta ducjdham Gltamrtafh muhat II
|
|