The Journey of Grade 6........boarding Bhagavad Geeta

Section: 1                                    November 11, 2012

Hari Om!    
                                        

Our class discussion:

Why do we learn to chant or study Geeta ?

An introduction: 

The Bhagavad Geeta is one of the Lord’s divine song or prayers in the form of a shlokha, on the battlefields of Kurukshetra.  It is the climax of Mahabharata.  Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, was explaining the need to fight against the Kaurava's army to Arjuna.  Arjuna was refusing to fight because the opposing army consisted of his beloved friends, family members, and gurus. The god directs and guides the dejected, depressed, and helpless archer along the right path. He has various questions on the principles of good devotees and the best path for a man to reach the Lord.  Krishna repeatedly explains these concepts through 18 chapters of devotional Sanskrit verses.

We are a dual personality of good and bad, almost like a salad.  No normal salad has only one ingredients in it. But not all of the ingredients has equal nutrition value. The various ingredients are representing our various qualities.  We must try to conquer the evil and cultivate the good attributes in us. How? If you are annoyed at your friend and you want to smack him hard in the face, you may raise your hand ...but …pause a moment…and remember what Geeta teaches…if you can recollect the values and principles it encourages.  By shaking hands with him, you can not only make him stop annoying you, but you can also make peace with him, which is what Geeta encouraging you to do.  This had been the philosophy of many great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi,

Arjuna feels sad at the prospect of fighting against his kith and kin.  Arjuna, feeling extremely depressed,  threw down his bow and arrow and sank on to the seat in the chariot in utter dejection.

When you feel that an injustice has been done against you, and want to hit it back.  You loose the strength to avenge; the consequent feeling of helplessness which causes to loose your balance is called dejection.

It is to such Partha (Arjuna) that Lord Krishna advises the entire Geeta. Geeta gives us a plan and a technique by which we too can successfully come out of our own Arjuna-mood whenever we are in it.

The Lord’s song contains a secret cure for this dejection in life, which we may call as “the Krishna-medicine for the Arjuna disease";) . Arjuna in Geeta represents all of us with tons of doubts and confusion.  Even though you may not understand the meaning of Geeta, it is still good to learn since the chanting itself clears the mind.

Our teachers handed out the sheets of Geeta verses of chapter 13, and sheet protectors after we chanted Vakrathunda Mahakaya (Ganesha Prayer) and Saraswati Namasthubyam, and then we put a kumkum mark on the sheet as a mark of respect.  We then slid them into the sheet protectors and learned to chant. 

Last class we discussed the meaning of the first three verses and we memorized them as well.  In brief I'll tell you the meaning.   First, Arjuna asked the meaning of 6 words: prakitim,  purushah, kshetram, kshetrajña, jñanam, and jñeyum. 

Then, Krishna proceeds to answer in the next 34 verses. 

The class lesson of Mahabharata will be continued soon, please tune in.

-BKS