Announcing and an in-depth study of the Bhagavad-gītā

An in-depth study of the Bhagavad-gītā. If you already read the Gītā and felt just scratching the surface, this is a study that may be interesting for you.

Announcing and an in-depth study of the Bhagavad-gītā

I'm working on an in-depth study of the Bhagavad-gītā that will start being published in installments. It would not be an exaggeration to say the Bhagavad-gītā is our most important book and the basis of our whole philosophy. When we can understand the mysteries of the Gītā, all the doors open, but when we fail to study it, we risk getting stuck.

The Bhagavad-gītā, however, is not an easy book to understand. Just like in other Upaniṣads, the verses of Gītā are very complex in language and follow a very intricate logic. Srila Prabhupada does a masterful job in explaining the details in his purports, giving us a book that is worthy of being called "The Bhagavad-gītā As It Is". The weak link in the chain is, however, our own capacity to understand everything he explains.

If you already read the Gītā and felt just scratching the surface, this is a study that may be interesting for you. I'm writing it in the form of three volumes, explaining chapters 1 to 6, 7 to 12, and 13 to 18. Inside each chapter, the verses are broken into sections, helping to understand the flow of the text, the logic, and the arguments. At the end of each section, there are also the main points of the purports of Prabhupada, which can help you to go deeper into the points he makes. In this way, I try to find a balance between explaining the general flow of the text and the details of each verse, allowing you to get everything.

I will be posting the study starting tomorrow, one topic per day, until it ends. If you take the time to study the topics daily as they will be published, by the end you can get a very good foundation on the Bhagavad-gītā, which will surely help to understand other books we will be studying here in the future.

To be sure you don't miss anything, you can subscribe to the mailing list, so that everything goes directly to your inbox. You get everything by just subscribing for free, but if you want to pledge a donation this will also be appreciated:

There are two topics already online that you can read today:

» How to use this book

» Why would one want to study the Bhagavad-gītā?

The book is being published here.

You can also check my other books that are already published.

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This is a sample of how the topics of the study will be organized in the book:

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Krsna speaks to Arjuna as a friend (Bg 2.1 to 2.3)

Verse 1: sañjaya uvāca

tam tathā kṛpayāviṣṭam, aśru-pūrṇākulekṣaṇam

viṣīdantam idam vākyam, uvāca madhusūdanaḥ

Sañjaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusūdana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words.

Verse 2: śrī-bhagavān uvāca

kutas tvā kaśmalam idam, viṣame samupasthitam

anārya-juṣṭam asvargyam, akīrti-karam arjuna

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the value of life. They lead not to higher planets but to infamy.

Verse 3: klaibyam mā sma gamaḥ pārtha, naitat tvayy upapadyate

kṣudram hṛdaya-daurbalyam, tyaktvottiṣṭha paran-tapa

O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra was probably very happy to hear about Arjuna's mood of renunciation. Arjuna was the most powerful commander on the side of the Pandavas, and if he abandoned the battle, their victory, by material calculation, would be almost certain.

However, Sañjaya disappointed him by referring to Krsna as Madhusūdana. Previously, Krsna had killed the demon Madhu, and thus he was perfectly qualified to kill Arjuna's doubts and reinforce his will to fight. Arjuna had also called Krsna Madhusūdana in chapter one, indicating that although he was in doubt about what to do, he was not giving up, but trusting that Krsna would kill the demon of doubt inside his mind and show him the proper path to follow. Thus, the illusion of Arjuna is just temporary: he is in the process of surrendering to Krsna, and when he surrenders, Krsna will swiftly destroy his doubts. By acting on this knowledge, Arjuna will find the determination to fight to his best capacity and defeat the army of Duryodhana. Sañjaya is thus very tactfully transmitting this truth to Dhṛtarāṣṭra. At the end of the Bhagavad-gītā, he will reveal that there is no hope for victory on the side of Duryodhana because Krsna and Arjuna are on the other side.

For now, however, Arjuna is still addressing Krsna as a friend, and Krsna answers by playing the role of a friend, questioning how Arjuna could deviate from the principles of dharma in this way, refusing to fulfill his duty as a kṣatriya. He addresses Arjuna as Pārtha, the son of Pṛthā (or Kuntī, who is the sister of Kṛṣṇa’s father Vasudeva), remembering him of their family connection and then as Parantapa (chastiser of the enemies), indicating that being such an exalted and powerful person, it was not befitting him to behave in such a way.

The family connection indicated by Krsna also indicates another important concept in Vedic culture: social positions being based on qualification, not on heredity. As Krsna makes clear later in the Bhagavad-gītā, the varṇāśrama system, based on the four social classes was created by Krsna himself as a natural system for the proper working of society. One's position as a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, or sudra inside of the system is not based on lineage or ancestry, but on qualification. The son of a brāhmaṇa who doesn't show a qualification similar to his father is called a brāhma-bandhu (a relative of a brāhmaṇa), and not a brāhmaṇa. Similarly, an unworthy kṣatriya who shows cowardice is called a kṣatriya-bandhu. By his words, Krsna indicated his concern. Compassion is surely a noble principle, but the battle of Kurukṣetra was not the proper place to apply it.

As Prabhupada mentions: "Arjuna was the most intimate friend of Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa was directly guiding him on the chariot; but if Arjuna abandoned the battle, despite all these credits, he would be committing an infamous act. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that such an attitude in Arjuna did not fit his personality."

Krsna defines the hesitancy of Arjuna as "anārya", not befitting a person who knows the value of life. Originally, the word "ārya" denotes followers of Vedic culture, the learned people who would conduct their lives according to the teachings of the Vedas. They would form the developed societies and would contrast with the non-Arians, people outside Vedic culture who would generally be aborigines living in forests and mountains. Later, Hitler tried to appropriate this concept into all the insanity that followed, but this was a misrepresentation of the term. The word ārya does not denote a certain race, but followers of the spiritual culture of the Vedas.

As a friend, Krsna manifested his concern, saying that such deviation from the principles of dharma would not bring any good result to Arjuna (leading not to higher planets but to infamy), and cheering him up by telling him to give up such petty weakness of heart and fight, as he was trained to do.

Main points in the purports of Srila Prabhupada:

"Sañjaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusūdana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words."

a) Material compassion for the body comes from ignorance of one's real nature as a soul. Compassion for the soul, however, is self-realization.

b) The body is like an outward dress for the soul, and thus, mere compassion for the body is compared to trying to save the clothes of a drowning man. When the soul has fallen into the material ocean of ignorance, merely saving the body will not help. Krsna speaks the Bhagavad-gītā to dissipate this lamentation in both Arjuna and us.

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the value of life. They lead not to higher planets but to infamy."

a) The Absolute Truth is understood in three levels: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, which can be compared to the three aspects of the sun: the sunshine, the sun as a disk in the sky, and the internal affairs of the planet. One who can enter into the sun and know what is going on there is the advanced student. Krsna is directly Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore devotees who have realized Him are the topmost transcendentalists.

b) There are many powerful persons in the universe, but only Krsna can claim to possess all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge, and all renunciation. Therefore, the full meaning of the word "bhagavān" is found in Krsna only. Brahma himself concludes in the Brahma-samhita that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and there is no one equal to or above Him.

c) The Srimad Bhagavatam describes: ete cāmśa-kalāḥ pumsaḥ, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. There are many incarnations, who are plenary expansions or parts of the plenary expansion of the Supreme, but Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.

d) In the personal presence of Krsna, Arjuna's lamentation was unbefitting, therefore Krsna expressed His surprise: kutaḥ, where from? Such deviation from duty was not expected from a follower of the Vedas such as Arjuna, therefore it is described as befitting the non-Āryans.

"O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy."

a) Krsna calls Arjuna the son of Pṛthā, emphasizing his exalted lineage. Krsna did not want Arjuna to become a kṣatriya-bandhu, an unworthy son of a kṣatriya. If Arjuna abandoned the battle he would be committing an infamous act.

b) Arjuna spoke about abandoning the battle on the grounds of compassion for his relatives, but Krsna dismissed it as mere weakness of heart.