The whole Bhagavad-gītā in one argument
Understanding all details of the Gītā demands dedication, for it includes the entire spiritual science. However, we can easily get a good grasp of it if we understand the central message.
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The whole Bhagavad-gītā in one argument
The Bhagavad-gītā can be intimidating at first. Almost a thousand pages, full of intricate philosophical arguments, and many passages that appear disconnected from each other. It may appear more like a book for philosophers who spend their whole lives studying than for regular people who have a job and a family.
Of course, understanding all details of the Gītā demands dedication, for it includes the entire spiritual science, but we can easily get a good grasp of it if we understand the central message.
So, what is this central message? We are spirit souls, eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, and the goal of life is to reestablish this forgotten relationship. Kṛṣṇa is the supreme enjoyer of all sacrifices, the Supreme Lord of all planets and their controllers, and the greatest friend and well-wisher of all living entities.
If Kṛṣṇa were simply the proprietor, we would fear, or maybe envy, Him. If He were only the enjoyer, one could feel exploited. But because He is the supreme friend, surrendering to Him becomes natural. Throughout the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa progressively tries to bring us to this platform of understanding our eternal relationship with Him and coming to surrender unto Him in pure love. This is the ultimate goal of all processes of yoga and the central message of the Gītā. Everything else helps us to attain or maintain this transcendental consciousness.
Arjuna plays the role of the common man, elevated from material consciousness to pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness
The Bhagavad-gītā begins with Arjuna prepared to fight. However, his determination shatters when he sees his relatives, teachers, friends, and well-wishers standing on the opposite side. Overwhelmed by attachment and compassion, he begins to calculate the consequences of the battle in terms of personal gain and loss. This shows a very practical situation: We all come to moments in life when we become perplexed, crushed by situations we cannot control, and unsure of what to do.
Arjuna, however, takes the essential step: He recognizes the limits of his knowledge and his inability to find a solution through mere reasoning. He then surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as his spiritual master, and begs for instructions.
Kṛṣṇa then assumes the position of teacher and points out the root cause of the problem: Arjuna’s grief is based on body identification. Knowing that the soul is immortal and independent from the body, who kills and who is killed? Weapons can destroy one’s material body, but no weapon can destroy the soul, whom is never born and never dies. Instead of lamenting over the pains and pleasures of the temporary body, Arjuna should consider what brings permanent benefit: the performance of dharma. He should thus abandon his lamentation based on bodily attachment and perform his duties without lamenting, for fighting in this detached consciousness will be beneficial both in the case of victory or defeat.
Kṛṣṇa then explains the path of devotional service, which can directly elevate us to the spiritual platform, beyond ordinary piety or impiety, abandoning selfish desires for gratification of the senses or the ego and performing our activities as a loving offering to Him. Absorbed in this transcendental consciousness, a devotee remains detached from material happiness and distress and develops all good qualities. Because of this connection with Him, a devotee is stable in both loss and gain, free from material attachment, fear, and anger. He is fully in control of his senses, like a tortoise that can withdraw its limbs at will. When he acts, he does so in Kṛṣṇa’s service, remaining fully Kṛṣṇa conscious even while working in the material world.
No one can be inactive
In the beginning of the third chapter, Kṛṣṇa clarifies that no one can remain inactive even for a moment. The solution is not to abandon work but to purify it. Work performed for personal enjoyment binds us to the karmic results, while work performed as a sacrifice to Him frees us.
How can we elevate ourselves to this platform? Kṛṣṇa gives us three injunctions: “Surrender all your works unto Me,” “Become free from desire for gain and possessiveness,” and “Fight without lethargy.” We should surrender our works unto Kṛṣṇa, but at the same time work according to His injunctions, according to our nature, and not try to imitate the path of others. Our path to perfection is not to renounce prematurely, but to work as an offering to Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa also identifies the great enemy who can push us out of the process: lust. This powerful enemy can be defeated by transcendental knowledge. The mind is superior to the senses, and the intelligence is superior to the mind. However, because all three of them are dominated by lust, we cannot find our way out. However, superior to the intelligence is the soul, and Kṛṣṇa is the highest of all. Therefore, when we understand ourselves as the soul, eternally connected with Him, the proper hierarchy is established, and lust can be finally controlled.
Transcendental knowledge
Kṛṣṇa expands this explanation of transcendental knowledge in the fourth chapter. First of all, He explains how transcendental knowledge is transmitted: through the disciplic succession. Without it, the text may remain, but the meaning is lost. What is the goal of this transcendental knowledge? To understand Him, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although unborn, He appears within this world by His internal potency whenever religious principles decline, protecting the devotees, curbing the demons, and restoring the path of dharma. And what is the result? One who understands the transcendental nature of His appearance and activities does not take birth again, attaining His eternal abode.
How can transcendental knowledge be obtained? That’s the important question. We should learn the truth by approaching a self-realized spiritual master and learning the correct conclusions from him, for only one who has seen the truth can perfectly describe it. One has to inquire with submission and offer service. What is the benefit? Transcendental knowledge acts as a boat to cross the ocean of material miseries and as a blazing fire that destroys all karmic reactions.
Just as lust is the greatest enemy of the soul, doubt is the greatest obstacle to advancement in transcendental knowledge. Doubts prevent one from developing faith, and without faith one cannot follow the process or control the senses. Doubt is thus the factor that can prevent us from advancing even after coming in contact with a genuine spiritual master. The doubting soul cannot attain any real spiritual progress. Therefore, we should slash any doubts we have in our hearts with the weapon of transcendental knowledge and “stand up and fight,” working for Kṛṣṇa in devotional service.
Action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness
Chapter three speaks about karma-yoga, the process of action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Chapter four speaks about transcendental knowledge, understanding of our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, which leads us to the platform of devotional service. Chapter five combines the two, bringing us back to buddhi-yoga, the perfect form of karma-yoga, which Kṛṣṇa introduced in chapter two, and now explains in more detail.
Some may attain liberation by practicing renunciation, like a jñānī retiring from practical life, but devotional service is superior, safer, and more direct. Dry renunciation is based on the mistake of seeing oneself as the processor of things that may be renounced. A devotee understands everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa and should thus be used in His service. True renunciation thus means doing everything for Him. Without this understanding, we tend to see renunciation as merely abandoning external duties, while real renunciation means abandoning the claim to proprietorship and the desire to enjoy the results.
How is it possible that a self-realized devotee can act without any claim of proprietorship? This comes from an important realization: The soul does not independently perform material activities. We may desire, but for performing actions, we need the cooperation of the three modes of material nature, which move under the sanction of the Supersoul. In other words, we are entirely dependent on Kṛṣṇa’s energy even to breathe. How can we claim the results?
Another symptom of a self-realized devotee is that he sees everyone with equal spiritual vision (paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ), seeing the soul instead of the external body. This spiritual vision also makes one unaffected by pleasant and unpleasant situations. Such a sage finds happiness within and is not attracted to external sense gratification. He tolerates the urges of the senses and resists the forces of lust and anger. He works for the benefit of all and remains happy even while still living in this world.
Many of us may be attracted to the practice of meditation. In the sixth chapter, Kṛṣṇa explains the path of dhyāna-yoga. This is not a replacement for the process of action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but a parallel path. The ultimate goal of all the different yoga processes described in the Bhagavad-gītā is to bring us to the stage of complete absorption in Kṛṣṇa in full realization of our constitutional position of service to Him. Karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, buddhi-yoga, and the other processes described in the Gītā are different paths that lead us to this ultimate goal. Inside these processes, however, there are natural paths of progression, forming the yoga-ladder we studied in another article.
Reviving our original consciousness
Kṛṣṇa concludes chapter six by declaring that the highest yogī is the devotee who always thinks of Him with faith and love. This opens the second third of the Bhagavad-gītā, chapters seven to twelve, where He explains Himself and the path of bhakti. He is the source, support, and ultimate destination of everything. Both the individual souls and matter are part of His transcendental potencies, and thus, we are eternally connected with Him, even while living in this material world.
Now we may be bewildered by the influence of the three modes, but this is a temporary condition that ceases as soon as we become again connected with Him. By constantly remembering Him, we also remember Him at death, which takes us out of this material situation for good. In the ninth chapter, He reveals the most confidential knowledge: although He is so powerful and great, He remains personally accessible to the devotee and accepts even a leaf, flower, fruit, or water when offered with love. He is the eternal friend with whom we are always connected.
Chapters thirteen through eighteen then explain the philosophical foundation for this process of surrender. Kṛṣṇa explains how the three modes shape our knowledge, actions, determination, happiness, and faith, bringing us to our future destination. He then compares the whole material existence to an inverted banyan tree whose roots must be cut with detachment, distinguishes divine qualities from the demoniac, and shows that even religious practices can be conditioned by the three modes unless properly directed to Him.
Finally, in chapter eighteen, He summarizes all the previous teachings and gives us the final conclusion: we should remember Him, become His devotee, and take complete shelter in Him. Surrender does not mean simply abandoning everything and sitting under a tree. It means giving up the illusion of independence and using our body, mind, intelligence, abilities, and duties in cooperation with Kṛṣṇa’s will, following His teachings. Arjuna reinforces this message by confirming: My illusion is now gone, and I am prepared to act according to Your instructions.
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