Tag: <span>Bhagavad Gita</span>

To Fight or Not to Fight? Krishna’s deeper message in the Bhagavad Gita

The Gita spends a considerable amount of time – the entire first chapter – ‘setting the scene’. Notably, this is in contrast to other important scriptures of similar gravitas like the Brahma Sutras or the Yoga Sutras which begin with rather abrupt statements announcing that the topic of the text will now be discussed; or the Upanishads which again, don’t consider it important to describe context or background. This in itself (even if it were not reinforced through the images of the battle scene printed on almost all book covers of the Gita we see in circulation today) indicates the importance of the context i.e. the scene of the battle. And immediately, as the outer battle scene is being described by Arjuna, the mirroring of the inner battle within him is highlighted. In my view, the Gita deliberately takes pains to draw attention to the example and metaphor of battle, to later, show the opposite of it or the transcendence of it and expatiate on the attainment of absolute peace.

Bhagavad Gita and the Essence of Sanatana Dharma

Sanatana Dharma means the eternal law which is the basis of Existence itself. It is not something conjured up by the mind of a human being, but is the way that the cosmos functions. To be in tune with that movement and functioning is to follow Sanatana Dharma. To achieve this, myriads of methods and paths arose in Bharat and still exist today, reflecting the fact that each individual is unique, the way he seeks is unique and the way he perceives what he finds is also unique.