Everyday the stage is set. Actors: Dhritrashtra, Duryodhan, Dussashan...Draupadi. Place: Indraprastha...Hastinapur. The Act goes on without number. Numbers have become numb. Jamuna has gone dumb. And the Act goes on in moving buses, in spinning cars, behind tinted glasses, in broad daylight. Plunderers, punks, killers, gamblers, cock a snook at wagered away Pandavas and bonded Bhishmas and Dronas. Simone Weil warned vehemently: Either be ready to be wiped out or be ready to be transformed. The choice is yours. I wonder if it is in response to her admonition that the South Africans have started incorporating the teachings of Bhagavad Gita into their workaday world. Who would like to smoulder in the heat of OWS or be ripped up by an Arab Spring ?
Jean Paul Sartre said man is condemned to be free. I say man is born free to vindicate his humaneness. I subscribe to Nietzsche's point of view that man is a bridge, not a goal, not a destination. He is like a conveyor belt that runs between the Animalia and the Gloria. He is not a resting place because nobody rests on a bridge. He is the existential link between the Animal and the Divine. Without the help from this ferryman no growth, no upward movement, is possible. Man has to work steadily. There is no respite for him. Tension seems to be his lot. But it is not something to be wary of. He has only to learn how to transcend tension so as to usher himself into the world of compassion. A little slackness on his part and he is likely to find himself back to square one.
Bhagavad Gita, as Emerson rightly claims, is the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and disposed of the same questions that exercise us. It is as much a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjun, as an inner duologue between Arjun's two voices--one coming from Hrishikesh, the illuminer and the other from Gudakesh, the alert one. Let me tell you that Hrishikesh which means conqueror of senses, is used for Lord Krishna and Gudakesh which means conqueror of sleep for Arjun. There is a duel going on inside Arjun because the outer is always a reflection of the inner. A seed first of all needs darkness for incubation and only afterwards it requires light for germination. Without this inner conflict Bhagavad Gita would not have seen the light of the day.
Why has Arjun been chosen for this task? Yudhisthir was the King of Indraprastha and Bhimsen was elder to him. But it was Arjun to whom the supreme wisdom was revealed by the Lord. Why? Because only Arjun was gudakesh, that is conqueror of sleep, that is alert. It was a revelation from an enlightener(Hrishikesh) to one who was alert. What is the point in speaking to people who are asleep (Gita:2.69) ? So the first thing to understand about Gita is that it makes sense to only those who are awake. Without inner awakening, no transformation is possible. Those who are asleep, being unable to rise to its level, try to drag it down to their level to justify their way of living. This is easy because then they don't have to make any effort to bring about the required transformation in them.
Gita arises out of the conflict between Arjun's weakness for complacency and his desire to transcend it. Arjun, along with the Lord, is seated on the great divide between Dharmakshetra and Kurukshetra. On his one side is the army of Kuru prince Duryodhan, and on the other side is the army of Dharmaraj Yudhishthir. Krishna has provided him with the enviable position of witnessing the whole situation. Now he is a witness to both Dharmakshetra and Kurukshetra, inside as well as outside of him. Krishna is enlightened and Arjun, which means straightforward, is on his way to become one. Arjun is both a Kaurava and a Pandava, by virtue of his dynasty. So for Arjun every time he kills a Kaurava it will amount to killing a part of himself also. That is his dilemma.
But can there be a seedling without the annihilation of the seed ? How can there be birth without passing through the gates of death ? How can anybody establish a dharmakshetra without first crossing out kurukshetra ? But that entails effort. Status quo finds favor with most people because it is comfortable. Arjun also raises a smokescreen of rationalizations (Gita:1.28-45) to hide himself behind it. On the face of it the smokescreen is quite impressive and he carves out a memorable exit for himself, ringing down the curtain on I will not fight the war (Gita: 2.9). But who understands him better than he himself ? And so he keeps the door ajar: I beseech you to tell me what is good and decisive. As your disciple, I take refuge in you. Please enlighten me (Gita:2.7), he implores.
So the second thing to be remembered about Gitaji is that it makes sense only to those people who besides being alert are eager to learn how to become enlightened. And for becoming enlightened, you have got to surrender yourself to Existence (Gita: 18.66). You may call Existence by any name that is dear to you, but like Arjun, the reins must be handed over to it. To surrender implies blotting out all past impressions in an effort to become a clean slate. It takes Hrishikesh a full length narration of the Gita to bring Gudakesh to the point where he becomes fully empty to receive what he is trying so hard to impart. Again and again Arjun asks the same question in different ways and again and again the Lord's reply is the same but couched in different words, in response to the slant in Arjun's query.
Arjun speaks about the phenomenal, about the formed. The Lord speaks about the transcendental, about the unformed. When Arjun says I, he means his own manifest form. When the Lord says I, He means the all pervading essence behind the manifest form. For Arjun, as also for most of us, I dies when the form dies. For the Lord I never dies, only the form dies (Gita: 2.12). How can that which has no form, die ? The Lord asks us to look deep, rather very deep, into every phenomenon and see for ourselves that the form is changing every moment (Gita: 2.13). As an example, put a snapshot of an old person alongside his childhood portrait, to understand the truth of the Lord's statement. Someday we may include a blowup of the departing astral body to make things more clear !
Forms will always change and so will all relationships and situations. That is the law. You like somebody, it is bound to change into dislike and then again into yearning and so on and so forth. Your pal is going to be an estranger and then again a bosom buddy. You may become happy with a snooze and unhappy with a sneeze or vice versa. Therefore there is need to transcend dualities (Gita: 5.23) to become stable. It is not that an enlightened being doesn't feel hot or cold, pangs of hunger or separation. In fact he is more sensitive than an average human being but he does not cling to or reject any situation. We cling to whatever appeals to us and then make ourselves miserable when it leaves us. We forget that coming and going are part of one process. We cannot separate them like we cannot separate the two poles of a magnet.
An enlightened being doesn't choose anything, nor does he deny anything. Love comes, friend comes, heat comes, wealth comes, praise comes: he says welcome. Hate comes, foe comes, cold comes, penury comes, blame comes: again he says welcome. He neither craves for, nor cries down anything. The name of such a choiceless awareness is enlightenment. Lord Buddha, just before his final journey fell seriously ill. Sharp and deadly pains came upon him. He bore them unruffledly. Mahaparinibbana Sutta says: Anand, I am frail, old, and worn out. This is my eightieth year. Even as an old cart is held together with difficulty, so is the body of Tathagat kept going. It is when Tathagata, ignoring external objects, with the cessation of feelings, attains to and abides in mindfulness that the body remains comfortable.
It is not impossible to become enlightened as so many arhats and bodhisattvas have amply demonstrated. But it is not very easy either. One has got to work relentlessly upon oneself to remain awake, rather wide awake. Every moment the form undergoes a change, while in the background, the formless remains unchanged. We cannot miss a single moment because every moment a marvel is happening. Arjun's cosmic vision (Gita: 11. 10-17) was not the only marvel. A beam of light, a rustle of breeze, the dappled shadow, the crack of dawn, the bud smiling, a flicker of the eyes, a lit up face--be aware and discover a marvel every moment. The formless Invisible has been showering countless marvels for eons and will continue doing so endlessly. The need is not to get bogged down in the past.
It is not like you have become enlightened and now you can sleep over it. Oh, no, if you have chosen this path you will remain awake even in deep sleep. Paradoxical ? Yes, but absolutely true. A time will come when you will have dreamless sleep, while now you dream even when you think you are wide awake. Well, if you were wide awake, how did hate, envy, jealousy, greed, anger, lust, fear enter you ? They come from the past and the future which is the projection of the past. After arduous deliberations, Arjun becomes enlightened. And then he declares: karishye vachanam tav (Gita: 18.73). I will do thy bidding which is his way of saying: I will be wide awake to every moment henceforth. And if one is wide awake to every moment, everything that one does becomes holy like a scripture.
Om Shantih
Ajit Sambodhi
Jean Paul Sartre said man is condemned to be free. I say man is born free to vindicate his humaneness. I subscribe to Nietzsche's point of view that man is a bridge, not a goal, not a destination. He is like a conveyor belt that runs between the Animalia and the Gloria. He is not a resting place because nobody rests on a bridge. He is the existential link between the Animal and the Divine. Without the help from this ferryman no growth, no upward movement, is possible. Man has to work steadily. There is no respite for him. Tension seems to be his lot. But it is not something to be wary of. He has only to learn how to transcend tension so as to usher himself into the world of compassion. A little slackness on his part and he is likely to find himself back to square one.
Bhagavad Gita, as Emerson rightly claims, is the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and disposed of the same questions that exercise us. It is as much a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjun, as an inner duologue between Arjun's two voices--one coming from Hrishikesh, the illuminer and the other from Gudakesh, the alert one. Let me tell you that Hrishikesh which means conqueror of senses, is used for Lord Krishna and Gudakesh which means conqueror of sleep for Arjun. There is a duel going on inside Arjun because the outer is always a reflection of the inner. A seed first of all needs darkness for incubation and only afterwards it requires light for germination. Without this inner conflict Bhagavad Gita would not have seen the light of the day.
Why has Arjun been chosen for this task? Yudhisthir was the King of Indraprastha and Bhimsen was elder to him. But it was Arjun to whom the supreme wisdom was revealed by the Lord. Why? Because only Arjun was gudakesh, that is conqueror of sleep, that is alert. It was a revelation from an enlightener(Hrishikesh) to one who was alert. What is the point in speaking to people who are asleep (Gita:2.69) ? So the first thing to understand about Gita is that it makes sense to only those who are awake. Without inner awakening, no transformation is possible. Those who are asleep, being unable to rise to its level, try to drag it down to their level to justify their way of living. This is easy because then they don't have to make any effort to bring about the required transformation in them.
Gita arises out of the conflict between Arjun's weakness for complacency and his desire to transcend it. Arjun, along with the Lord, is seated on the great divide between Dharmakshetra and Kurukshetra. On his one side is the army of Kuru prince Duryodhan, and on the other side is the army of Dharmaraj Yudhishthir. Krishna has provided him with the enviable position of witnessing the whole situation. Now he is a witness to both Dharmakshetra and Kurukshetra, inside as well as outside of him. Krishna is enlightened and Arjun, which means straightforward, is on his way to become one. Arjun is both a Kaurava and a Pandava, by virtue of his dynasty. So for Arjun every time he kills a Kaurava it will amount to killing a part of himself also. That is his dilemma.
But can there be a seedling without the annihilation of the seed ? How can there be birth without passing through the gates of death ? How can anybody establish a dharmakshetra without first crossing out kurukshetra ? But that entails effort. Status quo finds favor with most people because it is comfortable. Arjun also raises a smokescreen of rationalizations (Gita:1.28-45) to hide himself behind it. On the face of it the smokescreen is quite impressive and he carves out a memorable exit for himself, ringing down the curtain on I will not fight the war (Gita: 2.9). But who understands him better than he himself ? And so he keeps the door ajar: I beseech you to tell me what is good and decisive. As your disciple, I take refuge in you. Please enlighten me (Gita:2.7), he implores.
So the second thing to be remembered about Gitaji is that it makes sense only to those people who besides being alert are eager to learn how to become enlightened. And for becoming enlightened, you have got to surrender yourself to Existence (Gita: 18.66). You may call Existence by any name that is dear to you, but like Arjun, the reins must be handed over to it. To surrender implies blotting out all past impressions in an effort to become a clean slate. It takes Hrishikesh a full length narration of the Gita to bring Gudakesh to the point where he becomes fully empty to receive what he is trying so hard to impart. Again and again Arjun asks the same question in different ways and again and again the Lord's reply is the same but couched in different words, in response to the slant in Arjun's query.
Arjun speaks about the phenomenal, about the formed. The Lord speaks about the transcendental, about the unformed. When Arjun says I, he means his own manifest form. When the Lord says I, He means the all pervading essence behind the manifest form. For Arjun, as also for most of us, I dies when the form dies. For the Lord I never dies, only the form dies (Gita: 2.12). How can that which has no form, die ? The Lord asks us to look deep, rather very deep, into every phenomenon and see for ourselves that the form is changing every moment (Gita: 2.13). As an example, put a snapshot of an old person alongside his childhood portrait, to understand the truth of the Lord's statement. Someday we may include a blowup of the departing astral body to make things more clear !
Forms will always change and so will all relationships and situations. That is the law. You like somebody, it is bound to change into dislike and then again into yearning and so on and so forth. Your pal is going to be an estranger and then again a bosom buddy. You may become happy with a snooze and unhappy with a sneeze or vice versa. Therefore there is need to transcend dualities (Gita: 5.23) to become stable. It is not that an enlightened being doesn't feel hot or cold, pangs of hunger or separation. In fact he is more sensitive than an average human being but he does not cling to or reject any situation. We cling to whatever appeals to us and then make ourselves miserable when it leaves us. We forget that coming and going are part of one process. We cannot separate them like we cannot separate the two poles of a magnet.
An enlightened being doesn't choose anything, nor does he deny anything. Love comes, friend comes, heat comes, wealth comes, praise comes: he says welcome. Hate comes, foe comes, cold comes, penury comes, blame comes: again he says welcome. He neither craves for, nor cries down anything. The name of such a choiceless awareness is enlightenment. Lord Buddha, just before his final journey fell seriously ill. Sharp and deadly pains came upon him. He bore them unruffledly. Mahaparinibbana Sutta says: Anand, I am frail, old, and worn out. This is my eightieth year. Even as an old cart is held together with difficulty, so is the body of Tathagat kept going. It is when Tathagata, ignoring external objects, with the cessation of feelings, attains to and abides in mindfulness that the body remains comfortable.
It is not impossible to become enlightened as so many arhats and bodhisattvas have amply demonstrated. But it is not very easy either. One has got to work relentlessly upon oneself to remain awake, rather wide awake. Every moment the form undergoes a change, while in the background, the formless remains unchanged. We cannot miss a single moment because every moment a marvel is happening. Arjun's cosmic vision (Gita: 11. 10-17) was not the only marvel. A beam of light, a rustle of breeze, the dappled shadow, the crack of dawn, the bud smiling, a flicker of the eyes, a lit up face--be aware and discover a marvel every moment. The formless Invisible has been showering countless marvels for eons and will continue doing so endlessly. The need is not to get bogged down in the past.
It is not like you have become enlightened and now you can sleep over it. Oh, no, if you have chosen this path you will remain awake even in deep sleep. Paradoxical ? Yes, but absolutely true. A time will come when you will have dreamless sleep, while now you dream even when you think you are wide awake. Well, if you were wide awake, how did hate, envy, jealousy, greed, anger, lust, fear enter you ? They come from the past and the future which is the projection of the past. After arduous deliberations, Arjun becomes enlightened. And then he declares: karishye vachanam tav (Gita: 18.73). I will do thy bidding which is his way of saying: I will be wide awake to every moment henceforth. And if one is wide awake to every moment, everything that one does becomes holy like a scripture.
Om Shantih
Ajit Sambodhi
