Gita Chapter 1
In this chapter we see the sorrow of Arjun. Because he and his family were denied of any share in Kingdom and were sent to twelve years in forest, Arjun was full of hatred against his cousins and relatives. But when the time came to take revenge, his hatred got converted into remorse, partly may be because keeping that anger for so long in himself, he became used to that and when the time came for it to vent out, he started feeling helpless as he was used to be with this suppressed anger since so many years and so did not wanted to separate that anger with himself.
Another factor was that perhaps he became doubtful of his victory as Kaurava Army was much larger and having more able Generals. Consistent denial of his rights had great impact on him and so he might have became an “escapist” because his mind telling him that he can not win because in so many years he and his brother are getting defeated again and again by forgery and tricks by Kauravas.
We can see this in our daily lives. A person becomes helpless, if he/she do not know about his own powers. This mind is very strong. It tells a person that you are powerful, it gives a person confidence, and this same mind makes a person cheat, fraud, fearful and helpless. A mind in influence of suppressed emotions makes a person coward.
Arjun was in a dilemma. Time has come for which he and his brothers were waiting for so long. But when armies were facing each other, the emotions in Arjun made him to decide “I will not fight”.
Here many questions come in mind. First is that why the war? It resulted in death of almost all the able men of the time. Krishna went to Kuaravas that if five villages are given to Pandavas, they will be happy and the war will be averted. But Kauravas were not ready to give even a inch of land.
Buddhi is the wisdom which is a combination of all the samskaras and influence of all the five senses. And our inner wisdom is our consciousness which is the real us, the soul. To remove the differences between these two is called enlightenment.
When our buddhi becomes frustrated with the existing samskaras and organ senses, it looks deeper into it for help. Then our inner consciousness or Krishna removes the dust and so the soul can recognize itself.
There is always a fight in each one of us between our consciousness and our buddhi. This is the Mahabharat. External senses and samsakaras are the Kauravas, Our Buddhi is Arjun and the inner self is Krishna. When Buddhi looses interest in external senses it becomes introvert to itself so that it can recognize the real self. That is the right time for enlightenment and just one push will do the rest, like Krishna did to Arjun.
Initially it becomes very difficult as we become used to live with our samskaras and become fearful to part with them and so Krishna is needed.
As he says “Leave everything and come to me….I will make you free.”
What does this means? Leave everything….leave the fruits of senses, leave the samskaras and look towards me…..and you will be enlightened. That is what Krishna’s message is.
First chapter of Geeta is also known as “Vishaad Yoga”. “Vishaad” means remorse. Arjun had became so much frustrated that his buddhi was not working. He had forgotten his duties and that was the perfect time. That is why Krishna waited till Arjun reaches that state.
Dhritarashtra was blind from birth so the throne was given to his younger brother Pandu. Dhritarashtra was never happy with that but could not do anything on his own. When Kauravas (his sons) became young, through them he wanted to get back the throne. His sons got the throne by hook and crook and that resulted in the great war. Perhaps Dhritarashtra was also interested in the war so that if his sons win then they will be the legitimate rulers. Kaurava army was large and supported by great warriors like Bhishma, Drona etc. So Dhritarashtra was interested in war and asked Sanjay to narrate what all is going on in battele field.
Sanjay had got the ability to see the battle field from Sage Ved Vyasa. So he narrated the battle happenings to Dhritarashtra.
(To be continued)
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