The present book "The Bhagavat Gita Path to wisdom" is an outcome of the Bhagavadgita classes I conducted during my stay in Indonesia. I had written the summary of the contents of the Gita chapter by chapter for the benefit of my students. Later on, I thought that it will benefit a lot of people, if it is published in the form of a Book. By the grace of God it is being published now.
I express my deep sense of gratitude to H.H.Swami Paramarthananda for patiently going through the entire work and offering valuable suggestions and corrections. I am extremely thankful to Swamiji for writing the foreword.
I thank the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for publishing this book.
Every one in this world wants to be very happy and free from any miseries. All his efforts and endeavours stretch out only in this direction. Under the delusion that material prosperity can bring him unending happiness, he tirelessly seeks after these things and finally discovers that material prosperity can never secure him everlasting bliss and mental peace. Our Upanisads clarify that it is the intrinsic nature of the human beings ie. jivas to be blissful as they have come into existence from that entity which is full of bliss. Since the jivas are influenced by some illusions and therefore are not able to experience this bliss, they hanker after that and seek to attain it.
So what is that entity and what is the cause of obstruction on the jivas? The Upanisads reveal that entity as Brahman - the substratum of everything. It is of the nature of existence, consciousness and bliss. It is free from qualities and hence it is the Nirguna Brahman. Associated with Maya or Praksti it gets the designation of Isvara or saguna Brahman. As livara, it creates, sustains and destroys the Universe. The same Brahman, associated with mind or antahkarana (an offshoot or effect of avidya) appears as jiva.
Thus, jiva is nothing but Brahman as associated with mind. But due to the superimposition of mind and its qualities the jiva is unaware of its identity with Brahman. It falsely identifies itself with the body-mind complex and undergoes transmigration. It continues to suffer in the world as long as it does not realize that it is essentially nothing but Brahman (in its true nature) and all its experiences of misery are due to the superimposition of the body-mind complex on it. Once the jiva realizes its identity with Brahman, that is the end to all its sufferings and the jiva attains its ultimate nature of real, unalloyed bliss. The realized soul is never born again in this world. This is liberation.
Our scriptures and great preceptors have shown the path to this liberation very clearly. Thus the individual soul as a result of abundant punya karmas accumulated in innumerable births learns from the scriptures the great instruction TAT TVAM ASI (THAT ART THOU) meaning "you are nothing but Brahman." To realize this instruction as "I am that Brahman" AHAM BRAHMA ASMI, at the instruction of his preceptors, he performs his Karmas as an offering to God. This is called Karmayoga. This is the first step and continuous performance of this purifies his mind (cittaśuddhi). Ever bent on God, with a clean mind he constantly meditates and due to His grace realizes the true nature of his self ie. the identity of his self with Brahman; the realisation that he is nothing but Brahman, the causative factor of the Universe He sees his self everywhere and everything in his self. He is always happy irrespective of the environments and is never born again. This is liberation. The Bhagavad Gita which is one of the triple foundations-prasthanatraya [the other two being the Upanisads and Brahmasutras) of Hindu religion and philosophy clearly shows the path to liberation. Consisting of 18 chapters and 700 verses, this unequalled magnum opus work is in the form of dialogue between sri Krsna - the incarnation of God and his disciple Arjuna - the Pandava. Incorporated in the Bhisma parva of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita which is considered an Upanisad reflects the ideas of the Upanisads and shows the path more simply and clearly leading to liberation for an aspirant. with Arjuna as the medium.
Vedas (1130)
Upanishads (472)
Puranas (611)
Ramayana (722)
Mahabharata (335)
Dharmasastras (155)
Goddess (484)
Bhakti (240)
Saints (1443)
Gods (1260)
Shiva (357)
Journal (168)
Fiction (55)
Vedanta (348)
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