The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most influential treatise in eastern philosophy. The Bhagavad-Gita is the eternal message of spiritual wisdom from ancient India. The word Gita means song and the word. Bhagavad means God, often the Bhagavad-Gita is called the Song of God. It has molded traditions and made great men for thousands of years. Spoken by Krishna to his disciple Arjuna at the battlefield of Kurushetra, Gita, answers major questions of our lives and existence. Krishna also called lila-avatar is one of those extra-ordinary personalities who life stories are enough to help us attain an enlightenment.The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of God” or “Song of the Lord”) is among the most important religious texts of Hinduism and easily the best known. It has been quoted by writers, poets, scientists, theologians, and philosophers – among others – for centuries and is often the introductory text to Hinduism for a Western audience. It is commonly referred to as the Gita and was originally part of the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Its date of composition, therefore, is closely associated with that of the epic – c. 5th-3rd century BCE – but not all scholars agree that the work was originally included in the Mahabharata text and so date it later to c. 2nd century BCE.
The Gita is a dialogue between the warrior-prince Arjuna and the god Krishna who is serving as his charioteer at the Battle of Kurukshetra fought between Arjuna’s family and allies (the Pandavas) and those of the prince Duryodhana and his family (the Kauravas) and their allies. This dialogue is recited by the Kauravan counselor Sanjaya to his blind king Dhritarashtra (both far from the battleground) as Krishna has given Sanjaya mystical sight so he will be able to see and report the battle to the king.
The Kauravas and Pandavas are related and there are mutual friends and family members fighting on both sides for supremacy of rule. Accordingly, when Arjuna sees all his former friends and comrades on the opposing side, he loses heart and refuses to take part in a battle which will result in their deaths as well as many others. The rest of the text is the dialogue between the prince and the god on what constitutes right action, proper understanding and, ultimately, the meaning of life and nature of the Divine.
The Gita combines the concepts expressed in the central texts of Hinduism – the Vedas and Upanishads – which are here synthesized into a single, coherent vision of belief in one God and the underlying unity of all existence. The text instructs on how one must elevate the mind and soul to look beyond appearances – which fool one into believing in duality and multiplicity – and recognize these are illusions; all humans and aspects of existence are a unified extension of the Divine which one will recognize once the trappings of illusion have been discarded.
The concept that we are not the body, but souls with eternal existence and omnipresent nature that can not be destroyed immediately changes the outlook we have over life. The mere rush for worldly things, name , fame, power and sense pleasures in order to satisfy ourselves looks useless when we understand that we are not the body but the soul. Soul has no need for all these material things. It is a part of the cosmic spirit/divinity/God. Our essence is thus God. In reality, we are not us, but what we really are is God who is all pervading exists everywhere and in everything. Bhagvat Gita Says “The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do, Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to their deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue unclean ends, Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings. Self-important, obstinate, swept away by the pride of Wealth, they ostentatiously perform sacrifices without any regard for their purpose. Egotistical, violent, arrogant, lustful, angry, envious of everyone, they abuse my presence within their own bodies and in the bodies of others”
At this realization of the teaching of Gita, the distinction that exists between men disappears. We realize that everything is a manifestation or an act of the Spirit/Brahman. The existence is non-dual; God pervades it all over. This sacred teaching of Krishna attunes us to a higher understanding where we come to realize that all that we are looking for is within ourselves. We find that the ultimate goal of the human life is Self-realization and the body, sense organs, mind are mere instruments to worship the divine.
Gita says, The person whose mind is always free from attachment, who has subdued the mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from Karma through renunciation. Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire Identifying ourselves not with the body, but the soul at once changes everything. Soul is all pervading, it is eternal and it is God himself. We have an eternal fountain of wisdom, knowledge and bliss within us as soon as we get rid of our body/mind identification. That is enlightenment. That is Self-Realization.
According to Krishna, this life is just a dream of those souls that have attached themselves to false things, to home, to wife, to the body, to the pleasures and to all things that signify dualities. Once the soul frees himself from all fetters of attachments and aversions, it attains ultimate freedom / moksha. Bhagvad Gita is a philosophical treatise of Krishna’s life. It is a truth to ultimate freedom, knowledge and bliss.