Shreemad Bhagavad Gita

The Song of Love

Paramahamsa Sri Swami Vishwananda

• Publisher: Bhakti Marga Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783940381705
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Hinduism

The Shreemad Bhagavad Gita is one of the most ancient scriptures in the world. Of all the scriptures, it is said that Gita provides the deepest and most practical knowledge about faith, devotion, surrender, detachment, and a release of expectations and ownership over one's own actions. But like any teaching, time and unqualified minds can distort scriptures like thisand misrepresent what is contained within. It is for that purpose that the Lord continuously takes birth on earth in the form of the Guru to revive the true essence of the Gita and to demonstratethe simplicity and power of the divine message of the Lord. One such Master is Paramahamsa Sri Swami Vishwananda, and this book is his personal commentary on this timeless knowledge. Included here are over 900 pages of verses, translations, drawings for every chapter, and Paramahamsa Vishwananda's extensive commentary. Perfect for the beginner as well as those who have read other commentaries, this is more than just a book. It is a guiding light that can be applied to every day, to every thought, and to every moment.

CHAPTER 1

ARJUNA VISHAADA YOGA

Chapter 1, Verse 1

dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca

dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre
samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
kim akurvata sañjaya

Dhritarashtra asks: On the field of Kurukshetra, the field of the working out of the dharma, gathered together, eager for battle, what did they do, O Sanjaya, my people and the Pandavas?

Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya what is happening in the war, what is happening on the battlefield. This verse starts with the word ‘Dharmakshetra’. ‘Dharma’ means righteous, ‘kshetra’ means the field - the field of righteousness. Kurukshetra: ‘kuru’ comes from ‘ku’, ‘kriya’, to do, to act, to work; ‘kshetra’ is the working field. Dhritarashtra asks, “What are my sons and the Pandavas doing?”

The moment Dhritarashtra uses the words ‘Dharmakshetra’, ‘Kurukshetra’, he knows automatically that the place, the battlefield is not just a normal place. The battlefield is a holy place.

This Kurukshetra was not just a normal place where they had chosen a field to have a war. It was a place where dharma was fulfilled. It was a place where one was liberated. That’s why it is said that whoever dies at Kurukshetra, even nowadays, is elevated into higher spheres, or liberated according to their merit, their punya. Kurukshetra is also referred to as Punyakshetra, because on this field one gets good merit, good punya.

What was this field where the war happened? The war has different meanings. One of the meanings of this war is life, where the ‘good’ side fights with the ‘not good’ side. This war is not outside, it is also happening inside the human body. Your physical body is the Dharmakshetra. You have incarnated to do your dharma in this field. That’s the Dharmakshetra. Life in itself is also Dharmakshetra. You have come to fulfil the Divine purpose. When you are in tune with your true Self, you realise what is your true purpose in life: to attain the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to attain His Grace. And that’s what the word ‘Dharmakshetra’ is reminding you. Do your dharma! Awake! This dharma can be done with the greatest gift which God has given - this field, this body. And when you start doing your dharma, you’ll get good merit, you’ll get good punya! But, if you run away from your dharma, then you turn towards the dark side.

In this verse, Dhritarashtra refers to his sons, gathered on this battlefield. This battlefield represents the battlefield of life. On the battlefield of life, you have both: the ‘good’ and the ‘not good’. Dhritarashtra says, “my people”, meaning his sons and the Pandavas, and asks, “What are they doing?”Dhritarashtra had a hundred sons and the Pandavas were the five sons of his brother, Pandu. And now, there was war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

What does the blind king represent? This blind king, Dhritarashtra, represents the mind - the mind which is blind and wants to stay blind. The mind is hanging on to the outside so much that it has power only when it is focused on something exterior: on the material, on relationships, on gaining this or gaining that. This is the nature of the mind. The mind is blind. When Dhritarashtra asks, “What are my sons doing?”, don’t think that he is very concerned about the Pandavas. He is only concerned about his sons. He is more bothered about, “What will I gain?” Somebody with a crooked mind will always try to find what he will gain. This is avariciousness.

Before, he was not concerned about the war, but when he sees that he will lose something, then his mind feels threatened, his mind starts to react. In his mind he has doubts and asks, “What is happening? Now that Bhishma has fallen down, what is the reaction of my sons? What is the reaction of the Pandavas? Surely, this must cause a reaction in their minds. With the fall of Bhishma, did my sons realise that they have to change or not?” The mind is always the same. The mind thinks, thinks, thinks, and thinks, but when you try to control it, what happens? It’s a fight, right? It rebels!

He continues to inquire: “Will there be changes happening to my people and the Pandavas?” Both families were from the Kuru dynasty. But the king refused to recognise the Pandavas. The mind doesn’t recognise the good qualities which are present in oneself. The mind can only look towards the senses, looking always towards the outside. The Self, the positive qualities which are present inside, are not comprehended by the mind. So, then Sanjaya continues saying:

Chapter 1, Verse 2

sañjaya uvāca

dṛṣṭva tu pāṇḍavānīkaṁ
vyūḍhaṁ duryodhanas tadā
ācāryam upasaṅgamya
rājā vacanam abravīt

Sanjaya says: Then the King Duryodhan, having seen the army of the Pandavas arrayed in battle order, approaches his teacher, Dronacharya, and speaks these words:

Why does Sanjaya refer to Duryodhan as ‘raja’ (king) in this verse? Because Duryodhan was a great man of state. His father, Dhritarashtra, was blind, so it was actually Duryodhan who was controlling the kingdom. His blind father, Dhritarashtra, represents the blind mind. What comes out of the blind mind is pride. Duryodhan represents this great pride that is born from the mind. When the mind is very active, one becomes proud, proud of many things: proud of knowledge, proud of what one has.

The army of the Pandavas was arrayed in a very special formation. Seeing this orderly formation, Duryodhan felt much nervousness and anxiety inside himself. Anxiety appears when one is proud. Even if pride appears very strong on the outside, in reality, it has a lot of weaknesses in it. Why does pride arise? Do you think it is out of strength? No! In reality, pride arises due to the weakness that one has inside. Even if somebody says, “Ah yes, I am very proud of this and I am very proud of that”, you can feel that this pride is actually weakness. When pride arises, people think, “Yes, I am very confident!” No. It’s the mind that perceives pride as being confidence. In reality, one is running away from something, from the opposite of pride, humility. When one is running away from humility, one only appears to be very grand and confident.

Seeing the army formation of the Pandavas, Duryodhan became anxious. When you start on the spiritual path, your pride sees all your good qualities, but then the mind becomes anxious. This pride tries to make you reason, tries to make you go sideways in a cunning way. That’s why Duryodhan rushes to Dronacharya, the great teacher of both the Kauravas and the Pandavas.

Dronacharya represents attachment to the material. He represents the greed in man. Dronacharya also had good qualities. He was a great teacher of military science. Sometimes he would even advise Bhishma. He was the royal guru. But when the pride of Duryodhan saw the greed in Dronacharya, he said to himself, “Let me go and feed his greed. Let me corrupt him. Let me change him. Let me excite him!” Actually, Dronacharya didn’t want to fight, but he was bound by his duty. He could not quit his position and say, “No, I can’t!” Being the guru, he had to be there to advise.

Duryodhan approaches him and tries to poison his mind. Duryodhan only wants to please himself. He knows that this great teacher has taught the Pandavas how to fight. Seeing how the Pandavas’ army was arranged, he asks the teacher, “How can we use this army formation to our own advantage?” He goes there for his own personal gain. Dronacharya was the second commanding officer of the army and Bhishma was the first commanding officer. Duryodhan knew that Dronacharya would become the first commanding officer of the army after Bhishma. So he wanted to be on good terms with him. Duryodhan starts to honour Dronacharya and praises him. He tries to impress Dronacharya with nice words.

Chapter 1, Verse 3

paśyaitām pāṇḍu-putrāṇām
ācārya mahatīṁ camūm
vyūḍhāṁ drupada-putreṇa
tava śiṣyeṉa dhīmatā

Behold this mighty host of the sons of Pandu, O Acharya, arrayed by Drupada’s son, your intelligent disciple.

Duryodhan is very clever. He wants to excite Dronacharya and reminds him of Drupada’s vow of revenge against him. He wants to put the full spirit of revenge inside of Dronacharya. That’s why he says, “drupada-putreṇa”, referring to the son of Drupada named Dhrishtadyumna. He says, “Drona, look there! In front of you, there is the son of Drupada, your best childhood friend, who is now your enemy. Fight him!” With this cunningness, Duryodhan wants to awaken revenge, “Wake up! Be vengeful!” That’s why he refers to the ‘the son of Drupada’.

When they were young, Dronacharya and Drupada had been best friends. Dronacharya’s father, Sri Bharadwaja, was the guru of his son and of Drupada. Drona and Drupada studied together and were best friends during their whole youth. Later on, Drupada became the king. Dronacharya remained very humble. He was the son of the great sage, Sri Bharadwaja, and was a simple person. He had a problem, so one day he went to his friend, King Drupada, to ask him for some advice. When he got there, Drupada didn’t acknowledge him as being his friend. Drupada had become very proud of his kingly status and when he looked at the poor brahmin, he didn’t feel like saying, “Yes, he is my friend.” Rather, he said, “He’s not my friend.” Dronacharya was very hurt, and said, “I will overthrow you!”

Drupada represents faith and strength, and Dronacharya greed. When greed arises, it overruns faith. When you are a pillar, you are strong in your true faith; but when greed is there, it will try to battle faith. Faith doesn’t acknowledge greed. That’s why Drupada said, “No, I don’t know you.” So because of that, Dronacharya said, “I will take revenge!” Dronacharya brought Arjuna to fight King Drupada. Arjuna won and Dronacharya took over the kingdom of Drupada. Sometimes greed can be very powerful, but Dronacharya was very good towards Drupada. He said, “When you were the king, you didn’t acknowledge me as your friend, but I acknowledge you as my friend. I will not take over your whole kingdom. I will only take the northern part of your kingdom; you can keep ruling the southern part of your kingdom.” But King Drupada was very hurt. He did a big yagna, a fire ceremony, hoping that through the blessing he would have a son who would kill Drona. But he didn’t get a son. A daughter came out of the fire, by the name of Shikhandini. Shikhandini was the one who would later kill Bhishma Pita, the grandsire, the mighty Bhishma. But to kill Bhishma, later she would have to become a man. This will come later on in the Gita. Now, however, Drupada was not happy having only a daughter. He carried on doing his ritual. Finally, a son, Dhrishtadyumna, came out of the fire. He was born with only one purpose: to kill Dronacharya.

Everybody knew why King Drupada had done this yagna. This yagna had been done to get the son who would kill Dronacharya. That’s why in this verse, Duryodhan says, “Look, Dronacharya, here is the son of Drupada!” This is very important: Duryodhan uses the words, “the son of Drupada” - “drupada-putrena”. He doesn’t say his name, even though he knows that the name of Drupada’s son is Drishtadyumna. He is reminding Dronacharya that Drupada’s son was born only to kill him! That’s why he was created. Duryodhan is saying, “See what I am seeing! I am telling you this because the purpose of Drupada’s son is to kill you. You have to be revengeful. You have to kill him.” In his cunningness, Duryodhan wants to brainwash Dronacharya. He is reminding him that Dhrishtadyumna is very clever and a master in archery, “He is the commander of the Pandavas’ army. He is here to kill you.”

Duryodhan uses the words tava śiṣyeṉa dhīmatā, “your intelligent disciple”, your talented student. He is referring to the Pandavas saying, “The Pandavas were your favourite students, people you have favoured throughout your life. Look what they have become! They have put in the front lines the one who will kill you.” Dhrishtadyumna represents humility. The Pandavas have put humility in front. Duryodhan continues, “How clever they are! Don’t be weak! You have to wake up and fight them!” He tries to get the attention of Drona, and to take control of him. He says, “Look at the mighty army of the Pandavas, the mighty hosts of the sons of Pandu.”

Here Duryodhan also uses the word ‘mighty’ describing the army of the Pandavas. In Sanskrit, an army unit is called akshauhini. The Kauravas army had eleven akshauhini and the army of the Pandavas had only seven. Even though the Kauravas’ army was bigger than the Pandavas’, the arrangement of the Pandavas’ army was far better. They were more disciplined than the Kauravas. The Kauravas had a big army, but they were completely like the Kauravas themselves; whereas the Pandavas were very disciplined. You see, these are the good qualities in man. That’s why it is said, “You just need a little goodness to win. You don’t need a lot. A little goodness can overcome all the bad qualities inside of a man.” When you culture good qualities, you are disciplined, but when you culture negative qualities, it is a mess. Duryodhan is pointing out to Drona, “Look at this big army we have, it’s a complete mess! But this little army of theirs is well-arranged.”

Let’s look at the size of the armies in the Mahabharat War. The Pandavas’ army had 7 akshauhini, which is 153,090 chariots with charioteer riders. They had 153,090 elephants plus the riders. They had 459,270 horses with horse riders. They also had 765,000 soldiers walking on foot, plus 450 more backing them. All together it made 1,530,000 soldiers and 900 reserve soldiers. The Kauravas army had 240,570 chariots and charioteers, 240,570 elephants, 721,710 horses and 1,200,850 walking soldiers. All together there were 2,455,700 soldiers in their armies. These were extremely big armies. Considering how many millions of people were there, we can say that the Mahabharat was the biggest war that has ever been fought until now. You won’t get millions of people in a war nowadays, even if there are that many people in the world. That’s why Duryodhan, in his cunningness, says to Dronacharya, “Look at the Pandavas’ army! We have a big army, but their little army is much more disciplined and organised.” He wants to get the attention of Dronacharya and to push him to the limit.

Chapter 1, Verses 4-6

atra śūrā maheṣvās
bhīmārjuna samā yudhi
yuyodhāno virāṭaśca
drupadaśca mahārathaḥ

dhṛṣṭaketuś-cekitānaḥ
kāśi-rājaśca vīryavān
purujit-kunti-bhojaśca
śaibyaśca nara-puṅgavaḥ

yudhāmanyuśca vikrānta
uttamaujāśca vīryavān
saubhadro draupadeyāśca
sarva eva mahārathāḥ

Here in this mighty army are heroes and great bowmen who are equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna: Yuyudhana, Virat and Drupada of the great chariot, Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana and the valiant prince of Kashi, Purujit and Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya, foremost among men. Yudhamanyu, the strong, and Uttamauja, the victorious; Subhadra’s son (Abhimanyu) and the sons of Draupadi; all of them of great prowess.

Here Duryodhan continues talking to Drona. In this verse, the merging of the wo...