Towards Enlightenment

This writing is dedicated to my dear parents Mani and Seetharam, who in their lifetime, to the extent possible, had looked after the welfare of others

Paropakaraya punyam
Papaaya para pidanam

Help others, Happiness is yours
Trouble others Trauma is yours

Introduction
At the outset, I would like to mention that I am neither qualified nor capable of translating the Great holy book of Bhagavad Gita. My knowledge of Sanskrit is nil and my knowledge of spirituality is negligible. Hence this is not considered to be any translation or authentic excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita.

This whole work is the result of referring and extracting information that I perceived as gist of the Gita. I have attempted to explain the chapters in small verses for easy reading.

As we all know Hinduism can be termed as a Way of life and I guess Bhagavad Gita provides guidelines of how to conduct in life.

I would like to thank our Guru Shri Ramanuja Acharya for providing foreword to this work.

I am indebted to my friend, philosopher and Guide, my Father in law Shri D.S.R. Moorthy for vetting my work and jointly writing the foreword.

Padma Bharadwaj. December 2015

Acknowledgements
• Bhagavad Gita class notes from Sri Ramanuja Acharya of Yatiraja Matam, Sydney (based on holybook.com
• Bhagavad Gita, The Scripture of Mankind (by Swami Tapasyananda) (Ramakrishna Math, 2005)

Foreword
I am honoured to be able to offer a simple foreword to this labour of Love. Padma has indeed imbibed the essence of the Gita and has shared it with us in such a succinct form. Nowadays people are busy with so many worthy distractions that there is little time to spend perusing Scripture – let alone actually studying it! But in this work Padma has presented all the key shlokas of the Gita in a simple and user-friendly format. Hopefully a reading of this presentation will be an incentive to study the whole text. I commend Padma on her labour of love.
Sri Rama Ramanuja Acharya

My daughter in law Padma has condensed the essence of the “Bhagavad Gita” that has 700 Sanskrit shlokas into a garland of verses comprising of 100+ verses. She has preferred to call it “Gist of Gita”, gist as understood by her.
I am sure this composition will be an interesting reading to the readers and will be of benefit to them.
I commend Padma on her efforts and encourage her to attempt many such compositions in the spiritual path.
D.S.R. Moorthy

 

Chapter 1
Arjuna’s Grief

Arjuna’s awful grief
To Lord Krishna he pleads
His unwillingness to harm his kith and kin
Forms the crux of Chapter 1

 
Chapter 2
Yoga of Knowledge

Chapter 2 is about Yoga of Knowledge
Through Arjuna, Krishna sends everyone a message

Physical changes from cradle to grave
Affect just the body and not “Self” at any stage
“Self” is the same within all living beings
“Self” ever remains indestructible

“Self” has no birth and “Self” has no death
“Self” changes abode, when a body perishes
Just as old clothes are abandoned for new
“Self” relinquishes old body to new

Neither can a weapon harm “Self”
Nor can a fire destroy “Self”
Water does not wet “Self”
Wind can never dry “Self”

The “Self” is all pervading
Present in each and every living being
When “Self” is so un-manifest
Grieving for “Self” is not just

Origin of being is unknown
End of being is also unknown
Interim period is a mystery
Is there a merit in worry?

Pleasure or pain, victory or defeat
Treating alike, keeps mind in peace
Thus far narrated Knowledge’s path
Krishna then continues Action’s path

Selfless action combined with devotion
No effect if completion or no completion
Even a little observance of discipline
Will evade a great fear from one’s within

Focus one’s mind on single objective
No such focus will prove negative
Step forward with spiritual conviction
Won’t go anywhere with no such conviction

Do away with all worldly desires
Get detached from materialistic pleasures
Establish oneself in spirituality
That’s the ultimate immutable purity

Do one’s duty with great competence
Fruits of action do not intent
Let that thought not de-motivate
For being lazy and not act

Abandon attachments and act with mind steadfast
Be unperturbed succeed or not
For mere action with attachment
Is far inferior than acting with evenness

When one overcomes delusions due to attachment
One attains the serene status of “non-attachment”
When intellect calms down after confusing beliefs
One achieves the state of evenness

For Krishna, Arjuna puts forward following queries
How do I identify a person whose wisdom is steady?
How does the person behave generally?
That sets the person apart from other beings

Krishna answers the questions
In the verses that ensue
When all desires are abandoned
Satisfaction thus achieved is Wisdom

Whoever is without self-centred affection
Neither rejoices nor hates in all situations
Such is a person with Wisdom
And whose mind is firmly set

Like tortoise withdraws its limbs
If a person withdraws the senses
That is the state of Wisdom
And whose mind is firmly set

Turbulence of senses takes away the mind
Control of ones’ senses, turn towards God
He whose senses are controlled
His mind is firmly set

Longing for objects leads to desire
Desire directs one towards anger
Anger generates delusion
Delusion results in confused memory

Confused memory leads to destruction of reasoning
Thus a man ends in ruin
These are the most important ones
To be remembered by everyone

If one has neither affection nor aversion
Peaceful state one attains
For unmeditative, there’s no peace
Where’s happiness, if there’s no peace?

Like gale steers a ship astray on high seas
Mind is carried away by senses
Hence one who restrains his senses
Whose wisdom is firmly set

As Day and Night are opposite to each other
So are great sages and ignorant
Like ocean unaffected by incoming rivers
So wise men are undisturbed by sense objects

When one abandons desires
One who gets away from “I”and “Mine”
And the one who lives with detachment
With him, peace is permanent

This, is the dwelling if Brahman
Once attained, no more delusion
If this state continues unto death
With Brahman one gets united

Chapter 3
Yoga of Action

Is knowledge better than performing Action?
Arjuna asked Krishna this question
Krishna replied that there are two classes of men
Some understand by speculation, while others by devotion

Merely staying away from work will not achieve freedom
At the same time renunciation alone can’t lead to perfection
One has to act as per his disposition/qualities
No one can remain with doing nothing

While restraining one’s senses in action
Brooding over in mind is just pretence
So, if one can act without attachment
He is far superior to a pretender

One should perform the prescribed duty
Inaction wouldn’t even be able to maintain one’s physical body
Any service made in the name of Supreme
Will pave way to be free from bondage

If a person lives just for satiating senses
His life is nothing but useless
Thus doing action with no attachment
Will move towards liberation

Follow the examples of great beings
Who have showed the way of living
Great men lead, common men follow
That’s the pursuit of the worldly lot

Krishna said even He performs his duties
If He did not, all worlds end in ruin
Ignorant people act with attachment
Learned ones have no such attachment

It is far better to perform one’s own duties
Even though at times faultily
Than engaging in others’ duties
As blind following is risky

Working senses are superior to body
Mind is higher than senses
Intelligence is higher than mind
One’s Self is higher than intelligence
 
Chapter 4
Renunciation and Knowledge

This Chapter is Krishna’s message
To Arjuna about Renunciation and knowledge

Whenever there is decline in righteousness
The Lord manifests himself
For the good to be protected and wicked to be destroyed
The Lord incarnates again and again

Just as a well-kindled fire reduces firewood to ashes
Thus divine knowledge will burn ignorance
An ignorant man with doubt in his mind
Can never have peace of mind

Sacrifice performed through knowledge is superior
Than sacrifice performed for gain
For all actions culminate
In nothing but knowledge

One with deep conviction
Full of zeal and devotion
And one who has mastered his senses
Will eventually embrace supreme peace

On the other hand if one is ignorant
With dubious thought
Will end up in ruins
And there is no happiness for him

 
Chapter 5
Yoga of Renunciation

Arjuna seeks Krishna clarification
“Which is better, abandonment of works or communion through performance?”
Krishna answers, both paths lad to liberation
Perhaps communion through work is better than abandonment

For common man, true abandonment of work is difficult
But easy for a sage who is accomplished in detachment
Selfless and detached action with pure mind
Shows the way for being liberated

Conviction is important in every action
Establishing truth and detachment in all actions
By abandoning fruits of action, one attains peace
For others, there is no peace

Enlightened men treat all beings same
Humans or animals, all alike
For they see same “Self” (jeevatman) in all
Which is speck of “Brahman” (Paramatman) after all
 
Chapter 6
Communion through Meditation

He who performs his duties and without desiring returns
Is the real renounced and not the one who avoids work
One can never practice spiritual communion through one’s works
If he does not abandon self-centred objectives

One who conquers his mind
Stays unperturbed and balanced
For him, Heat or cold, pleasure or pain
Honour or dishonour, all are same

For one who’s content through knowledge and experience
And who has controlled his senses
Both lump of earth and gold nugget
Are one and the same, in his yogic state

For an even-minded person
Foe or friend, stranger or comrade, righteous or unrighteous
All are same and he will treat them with no bias
This is the effect of spiritual mind he possesses

Firmly seated with focussed mind
If one meditates, it will purify the mind
Success in yoga is achieved by the state of balance
Too much or too little to eat or too much or too little sleep, will not give any success
Like a flame of lamp is sheltered from wind
Yogi’s mind stays undisturbed
As much wavering and fickle in nature is the mind
Counter efforts to be made to control the mind

He who sees God in all beings
And who sees all beings in God
To him God is never lost
And so he is to God

A perfect yogi perceives the same Atman in all
Feels others’ joy and suffering as his own
While Yoga is difficult to achieve
With controlled mind, it is possible to achieve

Arjuna pleaded his inability to establish spiritual communion thro’ equanimity
He said controlling mind is as difficult as controlling the wind itself
Krishna agreed that mind is fickle and difficult to control
But dispassion and spiritual practice can bring mind under control

Arjuna questions, if the fate of one who is succumbs to distraction
Does he fail to reach spiritual perfection?
Does such a support-less man lose and perish?
Like rain cloud torn part

Arjuna says his doubt is yet to be cleared
And none other than Krishna can set this right
Krishna replied one who is engaged in good action

Either in this world or next, he does not meet destruction
Krishna says no one would meet with downfall
If one treads virtue’s path and avoid evil’s path
One who practises meditation
Is superior to every one

Krishna sums up his preaching on meditation
By saying one who abides faith in him
Is the one who is closely in union
With the Spiritual communion

 
Chapter 7
Communion through Knowledge

Among thousands of men, one hardly strives for spiritual perfection
From those who strive, only one may know the Supreme
Krishna says his nature is divided into eight categories
Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether, Mind, Understanding and egoism

Universe emerges from Brahman
Universe converges in Brahman
There is nothing higher than Brahman
As strings hold row of pearls, all worlds are held by Brahman

In Water He is the sapidity,
in Sun shine, He is the brilliance
In Vedas He is the sacred syllable Om,
In Ether, He is the sound
In Man, He is manliness
In the Earth, He is the sweet fragrance
In fire, he is the Brilliance

In Living beings He is the life principle
In ascetics, He is austerity
He is the eternal seed of all beings
In the Wise He is wisdom, and
In the Powerful He is the power

In the Strong He is the strength
Such strength is free from attachment and desire
In Living beings He is the desire
Desire here, is not opposed to virtue

All these three natures
Truth, Bravery and inert
Are all within Him
But He is not in them

Deluded by mental state of characteristics
The world fails to recognise the Supreme
It is difficult to overcome the powers of such characteristics
Refuge in Braham is the only way around it

Four types of pious men adore the Supreme
Distressed, knowledge seeker, wealth seeker and the knower
Among the four, knower is the better one
As he communes with single minded devotion

Men with no insight may look upon God as human
This is because their mind is covered in delusion
Krishna says He knows all beings..past, present and future
But none of those beings know him ever

Those who strive for liberation
From the sufferings of old age and death
If they completely trust and depend on the Supreme
They will know all about the Absolute

Those who have grasped the God’s Spiritual power
That God sustains all manifestation and all spiritual endeavours
They will know the Supreme
Even at the time of death as their mind is absorbed by Him.

 
Chapter 8
Way to Brahman

Arjuna queries Krishna, the Supreme Lord
What is Action? What is Spirit?
What underlies the material appearance?
What underlies the divinities?

Arjuna continues asking
What’s the Spirit underlying sacrifices?
At the time of death
How does one meditate on the Supreme being?

Krishna replies, immutable is Brahman
There is none higher than Brahman
Brahman’s power is evident in every body as “Self”
The creative act that brings all being into existence is Action

Whoever thinks of the Supreme at the time of death
Will attain the Brahman, without any doubt
Whatever object, a person thinks at the time of death
He is bound to attain that object after death

Focussing the mind and doing meditation
Is the path to liberation
Those who have attained Supreme perfection
Are never again reborn

Chapter 9
Sovereign Secret

Men with no faith in the doctrine of Supreme
Remain in the vortex of worldly life, born again and again
The whole universe is encompassed by the Supreme
All the objects live in Him, but not He in them

As mighty atmosphere ever stays in space
So do all objects stay with the Supreme

At the end of cosmic cycle
All beings resolve into nature (i.e. Him)
At the beginning of a new one, after the dissolution
He brings out the being again

Such convergence and divergence
Do not in any way bind the Supreme
Since He is detached
Like one who is unconcerned

Under His direction and power
Universe is created by nature
Living and non-living beings
Emerge and converge in a cycle

Those whose characteristics are cruel and proud
Their hopes, works and knowledge are wasted
Only those with moral characteristics
Will understand the Supreme, undisturbed by distractions

We in this world need to understand His power
He is the father, He is the mother and He is the Superior
He is the holy one to be known
He is the syllable “Om”

He is the friend He is the origin
He is dissolution, He is everything
He gives heat, pour or stop the rain
He is immortality and death, both beings and non-beings

Whoever makes offering and whatever be the offering
God accepts with joy, if done with pure heart and sincerity
Whatever we do, be it eating, sacrifice or charity
Needs to be done as offering to the Supreme

This is the path to liberation
Getting rid of bondage of action (Karma)
When one’s heart is firmly set in renunciation
He is bound to attain liberation

For Him, none is hateful, none is dear
Everyone who worship Him, are on par
Even a sinner who worships Him with sincere devotion
Will be considered as a righteous person
If one’s mind is absorbed with devotion
He will go nowhere but to Him alone
 
Chapter 10
Divine Glories

Intelligence, Knowledge, Sanity, Patience
Truth, Sense-control, Mind control
Pleasure, Pain, Birth and Death
Fear, Fearlessness, Non-injury, Treating equally

Contentment, Austerity and Charity
Fame and Defame
These diverse modes in the minds of all beings
Originate from none other than the Supreme
 
Chapter 11
Vision of Universal Form (Vishvaroopa)

Krishna revealed to Arjuna
His transcendent form Vishvaroopa
Thus exhibiting to Arjuna
That He encompasses all
The whole universe is Him
Comprehending the same isn’t possible

 
Chapter 12
Path of Devotion

The real meaning of Discipline (yoga)
Steadfast love and steady devotion and faith
Friendliness and compassion
Selflessness and no arrogance

Ever content and contemplative
Feel alike in happiness and misery
Self-control and firm in conviction
Dedicated to God with full devotion

Is close to God and thus liberation
Thus goes Lord Krishna’s narration
Cause no fear to others, be not afraid of others
Thus free from agitation due to confused moods

No desire, purity in mind and non-attachment
Without ego, without worry and free from excitement
No anger, no sorrow and no craving
Should be the qualities of Human being

Treat alike friend and foe
Feel alike in honour and abuse
Be neutral with praise or blame
These are the ways to be reach the Supreme

 
Chapter 13
Knower and the Known

Our body is like a paddock/field
And Self (jiva) resides in the field
While the body is perishable
The Self is imperishable

While bodies differ in qualities
The Self is the same in all beings
Just as all- pervading sky remains unstained
The Self is ever unblemished

Whoever understands the mind-body differentiation
Will attain the path of Emancipation
 
Chapter 14
Three qualities of material nature

In this Chapter, Krishna explains
The three different qualities human possess
Sattva, i.e. Serene/pure
Rajas, i.e. passion based/aggressive

Tamas, inertia/ lethargy
Humans have all the three qualities
Krishna, through Arjuna, explains to everyone
That truth/pure quality is the best one

Purity attains happiness and elevation
Aggression remains confused and mid-course
Idleness/lethargy remains dormant
And we need to decide what is that we want

Krishna further expands His proclamation
By providing examples of a pure person
One who is unperturbed in all situations
One who is poised alike in pleasures and pains

One who finds no variance between rags and riches
One who is same in honour and humiliating times
Such is a person who has elevated
And paves way to being liberated
 
Chapter 15
Divine Person

This Chapter reiterates the importance
Of non-attachment, free from ignorance

Understanding the quality of non-destructive “Self”
As opposed to body that expires

One who understands this notion
Will tread in the path of liberation
 
Chapter 16
Divine and Demoniac types

This Chapter vividly portrays
Good and bad qualities of humans
It advocates the divine path
That needs to be followed to avoid rebirth

Austerity, Cleanliness, Compassion, Charity
Forgiveness, Freedom from anger, gentleness and modesty
Non-violence, Renunciation, Self-control and truthfulness
Fall among the important divine features

Arrogance, Anger, Conceit, Cruelty
Greed, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Immorality
Pride, Vanity and vain-glories
Come under demoniac attributes

Desire, anger and greed
Will lead to destruction of mankind
For a person devoid of these three qualities
Liberation is not far from reach

Those who possess divine qualities will attain Liberation
Demoniac nature will lead to one’s destruction
 
Chapter 17
Three Divisions of material existence

Faith can be of three kinds
In Passion, in Ignorance and in Goodness
Men follow the faith
As per their disposition in faith

Worshipping God, respecting learned, parents and teachers
Cleanliness, straightforwardness and harmlessness
These form the austerities
Pertaining to the physical body

Speaking no offensive words and being truthful
Being pleasant and being spiritual
These form the austerities
Pertaining to the speech

Calm and cheerful mind, gentleness and moderation of speech
Self-control and purity of inner feelings
These form the austerities
Pertaining to the mind

Any worship/sacrifice, should be done truthfully avoiding ignorance
Any austerity without faith will equate to hopelessness
 
Chapter 18
Renunciation

In this final Chapter of Bhagavad Gita
Summarises Lord Krishna
What had been narrated in previous verses
Understanding the essence is left with the readers

Abandonment of desirous actions is Renunciation
Abandonment of fruits of action is Relinquishment
Abandonment of all duties is ignorance
Accomplishing obligatory duties is intelligence

The three qualities of Purity, Aggressiveness and Idleness
Are emphasised again and again in the final verses
Sattva (Purity) recognises the difference
Between renunciation and worldliness

Rajas (Aggressiveness) is to be in the mode of confusion
Tamas (Idleness) is nothing but inaction
Thus the path of purity
Is the right way to be followed by humanity

Doing one’s duties and expecting no fruits of action
Is the way of life that leads to liberation
Krishna concludes that he has provided pearls of wisdom
To follow or ignore is one’s own decision