The Bhagavad Gita - Term Paper Example

13 February Assignment The Bhagavad Gita is a 700 verse dis in Sanskrit, a part of the Sanskrit epic d the Mahabharata written by Valmiki. Also known as the Gita, this book of religious scriptures forms the single most important text of Hinduism because it contains a great number of teachings under the branch of philosophy. The purview under which the Gita has been set is a conversation between Lord Krishna and the Pandava prince, Arjuna, in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra right before the war was to commence. However, is it possible for an individual to attain such spiritual enlightenment in a realm of consciousness? Although if it were easy, then every man would know and practice justice, which is not the case; The possibility of attaining spiritual enlightenment by following the holy text of the Gita is rampant in an individual's sub conscious and needs to be tapped in order for him to feel it, by reading the verses and making personal revelations. Lord Krishna answers questions regarding the moral dilemmas that Arjuna has been facing regarding battling his own cousins who imposed tyrannical rule over the empire, by turning despotic. Krishna takes it upon himself to advocate the duties that a warrior and a prince should have, elaborating the same to Arjuna, through the ideas of ‘karma’, ‘moksha’, ‘Samkhya’ and the various ‘yogas’. The Gita is also called the ‘Song of the Divine One’ and is an attempt to explain the purpose of life to Arjuna via the attainment of enlightenment by understanding the dedication one should have towards the worship of God. The discourse takes place as Krishna urges Arjuna to fight the battle despite his friends and relatives being on the other side and thus explains to him the necessity for the war in order to establish a just society. He does the same by trying to explain to Arjuna how one must fight without any sort of guilt on a battlefield because the soul of a person always remains eternal and thus cannot be destroyed or made to lose its lustre. In the context of the soul, Krishna says, “It is not killed when the body is killed… the embodied self discards its worn-out bodies to take on other new ones.” The body is like a material part of the ephemeral world that man lives within and merely is a house for the soul for a temporary period of time before the body decays and the soul moves into another body for shelter. This very soul is made of God’s energy according to the Gita, and thus, has a permanent form and is infinite in nature. “Learned men do not grieve for the dead or the living. Never have I not existed… never in the future shall we cease to exist.” Krishna’s words are an attempt to explain to Arjuna how he should not have second thoughts about fighting because this is the only opportunity that he has in order to bring about peace in the land by winning the battle. Everyone is aware of the fact that the battle cannot be won without Arjuna’s skills and thus he is made to understand that even if he dies during the fight, his soul will attain peace and enlightenment in the form of another body. However, pertaining to the thesis, spiritual attainment should come to every man in order to make him understand that the war should not be fought in the first place because even though it promises to bring about balance, it also is a cause for a vast amount of bloodshed and spread of hatred among the people, something that God should initially condemn, looking at the philosophy that He teaches. Thus, this brings about a debate on whether or not spiritual attainment is possible at all and how it may help people to restore unity and humanity. The main purpose of the speech that Krishna gives, that makes up the Bhagavad Gita, is to restore balance and order among Earth which can only be done if the war at Kurukshetra is won by Arjuna. Thus, the Gita aims to enlighten Arjuna of the sacred duty that he has to fight and Krishna describes the same as, “Nothing is better for a warrior than a battle of sacred duty. If you fail to wage this war of sacred duty, you will abandon your own duty… People will tell of your undying shame.” Thus, even though the effects of the war may be horrendous and terrifying, the intention is not to be forgotten by the brave and courageous warriors of the land and their objective, to bring about common judgment upon the land and end the wrongdoings. The aspects of ‘karma’ and ‘dharma’ have been explained within the subsequent verses as Krishna reveals to Arjuna that he is in fact the divine God Vishnu, and descends upon the Earth from time to time in order to protect the people and make sure that fairness and truth prevail. He descends in the form of a human being in order to protect the ‘dharma’ of the people, or the good deeds that they do and help them understand why living such a life is important instead of doing wrong. This has been explained as ‘what one does, is what one gets.’ The concept of ‘karma’ means the fruit that the person receives upon acting in a certain manner, and the sweetness of the same depends on the sweetness with which the action was carried out, figuratively. Understanding the same within the concept of this battle, isn’t it obvious to note that if Arjuna does fight and kill his enemies, he will reap what he has sown in the form of more bloodshed and hatred faced by people within the land? Karma affects the spirit of a man and makes him what he is, thus one may wonder whether or not it is the karma ultimately that brings about spiritual enlightenment? The Gita also provides moral life lessons, philosophical topics pertaining to life, expressions of the purpose of life as well as how a human being should rightfully exist in tandem with others, through the words of Krishna to Arjuna. This over the years has become the holy text of the Hindus who follow the teachings and have incorporated the same into their lives. The main lesson that the text teaches is how a person must be able to attain enlightenment and cleansing themselves of all the sins that they have committed during the course of their lifetime by worshipping in God and devoting all of one’s duties to Him. As per the Gita, God grants the freedom to people of either believing in His supremacy or ignoring the same. Once someone ignores Him, he moves into the material world for a short period of time because God’s energy is eternal and so powerful that it is capable to bring a man back from the material world full of pointless pleasure, and into a divine one that makes a difference. Ultimately, in order to escape from the endless cycle of reincarnation, every individual must be able to realize the truth about God’s existence which is greater than the power exuded from any material aspect of the world. One can do this by devoting himself to God and undertaking the right kind of ‘dharmas’ during his lifetime which will subsequently lead him to reap the required ‘karma’. It is thus crucial that one breaks attachments to the material world and material self, and realize one’s bond with the soul, the universe, and God. This in turn is supposed to help a person gain spirituality and understand his inner voice. However, at the same time, it is also pertinent to answer the questions that have presented themselves through the Gita; is God really making people fight each other in order to bring about justice and balance, and if that is the case, then how can He be regarded as nothing more than a devil’s advocate? Shouldn’t He have created people with a consciousness that taught them to prevail within fairness from the beginning rather than making them have differences of opinion, with approaches towards materialism? Understanding the text from above, it may be clear that attainment of spiritual enlightenment on the basis of a person’s consciousness is not easy because of the monotony of daily life. Today, the battlefield of Kurukshetra is an analogy for living every day with modern day obstacles and thus, providing judgment on what is right and what is wrong according to a person’s conscious. The answers of course, lie in a man’s subconscious, which is where the Gita steps in with its wisdom, waiting to be set as a principle for each man to follow. These questions are what make this holy text extremely debatable and have left the forum open for years for people to analyse, understand and answer. Works Cited . Sa?karacarya. The Bhagavad Gita. Madras: Samata, 1977. Print. Read More