Episode 02 - Essential Gita - Preface.
PREFACE
ABOUT THE BHAGAVAD GITA
The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of the Mahabharata, the longest epic poem ever written – over 1,00,000 slokas of two lines each and long prose passages. (This epic is more than ten times the combined length of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and four times the length of Valmiki Ramayana – and hailed as the ‘fifth vedha.’
The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the Bhishma Parva – the sixth ‘parva’ in the epic – and is found in chapters 25 to 42 (18 of them). The Gita has 700+ verses divided into eighteen chapters. Some chapters are long – Chapter 2 has 72 verses and chapter 18, the concluding one is the longest with 78 verses. Some(chapters 12, 15) have as few as 20.
As a spiritual authority for the Hindu faith, the Bhagavad Gita is rated as part of the ‘prasthana trayam’ ‘the three authorities’, the other two being the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutra. Indeed, the Gita is widely regarded as an essence of the Upanishads – a dhyana sloka hails it as “Sarva Upanishado Ghau” – the cow that is the repository of all the Upanishads. And we find striking resonances – identical phrases - in the Gita with Upanishadic teachings: e.g.
na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchin .. (B.G. Ch.2.20, Kathopanishad 1.2.18)
ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śhākham. (B.G. Ch.15.1 Kathopansihad 2.6.1)
sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni chātmani (B.G.Ch.6.29, Kaivalya Upanishad verse10)
As the Bhagavad Gita integrates various schools of spiritual thought like Vedanta, (the Acharyas of all the three main denominations of Vedanta – Advaita, Visishtadvaita and Dvaita have made extensive commentaries on the Gita, signalling its acceptance by them) Samkhya, Yoga, and others, it remains a popular text for commentators belonging to different philosophical schools. Apart from the important commentaries by Sri Sankara, Sri Ramanuja, Sri Vedanta Desikan and Sri Madhvacharya, reputed commentaries are known to be by Abhinavagupta, Nimbarkar, Vallabha, Madhusudhana Saraswati, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Dhyaneswar (in Marathi – the Dhyaneswari). Countless commentaries have been written by modern day scholars the prominent one being those of Tilak and Radhakrishnan among Indian commentators. . Gandhiji calls the Gita as his “spiritual dictionary”.
The Gita is amongst the most translated and studied spiritual treatises globally, translated in numerous foreign languages (English ones alone account for over 40 of them; the earliest of these was by Charles Wilkins (1785.) Gerald James Larson, in his essay ”The song celestial : Two centuries of the Bhagavad Gītā in English” lists 57 English translations of the Gita, (till 1980) stating that "A complete listing of Gita translations and a related secondary bibliography would be nearly endless". He states that "Overall... there is a massive translational tradition in English, pioneered by the British, …the French and Germans, …extended into various disciplinary areas by Americans, and having generated in our time a broadly based cross-cultural awareness of the importance of the Bhagavad Gita both as an expression of a specifically Indian spirituality and as one of the greatest religious "classics" of all time." The Gita very considerably influenced the works of T.S.Eliot, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
And, of course, the Gita is the most widely used ancient classic in modern management precepts and techniques as well as in propagating/counselling enduring life-skills in today’s stress-filled world.
Numerous treatises on the relevance and applicability of the Gita to modern management issues have been made and are astutely used by managers and trainers in the corporate world. It is not the purpose of this foreword to delve into all these areas of relevance and applicability. But a few illustrations would be in order:
buddhi-yukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛita-duṣhkṛite
tasmād yogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśhalam .. Chapter 2, verse 50
yogaḥ karmasu kauśhalam = Yoga is excellence in work. (in proper consciousness).
These words are the declared motto of the Indian Administrative Services Association.
In modern management practices, it is ‘not done’ to expect negative outcomes.
Consequently, managers and subordinates develop no skills to expect – and handle when these occur - negative outcomes, to understand why these happen. They are thus at their wits end when they have to face these. It is clearly unrealistic in the first place to anticipate only positive results though one has to plan and work for them. In the absence of this serious attitudinal mental skill, these, managers develop needless tension, experience stress in their workplace, deal with their subordinates in non-managerial and at times unprofessional ways and even carry these negative emotions and stress into their personal lives.
The Gita enjoins on them: ‘Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu .. Chapter 2, Verse 47 … Separates action – the unhindered freedom to act, along with the commitment to do what is one’s duty – and the results, the latter depending on a number of attending circumstances, extraneous forces, some helpful some countering. A sense of absolute ownership of the result could cause an unreal exultation, egocentric elation (that could be deleterious over time) or a sense of personal despair and despondency – both avoided when the person doing the act comprehends the separation.
Earlier in the same chapter (2) in verse 14, the Gita commends – learn to bear, tolerate with equanimity, what you cannot avoid: mātrā-sparśhās tu kaunteya śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ; āgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata – The pleasures and pains of the world are but perceptions of the sense organs; they come and they go – as the seasons do; the wise one learns to bear them with equipoise (titikshasva).
THE GITA’S UNIVERSALITY, SCIENTIFIC TENOR, AND RELEVANCE TO MODERN LIFE’S CHALLENGES:
The Gita is, in my view –
· The most universal, as it propounds the concept of one god – without a second; evokes universality in its narrative of creation, sustenance and dissolution, cyclically. It is not a dogma that addresses a fraction of humankind; its teachings propagate ideals and life principles that are supremely universal – cutting across all the man-made divisions, social or religious. The ideas it presents are not the speculations of a philosophical intellect, rather they are the enduring truths of spiritual realities that are verifiable not only in our lives, in our generation – but over all denominations of time – past, present and future and across all geographies, faiths and races. Consider this, for example:
adveṣhṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva cha – chapter 11 -verse 14.
· The most inclusive, as it addresses the entire humanity without regard to religious or faith affiliation – e.g.
Chapter 9. Verse 30 Even a confirmed sinner, if he worships Me with unwavering faith and devotion, must be considered righteous, because, he has decided to reform himself.
Chapter 9. Verse 32 All those who take refuge in Me, whatever their birth, race, sex, or caste, even those whom society scorns, will attain the supreme destination.
· A spiritual treatise that appeals to the scientific and rational tenor of people in the modern era – both in its narrative of creation, dissolution, etc. and in its incisive ‘look in’ at human psychology; it conducts an awesome, elaborate human laboratory, as it were. by delving into the ‘mind’ – as the most pivotal part of a human’s spiritual existence – both in terms of its potential for descent into grief and misery and at the same time being the sole pivot for spiritual emancipation. (Though the mind is the fount for our grief and distress by generating desire and attachment – according to the Gita – it also is the sole fulcrum for deliverance, as the ‘take off’ station for njana.) Among all major spiritual scriptures, the Gita is the outstanding one that relates with man and his day-to-day life, in comprehensive detail and clarity, and all the time exhorting him to elevate himself - as he is destined for. Obviously, the reason why this ancient scripture is so widely used in modern, material world sciences like business management, human resources development and work-station psychological issues.
A research paper** that discusses some of the parallels between the Gita and contemporary psychotherapies, finds similarities between psychodynamic theories of drives and psychic structures, and the concept of three gunas. Arjuna under duress exhibits elements of distorted thinking.
na cha śhaknomy avasthātuṁ bhramatīva cha me manaḥ
“My mind is in some duress and is whirling in confusion.”
The research claims that Sri Krishna helped Arjuna remedy this through a process akin to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The analogies between the principles of the Gita and CBT, grief emancipation, role transition, soul-esteem and motivation enhancement, as well as interpersonal and supportive psychotherapies are discussed in this paper. The authors advocate the pragmatic application of age-old wisdom of the Gita to enhance the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for patients and to add value to the art of western psychotherapies.
- **“The Bhagavad Gita and contemporary psychotherapies” Subhash Bhatia, Jayakrishna Madabushi, and Venkata Kolli - January 2013 Indian Journal of Psychiatry 55(Suppl 2)
· The Gita’s instructions begin with verse 11 in Chapter 2 – ‘aśhochyān-anvaśhochas-tvaṁ - You are grieving over what is not worthy of grief.’ The instructions conclude with the ‘sarama sloka’ – verse 66 – imploring Arjuna to surrender unto Krishna, - absolutely - with Him promising that he would deliver him from all his sins and consoling him –‘ mā śhuchaḥ - ‘Do not grieve’. In a manner of speaking, therefore, the Gita is an open door for all of humanity to learn and banish - with one’s own inner resources - ‘grief’ and suffering and find ‘happiness’, an everlasting one – which is the goal of all of life, of all beings.
THE GITA AS THE UNIVERSAL SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE:
Tradition believes that there are two ways of acquiring knowledge. One is termed the ‘ascending process’. We utilize our brain and intellect to explore, analyse, rationalize and accept truth. The second is the descending process, where we simply receive that knowledge from a proper authentic source, a source so superior and renowned that it is taken to be without a flaw.
The first (ascending) process of gaining knowledge is inherently prone to several flaws. The teacher and the learner are both imbued with infirmities of the mind like ‘Optimism Bias’, ‘Herd Mentality’ ‘Halo Bias’ ‘Confirmation Bias’ ‘Conjuction Fallacy’ just to mention a few from a large lexicon of infirmities that psychology would enumerate.
In his sub-vedhic scripture, Sage Jaimini’s Meemamsa, the sage says that a book or its instructions would be hailed as per the credentials of its author; if the author had inherent flaws in his mind, his thought process, (Jaimini says humans are rarely exceptions to these flaws), that author’s book or its contents would not qualify as ‘pramanam’ – authority, authentic. He lists these four flaws:
Bramam –(ப்ரமம்) scrambled comprehension,
Pramodham ப்ரமோதம் – flaw in attention span
Asakthi அசக்தி– lack of skills to articulate one’s thoughts effectively
VipralipsO விப்ரலிப்ஸோ– The inclination to cheat or indulge in false statements
As a result, we can never be completely sure about the accuracy and reliability of the knowledge we gain through this process.
Possibly establishing the above flaw, we find even the most acclaimed and ‘undisputed’ scientific theories of the past, are overthrown and superseded by newer ones. For example, the Greek concept of matter as consisting of indivisible atoms was invalidated by Rutherford when he demonstrated that atoms consist of electrons, protons, neutrons, and vast regions of empty space. Rutherford’s theory was overthrown by the Quantum theory, which stated that electrons and protons are not solid particles, but vibrating patterns of energy with a dual particle wave nature. This makes us wonder all the time about the durability, longevity, of the ‘scientific truths’ of today.
The other process of acquiring knowledge, the descending process is, on the other hand, completely devoid of the process defects inherent in the’ ascending process’. When we receive knowledge from a perfect source, a source renowned to be above question, we can be assured that it is flawless. In spiritual matters, the descending process immediately gives us access to vast reservoirs of knowledge, which would have taken ages of self-effort to realise. The only criterion here is that the source from which we receive the knowledge must be infallible and trustworthy. The Vedhas are one such source of knowledge. The Brahma Sutra asserts this - oṃ śāstrayonitvāt oṃ - (Brahman is omniscient) because of (Its) being the source of the scriptures. (Or) (Brahman is not known from any other source), since the scriptures are the only valid means of Its knowledge.
The Vedic scriptures are vast, but three of them, as mentioned earlier, have traditionally been called the ‘Prasthāna Trayī’ (three authentic sources for understanding Vedic thought). These are the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita.
The Upanishads are that section of the Vedhas – Uttara Khanda, the second component - which deals with philosophical knowledge and are considered the cream of the Vedhas (Vedanta). However, for a lay person the Upanishads are difficult to fathom. The language often is imperceptive, the proclamations incomprehensible at first blush and some are seemingly contradictory.
Like the Upanishads, the ‘Brahma Sutras’, all short aphorisms, is also hard to comprehend and the conciseness of the ‘sutras’ (aphorisms) often leads to ambiguity and subjective, even multiple interpretations.
The Bhagavad Gita is, on the other hand, more accessible – for the western-oriented modern mind as well - than the above two scriptures. It provides a comprehensive and easy-to-understand summary of the Vedic philosophy. More than that, it addresses and answers today’s life issues and unlike obtuse vedantic works, is relevant and helpful for life in the material world as well.
If the Bhagavad Gita were also the creation of a mortal and finite intellect, with the inherent flaws recounted earlier, with the passage of fifty centuries, it would have become outdated and irrelevant. However, the perennial wisdom of the Gita has continued to inspire famous thinkers even in modern times, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Gustav Jung, Herman Hesse and Aldous Huxley, to name just a few, thus indicating its acceptability as a universal and ever-green philosophical corpus.
The Vedhas state: ekasmin vijñāte sarvamidaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati “One who comes to know the Absolute Truth attains knowledge of everything.” The science of knowing the Absolute Truth is called “Brahma Vidyā.” The purpose of the Bhagavad Gita, above everything else, is to impart Brahma Vidyā, the ultimate Truth, the science of God-realization, the sole source to dispel grief.
Knowledge that helps a person resolve immediate problems is one kind of enlightenment, while knowledge that dispels the root of ignorance, the root of all all problems, as it were, is another – all encompassing – kind. The Bhagavad Gita dispenses the second kind of enlightenment by dispelling ignorance – a darkness that has enveloped the soul which is the cause of all distress, grief, suffering, conflict – and bloodshed – in the world.
Unable to deal with the immediate problem at hand, Arjuna approached Shree Krishna for a palliative to overcome the anguish he was experiencing. Shree Krishna did not just administer that palliative to him and remedy that immediate problem, - as He could have - but digressed to give a profound discourse on the philosophy of life – for all of humanity, for all times to come, to study, comprehend, evaluate, internalize and integrate into our lives. Should that happen, the Gita shall have delivered on its promise – deliver (endless) happiness to humanity – ‘maa suca’ was the Lord’s soothing promise.
Tradition prescribes that the ‘srutis’ (the vedhas) must be accepted without a doubt, without questioning and without any ambivalence – in total faith. These are regarded as the ultimate, unquestionable authority on life sciences, our culture, our dharma – these ae the ultimate ‘pramanas’.
One could expect Sri Krishna, being the Supreme Being Himself, to mandate that His instructions should also be accepted in total faith – without question, any further thought or discussion and evaluation against one’s own values, etc. But, no! He does not wish to ram his instructions down our throats. He wants us to ponder over them, comprehend, evaluate, and then integrate them with our personality:
Chapter 18, verse 63,
iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhyataraṁ mayā
vimṛiśhyaitad aśheṣheṇa yathechchhasi tathā kuru
“Thus, I have explained to you this knowledge that is more secret than all secrets. Ponder over it deeply, and then do as you wish.”
Verse 72
kachchid etach chhrutaṁ pārtha tvayaikāgreṇa chetasā
kachchid ajñāna-sammohaḥ pranaṣhṭas te dhanañjaya
“O Arjuna, have you heard Me with a concentrated mind? Have your ignorance and delusion been destroyed?”
Arjuna said: (verse 74)
naṣhṭo mohaḥ smṛitir labdhā tvat-prasādān mayāchyuta
sthito ‘smi gata-sandehaḥ kariṣhye vachanaṁ tava
“(Oh! Lord!) by your grace my illusion has been dispelled, and I am situated in knowledge. I am now free from doubts, and I shall act according to your instructions.”
Sri Krishna comes through as the Supreme Teacher that He is, setting that high bar for all teachers to follow him – let the disciple or student learn for himself and take his own decision, in his well thought-through discretion, what to do with the learning.
And, for his part, Arjuna comes through as the quintessential student – one who demonstrates his total faith in his ‘Guru’ by surrendering to him completely and seeking knowledge; but, yet, as a keen, alert learner, is not awed by the stature of his mentor and instructor and does not hesitate to bring up weighty doubts and questions – e.g.
Chapter 2 Verse 54
sthitapraGYasya kaa bhaashhaa samaadhisthasya keshava .
sthitadhiiH kiM prabhaashheta kimaasiita vrajeta kim?
“Oh! Kesava! (You are telling me about a ‘self-absorbed’ yogic entity) you call ‘Stitha Pragnya’. How could I envision that entity? How would he speak? How does he sit? How does he move around?”
Chapter 3 Verse 1
jyāyasī chet karmaṇas te matā buddhir janārdana
tat kiṁ karmaṇi ghore māṁ niyojayasi keśhava
vyāmiśhreṇeva vākyena buddhiṁ mohayasīva me
tad ekaṁ vada niśhchitya yena śhreyo ’ham āpnuyām
“O Janardhana, if You consider njana (spiritual wisdom) as superior to karma (action), then why do You ask me to wage this terrible war? My intellect is bewildered by Your ambiguous advice. Please tell me decisively the one path by which I may attain the highest good.”
Chapter 5, Verse 1
sannyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ kṛiṣhṇa punar yogaṁ cha śhansasi
yach chhreya etayor ekaṁ tan me brūhi su-niśhchitam
“Oh! Krishna! You commended karma sanyās (renouncing of actions), and You also advise me to do karma yoga (work with devotion). Please tell me decisively which of the two is the preferred path that you would commend?”
Chapter 4 Verse 4
aparaṁ bhavato janma paraṁ janma vivasvataḥ
katham etad vijānīyāṁ tvam ādau proktavān iti
“(You and I are peers.) You were born long long after Vivasvan (Surya, the Sun God). How am I to understand your affirming that you instructed this science to him (Vivasvan) – at the beginning of time?”
Chapter 17 Verse 1
ye śhāstra-vidhim utsṛijya yajante śhraddhayānvitāḥ
teṣhāṁ niṣhṭhā tu kā kṛiṣhṇa sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ
“Oh! Krishna! where do they stand, those who disregard the injunctions of the scriptures, but still worship with faith? Is their faith in the mode of (satva) goodness, (rajas) passion, or (thamasic) ignorance?”
The Gita is thus not a long, uninterrupted, monologue. Arjuna punctuates, arrests and redirects the free-flowing peroration by the Lord by incisive, even audacious (though couched in polite words) questions – the hall-mark of an assiduous but mentally alert and vivacious student.
SELECTION OF SLOKAS FROM OUT OF THE WHOLE CORPUS OF 700 – TO REFLECT KEY LEARNINGS.
In this limited study, only selected topics amongst the dozens the Gita deals with are taken for discussion – keeping in view the object of this work; advanced concepts like ‘dhyana yoga’ ‘sanyasa yoga’ as well as chapters like ‘Vibhooti’ and ‘Viswa rupa’ are largely skipped. Thus, just a few (100+) out of the 700+ verses spread over eighteen chapters are selected and discussed. Of these, the important ones are discussed more comprehensively, and the others are quickly gone through, just paraphrasing the message therein. I think that this should provide a reasonable flavour for the aspirants and induce sufficient interest and fervour for them to delve more and drink deeply.
Instead of going with the linear sequence of the original – chapter wise – this effort seeks to compartmentalize the instructions into secular topics, important among them like the Atman (soul), the cycle of births, the immanence of the Almighty, the ‘karma’ yoga and the three ‘gunas’. Each topic would handle the instructions that occur over several chapters of the Gita. Contextual corroborative references are drawn from the Srutis (Suktas of the Vedhas, the Upanishads) and other scriptures like the Brahma Sutra. In presenting these topics, wherever necessary or appropriate, reference to western thought – both ancient and later – is drawn in.
The Gita, when Sri Krishna delivered it, was a free-flowing peroration – in a dialogue mode – and contextually, a number of inter-related topics were treated together; it was not in any chapter wise format in its original form. Commentators and students of the Gita have been able to disaggregate the total corpus into compact, easily discernible chapters. And the Gita is further paraphrased by commentators into three distinct components –
Chapters 1-6 describe the living entity as a non-material, eternal spirit - soul - capable of elevating himself to soul-realisation by different types of yoga, the highest form of which is bhakti yoga, as confirmed by the final verse of the sixth chapter.
Chapters 7 – 12 present and discuss the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His different energies and opulence. This section especially deals with the relationship between the Supreme Soul (Paramatma) and the individual soul (Jivatma). Sri Krishna also discusses the nature and activities of pure devotional service which he affirms to be the best road to – the best process for - soul-realisation.
Chapters 13 – 18 comprehensively discuss how the living entity comes into contact with material nature (prakriti) , how he is entangled, enmeshed and how he is delivered through different methods of fruitive activities (karma), cultivation of knowledge (jnana), and devotional service (bhakti). The Gita is actually completed in seventeen chapters; chapter eighteen is considered a summary of all previous instructions.
OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORK:
As we have observed hereinbefore, the Gita has been most extensively commentated, translated, critiqued, and inducted into countless laboratory models of modern life – management, social sciences, philosophical thought, et al.
Why one more book with its limited reach?
My observation is that the humongous corpus of works on the Gita that are available – in diverse languages and styles - are on either side of this matrix: either elaborate, extensive – and often difficult to comprehend for the average aspirant – or too capsulated, too constricted to set off a serious thought process on the Gita’s messages.
The countless classroom discussions – especially those organized by the different sagely institutions from India – the Ramakrishna Mission, the Chinmaya Mission, the Sivananda Mission, just to mention a few, render yeoman service in propagating the messages of the Gita over a grand and lucid instructive platform. The lectures by the swamis and monks from these great institutions are spell-binding and take the students along, with riveting interest and fervour. And these are greatly and differently supplemented by numerous universities across the globe that set aside resources for the study of oriental philosophies.
There are, obviously, a lot among us who would not venture into the elaborate – often high-flown – commentaries, till we have acquired a modicum of familiarity and interest; would not have the space in our lives to go through the classroom option – which is the best of all; would not be altogether happy with the brief, capsule renderings either.
There are several apparent contradictions in the ‘tatvas’ proclaimed in the Gita as well as the vedantic principles enunciated in the ‘Sruti’ – the Suktas and Upanishads of the Vedhas – which underlie these ‘tatvas’. The Gita is truly a cow that offers in its udders the essence – the milk of the Upanishads ‘Sarva upanishado GaO’. For seekers and lay persons these contradictions might be a bit bewildering and could even be a turn off. Reconciliation, bridging and elucidation are indeed available but in exhaustive commentaries by revered commentators and seers. But those commentaries themselves would be beyond the easy comprehension of the beginners as these call for a sound primary footing in Vedanta as a prerequisite. This book offers some primary (simplistic?) reconciliation for some of these apparent contradictions. That could be a significant help for the readers.
Persons who have the basic thirst, beyond superficial curiosity – who would look to a threshold familiarization, a gripping introduction, that initiates them into this delightful world of spiritual and practical wisdom, for them to move more intently, seriously and with whetted appetite for more, would this offering be useful. They could, from here, delve into the multiple options for a more serious and comprehensive study of this great divine work. In other words, I offer this work as a threshold appetizer, as it were. I fervently hope that this humble offering, reflections from my learning over the years, serves that limited purpose.
I offer this work with a honest and conscious humility that I am still a learner, a student who is beholden to the exalted sources of teaching he has been fortunate to draw from, beginning with the spellbinding ‘Gita Njana Yajna’ discourses of the peerless and magnetic Sri Chinmayananda (in Swamiji’s prime) – in the grounds on Anna Salai) of Madras (now Chennai) - in the late ‘50s.
Ville Franche,
April 8, 2023
SRIMAD BHAGAVA DITA – DHYANA SLOKAS
Om! Parthaya prathiboditham! Bhagawatha Narayanena Swayam!
Vyasaena grahithaam purana muninaa madhye mahabaratham! |
Advaithamrutha varshineem! Bhagawtheem! Ashtadasaadhyayineem!
Ambaa! Thvaam anusandadhaami. Bhagwad Gite! Bhavadweshineem ||1.
That which was taught to Arjuna by Lord Narayana himself,
Which was written by the epic sage Vyasa in the middle of Mahabaratha,
Oh! Mother! Goddess who showers the nectar of advaitha called the Bhagawad Gita!
Which has eighteen chapters , I meditate on you, Mother! One who removes all past karma.
Namosthuthe vyasa vishala-buddhe phullaravindaayata pathra nethra |
Yena thvayaa bhaaratha thaila poorna: prajjvaalitho jnanamaya pradheepa: ||2||
Salutations to Vyasa who has immense intellect, who has eyes like petals of a lotus flower,
Who has filled up the oil to the lamp of Mahabaratha , and lighted it to pinpoint wisdom.
Prapanna-parijataaya totra vetraika paanaye! |
Jnana mudhraaya krishnaaya geethamritha-duhe nama: ||3||
Salutations to Krishna who is a wish giving tree, who holds a cane to drive the cattle ,
Who also shows the seal of Jnana , and gave us all the nectar of Gita.
Sarvopanishadho gaavo dogdhaa gopala- nandana: |
Partho vatsa: sudheer bhokthaa dugdam geetamritham mahathu ||4||
All the Upanishads are the cows and Krishna is the one who milks them,
Arjuna is the calf, the devotees are the consumers of the great nectar of Gita.
Vasudeva sutham devam kamsa chanoora mardhanam |
Devaki paramaanandam krishnam vande jagad-gurum ||5||
I salute the teacher of the world , who is the son of Vasudeva ,
Who killed Kamsa and Chanoora and is the one who gave divine joy to Devaki.
Mala nirmochanam pumsa jala snanam dhinE dhinE
Sakruth Geetham Baasi snanam samsaara mala naasanam. 6
The bodily dirt washes out every day with bathing with sanctified waters;
And, drenching oneself with the song of the Gita cleanses one of the dirt of sansara.