Analysis On Bhgavad Gita
Essay by ntombeng • February 20, 2012 • 1,475 Words (6 Pages) • 1,783 Views
The Gita is based on cosmetology. The Bhagavad-Gita translates as the Song of God. It is a 700 versed scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit. The Gita is a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna which took place on the battlefield before the start of the Kurukshetra War.
The blind King Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya to narrate to him what happened when his family the Kauravas gathered to fight the Pandavas for control of Hastinapura. His family is not the rightful heir to the kingdom, but they have assumed control, and Dhritarashtra is trying to preserve it for his son Duryodhana. Sanjaya discusses Arjuna, who has come as leader of the Pandavas to take back his kingdom, with Sri Krishna as his charioteer. As mentioned above the Gita is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna leading up to the battle. Arjuna does not want to fight. He cannot comprehend why he has to shed his family's blood for a kingdom that he does not even necessarily want. In his eyes, killing is evil and killing his family is the greatest sin of all. He casts down his weapons and tells Krishna he will not fight. Krishna, then, begins the orderly process of explaining why it is Arjuna's dharma duty to fight and how he must fight in order to restore his karma.
Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, and is the main character of the Gita. In the battle, as mentioned above he serves as Arjuna's charioteer, and comes to earth just to help Arjuna see his dharmic duty. In the Gita, Krishna asserts full omnipotence as the ultimate deity, and reveals both his human and most divine form. Krishna's name translates to mean 'The Dark Lord.'
Krishna explains the samsaric cycle of birth and death. In this there is no true death of the soul, simply a miring of the body at the end of each round of birth and death. The purpose of this cycle is to allow a person to work off their karma, accumulated through lifetimes of action. If a person completes action selflessly, in service to God, then they can work off their karma, eventually leading to dissolution of the soul, the achievement of enlightenment and vijnana, and an end to the samsaric cycle. If they act selfishly, then they keep accumulating debt, putting them further and further into karmic debt.
Krishna presents three main concepts for achieving this dissolution of the soul; renunciation, selfless service, and meditation. All these three are elements for achieving yoga, or skill in action. Krishna implied that the truly divine human does not renounce all worldly possessions or simply give up action, but rather finds peace in completing action in the highest service to God. As a result, a person must avoid the respective traps of the three gunas: rajas (anger, ego), tamas (ignorance, darkness), and saatva (harmony, purity).
The highest form of meditation comes when a person not only can free themselves from selfish action, but also focus entirely on the divine in their actions. In other words, a person who achieves divine union with him in meditation will ultimately find freedom from the endless cycle of rebirth and death.
Arjuna stills seem to need evidence of Krishna's divine powers, so Arjuna appears to him in his powerful, most divine form, with the "power of one thousand suns." When Arjuna sees Krishna in his divine state, Arjuna suddenly realizes what enlightenment can bring him in union, and he now has complete has faith in the yogic path.
Yoga, a skill in action, is the process of achieving union with God, or nirvana. Achieving yoga means not only being selfless in action but achieving true meditation on the divine at all points in a person's life, even the smallest of moments.
Arjuna goes on to ask Krishna how he can receive the love of God, and Krishna reveals that love comes from a person's selfless devotion to the divine, in addition to an understanding that the body is simply ephemeral, a product of prakriti, emerging from purusha, and is subject to endless rebirth. A person must let go of their body's cravings and temptations in finding freedom.
The Gita ends with Krishna telling Arjuna he must choose the path of good or evil, as it his duty to fight the Kauravas for his kingdom. In that, he is correcting the balance of good and evil, fulfilling his dharma, and offering the deepest form of selfless service. Arjuna understands and, with that, proceeds into battle.
Dharma is mentioned a lot in the Bhagavad-Gita. It is one of the key concepts of the Gita; it means law or duty. Every person is subject to a cycle of birth and death in which a person has to come to Earth to work off their karma by fulfilling their dharma or duty in a given lifetime. In the Gita, it is Arjuna's karma that he must rescue his kingdom from the evil Kauravas. But it is his dharma that he must fight in battle in order to do so; his dharma is as a Kshatriyas, or as a warrior. (His position in the caste system)
The caste system has been in use for many years. The values of the caste system are held strongly. It has kept a sense of order, and peace among the people. There are five different levels of the system: Brahman, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, and Shudras.
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