A Reading of the Bhagavad Gita (An Old and Rare Book)

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I recall with pleasure the early years of my life when I was privileged to listen every night to the chanting of the Bhagavad Gita by my beloved aunt. She would take care to see that both my pronunciation and my recitation were perfect and she inspired in me a love for the Divine Song, that has been kept alive up to this day. Born and brought up in the atmosphere of a Hindu Brahmin family of the traditional type, I gradually initiated myself into the study of this important text.

In the course of my academic career, I had occasions to teach this text to my students at the Presidency College, Calcutta. When I retired from service in 1970 from Varanasi Sanskrit University, a few persons in Calcutta approached me to read this text with them and to help them in the pursuit of their spiritual and religious life. It was at "Sevayana" that I could meet my friends every week on Mondays and in course of a decade, we could complete our study. During these long ten years, the reading of the text served to enlighten us on the subtle and profound mystery of the Divine Dialogue. It was during this period that I had an occasion to deliver a course of three lectures on the Gita at the Indological Institute in Delhi and to inaugurate a seminar on the Bhagavad Gita organized by the Kuruksetra University.

In the autumn of 1979, in the holy land of Kuruksetra, Providence brought me into contact with one who showed a genuine interest for spiritual life and Vedic culture in particular. During the year that followed, we dedicated invaluable moments to a joint study-in-depth of the Poem and, in that connection, I could unfold once again the mystery of the Gità, as I had felt it in my life. But, this time, the fertile interaction of the methodical inquisitiveness of the West and the serene wisdom of the East brought about a new synthesis to which echo is given in the present book.

Saints and scholars of different ages have recorded their impressions on the Gita and these documents are irreplaceable treasures for mankind. Mine is a most humble contribution based on the firm conviction that life should be guided by an unflinching trust in God's will and that all of man's actions should spring from an implicit love for the Supreme. In this context, it was a matter of parti cular satisfaction for me that, at the moment this book was being seen through the press, I was invited to deliver a lecture on a subject of my choice on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Kuruksetra University. Needless to say that the subject, once again, was the Bhagavad Gita.

"At the end of many lives, the man of wisdom resorts to Me, knowing that Vasudeva (the Supreme) is all that is. Such a great soul is very difficult to find." (VII. 19 )

Who is this Vasudeva? The Bhagavata Purāṇa describes him as the eighth son of Vasudeva. He was born in the prison-house of Kamsa, the ruler of the kingdom of Mathura. Immediately after his birth, his father took him across the river Yamunā, to Gokula. There, he placed the new-born baby under the care of his friend Nanda for he feared that King Kamsa, who had the premonition that the eighth child born to Devaki and Vasudeva would be his slayer, would murder the innocent infant. Krishna, son of Vasudeva, is thus born of human parents and he himself is human with all the limitations of this form of existence. In another passage of the same Purāṇa, Vasudeva is shown to live as an ordinary human being while concealing his real nature as Truth incarnate.

The question thus arises as to his authentic form which can only be realized by the wise who have acquired true knowledge in the course of many existences, Unless human consciousness is raised to the highest level, unless the intuitive flash gains the maximum luminosity (which happens only on rare occasions), man will not be in a position to experience the identification of Vasudeva with the Ubiquitous Principle.

The Lord, therefore, takes up the role of an "acărya", a teacher, and he spares no effort to draw out of his human disciple the sterling qualities that will make him fit for the highest realization. He is the Creator and he knows the quality of the materials out of which the objects of his creation are made. He is aware of the fact that neither the human intellect, "buddhi”, nor the mind, "manas" will be of any help to the disciple if they are not fixed on Him. Out of unbounded love, the Lord inspires his disciple to surrender completely to Him and He assures him of a definite triumph over the forces of nescience that not only cause confusion but depression and despair as well.

In this spirit, the Bhagavad Gita is not to be read as an example of didactic poetry or a treatise of philosophy only, but, it is to be felt as the fountain source of the perennial love that flows from the Divine and blesses the human disciple with unending bliss.

The "acarya", the divine, and the disciple, the human, are welded together through subtle and unbreakable bonds of love and affection and when this is realized by the disciple, he rests in a state of emancipation which is only another name for freedom from egoistic tendencies.

The Song Celestial is the compassionate and melodious call of the Supreme who is ever anxious to see the human being return to Him in an act of selfless and devoted love. This play of the Divine with the human is the invisible thread that unites the different parts of the Bhagavad Gītā.

In this book, the author does not venture to extract a message from the Gita which he could claim to be his own interpretation of the Divine Song. He simply invites the reader to embark on a spiritual adventure with him and to discover once again the essence of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā.

**Contents and Sample Pages**