Aditya, Thursday, January 25, 2018 1:03 am

Mahabharata & Gita Background

The Great 16th Century Hindu Scholar and Monk, Madhusudhana Sarasvati, wrote a famous commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Before he starts his commentary, he composed 9 poetic prayer verses (Dhyana Shloka) which contain beautiful imagery paying respects (namaskara) to the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, Vyasa (author of Mahabharata) and Lord Krishna (author of Gita). In seeing these prayer verses we also learn about the background to the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita…

Mahabharata

‘Mahabharata’ literally means a huge (Maha) story about the Bharata Dynasty of India. It is ‘huge’ since it contains 100 000 verses and is considered the longest poem in the world. Bharata was a great emperor of India and his descendants include famous names such as Arjuna, Duryodhana, Yudhishthira and all the family members of the 2 main clans (Pandavas and Kauravas) within the Mahabharata story. Mahabaharata was authored by Vyasa – the great rishi of the Vedic tradition. Is Mahabharata just a fictional story made up by Vyasa? No, not according to the Hindu scriptures which classify Mahabharata as an ‘itihaasa’ which literally means historically fact. There may be a little poetic licence and masala added by Vyasa to make the story more colourful, but it is fundamentally based on real events according to the tradition. Vyasa simply reported what happened. Much a like a news reporter simply reports what happened in a particular event. Therefore, Vyasa is the Mahabharata reporter.

Just like a celebrity is famous for 1 talent (e.g. Mozart for music or Tendulkar for Cricket), so to the Mahabharata is famous for 1 thing in particular which everyone has heard of: The Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is just 700 verses within that 100 000 and we will hear more about this later.

The main story of the Mahabharata relates to the 2 family clans (Pandavas & Kauravas), but it also contains 100s of sub-stories in addition to that which augment the brilliance of the text – stories about Krishna, Shakuntala, Harishchandra have become famous in their own right. The Mahabharata attracts open minded seekers of truth as its students since it covers so many topics of interest – Religion, Psychology, Philosophy, Politics…all subjects are unfolded! Mahabharata is said to be the destroyer of ‘Kali Yuga’ (the age of adharma in society). If studied and assimilated it will remove many of the problems we see in prevelant in society such as aggression, excessive materialism, conflict, loss of spiritual values, decline of those committed to Dharma. Therefore, we pray that the study of Mahabharata helps us in our lives.

Note: All the above points are beautifully presented via poetic imagery of Madhusudhana Sarasvati in his prayer verse where he compares the Mahabharata to a pure (flawless content) fully bloomed (stories of Krishna) lotus flower born of water (Vyasa words), ornamented by many stamen (100s of sub-stories), attracting bees (students) with its fragrance of honey (Bhagavad Gita).

 

Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita (of ‘Gita’ for short) consists of 700 verses (18 Chapters) that fall within the Mahabharata. It was a teaching given by Lord Krishna for the sake of Arjuna on the battlefield. The fact that it has been taught by Lord Krishna implies the Knowledge contained within the Gita is flawless if it has come from the Lord himself (figuratively speaking). So who was it that captured this dialogue and wrote it down (like a news reporter) for all of us to study today? That was Vyasa’s job, the ‘reporter’ who wrote down the Gita. But maybe Vyasa’s reporting isn’t accurate and the words we are reading are not actually Krishna’s exact words? No – the fact that Vyasa is the reporter is significant because Vyasa is a very experienced sage who authored other epic Hindu mythology texts called the Puranas (purana-muni).  So rest assured we are not dealing with an ordinary reporter on his first day of work experience, we are dealing with the most experienced Rishi there is – Vyasa himself! So you can rely on the Gita being accurate. That’s the point.

The Gita is the ‘enemy of Samsara’ (bhavad-veshini). Samsara = Feeling of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction with who I am, how I look, how my body is, my hair, my teeth, my skin, my clothing, – this is physical dissatisfaction. Then there’s the emotional dissatisfaction – I feel unloved, hurt, guilty, sad, lonely. Finally, there is intellectual dissatisfaction – I question why I’m here, what is life, where did we all come from. So, ALL these types of dissatisfaction (physical, emotional, intellectual) put together = Samsara. But the Gita teaches us how to be free from this dissatisfaction through Moksha. So we could say Moksha is the understanding that ‘I am satisfied’. I am complete as I am (purnah aham). If Gita gives us the tools to arrive at Moksha, Gita is the ‘destroyer of samsara’.

These teachings contained within the Gita are not actually anything new. They are identical to the teachings of the Vedas. This is why the Gita and the Vedas as basically the same except the Gita is a condensed version of Vedas. Gita is Veda-sara = Essence of Vedas. The Gita and Vedas give us the tools to reach Moksha in the form of Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga and Jnana Yoga (see http://advaita-academy.org/blogs/bhagavad-gita-intro/).

Note: The above points on Gita are beautifully presented via poetic imagery of Madhusudhana Sarasvati in his prayer verse where he compares the Gita to a mother. Just like a mother nourishes the child with food and gives the child what’s best for it out of love (even if the child doesn’t realise it at the time). So to, the Gita is like a mother, nourishing our minds with wisdom. It gives us the wisdom we need even if we don’t fully understand how it works at the time. The Gita’s only motive is to help us be happy, like a mother. Another imagery portrayed is where Gita is compared to Cow’s milk –  the milk (essence of the Cow/Vedas) from a Cow (the Vedas) is skilfully extracted by the milker (Lord Krishna) for the sake of the calf (Arjuna).

May we all benefit from the study of the Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata.

Om Tat Sat.

Aditya

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