SP IRIT
fighting a civil war against people he
loves and respects. In this seemingly
untenable position Arjuna finds neither
defeat nor victory to be acceptable. In
the face of deep-seated, personal
attachments Arjuna forsakes his
discriminative faculty (conscience or
buddhi) and cannot engage in the battle
that his duty (dharma) requires of him.
Deluded by the faulty perspective of the
ego-driven personality, Arjuna
misperceives his circumstances and is
emotionally paralyzed––unable to make
the skillful choices that would uphold
the fabric of society by serving the
eternal wisdom of his Higher Self.
The setting of the Gita is a battlefield
because the scriptural war is a metaphor
for the campaign each of us must wage
to free ourselves from the tyranny of the
ego, senses and unconscious mind. For
the Yoga scientist, the Gita is not only a
military discourse, it is a spiritual
handbook for Self-realization and daily
living. The questions posed by Arjuna
and the loving, compassionate answers
provided by Krishna are meant to inspire
each of us to do battle with our own self-
willed limitations through the practice of
meditation and its allied disciplines.
Mahatma Gandhi once reflected that
“When doubts haunt me; when
disappointments stare me in the face,
and I see not one ray of hope on the
horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita and
find a verse to comfort and inspire me.
Then, I immediately begin to smile in the
midst of overwhelming sorrow.”
For one who practices Krishna’s
instruction to Arjuna, the Gita becomes a
road map of life. It clearly illustrates
direct pathways to the most rewarding of
destinations. Recognizing the variety of
human temperaments, the Gita, like any
good map, provides more than one
route. Accordingly, Krishna offers Bhakti
Yoga: the path of devotion (a spiritual
practice in which an individual worships
a deity primarily through chant, prayer,
song and ritual); Karma Yoga: the path of
selfless service (giving away the fruit of
one’s actions); Jnana Yoga and
40 www.yogicherald.com Dec. 2018
meditation (the Yoga of wisdom through
discrimination) that is primarily for
individuals who are eager to find
answers to such questions as: Who am I?
From where have I come? Why am I here?
What is to be done? Where will I go? and
finally, Raja Yoga (the royal path of
traditional Yoga Science) which
combines the elements of Jnana, Bhakti
and Karma Yoga. Through all
three––devotion, wisdom, and action––a
spiritual aspirant is assured of reaching
the ultimate destination of union with
the Supreme Reality.
The lessons of the Gita, written in elegant
prose, do not require its reader to
become a scholar or philosopher. Rather,
Krishna offers imperishable comfort to
any earnest seeker by His words,
“Whoever comes to me with devotion
will attain Me.” The Gita explains that
even though individuals have various
dispositions that suit them for differing
paths, the truth that each aspirant
experiences is one and the same.
Therefore, the Gita does not endorse one
path over another. Instead, it encourages
each seeker to follow the path best
suited to his or her needs and
proclivities.
Throughout its eighteen chapters the
Gita examines the two forces pervading
human life. The first (akin to the “Big
Bang” theory of physics), is the outward
thrust of evolution. This externally-
oriented drive motivates us to seek
happiness and security in the endless
procession of objects and relationships
that appear to come from outside of us.
The second force is involutionary. This
inwardly-directed drive (one of the
definitions of Krishna) motivates us to
seek and find true happiness and
wisdom from within our own
consciousness.
Ultimately, the Bhagavad Gita is not a set
of commandments from on high, but
rather a practical manual of how to rely
on our own inner wisdom to make
conscious, discriminating choices that
will inevitably lead us toward our
greatest fulfillment.
But life’s journey, as taught in the
Bhagavad Gita, is not always easy––in
part because Self-reliance is neither very
fashionable nor valued in our modern
culture. A thought-provoking example of
how easily we acquiesce to the
suggestions of outside “experts” was
presented in the 1979 movie, “Being
There.” In the movie Peter Sellers plays a
simple-minded gardener named Chance
who, through strange twists of fate,
becomes a trusted advisor to the