Gita Chapter 1 , verse 8 to 22

Gita Chapter 1: In Chapter 1, the story of the Gita, and of the various partcipants, is just being set-up. Many start the reading of the Gita after Chapter 1 for this reason.  It starts off with a description of the various warriors on both sides and in each army.  Duryodhana is constantly afraid. Drona was very accomplished but had had one weakness – his attachment to his son; that is what ultimately destroyed him. This is inserted here to show the reader that attachment has severe consequences.

Mythology: Shantanu marries the river Ganga. Their son is the mighty Bhishma. Shantanu represents the ordinary human being (matter), Ganga (Ganges) represents knowledge of the Self. So the water of the ganga  absolves you of “sin” or in other words knowledge absolves you of Sin. Ganga is the “spirit.” The union of the matter and spirit (flesh and life force) is you.

Every ritual performed during prayer is a reminder to you of your purpose on this earth – your dharma – your reason for being on this earth: Self-realization. Because in your day-to-day life you get wrapped up in the demands and temptations of the material and sensual world, and you forget your duty to become self-realized. “Lord” or “God” is the Self within you (the life force), not some being up in the sky. Krishna did tapas, and realized his Self within him, he then became the Lord. Before that he was an ordinary man.

Chapter 1, verse 5 and 6: He continues with a list of warriors.

Verse 7: Arrogance – “my army.” The first sign of spiritual development is dissolution of your ego. You stop seeking praise, and start acknowledging the contribution of others. Who taught you to read, to understand a language? Instead, we are fixated on “its mine,”  or “how well I did.” We encourage likes and dislikes (raga and dwesha). Rather, it should be that you do what ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

We have explored the skies, the universe – we have not found a physical location for heaven or God. Nor in the underworld have we found a hell or satan. Heaven is a state of mind – when one is at total peace and there are no thoughts or desires running through the mind.

Hell – is a state of mind where there is constant and disturbing mental agitation at a very high, intolerable level.

Sin – is a mental reaction to an act. An act which causes mental agitation, because of guilt, as an example. The mental reaction to this is sin.

The ultimate goal is to be in absolute bliss, be permanently happy beyond your wildest dreams, forever. People who have achieved this in the past teach us that this is possible but to do that, we have to have our mind give up its constant agitation and hankering after its manifold, endless

desires. Therefore anything that takes us towards mental agitation is called sin, and the agitation of the mind itself is called hell.

Chapter 1, verse 8:

1. Ego – “I am superior” . The more ego a person has, the more he becomes agitated and disturbed.

Such a person constantly expect others to think of him  as he thinks of himself. So he won’t buy what he needs, rather he will buy what he think others will be impressed by.

Selfishness and self-centeredness boost the ego. People who are egotistical are selfish and self-centered.

2. Fear – the more selfish you are the more fearful you become, clearly shown in the case of a carnivorous animal versus a herbivorous animal, a herbivorous animal which is gentle and never hurts another animal is not fearful.

Duryodhana is giving out all the names of the various warriors. Bhishma exemplifies the extreme of giving. He is considered great because of what he gave up. More respect for what a person can give up than what you have. Bhishma gave up his right to the throne as well as to stay celibate just so that his father (Bhishma’s father), could marry a fisherwoman after whom he lusted.

Karna was the eldest pandava. He had the quality of gratitude. Bhishma sacrificed his desires, his option to become the king, to get married, to have children – just for the kingdom. His father, the king, was very distracted by the fisherwoman and as a result the kingdom suffered.

Chapter 15 – kritakritya – satisfaction doing what you ought to do.

Duryodhana had supported Karna all along, gave him things that he would not have gotten otherwise. So Karna showed gratitude, Karna also gave away his armor to Indra when he asked for it.

Verse 9:

 In Chapter 16 (sixteen) a distinction is made between the divine and the demonical (these are just qualities or traits of a human being) “mine” and “I” are demonical qualities. You magnify the world’s power over you. The more selfish you are, the more afraid you are of the world. The less selfish you are, the less you are afraid. If you are Self-Realized, you are not at all afraid.

When a person has this ego that they “know,” there is no point in saying anything because they are not going to listen anyway. Fights only occur between people because both believe that each knows. One must keep quiet.

Verse 10: Anybody who has done wrong will fear. Anybody who destroys others will have that fear that he will be destroyed. Note the difference between carnivores and herbivores.

All anxiety, depression, worry, are all related to selfishness “what if it happens to me?” Bird flu,

swine flu, etc., what if it comes here, to this country, what if it happens to me? The more selfish you are – the more fears you have. What will happen to me, my children, my money, my health, etc. As you give up this selfishness, the fear leaves you. If you stop thinking about you there is no fear or anxiety. This is a secret in life.

Verse 11: “And stationed in your respective positions in all divisions, all of you guard Bhishma alone.”

Verse 12: Bhishma blew his conch. Selfless – he renounced his kingdom. These guys took over, now he is fighting for them for an unrighteous war. He has a commitment – if he created an obligation he did it properly. Don’t compromise, don’t cut corners.

Bhishma’s life shows that.

Karna also shows that.

A transferred epithet is an example of “a hospitable door” which means the people inside the door are hospitable. Similarly, Sanjaya here means “well-victorious” – a person who has conquered himself can receive this knowledge.

Krishna is called madhava “chapter 1, verse 14” this comes from the Sanskrit word madhu which means honey. Instant satisfaction by satisfying desires instantly.

Hrishi-kesh means lord of the senses. The lord of the senses is the atman, or the Self within. Here

Krishna is being symbolized as the lord or the atman since he is Self-Realized.

Verse 13: Then conches, kettledrums --- that noise was tumultuous. The war had begun!

Verse 14: Then, seated in a magnificent chariot.

This is the first mention of Arjuna and Krishna. The magnificent chariot is a transferred epithet because of the occupant Krishna. Transferred epithet means when you say magnificent chariot you mean magnificent Krishna just as if you a very hospitable door, it means the people inside are hospitable. Sanjaya means “well-controlled” “well-victorious” only a person of self-controlled can understand a person who is highly spiritual. The chariot example comes from the Katho Upanishad.

Rat race – rat forgets where he has put nuts, other valuables that he has stored. A

person’s mind is like that. You could get one million dollars, you want more, the mind is nsatiable.

Verse 15: Those days they personalized their conches  – they gave them names.

Verse 16:

Ramesh means Ram-ish (lord of Ram (bliss)).

Yogesh means –ish of yoga, lord of yoga. So that when you call the name you thought of god.

Every aspect of life had spiritual connotations.

Madhu-sudana meant killer of the demon Madhu. Madhu means honey, sweetness.          

This is a connotation for desires as sweet. Killing desires meant killing Madhu. Throughout Krishna’s life he is killing demons, demon means desire. It has to be constant in life, keep killing the demons.

Human mind minus  desire equals god. You remove your desires – you achieve self-realization. The pursuit is constant. You can never letup because another one crops up. That’s kalia – cut off one head, another head comes up. You control your desire for wealth, desire for fame comes up.

• Rakshas are the rajasik desires.

• Asuras are the tamasik desires.

• Devas are the satvik desires.

Verse 21 to 22. Arjuna said: Place my chariot between the two armies, oh Acutta, that I may see these standing, desirous to fight, with whom all I must fight in this out-breaking battle. At this point, Arjuna is still the mighty warrior and ready to fight. He has been waiting 13 years for this war, acquiring more weapons and training himself. He knows what he has to do but when the moment to start the battle is on hand, he places his chariot between the two armies to “see the enemy.” What is the implication here? On a symbolic note, the five pandavas represent each of our five senses or the five organs of action. The hundred kauravas represent the hundreds of temptations and stimuli racing towards our sense organs. The chariot in the middle represents the mind, the intellect is the person caught in the middle. Look at your own life – you believe at any point you are prepared for life, you think you know what you have to do and how your future is going to turn out. But you haven’t prepared yourself to handle your own emotions. The mind will throw up emotions at anytime when faced with a divorce, financial setbacks, death of a loved one, sickness, calamities. At that time, can you handle these emotions or will you collapse as Arjuna does. This is what the Gita teaches us. We cannot control calamities in life but we can control how we approach and deal with them.