The Nectar of Gita…for you, me and all! Essay 3: The 18 Pearled String for ‘End of Sorrow and Eternal Bliss’

Om Namo Bhagavathe Vaasudevaayaa!

Essay 3:

The 18 Pearled String for ‘End of Sorrow and Eternal Bliss’

Gita is a book of 18 chapters. Each chapter is a priceless pearl and 18 such pearls are beautifully put on a golden string that comes to the world as ‘Bhagavad Gita’. While each chapter gives the seeker its own wisdom, these 18 chapters can be classified into 3 major groups of 6 chapters each. This grouping is based on the nature of wisdom and the path to enlightenment it offers. The following are the major groups:

Karma Yoga - The Path of Spiritual Action

Bhakthi Yoga – The Path of undistracted Devotion

Gnana Yoga – The Path of Liberating Wisdom

Karma Yoga: It is in brief, the path of spiritual action which propounds that whichever field you are in, and whichever rightful action you do, whether at home, office or in society, all such actions should be done in right earnest, as if serving the cause of God with non-attachment to the outcome of such actions. It is dedication of all your actions to God without any expectation of their outcome-good or bad.

Bhakthi Yoga: Realisation of eternal bliss or Enlightenment needs undistracted devotion to Param Aatma. One can follow any path, but undistracted, unqualified devotion or Bhakthi is a necessary condition. Devotion leads to purity of soul which in turn leads to Enlightenment.

Gnana Yoga: Let us understand the concept by trying to answer a few questions.

q. Why does one suffer sorrow or pain?

-Because one has a sensory body.

q. Why does one get a sensory body?

-It comes because of one's karmic actions.

q. Why does one get entangled in karmic actions?

-Because of one's attachment to the outcome of such actions.

q. Why does one get attached?

-Because of ‘Avidya’ or ignorance

q. How does one get rid of ignorance?

-Through attaining ‘Vidya’ or the Knowledge of Liberation that leads to eternal bliss or Enlightenment.

As we go on, we will get to know more of these in detail. Now if we ask ourselves, what is the objective of reading and understanding Gita, especially when it was told to a warrior prince in the midst of a battle field, that too a few thousand years ago! What do we gain out of this? How relevant it is to this present Android and social media world?

Human sorrow and happiness have always been the same over the millennia, though the causes and the nature may have changed with the passage of time. The emotions broadly remained the same. For instance, while frequent wars between clans for the control of land and wealth could have been the cause of pain and sorrow; plenty of cows, cattle, timely rains and good crops offered a good reason for happiness. In the current times, corporate rivalries, stock losses, tough job and career scenario are a possible set of reasons for unhappiness. Similarly, speculative gains, promotions, professional advancements, personal celebrations could be the reasons for happiness. Thus, as we see, while the emotions remained the same, the causes or sources of sorrow and happiness differed.

In the Kurukshetra battlefield, when Arjuna had a predicament for his own perceived reasons, Krishna through Gita, taught him a body of wisdom that gave him a sense of discrimination, and an ability to see things objectively in the right perspective. The light of wisdom dawned on him, liberating him from the shackles of ignorance. Ignorance causes sorrow and enlightenment leads to eternal bliss. That is what Gita stands for! For a sincere seeker, it shows various paths of observance and action as mentioned above, that result in freedom from sorrow and lead one to the destination of eternal bliss-Enlightenment of Soul.

Arjuna was just a representative seeker and the message from Krishna was for the entire world for eternity. It is universal and is as relevant today as it was then for Arjuna.