Vishada yoga

Chapter 1

Arjuna Vishada Yoga
(Arjuna becomes sorrowful in the battle field)

In the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, as it is, deals with the mental situation of Arjuna in the battle field. When Arjuna sees his relatives, gurus and others as enemies in his opposite side on the battle field, his mind fills with sympathy in first place. Then he becomes deluded with different emotions like despondency. Why he retrogrades to such a level? Is it because of fear? Or because he is very sensitive or very compassionate to relatives? So many explanations came and expressed various opinions about the Bhagavad Gita, as it is.

The main aspect of Arjuna's  character which is revealed in this situation, is his feeling of "aham" - the feeling of I and my. It is his selfish emotions that comes up in war front. Arjuna sees the people who come for war as his relatives only. He gives importance to the attachment he has to the relatives. He is emotionally attached to the "I" and "My" relatives. He comes to the battle field as a warrior to save his country from adharmic rulers. This battle itself is to reestablish dharma. He has to fight against the evil karma of enemies. But he forgets his duties as a warrior and he gives importance to his nearest relatives. This is not right for a warrior and that may give failure to his army and country. That is the reason Krishna compels Arjuna to do his duty as it is the goal of this first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

In the verse: 29, Arjuna tells like this - "O Krishna, by seeing my peoples who came here by the desire for war,  my whole body is becoming weak; face is drying; my body is shivering".

In the above speech, the main point is that Arjuna gives stress on telling this - "my people". Not only in this verse, in verse:34 also Arjuna expresses his deep concern about his gurus, forefathers, sons, uncles, father in laws, grand children, brother in laws etc. In all these talks it is very clear that Aham is very high in him. Aham means the feeling of "I".

Then in verses:32 - 36 Arjuna expresses his desire-less attitude. He tells that he does not wish for victory in the battle; he does not desire for owning the country and other pleasures. He asks what is the benefit of getting the country through a battle? What is the use of life? They have come to kill me, but I am not ready to kill them, even if I am given the ruling power of three worlds. So I never kill them for just this country on this Earth.

From the above speeches, if we look this situation positively and in a spiritual point of view, his readiness to give up worldly pleasures shows that he is in the brim of  'non-attachment' and matured enough to receive spiritual lessons. In the battle field, Arjuna expresses his detachment to worldly pleasures. For a spiritual seeker there will be a juncture between attachment to worldly pleasures and desire for spiritual attainment. Here one becomes confused.

During the speeches that follows, Arjuna talks about his family, family members, his caste and creed. He is highly proud of his family, gothra, caste and creed. He has to be uplifted from that plane and posted to a broad minded state or towards spiritual plane. This is the effort that Krishna took through out the Bhagavat Gita as it is. According to Krishna, the reason for all the sorrows in life of any person in any filed is the absence of proper knowledge or wisdom about the very life and existence. So through giving atma jnana Lord Krishna tries to help Arjuna to overcome the situation. Here we should not think that it is only applicable in a war situation. This actually is a lesson to apply in our life situations.

Here one thing is clear that because of the agony, created by  facing difficult situation, Arjuna starts to withdraw from battle field, forgetting his duty as a warrior. This situation can be seen in our day to day life. When some problems come, we forget our duties and become lazy and try to escape from that situation. Finally, in the end of this chapter, Arjuna sits on the chariot telling that he is not ready for the war.

Karma vasana (latent tendency for karma) is of two types, one is righteous vasana and second is evil vasana.  The Kauravas represent those with evil vasanas.  While living the life, one should try to destroy evils and develop righteous vasanas through karma. Otherwise there are chances to decline in life. Arjuna is the representative of those who has grown righteous vasanas. But he does not have even some preliminary ideas about atma jnana (ultimate wisdom). For those like Arjuna, there are chances of becoming sorrowful in the midst of life problems. In such a situation if there is no chance of getting atma vidya from a proper guru, there happens many failures in life. Laziness and inactivity may affect the life. The state of Arjuna who leaves bow and arrows in the battle field resembles the same. If Arjuna goes back from the battle field, there is a lot of chance for him to lead the rest of his life by doing other evil acts, because his vasanas for doing his karma (battling as a warrior) was not exhausted.

This gives an important warning for those who leave worldly life all of a sudden and go for sanyasa (renunciation of worldly life) in the forest. Arjuna is trying to do this. In the following chapters Lord Krishna explains the need for finishing karma vasana by unselfish acts and then attain wisdom. If so, finally there will be a chance of attaining realization. To avoid any confusion in life like this, one should posses the atma jnana

....continue to Chapter2 /part 1