Samkhya Yoga - Part 1- Feeling of I

Chapter 2 / part 1

Bhagawat Gita: Feeling of "I"

The first chapter of the Bhagawat Gita concludes when Arjuna sits on the floor of the chariot, telling that he is not ready for war. In the second chapter Krishna reveals why the dilemma affected Arjuna. In the verse 2 of this chapter, Krishna uses the words - "kasmalamidam vishame". The swoon affected Arjuna is because of sorrow (vishame). Kasmalam means wicked. The dilemma comes to Arjuna because of sorrow. Sorrow arises from the feeling of aham or "I" and "My" and the feeling of attachment to it. Normally we, humans become sorrowful or worried only when some thing happens either to 'me' or 'mine'.  The feeling of "aham"  gives us unnecessary worries and that may destroy our capability of discrimination as what to do or what not to do!. Arjuna, because of his over attachment to aham, becomes sorrowful. Because of sorrow he becomes swoon (fainted) and sits on the floor of chariot like a disheartened and weak person.

Not only in this situation that he becomes affected with "I" and "My" feeling. When he starts to the battle field he might wished for his victory and fame. That is the reason he gets ready for the war. The same aham or "I" makes him sorrowful at a difficult situation. It is normal for those with  aham to happen like this. He forgot that this war is a dharma yudh (war for establishing dharma) and not for his own satisfaction.

In third verse Krishna uses these words - "shudram hrudaya dourbalyam" . The behavior of Arjuna is simply of his mental weakness (hridaya dourbalyam), and that is 'shudram' - means ,that destroys other capabilities to discriminate good and bad.

Krishna tries to help him to overcome this mental weakness. Krishna tells him that this is mainly because of ignorance. A knowledgeable person does not become sorrowful and disheartened. Ignorance can be eradicated only by knowledge- the ultimate knowledge or knowledge of existence(athma jnana). Through that knowledge one can become aware of 'who am I and how the universe formed? This is the ultimate knowledge and the lack of this knowledge makes us confused in life. That is the main utility of the Bhagawat Gita in our day to day life. Knowing about ourselves and about our universe will certainly makes us broad minded and thus we can avoid unexpected failures.

But here Krishna cannot give necessary advise till Arjuna asks or when he becomes ripe for advice/upadesa. But when Arjuna hears Krishna telling that the reason for this situation is because of the sorrow, mental weakness and lack of knowledge, he realized the need for some guidance. In the seventh verse Arjuna pleads for advice from Krishna. He says that because of ignorance he becomes incapable of discriminating dharma and adharma (righteous and unrighteous) and asking for dharma upadesa or righteous advice.The Bhagawat Gita is the advice from Bhagavan (God).

In our life we also may stuck in similar situation when an acute problem appear. Automatically we tend to turn towards God for proper guidance and help. Similarly Arjuna also surrenders to the supreme God Krishna for advice. From this occasion Krishna starts his spiritual advice/ atma upadesam. This is the Gita-upadesam (advice from the holy Gita). Krishna gives advice not as the embodied or manifested God but as Parabrahmam. And this is the total benefit we receives from the Bhagawat Gita. From the Bhagawat Gita we get knowledge how the whole universe formed and what is the position of human beings in this universe. We will come to know about ourselves and about our existence. The meaning of our life is also explained step by step in the Bhagawat Gita.

continued in Part 2 of chapter 2.Bhagawat Gita