BACKGROUND OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA
DHRITARASTRA and Pandu were brothers. As Dhritarastra was blind from birth, Pandu was installed on the throne of Hastinavati (Delhi), the capitol of Bharata (India), by Bheeshma, grandsire of the Kuru family.
Dhritarastra had one hundred sons and a daughter through his queen, Gandhari. The eldest among their hundred sons was named Duryodhana, or Kaurava. Gandhari's brother Shakuni, the evil-minded one, was the chief advisor of Duryodhana. He advised Duryodhana to gain rulership of the whole kingdom by depriving his cousins of the right to their ancestral property.
King Pandu had two queens, Kunti and Madri. When she was a virgin, Kunti had the blessings of Sage Durvasa, who initiated her through five great mantras to propitiate the solar deity (Surya), the god of death (Yama), the wind-god (Vayu), the god of thunder and rain (Indra), and finally the twin-gods (Ashwini Devatas). Sage Durvasa had warned her not to use the mantras before her marriage, as they were powerful in invoking the deities, who would bless her with children. But when Sage Durvasa departed for his Himalayan abode, Kunti went to a river, bathed in the holy waters, sat on the river bank and invoked the solar deity with the Surya mantra. The sun-god appeared and touched her, instantaneously blessing her to conceive a celestial child, and then ascended to his abode. As the child had a shining pair of earrings by birth, he was named Karna.
Because this child was born before her marriage, Kunti, afraid of society, hid the child in a vessel and floated it on the bosom of the Ganges. The current of the river swept the vessel along with the child, who was later picked up by a charioteer named Adiratha. Adiratha and his wife, Radha, protected the child as their own son, and Karna grew up without knowing who his mother was!
In the meantime Kunti married King Pandu, who also had another queen named Madri. Once he went hunting along with his queens. There a sagely couple were sporting, disguising themselves as animals. King Pandu hit the animals with his arrow, without knowing that they were the sagely couple in disguise. When his arrow killed the wife of that sage, the sage assumed his true form and pronounced a curse on King Pandu, saying, "0 King! You killed my wife while she was sporting with me; therefore, you will be punished by death while you sport with your queens, by the power of my curse." Terrified by this curse of the sage, King Pandu lived in a mountain retreat in the forest with his queens. He curbed his senses, due to the fear of death, lest he be engaged in sense-pleasure with his queens. He meditated day and night with the sages of that mountain area.
During that period Kunti took the permission of King Pandu to obtain children by propitiating the remaining deities through the power of the mantras given to her by Sage Durvasa.
Preparing herself with purificatory rites, Kunti invoked Yama, the god of death, with the Yama-mantra. Immediately Lord Yama appeared before her and blessed her to conceive a celestial child named Dharmaraja. A year passed. Then Kunti, desirous of having another child, propitiated Vayu, the wind-god, who blessed her with a powerful child named Bheemasena.
A year later, Kunti wanted to use the powerful mantra of Indra, the head of the angels and the god of thunder and rain. Indra was very much pleased and blessed her with a great son named Arjuna.
Kunti, satisfied with these children, gave the fifth mantra to Madri, the other queen of King Pandu. Now, this mantra was of the twin-deities. They appeared before her and blessed her with twin children. They were named Nakula and Sahadeva.
Thus, Dharmaraja, Bheemasena, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva were known as the Pandavas, meaning the sons of Pandu.
When the children grew up, one day during the spring, King Pandu saw his queen Kunti, plucking flowers in a garden. His karma tempted him to approach his queen. Immediately he was punished with death in fulfillment of the sage's curse.
In the meantime, Bheeshma, the grandsire of the Kurus, came to know the sad plight of Kunti, Madri, and their five sons, and invited them to Hastinavati to live in the palace. Madri offered her twins to Kunti and threw herself into the funeral pyre of her husband Pandu, as it was unbearably painful for her to live without him.
Sad at heart, Kunti returned with the five sons to the palace, as per the advice of Bheeshma and several sages. There the hundred sons of Dhritarastra, the blind king, and the five sons of Pandu lived together happily for some time. Duryodhana, eldest among the hundred sons of Dhritarastra, hated the Pandavas and tried his best to kill Bheemasena, who was the strongest among the five sons of Pandu. During their play they fought many times and as they grew up, hatred also grew in the heart of Duryodhana. Now the hundred sons of Dhritarastra were known as the Kauravas and they were demoniac in character; whereas the five sons of Pandu, known as the Pandavas, were divine in character.
Poisoning the ears of his blind father, Duryodhana managed to engage the Pandavas in a game of dice. The stipulation was that whoever won in the game of dice should rule over the kingdom, and whoever lost would be exiled to the forest for a period of twelve long years, and afterwards would live a year of incognito existence. During that year, if they were recognized, they would have to suffer twelve additional years of exile in the forest. Even though in the beginning this game was taken lightly, later it became all the more serious, until by a magical trick of Shakuni, the maternal uncle and adviser to Duryodhana, the Pandavas lost everything, including their beautiful spouse, Draupadi.
The arrogant Duryodhana ordered his younger brother, Dushyasa, to chastise the chaste queen of the Pandavas. He also ordered his demoniac brother to dishonor her in the midst of the gathered assembly by disrobing her. As the demon began pulling her clothes to disrobe her, the Pandavas sat mute, as they were deprived of their possessions and power. Then Draupadi appealed to Lord Sri Krishna, as she prayed with uplifted arms. The all-pervading Lord heard her prayers and blessed her with inexhaustible robes. As the demon pulled a sari from the body of Draupadi, another sari would appear. He pulled sari after sari from her until he finally fainted from exhaustion.
After this the Pandavas, along with their queen Draupadi, left for the forest. They spent their twelve-year period of exilement practicing prayer and meditation. They also completed their one year of incognito existence in the palace of King Virata. Lord Krishna came to see them and, at their request, went as their emissary to the court of the Kauravas for an amicable settlement of their ancestral property. Duryodhana and all his group emphatically refused to return any wealth or property to the Pandavas, their cousins.
"Krishna," said Duryodhana, "not even the earth that is covered by the hoof of a cow shall be returned to the Pandavas but through war." So Lord Krishna returned to the Pandavas with the message of war.
Now the eleven divisions of army headed by Duryodhana camped in the great battlefield of Kurukshetra, and the Pandavas, with their seven divisions of army headed by Dharmaraja, came and camped on the same battlefield.
Bheeshma, the grandsire, was persuaded by the Kauravas to accept the position of commander-in-chief. On the side of the Pandavas, Dhristadyumna, a great hero and brother of Draupadi, became the commander-in-chief.
In the meantime, Sage Vyasa came to the blind king, Dhritarastra, and asked him whether he would like to regain his eyesight to witness the fight among his children and those of Pandu. Dhritarastra said he would like to hear what was happening rather than see the dreadful war.
Then Sage Vyasa blessed Sanjaya, who was an adviser to the blind king, with the power of clairvoyance and clairaudience. Sanjaya instantaneously gained this power of seeing the past, present and future, including the thoughts of all the warriors.
The whole Mahabharata war was fought for 18 days. The result of the war was the total destruction of the Kauravas, bringing success to the Pandavas. The goddess of victory garlanded the Pandavas! This is the essence of all great epics, the upholding of Dharma and uprooting of unrighteousness, which is the purpose of God's intervention in human affairs.
The Bhagavad Gita begins with a question of Dhritarastra to his adviser Sanjaya, and Sanjaya, by the special powers conferred on him by Vyasa, narrated all that was happening on the battlefield to the blind king.
THE INNER MEANING OF THE GITA
LIFE is a battle. There is constant warfare going on in every heart between the forces of good and evil: that which is pleasurable and that which is righteous. Most people follow the pleasurable. To walk in the path of goodness demands sacrifice, which a few daring souls alone can do. Thus humanity, caught in this duality, becomes confused and finds no way out. Only by turning to the inner voice of God can light, truth, love and peace be found.
We are all like Arjuna, highly intellectual, using a scientific approach. But being egoistic, we get caught in our own theories. The inner voice in us is of God and that is the Bhagavad Gita, the song of God, which leads us towards light and peace. Therefore the Bhagavad Gita is a perennial Sermon of God to the soul, audible when the soul seeks refuge in God. You will clearly hear this voice of God, the song of Krishna in your heart, when you pray sincerely and meditate.
The intellect needs light to become illumined. That light of wisdom comes from God, Who is within the heart of every being. When we turn to God with humility and devotion, we are capable of listening to this eternal message of God. And that is the Bhagavad Gita.
THE MAIN TEACHINGS OF THE GITA
THE world has lost its balance. This is because of ego. Ego is the platform upon which all desires manifest. Desires are the root cause of all bondage. Bondage brings misery. Joy lies in freedom from ego and desires.
The ego wants to satisfy the flesh, but the soul craves liberation from desires. This conflict between the flesh and the spirit, ego and the soul, is what we call life.
That which binds all souls to the material world is known as "moha" or emotional attachment. This is the feeling of "I" and "mine." It is this strong feeling that makes men fight one another, and nations fight other nations, all for the momentary pleasures of the ego and senses, which are ephemeral.
The soul is a part of God. It wants liberation from the clutches of this attachment and delusion. It is after eternal happiness and peace. More and more as it dwells on God through the study of the scriptures, company of the wise, prayer and meditation, it feels nearer to God by thinning the veils of ignorance. Finally, by the grace of God, the veil of attachment or moha disappears and the soul flies unto the bosom of the infinite. This is the main teaching of the Gita.
(Essence of Bhagavad Gita and Bible, p. 1.)