BG27

Today also the lecture is from the Sirupuliyur temple. One of the great Acharyas, Sri Alavandar also known as Sri Yamunacharya, has condensed the Bhagawat Gita and composed Gitartha Sangraham. In his sloka on the first chapter[asthanasneha karunya dharmadharmadiyakulam Ipartham prapanna muddisya sastra vatharanam krtam, - GS sloka5]Sri Alavandar tells that Sri Krishna sermoned to Partha. Which Partha? Sri Krishna tutored the one who did not know where to be merciful, where to be friendly and where to judge righteousness, that Partha. Using that Arjuna as pretext Sri Krishna has delivered this precious Gita for the world. Last 46 slokas have dealt how Arjuna was perturbed in the battlefield. We should note that it is not that Kurukshetra alone is a battlefield. Every one of us is an Arjuna and the world is a battlefield. Our battle may be health reasons or mental or due to family or due to work conditions and we get perturbed. Like Arjuna everyone possesses a skill may be in games or studies or arts etc. and so like him we also get perturbed for various reasons. Only a person who is not affected by any of the happenings in this world and that is Sri Krishna, Who created and protects this world and Who is always doing good for everyone, can remove this. Sri Krishna presents the Gita and we will now see the last [47^th] sloka of chapter I:

sanjaya uvaca
evam uktvarjunah sankhye
rathopastha upavisat
visrjya sa-saram capam
soka-samvigna-manasah

Sanjaya [who by the grace of his guru was able to visualize the happenings in the battlefield sitting at Hasthinapur] tells Dhridharashtra “ the perturbed Arjuna moving away from his position in the chariot and with grief sat in the middle and threw away his bow and arrows”. Arjuna at the eleventh hour just before the start of the war does this out of shear dejection at the sight of the relatives and friends arrayed to start the fight and kill each other. Instead of keeping this dejection within himself, he tells his mind to Sri Krishna. From this we should also learn that we should tell our problems to someone near to us like to husband or wife or father or mother. This way one can avoid misunderstanding and problems get solved by discussions. Arjuna did not care about others’ mocking at him and compassion was upper most in his mind and he brought out all these to Sri Krishna,

Sri Parvathi asks Sri Parameshwara to tell her the greatness of Bhagawat Gita. In a similar query on Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam, Sri Parameshwara replies that Sri Rama name is equivalent to the thousand names of the Lord. Once Lord Sriman Narayana was reclining and resting, when Thayar Sri Lakshmi asked Him as why unlike the earlier times He is not active by descending on earth in various avatars, for which He replied that after the Gita has been delivered to the world, Gita has taken up the work of reforming and so He is resting. He added that the first five chapters represent His five faces, the next ten chapters are His ten Arms, the Stomach is the 16^th chapter and His feet are the last two chapters. So Gita is the Lord embodied.

Susharma was born in a noble family but was having bad habits and after his death, he was born as a bull. Once this bull was hurt seriously and lay on the road suffering. Passersby wanted to end the bull’s agony by donating the punya earned by their good deeds, if any, so that the bull may die instantly and be relieved of the sufferings. The bull did not die and continued to suffer. At that time a prostitute passed by that side and she donated her punya if any to the bull and the bull instantly died and the soul reached the hell. There he suffered for the bad deeds of the past, but later he got a new birth and was able to do good things and then reached better worlds. Here, he got the new birth and did good things because of the punya gifted by the prostitute. How did such a bad woman earn punya and gift it to Susharma? There was a parrot, which lived in a forest where a number of sages were daily chanting the Bhagavat Gita and by constant listening it picked up the first chapter. Later when this bird was with the prostitute it used to utter the first chapter and by listening to that the prostitute got punya and that enabled the soul of Susharma to gain a birth where he could do good deeds and reach better worlds. This brings out the greatness of the first chapter.

All are requested to clarify their doubts by addressing at: by email to:

gitaddmadurai@yahoo.com

and by ordinary mail to:

Doordarshan Kendra, K.K.Nagar, Madurai - 20.