Ethics of Shri Madbhagvadgita E-Book

Chandan Sengupta

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Absolute knowledge cannot wait for any material set up to make it evident. It is more confluent than compared to the flow of water, faster than the speed of light and more luminous than the strong lumens like those of stars. It can make people understand things with clear apprehension of putting forth the segment of acts and conducts for the purpose of offering an understanding of facts, figures, events, mechanisms and confluence of information.

Due to lack of such absolute knowledge people often fail to understand the exact reasons behind the manifestation of the supreme power through different living forms. This supreme power resides with identical potential in all the individuals starting from tiny bacteria up to a giant whale. They all combine their own creations with the help of materials present in the real world in an absolute combination of certain format to give a prominent existence. Such individuals can move through the world with certain objectives of leading an assigned life until and unless a band of disintegration of such organic coordination breaks down due to death. In other words, energy is the only super natural power which regulates different components of nature on their way towards creation or destruction of any living form. Absolute knowledge only can make us understand the aspects related to creation and destruction. In Indian philosophy, natural components got the name Prakriti and the super natural component got the name Purush. Communion of Prakriti and Purush makes the creation possible. If such principle is true then it must be evident even at the atomic level of creation; at that level nuclear energy binds the positively charged protons along with some other uncharged particles to make the creation of nucleus possible. Electrons are bound to remain restricted around that empowered core. This mystery of creation signifies the claim of Veda regarding existence of Super Natural Power (BRAHMA)[1] in all the naturally occurring articles, “Brahma is at all places, within all particles and inside all the beings.”

It is the knowledge which becomes visible through various actions of a person. It is that knowledge which differentiates a sage from a beggar; it integrates individual apprehensions to materialize each minute actions of that individual for the purpose of defining the final destiny of that person amidst the turmoil of social interactions. That knowledge becomes the guiding force behind senses and guides those senses to assimilate the signals of desired types. Desire is the state of mind which makes the individual apprehension secure within the realm of human actions. It also ensures proper coordination of all the impulses of senses to materialize the desired action. Those guiding force even acts during the process of inter –personal communication. It enables a person to go for accepting or rejecting any communication bands duly offered by some other individual. Differences of such bands of sensual communications can define the enemy and friends from amongst the group of people came in contact. Distinction of friend and enemy creates a varying matrix of inter-personal communication inflicted with protecting or smashing any individual.

Knowledge increases with corresponding increase in the experiences and mind power. In due course of time mind becomes the store house of all the information and avails them to be used by the analytical segment of the brain as per need. Here lies the mystery of success and failure of coordinated senses. It can even define the proper culmination of both the components of the intellect for making the materialization of senses possible. Person with such kind of balanced mind and intellect can speak perfectly, can listen properly, can go for smelling and tasting right things and even can feel the presence of some wealthy impulses in the surrounding.

Any sort of imbalance of mind and intellect can make the senses unfit for materializing any perfect action. The Gita points out the essence of attainment of such kind of balances of mind and intellect for regulating senses and making them fit for right and timely actions. 

[1] Section 14, Chapter 3, Upanishad:

Sarvam khalvidam brahma, tajjalaniti santa upasita, atha khalu kratumayah puruso yatha-kratur-asmin-loke puruso bhavati tathetah pretya bhavati, sa kratum kurvita.

Meaning:  Brahma is the only supreme power. Everything comes from that, sustain in that and finally returns to that,  is the only power which empowers us all.  People study all the aspects related to what dissolves in that, comes from that and works due to that.

Leseprobe

Chandan Sengupta

Ethics of Shri Madbhagvadgita

Analysing Relevance of Shri Madbhagvadgita in Present day context

This book is dedicated to my beloved fathe Shri Sukumar Sengupta.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Where to Start?

We all are familiar with different aspects of the holy book The Gita. It has its root deeply embedded inside the teachings of Upanishad. Upanishad, in turn, has deeply embedded roots of instructions and rituals inside Vedas. All the Vedas provide absolute knowledge to individuals having affinity of gaining prosperity in life. Remaining prosperous and ultimately imbibing the spirit of the divine is the ultimate goal of a life.

We directly gain such a spark of the accumulation of the divine power within ourselves through cultivation of knowledge. Saints in olden time wanted to simplify the holy teachings for the purpose of making such teachings easy to assimilate for individuals of different walks of life. A state of confusion regarding duty of an individual in a society may develop at any time. It may even spoil the credential of an individual in society. Such a state of confusion may even give birth to a self-centered apprehension of doing things. Such a state of self-centered conduct may further lead to a state of violent ego. Person getting inflicted with such a state of violent ego may give birth to a conflict. It is also true that one can overcome the situation of the development of such a state of violent ego through cultivation of true knowledge. Bhagvadgita insists on gaining such kind of true knowledge which can ignite the mind with a feeling of the divine omnipresence.

Teachings of Bhagvadgita has its root duly converged from some prominent sources like Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga Philosophy and Sankhya Philosophy. Gita has successfully brought culmination of all the major schools of Indian philosophy for making the teachings of the Gita widely applicable and perpetually relevant. Gita also narrates the nature of conflicts and the role of knowledge, devotion and action to address such conflicts at different fronts. A warrior should attend a war for safeguarding the dependent ones; a saint should remain indulged in worshipping the holy master; a teacher should cultivate the true knowledge and also should pass on the same to the fellow students. Duty of a warrior should not be taken up with priority by any priest. Performing the duty in particular depends on the state of mind for which the intellectual sanction is ensured. Without putting oneself in a definite role in society one cannot confer about the type of duties to be accomplished at any instances. We simply put ourselves in a war front as a warrior and start delivering our duty as a perfect warrior. Swadharma (or duty of an individual in particular) is the state of mind for which the preparedness and knowledge acquisition was accomplished.

On the basis of the above discussion we can easily consider The Gita as a holy book of instructions and self actualized guidance for which we often rely upon the Divine. We can coin any name for our Divine master, but only name cannot alter its identity and character in particular. Our feelings pass on silently for accepting the supremacy such a guiding force having adequate hold upon our understanding and awareness. It will even facilitate us for attainment of some sort of completeness in due course of time.

Ever-growing Relevance

Teachings of Veda and Epics are in continuation from age old traditions. After the Epic Age we have passed on a span of thousands of years. Are such age old teachings becoming irrelevant day by day? Is the discussion on such teachings becoming useless in present day context?

If we start searching proper answer to these questions then we have to rely on the fact of the exact relationship with which the time and philosophy move on. Actually Philosophy and Religion never take the support of the confluence of time. Time can even repeat itself through predetermined actions. Philosophy never intends to influence the normal cycle of the confluence of time. Therefore, both of these aspects of our daily life are independent of each other and reflect themselves independently.

What happened in Epic Age and the way Lord Rama handled the situation during that time had a deeper impact in the society during that time. It has exhibited the value system with which a State and a family can define their role in society. Those values are still relevant. Advent of any change in the material world has no power of influencing the fundamental value system with which a community leader should work.

There are millions of books and narratives with some noble initiative available for explaining and elaborating the propositions of teachings of Gita. Gita is relevant for both learners and teachers. It has something to say even to a layman having less knowledge about the mysteries hidden amidst the conversations displayed in the holy book of Gita.

The term Gita directly links our thinking with the conversation that took place in between Arjuna, a Warrior from the side of Pandavas, and his friendly guide Krishna. It was going on amidst a critical situation in which Arjuna lost his power of finalising something justifiable to have a sanction of war and killings. A series of killing of such type in which his beloved ones were at a threshold was not acceptable to Arjun. Krishna took the role of his charioteer to normalise the situation and to let Arjuna understand his own status in a better way. The agitation, as described in the holy book of Mahabharata, was against the stand of his own family members having intention of grabbing all the resources by taking advantage of some conspired game-fares. The game-fare of such type with an infliction of opportunistic ideals was moved on differently and both the segments of a single family took a stand against each other.

Lord Krishna defined his stand by putting himself in the side of Pandavas with a sheer commitment of not to use his weapon at any instances. It was his stand that made him free from direct indulgence of the warfare and made it possible to guard Pandavas through delivering timely relevant instruction. In this way he has secured his position similar to that of the brain in our body. Conversation of Krishna and Arjuna amidst the battle field was also an act of holy instructions duly issued for Arjuna to signify his timely need. It had linked senses with duties, established correlation between rights and duties, issued bands of things to be done and things not to be done, entangled a spirit with its higher source, conferred the juxtaposition of creation and the creator and finally re-established need of knowing the self.

Madbhagvad-Gita, as the complete term coined for the holy book, had also defined the role of divine power in infusing values within the intellect and senses of a fellow devotee. It has also established a perfect correlation between knowledge and devotion. None of the paired combination alone can succeed in bringing fame. Through all the eighteen chapters of the holy book, Godly propositions were incorporated by saints and philosophers who has created it for commons. It has a perpetual compilation of various combinations of practical aspects of Yoga and Meditation. It has also narrated the true nature of Knowledge that often receive a confluence more confluous than that of a stream. Attainment of such knowledge is a subject of individual apprehension and resides solely on the purity of mind.

Our discussion up to this point has made a point clear about the nature and proposition of knowledge confluence remaining evident amongst us since centuries with a clear impetus of facilitating its follower for gaining an ascent through divinity and perfectness. There exist narratives in different forms and in different languages meant primarily to make people aware of the eternal philosophical aspects related to teachings of Gita.

Another effort of making Gita simple, easy to understand, more confluous to attend aspirations of people, more perpetuated to incorporate aspirations of millions and more conferred to actualise role of senses. Efforts may be of varying kinds to satisfy aspirations of people in different ways out. It may have some more relevant narratives that can efficiently link up the need of fundamental values reflected by Gita at different instances. Effort is also made to curtail unwanted explanations for maintaining the flow of the vibration of thought process intact. Discussion on any philosophical aspects should not go in a hurry and also it should not be too slow. It should have adequate stress of combined segments of knowledge and information to keep things enlightened and actualised.

It will be even more perfectly balanced to contingent human efforts of ascent towards the state of the unification of conscious mind with that of masterly guide. Effort is also made to encompass the segregation of individual differences from the common philosophical segments of knowledge to make it more people friendly and more relevant, as well as time tested one.

Gita, in its actual sense, stands for some sort of compilation that people can sing. It can be discussed with some beautiful rhythmic tunes. Collective recitation of Gita brings out a collective wave in the form of auditory vibrations for the purpose of cleansing the immediate surrounding. It also conferred essence of collective and community level worship for making the entire effort possible and for keeping the converged senses of cooperation and brotherhood alive.

To a compilation of prayers and songs meant for the supreme lord the World Poet coined a term “Gitanjali” for it. To adhare the practical aspects of life and mission of an individual with the specified spiritual destiny, Saint Vinoba coined the term “Katha Gita (Gita through a series of stories)” and incorporated all the teachings and narratives of Gita in absolutely friendly way. Examples are in plenty. It had not diffused the glory of the original compilation of Gita, also had not conferred replacing the original poetic compilation with millions of narratives. Waves of vibrations that the chanting of Gita creates is based on the assimilation of collective vibrations of saintly senses that makes a way out through the surrounding of the place of worship and gives birth to an essence of keeping the collective vibrations of cooperation, brotherhood, divine omnipresence and interlinkages of senses alive.

We, in the same manner, can successfully create hundreds and thousands of such narratives duly inflicted with fundamental human values to make the spark of Gita a confluous one, a vibrant one and a strategic one. It has enormous power of accommodations for incorporating all sorts of socially and culturally relevant directives within the scope of its teaching related to individual refinement impregnated with spiritual ascent. It also makes the relationship of creator and the creation a vibrant one. We can specify any of the particular effort as an initiative inflicted with divine power meant for accomplishing certain works. All such Gita, duly compiled by saintly people, are not with us. In due course of time we have lost many of such beautiful, relevant and time tested compilations due to various reasons. Our mind kept on imbibing presence of such powers tradition by tradition through many of our rituals. Those graceful efforts played a significant role in keeping waves of community worship alive.

Gita was interpritted differently by different saints since olden times. Still we have a lot to explore from it in the true sense. The teachings and discourses duly incorporated by Saint Veda Vyasa reflects the teachings of Upanishads put together. Saint Vyasa wanted to incorporate all the fundamental value system and yoga based life in a compact compilation to provide people an ease of access to the divine knowledge.

If we correlate different scriptures and Epics side by side then the value system duly reflected through all the propositions of saints will reflect each other’s presence in common. We can better understand this aspect by taking an example of idol making. We use clay for shaping it differently to reflect our imagination and art, similarly the case is there with Philosophy of Yoga. We can correlate Yoga with all aspects of our life. In that sense we can even say that, “All Life is Yoga.”

This extended philosophy and belief cannot cripple our mind and intellect. We can even, for an example, consider the life of a beggar as a manifestation on the basis of Yoga. The beggar prepares the mind for begging something from any individual. In failing to get anything the fellow beggar prefers to move on further to gain a living. Ultimately the fellow beggar surrenders himself/herself at the disposal of the almighty. Time cannot permit us to move as per our own wishes and willingness ,but philosophy can do so. We can even adhere to certain principles and propositions to express our wishes and willingness to move through such doctrines.

People maintain faith on certain principles and rituals in which they feel themselves properly secured. Such security feelings will give birth to a communion having identical wishes and willingness. They even come across certain rituals to accomplish the jointly with an affinity of exhibiting a community feelings.

Knowledge and Wisdom

Knowledge, as the term envisages, has a direct link with mind and intellect. It is absolutely a brain function and depends to a greater extent upon the interaction of senses and memory. It has some involvement of motor and sensory involvements which often people acquire through practices. Some sort of knowledge enriches an individual tradition by tradition. We cannot abruptly claim that knowledge will enrich an individual all on a sudden. It moves through a series of instructional steps and a series of practices.

One can gain knowledge simply by following masterly instructions. Some other people can gain knowledge by indulging in the process of instructional activities. Knowledge of doing some sort of activities often enhances our skills and makes us competent in performing our specified duties in particular. Another band of knowledge makes us aware of the situation which confers our understanding of the cyclic process of creation and destruction. From certain understanding of facts and figures it is becoming evident that entire universe will be destroyed in due course of time. We cannot sit idle and wait up to the moment of destruction with an aspiration of remaining off the side of any activities in our surrounding. We must move on with a positive apprehension for performing our duties in society for which we consider ourselves quite competent. Our commitment to society and to our dearest ones resides on our effort of indulging in the process of making them hapy and contented.

Wisdom is the state of mental balance at which an individual identifies wright and wrong, permissible and objectionable acts; duties to be performed and instances to be avoided. It ensures self –actualisation, ethics and benevolence.[1] It is the capacity of fore-knowledge of something, may be right or wrong, or may be with immediate implications or having implications in near future.[2] Development of wisdom is ensured through a series of masterly guidance.[3] We can also confer with our clear understanding that wisdom is a kind of expeprtise with which one can do things perfectly and also perform assigned duties with quite perfectness.[4]

[1] Staudinger, U.M.; Glück, J. (2011). "Psychological wisdom research: Commonalities and differences in a growing field". Annual Review of Psychology. 62: 215–241. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131659. PMID 20822439.

[2] Meacham, J. A. (1990). The loss of wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 181 211

[3] Karunamuni N, Weerasekera R. (2019). "Theoretical Foundations to Guide Mindfulness Meditation: A Path to Wisdom". Current Psychology. 38 (3): 627–646. doi:10.1007/s12144-017-9631-7. S2CID 149024504.

[4] "Can Humanity Learn to become Civilized? The Crisis of Science without Civilization" Nicholas Maxwell