Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals -14.1.2

17/11/2017.

Chapter :- 14.  The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 1.2.

1.Introduction -2.

Gita Jayanti message given in the year 1976. Gita Jayanti falls on Ekadasi, or the eleventh day of the bright half of the month of Margasirsha (November-December).

2.
Where is the Bhagavadgita located? In the middle of the battle of the Mahabharata. What is this epic battle? A conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, brothers in a unitary family.

It was a family feud. We may say it was a conflict between Yudhishthira and Duryodhana, which amounts to the same essential situation.

So, again, to reiterate, the conflict which Bhagavan Sri Krishna tries to resolve has as its background the conflict enumerated in the long epic poem of the Mahabharata.

What is this background? The conflict of personalities!

That was the occasion for the war. Huge armies were arrayed on both sides. Thousands were about to fly at the throats of each other. That was the occasion for the giving of this Gospel.

The Gospel was not given in a school, a college, or a university, a temple, a church, or an auditorium – nothing of the kind. This most interesting and indispensable Gospel which we try to enshrine in our hearts, in our memories, was given on that momentous occasion of a war that was about to break between large contending armies.

Nobody would like to seek wisdom on that tense occasion. That is not the time to speak at all; it is the time to act and do something immediately.

Who would speak philosophy when there are large numbers of men emotionally worked up into such a heightened pitch of anxiety and wrath that they will hear no words spoken by anyone, and are bent upon a severe type of action!

On that occasion, who would speak a sublime gospel or a scripture!

But that was the occasion, and there could not be a better occasion.

To be continued ...

Swami Krishnananda