Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

01/12/2017. Chapter :- 14.  The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 1.4. 1. Introduction-4. We know the situation. All action emanates from the individual, and to do or not to do is to be decided by the individual himself. A decision can be taken only when there is no conflict in one's mind. Either we do a thing or we do not do the thing. We want a thing or we do not want the thing. These are decisions that the mind takes. But if one begins to waver between the two horns of the dilemma, and one does not know which side to take and what steps to put forward due to a conflict within one's own mind, there would be no solution at all. A most surprising attitude did Arjuna take, to the wonder and marvel of everyone there. The most heroic of persons began to speak words of pusillanimity, feelings of pity which would be completely unexpected from a warrior girt up on the brink of a war. Instead of attempting to solve the social conflict for the sake of which the war was to be e...

23/11/2017. Chapter :- 14.  The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 1.3. 1. Introduction-3. Now, the very purpose of this war was primarily to resolve a social conflict. Well, it was agreed that the war was indispensable. The purpose behind the war was not to destroy people but to resolve a social conflict or a political tension. It was impossible to mend people, and so they thought it was necessary to end people. And they concluded that by the ending of the people the conflict would automatically vanish. If you cannot untie a knot, you cut the knot. For memory's sake I may mention a few names who were involved in this conflict – the leaders, the generalissimos of the war. There were powerful veterans on the side of the Kauravas, almost invincible in battle, three of whom, the most prominent ones, were Bhishma, Drona and Karna. Nobody could face them with immunity to their lives. On the other side, that of the Pandavas, we have leaders like Bhima and Arjuna, the brothers o...

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 givi...

Chapter :- 14.  The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 1.1. 10/11/2017. 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). By Swami Krishnananda 1. Introduction-1. I shall endeavour to touch upon a few salient points in the gospel of the Bhagavadgita, which will be of some meaning and utility in our day-to-day life. To apply a knowledge to life is the most difficult aspect of knowledge. We have always been accustomed to bifurcate life from knowledge, and vice versa, so that a learned man is not necessarily a happy man, nor even a rich man. The reason is that learning or knowledge has been isolated from the facts of life. This is one of the conflicts that we observe in life. As they say humorously, Sarasvati and Lakshmi never live in the same house, meaning thereby that learning and wealth do not go together. There are many such conflicts, all which are supposed t...

06/11/2017. Chapter 17: Lord Skanda – The Concentrated Divine Energy-13-14. Skanda-Shashthi message given on the 9th of November, 1980. So we have in this great epic of Skanda's incarnation, the 'Kumara Sambhava', the mighty portrayal of the adventure of the Spirit through the processes of Sadhana, spiritual practice, wherein we commune ourselves with the highest power that is conceivable, the energy of God Himself. We have to draw that energy forward and harness it to face this world. Then the power of externality gets transformed into the peace of universality. What happened to the Rakshasas – Surapadma, Simhamukha and Taraka? Those forces which were externalised and which were the desires impelling themselves outwardly in the direction of sense-objects, were transformed into the universal peace of creation. Peace reigned supreme. There is nothing called destruction anywhere. These demons were not destroyed in the ordinary sense of the term. You know the...

28/10/2017. Chapter 17: Lord Skanda – The Concentrated Divine Energy-13-13. Skanda-Shashthi message given on the 9th of November, 1980. Religious adventure becomes more and more complicated as we proceed along with it further and further. In the earlier stages religion seems to be very simple, because it appears to be merely a question of going to the church or sitting before a deity in a temple or following a system of routine, a ritual, etc. But, when we enter into the heart of religion, it ceases to be any kind of routine. It becomes an inward adventure of the spirit. It is not a doing of something, but a complete reshuffling of one's personality and a transformation of oneself through a transvaluation of values, by a process in which we may have to submit to conscription the very same forces in the world which appear as our opponents at present. The world is an enemy and also a friend. The Bhagavadgita, again, gives an answer to this interesting question, how...

20/05/2017. Chapter 17: Lord Skanda – The Concentrated Divine Energy-13-12. Skanda-Shashthi message given on the 9th of November, 1980. 1. Without going into the details of the whole story here, I would like to pinpoint only the significance of the occasion, viz., the impossibility to confront evil without the help of God, the power of Divinity. No one can face the world except with the help of God. Armaments, military and police are nothing before the evil of the world. No one can overcome it, and it shall continue. 2. So, the Skanda Purana says that the War-god was born from the universal contemplation of the great Creator Himself. The Samadhi-Bhuta Sakti or the energy born out of the great Samadhi of Lord Siva, whom we call Skanda, is the answer for all the evils of the world. The force of cosmic desire became a cumulative focussing weapon, as it were, and with a sixfold face the divine energy began to confront the multifaceted dark forces. 3. We have a sixfol...