Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Na cha tasman manushyeshu kaschin me priya-krttamah (16.69): “I have no friend more dear than this person who is intently thinking of Me, and glorifies Me wherever it is possible by teaching this wisdom to those who are really devoted. I consider that person as very dear to Me indeed. No one is equal to that person in devotion to Me.” Dearest to God is one who is always considering God as his dearest. If to us God is the dearest, then God also will consider us as the dearest. Na cha tasman manushyeshu kaschi nme praiya-krttamah, bhavita na cha me tasmad anyah priyataro bhuvi: “No one is equal to him. No one in the world can compare with this devotee whose soul is rooted in Me and who is spending his entire life in communicating this wisdom to others who are truly devoted to Me.”

Adhyeshyate cha ya imam dharmyam samvadam avayoh, jnana-yajnena tenaham ishtah syam iti me matih (16.70): “If anyone studies this Gita with love and devotion, full of the feeling of the righteousness of God, if anybody studies this conversation between Me and you intently, daily, with concentration of mind, I shall consider that I am worshipped by jnana yajna.” The worship of God through knowledge is called jnana yajna. So, the highest knowledge, or jnana, is here embodied in the Bhagavadgita text. “Whoever studies this lovingly, devotedly, every day, is veritably performing jnana yajna, the wisdom sacrifice. This is My opinion,” says the Lord.

Sraddhavan anasuyas cha srnuyad api yo narah: not only those people who study this every day, but even those who listen to this affectionately and with faith, with no prejudice, with no dubious mind, no doubts, and without the evil of faithlessness. Sraddhavan is a person endowed with real faith. Anasuyascha: with no doubt in the mind. Srunuyad api yo narah so’pi muktah: One who hears in this manner, such a person also should be considered as really liberated. One who is united with God is liberated, one who studies the Gita is also liberated, and even one who listens to it is also said to be liberated. Very great compassion indeed! So’pi muktah subhanl lokan prapnuyat punya-karmanam: Even such a person who merely listens to this great wisdom and teaching shall attain to the higher regions of the blessed ones.

“Arjuna, have you understood what I said? Has something entered your head?” Kaccid etac chrutam partha (18.72): “Have you listened to what I said with concentration of mind – ekagrena chetasa – or was your mind wandering, and you were listening some of the things, and not to everything? Did you listen to everything that I said with concentration of mind? Has your delusion gone? Have I dispelled your delusion?” Kacchid ajnana-sammohah pranashtas te: “Please tell me whether or not your illusion, your delusion, with which you began speaking to me in the beginning, has gone.”

Now Arjuna says, “My delusion has gone, O Lord! Nashto mohah (18.73): “I have no more confusion about duty now. I understand what is proper and improper.” Smrtir labdha: “I have recollected, my memory is restored as to what is the good for me, and in what manner I should conduct myself in the fulfilment of this ultimate goodness. I had lost my highest memory earlier. I did not recollect my higher nature, and I considered myself as an ordinary individual, related to the Kuru family, fighting the battle of life. Now I remember. My memory has been raised to the status of my relationship with higher realities, with your own Self also finally.” Tvat prasadan mayachyuta: “All this is by your grace, O Lord! O Imperishable Being, with your blessing and kindness I have regained my true consciousness. Now I am steadfast, without any kind of doubt.” Sthito’smi gata-sandehah: “I have absolutely no doubt about anything now. I am steadfast in my duty, and I shall do what you say.”  Karishye vachanam tava: “Here am I as your disciple and your servant, ready to do whatever you ask me to do.” Here is the final word of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, and also the final word of Arjuna – where the whole subject of the Bhagavadgita is clinched.

The Gita was told by Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra, right from the beginning, because Dhritarashtra was the person who raised the question, “What is happening in the battlefield of Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra? What are my children doing? What are the Pandava children doing?” In answer to that, Sanjaya started recounting the entire history of the war, and he ended by saying, “Bhishma fell.” “O Bhishma fell? Tell me everything. I am very much disturbed by hearing it.” Dhritarashtra wanted to know all that was happening. Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa came and said, “If you want to see all things by yourself, I shall bless you with a vision with which from this room in the palace you will be able to see everything that is taking place in the yuddha-bhumi. Would you like to see that? I shall bless you with that vision.” Dhritarashtra said, “I do not want to see this kind of horror. I do not want to see it. I shall be satisfied if someone tells me what is happening.” So Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa blessed Sanjaya with divine vision. He could see everything that was taking place. Not only that, he could also know what anybody was thinking in the mind. There were millions of people on the battlefield, and Sanjaya could know what each one was thinking at what time, apart from what they were doing. Such a person, Sanjaya, now speaks.

Ity aham vasudevasya parthasya cha mahatmanah, samvadam imam asrausham adbhutam roma-harshanam (18.74): “My hair stands on end, really speaking, when I speak this, when I recount this great story of the Mahabharata. This conversation between Krishna and Arjuna – this miraculous, hair-raising, marvellous, tremendous conversation between Sri Krishna and Arjuna – I have come to know fully by the grace of Vyasa.”

Vyasa-prasadat (18.75): “I came to know by the grace of Vyasa.” Chrutavan etad guhyam aham param: “This secret of secrets which others could not know. Nobody knew what Sri Krishna was speaking, nothing was known to other people, but I know everything because of the blessing I received from Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. I am elated, I am in a state of rapture, because of the vision of the yoga of Bhagavan Sri Krishna.” Yogam yogesvarat krshnat sakshat kathayatah svayam: “The greatest Yogesvara Himself is teaching yoga. What can be a greater blessing than to listen to that conversation? The greatest Yogesvara is teaching yoga, and I have listened to that. I consider this as a great blessing from Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa.”

Samsmrtya samsmrtya samvadam imam adbhutam, kesavarjunayoh punyam hrshyami cha muhur muhuh (18.76): “Rajan! O King Dhritarashtra! I smile within myself. I am in a state of horripilation, again and again, by remembering again and again this wondrous conversation of Sri Krishna and Arjuna. Marvellous, I should say. There is no other word to describe this. Adbhutam – wondrous is that conversation.”

Tac ca samsmrtya samsmrtya rupam atyadbhutam hareh, vismayo me mahan rajan hrshyami cha punah punah (18.77): “Remembering again that Visvarupa, I could see it, which the others could not see. I could behold that terror-striking cosmic form by the blessing of Sri Vyasa. Remembering it now, again and again, that miraculous form of Sri Hari, I am really stunned. I am stupefied when even remembering it. I am highly elated that I had the blessing of having this vision of the Supreme Universal Virat, which nobody else could see.”

Yatra yogesvarah krsno yatra partho dhanur-dharah, tatra srir vijayo bhutir dhurva nitir matir mama: Wherever is Sri Krishna, and wherever is Arjuna – Sri Krishna, the master of yoga, and Arjuna, the wielder of the bow – wherever these are seated in one chariot, there is prosperity, victory, happiness, and firm qualities. Whenever Bhishma was accosted and asked who will win finally, he used to say yatah krishna tatojayah: Wherever is Krishna, there is victory. Yato dharma tatah krishna yatah krishna tatojayah, or in another way, yatah krishna tatodharmo yatodharma tato jayah: Wherever is dharma, there is Krishna; and wherever is Krishna, there is dharma; and wherever is Krishna, and hence  dharma, there is victory certainly. Bhishma said this, to the chagrin of Duryodhana. He showed a wry face, and went from there saying, “I don’t depend on you people. I have others, like Karna.”

Sri Krishna represents divine grace, cosmic power, eternity operating in all temporality; and Arjuna represents humanity, the essence of mankind, the essence of human effort, the essence of aspiration, the essence of movement towards God. Arjuna is the specimen of the human individual, and gandiva dhanush is the instrument of action. It can be a fountain pen in the case of a writer, it can be a pickaxe in the case of a labourer, it can be a needle in the case of a doctor – anything can be considered as an instrument of action. It is symbolic of the manner in which one engages himself or herself in action. That is symbolised in Arjuna with the gandiva dhanush in hand. And every one of us is an Arjuna holding a gandiva dhanush in the sense that we are individuals with a destiny ahead of us, which we have to achieve with hard effort and with rightly motivated action.

But merely human effort will not work. There is a necessity for its being backed by Universal Grace. The Pandavas, including Arjuna, were not lacking in effort. They had the highest, strongest and the most virulent weapons in their hands. But they could not have moved persons like Bhishma, Drona and Karna even an inch but for the miraculous, subtle, unknown operation of divinity in the form of Bhagavan Sri Krishna and all the gods.

Therefore, effort is very necessary. The Bhagavadgita tells us again and again: “Do work! Do not be idle! Do not resort to inaction! Always be active! But be motivated to do righteous action.” Even then, it was necessary to reveal the cosmic form of God. Where is the need for the glorification of God’s power in Chapters Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven if mere action is sufficient, and karma yoga is all, and the consciousness of righteousness in the performance of duty can liberate us? If that is the case, there is no necessity for the other chapters of the Gita, such as the Visvarupa darsana.

God’s grace has to be there behind every effort. There is a joint action taking place between the individual and God. That is symbolised by Arjuna and Krishna seated in one chariot. That is Ishvara and Jiva in this very body. They are working together like two birds perched on the same tree, as it is said.

“Wherever this unity of purpose between God and man is achieved fully, and they are working in harmony, one not conflicting with the other’s motive, there shall be victory, there shall be prosperity, there shall be glory, and perfect quality; this is my opinion,” says Sanjaya.

Om tat sad iti srimad bhagavadgitasu upanishatsu brahmavidyayam yogasastre sri krishnarjunasamvade mokshasannyasayogo nama ashtadaso’dhyayah.

Hari Om Tat Sat
Sri Krishna Bhagavan ki jai!