Salient points from our discussion on Sri Bhagavad Gita chapter 3
---- Debdeep Banerjee
1. Arjun was internally conflicted about going to war against his own relatives and members
from his community - people he had known well for a long time. Krishna explained to him that
there were two types of activity: activity to serve your own interests and activity towards a path
of self-realization or consciousness. The former deals with fulfilling the senses and one's worldly
goals, while the latter adheres more toward dharma (one's prescribed duties/activities in a
lifetime). At that specific point in time, it was Arjun's duty to go to battle and fight alongside
Krishna.
2. Krishna explained two of the kinds of yoga to Arjuna: jnana (pronounced gyaana) yoga and
karma yoga. Personally, I felt jnana yoga resembles Zen Buddhism with respect to relinquishing
all worldly and temporary attachments (example money, family, wealth, etc.), in favor of
attaining knowledge - very hermit-like. However, karma yoga is a prescription to follow one's
rightful duties (dharma), and in doing so one will live a life of relative positivity. A good analogy
of karma would be Newton's 3rd law - every action has an equal and opposite reaction. It is
amazing and humbling that such an ancient text as the Sri Bhagavad Gita explained foundational
physical principles that were formally introduced thousands of years later!
3. Although a manifestation of God and ultimate Truth, Krishna did not hold himself above
mortal beings, such as ourselves. He explained to Arjun that he himself must also adhere to
prescribed activities and dharma. If he didn't, then people would not have an example to follow,
and the world would fall to disorder and moral disregard. In fact, Krishna only appears in our
world when such times of discord are present, in order to bring them back to balance.
During the meeting, I mentioned that I believed Krishna's message could be summarized into a
spectrum or hierarchy of sorts:
senses < mind < intelligence < consciousness (self-realization) < or = Truth
I feel most of us are towards the left. We deal on an everyday basis with material and worldly
desires, goals, and obstacles. I would argue the most spiritual of our religion's devotees may be
towards the middle (i.e. mind and intelligence). Even higher ascended are those individuals such
as Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Ma Sarada Devi, among others, who have attained
pure consciousness. Many people believe these prominent individuals are manifestations of God,
which is why I put "or =." I personally believe that ultimate Truth may be equated to God, or at
least its embodiment. There is no further realization or ascension, and obviously only the rare
few among us ever reach this state regardless of having gone through one lifetime or five, yet it
should always be our goal to try and stay the course towards this enlightenment.
I enjoyed reading this chapter and discussing it with you all this afternoon
(Review of Sri Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 by Debdeep Banerjee, son of Debashish & Pradeepta
Banerjee, was presented by him in the Hindu students club at his medical school to fellow students)