Sri Krishna as Revealed in All Our Levels of Reality : 1. Swami Krishnananda

22/10/2018

(Spoken on May 1, 1983)

Yatra yogesvarah krishno
yatra partho dhanurdharah,
tatra srir vijayo bhutir
dhruva nitir matir mama (Gita 18.78) : -

“Where there is Krishna, the Lord of Yogam, and where there is Arjuna, the wielder of the bow, there is prosperity, victory, happiness and firm quality. This is my conviction,” said Sanjay. Thus concludes the Bhagavadgita.

Often teachers as well as students of the Bhagavadgita consider the last verse of this gospel as representing in a way the quintessential import of the whole teaching. This statement would mean that a kind of perfection in life can be expected where this blend between Krishna and Arjuna is made practicable. We know very well that Krishna and Arjuna, two geniuses in their own way, were seated in a single chariot, and the vehicle was driven through the battlefield of the Mahabharatam. The point in this slokam seems to be that we can hope for success where Krishna and Arjuna are in a state of unison, seated in a single vehicle.

The obvious meaning of this instruction is, of course, clear to any studious mind engaged in reading the Bhagavadgita. But if, as it is very often said, the Bhagavadgita is a sort of gospel for eternity, meaningful for all conditions of life and applicable to every state of existence, there is perhaps a possibility of our discovering in this poignant verse something more implicit and significant than what an ordinary, literal translation may furnish us.

The Bhagavadgita is a highly philosophical teaching, and thus, in the vast gamut which it covers, it seems to sweep over practically every question that can arise in the life of a human being. As a philosophical teaching, philosophical in the true sense of the term, it takes us gradually, stage by stage, until the final cause of the problem of life is discovered, and a final solution is seen and brought forth as a remedy for every kind of ill of mankind. The illnesses of life are manifold, as we all very well know. It is not merely a sickness of the body which should be considered as a sort of outer expression of an inward maladjustment. A basic difficulty, often called a metaphysical evil, is behind every form of temporal problem and difficulty.

To be continued ..