Universal Essence of Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is not just a sacred text, its real purpose is to tackle the totality of who we are and what we need, rather than just one aspect of our personality or aspirations in life. The distinct nature of Gita shlokas makes it even more challenging for people to grasp its deep meaning. Even though there have been dozens of discourses and dissertations on this magnificent tale, and still being written, it is difficult to ascertain if its significance and essence have been fully recognized, as it only becomes more intriguing and unusual as we delve further into it. The deeper we examine it, the more vivid it appears in front of our vision, like the sun coming up in the morning.     

It is this uniqueness and thoroughness of Bhagavad Gita’s approach that makes it a truly global text. The Gita shlokas gain much of their relevance and universal significance because of the popularity of the Mahabharata, the epic storehouse of universal values. Let’s look at how Gita takes much of its elements from the Mahabharata.   

Universal Questions & Timeless Answers from Gita and the Mahabharata 

Gita originates from India’s Mahabharata epic and is a lesson imparted by Lord Krishna to Arjuna during the final battle of Kurukshetra. For our amusement and emotional contentment, we are inclined to read this saga as a narrative, equivalent to a tale or a play. Nonetheless, this epic, which the Bhagavad-Gita is a segment of, is not a tale told by a grandmother to a kid, although it is told in the guise of a dramatic performance, rich with visions and artistic embellishments of characters representing different aspects of human intellect and disposition.  

Whenever we read an epic like this, the compassion emerging among these protagonists and the various aspects of our own daily affairs motivates and provokes us. In some sense, we acknowledge ourselves in these valiant creatures. We are intrigued by all these visuals and circumstances as they reflect who we are at distinct times during the course or in the depths of our own identities. Each of these individuals, the Mahabharata’s characters, the performers, are alive inside us, and we are every one of them at distinct periods. Everyone has degrees of temperament, and these relate to the ideal representations expressed in the Mahabharata’s personalities. 

The Bhagavad-Gita is indeed the core of Mahabharata’s enormously stretched fruit, which has blossomed from India’s heritage tree. The intellectual teachings expounded via the Gita can actually be seen throughout all the figures in the epic tale. The first explains the second. The epic element of the Mahabharata is a presentation of the lesson that is to be imparted in the guise of the Bhagavad-Gita on the arena of mankind; and, while we examine it the other way through, the Bhagavad-Gita is just what is envisioned behind the overall storytelling of the Mahabharata. 

Bhagavad Gita provides all-embracing, cosmopolitan learnings to the world at large  

The teaching of the Ultimate, Brahmavidya, is presented in the final analysis of each chapter in the Bhagavad Gita. Also, it’s regarded as an Upanishad, which might seem strange to most individuals. An Upanishad is a sacred text that holds secret teaching. It’s concealed because it’s about elements that can’t be seen from the naked human eye. That has nothing to do with outward appearance. The Upanishad does not address the world’s identities and appearances. It correlates with what lurks beneath the labels and structures. Since it has to do with things that the senses can’t see and the intellect can’t even comprehend, it’s considered a mystery and so an enigmatic concept. It’s termed as ‘Upanishad.’  

The Bhagavad-Gita is known for its shlokas and is often known as the ‘Sarva-Shastramayi’ Gita, which means “essence of all scriptures.” Many people do believe that all the Shastras, all the principles that we may learn elsewhere, can be discovered in some kind here. It’s an enigmatic, veiled doctrine about the truth underneath things, and it doesn’t only pander to a sentimental attachment to surfaces. It is meant to benefit us in the long haul, not just to tickle our fantasy by momentarily triggering a sentiment. Furthermore, it is not really a scholarly or hypothetical revelation about the essence of the Ultimate, but also a pragmatic guidebook for traversing the pathway to the accomplishment of this absolute truth.  

Additionally, the Gita is something more wonderfully magnificent and far beyond conventional thought than we’ve noticed. The phrase ‘Krishnarjuna Samvada’ expresses the spirit of the interaction between God and man. The legends of Krishna and Arjuna have been used to demonstrate the connection that persists between the Ultimate and the subjective. This saga seems to have its unique aesthetic splendor and magnificence. That is the brilliance of a dramatic, and you appreciate it, while there is a lesson, a message, or learning to be imparted from it.  

As we have seen previously, the Mahabharata’s figures, as well as the characters Krishna and Arjuna, are perennially present in the human aspects. They are everlasting forces, not just historical characters who lived many years ago. It is not a narrative of cyclical history conveyed to us in the saga, rather, it is the account of an immortal narrative that is enacted in the universe and is thus relevant to everyone at all stages. Since the timeless individual gets the revelation from the immortal reality, the lesson is likewise immortal. 

In the End 

We can thus see how the book is filled with innumerable teachings and spiritual values, making it a universal book rather than limited to the Indian context only. The Bhagavad gita gives out the framework of the universal rule, which governs all phenomena. And if we could somehow implement it, it will provide us with the same degree of assurance as a government’s central constitution, and our local laws will be absorbed in it. Such is the grandeur of the Bhagavad gita’s teaching.  

Read Also : What is Moksha and the Path to Attain It?

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