Gita's Words of Guidance

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Hailed as the second Swami Vivekananda, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993) has left great legacy behind for mankind. On realizing the true purpose of life, he worked tirelessly and withtremendous energy for more than four decades to spread the message of Vedanta. A great orator, writer, leader, patriot and spiritual giant, he is one of the finest representatives of Indian spritual heritage.

The sprawling worldwide organization of chinmaya Mission carries on torch lit by this great saint.

Pujya Swami Chinmayananda referred to the Bhagavad-Gita as a manual for daily life and a source of guidance to people from all walks of life in understanding themselves, their relationships, goals, activities and the world of objects.

Here is an attempt to organise such guidance under a number of topics relevant to a seeker. The relevant verses and commentaries by Swami Chinmayananda are selected from the verses of the Bhagavad-gita as a ready reference to respective topics. The way to peace, the key to happiness and consolation to the sorrowful appeal to one and all. Topics on the nature of meditation, control of the mind and a description of the Perfect Man inspire spiritual seekers.

The young and dynamic are more interested in increasing efficiency, fearlessness and noble values. Students of philosophy will find sections relating to God, Brahman and discussions on the evolution of souls useful in understanding Hindu thought.

Further, wherever footnotes are given in Sanskrit Devanagari scripts, their English transliterations are given at the end of this book to facilitate the readers.

We ardently hope that this book will greatly help the readers in understanding the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita More relevant and practical in all walks of life even today.

If the Upanisads are the textbooks of philosophical principles discussing man, the world, and God, the Gita is a handbook of instructions as to how every human being can come to live the subtle philosophical principles of Vedanta in the actual workaday world.

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita, the divine song of the Lord, comprises eighteen chapters of the Bhisma Parva of the Mahabharata, from the 25th to the 42nd. This great handbook of practical living marked a positive revolution in Hinduism and inaugurated a Hindu renaissance for the Ages that followed the Pauranika era.

In the song of the Lord, the Gita, the poet-seer, V yasa has brought the Vaidika truths from the sequestered Himalayan caves into the active fields of political life and into the confusing tension of an imminent fratricidal war. Under the stress of some psychological maladjustments Arjuna’s mental equipoise was shattered and he lost his capacity to act with true discrimination. Lord Krsna takes in hand that neurotic mind of Arjuna for a Hindu treatment with Vaidika truths.

Mind is man. As the mind so is the individual. If the mind is disturbed the individual is disturbed. If the mind is good the individual is good. This mind for purposes of our study and understanding may be considered as constituted of two distinct sides - one facing the world of stimuli that reach it from the objects of the world, and the other facing ‘within’ which reacts to the stimuli received. The outer mind facing the object is called the objective mind (manas) and the inner mind is called the subjective mind (buddhi).

That individual is whole and healthy in whom the objective and subjective aspects of the mind work in unison with each other and in moments of doubt the objective mind readily comes under the disciplining influence of the subjective mind. But unfortunately except for a rare few the majority of us have minds that are split. This split between the subjective and the objective aspects of our mind is primarily created by the layer of egoistic desires in the individual. The greater the distance between these two phases of the mind the greater the inner confusion in the individual and the greater the egoism and low desires which the individual comes to exhibit in life.

At each moment man meets with different patterns of these stimuli and thus constantly gathers new impressions (vasanas) in the subjective mind. Every set of impulses reaching it not only adds to the existing layers of impressions already in it but also gets coloured by the quality of these vasanas hoarded within. When they are translated into action, the actions carry a flavour of the existing vasanas in the subjective mind.

All of us live constantly meeting with a variety of experiences and at each incident we perceive, react with the perceived, and come to act in the outer field. In this process we unwittingly come to hoard in ourselves more and more dirt of new impressions. The subjective mind gets increasingly granulated by the overlapping signatures of our own past moments. These granulations make the subjective mind dull and opaque. They form an impregnable wall between ourselves and the spiritual divinity that shines eternally as pure Consciousness deep within the core of our personality.

The theory of Vedanta repeats that reduction of vasanas is the means of releasing the energy of the mind. Similarly, man is not aware today of his divine spiritual nature because the subjective mind reflecting it is thickly coated with dull vasanas gathered by it during its egocentric, passionate existence in the world.

**Contents and Sample Pages**