1. Bhagavad Gita

INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD Srīmad Bhagavad Gītā is the ultimate sacred scripture of yoga, Yogaśastra and the pristine glory of the Vedic culture, the eternal living tradition called sanātana-dharma. It belongs to the whole Universe for it is delivered to the Universe by the source and embodiment of Universe. We salute and bow down to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who spoke the Bhagavad Gītā out of His infinite love and compassion for all beings. Whenever unrighteousness, adharma becomes predominant and dharma, righteous living declines and the Yoga of Enlightenment is lost, Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Consciousness appears again and again to revive this sacred yoga, to protect and to enrich the devoted beings; and destroys adharma to re-establish the pure and everlasting dharma. Gītā is also called Brahmavidyā—the Knowledge of Brahman, the supreme absolute truth; it is Jīvan Mukti Vijñāna—the Science of Living Enlightenment. INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD As with all scriptures, it is the knowledge and experience that is transmitted verbally as Śrī Krṣṇārjuna Samvād, an intimate dialogue between Master of the world, Jagadguru Lord Śrī Krṣṇa and His dear devotee and disciple, Arjuna. It is called śruti in Saṃskṛit, meaning something that is heard. Gītā, as Bhagavad Gītā is generally called, translates literally from Saṃskṛit as ‘Sacred Song of God’. Unlike the Vedas and Upaniṣads, which are stand alone expressions of Truth, the Gītā is written into the greatest Hindu epic, the Mahābhārat, called a purāṇa, an ancient historical happening. It is part of the recorded history of the greatest tradition, the paramount civilization in all its Divine grandeur and its human complexity, so to speak. No other epic or part of an epic has the special status and space of the Gītā. No other book but the Gītā gives a scientific, systematic, applied science of living joyfully in completion, while empowering the human action-field with authenticity to evolve into a responsible Divine play-field. © INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD Called the royal supreme knowledge and the royal secret of secrets—rājavidyā rājaguhyam (9.2), this one sacred book conveys the essence of knowledge contained in all written and oral vedic truths to enrich the simplest to complex humans at all planes. It holds within itself the direct key to every possible human enquiry, the solution to every dilemma of emotions, and the sublime righteous path and goal of every quest of rising or falling civilizations for every age, time or geography. As a consequence of the presence of the Gītā, the Mahābhārat epic itself is considered a sacred Hindu scripture. © INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD Gītā arose from the super consciousness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme God, the complete Incarnation Puṛṇāvatār, and is therefore considered Gītāśastra—the essential scripture, knowing which, one is liberated from all incompletions, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase asubhāt (9.1) and Gītopanisad—the essence of all Upaniṣads, the purest and highest knowledge to be ever known and cognized because it gives the direct experience of the Self—pavitram idam uttamam pratyakṣāvagam dharmyam (9.2). © INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD Gītā is the ultimate practical teaching on the inner science of spirituality that expresses as outer victory and success in life now and after. It is not, as some scholars incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about the impermanence of the mind and body, and the need to go beyond the mind, ego and logic. The answers of the Divine, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, transcend time and space. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's message is everlasting and joyfully performed, and is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield over five thousand years ago. The science of Gītā is the eternal technique of living in completion; the song of Gītā is the eternal life-enriching nectar, having no expiry date, time or age! ©

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? Mahābhārat, literally meaning the great Bhārata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as India. It was then a nation ruled by king Bhārata and his descendants. Look into your life! Your whole life is nothing but the Mahābhārat War. The Mahābharāt should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life. The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas, closely related to one another. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the blind king of Hastināpur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pāṇḍu, whose children were the five Pāṇḍava princes. It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dhārmic and adhārmic, righteous and unrighteous civilizations. © WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? Since Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, Pāṇḍu was made the king of Hastināpura. Pāṇḍu was cursed by a sage that he would die if he ever entered into a physical relationship with his wives. He therefore had no children. Vyāsa says that all the five Pāṇḍava children were born to their mothers Kuntī and Mādri through the blessing of divine beings. Pāṇḍu handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? Kuntī, who is the embodiment of tapas, spiritual penance, had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun god, Sūrya appeared before her. Karṇa was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhiṣṭra, Bhīma and Arjuna were born to Kuntī after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Mādri, the second wife of Pāṇḍu. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? Yudhiṣṭra was born to Kuntī as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bhīma by Vāyu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pāṇḍava twins, were born to Mādri, through the Divine Aśvini twins. Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred sons through his wife Gāndhārī. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pāṇḍava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Duśśāsana, to kill the Pāṇḍava brothers. Kuntī's eldest son Karṇa, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana. © WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave Yudhiṣṭra one half of the Kuru kingdom on his coming of age, since the Pāṇḍava prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pāṇḍu had vacated. Yudhiṣṭra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna won the hand of princess Draupadī, daughter of the king of Pāñcāla, in a svayaṃvara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel. © WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? In fulfillment of their mother Kunti's desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupadi became the wife of all five Pandava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhistra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Sakuni defeated the Pandava king. Yudhistra lost all that he owned—his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Dussasana shamed Draupadi in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pandava brothers and Draupadi were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajyata vasa. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE MAHABHARATA? At the end of the fourteen years, the Pāṇḍava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Śrī Krṣṇa, the king of the Yādava clan, who is the eighth divine incarnation of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. However, Duryodhana refused to yield even a needlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the War of Mahābhārat ensued. In this war, various rulers of the entire nation that is modern India aligned with one or the other of these two clans, the Kauravas or the Pāṇḍavas. © Kṛṣṇa offered to join with either of the two clans. He says, ‘One of you may have Me unarmed. I will not take any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yādava army.’ When the offer was first made to Duryodhana, he predictably chose the large and well-armed Yādava army, Nārāyaṇī Senā, in preference to the unarmed Kṛṣṇa. Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose his dearest friend, his life mentor and his Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, to be his unarmed charioteer! ©

THE SIGNiFiCANCE OF MAHABHARAT This whole history is such a beautiful happening. Mahābhārat is actually your life! Every character in the Mahābhārat teaches so much! We don’t need to go anywhere for our life success or fulfillment or for anything else that we may desire. We don’t need to study any other book to learn the human psychology or the science of living and leaving. Whether we seek righteous living—dharma; or we want to learn business or administration, economy or abundance—artha; or we want to create the best rich lifestyle—kāma; or we want to be a leader and want the enriching life of being enlightened—mokṣa, for all these purposes, we don’t need anything other than the Mahābharāt! © Study each character. We will not find any more characters in our life than the characters described in the Mahābharāt! Study each character. We will not find any more characters in our life than the characters described in the Mahābharāt! Any character we see in our life is mapped to Mahābharāt’s one character. They are either half or full representation of some character. To know how to handle them and even handle yourself, just see how Śrī Kṛṣṇa handles them and handle them the same way. The Mahābharāt war is a representation of life as it was lived in that age. Vyāsa, its author is an unbiased historian who recorded the whole history as it happened without trying to apply any makeup. People ask whether the Mahābharāt war happened at all! THE SIGNiFiCANCE OF MAHABHARAT THE SIGNiFiCANCE OF MAHABHARAT

THE SiGNiFiCANCE OF MAHABHARAT If the Mahābharāt was a story and not history, Vyāsa should receive multiple Pulitzer prizes for his highly creative work! The Mahābharāt is the longest literary work in the whole world with hundred thousand Saṃskrit verses—the longest poem ever written with such delicate harmony of unmatched poetic perfection. It is larger than the Greek epics. Vyāsa had no computer, no tape recorder with speech-to-text capabilities. He dictated and Bhagavān Ganeṣa wrote it down!