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by Paul Molinari
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 here
are four great events in history, the siege of Troy, the life and crucifixion
of Christ, the exile of Krishna in Brindaban and the colloquy on the field
of Kurukshetra. The siege of Troy created Hellas, the exile in Brindaban
created devotional religion, (for before there was only meditation and
worship), Christ from his cross humanized Europe, the colloquy at Kurukshetra
will yet liberate humanity. —Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Aphorisms
For Sri Aurobindo, the modem mystic-poet of India, the high point of the
Gita are three lines in the fifteenth chapter that describe the "three
souls" of existence. Sri Aurobindo has said that this concept provides
a solution to the problem of the relationship of the individual to the
cosmos and the relationship of the transcendental aspect to both the individual
and the cosmos, perhaps "the greatest of all philosophical problems with
which human reason has to struggle." The lines are (Chapter 15, 16-17):
There are two Purushas [Souls] in the world, the akshara [imperishable]
and the kshara
[perishable], - the kshara is all creatures, the akshara is called
kutastha, the one on the summit. There is another Purusha, the highest
(uttama), called also Paramatma or Supreme Spirit, who enters into the
three worlds (the worlds of sushupti, svapna, jarat, otherwise the causal,
mental and physical planes of existence), and sustains them as their imperishable
lord. (Sri Aurobindo's translation)
This passage affirms the many without diminishing the One. Both are real
and exist as an aspect of (in the Gita's terminology) the Purushottama,
which transcends both Being and Becoming, Unity and Multiplicity, yet is
immanent in them. "This idea of the Purushottamma, though continually implied
in the Upanishads, is disengaged and definitely brought out by the Gita
and has exercised a powerful influence on the later developments of the
Indian religious consciousness." (Essays, p.73)
The Bhagavad Gita is a profound text that requires close study before
it yields up its subtler secrets. It is Brahma-vidya, the knowledge of
existence, as well as Yoga-shastra, scripture on the science of the Self.
It is not pure Monism although it posits one eternal Self as the foundation
of existence, nor is it Mayavada although it speaks of the maya of prakriti
in the manifested universe. The Gita has had many interpreters who have
chosen to emphasize elements of its text or ignore other parts to find
in it support for their various positions. This is the fate of many timeless
texts such as the Bible or Koran as well as the Gita. But the Gita stands
alone in its synthetic spirit and practical wisdom.
The Bhagavad Gita can be approached as inspirational literature, as
metaphor and analogy or as scripture. Any approach will enrich and broaden
one's horizons because the Gita is charged with light and power. The image
of Krishna and Arjuna riding together should not be taken for mere creative
device. The Self and the self ride together (in the body) and this is one
of the many symbols the Gita carries. As "spiritual technology," that is,
useful techniques for the pursuit of the Self and consciousness, the Gita
is peerless.
Of all commentators on the Bhagavad Gita, the most prolific is Sri Aurobindo
who wrote two significantly sized volumes on it. The "triple yoga" of the
Gita became central to his Integral Yoga which could be considered the
next step on the golden stair of spiritual evolution. In closing I would
like to quote the first paragraph of his essay, "The Message of The Gita":
“The secret of action," so we might summarize the message of the Gita,
the word of its divine
Teacher, "is one with the secret of all life and existence. Existence
is not merely a machinery of
Nature, a wheel of law in which the soul is entangled for a moment
or for ages; it is a constant
manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not for the sake of life alone,
but for God, and the living soul
of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead. Action is for self-finding,
for self-fulfilment, for
self-realisation and not only for its own external and apparent fruits
of the moment or the future. There is an inner law and meaning of all things
dependent on the supreme as well as the
manifested nature of the self, the true truth of works lies there and
can be represented only
incidentally, imperfectly and disguised by ignorance in the outer appearances
of the mind and its action. The supreme, the faultless largest law of action
is therefore to find out the truth of your
own highest and inmost existence and live in it and not follow any
outer standard and dharma.
All life and action must be 'II then an imperfection, a difficulty,
a struggle and a problem. It is
only by discovering your true self and living according to its true
truth, its reality that the problem can be finally solved, the difficulty
and struggle overpassed and your doings perfected in the security of the
discovered self and spirit turn into a divinely authentic action. Know
then your self, know your true self to be God and one with the self of
all others; know your soul to be a portion of God. Live in what you know;
live in the self, live in your supreme spiritual nature, be united with
God and Godlike. Offer, first, all your actions as a sacrifice to the Highest
and the One in you and to the Highest and the One in the world; deliver
last all you do into his hands for the supreme and universal Spirit to
do through you his own will and works in the world. This is the solution
that I present to you and in the end you will find that there is no other."—Sri
Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, p.510
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