THE

PHILOSOPHY OF
THE
BHAGAVADGITA
PHILOSOPHY
2015-16

SUBMITTED TO
SUBMITTED BY
Prof. Ananda Mishra
PRASAD

AMARJEET

Dept. Of Philosophy
14085083

Roll No.

BHU-Varanasi
ENGG.

ELECTRICAL
IIT-BHU

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE

BHAGAVADGITA
The Bhagavad Gita, often referred to as simply the Gita, is
a 700 Shlokas - Sanskrit verses, Hindu scripture in
Sanskrit that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
Bhagavad Gita is almost universally accepted as a
scripture, not merely in a sense of holiness or sanctity
from the point of view of a religious outlook, but as what
has been regarded as a guide in our day-to-day life, which
need not necessarily mean a so-called religious attitude of
any particular denomination.
Our life is vaster in its expanse than what we
usually regard as a vocation of religion. And if
religion remains just an aspect of our life and does
not constitute the whole of life, the Bhagavadgita is
not a religious scripture, because its intention is
not to cater to a side of our nature or a part of our
expectation in life, but the whole of what we need,
and what we are. This special feature of the

Bhagavadgita makes it a little difficult for people to

comprehend its significance and message.

Various philosophies of Bhagavad Gita:-

THE BATTLE FIELD OF LIFE :- We have

seen that the occasion for the delivery of the
Bhagavadgita was a field of war which is
conspicuous in its occurrence in the context of
the Mahabharata. As we have observed earlier,
the Bhagavadgita does not intend telling us a
story for entertaining our leisure hours but to
give a permanent message for the salvation of
the soul of the human being. That is why it is
called a Yoga Shastra or a scripture of yoga.
Whatever is said in this scripture is a sermon
on the practice of yoga, and the necessity for
the teaching arises on account of a conflict in
which one finds oneself at any given moment
of time in ones life; and the whole of the
Mahabharata is a story of conflict. We would
gradually realise that the practice of yoga
resolves itself into a simple system of the
overcoming and the balancing of forces for the
purpose of resolving all conflicts.

 THE SPIRIT OF TRUE RENUNCIATION:The setting of the occasion of the Gita, the
context of the delivery of the gospel, is the
human situation, which I tried to liken to the
atmosphere of a battle-field, an air of war,
conflict and confrontation, to be expected at
every step, every moment of time, and under
every circumstance. The structure of the
universe appears to be such that it faces us as
a complex of various layers of conflict which
we are supposed to overcome and which are
known as achievements in life. A particular
context or situation has an opposing or
conflicting context or situation. If this
opposition were not to be there staring at
every given occasion in life, there would not be
any impulse to action. There would be no
necessity for any activity. There would be no
such thing as achievement.
THE ENTERNEL DUTIES OF HUMAN
BEINGS:-Member of society to carry out their
functions and responsibilities in their respective
stage of life Here Lord Krishna categorically
and comprehensively explains how it is the
duty of each and every according to the rules
and regulations of the society in which one
lives. Further the Lord explains why such duties
must be performed, what benefit is gained by

performing them, what harm is caused by not

performing them. Plus what actions lead to
bondage and what actions lead to salvation.
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE INFINITE:Bhagavadgita teachings, its ethical principles,
its ultimate aims, are all of such a nature that it
is difficult to accommodate them into the
normal thinking of the human being living in a
world of desires, ambitions, prejudices and
traditional routines of various types, all which
are cut at the very root by the altogether
different outlook of life which the Bhagavadgita
presents. The more we begin to ponder over its
message, the more would we find it difficult to
make it a guideline for our day-to-day life,
though its purpose is nothing but that . The
arguments of Arjuna in the first chapter are our
arguments. The logic of the human mind takes
this body as a final reality and everything
connected with it as equally real, and the
reports of the senses as wholly valid. The
senses, the understanding and the logical
reason are the apparatus of our knowledge in
this world.
THE MORTAL AND THE IMMORTAL: The First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita

pinpoints the basic difficulties which a spiritual

seeker may face in the long run, in spite of the
preparations that he might have made with all
his logical conclusions and sincerity of purpose.
In the earlier stages of our aspirations we do
not fully realise the problems that are hidden
deep, invisibly beneath the outer layers of our
personality, not directly connected with our
daily life. We have an unconscious personality
apart from the conscious one limited to this
bodily existence, and this unconscious level of
ours is larger in its content than the little
expression of it we visualize outside as the
body and its sensory relations. There are fears
of various types which keep us secretly
unhappy, and many of the activities of life in
the conscious level are attempts to brush aside
these fears; and then we imagine that they do
not exist at all. We occupy ourselves so busily
with works of various types as a kind of outlet
or counteracting power against these fears,
usually known in the language of psychology
as defense mechanisms. We protect ourselves
by certain psychic mechanisms which we have
formed within ourselves as a kind of selfdeception, we may say, finally.
THE MEANING OF DUTY: - There is an
objective universe, no doubt. The world

appears to be outside us, and the objectivity of

the event is also something that has to be
taken into consideration. But we, as subjects,
take part in the event that appears to be
objective. Inasmuch as we, as subjects,
participate in the objectivity of the event, there
is also a subjective aspect of the event. So, no
event or circumstance is wholly objective, nor
can it be said to be wholly subjective. There is
an intermingling of the outer and the inner, the
objective and the subjective in the occurrence
of any event. There is also a transcendent
meaning inherent in the occurrence of
anything. It is not merely the world and the
individual that react upon each other; there is
a final deciding factor which requires the
objective and the subjective aspects to react in
that manner.
THE NATURE OF RIGHT
UNDERSTANDING:- The dejection, or the
mood of melancholy in which the
representative man, Arjuna, found himself, has
been described as a spiritual condition. That is
why even the so-called dejection is regarded
as a part of yoga. It is not a morbid condition
of negativity or an earth-bound attitude, but a
necessary condition of positivity in its most
initial stage, the task which a spiritual seeker

has to take upon himself when he girds up his

loins to encounter the universal Reality. The
darkness which one faces at the outset is the
cumulative effect of the tremendous inward
preparation which has already been made
through the earlier stages of self-investigation,
study and reception of knowledge from various
avenues in the world.
THE YOGA OF ACTION: - The famous
doctrine of karma yoga is the theme of the
Third Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. This is one
of the most difficult sections in the whole text
and a very important one which provides the
key to an understanding of the basic principles
of the whole message. It was stated earlier
that action should be grounded in
understanding. There is no such thing as doing
nothing, because of a very important reason,
viz., the activity of the universe. The universe
is ever active, and it can never be inactive. A
person, any individual, anything for the matter
of that, which is a part of the universe, has no
freedom to maintain an independence over the
prescriptions of cosmic laws.
THE DIVINE INCARNATION AND GOD
ORIENTED ACTIVITY: - It was told us that

desire is the obstacle, and it is again told that

desires are so powerful that they cannot be
easily subdued unless we resort to the Atman,
the great Reality. The Omniscience and
Omnipotence of God are of such a nature that
we as units inextricably involved in the Being
of God will have the occasion to receive His
Grace, for God moves in this world in the form
of His Incarnations, manifestations,
expressions, functions and activities. There is a
great truth behind the working of things, which
is more incomprehensible than what is
available to our understanding. We may rack
our heads and try to understand the mysteries
of things, and find that everything is a hopeless
affair. We can understand nothing, finally. Yes,
this may be true when we view things from one
aspect, but there is another aspect; which is
equally important, if not more important than
the other one, viz., the power of God which
surpasses the force of anything in the world.
FORMS OF SACRIFICE AND
CONCENTRATION:- Any sacrifice is also
yoga, because sacrifice means a parting of
ones own self in some measure in the
direction of the achievement of a larger Self, so
that in every form of sacrifice a lower form of
self is surrendered or sacrificed to a higher

form of Self. Whenever the mind fixes its

attention on something other than itself, which
is supposed to be wider in its comprehension
than the contemplating mind or the self, that
process is to be regarded as a sacrifice. A lower
principle has to be sacrificed for the sake of a
higher principle. Contemplation on a Deity, as
we conceive it, is the aim of religion, wherein
the surrender of oneself in such contemplation
is implied. This is one kind of sacrifice, a
religious performance, and it is yoga, because
it is the union of the lower with the higher by
means of adoration.
THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:- The Yoga of
Meditation is the subject of the Sixth Chapter
of the Bhagavad-Gitadhyana-yoga, as it is
called .We have noticed that, for purposes of
meditation, a convenient place, free from
distractions, is necessary. The time that we
choose for meditation, also, is to be such that it
should not have the background of any
engagement or activity which may distract the
attention of the mind from the goal of
meditation. A suitable place, a suitable time
these two are very important prerequisites. But
more important, perhaps, than place and time
is the preparedness of the mind. The mind
should be eager to sit for meditation and it
should not feel any kind of compulsion. We do

not sit for meditation merely because in our

daily routine it is the time allotted for
meditation; that would be something like going
for lunch at noon, even if we are not hungry,
merely because noon is prescribed as the time
for lunch. It is not the time, but the need that is
important. If the mind does not feel the need
for meditation, a mere prescription of place
and time will not be of much benefit. Most
people feel a difficulty in getting any kind of
satisfactory result, because the mind is not
prepared.

GOD AND THE UNIVERSE: - Very few will

be inclined to turn to God. Most people are
distracted in the direction of the objects of the
senses. People are in search of satisfaction
which is empirical, physical and egoistic. The
bliss of God is not the concern of the ordinary
man, it is impossible even for thinking and
understanding. Not many have this endowment
by which the mind will agree to turn to God in
his reality. But even among those who are truly
aspiring for the realization of God, only some
will really succeed in the attempt. It does not
mean that everyone who files an application
will be chosen, because success in this path of
the Spirit is hard to attain in the case of the
individual who is lodged in the body and
limited to the empirical categories of the mind.

With this cautious introduction the Teacher of

the Bhagavadgita takes us to a picture of the
cosmos which is concisely explained in a few
words. The whole universe is constituted of the
five Elements and certain phases of the
universal consciousness, the Elements being
grosser than the latterearth, water, fire, air
and etherthe Mind, Intellect, Ego. And here
the teaching resembles to a large extent the
cosmological explanation offered by the
Samkhya system. We have touched upon this
theme earlier on some occasion.