Arjuna Vishaada Yoga
Chapter 1, Verses 28-30
arjuna uvāca
drstvemam svajanam kṛṣṇa
yuyutsam samupasthitam
sīdanti mama gātrāṇi
mukham ca pariśuṣyati
vepathuśca śarīre me
roma harṣaśca jāyate
gāṇḍīvam sramsate hastāt
tvak caiva pari-dahyate
na ca śaknomy-avasthātum
bhramatīva ca me manaḥ
Arjuna said: Seeing my own people, O Krishna, arrayed for battle, my limbs collapse and my mouth is parched, my body shakes and my hair stands on end; Gandiva (Arjuna's bow) slips from my hand, and all my skin seems to be burning.
In this verse, Arjuna wanted to show that the indiscriminate slaughter of all the fighters in the great Mahabharat war would be extremely terrible for both sides. He knew that the warriors present before his eyes, his relatives and dear friends would all be dead. He knew that these people in front of him were there to be killed. You all know that if there are certain negative qualities inside of you, you have to change and transform them. So he knew that these people would be dead.
"My limbs collapse and my mouth is parched, my body shakes and my hair stands on end; Gandiva (Arjuna's bow) slips from my hand, and all my skin seems to be burning." This verse also shows how compassionate Arjuna was, how much compassion he had in his heart. This shows that Arjuna was not only weak. No! What he was expressing here was full compassion. It's so beautiful to see that he cared for these people. He was very compassionate and expressed what he was feeling. And he was also saying. "Yes, I already know what will happen later on."
Arjuna said, "My limbs collapse and my mouth is parched. I don't have any power anymore to fight these people. I don't have any strength to fight them. By looking at them, I get weak, I go into my weakness of the heart. How will I kill them?" Lord Krishna showed all this to Arjuna and gave him a choice. Later on, you'll see that Lord Krishna will give Arjuna the Gita and show him how to rise above this. But first he showed Arjuna his weakness, because if you don't know your weakness, you'll not be able to overcome it! You'll overcome it only by acknowledging that you do have a weakness! Everybody has a weakness! If you look deeper into that weakness and strengthen yourself, you'll not be weak anymore. You will be strong and mighty. People look at their weakness and sit and cry. A warrior should not do that! In this war between the mind and the consciousness, you have to be strong. Strong in your sadhana! Strong in loving God, so that you can spread the Love of God! If you are weak, you can't spread the Love of God. When Arjuna said to Krishna, "Lord, please help me, I am weak," he was acknowledging his weakness; he saw that, "I don't have any power by myself and I am asking You for help. If I am asking You, it means You have the power to change this in me! You have the power to transform it in me! You have the power to give me that power! That's why I am asking You for help."
"My body shakes and my hair stands on end." These were signs of weakness. "My limbs are trembling." Arjuna was reduced to a very terrible state: he could not even stand by himself; his weapon was falling from his hand. He said that through the dreadful effect of the war, his mind was like a boiling cauldron. This mental agony had made his mind restless and he could not concentrate on anything. The effect of the mental agony had made him weak. This shows how powerful the mind can be.
If the mind withdraws itself into its good qualities, withdraws itself into strength, into positiveness, it energises oneself. But if it is focused on the negative qualities, it drains one of energy and makes one weak. That's why later on in the teaching, Krishna will say, "A controlled mind is your best friend, and an uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy." In this state, Arjuna could not control himself. But this was Krishna doing it all! Krishna was preparing Arjuna so that He could later give him the Gita.
There were three Krishnas in the life of Krishna. The first one was the child Krishna, the Bala Krishna, the Leela Dhara, who performed the dance of the Leela, the Bala Raas with the gopis in Vrindavan. The child Krishna left Vrindavan to go to the ashram of Sandipani. When leaving Vrindavan Krishna said, "I am leaving Vrindavan, but I am leaving this Krishna here." He separated Himself from this part of Himself, saying, "I leave this part of Me here. This part of Me will be eternally present in Vrindavan!" Even now, the dance of the Maha Raas is still happening in Vrindavan because that part of Krishna is still alive there. The scripture, the Shreemad Bhagavatam relates the childhood of Krishna, the Leela of Krishna.
Then there was the second Krishna, Dwarka Krishna. This was the King Krishna, who was responsible for ruling the kingdom. The third Krishna was the Gita Krishna, the Upadesh Krishna, the Teacher, the Guru, the Jagadguru.
Krishna was preparing Arjuna to receive the great knowledge of the Gita. Not only Arjuna! This was just a show, just a drama which He Himself put on! Through this drama, Krishna would give this knowledge to humanity, to every human being in this world. What Krishna taught in the Gita is the essence of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads, The Bible, and the Koran: everything is present in it. Here Krishna was also teaching how to go beyond weakness. He said to Arjuna, "Let go of this weakness, you'll be strong." This was the Gita- Krishna, who would change everything!
Once Parvati asked Shankar, "Oh, My dear, sweet Lord Shiva, tell me what great merit, what punya You have, that people pray to You and worship You? Shiva spoke to Parvati saying, "Devi, the merit which I received was through the Gita. It is through this merit of the Gita that people worship Me." The knowledge of the Gita was not only given during the time of Arjuna, this knowledge existed before. Later on in another chapter, you'll see that Lord Krishna Himself said, "It was Me Myself who has given this knowledge to Surya Dev."
Shankar Bhagavan explained the greatness of the Gita to Parvati. He said, "Listen, Devi, I will tell You something. Once Mahalakshmi was pressing the Feet of Mahavishnu and a question arose in Her mind: "Lord, can I ask You one question?" And Mahavishnu said, "Yes, of course!" "Can You tell me why You sleep? You sleep on Adhishesh. Why do You sleep? Sleeping is for human beings, for the demons, for low creatures. You are the Lord of the universe and everyone meditates on You. Why are You sleeping?" At that moment, Mahavishnu started laughing and said, "Hey Janani..." He addressed Her as Janani, Mother of the Universe, the universal Mother, "Hey Janani, I am not sleeping. Even if My eyes are closed, in reality, when My eyes are closed, I withdraw Myself into My Cosmic Being, which is Narayana. In that Cosmic Being, My energies are always flowing, energising every universe, energising all, energising everyone. That's how I maintain everything in balance."
Mahalakshmi said, "But I thought You are the Lord of the Universe! Everybody has to meditate on You. Why then is there another energy? You are talking about another energy which is superior to You." Mahavishnu explained, "This energy is not superior to Me. It is no different from Me. It is the same energy. This is how I distribute energy in the universe, how I maintain the functioning of this universe. I see the inner sight of everything and this energy flows, this cosmic light flows to all. This cosmic light flows more to the ascetics because they are fully surrendered. To the other people, the energy flows in less quantity, to energise them for daily activities. Like that, I maintain everything, without Me being part of it. I just observe the flow of this cosmic light, and that cosmic light flows to all. That's how all is united, because everything is made up of this cosmic light."
Mahalakshmi was not completely satisfied, so Mahavishnu continued explaining, "In this cosmic Self, the natural form of the soul is different from the forms of the deities and the universe. Pure knowledge is My most pleasing form." Mahalakshmi was wondering, "Okay, but what is this pure knowledge?"
Mahavishnu explained to Her, "The most wonderful and pleasing form I have incarnated into is the form of the Word as the Gita." That's why the Vedas first start with the Word. Even The Bible, the Old Testament begins, "The Word incarnated." Mahavishnu said, "The most wonderful and the most pleasing aspect of Myself is the Gita itself.
He explained the 18 chapters of the Gita: "The first five chapters of the Gita are My mouth. The next ten chapters are My ten arms. One chapter is My stomach and the other two chapters are My neck. The knowledge of the Gita, the words, and the meaning of it are in My heart and in everybody's heart. This knowledge destroys sin and renders salvation, not only to the person who is hearing it, but to the whole of humanity. One who with calm mind, studies and listens to one or one half of a chapter, or a quarter of a chapter, or a part of these slokas, is entitled to receive salvation.
The Lord continued, explaining the story of Soma Sharma. In one of his incarnations, Soma Sharma incarnated as a goat. In that incarnation, he was so ill-treated that he died. In the next incarnation, he incarnated as an ox. In this life, he was also very ill-treated. He was working for a very mean person who would not feed him well and gave him so little grass, that he was starving most of the time and became very, very weak. One day he was lying down by the side of the road and everybody was pitying him and trying to help him. They saw that he was very weak and that he would probably die, but they could not do anything for him. At that time, there was a prostitute lady who saw this ox by the side of the road. She felt great pity and said, "What can I give him? What do I have to give him so that he can die peacefully?" This lady had gained some merit, some punya, in her past. She went to him with an open heart, a heart full of love, and said, "Listen, my dear ox, I can't offer you anything because I am poor and I am a sinful person. But what I can offer, I will offer you: if I have ever done anything good in my life, I offer you all the good merit of my life." The ox passed away, having received the good merit of this prostitute lady. Due to this good merit, he reincarnated in a Brahmin family and his father called him Soma Sharma. He was very wise and could remember his past life. He felt so grateful to this lady that he decided to go and visit her. He went to her house, knocked at the door, the lady opened it and exclaimed, "Oh, beautiful man!" He said, "No, no, no, it is not what you are thinking!"
He started relating his story, "Listen, I will tell you something. Maybe it will sound weird to you. Some years ago, there was an ox dying by the side of the road. At that moment, you came and said that if you ever had any good punya, any good merit in your life, you would offer it full-heartedly to this dying ox, so that it could die in peace. That dying ox was me!" The lady was taken aback. Then she remembered and said, "But I don't know what good punya I had! I don't know what good merit I had that I could have offered to you. I have lived a sinful life. The only merit I have in my life is that my neighbour has a parrot, and every day this parrot repeats the whole of the first chapter of the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita. And everyday I just sit and listen to him. Apart from that I don't have any good merit."
Hearing this, Soma Sharma and the lady went to the parrot. Soma Sharma asked the parrot, "What is the greatness of this chapter?" The parrot started talking and said, "In my last life, I was a brahmin and my father forced me to memorise the first chapter of the Gita. But because I rebelled against my father and was bad, I was reborn as a bird.
The only good thing that has stayed from my past life is that I can chant and recite the first chapter of the Gita. And that's what I always do."
Hearing these stories, all three were mesmerised. All three were so joyful that all three of them attained the Lotus Feet of the Lord. All of them attained salvation. This is the greatness of listening to the Gita.
In verse 30, Krishna was trying to remind Arjuna who he was: "Throughout many lifetimes, you were not just a normal person, you were doing My work." Of course, Krishna would not proudly say, "Surrender to Me!" He was making Arjuna ready. You see, God waits patiently, through lifetimes. He prepares one and makes one ready, so that He can manifest through that person. You are all sitting here today and it is not just a coincidence! It is not just because you are on holiday or you have the money that are sitting here. No! It is because He wanted you to be here. Without Him willing you to be here, you would not be here. And this is why He put Arjuna there on the battlefield. He was talking to Arjuna and removing all his negativity. Just as He was removing all Arjuna's negativity from inside of him, also here, right now, all your negativity is being removed from inside of you. He is removing the seeds of negativity inside of you.
Here Arjuna expressed how his skin felt like it was burning. He was feeling this in his body, but it was a quality of the mind: the burning skin, the parched mouth - these were all signs of restlessness, which one must not have on the spiritual path. One has to move forward like a lion. Your aim must be clear. You must know your aim and focus on that. You can't focus and know your aim with weakness, but with strength.
Bhagavad Gita
