Gita Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen draws on the conclusions of previous Chapters and points to the attainment of salvation by the paths of karma yoga and Gyana yoga, both of which require one to offer, without any reservation, everything to God.
Verses 18.1 – 18.16
Giving up or tyaga the results of all activities from consideration in the mind is renunciation and the wise in the state of renunciation is in the renounced order of life or sanyass. Some learned persons prescribe giving up of all kinds of activities associated with fruits of action in the state of sanyassa, other sages maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never be abandoned. The three kinds of renunciation declared in the scriptures: acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are never to be given up but should be performed as they purify even the great souls. Renunciation actions are to be performed without any expectation of results and as a matter of duty. Illusion generated by the Guna of ignorance leads one to give up prescribed duties, while the influence of the Guna of passion causes one to give up prescribed duties as being troublesome, or give up out of fear. One needs to perform prescribed duty only because it is ought to be done and renunciations of all attachment to the fruits of activities including duties are caused by the Guna of goodness. Those under the complete influence of the Guna of goodness does neither hate inauspicious work nor get attached to auspicious work, and always perform work.
It is impossible for an embodied being to give up all activities and renunciation means renouncing the sense of being the doer of actions and of the attachment to the results of actions performed. The persons in the renounced order of life have no result of action to suffer or enjoy.
The five factors that bring about the accomplishment of all action, according to Sankhya philosophy, are the place of action, the performer, the senses, the endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul. All action, right or wrong action performed by body, mind or speech is caused by these five factors. No one factor can, therefore, claim to be the sole cause or doer of any action. One who is not motivated by ego and whose intellect is not entangled knows that he can kill no body even if someone is killed by his action and he is not to be affected by such action.
Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors that motivate an action; the senses, the work effort to act and the doer are the mere instruments of action.
Verses18.17 - 18.40
The knowledge of the existence of one undivided spiritual nature in all divided existences, is the knowledge acquired under the influence of the Goodness Guna. The Guna of passion influences a person to remain in the knowledge that different type of living entities dwell in different bodies. The Guna of ignorance keeps the person ignorant of all the factors that determine action, their inter-relationships and the Self.
Action in pursuance of duty performed without attachment, without love or hate, by one who has renounced fruits of all actions is connected to the Guna of goodness. Action performed with great effort by one seeking to gratify desires and with a sense of ownership as the doer is connected to the Guna of passion. And, the action performed in ignorance and delusion without consideration of future bondage or consequences, is connected to the Guna of ignorance.
The performer of action who is free from all material attachments and the ego of the doer, who is enthusiastic and resolute but indifferent to success or failure, is a performer under the influence of the Guna of goodness. An action by a greedy, envious and impure performer who is attached to the fruits of action effort and desirous of enjoying the fruits of actions and who is anxious to succeed rather than fail, is linked to the influence of the Guna of passion. And that action-performer who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating, is a person under the influence of the Guna of ignorance.
Understanding and determination also vary according to the three Gunas of nature. The understanding of the knowledge about what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating, is established under the conducive nature of the Goodness Guna. Understanding that does not enable one to distinguish between proper and improper ways of life and between action that should be done and action that should not be done, is imperfect understanding promoted by the Guna of passion. And, understanding that lacks perspective and direction and without any basis or principles or framework is the result of the dominating influence of the Guna of ignorance.
The determination that is unbreakable, sustained, as steadfast as of a yogi, and thus controls the mind, life, and the acts of the senses, is connected to a strong bearing of the Guna of Goodness while determination to hold fast on to the desired result of actions and ensure sensual pleasure is developed under the impact of the Guna of passion.
The impact of the Guna of Ignorance is reflected in the determination based on impractical dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion.
The nature of happiness enjoyed by different persons is also influenced by the relative composition of the three Gunas inherited by each person’s nature. The happiness from self-realization can be enjoyed only under the influence of the Guna of Goodness. Happiness from contact of the senses with the sensual objects can be enjoyed really by persons with nature under the dominance of the Guna of passion. Persons whose nature is strongly cast in the Guna of Ignorance enjoy happiness from sleep, dream, laziness, envy and illusion.

Verses 18.41 – 18.78 No being and nothing in the Creation except God is free from the impact of the operation of the respective combination of Gunas of material nature each being or thing is imparted with. Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by their qualities of work in accordance with their respective natural broad grouping of Gunas. Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness are the qualities that influence the work of the brahmanas. Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the quality marks of ksatriya’s work. Farming, cow protection and business are work that naturally comes to Vaisya’s competencies, and while the sudras excel in manual effort, craftsmanship and service to others.
Every person can attain perfection using the qualities naturally imbibed. It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another's occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties that suit one's nature have no adverse reactions on the performer. Every endeavor has its own disadvantages and demerits along with merits and advantages.
One can obtain the results of renunciation simply by self-control and by becoming unattached to material things and disregarding material enjoyments. Purified by intelligence and control over mind, body and tongue, giving up the objects of sense gratification, becoming free from attachment, hatred, ego, pride, lust and anger, one who lives in a secluded place, eating little, always in trance and not accept material things, a person is certain to advance to the state of self-realization. In such a transcendental state, one no longer laments, no longer desires, treats every living entity equally and automatically remains absorbed in pure devotional service to God, the only way to understand God and reach the eternal and imperishable abode of God.
The ideal method is to engage in activities all the while remaining dependent on God and His protection with full consciousness in God, getting rid of all ego: all the obstacles imposed by the conditioning of life by the Gunas of material nature are overcome only by the Grace of God.

Gita Chapter Seventeen

In chapter seventeen Lord Krishna classifies the three divisions of faith, revealing that it is these different qualities of faith in the Supreme that determine that character of living entities. These three types of faith determine one's consciousness in this world. Thus this chapter is entitled: The Three Divisions of Material Existence.
Verses 17.1 – 17.28
Each person develops a particular kind of faith depending on the combination of Gunas of material nature inherited and their blossoming as the person responds to the stimuli of surrounding environment. A person who is dominated by the Guna of passion tends to worship imaginary powers in the form of demons. A person who is dominated by ignorance tends to worship imaginary powers in the form of ghosts and spirits. Performing severe austerities or sacrifices, torturing their bodies, out of pride, ego, lust and attachment are driven by strong demonic passion.
The Gunas inherited influences food habits and vice a versa. Foods that seem attractive under the influence of the Guna of Goodness are generally those that are sweet, juicy, palatable and nourishing to help increase longevity purify existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Persons dominated by the Guna of passion like foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot to cause pain, distress, and disease. Persons who are dominated by the passion of ignorance does not have problem in relishing stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean food, maybe cooked long before being eaten.
Persons under the influence of Guna goodness perform sacrifices as a matter of duty and devotional service without any expectation of reward, while the force of the Guna of passion forces people to sacrifice out of pride or for some beneficial material reward / fruit in return. Persons under the influence of the Guna of ignorance make sacrifices in brutal ways not recommended by any scripture.
The austerity of the body consists of worship of the God, the brahmanas, the spiritual master and superiors like the parents, practice of cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy, serenity, self-control, purity of thought and nonviolence in life, and in speaking truthfully without offending. This threefold austerity is practiced by persons under the influence of Goodness Guna not for any material benefit but as offering in devotional service to God. Persons under the dominance of the passion Guna perform ostentatious penances and austerities only with the objective of gaining respect, honor and reverence. Under the influence of the Guna of ignorance, people perform penances, self-torture and austerities to destroy or injure others.
The Guna of goodness prompts people to gift to worthy persons in need as a matter of duty and without expectation of return, while charity influenced by the Guna of passion is motivated by expectation of some return or with a desire for results from actions, or as a matter of imposed duty most reluctantly performed. Charity given to unworthy people without consideration of appropriateness of time and place and with disrespect or contempt for the beneficiary of the receiver is the result of the Guna of ignorance.
The three syllables Om, Tat and Sat that for respectively the Supreme, the Absolute and the Truth (Brahman) are uttered recited while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices, for the satisfaction of the Supreme. The transcendentalists perform sacrifices, charities, and penances always in the spirit of Om tat sat, to attain the Supreme. But sacrifices, austerities and charities performed without faith in the Supreme are nonpermanent and useless regardless of whatever rites are performed.

Gita Chapters Fifteen And Sixteen

Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen describe the virtues, the glories and transcendental characteristics of God as the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. They highlight the purpose and value of knowing about God and the method to realize God by overcoming the overwhelming influence of the Gunas.
Verses 15.1 – 15.15
The person with the knowledge of the banyan tree with its roots upward and its branches down and leaves as the Vedic hymns, is the knower of the Vedas. The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three Gunas/ properties of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down bound to the actions of human society undertaken to achieve some fruits or results. The real form of this tree cannot be comprehended as none can identify its ends, its beginning or its foundation is. With determination one could cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment and never seek to restore the already cut parts of the tree, and then surrender to God from whom everything has been sourced and in whom everything is contained since time immemorial. When the person free from illusion, prestige, and association, in full knowledge of the eternal, free of material lust and duality of happiness and distress, surrenders to God reaches and remains in God abode that does not require sun and moon to provide illumination. The living entities in this conditioned material world are God’s eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the senses and the mind. A living entity carries its own conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Each living entity obtains a specific set of senses aligned to its specific nature of mind. The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit one body and the particular combination of the Gunas of material nature inherent in a particular body. He enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But the endeavoring transcendentalist established in self-realization, can understand all this clearly. The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire, the energy of the planets in orbit, the juice in vegetables, the fire of digestion in every living body, the air of life, memory, memory recall, knowledge and forgetfulness – all are sourced in God. God is seated in everyone's heart. God is to be known and the methods to know God described in the Vedas and Vedanta are sourced from God.
Verses 15. 16 – 15.20
There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is infallible. Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, God Himself, who has created, entered into these worlds and is maintaining them... But God is transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible. Whoever knows God as the Supreme Personality without doubt, is the knower of everything, and therefore is engaged in full devotional service. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection.
Verses 16.1 –16. 16
The transcendent characteristics of godly persons are absence of fear, purification of existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity, simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, steady determination, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and freedom from the ego of honor. In contrast, arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance are the characteristics of qualities of demoniac natured persons. The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities result in bondage. The demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done: there is little or no cleanliness, improper behavior and absence of truth is in them. According to them, this world is unreal; there is no foundation and no God in control: the world is for satisfying sex desire and lust. The demoniac are lost to their dominant Guna and have no intelligence: they engage in unbeneficial, horrible activities that are essentially destructive. The demoniac shows insatiable lust, pride and false prestige. They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. The demoniac person is continuously pursue wealth accumulation and engages in destruction of enemies to lord over as many things, places ad people as possible. Demonic person is focused on a self -image of the sole enjoyer, the perfect, powerful and happy as also the richest, surrounded by aristocratic relatives and with great pride in making sacrifices and giving away in charity. Perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, the demonic suffers strong attachment to sensual enjoyment and activities aimed at fulfilling desires and wishes. A demonic person is self-complacent and impudent, deluded by wealth and strong sense of prestige. Afflicted by ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demonic person may even become envious of God. The demonic characteristics snowball and force a person to get more deeply bonded to such materialistic existence further and further away from ultimate peace and happiness. Lust, anger and greed freely operate to progressively degrade the living entity from the peace of the eternal soul. The person free of lust, greed and anger is capable of performing actions conducive to self-realization and make progress to reach the supreme destination of God.
The person unable to follow the codes of behavior and conduct prescribed in the scriptures and unhesitatingly fall prey to temptations arising from the strong force of Gunas of material nature is also unable to acquire knowledge of the transcendental Self or permanent happiness as contrasted to transient sensual enjoyment and disappointment, or the eternal peace of being in God. The task is to understand the activities that are recommended as duty and not recommended as duties duty by the scriptures and practice them to achieve progress on the path of real freedom and Truth

Gita Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen deal with the basic properties of humans, namely the three Gunas reflected by goodness, passion and nescience or ignorance. These influence the behavior of everything in the material existence. The Chapter illustrates the characteristics of the operation of the Gunas, their cause, the level of their potency, how they influence a living entity affected by them as well as the signs of one who has risen above them. The advise is to relinquish oneself from ignorance and passion and adopt the path of pure goodness until acquiring the ability to transcend all the Gunas.
Verses 14.1 - 14.20 This supreme wisdom outlined earlier, the best of all knowledge, is what enables the sages to attain perfection. Fixed in this knowledge, one is able to understand the transcendental nature of God and become unaffected by the appearance and disappearance of the body. Brahman the spirit that is beyond the material world however is the source of material substance that is impregnated by God to usher in the birth of all living beings. God provides the seed to father all species of life. The material nature of the three Gunas of goodness, passion and ignorance condition each living entity. The Guna of goodness being purer than the others is illuminating, and it frees one from all adverse reactions and helps develop knowledge conditioned by the concept of happiness. The Guna of passion is characterized by unlimited desires and longings and hence conditions one to activities in search of material benefits. The Guna of ignorance causes delusion in all living entities and conditions them to madness, indolence and sleep. The Guna of goodness conditions one to happiness, passion conditions one to the fruits of action, and ignorance to madness. Sometimes passion becomes prominent, overcoming the goodness, while sometimes goodness dominates passion, and at other times ignorance dominates goodness and passion. There is always competition for supremacy among the Gunas.
The manifestations of the Guna of goodness can be experienced when the body is illuminated by knowledge. An increase in the intensity of Guna of passion is reflected in greater attachment, uncontrollable desire, and intense endeavor to satisfy desire and lust. Higher impulse of the Guna of ignorance is identified with manifestation of laziness, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness. A person who dies in the mode of pure goodness Guna, the dweller leaves the body with an environment congenial to knowledge. Death in the state of the dominance of passion Guna, the self leaves the body in an environment congenial to strong desire to enjoy happiness, while death in the period of the dominance of ignorance Guna provides an environment of illusion faced by animals. Activities done under the influence of goodness Guna helps purification of mind and intellect. Activity under in the influence of passion Guna leads to disappointment and distress, while actions performed under the influence of the ignorance Guna shows up in foolishness and inefficiency. Goodness help develop real knowledge develops, passion leads to greed develops while ignorance fosters foolishness, madness and illusion.
When a person is able to understand that all activities are shaped only by one or more of influence of the three gunas imparted by nature, and God is independent and beyond the reach of these Gunas, the person acquires the knowledge of the spiritual nature of God. When the embodied being is able to transcend these three Gunas, it approaches the Godly state.
Verses 14.21- 14.28
Arjuna desired to know the symptoms and behavior of a person who has transcended beyond the three Gunas to those modes and how the person achieves this transcendence? Krishna replied that the transcendental person (a) does not hate or love illumination of knowledge or attachment to desire or delusion, (b) is indifferent to the existence or disappearance of these Gunas, (c) remains firmly unconcerned with and independent of the operation of the Gunas of nature, (d) perceives with equanimity and remains indifferent to different situations/ phenomenon or entities, whether pleasure or pain, a stone or a piece of gold, praise and criticism, honor or dishonor, friend or foe, (e) does not undertake any activity in search of the fruits of action, (f) engages in full devotional service, and (g) does not deviate from all the above under any circumstance. This is the exact state of the impersonal, immortal, imperishable and eternal Brahman.

Gita Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen explained the distinction between the transitory, perishable physical body and the immortal, eternal and immutable soul. It also deals with the relationship between the individual soul and the ultimate soul.
Verses 13.1 - 13.19 Arjuna wanted to know from Krishna the meanings of prakrti (nature), purusha (the enjoyer]), the field and the knower of the field and of knowledge and the end of knowledge. Krishna explained that the body is the field, One who knows this body is called the knower of the field. God is the knower of all bodies. Knowledge is the understanding of the body and its owner. Krishna then gave the description of this field of activity, how it is constituted changed and produced, who is knower of the field and the influences of the knower.
Knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in the Vedas, particularly in the Vedanta-sutra’. In brief the field of activities includes the five great elements of air, water, earth, space and sky, false ego, intellect / intelligence, the non-manifest, the senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions. Knowledge consists of humility, modesty, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; non-attachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to God, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth. Anything contrary to knowledge is ignorance.
Brahman, the spirit, is the knowable, knowing which one tastes the eternal. Brahman is the creation of God, is beginning less, and lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.
The Supersoul exists everywhere. It is the original sense-free source of all senses. It is unattached maintainer of all living beings and beyond the influence of but the master of the three Gunas of material nature. The Supreme Truth is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. The Supersoul appears to be divided, but actually not divisible. He is situated as one. The Supersoul creates, develops, maintains and destroys the created manifestations and the creation. He is the source of light in all luminous objects, beyond the darkness of matter, beyond all that is manifest, both knowledge and the object of knowledge as also the goal of knowledge, seated in the heart of everyone.
Verses 13.20 – 35 Material nature and the living entities are beginning less. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature. Nature is the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living being is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. The living being in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three Gunas/ properties/ modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.
In the human body, Self is the transcendental enjoyer, God as the supreme proprietor, the overseer and the approving authority, exists as the Supersoul. The person who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living being and the interaction of the modes of nature is certain to attain liberation. Supersoul is perceived by some through meditation perceives, some others through the cultivation of knowledge, and still others through practicing desire-free actions. Again, those not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship God upon hearing about God from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.
Whatever one finds in existence, both moving and unmoving, is only the combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field. One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees. One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination. When a person observes that it is the material natured body that performs all activities and that the self does nothing, he / she perceive the Truth. When a person ceases to see different material bodies as having different identities, understands the concept of Brahman. Thus he sees that beings are expanded everywhere. The vision of eternity find enables one to see the soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, the soul does nothing and gets entangled with nothing. Just as the all pervading sky does not get tied to anything that we see in the sky due to its subtle nature, the soul, situated in Brahman vision, does not mix with the body in which it dwells. Just as the sun illuminates the universe, so does soul dwelling in the body illuminate the entire body with consciousness? The person, whose knowledge recognizes the difference between the body and the owner of the body and can understand the process of liberation from this bondage, also attains to the supreme goal.

Gita Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve pointed to the super glory of devotion to God and also explained the different forms of spiritual disciplines and the qualities of the devotees. chapter is entitled: The Path of Devotion.
Verses 12. 1 – 12.20
Arjuna inquired about the relative perfection of the two types of Yogis: those engaged in devotional service and those in worship of the impersonal Brahman, the non-manifest. Krishna replied the person whose mind is fixed on God’s human form and always engaged in worshiping God with great and transcendental faith, was the most perfect. But the one who finally achieve me is the person worshiping the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, immovable and impersonal concept of the Absolute Truth of God in the non-manifest form that lies beyond sense perception of the senses, by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone and engaged in the welfare of all. Those with minds attached to the non-manifest form, progress is very difficult to achieve. God delivers liberation more quickly to the unfailing devotee who worships, submits all activities to God and engages in devotional service, always meditating on God. One just needs to fix the mind on God and engage the intellect in God to live in God.
If one is unable to fix the mind on God without deviation, then one can practice the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga and develop a desire to attain to God. If one cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then one can just try to work for God to start with.
If one is unable to work for me, then one can try to perform activities giving up all results of work and remain focused on the self. If one cannot even practice giving up the results of actions to God, then one can engage in the cultivation of knowledge.
Better than the pursuit of knowledge is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action as renunciation brings peace of mind.
Persons very dear to God have the following characteristics’ (a) the person who is not envious but kind to all living beings, who does not think himself a proprietor of his actions, who is free from ego and equally unperturbed by both happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intellect are aligned in attachment to God, (b) the person for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, (c) A devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, (d) the one who neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, (e) the one who is equal to friends and enemies, who accepts honor and dishonor equally, remains indifferent to heat and cold, and find no difference between happiness and distress or fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who does not care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, and (f) the person who follows the path of devotional service and who completely engages with full faith to strive to reach God.

Gita Chapter Eleven

In Chapter Eleven, one could get the thrill of visualizing through divine sensors God’s Infinite Universe –engulfing Form enveloping all of existence.
Verses 11.1 – 11.34
Arjuna expressed his satisfaction over the details of spiritual knowledge imparted by Krishna to behold the cosmic form of God or the Universal Self. Then Krishna let Arjuna visualize the opulence of God that contained hundreds of thousands of varied divine multicolored forms and manifestations including the Adityas, Rudras, and all the demigods as also many things many things which no one has ever seen or heard before. He pointed out that Arjuna is able to see these in the same body form not through his worldly eye sensors but through the divine sensors imparted temporarily to Arjuna for the purpose of viewing God’s opulence. Arjuna could see in the universal form, unlimited and wonderful faces, mouths and unlimited eyes, dazzling ornaments arrayed in many garbs and with garlands spreading fragrances all over. All was magnificent, continuously expanding, unlimited and magnificent as if illuminated by hundreds of thousands of suns at the same time. Seeing this Universal form of the God Self, Arjuna’s hairs stood up in astonishment and with folding hands he began to pray with folded hands, offering obeisance to God. He said he could see simultaneously in God’s Self all the demigods, living beings, the Brahma sitting on the lotus flower, Lord Siva many sages, divine serpents, many bellies, mouths, eyes expanded without limit with no beginning, no middle or end, form adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs, is difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, which is fiery and immeasurable like the sun. He then started saying that God Self is the supreme primal object, the inexhaustible, the oldest, the maintainer of principles that govern the Creation, the origin without beginning, middle or end, with uncountable, infinite number of arms, eyes radiating lights as powerful as suns and moons and heating the entire universe and spread throughout the skies and the planets and all space between. Arjuna could see that all the planetary systems, all demigods surrendering and flowing into the God in fear with folded hands singing the Vedic hymns. All Adityas, the Vasus, the Sadhyas, the Visvedevas, the two Asvis, the Maruts, the forefathers and the Gandharvas, the Yaksas, Asuras, and all demigods were beholding God in wonder. Unable to tolerate seeing the unimaginable, amazing vast and all pervasive form of the God Self, Arjuna felt bewildered and exhausted He could see the sons of Dhrtarastra along with their allied kings, and Bhisma, Drona and Karna, and all Pandava soldiers rushing into God’s blazing, fiery mouths with their heads smashed and crushed by God’s terrible teeth as if God is devouring all people while covering the universe with His immeasurable rays. Then Arjuna asked Krishna what was all these he was seeing. Krishna replied that God as Time also destroys His own manifestations. What Arjuna had seen as God devouring people is nothing but the future of the battling armies who would be slain in the War and Arjuna has only to fight as the instrument of God to slay them. All the great warriors like Drona, Bhisma, Jayadratha and Karna are already destroyed. Arjuna has to simply play the role cast for him by God: fight to vanquish his enemies.
Verses 11.35 -
After hearing these words of Krishna, Arjuna trembled, fearfully offered obeisance with folded hands and said that the world became joyful upon hearing God’s name. He said God stood above even Brahma as the original master, the limitless, the refuge of the universe, the invincible source and the cause of all causes, transcendental to all material manifestation. He understood that God is the only knowable pervading the entire cosmic manifestations including air, fire, water, the moon, the supreme controller and the grandfather and every thing at the same time. God is the father of the whole cosmic manifestation, the ultimate to worship, the spiritual master. No one is equal to the immeasurable God. Arjuna begged for mercy for God for his ignorance and follies in the past. He prayed God to assume his more traditional deity form for worship. Krishna replied that no one before Arjuna had ever seen the unlimited and effulgent, universal form. And, this form cannot be viewed by studying the Vedas, or by performing sacrifices, or by charities, or by mere worship. Thus for the benefit of devotee Arjuna, Krishna assumed His four-armed deity form and therafter the normal human form and restoring Arjuna to calmness. Then Krishna said that God’s original and divine form can only be seen by the real devotees of God. The devotee engaged in pure devotional service to God, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, and who is friendly to every living entity, can only visualize and merge with God.
[ Note: This Vswaroop Darshan of God by Arjun may appear to be something, unnatural, mystical or magical. This is not really so. This episode is completely natural as has been explained at " Viswaroop Darshan - Beyond Eye Vision: God & Gita 39" at http://senland.blogspot.com/]

Gita Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten described the feelings that a divine vision of God’s Infinite Universe –engulfing Image and as the Cause of all causes. It also specified His special manifestations and opulence. Arjuna prays to the Lord to describe more of the opulence and the Lord describes those which are most prominent.
Verses 10.1 – 10.12
Neither the demigods nor the great sages know God, the origin of both these. Those who know God as the unborn, as the beginning-less and as the Supreme of all the worlds are freed from all bonds. God is the creator of intellect, knowledge, freedom (from doubt and delusion), forgiveness, truthfulness, self-control and calmness, pleasure and pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame and infamy. All creatures including all great sages and progenitors of mankind are born out of God’s Consciousness’ or mind. The person in the know of this truth of God’s power offers unalloyed devotional service through desire-detached ego-free activities.
Knowing the truth that God is the source of all spiritual and material worlds and everything emanates from God, the wise engage in devotional service and worship of God with all their hearts. The thoughts of pure devotees dwell in God, their lives are surrendered to God, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss enlightening one another and conversing about God. God imparts the knowledge required to merge with God to those who are constantly devoted and worship God with love. God helps them destroy the darkness of ignorance by constantly dwell in their hearts.
Verses 10.12 – 10.18
God is the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine, the transcendental and original, the unborn and all-pervading beauty. Neither the demigods nor demons comprehend the personality of God. God alone can comprehend Himself. Saying all this Arjuna seeks to know details of God’s divine powers and glories. Your divine powers by which You pervade all these worlds and abide in them.
Verses 10.19 - 10.42
God’s opulence is limitless. As the Self, God is seated in the hearts of all creatures. God is the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. God is the sun, the moon, the Sama-veda, the demi-god Indra, the mind, the knowledge of living force in living beings, the Lord Siva; the fire, the mountain Meru, the chief priest, Brhaspati, the lord of devotion, Skanda, the lord of war, the ocean of water, the greatest sage Bhrgu, the transcendental vibration om, the chanting of the holy names the immovable Himalayas, the holy fig tree, the sage Narrada, the singer Citraratha, the perfected being sage Kapila, the horse Uccaihsrava born of the elixir of immortality; the lordly elephants Airavata, the monarch among men, the thunderbolt, the cow surabhi giving abundant milk, Kandarpa, the god of love, the serpent chief Vasuki, the chief, the celestial Naga snakeAnanta, the aquatic Varu the departed ancestor Aryama, and Yama the dispensers of justice, Yama, lord of death the devoted Prahlada of demon dynasty, the time, the lion, the bird Garuda, the feathered carrier of Visnu. the wind; Rama the great user of weapons, the shark fish, the Ganges river, the beginning and the end and also the middle, the spiritual science of the self, the conclusive truth, the letter A, the inexhaustible time, the Brahma, whose manifold faces turn everywhere, the all-devouring death, the generator of all things yet to be, the fame, the fortune, the speech, the memory, the intellect and intelligence, the faithfulness and patience, the hymn Brhat-sama sung to the Lord Indra, the Gayatri verse, sung daily by Brahmanas, the winter months, the flower-bearing spring, the gambling of cheats, the splendor, the victory, the adventure, the strength of the powerful, Vasudeva, Arjuna, sage Vyasa, the thinker Usana, the rod of chastisement, the morality, the silence, the wisdom and the generating seed of all existences. No moving or unmoving being can exist without God. All these are just indicative glories and powers of God’s limitless divine manifestations. All beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of God’s splendor. But these details are of no consequence because only a single fragment of God pervade and support the entire universe.

Gita Chapter Nine

In chapter nine Lord Krishna reveals that the sovereign science and the sovereign secret. He explains how the entire material existence is created, pervaded, maintained and annihilated by His external energy and all beings are coming and going under His supervision. The subjects matters covered subsequently are primarily concerned with devotional service and the Lord Himself declares that these subject matters are most confidential. Thus this chapter is entitled: Confidential Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth.
Verse 9.1 – 9.34
The everlasting and ultimate knowledge that relieves a human being from the miseries of material existence is as follows: The self embodied in those not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain God but has to pass on from one body in this material world. In the non-manifest from, God pervades the entire universe: all beings originate and remain in God. God is the maintainer of all living entities and God is everywhere, God is the very source of creation. The mighty wind that blows throughout the World always rests in ethereal space: similarly, all beings rest in God. At the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into God and at the beginning of another millennium, God creates again through manifestation. The whole cosmic order is a manifestation of God. By God’s will the cycle of manifestation and elimination / annihilation continue? Yet, all these actions of God cannot bind God, as God remains ever detached and neutral to the consequences of His actions. This material nature works under God’s direction, producing all moving and unmoving beings. And, this material World is created and annihilated again and again in cycles.
Fools may deride a human being of transcendental nature and the supreme dominion of God and such a human being of transcendental nature over all in the Creation because of ignorance. They may be attracted by demonic and atheistic views and therefore their hopes for gaining desired material things or knowledge or liberation do not fructify into reality. But the great souls, not under delusion are under the protection of the divine nature: they engage themselves completely in devotional service with the knowledge that God and His manifested personality are the inexhaustible origin of everything. They chant the glories of God in His manifest and non-manifest forms, and with great determination and devotion worship God continuously. Again, those engaged in seeking knowledge worship God as the Unique present in both diverse and universal forms. They know the existence of God in the rituals, in the sacrifice, in the offering to the ancestors, in the healing herb, in the transcendental chant, in the butter, the fire and the offering. The know God as the father of this universe, the mother, the support, and the oldest as also as the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable Om as also as the Rig, the Sama, and the Yajur Vedas. They know me as the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, the most dear friend, the creation and the destruction, the basis, eternal source and resting place of everything, They know God as the controller of heat, rains and drought, as both immortality and death, as the source of all being and nonbeing.
Those who study the Vedas and seek heavenly lives worship God indirectly and their desires are fulfilled accordingly only for a while before becoming subject to worldly miseries again. Thus, following the Vedic principles and rituals, they achieve only flickering happiness. But God ensures that those who worship God with devotion, meditating on God’s transcendental form, get all that need and preserve what they need to have.
Whatever sacrifices are offered to various forms of gods is really offered to the Unique God alone but without this knowledge. God is the only and sole enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize God’s true transcendental nature, fail to reach God. Among them, those who worship the demigods realize only the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits realize such beings; those who worship ancestors realize ancestors’ characteristics; and those who worship God live and realize God. God accepts whatever is offered to God with love and devotion, whether the offering is a leaf, a flower, fruit, water or all that one eats, offers and gives away, as well as all austerities that one may perform. Worshiping God by offering everything one thinks of and deals with frees a person from all responses and experiences resulting from all deeds, good or evil. This is the fundamental principle of renunciation that if followed with perfection liberates one from all bondages and help.
God envies no one, not partial to anyone. equal to all. But whoever renders service unto God in devotion is a friend of God who lives in God. Even if one has committed the most abominable actions, one can become saint through constant devotional service and can soon attains lasting peace. A person in devotional service to God does not perish. Any one, irrespective of caste, creed or sex, who takes shelter in God with devotion, can reach the ultimate goal of salvation. Engaging the mind always in thinking about God, offering obeisance and worship to God and being completely absorbed in God, one does reach God.

Chapter Eight

In chapter eight Krishna emphasized the science of yoga. Revealing that one attains whatever one remembers at the end of one's life, He stressed the importance of the very last thought at the moment of death. This Chapter also hints on the creation of the material and the distinctly different spiritual world.
Verse 8.1 – 8.28.
The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and its eternal nature is called the Self. Action relating to the development of the material bodies is called karma, or result-yielding activities. Physical nature is endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of God who is present as the Super soul in the heart of every embodied being.
An individual soul is an integral part of the Supersoul but gets merged in the Supersoul if at the time of quitting the body at death, the Soul remembers the Supersoul alone. Whatever state of being an individual self remembers when quitting the body it remains in that state. He, who meditates on the SupremeSoul with mind constantly engaged in remembering God, therefore merges with the Supersoul. The ideal is to meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as the oldest, as the controller, as smaller than the smallest, as the maintainer of everything, as the luminous like the sun, as transcendental beyond all material conception, is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature. If, at the time of death, one fixes his life breath between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages in remembering God, one attains the Personality of God. Persons learned in the Vedas, those uttering Om and great sages in the renounced order enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy.
Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes oneself in yoga. After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable Om, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of God and quits his body, one will certainly reach the spiritual heights. A person remembering God without deviation obtains God easily. After attaining, the great yogis in devotion never return to this temporary world full of miseries. Wherever does one exist, one has to face misery of worldly life, except when one attains the salvation of merging with God.
For a period of thousand ages a host of living entities comes into existence and all these entities get eliminated during the subsequent period of thousand ages. These periods alternate endlessly. But all throughout something eternal and transcendental remain without change, non-manifest and infallible part of God. Depending on at what time one passes away from the World one is destined to merged with this non-manifest part of God. The self of dwelling in the body of the yogi who attains the Supreme Brahman pass away from the world during the fortnights of the moon as the sun moves in the northern direction. The self embodied in the astang yogi who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the moonless fortnight as the Sun moves in the southern direction change abode into anew body again. A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices, giving charity or pursuing analytical, philosophical pursuit of the Ultimate Truth and engaged in result yielding scripture directed activities. At the end, the embodied soul merges in the God.

Gita Chapter Seven

In chapter Seven Lord explained the illusory nature of material existence in material world and the intransient nature of sensual pleasure derived from thoughts and actions connected to material objects as distinguished from the permanently peaceful existence of Self Realized state. In such a state, an individual submits all his actions and thoughts to God without reservation and complete faith and devotion.
Verse 7.1- 7.30
By practicing yoga with full awareness of and faith in God and the mind completely and exclusively attached to God, the Yogi acquires full knowledge about God. And, there is nothing further to know once the Yogi has acquired knowledge about God. Of the many thousands of people, only one may endeavor for perfection to know about God, and of those who have achieved perfection in the practice of Yoga to know God, hardly one comes to know the whole truth about God. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ego are the eight separate components of God’s material manifestation. God’s superior form of manifestation is inside the living beings struggling with their material nature and sustaining the universe. God resides in the origin and dissolution of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world. There is no Truth superior to God as everything and everyone is attached to God just as pearls are strung on a thread. God is the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the word Om in the Vedic mantras, the sound in ether, the ability in man, the original fragrance of the earth, the heat in fire, the life of all that lives, the penances of all ascetics. the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, the prowess of all powerful men, the strength of the strong, sex in passion and desires.
All the basic characteristics or Gunas of being like goodness, passion and ignorance are manifested by God’s power. God in essence is everything and yet independent not influenced by these Gunas of material nature. Deluded by the three Gunas of Satva, Rajas and Tapas, the whole world fails to know the inexhaustible God. The three Gunas are also God’s creation and difficult to overcome. Those who completely surrender to God easily transcend the Gunas to acquire knowledge about God and become free and independent like God. The grossly foolish among men do not surrender to God and thus remain under the illusion of the three Gunas that act as a veil to hide the True Knowledge.
Four kinds of pious men render devotional service to God: the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and the seeker of knowledge of the Absolute. Of these, the best is the wise one in full knowledge is in union with God through pure devotional service: God is the dearest to such a wise person as is the person very dear to God. Such persons who know God as the ultimate cause of all causes are very rare and are found once among many generations of humans born in successive generations. The minds distorted by material desires in accordance with the varying composition of the Gunas imparted in various persons by the God may surrender to and worship various demigods. But it is the ultimate God residing in each heart that influences the person’s devotion to particular form of demigod. But all devotions to varying deities and demigods are responded to by the same unique ultimate God who bestows the benefit of any kind of worship to the worshipper. The results of worshipping demigods are limited and when the worshiper understands the knowledge of God and worships Him, the worshipper merges with God, the unlimited and inexhaustible. Inadequate intelligence leads to the belief in limited form and personality of God: persons with such intelligence cannot acquire the knowledge of the complete truth about inexhaustible, changeless God as the supreme. God created illusion of Maya keeps human beings to remain foolish and unintelligent and unable to discover the true nature of God as the unborn and infallible.
God is the complete knowledge of all - everything that happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, all that are yet to happen and all living entities; none has the complete knowledge about God. All living beings are born into delusion, and suffer the bondage of desire and hate. Persons freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in God’s service with determination. Intelligent persons seeking liberation from old age and death take refuge in God through devotional service. They come to acquire knowledge about everything transcendental and result-motivated activities. When they know God as the governing principle of the material manifestations, as the one underlying all the demigods and as the one sustaining all sacrifices, they can, with steadfast mind, understand and know God at some point in their lives.

Gita Chapter Six

Chapter Six explained the process of practicing Astanga yoga and emphasizes the methods to gain complete mastery over the volatile behavior of mind creates obstacles to concentration necessary for steady progress along the path of desire-lee action and Renunciation of the Ego.
Verses 6.1 - 6.23 The person unattached to the fruits of actions performed, performing actions only as a devotional obligation as part of renunciation and sacrifice is a yogi practicing yoga. Renunciation is yoga to merge with God: one cannot be a yogi without renunciation the desire for sense gratification. Performing desire-free, ego-free actions is a part of the eightfold yoga and achieving success in yoga practice who has already attained to yoga leads to the end of actions of all material activities. A person steadfast in yoga renounces all material desires, does not act for sense gratification and does not engage in actions desirous of the fruits of actions..
The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. By learning to keep the mind under complete control, one can convert the mind into the best friends. The mind becomes the greatest enemy when the mind is not under control and operates freely driven by lust and greed. When the mind has been conquered the mind, a person is enabled to realize the Self and enjoy the state of tranquility in which happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all worth the same. A person in the steady state of self-realization is called a yogi fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person in transcendence and sees everything from pebbles and stones to gold as well as everyone from the honest well-wishers and friends to enemies, from the envious and sinners to the pious, sand those who are indifferent and impartial, as the same and equal..
A transcendentalist yogi free from desires and feeling of possessiveness, always try to concentrate the mind on God, try to live alone in a secluded place and always carefully control the mind. To practice yoga, one needs to go to a secluded place, seats firmly on the ground in the seat made of kusa-grass and covered with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low. The yogi will then be able to practice yoga with greater concentration, controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart and fixing the mind on single thought or no thought at all. In this yogic stance, the body, neck and head are erect in a straight line and the eyes stare steadily at the tip of the nose. With a mind no longer continuously volatile straying here and there, and completely free from fear and sexual / sensual thoughts, the Yogi meditate upon God within the heart seeking union with God. In this way giving up all involvement with material life, the Astanga Yogi practices control of the body, mind and activities with the intense urge to unite with God.
One who eats too much or too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough. Cannot hope to become a Yogi. A person moderate and balanced in habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can hope to overcome the urge of material existence and practice Astanga yoga. Through the practice of this Yoga one day the Yogi hopes to attain the transcendental state when the mind, devoid of all material desires, remains always steady in meditation on the transcendent Self, just as a lamp in a windless place does not waver. In this stage of perfection, called Samadhi, with one's mind completely restrained from material thoughts, the Yogi acquires the ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, the Yogi develops transcendental capability to enjoy boundless happiness and Truth of Self Knowledge. Stable in such a state, even in the midst of greatest external adversity or temptation, the Yogi enjoys the real and permanent freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.
Verse 6.24 – 6. 32 To practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith, all material desires born out of ego have to be abandoned. As one practices, progressively following step by step, with full conviction in the intellect, Samadhi is reached with mind fixed only and exclusively on the Self and nothing else arises in the mind as the intellect withdraws the mind from whatever and wherever the mind tries to wander due to its flickering and volatile nature. With the mind is fixed on God, the Yogi attains the highest level of permanent happiness. With the Yogi’s identity merging with God, the Yogi gets liberated as God from whatever happens in the World and like God the Yogi remain always at peace, without passions and free from all dualities and dilemmas including the dilemmas of god and evil / virtue and sin. A true self realized yogi observes all beings and each being in God and sees God everywhere. As a result of the Yogi’s observing God everywhere and everything, the Yogi and God never loses each other. Realizing that God is resident as the source within each and all creatures, the Yogi worships and remains always in God under all circumstances. The perfect yogi sees the true equality of all beings, both in their happiness and distress.
Verses 6.33 - 6.47
It is true that the system of yoga may appear impractical and unendurable to many since the mind is so restless, unsteady, turbulent, obstinate and so strong that it is impossible to exercise control and rein in the mind. But it is possible to rein in the mind by constant and determined practice of detachment from worldly external objects and sensual enjoyment. Unbridled mind cannot aid an only obstruct self-realization. With appropriate methods however mind can be controlled.
The Yogi who reaches transcendence does not meet with destruction. The unsuccessful yogi will keep trying at a later time to become a perfect Yogi or may remain a failure. Till the human race exists, generations of persons will be born and die over time. Along with various kinds of unintelligent people, yogis will also be born in different generations. There will be Yogis born again and again with Guna-dictated qualities that will attract them to the spiritual path to divinity and union with God. Some Yogis may fail to reach their goals but their attempts to proceed on the path of Yoga will be remembered. The experience of earlier yogis may impart in certain later generation babies the properties that help progress on the path of Yoga. Thus future generation yogis may follow the path laid down by earlier yogis. The new generation yogis may try and make various degrees of progress depending on the qualities /combination of Gunas with which they are born. Some may start practicing yoga on their own accord and do not have to go through the ritualistic steps mentioned in the scriptures. They are born Yogis.
A Yogi is superior to any ascetic, any knowledge-seeking empiricist and any one in action with attachment to fruits of action. Among the yogis, the one who always worship God in great abiding faith in God and performs service in devotion is the best and most intimately unites with God.

Gita Chapter Five

Chapter Five explained the concepts of action with detachment and renunciation in actions. It emphasized that since an individual is forced to act under the influence of the Gunas and the circumstances of the situation, worrying about the future consequences and the desirability of such forced action was meaningless. The best approach would be to act with detachment to the consequences of forced actions even if they can be anticipated. This chapter explained how salvation is attained by the pursuance of the two paths of performing desire-free Action and of pursuing Renunciation of the ego and imbibing equanimity.
Verse 5.1 – 5.11
The path of renunciation of ego from action and the path of work in devotion are both good for liberation. Of the two, work in devotional service is superior to renunciation of activities. A person in renounced state neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities and is fully liberated from all dualities and material bondage. Only the ignorant does not perceive the equivalence of karma-yoga of devotional service and the analytical knowledge of the material world (Sankhya Yoga). The truly learned knows that through proper practice of either of these paths, one can achieves the results of both. Unless one is engaged in the desire-free, ego-free devotional service, mere renunciation of activities cannot make one happy. The sages, purified by their devotional service activity achieve God without delay. By engaged in devotional actions without getting entangled and attached to the outcomes, a pure soul in full control of mind and senses, becomes dear to everyone, while loving everyone. Such a person in the divine consciousness and engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within that the person is not the real doer or performers of these activities. While speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing the eyes, the person is all the time aware that only the material senses are engaged with their objects but the person is unattached and detached from these activities. Such a person performs duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme God and hence not affected by the actions just as the lotus leaf in water never gets wet by the water. The yogis, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of attaining Knowledge and Godhood that are beyond material existence and sensual enjoyment.
Verse 5.12- 5.22
The soul steadfast in activities in true spirit of devotion and sacrifice attains undistorted, impurity-free peace by submitting the results of all activities to God: the person who performs actions through senses attracted and driven by greed, lust and fear is not in union with the Divine and becomes entangled in the chain of pleasure and pain. Only the embodied living being in full control of his intellect, mind and senses, renounces ownership of actions and enjoys peace and bliss of divine existence while residing in the material body; such a person does not really perform work or cause work to be performed but witnesses work being performed continuously working. The embodied spirit, master dweller of the material body, does not create activities or induces actions or reactions or derive any fruits of action. All this is enacted by the Guna properties of material nature. This knowledge however is not available to the ignorant because the veil created by the Gunas of material nature. When the veil is removed one is enlightened with the knowledge that reveals everything, as the sun light up everything in the day. When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the God, the knowledge reveals itself and the person gets liberated.
The humble sage to whom the knowledge reveals itself due to the removal of the veil of Maya created and sustained by the Gunas of material nature, envisions the equality of a learned and gentle person, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater. The mind that is established in equanimity or inherent sameness has succeeded in liberating itself from the bondage of the conditions of birth and death.
A person with such a mind with transcendental knowledge neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant. Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure or external objects but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. The self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness by concentrating on God.
Such an intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery arising out of in transient sensual pleasure from the contact of the material senses and their objects.
Even if moments before death, one is able to overcome the urges of the material senses and eliminate the force of desire and anger, one becomes a yogi who realizes bliss. The person who has perfectly practiced Astang Yoga derives happiness from within, remains active within, rejoices within and is illumined within, Such a person is liberated in Godhood. One who is beyond duality and dilemmas, whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings, and who is free from desire, ego and anger, achieves liberation in and merges with God. Such persons are free from anger and all material desires, remain in self-realized state. Detaching from all external sensual objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils to keep the mind, senses and intellect under reins, the transcendentalist Astang Yogi becomes free from desire, fear and anger and certainly gets liberated from the pangs of worldly miseries and transient sensual pleasures. The sages know God as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, and worship God as the Creator of all that we find and do not find in this entire universe and see God as the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities.

Gita Chapter Four

In Chapter Four, Lord Krishna explained the two paths to the realization of Truth (Self or God): the path of desire-free action and the pursuit of Knowledge. He also explains how the two paths are complementary and converge to the same goal of Self realization.
Verses 4.1- 4.11 The supreme and imperishable science of the Yoga has been handed down from generation to generation through the chain of master and disciple. It is not generally available to everyone, especially because the chain of master-disciple has weakened over time. This science will now be described to unveil the mysticism around this ancient science of the relationship of God and His creation. Although God is never born and never dead unborn and always in existence without any change, God may appear in the form of a living being in fully Self Realized state every millennium whenever and wherever there is an unstable chaos in the Creation so as to protect the oppressed and annihilate the oppressors and restore balance between creative and destructive forces. One who knows the transcendental nature of God’s manifestation in living form get freed from the slavery and bondage of the material world and merges with God. Freeing themselves from attachment, fear and anger, eliminating ego by complete submission to God and taking refuge in God, many persons have in the past attained the Absolute Ultimate knowledge and merged with God. All of them by surrendering unto the God and following the path towards divinity progressed over time to merge with God.
Verses 4.12 – 36
Human beings are generally driven by the desire to achieve success in satisfying them through their actions. Such actions are a form of worship of the God but only one or the other aspect of God and they are rewarded soon by the God to enjoy the fruits of their actions.
Depending on the combination of the three basic properties/ Gunas of material nature imparted to living beings, they are suitable to do different categories of work needed in the society for the sustenance of the society and the creation. Though God is the creator of this system, God Himself does not have the ego of being a doer and has always remained unchangeable. There is no work that affects God because God is nor attached to the results/ consequences and outcomes of the actions. The person who truly understands this truth about God imbibes the same property of God. Since the ancient ages, many persons have led their lives in perfect accordance with this knowledge and in the process achieved liberation from the bondage and burden of Worldly life.
Even the intelligent find it difficult to determine what is action and what is inaction as the intricacies of action are very hard to understand. The intelligent wise person sees inaction in action and action in inaction; such a person is engaged in all sorts of activities without being affected by these actions. Each and every act of such a person with perfect and complete knowledge is devoid of any desire for sense gratification and does not have any consequences to inflict on that person. Abandoning all attachment to the results of activities, always satisfied and independent, such a person may be engaged in all sorts of activities with out any iota of desire to reap the outcome of the activities. Such a learned and wise person acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over actions, results, possessions and procures the bare necessities of life whenever possible. None of the activities of such a person produce any reaction on such a person. Such a knowledgeable person, in the midst of all the activities he may perform, remains always satisfied irrespective of the gain or losses that flow, is free from duality, does not envy, remains unaffected by both successes and failures, is never entangled in the results of actions. The activities of such a person unattached to the influence of the inherited or imbibed Gunas / properties of material nature, is in complete transcendental peace and harmony that merges the person into divine existence beyond the physical material existence of sensual urges and feelings. This indeed is the state of bliss in which the person gets fully absorbed irrespective of his material surroundings.
Some yogis worship various forces / symbols of almighty God by offering different sacrifices, while some other yogis offer sacrifices in the representing the Ultimate source of the Creation, the Creator. Some yogis sacrifice all the senses in the fire of the controlled mind, while others sacrifice the objects of the senses in the fire of sacrifice. The yogis trying to achieve self-realization, offer the functions of all the senses and the vital life force of breathing in the fire of the controlled mind. There are others sacrificing their material possessions in severe austerities and engage in strict practice of eightfold mystic yoga. Still others study the Vedas for the advancement of transcendental knowledge. Some yogis practice breath restraint to remain in trance, practice stopping the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and incoming breath into the outgoing to remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Some curtail the eating process, offering the outgoing breath as a sacrifice into itself. All these yogis understand the meaning of sacrifice and seek to cleanse themselves of reactions. Once they start tasting the effects of such sacrifice, they get ready to merge into the supreme eternal Godsphere that contains the entire creation. Without sacrifice one can never live in peace and happiness. All these different types of sacrifice are approved by the Vedas, and all of them are born of different types of work.
The sacrifice of knowledge is superior to the sacrifice of material possessions as the sacrifice of desire driven actions culminates in transcendental knowledge. This knowledge can be acquired through the guidance of a spiritual master by submissive inquiry and service to the self-realized Master. When one learns the truth in trhis process, one would realize the full meaning of the ultimate truth that all living beings are but part of God and that they are in God and belomg to God. One who is able to ride this boat of transcendental knowledge, one is on the way to crossing the ocean of miseries, irrespective of past activities.
Verses 4.37 – 4.42
The fire of knowledge burns to ashes all reactions to material activities. There exists nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge one derives from all mystic AstangaYoga. But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain transcendental knowledge. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.
The person who has renounced the fruits of his action, whose doubts are destroyed by transcendental knowledge, and who is situated firmly in the self, is not bound by works.

Gita Chapter Three

Chapter Three deals with various types of actions or duties and how performance of such actions and duties become appropriate under different conditions. While the usual interpretation is that the Chapter seeks to classify actions and duties as good or bad or useful and useless, the spirit of Lord’s advise is to emphasize that actions and duties would be performed by individuals under the varying influence of the varying combination of the three Gunas/ properties inherent in different individuals. He therefore advises Arjuna to get over the dilemma of what is good or bad action but do whatever he is driven to do by the Gunas and the circumstances faced without any attachment to the consequences of any action. Actions are appropriate given the situational background and the inherited natural properties of a person. One need not worry about the future outcome of the present actions, eliminate the operation of lust through the intellect, the mind and the senses.
Verses 3.1-3.2 Arjuna wants to know why he should fight if knowledge is better than fruit-yielding action?
Verses 3.3 – 3.9 Krishna replies: There are two categories of self-realized persons: one category tends to understand God by empirical and philosophical pursuits while the other and try to know God by devotional work. No one can achieve freedom from responding to external environment by merely abstaining from work or merely through renunciation. All are forced to act helplessly according to the impulses implicit in the inherited composition of the three Gunas of material nature. No one can refrain from action even for a single moment.
One may restrains the senses and organs of action but unable to detach the mind from thinking sense objects. Such a person can pretend to be a Yogi but actually far from being on the path to Knowledge. Superior person is the one person with the senses under control of the mind and engaged in action full of devotion, without desire and attachment to to ego or consequences of action.
Action as duty is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without action.
Work done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed, otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage.
Verses 3.10 - 3.15 The general law of happiness in the creation is based on mutual sacrifice because it is through sacrifice the system sustains the creatures. Each draws sustenance from the system and has to contribute to the sustenance of the system. One lives / enjoys by consuming / using things in the Nature. This involves sacrifice of other things in nature. Similarly, the one who enjoys something from the Nature for one’s sustenance in turn may need to be sacrificed for the sustenance of another being. Each person who draws from the natural pool would automatically be required to contribute to the natural process. Those who think of living on the sacrifice of others without himself/herself sacrificing for the sustenance of life of others are conceptually thieves. Those who eat food after offering the same for sacrifice remind themselves of this general law of sustenance: those who prepare food merely for personal sense enjoyment and do not wish to reciprocate fail to harmonize their living with the general law of sustenance of creation.
All living bodies subsist on food grains produced due to the operation of natural forces. The natural forces work on the principle of sacrifice through transformation. And such transformation is the result of actions performed by various living and non-living forces in accordance with the properties imparted (duties assigned) to them. This is the reason why all actions prescribed in the Vedas are oriented to sacrifice.

Verses 3.17 -3.28 One who taking pleasure in, illuminated in and rejoices in the Self as also fully satisfied with Self realization has sacrificed all desires and ego. He/she does not need to perform the action of symbolic / ritual sacrifice. A self-realized person has no purpose to fulfill through actions and yet has no purpose to serve by remaining inactive. Such a person may not depend on the sacrifice by any other living/ non-living being. Thus, performance of actions without being attached to the consequences of actions is consistent with the pursuit of knowledge of the Self. A self realized person merely acts to become a role model for others. Even God is not in the need of anything, nor does God need to obtain anything--and God is continuously in action. If God did not engage in work, everything in creation would follow suit and the Universe would come to an end. Had God ceased to work, God would have caused chaos and the entire creation would be ruined.
The ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results. But the learned act without attachment and set examples for people to perform actions. The wise and learned do not disrupt the minds of the ignorant perform actions with attachment to results of actions. They set examples to discourage common people from remaining inactive and encourage people to perform action in the spirit of devotion to God. The bewildered person thinks that he acts as per his/ her own decision though actually he performs whatever the three Gunas of material nature drives him/ her to think and do.

Verses 3.29 – 3.43
A person with knowledge of the Absolute Truth does not use the senses to seek sensual enjoyment and pleasure, while the ignorant fully engage the senses for material activities with attachment to fulfill sensual desire. However, The wise do not unsettle the ignorant even if the latter perform actions to fulfill material pleasure. The task is to act without ego and lethargy and to surrender all actions and their fruits to God, with desire-free mind fixed on God. Performance of actions faithfully in accordance with these requirements frees a person from the bondage of actions driven by the illusive pursuit of transient sensual pleasure. But driven by envy and desire, persons do not perform in the manner required and remain ignorant and slave to the senses..
All including the one with knowledge act according to his own nature imparted by the Gunas: attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings. But those who fall prey to desire flamed by senses and sense objects fail to progress on the path of self-realization.
Performing actions without desire but in accordance with one’s own nature, even if not performed with perfection, is better than trying to perform actions that are consistent with another person’s nature: rather trying to act against one’s nature may be dangerous.
It is lust born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath that forces a person to act under the control of the senses. Fire may be covered by smoke, a mirror covered by dust and the embryo covered by the womb. Similarly, different living beings are covered by different degrees of lust. The eternal enemy of insatiable lust corrupts the mind and the intelligence by creating a veil over the pure consciousness of a person.: because of this veil the intellect, the mind and the senses cannot attune themselves to the Knowledge in the pure consciousness. This great force of lust can be overcome and eliminated only by systematic and hard practice of regulating the senses. Once this lust is completely vanquished, the true knowledge becomes clearly visible to and attracts the intellect, the mind and the senses.
The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is on a higher plane than the senses; intellect is at still higher level than the mind; and the pure consciousness/ knowledge is even higher than the level of the intellect. The knowledge available at the highest pure consciousness Self can be accessed only as a person moves/ transcends from the control over the lower level self to the highest level Self. When the highest level of Self is in control of the intellect, the mind and the senses, the person is freed from all burdens and bondage because there is no lust left anymore to the intellect, the mind and the senses remain in ignorance and attached to the goal of sensual pleasure.

Gita Chapter Two 03

Verses 2.40 – 2.53
According the knowledge derived from the Yoga of Desire-free Action, when one acts without any desire to enjoy the fruits of actions one frees oneself from the bondage or slavery of action. In this Yoga one does not calculate any lose or gain anything but is able to come out of even the most dangerous type of fear that may weaken the minds. Those who practice this Yoga with resolve are focused on the single aim of being engaged in activities without any attachment to the fruits of actions. Those who do not have the resolve to practice this Karma Yoga suffer from dilemmas. Persons may be easily attracted by the tempting prescriptions contained in the nicely worded verses of the Vedas to engage in fruit-yielding activities to obtain material pleasures of various types including wealth, power, and sensual gratification. The minds too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, the resolute determination of devotional service through desire-free activities does not appeal.
One has to transcend and go beyond the activities linked to the three Gunas/ properties of material nature recommended by the Vedas if one has to get liberated from all dilemmas, dualities and anxieties for gain and safety, and get established in the Self. Just as the various purposes served by small ponds can all be served by the great reservoir of water, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the basic purpose behind them. The basic knowledge is that one has only the right to perform actions prescribed as one cannot remain without actions, but one cannot have guaranteed entitlement to the desired fruits of actions. It is not correct to consider oneself as the cause of the results of one’s activities, and therefore ceased from doing one’s duty. A Yogi steadfast on this method of desire-less action performs duty giving up all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is required in the practice of yoga of devotional service by complete surrender to the Supreme Consciousness and to get rid of all result-motivated activities, by devotional service, and surrender fully to that consciousness.
A person engaged in devotional service rids himself of the concept of good and bad actions: that is the essence of strategy of carrying out activities. The wise engaged in devotional service take refuge in God and free themselves from the pangs between birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. That is the technique of acting without suffering miseries. When all delusion has been cleared by the intellect, one become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard. When the mind is no longer enamored by the tempting language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, one will be able to attain the divine consciousness.
Verses 2.54 – 2.72
Arjun at this stage enquired to know the symptoms of one whose consciousness is merged in Transcendence in terms of behavior. Krishna responded that when one gives up all varieties of sense desire that arise from mental concoction between senses and the objects of sensual pleasure, the mind finds satisfaction in the self alone in pure transcendental consciousness. The sage in the steady state of pure consciousness is unperturbed by events that cause miseries to others, is not elated by what could cause happiness to any other, and is free from attachment, fear and anger. The person without attachment and perfect knowledge fails to rejoice or lament on any happening. True knowledge enables withdrawal of senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell. Even after the embodied soul is restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects may remain. But, the new experience of a higher taste, the mind gets fixed in consciousness. Even then, the mind of a person controlling the senses may be overpowered by the strong impetuous senses. A person with senses restrained and consciousness fixed on God is a person of steady intellect.
When the mind contemplates the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust for sensual pleasure develops, and from lust anger arises. Anger leads to delusion, delusion affects access to memory that leads to loss of intelligence. With intelligence lost, one gets trapped into the material whirlpool again. But the person who gains control over the senses through practice can become free from all attachment and aversion. A person who attains such freedom of Divine consciousness is able to lift oneself beyond material existence; in such a state, one's intellect remains steady in peace, unperturbed by external events. But the person not in transcendental consciousness does not have control over the mind and does not have steadiness of intellect to remain in peace. Just as a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can destabilize the intellect. It is only the person with senses restrained from sensual objects that can have steady intellect.
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage. Only the person unperturbed by the incessant flow of desires (like rivers entering into the ocean that remains still) can achieve peace. Real peace can be achieved only by the person who has shed all desires for sense gratification, lives a desire-free life and is free from desires, abandoned all sense of proprietorship and is ego-free. This is the way of spiritual life is attained and one can proceed to merges with God.

Gita Chapter Two 02

Verses 2.11 – 2.30
Mourning for what is not worthy of grief is unwise. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead. Never was there a time when any person - whether,I, you, the kings or any being did not exist. Nor, in the future shall any one among them or us ceased to exist. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul in each body similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change or transformation. The nonpermanent appearance and disappearance of happiness and distress are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. These are the delusions created by sense perception and the wise learn to tolerate them without losing their stability of peace in mind.disturbed. The person undisturbed by happiness and distress and in steady state under both situations is certainly eligible for liberation. By studying in depth, the seers have concluded that the non-existent cannot endure and the existent cannot cease to be. That which pervades the entire body is indestructible: the imperishable soul cannot be destroyed by anybody or anything. Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction.
The thought that a living entity is the slayer or one can slay a living entity is flawed and based on ignorance: the person with knowledge knows that the self or the soul slays not nor is slain. The soul is never born, never dies and unborn, eternal, ever existing and primeval. The self lasts even if the body is slain. A learned person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable, can not think that one can kill anyone or cause anyone to kill. As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. The soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. The soul is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. The soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, one should not grieve for the loss of the body.
Should one think that the soul is born and dies, there is no reason to grieve: for, one who has taken birth, death is certain and for one who is dead, birth is certain. All created beings are non-manifest in the beginning, non-manifest state for sometime state and transformed non-manifest again. So, there is no reason to lament on death. Some know that the soul is amazing but most do not know or understand the nature of the soul at all. The soul that dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore there is no need to grieve for any creature.

Verses 2.31 - 2.39
One belonging to the warrior class (ksatriya) has the specific duty to fight wars and Arjuna therefore should have no hesitation in taking up the unsought opportunity to participate in the battle. If Arjuna does not fight the war, he will neglecting his duties and lose your reputation as a fighter. For an honorable person such disrespect is worse than death. The great generals who have highly esteemed Arjuna will now think of him as a coward who left the battlefield out of fear only. In a battle there are two possibilities: either one earns the distinction of a hero giving up life fighting or a conqueror that wins the kingdom. Arjuna should therefore get up to fight with determination, without worrying about the outcome like happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat resulting from his action to fight. This is the wisdom derived from the analytical knowledge of Sankhya philosophy or Gyana Yoga.

Gita Chaptaer Two 01

In Chapter Two, responding to the distressed mental agony of Arjuna and his request for advise, Lord Krishna emphasized the need to remove all dilemmas and confusion from the mind and act in accordance with the Ultimate Truth perceived by the wise and learned men. He told Arjuna to get out of the illusion (Maya) of ego that creates attachment to desires, perception of sensual pleasure and pain. He advised him to practice Yoga that would enable to lead a life free of anger, fear and desire driven emotions He advised him to realize the Truth that human beings cannot influence the course of events. This chapter is like an executive summary of Lord’s instructions and advices to Arjuna. The slokas / verses in this Chapter talk about the basics of Yoga and its different methods like karma yoga, jnana yoga, sankhya yoga, buddih yoga and also about the essential equality of all that is in the Universe. This knowledge is Atma, the origin and indestructible source of all that is and all that is happening in the entire creation is embedded in each infinitesimal part of the creation though not easily recognized by human beings subject to the three guna properties imparted by the nature that also is the result of the creative process of Atman. Realisation of Atman is nothing but identifying oneself with the Atman that continually acts without being affected by the process of creation.
Verses 2.1 – 2.10
Krishna then advised Arjuna the impurities of his thoughts did not befit Arjun, a man who knew the progressive values of life and would promise him only infamy. It would not be correct for Arjun to yield to such degrading impotence and petty weakness of heart, and start fighting the battle. But Arjuna said he would prefer to lead the life of a beggar than to live with the blood-tainted spoils earned at the cost of taking, with counterattack, the lives of great souls like Drona and Bhisma, his superiors and teachers, even if they were avaricious. He wondered if conquering the sons of Dhrtarastra, whom if he had killed he would not care to live, was a better than getting conquered. He admitted that he was confused about my duty and lost all composure because of weakness. He submitted to Krishna and sought Krishna’s advice and instructions as he could not find any means to overcome the grief that had immobilized his senses and would not revive even at the prospect of winning an unrivaled, sovereign heavenly kingdom. Therefore he had decided not to fight. Then Krishna smiling as always started speaking as contained in the susequent verses that follows.

Gita Chapter One

Chapter One provides the context in which Lord Krishna revealed the Ultimate Truth to Arjuna. Arjuna was afflicted suddenly by serious mental agony over the desirability of fighting the Great War between the Kauravas and Pandavas when both the armies gathered at the battlefield of Kurukshtra. The main hero of the Pndavas and the third brother among the Pandava princes felt completely dejected, confused and demoralized, lamenting that he was faced with a fight against and attempt to annihilate his own teachers, relatives and friends in the Karava side and be the cause of death of millions of warriors on both sides. Thus, fighting the war would amount to him as an act of great sin. He was distressed to visualize the adverse consequences of the War on the society and him and therefore was about to withdraw from the battlefield laying down the arms.

Verses 1.1 - 1.46
After looking over the army gathered by the sons of Pandu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher, Drona, and told them to behold the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by their intelligent disciple, the son of Drupada and observe the many heroic bowmen equal in fighting to Bhima and Arjuna including great fighters like Yuyudhana, Virata, Drupada, Dhrstaketu, Cekitana, Kasiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, Saibya, Yudhamanyu, Uttamauja, the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi who are great chariot fighters. Then he described about his own army line-up that included, besides Drona, Bhisma, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, Vikarna and Bhurisrava the son of Somadatta, who were always victorious in battle. There were many other heroes well equipped with different kinds of weapons, experienced in military science and prepared to lay down their lives for Duryodhana’s sake. He considered the strength of his army immeasurable and perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhisma, whereas the strength of the Pandavas, protected by Bhima, is limited. He sought full support to Grandfather Bhisma. Then, Bhisma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, blew his conchshell very loudly like the sound of a lion. The conchshells, bugles, trumpets, drums and horns combined to create a tumultuous sound.
On the other side, both Lord Krishna and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses, blew their transcendental conchshells. Lord Krsna blew His conchshell, called Pancajanya, Arjuna blew his Devadatta and Bhima, blew his Paundram. King Yudhisthira blew his conchshell Ananta-vijaya, Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughosa and Manipuspaka. The great archer King of Kasi, the great fighter Sikhandi, Dhrstadyumna, Virata and the unconquerable Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi and Subhadra, blew their respective conchshells. The blowing of these different conchshells became uproarious, vibrating both in the sky and on the earth, shattering the hearts of the sons of Dhrtarastra.
Arjunav seated in his chariot, his flag marked with Hanuman, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows, looking at the sons of Dhrtarastra. He then requested Krishna to draw his chariot between the two armies so that he could view the warriors desirous of fighting, and with whom he would have to contend in the battle. Then, Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his father-in-law and well-wishers all present there. He became overwhelmed with compassion and sorrow. He said that his body was quivering, mouth drying up. Hair standing on end, bow Gandiva slipping from his hand and his skin burning. He was unable to stand any longer and forgetting himself with mind is reeling envisioning the consequences of the war as only evil. He could not comprehend how any good can come from killing his own kinsmen in this battle and therefore unable to desire victory, kingdom, or happiness from this war. He enquired of Krishna of what utility is kingdoms, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom these are desired - teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and all relatives are ready to give up their lives in this battle. He expressed his disinclination to fight to kill them even if the entire universe were offered for fighting. He felt it was sinful to slay such aggressors, even if these kinsmen, overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing one's family. He further anticipated destruction of dynasty and the eternal family traditions, the rise of irreligious practices, corruption, unwanted progeny and degradation of womanhood. He would rather feel better if the sons of Dhrtarastra killed him without fight unarmed than bring in the devastation by fighting the battle. Overwhelmed by grief, he then laid down his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief.