Chapter 1-A summary

Since it's been quite some time since my last post & will be a while till I get back to the slokas from chapter 2,I thought of posting a lighter topic.A summary of the 1st chapter of the Gita.

Before beginning,I would like to pay obeisance to my guru H.H.Swami Paramarthananda Saraswathi,without whom my knowledge of the Gita would be nil.All my posts have been what I have learnt from him.

Now,on with the post.

The main substance of the Bahgavad Gita is self knowledge & spiritual wisdom.It does not tell you anything new.It merely re-iterates what has been said in the vedas,particularly in their final portions,the 'Veda-anta'.Vedanta or veda-anta is formed from two words veda and anta(meaning,the end).The vedas consists of two parts,the 'Veda-purva' and the 'Veda-anta'

The main objective of the Gita is to guide us on how to handle 'samsara',in other words,attachment.Attachment is the root cause of all our anxiety.
Samsara = helplessness -> anger -> frustration -> depression.

Not once,but many a time in life,we come across samsara.Spiritual wisdom is the only permanent solution to it.

Before moving on,I would like to point out a couple of things that my guru told us.
1.The Gita-upanishad must always be administered by a competent guru.It must never be self-learnt.Not only will it be futile in solving problems,but it will be counter-productive,if done so.
2.Once we have understood the lessons the Gita teaches us,we must throw away our misplaced curiosity(Artha vadha).The purpose of the Gita is to enlighten us.And after haveing been enlightened,we must not got back and ask unnecessary questions like 'What were the armies of the Pandavas & the Kauravas doing while Krishna was preaching 18 long chapters of the Gita to Arjuna' or 'Was there enough time for Krishna to administer the Gitopanishad at the battlefield'.
We have understood the Gita.Purpose fulfilled.End of story.We shall she more into the real purpose of the Gita & when it comes into our life a little later in this post.

For those who dont know,the setting of the Gita is the battlefront of the 'Mahabaratha' ,fought between the Pandavas,who were the embodiment of Dharma & the Kauravas,who portrayed adharma & took away the kingdom that rightfully belonged to the Pandavas.
While entering the battlefield,Arjuna gets cold feet,to an extent that he is ready to give up his own life rather than raise weapons against his own cousins.

Enter Lord Krishna,Mahavishnu's incarnation and ,at the battlefield,Arjuna's charioteer.

The 1st chapter is divided into 5 parts-
1.Verses 1 to 20:Description of Kurukshetra
The Kauravas,led by Dhuryodhana,had refused the Pandavas,even a square inch of land,after they had reurned from their exile.Hence,they are forced to fight for their kingdom.Though he has a large army at his disposal,Dhuryodhana feels diffident.He realizes that dharma is not on his side.He approaches his guru Dronacharya & suggests that they seek the blessings of Bhishma,considered to be an embodiment of Dharma himself(who,later on refuses to fight Shikandi,a woman in his previous birth,insulted by Bhishma & reborn to avenge his humiliation.The Pandavas,using him as a shield attack and greviously wound Bhishma).Bhishma then lifts up the spirit of the Kaurava army.

2.Verses 21 to 25:Positioning Arjuna's chariot between the two armies
Arjuna was convinced that the Kauravas were adharmic people,and had committed grievous sins,and deserved nothing less than capital punishment.He instructs Krishna to position his chariot between the two armies so that he could survey them.

3.Verses 26 to 28:Beginning of Arjuna's samsara
After seeing the Kaurava camp,ridden his own relatives,he loses heart.He begins to feel for those numerous lives which would be lost during the course of the battle.He becomes ready to die,rather than fight his own family.He drops his 'Gandiva',amd with it,his courage.Here,he represents the entire human race,which too experiences samsara from time to time.Hence,the Gita was not meant for Arjuna,but is for all of us.Gita transcends time.

4.Verses 29 to 34:What does samsara(attachement) do to us?
Attachment leads to grief.There are no exceptions to this.People,objects & situations change continuously.We have no control over them.While we may have the power over our actions,the result,however is influenced by the factors mentioned above,and hence we have little control over it.While we can give our best,we must be ready to accept the worst.When these external factors(situations,objects and people) cause unfaourable changes,we experience sorrow.

Vedanta says that,through attachment to the world,we are only empowering it to emotionally disturb us.This attachment makes us vulnerable to sorrow.
Though the nature & form of attahment varies,the problem of attachment is universal.

5.Verses 35 to 47
When a person is emotionally disturbed,his rational intellect is supressed.We have been given the gift of intellect,which other life forms have not been endowed with.
When we let emotions rule our mind,our intellect cannot function.Qorrying abuot any problem only prevents the intellect from finding a solution for it.
Arjuna experiences a conflict of emotions,as to whether he must fight the Mahabaratha or merely flee from the scene.All along,when the Pandavas were in exile,Arjuna was convinced that the Kauravas were evil.Now,at the battlefield,he considers fighting them a sin.He is clearly unbalanced.Once emotions overpower intellect,the intellect starts justifying the emotion.Arjuna,starts justifying that by fighting,he would only be killing lives,& hence it would be better for him to either go back to the forest or to die rather than kill.