For several years now, my reading has consisted largely of fiction, I could even say just pulp–fiction. Any non-fiction reading was likely technical in nature: a book on html to do a website or a book on image processing for the venture I am involved in. Even this reading has been with a narrow purpose of doing a specific something with the newly acquired knowledge. So it is not without some trepidation that I undertake this journey. I need to dust off cobwebs from mental faculties that probably have not been exercised since I was in school or college. However there is this belief that I can proceed and achieve at least a modicum of success. So I expect to read and reread, and listen to the multiple voices of explanation and commentary in the resources I listed in the earlier post.
This expectation that I will make progress is not just arrogance on my part (though I am sure there is some of that, as in the past I have not given up on learning something just because I did not understand it at the beginning). The expectation derives from the confidence that what I want to read was designed to be understood and therefore it will make sense to me too. I am not just taking it as a matter of faith. Now, The Gita was written a very long time ago at a time, in a place and in a context quite different from now. Centuries ago, Adi Sankara translated it as a practical guide to life as he saw it for the people of his times. Much later Aldus Huxley called it the perennial philosophy. Sri Aurobindo in his Essays on The Gita argues that if one believes that there is an all encompassing Truth, Bhagavad Gita is that Truth. Robert Oppenheimer, and Vinoba Bhave have written that The Bhagavad Gita has guided them. I don’t need to read all the writings of such a diverse set of individuals to know that somehow they were affected by the teachings of The Gita in a manner that touched their lives. Just think about each of their background, when in their lives they may have read Bhagavad Gita, and you will appreciate the effect of one work on widely differing people. At the same time, I don’t think that one needs to have the wherewithal that these folks had (intellect, passion, devotion …) in order to get something out of Bhagavad Gita, and that someone like me will also benefit from the reading. One thing though – it appears that all of these folks read The Gita in Sanskrit and perhaps not knowing Sanskrit is a handicap.
Some of you have said in comments on earlier posts in this blog and to me in person, that a certain amount of introspection is needed to understand Gita, and such an understanding is personal in nature. I believe that. You may ask why I believe that. Here is an example. My wife Chandrika and I will be sitting in our family room. She will say that the room is very hot and turn on the fan full blast. I will explain that in fact, it is she who is hot and the room is quite comfortable and I would prefer the fan off. You could observe this and say that we each experience the same room at the same time differently and our take on the comfort of the room is tempered by our individual experience. So I know that my take on this journey will be based on how I experience it.
Bhagavad Gita is told to Arjuna at the beginning of a great battle. Arjuna’s state of mind is a key factor in the setting of the teachings as is evident from the title of chapter one. Vinoba Bhave says in his introduction to the published version of his Talks on The Gita that the talks given on the battlefield of the struggle for the freedom of India (the talks were given in a prison when Vinoba Bhave and the other prisoners were incarcerated courtesy of the British).
Bhagavad-Gita was told in the battlefield; and that is why it is something different and no other treatise can match her. The Lord Himself told the Gita again, which is known as the Anugita. But it is a pale shadow of the original. My writings and talks on the Gita elsewhere would not have the magic touch that these ‘Talks’ have, as these were delivered in jail , which, for us, was a battlefield, before the soldiers in the freedom struggle. Those who heard these talks can never forget those moments. The atmosphere of the jail at that time was charged with a spiritual élan.
So it is clear that the state of mind when one takes in the Bhagavad Gita has a strong influence on the understanding of it. There were a few times in my life when I could say that I was in mental turmoil. I suppose if I had read The Gita then I would have perhaps understood it differently than I hope to do now when I am more at peace with myself.
Some time ago, I heard an introduction to a Carnatic music concert given by Yehudi Menuhin or perhaps it was Itzhak Perlman , my memory is a bit fuzzy here. Also, I need to paraphrase as I do not remember the exact words. He said that before one goes to a brothel, there is an expectation of the experience at that place. That expectation attunes the senses in such a fashion that when the person walks in, even the flower arrangement in the reception room or the color of the sofa can be titillating. Before he (Menuhin) goes to this music concert, his expectations of the performance he will hear is such that it would not surprise him if he is transported to a divine place just by listening to the music. Anticipation certainly influences our experience.
So I plan on approaching each session of my studies with all of this in mind. Perhaps I will develop some practice or ritual that will help me achieve some focus and anticipation before I get into the reading. I will keep you posted.
My own thoughts (and humble observations) about my fascination and addition to reading (pulp) fiction and the evolution to increasingly more serious reading and now to search for a common truth that provides understanding and acceptance of the spectrum of joys and tragedies that is life is:
To read fiction is to read a story with actual locations, actual material objects, people with names, people with explicitly stated actions and behaviors. This is the virtual world of Maya. I think of it as data and at best information. Most fiction is highly entertaining, moderately educative and is a very quick read. Often I find myself skipping the redundancy to expose the plot as rapidly as I can. Fiction is simply feeding the need for entertainment with the side effect of introducing new data from the author’s research to add to your pile of facts in your head.
To step beyond that requires the use of placeholders, abstract roles, abstract actions, abstract motivations to form patterns that have a deep sense of harmony and “feel right”. This in my thinking is the realm of knowledge and wisdom. The application of knowledge and wisdom to daily practices enhances their performance as well as their effectiveness. Most serious readings have much of these defined and it takes a while to read them, often with pencil and paper/whiteboard in hand. Serious study can still be made in the framework of a social life but it requires active reading, active thinking and the painful and laborious marshaling of many interlocking patterns of thought.
The last step beyond that is the search for the absolute truth – a truth that transcends all data, information, knowledge and wisdom that tend to be situational, temporal, topical. This is the truth, in my humble opinion that Hinduism promotes and for which you have to lose the ego, and all attachments to see. But losing the ego and the attachments creates resentment in all the people who are still attached to you or are looking for leadership. This is a lonely journey from here on.
A few observations on the Bhagvad Gita being set in the battlefield and its focus on action rather than doubt.
It is appropriate that the battlefield is a arena for pure action simply to stay alive. It is also the arena for action to prevail over the enemy and not simply stay alive. It is also the arena for actions after the enemy has been annihilated – be it the survivors, or the the towns of women, children and old people who have lost the cream of their manhood.
Action is the crystallization of thoughts and resolve. It is purposeful action – and in the battlefield one way to justify action to destroy other human beings is to state that they have already been judged and sentenced for their own actions by their own karma – and Arjuna was simply the instrument of the Lord.
After all the doubts and anxieties and second thoughts and hesitation, action is a final step after a decision point that commits one to a course of events. There was an interesting movie “Run Lola Run” from the former East Germany where they showed the same story three times – at each decision point, the duo in the movie make a different decision. After having made a decision action is all that we can hope to do – and as every action has the risk of being unsuccessful in its outcome, to do it without the expectation of reward.