Swami Chinmayananda - The Holy Geeta

PUBLISHERS NOTE

When Param Pujya Gurudev Chinmayananda attained Mahasamadhi , Sri Krishna must have welcomed him into hisabode saying, Come, come, my beloved one. You outdid me,for I taught Geeta to one Arjuna, and you awakened manyArjunas round the globe, remarked a devotee fondly. Suchwas the profound influence of Gurudevs Geeta discourses onthe audience.

His talks have been compiled in this commentary - TheHoly Geeta. This text of Gurudev is so popular that it hasmade its entry into corporate houses and five-star hotels.

This edition owes its prim look to a very assiduous team Joseph, Raju Nair, Pradeep Kharwal for executing the tediousbut unavoidable task of DTP; Mr KS Rindani, Mrs SavitaChakravarty for relentless proof reading; Ramona Singh forthe appealing cover design and book mark.

Revamped from cover to cover, we now present the latestedition, for your joy, solace and guidance.

CONTENTS

The Geeta as others see it

The Geeta is the universal mother. She turns away nobody.Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks. A truevotary of the Geeta does not know what disappointment is. Heever dwells in perennial joy and peace that passeth allunderstanding. But that peace and joy comes not to the scepticor to him who is proud of his intellect or learning. It is reservedonly for the humble in spirit who brings to her worship a fullnessof faith and an undivided singleness of mind. There neverwas a man who worshipped her in this spirit and went backdisappointed.

I find a solace in the Bhagawad Geeta that I miss even inthe sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me inthe face and all alone, I see not one ray of light, I go back tothe Bhagawad Geeta. I find a verse here and a verse there, and Iimmediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelmingtragedies - and if they have left no visible, no indelible scareon me, I owe it all to the teaching of the Bhagawad Geeta.

- Mahatma Gandhi

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What is the message of the Geeta and what is its workingvalue, its spiritual utility to the human mind of the presentday, after the long ages that have elapsed since it was writtenand the great subsequent transformations of thought andexperience? The human mind always moves forward, alters itsviewpoint and enlarges its thought-substance, and the effectof these changes is to render past systems of thinking obsolete, or when they are preserved; to extend, to modify and subtlyor visibly, to alter their value. The vitality of ancient doctrineconsists in the extent to which it naturally lends itself to sucha treatment; for that means that whatever may have been thelimitations or the obsolescence of the form of its thought, thetruth of substance, the truth of living vision and experienceon which its system was built, is still sound and retains apermanent validity and significance.

The Geeta is a book that has worn extraordinarily well,and it is almost as fresh and still in its real substance quite asnew, because always renewable in experience, as when it firstappeared in or was written into the frame of the Mahabharata.It is still received in India as one of the great bodies of doctrinethat most authoritatively govern religious thinking; and itsteaching is acknowledged as of the highest value if not whollyaccepted by almost all shades of religious belief and opinion.Its influence is not merely philosophic or academic butimmediate and living, an influence both for thought and actionand its ideas are actually at work as a powerful shaping factorin the revival and renewal of a nation and a culture. It haseven been said recently by a great voice that all the needs for aspiritual life are to be found in the Geeta. It would be, toencourage the superstition of the book to take too literallythat utterance. The truth of the Spirit is infinite and cannot becircumscribed in that manner. Still it may be said that most ofthe main clues are there and that after all the later developmentsof spiritual experience and discovery, we can still return to itfor inspiration and guidance. Outside India too, it is universallyacknowledged as one of the worlds great scriptures, althoughin Europe its thought is better understood than its secret ofspiritual practice.

- Aurobindo Ghose

The Geeta was not preached either as a pastime for personstired out after living a worldly life in the pursuit of selfishmotives, nor as a preparatory lesson for living such worldlylife, but in order to give philosophical advice as to how oneshould live ones worldly life with an eye to Release, Mokshaand as to the true duty of human beings in worldly life. Mylast prayer to everyone, therefore, is that one should not fail tothoroughly understand this ancient science of the life of ahouseholder, or of worldly life, as early as possible in oneslife.

- Lokmanya Tilak

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Among the priceless teachings that may be found in thegreat Hindu poem Mahabharata, there is none so rare andprecious as this The Lords Song. Since it fell from the divinelips of Shri Krishna on the field of battle, and stilled the surgingemotions of His disciple and friend, how many troubled heartshas it quietened and strengthened, how many weary souls hasit led to Him! It is meant to lift the aspirant from the lowerlevels of renunciation, where objects are renounced, to theloftier heights where desires are dead, and where the Yogi dwellsin calm and ceaseless contemplation while his body and mindare actively employed in discharging the duties that fall to hislot in life. That the spiritual man need not be a recluse, thatunion with divine life may be achieved and maintained in themidst of worldly affairs, that the obstacles to that union lie,not outside us but within us, such is the central lesson of theBhagawad Geeta.