Bhagavad Geeta is Yoga Shastra—Meant for Practical Application to Life

Bhagavad Geeta is Yoga Shastra—Meant for Practical Application to Life

Every science has its twin aspects — theory and practice. Intellectual grasp of a subject is theory; its application is practice. Many a student of Vedanta or any other system of philosophy runs the risk of being entangled in mere theorizing. He may derive some intellectual pleasure in such wrangles. But life remains untouched. On the other hand Brahma Vidya is what touches and transforms life. It is intensely practical. When applied to life it is called Yoga Shastra. This is one of the appellations by which the Bhagavad Gita is known.

If a wage earner applies the principles of the Bhagavad Gita to his life, he will become a better wage-earner. A farmer will equip himself better if he only translates the Gita principles into action. A merchant is bound to thrive in his business by putting these tenets to practice. An officer will execute his duty more efficiently when he becomes a yogi. A teacher will throw brighter light on his subject by his taking to the practice of yoga. To sum up, man becomes well equipped for life by taking to yoga. An efficient man is otherwise called a yogi.

All eighteen chapters of the Gita are designated, each as a type of yoga. The function of the yoga is to train the body and the mind. Progress of any kind in yoga is not for him who is given to weakness and depression. The sorrowing one takes himself off the path of yoga. Patanjali, the great author of Yoga Shastra, makes it plain that yoga is not for him who is given to dejection or worry. Poise and a blissful attitude are indispensable for the practice of yoga. But these were exactly what were not found in Arjuna on the eve of the war. A sense of frustration had overtaken him. In the place of an indomitable calibre of mind, dejection and despondency has marked him for their own. That was just the opposite of the mental make-up required of a man of yoga. Still the first chapter in the Gita is designated a system of yoga. It is called Arjuna Vishada Yogam—Yoga of Arjuna’s Dejection. This is no more apt than calling darkness light. Why then is this chapter recognized as a system of yoga?

Distress and dejection are of two kinds. One kind pertains to earthly desires. There are those who languish because they have not amassed in abundance. That kind of lamentation wears away personality. Valour is thereby set at naught. In a victim to despondency a cloud of ignorance collects more and more. But the dejection that comes over Arjuna on the battle-field does not fall under this category. In fact he dispenses with worldly desires. Even suzerainty over the three worlds has no attraction for him. He is not able to see what exactly his duty is-to wage the war or to go into the wilderness. It is this conflict that perturbs him. The plan and purpose of life become more mysterious. Life becomes an unbearable burden. So he yields to a breakdown. This attitude bespeaks detachment from worldly concerns. A sort of spiritual anguish has overtaken him. The Messengers of Light advocate this kind of distress as a prelude to spiritual enlightenment. Here it prepares Arjuna for yoga. Blessed are the distressed in heart; they shall be comforted in enlightenment. This is the law of life. Hence this distress of Arjuna is also called a system of yoga.

All the eighteen yogas contained in the eighteen chapters may be reduced to four—the Karma Yoga, the Raja Yoga, the Bhakti Yoga and the Jnana Yoga. Tradition holds that spiritual life begins with Karma Yoga and goes on evolving into the other three respectively. That the sequence of the chapters in the Gita bears testimony to this is their contention.

There are others who compare these four Yogas to the bud, the tender fruit, the unripe fruit and the fully ripe fruit. But neither Sri Krishna’s life nor his utterances lend any support to this kind of gradation. It is true that the development of the subject in a chapter leads to the theme of the next. Nevertheless this does not warrant holding that one System of Yoga is anterior to another. All through the discourse the Lord equates Karma with Supreme Jnana. In several places Bhakti is placed on a par with Jnana. Elsewhere Raja Yoga gets a footing parallel to Bhakti. In Him these Yogas suffer no gradation; neither is there anything like evolution of one into the other. These seemingly different Yogas may be said to be various readings of the same phenomenon – the moral and spiritual growth of the individual. While playing the part of the charioteer, Sri Krishna reined four white horses yoked to the chariot. They symbolize the four Yogas yoked to the human career. Those snow-white steeds “Suggest purity as the basis of all the Yogas. Their combined effort is necessary to draw the chariot forward. All the four Yogas together stimulate life ‘with spirituality. Since Sri Krishna handles all the four Yogas with equal importance he is called Yogeshwara.

Source: Srimad Bhagavad Geeta-Commentary by Swami Chidbhavananda