BHAGAVAD GITA and HUMAN CONFLICTS

Dr.T.V.Rao MD
We live in a conflicting world, where our personal interests carry more importance than God, Religion and Society. When you ask any man in power certainly he appears to be happy but there is an ever-growing vacuum within him, as he cannot afford to lose the pleasures of worldly life. And a feeling of enough with work, the getting fed-up with things, exhaustion, and a tiredness that we often feel in life is the result of tamas, the principle of inertia. All these are to be found in us at all times. We are sattvika, rajasika and tamasika, at every time. The Mahabharata teaches how complex the human life, our relations, jealous, envious nature of the people. The battle of the Mahabharata or any battle whatsoever, inward or outward, is the colour and the shape that these forces put on when they commingle in the interest of cosmic evolution, Lord Krishna teaches the role of a Human in the world which is illusionary. The BhagavadGita is considered by eastern and western scholars alike to be among the greatest spiritual books the world has ever known. In a very clear and wonderful way the Supreme Lord Krishna describes the science of self-realization and the exact process by which a human being can establish their eternal relationship with God. In terms of pure, spiritual knowledge the Bhagavad- Gita is incomparable, its intrinsic beauty is that its knowledge applies to all human beings and does not postulate any sectarian ideology or secular view. This is because proficiency in the Bhagavad- Gita reveals the eternal principles which are fundamental and essential for spiritual life from all perspectives and allows one to perfectly understand the esoteric truths hidden within all religious scriptures. Many great thinkers from our times such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweizer as

well as Madhvacarya, Sankara and Ramanuja from bygone ages have all contemplated and deliberated upon its timeless message. The aim of the Gita is to lead us up to this universal synthesis of the ultimate balance of things. The primary purpose of the Bhagavad- Gita is to illuminate for all of humanity the realization of the true nature of divinity; for the highest spiritual conception and the greatest material perfection is to attain love of God! To understand Bhagavad-Gita, we have to first of all, to recondition our minds and make ourselves prepared for the reception of this impersonal teaching. We are in a world of conflicts and forces, rajas, which pulls us outward in the direction of space, time and objects though the avenues of senses, and sattva, which keeps us intact, integrated in our own selves and in our own status. We are personal, and the teachings of Bhagavad Gita, is impersonal, manifest in various stages. Ultimately, it will become totally impersonal, into which the personalities vanish altogether, as if they had never been at any time. The Mahabharata concludes with these words: Fools find themselves in umpteen situations every day when they can be happy, or when they can be unhappy, also. It is the stupid man, not the wise one, who sees occasions for joy, or sees occasions for grief in the world. The world is not intended to bring us joy, nor is its intention to pour on us. A super genius computer, the palaces people live, the estates they possess have no intention to give us satisfaction, nor is it intended to be there to bring us sorrow. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, when he spoke the Bhagavad-Gita, intended to resolve a conflict. What is a conflict may be a question that raises itself before our minds. There are, many types of conflict, within which every other type, kind, or variation of disharmony can be subsumed. The occasion for the delivery of this Gospel was the battle of Mahabharata, which means a field of conflict with other people. This is what is known as a battle. The first problem one encounters in

life is conflict with other people. 'You do not like me,' and 'I do not like you.' When we wake up in the morning and look at the world, we are faced with a conflict with other people. This is a difficulty which saps the vitality of many in the world. We have to see faces with which we cannot reconcile ourselves. It may be a boss, a subordinate or an equal,it makes no difference. When we cannot reconcile ourselves with another face, there is a conflict; and we see nothing but faces when we get up in the morning and look at the world outside. The battle of Mahabharata is a large Epic, describing this primary conflict of human nature,conflict of one person with another person, in which can be included conflicts of groups, communities and nations, because all these are nothing but personalities and individualities associating and clashing in certain manners and patterns. It is the conflict between the individual and the world as a whole in the form of this vast creation. Man has estranged himself from Nature. This is another conflict,the conflict between man and Nature. The world seems to be outside us, and we seem to be strangers in this world. We are not sure whether we are really wanted in this world. Sometimes it looks that we are not wanted at all, and yet we, somehow, reconcile ourselves with the hardships of this mysterious creation and pull on in life, 'get on,' as we say, next conflict is due to another conflict altogether, viz., the conflict between the Universe and the Absolute, between man and God. We are estranged from God Himself. That is why every other conflict has cropped up. Social conflict or political conflict is due to individual conflict. The individual conflict is due to the conflict of natural forces in respect of the individual. This, again, is due to a higher conflict between the Universal Soul and the individual soul, man and God waging a war with each other. The philosophy of Bhagavad Gita convinced many great personalities in the world as said by Aldous Huxley The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic

statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity. Email doctortvrao@gmail.com