Dharmyaḿ Saḿvādam

Adhyāya

Being born into Sanātana Dharma, I felt that I should have the knowledge imparted in Srimad Bhagavad Gitā, which is being revered as the most sacred philosophical teaching, in our belief. But when I started reading Gitā from various sources, I found that there is a certain pattern of variation among each version of Gitā’s interpretation. The explanations varied among different philosophers for the same śloka. This was a bit mind-boggling for a nascent observer like me. I could neither understand the reason behind different school of thought, nor the age-old saying - ‘ślokas are so intricate that many meanings could be derived’ could justify these variations to me. Actually this is where youngsters like me get bored and confused as to how to proceed further and get de-motivated and disinterested and ultimately lose faith in our own scriptures. But something rather strange occurred to me one day.

I was lying down and thinking about how to proceed in cultivating Gitā for my own good. I suddenly struck upon an idea that if I will be able to understand each word of a śloka in English, then recreate the Sanśkrt śloka into English sentences without any additional adjectives or adverb or preposition or conjunction and keeping certain words like Yajña, Yoga, Karma, Dharma, Ātmā, Brahma as it is, until their meanings are explained by the Lord; then this could be a start. I felt that every word conveys a particular meaning in a sentence/verse. So as far as possible, I kept a one-to-one word match of Sanskrit words with English.

e.g.: ‘cetanā’ will always mean ‘consciousness’ for me, and never ‘mind’; as the word ‘manah’ interprets ‘mind’ for me.

Even though this path might be incorrect according to some, but as of now this method makes so much sense to me, rather than following blindly one path of a particular sect and then opposing the rest. Saying so, I am also open and whenever I will genuinely feel that this way of approaching towards the truth is wrong, I will accept and mend my ways without any ego hassles as my main aim is not to build a revolting path or to undermine other paths, but to attain Jñāna.

- Śatyanveśi Bhāradwāja

Purpose of this Research Work

I believe in not just the theoretical knowledge but also to implement them as far as possible in everyday practical situations of my life. I am always keen upon having a practical approach to every theory, may it be physics, chemistry or Lord’s teaching. And the Lord also believes so.

The purpose behind this research work is to finally come up with a hand-book for me, where the questions of my ignorant mind are answered in totality. Now my questions are not exactly same as Arjuna’s, but their answers are present randomly inside Gitā. The answers need be gathered and written down in a point-wise manner (just as a kid would do while preparing for his exams at school). This research will help me to search, find answers and memorize them sooner, to implement.

This particular work happens to be the first step towards that goal. So for me, Arjuna, Sanjay or others speech does not hold much importance and hence I have ignored most of them in this work. Once all the 17 chapters of Lord’s teachings are translated word by word. Then my research work will proceed to the second step and that is summing up all the teachings in different chapters for one particular subject.

e.g.: What should be the features of a person who is looking for transcendence?

Now the answer, to this question spans multiple chapters including the features of Sthita-Prajñā in Sāmkhya Yoga, features of Yogi in Jñāna Yoga, features of Lord’s devotee in Bhakti Yoga and some more. So my mission will be to sum up all the features described by the Lord, removing the repetition and come up with the point-wise answer so that I can follow those in my life.

I could have taken up several morality books already available in the market answering such questions, but frankly speaking I do not have the confidence in them to consider them as unadulterated form of Gitā teaching (without the author’s own additions). I would rather take years of study and come up with my own version of the teachings for my own.

So for getting the common meaning of all Sanśkrt words, I have considered multiple sources and I am deeply obliged to all those works and their authors. Some of those are as follows:

· Bhagavad-Gitā As It Is – By Swāmi Prabhupāda

· Srimad Bhagavad Gitā –with English translation and transliteration – By Jayadayāl Goyandka

· The Bhagavad Gitā with the commentary of Sri Ādi Sankarācharya translated by Swami Gambhirānanda.

· Bhagavad Gitā Audio CD – By Pandit Narendra Sharmā, Anup Jalotā

- Śatyanveśi Bharadwāja

To The Readers

This work is not claiming to be the more accurate than other works by other philosophical greats, neither is it asking others to read this and implement. This work of mine is solely intended for my own personal purpose and I would suggest all readers to read the original Gitā in Sanśkrt and imbibe your own meaning than blindly following my interpretation. I strongly believe in Lord, when He means – “whatever one aspires and motivates his actions towards that aim, he will surely achieve that in due course of time.” So if you honestly want to understand the teaching of the Lord, devote yourself towards that goal and you will see how one door after the other will sequentially open in front of you.

Believe it or not, this has happened with me.

- Śatyanveśi Bhāradwāja

Dharmyaḿ Saḿvādam

Monday, 30 May 2011

Adhyāya

From The Author

Purpose of this Research Work

To The Readers

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