Chinmaya International Foundation
Round 6
Based on the Commentary of Gurudev
Pujya Gurudev was the modern Geetacharya. His commentary on the Geeta is one of the greatest spiritual masterpieces of modern times. His explanation, lucid, logical and relevant to the modern man makes it a invaluable treasure. In this round, excerpts from the Holy Geeta will be given and you will have to identify the shloka.
1.
“Man is essentially an imitating animal. This is a psychological truth. The moral rejuvenation of a society in any period of history can take place only because of the example set up by the leaders of that nation. Students can be disciplined only when teachers are well-behaved; the minor officials cannot be kind and honest when the rulers of the country are corrupt tyrants. Children’s behavior depends entirely upon, and is ever controlled by, the standard of purity and culture of their parents.
With this Sri Krishna raises his next argument on why Arjuna should act in the world. Unless he diligently acts, the chances are that the entire community will follow this low standard of retreat from action set up by him and thus they will ultimately invite a general decadence of culture in life”.
Q: Introducing which shloka does Pujya Gurudev say so?
y*dacrit ïeóStÄdevetrae jn>,
s yTàma[< k…éte laekStdnuvtRte. 3.21.
Whatever a great man does, that other men also do (imitate); whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world (people) follows.
2.
“In this chapter, we find how the exquisite dramatist in Vyasa has squeezed the Sanskrit language dry to feed the beauty of his literary masterpiece. Apart from the chosen words and the mellifluous phrases, every metrical dexterity is being employed here, as an effective strategy to heighten the dramatic situation and to paint clearly the emotions of wonderment, amazement, fear, reverence, devotion, etc., in Arjuna. Altogether, in the dignity of concept, in the beauty of diction, in the artistry of its depiction and in its inner stream of drama, this chapter has been rightly upheld by all as one of the highest philosophical poems in the world’s treasure-house of Sacred Books”.
Introducing which chapter does Pujya Gurudev poetically speak thus?
(Ans: Chapter 11) (P 683)
3.
The Vedas condemn the sin, not the sinner. The evil ways of the sinner are but expressions of the evil thoughts in the mind, and so, if the texture of the thoughts flowing in his mind could be changed, the texture of his behavior would also be transformed. He who has come to keep consistently in his mind, thoughts of the Lord, accomplished, in the warmth of his growing devotion, so total a rehabilitation of the mental life that he cannot thereafter carry on his career in sin.
Not only does the Geeta throw its gates open to the sinners, but the Singer of the divine song also seems to have a great missionary zeal to redeem all sinners, and bless them. Even those who are given to evil ways are not debarred from entering the field of spirituality because of their undivine actions and the impurity of their lives. The only insistence is that the worship of the Self must be performed by the devotee with “undivided devotion”….
Even though he has been, till this day, a man of evil ways, wicked and cruel, living the life of the senses, uncontrolled and passionate, even then, from the moment he has taken to the path of contemplation upon the Supreme, with devotion, he is to be considered, says Krishna, as ‘SAINTLY AND GOOD’
Q:For which shloka do we find this brilliant exposition of Gurudev?
Ans:
Aip ceTsuÊracarae Éjte mamNyÉakœ,
saxurev s mNtVy> sMyGVyvistae ih s>.9.30
‘Even if the most sinful worships me, with devotion to none else (or with single-pointedness), he too should indeed be regarded as ‘righteous’, for he has rightly resolved’.
4.
Even the most subtlest of ideas has been wonderfully explained by Pujya Gurudev with his down to earth examples. He was always known for the way he made even the most complex of concepts crystal clear. Here is an example:
“But distinct from all these is the Highest Spirit spoken of as the Supreme Self. With reference to my own children alone am I really a father. With reference to my duty or status I may have yet another name. Similarly, the Imperishable is a status and a dignity gained by the Spirit only with reference to the field-of-the-perishables around and about It, through which It manifests as the various expressions of Life. When my children have died, or I am dismissed from my job, I am no more a father, nor can I any more claim my erstwhile official dignity. But that does not mean that I am, in the absence of children or work, an absolute zero, a total non-entity! No. I will exist as ‘the son of my father,’ or in my individual capacity, though devoid of all my special status and dignity born out of my relationship with my profession or with my children.
When the perishable (Kshara) is transcended, what remains is not Imperishable (Akshara) but that which played as the ‘Perishable-Purusha’ as well as the ‘Imperishable-Purusha’---
Explaining which shloka does Pujya Gurudev gives this brilliant example?
%Äm> pué;STvNy> prmaTmeTyudaùt>,
yae laekÇymaivZy ib-TyRVyy $ñr>. 15.17.
But distinct is the supreme Purusha called the Highest Self, the Indestructible Lord, who, pervading the three worlds (waking, dream and deep- sleep) sustains them
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