Blessed are the ones who took birth in the pre-mobile and pre-computer era. For them games were always outdoor and books were always indoor.
I grew up listening stories from my mother, my uncles and aunts, my grandparents. Mashi, my mothers elder sister was a store house of stories of kings and queens and cowherds and dacoits and rakshasas and bhoot and pishachas and innumerable other entities and non-entities. I still remember listening to her stories lying under the quilt during winter dark nights. The characters used to come alive in front of my eyes with her animated narratives. It was fascinating to listen and read the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. My father owned a book stall. He used to sell all kinds of books, academic and non-academics including religious books. There were ample opportunity for me to sneak through a huge volume of books. I was not categorical about them. Any book containing an interesting topic would arrest my attention. The stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata, tales of Jataka were engrossing and used to captivate me for hours. Surprisingly, I can’t remember any story from or related to The Gita. There were even no reference of the Gita in any of the stories. Isn’t it surprisingly disappointing that in a country where hardly any sane person available who don’t know about Gita, there is no stories around the holy book?
Gita means song. Srimad Bhagavat Gita literally means the song of the God. In general, as we know, all the religious or spiritual literature are about the God. The Gita is the only scripture that is spoken by the God himself! It was spoken in the battle field of Kurukshetra. In the battle between Kaurav and the Pandav, Krishna was the charioteer of Arjun. Just at the onset of the battle, Krishna teaches his friend and disciple Arjun what is Karma, Gyana and Bhakti.
Srimad Bhagavat Gita, or the Gita has always been considered the most sacred book in India and was worshiped as a God. The Gita, the book of all answers which was supposed to be studied and followed in all walks of life, was kept wrapped-up in red cloth and worshiped. It’s the hard work of the saints like AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupad that we are getting a chance to taste the nectar of the Holy book.
The Gita has a few very amazing facts worth knowing:
- Gita starts with a sloka by Dhritarashtra and this is the only sloka by Dhritarashtra.
- The holy book contains 700 verses spanning across 18 chapters. Five hundred seventy three of them are spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna.
- Krishna has not spoken a single word in chapter 1. The first sloka comes from Him after 47 sloka, that too only 2 sloka. Krishna comes out with his advises only after Arjuna is completely shuttered, drops his Gandiva and express his complete inability to fight at all. This teaches us a very important lesson. Advise should not be offered unsolicited.
- The Gita contains 18 chapters. These can be divided into Karma yoga, Gyana yoga and Bhakti yoga. First 6 chapter is about Karma yaga, last 6 chapters are about Gyana yoga and the 6 chapters in the middle talks about Bhakti yoga. As the Bhakti yago is the most precious, it is placed in the middle, guarded by the other yogas. (Collected from lectures of HG Amarendra Prabhu)
- Chapter one of the Gita is the problem statement. In this chapter Arjuna states his problems which are also the problems of mankind in general.
- Gita starts with a question by the anxious blind king Dhritarashtra and ends with a statement from the enlightened Sanjay.
In the first verse Dhritashtra asks Sanjay about what is happening in the battle field of Kurukshetra.
धृतराष्ट्र उवाच
धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सव: ।
मामका: पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय ॥ १ ॥
dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca
dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre
samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
kim akurvata sañjaya
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?
In the last verse Sanjay enlightened with the entire conversation expresses his feelings which is the ultimate truth.
यत्र योगेश्वर: कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर: ।
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥ ७८ ॥
yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo
yatra pārtho dhanur-dharaḥ
tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir
dhruvā nītir matir mama
Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.
- Chapter 2 of the Gita contains the summary of the entire book. Srila Prabhupad has entitled this chapter as “Contents of the Gita Summarized“. The God tries to teach everything in short. But for Arjun, that was a bit too much to consume. Hence came detailed analysis of each topic.
Following table contains chapter wise number of sloka spoken by The God himself, Arjuna, Sanjay and Dhritashtra.
| Chapter No. | Bhagwan Shri Krishna | Arjun | Sanjay | Dhritarashtra | Total |
| 1 | 21 | 24 | 1 | 46 | |
| 2 | 63 | 6 | 3 | 72 | |
| 3 | 40 | 3 | 43 | ||
| 4 | 41 | 1 | 42 | ||
| 5 | 28 | 1 | 29 | ||
| 6 | 41 | 6 | 47 | ||
| 7 | 30 | 30 | |||
| 8 | 26 | 2 | 28 | ||
| 9 | 34 | 34 | |||
| 10 | 35 | 7 | 42 | ||
| 11 | 14 | 32 | 9 | 55 | |
| 12 | 19 | 1 | 20 | ||
| 13 | 34 | 1 | 35 | ||
| 14 | 26 | 1 | 27 | ||
| 15 | 20 | 20 | |||
| 16 | 24 | 24 | |||
| 17 | 27 | 1 | 28 | ||
| 18 | 71 | 2 | 5 | 78 | |
| 573 | 85 | 41 | 1 | 700 |
Times beyond... 