Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Enrichment of Culture by the Gita

Swami Ranganathanandaji is the President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. This article has been culled from his book Eternal Values for A Changing Society, Vol I, pp.61-86.

The Gita summarizes the essential teachings of Vedanta and presents them in a popular manner. That is why it has become the scripture of the vast masses in this country. When we study the Gita, we are not merely studying the Upanishadic philosophy, but also the ethical implications of that philosophy. We want ethical guidance, and the Gita provides it. A metaphysics which speaks of the highest Reality without reference to everyday life will not be of much use to us. Therefore, the sublime ethical and practical implications of Vedanta are elaborated in the Gita.

Apart from the ethics of conduct, there is another element in the Gita which is bhakti, devotion to God. The bhakti of the Gita is the expression of the religious mood at its highest and best. It is love of God out of the fullness of one's heart and not out of its emptiness, as it is in its early stages. It is this that makes the devotee of the Gita an embodiment at once of fearlessness and gentleness. The twelfth chapter is a mighty saga in praise of the perfection of character through this path of spiritual discipline.

From all these considerations, the Gita has assumed an importance in our life, and that importance is increasing day by day. Its appeal to the thinking minds of the modern world, as its appeal to the thinking minds of India in the past, is in sharp contrast to the indifference and often hostility displayed by the modern mind to the scriptures and prophets of the world. The source of this power lies in the two important features of its message--its rationality and its universality.

When we read through the Gita, we clearly find that its teachings are addressed to all humanity--to all men and women who are struggling to realize the higher expressions of their soul. That is what is given by this philosophy and religion. This ideal is also emphasized in the nature of the dialogue which is characteristic of the Gita. This dialogue is between Krishna and Arjuna. In our ancient scriptures, Arjuna is considered as the incarnation of Nara, the archetypal Man, and Krishna of Narayana--the supreme indwelling Lord. It is not that Krishna is imparting his teaching here to any particular sect, but to man, through his disciple, Arjuna. In the Gita, therefore, God is face to face with Man--Narayana with Nara--and this is what constitutes its solemn and sublime setting.

The Gita is to be viewed in its own setting--as a commentary on Vedanta given by one who was universal and human, that is, Sri Krishna himself. Universal teachings cannot be given by anybody but by universal men; and they cannot be understood by anybody but by a universal pupil. If one who is limited by creed studies the Gita, he will find there only a narrow teaching--an echo of himself--and his conception of Sri Krishna will be conditioned by his limited mind. This has been done in the past; but what we now require is an open mind, a universal attitude to life; then alone will the Gita open out its best to us--its spirit of universality and practicality. This accounts for the wide influence that the Gita exercises on the people of this country and outside. The people in this country and outside find in the Gita something which will strengthen their faith and their spiritual endeavour in their own way. Whether they be Christians or Muslims, or Hindus of various denominations, the Gita intensifies their shraddha in their own faith. Its universality is of a special type. It is not an imposition, but an invitation. The Gita belongs to everyone in his or her own way. Such a universal message we require to mediate between the various religions that prevail at present.

The Vedas teach us karma or ritualistic sacrifices etc. to secure a fine place in heaven after death. Coming to the Upanishads, there is a reaction, and they have nothing to do with karma or sacrifices, etc. The ideal is to realize the Reality by meditation; there is no place for action. But in the Gita, we find Sri Krishna's own reconciliation of the demand for action and the demand for thought and meditation.

Secondly, the Upanishads spoke of a Reality which was the fruit of a sustained philosophical inquiry, and Sri Krishna wanted to bring out the ethical implications of this philosophy. Man wants a good deal of guidance. If philosophy does not give it, he looks for it elsewhere. We want the guidance of philosophy so that life may be lifted up to a higher level. The aim of the Gita is to lift up life from the ordinary to a higher level of ethical and moral values and place it under the guidance of a sublime philosophy.

The second chapter gives us the whole scheme of the philosophy of life as conceived by the Bhagavad-Gita. This is how the Upanishadic thought developed and evolved till it found a new and original formulation by Sri Krishna in the Gita. As a friend, philosopher, and guide of humanity, Sri Krishna gave his message of a lofty metaphysics and practical ethics which has sustained and will continue to sustain humanity through the ages.

Take our history; what do we find there? We find a great man rising about every thousand years. Each of them comes to renew the vigour of the same ancient ideals, may be with a little different emphasis according to the needs of the time. That is why there is an unbroken continuity of our culture. India has survived many a vicissitude. This must make us humble. Let it be constantly kept in view that our culture is preserved because of these great personalities, whom we look upon as avataras or incarnations of God. Whatever be the attitude we take with regard to these great men, whether as avataras or otherwise, they come when the national life is at its lowest ebb, and their touch kindles a new life into the almost dead bones and muscles of the nation. God alone can give life; call them God or Godmen, they breathe life into the dead bones and muscles of the people. One such great man is Sri Krishna.

Sri Krishna was a dynamic personality and his teachings also are dynamic; they are a mass of strength-giving ideas. We have to understand this Krishna. Up till now, we have had only the Krishna who evoked our tears and our softer sides. But the Krishna of the Gita comes to lift up a people and make them dynamic.

He is a person who has impressed himself upon the culture of this country in every aspect. Take away Krishna, and everything of value in our culture vanishes. His impress is there on our art, literature, music, painting, sculpture, folk-dance, etc. Many a foreigner is struck by the rich cultural heritage of India.

Krishna is one who strengthened and enriched this culture. Long before the separation of humanity into the Hindu, Mussalman and Christian was dreamt of, he was there. Therefore, Krishna belongs to every child of this country, be he or she Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or anybody else. A time will come when everyone in this country, irrespective of caste, creed, or colour, will recognize Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Buddha and Sankara as the architects of the nation's mind who handed down a rich cultural heritage to the people of India without any distinction. This culture is the common property of all communities. Dr.Soekarno of Indonesia, in an article contributed by him to The Hindu of Chennai, said that, in the blood of every Indonesian, the culture of India is there. So, it is not difficult to imagine a time in India when everyone will claim and look to the same ancient culture for inspiration and guidance.

When we realize our true condition, we realize the part played by Sri Krishna in the culture of this country. Sri Krishna of the Mahabharata is a mighty philosopher as well as a mighty man of action. Yet he was absolutely detached. He was respected by everybody--the mighty of the land, the sages, the women, the children and the peasants.

The Gita is the teaching of a mighty and dynamic personality; and he has infused his mightiness and dynamism into his teaching. Such a dynamic teaching can be properly understood only by those who have a little of that mightiness in themselves.

The very opening verse that he utters to admonish Arjuna is Kutastva kasmalam idam visame samupasthitam--'Whence has this weakness crept into you at this critical juncture?' The Upanishads and the Gita speak only of strength. Swami Vivekananda says: 'Strength, strength, is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page.' Weak minds can never understand or grasp mighty ideas. In their attempt to do so, they but dilute such ideas with their own littleness. But when we develop a little strength and vigour ourselves, we shall find in the Gita something that will stand us in every situation of life.

The Gita is not meant to soothe us and put us to sleep, but to wake us up from our slumber and lethargy and goad us on to the highest self-realization and self-expression. The verses of the Gita have a power to invigorate us and to make us think in fresh terms; they will not let us move in the old ruts. Sri Krishna gave that magic touch to Arjuna by the words naitat tvayyupapadyate --'Ill doth it become thee.'

In the sentiment contained in that famous short sentence, we have the appeal, through psychology, to every individual to rise higher and higher, and to find new sources of strength within oneself. The educational value of this appeal is supreme. How to help another person, how to make him or her stand on his or her own feet, is a great educational problem.

When you come to the question as to what is really beneficial to the individual, the best is what Sri Krishna does when he appeals to the sense of self-respect of the individual. In all cultured families, influencing the behaviour of children is done through this appeal to their self-respect and not to their sense of fear. In uncultured societies, parents resort to the fear appeal either through ghosts or through darkness, which are sources of fear. But in all such cases, what we seek is not the education or development of the individual, but merely the temporary influencing of outward behaviour through methods that tend to leave permanent scars on the inner man. That proves their worthlessness as an educational method.

Vedanta holds that if we express our real nature, we can never be criminal or wicked men. In committing sin or wicked acts, we are not expressing our real nature, which is pure and perfect, but only our apparent nature which is centred round the ego. Ethical conduct, according to Vedanta, is the expression of one's own divine nature. Man lives the true life when he expresses the divinity within him. Selfishness is not an expression of our real nature, it is only on the surface. When you express the surface nature, you are not expressing your real nature. Only then am I perfect when I am living the true life, that is, when I am expressing my true self. That is the highest ethics according to Vedanta.

The Gita has a simplicity which we often miss. We are accustomed to complicate things. We cannot appreciate simple things. The human mind wants, in the name of philosophy and religion, something striking in the form of books, dress, rituals, etc. Simple character or simple ethical beauty is not much appreciated. Simple beauty is not understood by ordinary men. Truth which is simple is clothed in a variety of ways, and we get, not the naked truth but a dressed-up truth. When you come to the Gita, you have the presentation of truth in all its simplicity which helps to take us through life's problems. It frees us from all attachments to joys and sorrows etc., so that we may be attached to truth only. It gives us absolute calm, and a freedom from all conditionings--external and internal. We want this independence and freedom of the individual to be maintained at all costs. That is what philosophy seeks to confer on life. If we have this, what else do we require? One who attains this remains fresh, in spite of aging, and retains the freshness of a new-born babe even unto death. He has philosophy to guide him. This is the true test of philosophy--a philosophy which helps us to pass through life's struggles without getting scorched, which helps us to remain as fresh at the end of the journey as at the beginning.