Standpoint for Reading the Gita

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Standpoint for Reading the Gita

At one of the sessions a distinguished-looking lady visitor wanted to ask a question about the Bhagavad Gita. While she was framing her question in proper words, Maharaj suddenly asked her: "From what standpoint do you read the Gita?"

V: From the standpoint that the Gita is perhaps the most important guide for the spiritual seeker.

M: Why do you give such a stupid answer? Ofcourse it is a very important guide for the spiritual seeker; it is not a book of fiction. My question is: what is the standpoint from which you read the book?

Another visitor: Sir, I read it as one of the Arjunas in the world for whose benefit the Lord was gracious enough to expound the Gita. When Maharaj looked around for other answers there was only a general murumur in confirmation of this answer.

M: Why not read the Gita from the standpoint of Lord Krishna? 

To this suggestion there were simultaneously two types of startled reactions from two of the visitors. One was a shocked exclamation which clearly meant that the suggestion would tantamount to a sacrilege. The other was one single clap of hands, a reflex action obviously denoting something like Archimedes' eureka. Both the concerned visitors were rather embarrassed by their unwitting articulation and by the fact that the two reactions were the exact opposite of each other. Maharaj gave the clapper a quick look of approval and continued:

M: Most religious books are supposed to be the spoken word of some enlightened person. However enlightened a person, he must speak on the basis of certain concepts that he finds acceptable. But the remarkable distinction of the Gita is that Lord Krishna has spoken from the standpoint that he is the source of all manifestation, i.e., from the standpoint not of the phenomenon, but of the noumenon, from the standpoint 'the total manifestation is myself'. This is the uniqueness of the Gita.

Now, said Maharaj, consider what must have happened before any ancient religious text got recorded. In every case the enlightened person must have had thoughts which he must have put into words, and the words used may not have been quite adequate to convey his exact thoughts. The master's words would have been heard by the person who recorded them, and what he recorded would surely have been according to his own understanding and interpretation. after this first handwritten record, various copies would have been made by several persons and the copies could have contained numerous errors. In other words, what the reader at any particular time reads and tries to assimilate could be quite different from what was really intended to be conveyed by the original master. Add to all this the unwitting or deliberate interpolations by various scholars in the course of centuries, and you will understand the problem I am trying to convey to you.

I am told that the Buddha himself spoke only in the Maghadi language, whilst his teaching, as recorded, is in Pali or in Sanskrit, which could have been done only many many years later; and what we now have of his teaching must have passed through numerous hands. Imagine the number of alterations and additions that must have crept into it over a long period. Is it then any wonder that now there are differences of opinion and disputes about what the Buddha actually did say, or intended to say?

In these circumstances, when I ask you to read the Gita from the standpoint of Lord Krishna, I ask you to give up at once the identity with the body-mind complex when reading it. I ask you to read it from the point of view that you are the animating consciousness - the Krishna-consciousness - and not the phenomenal object to which it gives sentience - so that the knowledge that is the Gita may be truly unfolded to you. You will then understand that in the Vishwa-rupa-darshan what Lord Krishna showed Arjuna was not only his own swarupa, but the swarupa - the true identity - of Arjuna himself, and thus, of all the readers of the Gita.

In short, read the Gita from the standpoint of Lord Krishna, as the Krishna consciousness; you will then realize that a phenomenon cannot be 'liberated' because it has no independent existence; it is only an illusion, a shadow. If the Gita is read in this spirit, the consciousness, which has mistakenly identified itself with the body-mind construct, will become aware of its true nature and merge with its source.