The Bhagavad Gita

Introduction:

The Bhagavad Gita (Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, Song of God), also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Since the Gita is drawn from the Mahabharata, it is classified as a Smṛiti text. However, those branches of Hinduism that give it the status of an Upanishad also consider it a Śruti or "revealed" text. As it is taken to represent a summary of the Upanishadic teachings, it is also called "the Upanishad of the Upanishads."The context of the Gita is a conversation between Lord Krishna and the Pandava prince Arjuna taking place in the middle of the battlefield before the start of the Kurukshetra War with armies on both sides ready to battle. Responding to Arjuna's confusion and moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins who command a tyranny imposed on a disputed empire, Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna his duties as a warrior and prince, and elaborates on yoga, Samkhya,reincarnation, moksha, karma yoga and jnana yoga among other topics.

Overview Of Chapters:

Arjuna-Visada Yoga: Arjuna requests Krishna to move his chariot between the two armies. When Arjuna sees his relatives on the opposing army side of the Kurus, he loses morale and decides not to fight.The Gita consists of eighteen chapters in total:

1. Sankhya Yoga:: After asking Krishna for help, Arjuna is instructed that only the body may be killed, as he was worried if it would become a sin to kill people (including his gurus and relatives), while the eternal self is immortal. Krishna appeals to Arjuna that, as a warrior, he has a duty to uphold the path of dharma through warfare. Krishna told Arjuna the three principles dharma, Atman and the Sharira(Body).
2. Karma Yoga: Arjuna asks why he should engage in fighting if knowledge is more important than action. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good, but without attachment to results, is the appropriate course of action.
3. Karma -Sanyasa Yoga: Krishna reveals that he has lived through many births, always teaching Yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of accepting a guru.
4. Dnyan-Karma-Sanyasa Yoga: Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act ("renunciation or discipline of action"). Krishna answers that both ways may be beneficent, but that acting in Karma Yoga is superior.
5. Atmasanyam Yoga: Krishna describes the correct posture for meditation and the process of how to achieve Samādhi.
6. Dnyana-Vijnana Yoga: Krishna teaches the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga).
7. Aksara-Brahma Yoga: Krishna defines the terms brahman, adhyatma, karma, atman, adhibhuta and adhidaiva and explains how one can remember him at the time of death and attain his supreme abode.
8. Raja-Vidya-Raja-Guhya Yoga: Krishna explains panentheism, "all beings are in me" as a way of remembering him in all circumstances.
9. Vibhuti-Vistara-Yoga: Krishna describes how he is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds. Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Being, quoting great sages who have also done so.
10. Visvarupa-Darsana Yoga: On Arjuna's request, Krishna displays his "universal form" (Viśvarūpa), a theophany of a being facing every way and emitting the radiance of a thousand suns, containing all other beings and material in existence.
11. Bhakti Yoga: Krishna describes the process of devotional service (Bhakti Yoga).
12. Ksetra-Ksetrajna Vibhaga Yoga: Krishna describes nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness.
13. Gunatraya-Vibhaga Yoga: Krishna explains the three modes (gunas) of material nature.
14. Purusottama Yoga: Krishna describes a symbolic tree (representing material existence), its roots in the heavens and its foliage on earth. Krishna explains that this tree should be felled with the "axe of detachment", after which one can go beyond to his supreme abode.
15. Daivasura-Sampad-Vibhaga Yoga: Krishna tells of the human traits of the divine and the demonic natures. He counsels that to attain the supreme destination one must give up lust, anger and greed, discern between right and wrong action by discernment through Buddhi and evidence from scripture and thus act correctly.
16. Sraddhatraya-Vibhaga Yoga: Krishna tells of three divisions of faith and the thoughts, deeds and even eating habits corresponding to the three gunas.
17. Moksa-Sanyasa Yoga: In conclusion, Krishna asks Arjuna to abandon all forms of dharma and simply surrender unto him. He describes this as the ultimate perfection of life.

A Brief Outline of the Plot of Ramayana

Ramayana is the immortal tale of Shri Rama that teaches us the values of ideology, devotion, duty, relationships, dharma and karma.

Rama & Sita: The ideal Royal Couple

Rama, the prince of Ayodhya and his wife Sita are the ideal royal couple. Rama is brave, wise and dutiful, and Sita is beautiful, generous and saintly. Sita gets introduced to Rama at a ceremony called ‘Swayamvara’, organized by her father Janaka, the king of Mithila to identify a suitable bridegroom for her lovely daughter. Princes from various kingdoms are invited and challenge to string a giant bow. Only the mighty Rama could lift the bow, string it and even break it into two halves. This leads Sita to garland Rama as her husband.

Intrigues in the Royal Family

Dasharatha, the king of Ayodhya, had three wives and four sons. Rama was the eldest and his mother was Kaushalya. Bharata was the son of his second and favorite wife, Kaikeyi. The other two were twins, Lakshmana and Shatrughna from his third wife Sumitra. While Rama is all set for coronation, his step-mother, Dasharatha’s second wife, Kaikeyi, wants her son, Bharata, to become king. Before the aged king could hand over his crown to his eldest son Rama, Dasaratha is destined to die. And instead of being crowned king of Ayodhya, Rama is sent into exile in the forest for fourteen year by an intrigue in the palace and a quirk of fate.

Rama is Banished for Fourteen Years

Rama goes to the forest, accompanied by wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, and they live as recluses among the hermits that lead a life of meditative retreat in the deep woods. Bharata, whose mother's evil plot won him the throne, goes to meet Rama in the forest and pleads him to return to the capital. As Rama declines to break his vow given to his deceased father, Bharata is compelled to go back to Ayodhya with his sandals, which he places on the throne as the symbol of Rama’s continuing monarchy.

Rama Fights Ravana, Rescues Sita

While Rama, his wife and brother are living a simple yet happy life in the forest, tragedy strikes! Henceforth, the plot revolves around the abduction of Sita by the demon king Ravana, the ten-headed ruler of Lanka, and Rama’s pursuit to rescue her, aided by Lakshmana and the mighty monkey-general Hanuman. Sita is held captive in the island as Ravana tries to persuade her to marry him. Rama assembles an army of allies comprising mainly of monkeys under the brave Hanuman. They attack Ravana’s army, and after a fierce battle, succeed in killing the demon king and freeing Sita, reuniting her with Rama.

Rama Regains His Kingdom, Sita Returns to Mother Earth

After fourteen years, Rama and Sita return to Ayodhya and are warmly welcomed back by the citizens of the kingdom, where they rule for many years, and have two sons – Luv and Kush. Unfortunately, Sita’s chastity during her period of capture by Ravana comes under scrutiny, and she has to go through trial by fire to prove her purity. But queen, who emerged from the earth at her birth, invokes Mother Earth to take her back into the earth, and the saintly Sita returns to her Mother, never to reappear again.

Sri Ramcharitmanas ("The Lake of the Deeds of Rama")

Jai Shri Ram

Sri Ramcharitmanas ("The Lake of the Deeds of Rama"), an epic poem composed in Awadhi by by the 16th-century Indian poet, Goswami Tulsidas, is devoted to Lord Rama. It is popularly called as Tulsi-krita Ramayana and is well known amongst the Hindi speaking people of India and elsewhere. It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature. Many of the verses and phrases of this epic have passed into common speech.

Tulsidas started writing Sri Ramcharitmanas in Vikram Samvat in Ayodhya and completed it in two years and seven months. A large portion of this epic was composed at Varanasi, where the poet spent most of his later life.
Sri Ramcharitmanas consists of seven chapters or Adhyaya. The chapters have quatrains called chaupais, broken by dohas or couplets and have occasional sortha and chhand.

The first Chapter is Bala Kand. It tells about the importance of the name Ram of the Lord Ram, how the story of Lord Ram is propogated through the ages, who told whom and how Tulsidas got this story, about the reasons of incarnation of the Lord on earth, the marriage of Shiv & Parvati and the childhood of Lord Ram. It concludes with the marriage ceremony of the Lord Ram and his 3 brothers. The first chapter is the largest of the seven chapters.

The second chapter is Ayodhya Kand. It tells about sending of Lord Ram to forest for 14 years, the event on way to Chitrakoot, life at Chitrakoot, meeting with his younger brother Bharat and all the citizens of Ayodhya and reasons of leaving Chitrakoot for denser areas of the forest. Together, the first and second chapter form half volume of this great epic.

The third chapter is Aranya Kand. It gives a glimps of life of Lord Ram along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman in forest, meeting with sages, devotees and earning of Astra & Shastra (divine weapons) from Gautam rishi, the life at Panchavati, the stealing of Lord Ram's wife Sita by the demon king Ravana, and the search process of Sita by Lord Ram and his brother Lakshmana.

The fourth chapter is about meeting of Ram with monkey king Sugreev, their friendship, the vow of Sugreev to find Sita, fight of Sugreev with his brother Baali, the throning in of Sugreev as king of Kishkindha and the search of Sita by the monkies led by Hanuman, Jambwant, Nal-Neel and Angad.

The fifth chapter is about the exploits and bravery of Hanuman - the incarnation of 11th Rudra (Shiva), the finding of Sita at Ashokvatika in Lanka - the kingdom of Ravana, the burning of Lanka by Hanuman, bringing back the message of Sita to Lord Ram and the effort of Lord Ram to find way across the Indian Ocean to Lanka.

The sixth chapter is about the fight of Lord Ram's monkey army and demon king Ravan's demon army, the fight of Lakshman and Meghanaad, the bringing of life giving medicines by Hanuman to save the life of Lakshman, the killing of Ravana and his complete army, the throning in ceremony of Vibhishan - the youngest brother of Ravan, and the journey of Lord Ram along with Mother Sita and monkey chiefs to Ayodhya.

The seventh chapter narrates the reception of Lord Ram at Ayodhya, the throning-in ceremony of Lord Ram as king of Ayodhya, the paying of respect of all Gods and Vedas to Lord Ram, the rule of Lord Ram, the qualities of His rule, the life and bhakti of Kakabhusundi - the great crow, the various principles of life, about the knowledge & relation of the earthly materialism (Maya), the spirit (Atma) and God - the supreme Lord.

Those who read Ramcharitmanas or the Ramayana are blessed with Bhakti (devotion) and Mukti (salvation). They mostly achieve all that they deserve in the materialistic world and are united with the Lord.