Gita 01.01 explained
Chapter 1 – OverviewTotal 46 verses, preparation for Krishna to speak His message. In the original Mahabharata written by Srila Vyasa Deva, and the Mahabharata [...]
Chapter 1 – OverviewTotal 46 verses, preparation for Krishna to speak His message. In the original Mahabharata written by Srila Vyasa Deva, and the Mahabharata [...]
Let's look at the significance of the last three components of the Bhagavad-gita 01.01: Historical significance (samaveta yuytsavah): Literally, this describes the juncture when the [...]
The Bhagavad-gita’s first verse (01.01) can be said to have six key components: dhritarashtra uvaca, dharma-kshetra, kuru-kshetra, samavetah yuyutsavah, mamakah pandavas caiva and kim akurvata. [...]
Whenever fighting breaks out between two sides, we may naturally ask: “What is the cause?” While a particular issue may be stated as the cause, [...]
The Bhagavad-gita is the song of God, or more precisely, Krishna’s poetic words of philosophical wisdom to Arjuna. Yet it’s noteworthy that the Gita begins [...]
The Bhagavad-gita is, as its very name indicates, God’s message in the form of a song. Why does the Gita begin with the words of [...]
Among the Gita’s 700 verses, Krishna speaks 574 verses, Arjuna speaks 84, Sanjaya speaks 41 and Dhritarashtra 1. When the Gita contains words in addition [...]
Dhritarashtra’s blindness — physical: His blindness, being physical, was the most self-evident. It prevented him from ascending the throne and left him with an unfulfillable [...]
Suppose someone is strong, be it physically, economically, politically. We easily understand that they can be dangerous if they start abusing their strength. However, [...]
Suppose we are buying something. Usually, we would compare its cost with its value: is what I have to pay commensurate with what I will [...]
Suppose a doctor needs to give an injection to a sick child. But the child starts crying and complaining about the doctor: “You are so [...]
Some people fear, “If I become detached, will I become emotionless, uncaring, stone-hearted?” No, detachment empowers us to care truly for others, for it frees [...]
Suppose a father who owns a firearm keeps it accessible to his teenage son. If the son injures someone with that gun, the son is [...]
Darkness of the heart refers to the distortion of our desires, the degradation of our consciousness that happens because of our distorted desires, thereby making [...]
At the start of the Bhagavad-gita (01.01), Dhritarashtra asks: What did the two armies assembled for fighting do? Herein, the unspoken query was: did his [...]
The Bhagavad-gita begins and ends with references to places. In its first verse, Dhritarashtra asks his assistant Sanjaya about the events that transpired at the [...]
Sometimes people fear, “If I become detached, I will become hardhearted.” However, what makes us hardhearted is not detachment, but its opposite: attachment. When we [...]
A question that contains the answer within itself raises questions about the question. For example, suppose someone asks, “After the diners sat down at the [...]
Attachment makes us blind – blind to everything other than the object of our attachment. The Bhagavad-gita (01.01) indicates this blinding power of attachment through [...]