Sankara’s Gita Bhashyam – 0.1 « Ancient Indians

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Sankara’s Gita Bhashyam – 0.1

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That dispenser of fortunes, having created this world and desiring its preservation (stability) created marIci and other prajApatIs at first and He gave them the vedOkta dharma of pravRtti lakshaNam. Then having created the others Sanaka Sanandana and others he gave them the dharma of nivtti lakshaNam with the attributes of gnyAna and vairAgya. These two vEdOkta dharmas of pravRtti and nivRtti are the cause for the stability of the world.

bhagavan or nArAyaNa created this world with its prajApatis whose duty it was to propagate he human race. So to them he gave the dharma of pravRtti or work.

Just as karma comes from the verb root kR “to do”., dharma comes from the verb root ”dhR” – meaning “to bear” or “to carry”. dharaNi or mother earth bears the weight if all of us. vastra dhAraNam means wearing clothes.

In modern Hindi dharam is taken to mean religion – so some translators inconveniently translate dharma as religion, which is both limited and misleading in a sanskrit context.

However, some translators use the better word “righteousness” for dharma. yat dhArayEt tat dharma. It is ethics, it is justice, it is charity.. it is all the good that one must do.

veda ukta dharma is the dharma that the vedas teach. The vedas teach two kinds of dharma.. one is towards the circles of work and the other is away from them. One is leads to karma and the other leads to sanyAsa, to tyAga, to withdrawal. Sri Krishna mentions this in chapter 3.

That Dharma was to be practiced by all brahmanas and other varnas, by all asramas, because it leads to the progress and welfare of all living beings. But over a long period of time, as dharma was dominated by adharma, caused by the feelings of desire which destroyed the knowledge of the wise ones. With the rise of adharma, that Primal Cause, known as nArAyaNa, the omnipresent (viSNu), desiring to restore dharma, to protect the brahmans (those engrossed in contemplating the brahman) as well as brAhmaNatva (spirituality) of the world, became Krishna, the fraction (ams’a) (son) of dEvaki by vasudEva.

Over time people neglected both vEdOkta dharmas and by dwApara yuga, the situation was alarming enough for nArAyaNa to become Krishna, in order to resurrect dharma in the society.

This makes me wonder whether dwApara yuga was worse than kaliyuga.. since it merited an avatAr of Sri Krishna’s level.

By the protection of brAhmaNatva (spirituality), vAidIka dharma was protected, and there from, the categories of varnas (4 categories encompassing some 4000 castes (kulas/jathis) ) and As’ramas (4 life stages).

Vivekananda and Gandhiji also believed that the salvation of or country would be through the spiritual strength of our people. Nehru believed in industrialisation as any 20th century prAjApati may have done.

I offer another interpretation also for you. Narayana is antaryami.. your “jivatama=paramatama”. When your mind strays way off course from Dharma, your consciousness enters into your mind as divinity and rescues your mind from chaos and deterioration. It teaches you dharma and helps you to do the right karma in a detached way…

Tat Tvam Asi

How many kinds of Yugas are there?

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