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“This conclusion raises several questions, such as Who is God? How does one know God? What does God like? How does one please God? Etc.” — Vraja Kishor das |
As I see it, scripture can be analyzed on three levels:
Literal Allegorical Supra emotional
All three are important, and one should not discard any of them if he or she wants to get as much as possible from scripture. However, there is a progression from one to the next in terms of subtlety and fidelity to the original transcendental experience scripture attempts to express.
As with any other scripture, one can analyze Bhagavad Gita on all three levels.
Literal
On the literal level, the Gita is a historical account, being a chapter from the Mahabharat, which, without saying anything about its objective accuracy, is a history of India’s greatest modern period. Scriptural histories, however, tend to ignore certain events, and focus on others in a way that brings out the ethical, philosophical and theological implications of those events.
In Bhagavad Gita, for example, we hear of a man named Arjuna who is faced with a crisis of duty (dharma). With the able guidance of Krishna, the first six chapters of Gita recount a conversation which analyzes the relative merits of a human’s various co extant levels of duty and concludes that the duty which must be given most precedence is to act in a manner which pleases God, with the motive of pleasing God.
This conclusion raises several questions, such as Who is God? How does one know God? What does God like? How does one please God? Etc. The conversations and events recorded in chapters seven through twelve deal with these questions. The epiphany of Chapter Eleven comes in the context of Krishna indicating Himself to be God.
The topic of God’s identity and the soul’s realization of such raises a variety of questions, which the conversations recorded in chapters thirteen through seventeen deal with. In Chapter Eighteen, Krishna recaps his entire presentation.
Allegorical
Simultaneous to it’s literal meaning, the Gita has allegorical meaning. In the chariot of the body sits the soul, Arjuna, who animates the body and acts through it. Along with Arjuna, the soul, is the Super-Soul - God-within-the-heart - who sits in the chariot as Krishna. Especially in life’s trying moments (the Battle of Kurukshetra) the soul (Arjuna) must turn within and listen to the guidance of the supersoul (Krishna) in order to act properly with the body (Chariot) to be successful in life’s goal (fighting and winning the war).
Supra-emotional
Most sublimely, the Gita, and all scripture, has a supra-emotional meaning. In the Gita we see how the Supreme Person (Krishna) exchanges emotions of Friendship and guidance to the infinitesimal souls (Arjun). In this regard, Chapter Eleven is quite important, as this chapter shows the exchange of 11 of the 12 emotional-archetypes identified in Gaudiya-Vaishnava Vedanta.
Thus the Gita is at once literal, allegorical, and supra-emotional.© CHAKRA 03-Mar-2000
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