Key Symbolism in the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is a deeply rich resource for living and especially for your progress in Surrender Meditation. To unlock its meaning for you, here are the main symbols as I understand them: 1. The clan of the Pandavas, Arjunas clan, represents wisdom and righteousness. In the story, they are about to begin a war against theKuravas, who represent desire, attachment, ignorance, and all egodriven traits. This symbolizes the central battle of ones sadhana at the point one begins to take it up seriously. 2. The blind king, Dhritarastra, to whom the story of the Bhagavad Gita is told, represents that part of our nature that wants things to work out the way we want. He is the father of the Kuravas. He represents attachment and spiritual blindness. Hes not bad guy, he is just stuck in his point of view. He therefore has no direct experience himself and can only get knowledge from others. Yet he is interested. So he asks Sanjaya to tell him what is happening. When we are interested but spiritually blind we can only hear about the spiritual realm from others. 3. Sanjaya, the teller of this story, has attained some spiritual wisdom through willful practices and the onset of powers. He has one foot in both worlds and can therefore see what is happening in the battle. He is not blind. He is somewhat awakened. Sanjaya is that part of us that has attained some real spiritual experiences through willful practices and some surrender. 4. Krishna represents pure Divine Love and Perfect Wisdom. Krishna has agreed to drive Arjunas chariot in the battle, symbolic of turning over ones sadhana to the Divine hand. Krishna, or Perfect Divine Love, is the teacher of the wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita, as eventually it is in ones sadhana. Krishna, or Divine, perfect love, resides within each of us. It is our ultimate sadhana teacher and guide if one follows it. 5. Arjuna, the hero, represents who you really are at your spiritually ablest, most sincere, and most blessed. When we enter the story, he is in the deepest spiritual crisis of his life. He cant see how to go on. He doesnt know what his spiritual duty is anymore. He wont fight until he does. Krishna explains it to him. Arjuna gets it and he makes a choice. He decides to fight and let Krishna guide his chariot. Sadhana can only progress past a certain point through action combined with surrender to Divine Love.

6. Arjunas chariot is the body. The reins are the will. The horses are the five sense organs. 7. The war is symbolic of the battle to know complete fulfillment in the Divine. 8. The conversation between Arjuna and Krishna represents sincere seeking, asking and received wisdom at this crucial stage of sadhana, as opposed to the intellect trying to figure it out, which it cannot do. Sadhana is about relationship with the Divine. Ask and you shall receive is a true spiritual principle. 9. The story of the Bhagavad Gita begins with Arjunas Depression.This is that phase of sadhana when you realize you must confront your own attachments and ignorance at their core. But you feel you either cannot win this battle or, if you do, the cost will be too high. Anticipation of losing our deepest attachments brings up immense grief and depression. Krishna gets Arjuna through this crisis with love, contact and wisdom. Arjunas depression and his subsequent awakening represent the awakening of the kundalini and the choice to surrender to Divine love. The process of sadhana is the process of allowing ones soul to be occupied by the Divine through grace. The Bhagavad Gita is the great story of how this can take place for you. I recommend you buy the following two versions: 1) The translation by Stephen Mitchell. Good for Western English speakers to begin with. For book: click here For Kindle: click here 2) The translation by Swami Chidbhavananda. This hefty volume has word-for-word translation, full commentary from Chidbhavananda and wonderful passages from Ramakrishna. click here As you make friends with this amazing book and connect what it says to your life and sadhana, it will continually inspire, console and guide you.