gita-begin

For Eternal Beginners

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18-73


अर्जुन उवाच -
नष्टो मोहः स्मृतिर्लब्धा त्वत् प्रसादात् मयाच्युत ।
स्थितोऽस्मि गतसंदेहः करिष्ये वचनम् तव ॥ ७३ ॥


arjuna uvAca -
naSTo mohaH smRtirlabdhA tvat prasAdAt mayAcyuta |
sthito'smi gatasaMdehaH kariSye vacanam tava || 73 ||

अर्जुन उवाच [arjuna uvAca] Arjuna said - अच्युत [acyuta] Krishna, त्वत् प्रसादात् [tvat prasAdAt] by Your grace, स्मृतिः [smRtiH] this awareness लब्धा [labdhA] has been grasped मया [mayA] by me. मोहः [mohaH] My delusion नष्टः [naSTaH] is gone. अस्मि [asmi] I am स्थितः [sthitaH] standing गत संदेहः [gata saMdehaH] free of doubt. करिष्ये [kariSye] I will do तव वचनम् [tava vacanam] as you say.

‘Delusion’ is the belief that goes against reality. ‘Awareness’ is the knowledge of things as they are. Arjuna tells Krishna - ‘By Your grace, my delusion is gone. By Your grace itself, this awareness has been grasped by me’.

Delusion is to believe that I am my body, without recognizing the Self.

Awareness is to know and recognize that everything - be it conscious or non-conscious - exists as the Lord’s body - He is the Self in everything.

Delusion is to consider existence, without having the Lord as the Self in everything.

Awareness is to recognize that our routine activities and prescribed duties are the Lord’s worship. We achieve the Lord by performing those activities and duties. Believing them to be binding in nature is delusion. Such delusion is gone now.

The Self is distinct from the environment and doesn’t carry any characteristic of the environment. Its only characteristic is the ability to know. It exists for the purpose of the Lord alone. Being governed by the Lord is its natural state of being.

The Lord has the creation, sustenance and the destruction of the entire universe as His sport.

He repels all flaws without exception. His form is purely gratifying.

By His very nature, He is a great ocean of unbroken, unlimited knowledge, strength, wealth, valor, power, luster and other such favorable characteristics.

He is known as परब्रह्म [parabrahma] - the supreme expanse. ‘Awareness’ is such knowledge of The Lord in His true form.

Arjuna says - ‘I have attained knowledge in this form - I now know the true characteristics of the Supreme Being. I know the distinction between this Supreme Being and the rest.

I will end up adoring the Lord by practicing my routine and prescribed activities, having Him as my only purpose - even in the resolution of guilt. Then, with equanimity and self-control, I experience bliss in the characteristics of the Self. This gains the form of devotion.

The Supreme Lord, who is the subject of all the Vedanta, can only be attained by the worship of the Supreme Lord.

I know that You, the son of Vasudeva, are the Supreme Lord.

Moreover, I’m free of the exhaustion, which was caused by delusion. That delusion was fueled by feelings of pity and affection towards relatives. I now stand fit. I will do as you say right now, in war and in all other ways. I shall fight’.

Next, Sanjaya answers Dhrtarashtra, who had asked what his sons and the Pandava were doing in battle.