Spiritual warfare

" Without you nothing could exist "

Recently I started reading the Bhagawad Gita, the holy book of the Hindus. I had nothing better to read and out of curiosity I just wanted to understand what the scriptures say and where we went wrong in our understanding. Apparently according to my ex-colleague and mentor, one starts out with reading fiction then moves to court room dramas and espionage thrillers, thereafter philosophy and then grows as a spiritual reader. That according to him is the life cycle of a book lover. So when I told him I started reading the Gita, he was thrilled but at the same time said that the turmoil starts now- The Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre (Chap 1:verse 1) ; and yes, he is right.

These are the first two words of verse 1 and basically means "on the holy plain of Kurukshetra"

But it is used as a metaphor for something much more deep. This book was not written as an evidence of some battle that happened in some land between the most prominent and influential monarchs of the time. As I continued reading, it became evident that the historical battle was created as a background and the characters therein have been used for the purpose of illustrating the spiritual and psychological battle going on between the attributes of the pure discriminative intellect in attunement with the soul and the blind sense infatuated mind under the delusive influence of the ego. Thus it is an allegory for the battle that happens in our own body every moment that we live.The first 2 words talk about the battle on the holy plain which is a symbology to our own body.

Man's soul consciousness-the realization of oneness with the eternal blissful spirit-has desceded through various gradations in the mortal body. The senses and blind mind, and the power of pure discrimination, both rule our bodily kingdom; there is a constant conflict between the forces of materialistic senses and the pure discriminative power that tries to return man's consciousness to its native state of soul realization.

The material desire is the supreme ruler for a person who does not meditate. It is desires power to lure man towards sense pleasures rather than soul happiness. Meditation awakens the discriminative qualities and hence one can experience the joy of inner world spirit. Therefore the battle occurs within us to overcome discrimination tendencies by presenting the memories of the past habits. Gita does not teach us that it is a sin to use senses with discrimination and self control; but a spiritual aspirants supreme duty is to seek God and self realization.

The full measure of God's consciousness is manifested in those who have full realization of Universal Consciousness. A perfected being is one who has attained complete liberation in Spirit; he becomes supremely free and can then return to earth as an avatar (divine incarnation) - as did Krishna and Christ among many others.

An avatar has dual purposes: one to teach the general populace about good and evil. But their main purpose is to create other God realized souls, helping as many as possible to attain liberation. This is the very personal and private bond formed between a Guru and a disciple. An union of a loyal spiritual endeavour on the part of the disciple and divine blessing bestowed by the Guru.

Arjuna signifies such a disciple and the whole Gita is the conversation between Krishna and the disciple Arjuna- the spiritual aspirant seeking knowledge from his Guru about how to overcome this battle and fulfill the supreme duty for which he was chosen. It is the spiritual dialogue that takes place between the omnipresent spirit and the soul of the ideal devotee.

I am reminded of Harry Potter, when he goes to buy a wand and he is told the wand chooses the wizard and I feel like Harry Potter where the Gita has chosen me. I had no reason to pick up this particular book at this stage of life and yet I did.