Religious Experiences in America

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most important religious texts of Sanatana Dharma aka Hinduism. This is an integral part of the Bhishma Parva of the one of the most revered Hindu epics Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita is in reality a conversation on the war field between Lord Krishna and Arjuna the middle Pandava.

Krishna the speaker in the epic, is dispelling Arjuna’s confusion and moral dilemma, when the latter finds it difficult to fight with his own brethren. Through this poetic verse, Lord Krishna explains the duties of a warrior prince and elaborates on different Yogic and Vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies. During the discourse, Lord Krishna also reveals his identity as the Supreme Being Himself and blesses Arjuna with an awe-inspiring glimpse of the divine universal form.

I received this e-mail over the Sanatana Dharma Foundation’s Yahoo group and thought it would be appropriate to share it with you all. The content of the mail is about the meaning of knowledge and how Krishna has explained it to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.

– Bhagavad Gita 7:3

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego — all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.

– Bhagavad Gita 7:4

Jivas (living entities) are described as Superior Energy by Lord Krishna.

Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.

– Bhagavad Gita 7:5

Krishna further explains that combination of souls and material energy manifests as living entities in different forms - men, animals, birds, trees etc, but He is source of of both energies.

All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.

– Bhagavad Gita 7:6

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

– Bhagavad Gita 7:7

This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and non-moving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

– Bhagavad Gita 9:10

Lord Krishna’s role among Living Entities

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.

– Bhagavad Gita 18.61

I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.

– Bhagavad Gita 15.15

This quote struck me straight in my heart. I don’t know where it has been taken from but it is indeed very true.
Living Entities are in search of their eternal friend and father Shri Krishna and wants to return back to their eternal home Goloka Vrindavan, abode of Lord Krishna.