BhagVad Geeta - 1st Chapter (2nd Lesson).

All memorable speeches start with a bang!

And so are movies, stories, and dramas.

The same principle is used in Bhagavad Gita. The first chapter opens the Geeta with a bang!

Huge armies on both sides are facing each other, almost about to begin the attack. Arjuna requests his chariot to bring between two armies and looks at his teacher and grandfather.

Arjuna has panic attack, anxiety-neurosis, or nervous breakdowns.

And a most revered warrior refuses to fight!

Try to visualize this, quite a drama!

Geeta's first chapter starts with all this drama.

Some nuggets from the first chapter.

1.       Sanskrit text's first letters/Stanza are carefully crafted. Geeta begins with the word "Dharma". Though the rough translation is religion. But Swami Chinmay Ananda suggests that it's neither religion nor righteousness. It is much more than that. Here it means, "that makes a thing what it is". It is the "essential nature of anything". So essential that without it can not retain its independent existence (Ref 1).  (1.1)

2.       The first stanza is the only stanza in the whole of Geeta that is uttered by Dhritrashtra (धृतराष्ट्र). (1.1)

3.       Hrishikesha is translated by commentators as “Hrishika + isha” (lord of senses) or even as “Hrishi + Kesha” -having short hairs. Commentators Swami Chinmaya Ananda, as well as Lokmanya Tilak, commented on this (Ref 1, 2). (1.15)

4.       Only a few words (Half of the stanza) are spoken by Krishna in the first chapter (1.25)

5.       Symptoms of mental illness or Anxiety-neurosis or panic attack are listed as Sad talk, trembling limbs, dry mouth, spinning head, and depression for commonly liked things (1.27 to 1.30). (Ref. 1).

6.       Then Arjuna goes about rationalizing his decision to not fight a war.

7.       He talks from a personal point of view, individual loss/sacrifice (power/wealth), and family issues, then he talks about breaking a family unit leading to loss of values and finally how women will fall in disgrace.

1^st Chapter creates a drama, arouses readers' interest, and develops a context for the rest of the chapters.

Ref. 1: The Holy Geeta – Swami Chinamay Anand.

Ref. 2: Geeta Rahasya – Lokmanya Tilak.