the essence of the bhagavad gita explained by paramhansa yogananda

The Gita’s wisdom is not for dry intellectualists to perform mental gymnastics with its sayings for the entertainment of dogmatists but rather to show a man or woman living in the world, householder or renunciant, how to live a balanced life that includes the actual contact of God, by following the step-by-step methods of yoga. To follow the path advocated by the Bhagavad Gita would be their salvation, for it is a book of universal Self-realization, introducing man to his true Self, the soul-showing him how he has evolved from Spirit, how he may fulfill on earth his righteous duties, and how he may return to God.

The path advocated by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is the moderate, medium, golden path, both for the busy man of the world and for the highest spiritual aspirant.

To work without the inner peace of God is Hades and to work with His joy ever bubbling through the soul is to carry a portable paradise within, wherever one goes. Sri Krishna’s message in the Bhagavad Gita is the perfect answer for the modern age, and any age: Yoga of dutiful action, of nonattachment, and of meditation for God-realization. Lord Krishna’s life demonstrates the ideal not of renunciation of action-which is a conflicting doctrine for man circumscribed by a world whose life breath is activity-but rather the renunciation of earth-binding desires for the fruits of action.… Man should so train his mind by constant meditation that he can perform the necessary dutiful actions of his daily life and still maintain the consciousness of God within…. In the hard shell of symbology, he hid the deepest spiritual meanings to protect them from the devastation of the ignorance of the Dark Ages toward which civilization was descending concurrent with the end of Sri Krishna’s incarnation on earth. Thus, in a language of simile, metaphor, and allegory, the Bhagavad Gita was very cleverly written by Sage Vyasa by interweaving historical facts with psychological and spiritual truths, presenting a word-painting of the tumultuous inner battles that must be waged by both the material and the spiritual man. When, as they often did, scriptural prophets wrote in more recondite metaphors and allegories, it was to conceal from ignorant, spiritually unprepared minds the deepest revelations of Spirit. Divine profundities would not otherwise be conceivable by the ordinary man unless defined in common terms.

Prophets would pick up instances of the everyday life and events of their times and from them draw similes to express subtle spiritual truths. The ancient sacred writings do not clearly distinguish history from symbology rather, they often intermix the two in the tradition of scriptural revelation.

The essence of the bhagavad gita explained by paramhansa yogananda