The Hidden Psychological and Spiritual Meaning of the Gita — Chapter 1, Verse 1
When we read the Shree Bhagavad Gita as the allegory it was intended to be by its author, the great sage Vyasa, it describes the spiritual struggles within each person who sets out on the path to liberation or oneness with God — which is the goal of yoga and meditation. When you understand the implied truths in the first chapter of the Gita you can begin your yoga journey with much greater clarity.
Dhritarashtra said: “On the holy plain of Kurukshetra (dharmakshetra kuru-kshetra), when my offspring and the sons of Pandu had gathered, eager for battle, what did they do, O Sanjaya?
Shree Bhagavad Gita 1:1
As human beings on this plane of existence, we face multiple battles every day — both internally and externally. At the end of each day we should ask ourselves which forces have won the battles in your life that day — the forces of good or of evil?
Our inner and outer conflicts are innumerable and include a wide range cosmic battles — including biological, bacteriological, physiological, hereditary, social, ethical, political, climatic, sociological, psychological, and metaphysical.
Our daily battles pit our eternal spirit against our material nature. We struggle between spirit and matter, soul and body, life and death, knowledge and ignorance, health and disease, self-control and temptation, and discrimination and blind senses.
The goal of the Bhagavad Gita is to guide us toward our inner spiritual powers and win every battle for our spirit. If we can accomplish this goal, eventually, we’ll become one with the higher consciousness — known as Krishna, Buddha, and Christ consciousness.
The Spiritual Allegory Hidden in the Gita
The true message of the Bhagavad Gita, like many other scriptures of various faiths, was written as an allegory using symbolism and metaphor. The reason for this approach is that true spiritual teaches are opposed by the local governing religious bodies, whose purpose is to control their citizens. As a result, human beings seeking deep spiritual teachings must learn to read the languages of symbolism, metaphor, and allegory to find the truth hidden within.
The story recited in the Bhagavad Gita in 700 verses speaks to the tumultuous battles that must be waged in our minds so that our eternal self can overcome our human existence and rise into the highest spiritual realms. These realms are the original source of our existence.
Thus, the hidden meaning of chapter 1, verse 1 of the Gita is as follows:
Dhritarashtra is the king of that region. He is a blind king. This is a symbol representing our own blind mind.
Sanjaya recites the battle to Dhritarashtra. He represents our own impartial introspection. We must use this power daily to win every day’s battles — and to stay focused on advancing our spiritual journey forward versus falling backward into the trap that is this mayic world.
Dharmakshetra means the holy plain. The holy plain of Kurukshetra (dharmakshetra kuru-kshetra) is the battlefield in the Gita, which represents our own bodily field of activity on this plane of existence.
Kuru derives from the Sanskrit root word, kri, which means work or material action.
Kurus are our wicked and impulsive mental and sense tendencies. They are the ignoble, uncontrolled activities of the blind mind. They are the 100 offspring of the blind king Dhritarashtra.
Kysetra means field. The field of action is the human body, including its physical, mental, and soul faculties. In other words, it is the field on which all activities of one’s life take place.
Pandu represents our pure discriminative tendencies. The sons of Pandu are the virtues of our soul’s discriminative intelligence.
So, metaphorically speaking, Gita 1:1 means that our blind mind is asking our impartial introspection:
“When my wicked, impulsive mental and sense tendencies and my pure discriminative tendencies battled on the bodily field of activity for supremacy today, what was the outcome?”
This is the question we need to ask our inner spiritual self at the end of every day during deep meditation as we work toward our pursuit of self-realization.
Thus ends the description of the first verse in the first chapter of the holy Shree Bhagavad Gita. May you find inspiration for your spiritual journey to enlightenment in these words.
Note: This lesson is an excerpt from the Mystic Meditation Minute course, in which students learn the true meaning of the Bhagavad Gita in short daily lessons.
The Bhagavad Gita means the “Song of the Spirit.” It provides a path to divine spiritual communion between human beings and their creator, which is represented allegorically by the discourse on the battlefield between Arjuna and Krishna (as told my Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra). It is said by great sages that entire knowledge of the cosmos is contained within the Bhagavad Gita.
The Mystic Meditation Minute course will begin in mid-March. If you are interested in receiving a daily teaching from the Gita, please sign up here.
