I salute Sage Vyasa the author of the great Epic Mahabharata for lighting the illuminating lamp that is Bhagavad Gita.
The Upanishads are the cows which are milked by Krishna. Arjuna is the calf that motivated the release of milk which is nothing-but the Bhagavad Gita. And lucky are the ones, who get to drink this divine immortalizing milk.
The Upanishads are the cows which are milked by Krishna. Arjuna is the calf that motivated the release of milk which is nothing-but the Bhagavad Gita. And lucky are the ones, who get to drink this divine immortalizing milk.
All of us want to be happy. It is a different matter though, that the definition of happiness varies from person to person. Even the same person may experience happiness differently at different times.
At various stages in our lives we derive happiness from different things. Early on in our life, our happiness was largely physical. A child may start deriving happiness just by being fed, cuddling close to its mother, playing with toys etc.
But as it grows physically as-well-as intellectually, it shifts more and more towards happiness derived through intellectual pursuits.
Is there something beyond physical and intellectual happiness? Apparently, there is. For want of a better word, I call it spiritual happiness. That happiness is neither derived through physical means nor through intellectual indulgence. It is not dependent on any physical object, nor it is merely a mental pleasure.
As we move on in pursuit of spiritual happiness, we look for higher and higher realms of spiritual happiness. Is there something called 'ultimate happiness'? Is that happiness same for everyone, or does it differ from person to person? If it doesn't, then can everyone get it? What is the way to go about experiencing that ultimate happiness? What are the pre-requisites if any? What makes us a better candidate to attain that ultimate happiness? These are some of the questions that we are going to discuss in this book.
I am going to base these discussions on one of the most well-known of the ancient Indian scriptures, namely, the Bhagavad Gita.
There are hundreds of books written on this philosophic text almost in every language of the world. More than as a religious text, the Bhagavad Gita is often viewed as a book on human psychology. Even if we strip it off from the religious context, we can see lot of ideas in this great marvelous book, that are relevant to us even to this day. The book gives a closer look at how humans behave under different situations, why they undergo stress and how they can come out of such stressful conditions. And last but not the least – how one can attain the ultimate happiness.
Bhagavad Gita uses the word Yoga in a wide connotation. Though each of the 18 chapters in this book are titled as some Yoga or the other, the word Yoga is mostly used to mean a path. The book starts off with the mental turmoil of the great Indian warrior Arjuna, who is confused about what is right for him – to fight or not to fight.
Krishna, Arjuna's 'friend, philosopher and guide', helps Arjuna to come out of this mental turmoil by analyzing various alternatives and paths, all of which leading to happiness and freedom from stress. So, in a way it is a book heavily steeped in psychoanalysis.
I am going to look at this book mostly from this point of view. To me, the dramatic setting of the Bhagavad Gita, and its religious undertones, are of secondary importance. I am going to discuss mostly the psychoanalytical aspects of it, and various paths it suggests to help anyone who wants to attain the ultimate happiness. What that ultimate happiness is, we will see as we discuss various paths.
And not surprisingly, though the paths are different, the ultimate happiness is one and the same! We will see how, towards the end.
Path of intellect or Jnyana Yoga
The path of intellect or Jnyana Yoga as it is called, involves analysis of things. Basically, it is a deep-thinking process. You go on asking questions, and finally arrive at the ultimate truth about whatever you are pondering over.
If you are pondering over some material object or some worldly issue, then this continuous process would finally lead you to a better understanding of the object of your interest. That is the way a scientist progresses. He looks at a problem, thinks about all aspects of the problem, goes on thinking very deep till he finally understands it fully.
Before you start thinking about the problem, you should first listen to someone who probably knows about it more than what you do. It could even be reading what some expert has written about it. That provides you with some starting point.
Once you are equipped with sufficient starting material, then you go on thinking about what you have just heard or read. That is the process of assimilating what you have heard or read. This pondering helps you in understanding the thing better.
And the final step is to keep thinking further deep into the issue. Or to meditate on the issue. Such focused thinking would provide you further insights about the issue. It exposes newer facets of the same issue that you probably had neither read nor pondered before.
In traditional terms, it is a process of shravana, manana and nidhidhyasana.
Shravana is listening to someone who knows about the subject. It could also be reading some text that is the authority in that subject. Manana involves repeatedly pondering over what you have read or heard and understanding it better. The last step namely nidhidhyasana is meditating on the subject with single pointed mind.
In that process, you may come up with some altogether new aspect of what you have read and pondered about. All these three steps are needed to assimilate any intense idea or concept.
This is the general process of 'knowing' things through intellect.
The same process applies to even highly philosophical or beyond worldly things as well. You search for the ultimate truth by systematically following the steps of shravana, manana and nidhidhyasana – listening, pondering over what you have heard, and finally meditating on it.
This is what is traditionally called as path of intellect or Jnyana Yoga.
Every path has a destination. Or the ultimate result. If your questions are about ultimate realities of existence, then such a path would lead you to the ultimate truth.
The claim of Bhagavad Gita as well as all the Upanishads is that when you know this ultimate truth, you get eternal happiness or bliss or Ananda as it is called.
Approaching a knowledgeable teacher is the first step in this process. Accept that person as your preceptor. Be obedient to him. Serve him and gain his confidence in you. And then ask him questions about things that you don't understand.
When you do that, that teacher would teach you the knowledge that you are seeking.
Listen to whatever the teacher says, ponder over it, and even meditate on that intensely. If you have approached the right teacher who has mastery over the subject, then you will receive the right knowledge from him in due course of time.
This is the traditional process in olden days when the teaching was completely one-to-one. But in modern times, we may not find teachers who are the authority on ultimate knowledge. In such a scenario, you need to read scriptures like Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads that focus mainly on such ultimate philosophical issues.
Just reading is not enough. You need to ponder over what you have read and finally get fully engrossed in the thought process so that, it becomes almost a meditation on that subject. The end product of such a process is the ultimate realization.
What is the use of attaining such an ultimate knowledge?
The Bhagavad Gita says that there is nothing that is comparable to this ultimate knowledge. It is the most sacred. What is interesting is that the Bhagavad Gita even says that whatever ultimate state a person who follows the path of Yoga attains, is nothing but this. That means that even a Yogi who incessantly meditates attains the same ultimate truth.
To listen to the complete book, you can either borrow it from Dr. King's, lending library, or purchase it from any of the online stores such as Google, Kobo, and others.
© Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2026
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