There are two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The Bhagvad Gita is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. The Sage Sankara emphasis on Advaitic wisdom is meant for those who wish to unfold the mystery of the universe.
Scientific knowledge is limited to form, time and space. Self-knowledge is beyond form, time, and space. The birth, life, death, and the world are within the domain of form, time, and space. The Soul, the innermost Self, is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
Consciousness is ever-present. Without consciousness, the world, in which you exist ceases to exist.
Consciousness is Self-evident. It is not established by extraneous proof. It is not possible to deny consciousness, because it is the very essence of the one who denies it.
Consciousness is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. Consciousness is everything.
Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.
To see "Brahman in action" one must act. Therefore, if he remains inactive in a cave can never see Brahman.
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to fight is misrepresented by Gurus as an order to kill other human beings, because they are mere ideas, Illusory, whereas Lord says these ideas too are Brahman, and the ‘Self’ and hence no killing really occurs. Only when you see all individuals, especially the ‘Self’ as imagined ideas, can you rise to see them later as Brahman? Thus, there are two stages. You must first see the ‘Self’ as illusory before you see others as illusory. ~ CH.2 v.16
Bhagavad Gita gives dualistic worship of "God” it is only for the lower mindset; it also teaches Advaita for the more evolved. All insights of the Advaitic wisdom are hidden and misinterpreted so to get a glimpse of the truth is very difficult.
Likewise, thinkers and poets of the Age of Devotion (Bhakti) of the 16th century believed in a God with attributes that became very tangible when incarnating as Avatar and were attainable simply through love and devotion rather than scholastic and intellectual meditation.
For the religious people, the Bhagavad Gita became the main vehicle of inspiration with its qualified and deistic Monism, rather than the scholastic and esoteric path shown by Sage Sankara’s Advaitic path.
Sage Sankara never rejected devotional prayer (Bhakti) or denied its value for he held that it was a necessary but intermediate stage for the adept on his journey to the ultimate realization of the true nature of the Universal Essence.
People worship God in various ways, not knowing the Truth. At different levels, at different epochs, and in different lands, people have different conceptions of God. They quarreled because they did not know the truth about God.
The conflict of opinions among mystics and religionists proves that all are imagining God as they like, not knowing God.
Lord Krishna says in Gita and in it, he lashes out against the karmakanda. It is generally believed that the Buddha and Mahavira were the first to attack the Vedas.
It is not so. Lord Krishna himself spoke against them long before these two religious leaders. At one place in the Gita, he says to Arjuna: "The Vedas are associated with the three qualities of sattva, rajas, and tamas.
You must transcend these three qualities. Full of desire, they (the practitioners of Vedic rituals) long for paradise and keep thinking of pleasures and material prosperity. They are born again and again and their minds are never fixed in Samadhi, these men clinging to Vedic rituals.
Lord Krishna says: "Not by the Vedas is ‘Self’ to be realized, nor by sacrifices nor by many studies. . . . "
Bhagavad Gita 2:46:~ "A man of true knowledge who has attained enlightenment, has the same use for all the scriptures as one has a small reservoir of water in a place flooded on all sides."
Lord Krishna taught the Karma and Bhakti yogis their own paths only to lead them up to the Gnana yoga path, which is the highest and the real object of his teaching.: ~ Santthosh Kumaar
Remember:~
Maha Gita: ~ Krishna's Gita is a hodgepodge containing everything; hence it suits everyone because there is something in it for everyone. It is difficult to find any tradition whose voice is not found in the Gita. It is difficult to find anyone who does not take solace from the Gita. But for such people, Ashtavakra's Gita will prove very difficult.
Ashtavakra is not for synthesis -- he is a man of truth. He speaks the truth just as it is, without any artifice or coloring. He is not concerned about the listener, he does not care whether his listener will understand or not. Such a pure expression of truth has never happened anywhere before, nor has it ever happened again.
People love Krishna's Gita because it is very easy to extract one's own meaning from it. Krishna's Gita is poetic: in it, two plus two can equal five, and two plus two can also equal three. No such tricks are possible with Ashtavakra. With him, two plus two are exactly four. Ashtavakra's statements are statements of pure mathematics. There isn't the least possibility for a poetic license here. He says things as they are, without any sort of compromise.
Reading Krishna's Gita a devotee extracts something of which he can make a belief because Krishna spoke on bhakti, devotion. The karma yogi extracts his belief because Krishna has spoken on karma yoga, the Yoga of action. The believer in knowledge finds what he wants because Krishna has spoken on knowledge as well. Somewhere Krishna calls bhakti the ultimate, somewhere else he calls knowledge the ultimate, again elsewhere he calls karma yoga the ultimate.
Krishna's statements are very political. He was a politician, a perfect politician. Just to say he was a politician is not right; he was a shrewd politician, a real diplomat. In his statements, he considered and included many things. This is why the Gita suits everyone, why there are thousands of commentaries on the Gita. No one is concerned with Ashtavakra because to accept Ashtavakra you are going to have to drop yourself -- unconditionally. You cannot bring yourself along. Only if you stay behind can you come near him. With Krishna, you can bring yourself along. With Krishna, there is no need to transform yourself. With Krishna, you can fit just as you are.
Hence the founders of each tradition have written commentaries on Krishna's Gita -- Sankara, Ramanuja, Nimbarak, Vallabha -- everyone. Each has extracted his own meaning. Krishna has said things in such a way as to allow multiple meanings; hence I call his Gita poetic. You can draw out any meaning you like from a poem.
Krishna's statements are like clouds surrounding you in the rainy season: you see in them whatever you want. Someone may see an elephant's trunk, and someone sees the whole body of Ganesha, the elephant God. Someone may not see anything. He will say, "What nonsense you talk! They are clouds, vapor -- how is it you see forms in them?"
Krishna's Gita is just like this -- you will be able to see whatever is in your mind. So Sankara sees knowledge, Ramanuja sees bhakti, Tilak sees action -- and each returns home in a cheerful mood thinking that what Krishna says is the same as his belief.
This kind of suspicion often arises with Krishna too. Centuries have passed and commentaries on Krishna keep on coming. Each century finds its own meaning, and each person finds his own meaning. Krishna's Gita is like an ink blot... it is the statement of the perfect politician.
You cannot extract any beliefs from Ashtavakra's Gita. Only if you drop yourself as you move into it, will Ashtavakra's Gita become clear to you.
Ashtavakra's message is crystal clear. You won't be able to add even a small bit of your own interpretation to it. Hence people have not written commentaries on Ashtavakra's Gita. There is no scope for writing a commentary; there is no way to distort or twist it. Your mind has no chance to add anything.
Ashtavakra has given such an expression that no one has been able to add or take anything from it, even though centuries have passed. It is not easy to give such a perfect expression. Such skill with words is very difficult to come by.
This is why I say we are starting off on a rare journey. ~OSHO
