At
the outset of the Bhagavad Gita, a man named Arjuna finds himself on the verge
of a supremely challenging battle involving everything he holds dear. No matter
who wins, he can foresee only madness and destruction as the outcome. His
instinct, even though he is a famous warrior, is to turn and flee. He doesn’t
even want to think about it any more. But his chariot driver, Krishna, insists
that he stand his ground. He tells him, “You only want to run away because you
don’t understand this situation and your place in it. Stay here with me and I
will teach you.”
Arjuna
agrees, and the two enter a deep dialogue. They sit right in the middle of the
battlefield, with swords clashing and arrows whizzing all around them. It is
very important that they can have this seemingly impossible conversation
without any need for protection. It tells us in pictorial language that the
Gita’s teaching is focused on how to live in this world, right in the thick of
things, and is not about finding some other better life elsewhere. In the final
analysis there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape to.
After
a lengthy instruction, Arjuna’s fears are calmed and his intelligence is
satisfied. All his questions and doubts have been resolved. Yet he has one more
request. “Dear Krishna, it all makes sense to me now, and I appreciate that
very much. But I would like to have a direct experience of what you have
described to me. Intellectual understanding is wonderful, but I need to feel it
in my heart too. In my very bones. Is there some way for me to know this truth
more intimately?”
Krishna
answers, “Yes, certainly. I’m glad you asked.” He mixes a special decoction
known as soma, brewed from herbs and mushrooms, and in a sacred ceremony with a
longstanding tradition he serves it to his disciple.
The
soma he drinks blows Arjuna’s mind wide open, revealing the underlying oneness
of all existence to him. The impact is searingly direct and undeniable. It is
as though a level of reality Arjuna had utterly forgotten was at last restored.
The
inner nature Arjuna discovered is charged with intense joy and energy, but we
have lost touch with it. Abstractly believing that we are an integral part of a
coherently interconnected universe is well and good, but knowing it as a living
reality sweeps away layer after layer of illusion, of false speculation. Soma
peels back the veil our own minds have woven and restores us to harmony with
our true being. There is no greater bliss on earth.
One
likely result of such an overwhelming experience is that we do not have any way
to comprehend it, to wrap our minds around it. What we now face transcends our
definitions, no matter how bountiful those might be. But to live a viable life
as an embodied being we need to integrate this new awareness into our knowledge
base. Krishna will spend the rest of the Gita helping Arjuna to do so. When
this is fully accomplished, he lets him know that he has become a truly
independent soul, capable of making his own expert decisions. He no longer
needs to be subservient to any person, system or idea. He is free.
