Author : Sandhya Prasun Kundu

Experience of over 15 years with Tulip Software (P) Ltd., Ask Me Information Services, Samtech Engineering Ltd....

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Bhagavad Gita Shloka Construct

Bhagavad Gita is the dialogue between Arjuna who is the seeker and Bhagwan Shri
Krishna who is the mentor.
The construct of shlokas in The Bhagavad Gita is very interesting and scientific and mere
studying the same closely gives a lot of management lessons.
Let’s have a look…
Bhagavad Gita has 18 Chapters and 700 Shloka. To begin with, let us see how these 700
shlokas are stacked up:

Out of the 700 shlokas, the seeker… Arjuna speaks only 84 and the mentor Bhagwan Shri Krishna Speaks 574!!!

Even out of the 84 shlokas that Arjuna has spoken…

  • 21 are in the first chapter which is the Yog of Arjuna’s delusion where Arjuna is explaining the reason for his delusion or his state of mind
  • 33 are in the eleventh chapter where Arjuna expresses his desire to see the cosmic form of Bhagwan and having seen the same is describing with awe what he is witnessing
  • Shloka 73 of chapter 18 is Arjuna’s confession of his delusion getting cleared and that he his ready to fight and win the war
  • That leaves us with only 29 shlokas (Make a table of the below text):
    • No. of shlokas Arjuna Spoke – 84
    • Chapter 1 (Yoga of Arjuna’s delusion) – 21 
    • Chapter 11 (Yoga of the cosmic form) – 33
    • Chapter 18 Shloka 73 (Arjuna’s resolve) – 1 
    • Balance – 29  
  • In the rest of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna is asking just 29 pertinent questions to clear his delusion/doubt which has enveloped him in the middle of the battlefield

My learnings from the above:

  • To be a seeker, I must learn to listen to understand rather than listen to respond
  • I must surrender to my mentor/guru
  • Ask pertinent questions to clear relevant doubts…
  • Arjuna asks 29 questions which all of us may have in challenging situations. Hence, it is important to engage with the Bhagavad Gita to get the solutions to any challenging situation and choose between what is righteous (dharma) and otherwise (adharma)
  • This is the reason why The Bhagavad Gita is called as the instruction manual for life and all of us are Arjuna seeking for instructions to deal with challenges that life throws at us. 
  • Bhagavad Gita helps clear any iota of delusion just like it helped Arjuna remove his delusion

We come across people who find it very difficult to read and understand the Bhagavad Gita. However, it is quite simple and more importantly very workable as the instructions given by Bhagwan are to me for the questions that life poses at me in challenging situations.

Hence, engage with the Bhagavad Gita and lead a righteous life full of satisfaction and happiness!

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