The Bhagavad Gītā is a unique scripture. Before the great Mahābhārata war, when Arjuna is suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and doubt, Lord Kṛṣṇa, his Divine friend, who took a humble role of a charioteer, delivers to him life wisdom so profound, that all future generations contemplate upon it until this day and find in it a timeless inspiration.
Why? Because there is Arjuna, a seeker, in each of us — and because his friendship with Kṛṣṇa reminds us of our own forgotten relationship with the Divine.
18 Yogas of the Gītā
The Bhagavad Gītā consists of 18 chapters symbolising the 18 days of the Mahābhārata war — the war, which is a metaphor of the conflict within us. But the 18 parts of Bhagavad Gītā are more than chapters: they are yogas. It is a very distinctive feature of the Gītā which makes it stand out from other Hindu scriptures. Each chapter is not just called a chapter or a division, but a yoga. This subtle hint makes it clear that Bhagavad Gītā has much more depth in it than what we can see at first glance — and that to understand its true meaning we need to learn how to read between the lines.
In Sanskrit yoga means “union”. In the context of Bhagavad Gītā yoga means the union between human and the Divine — re-establishing our forgotten relationship with God. My Satguru, Paramahamsa Vishwananda, beautifully explained:
“When Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa is talking to Arjuna, He is not only talking to Arjuna, He is talking to everyone about how to transcend from just being a human being, and how to have this connection with Him, to build this relationship with Him. That’s what yoga stands for.”
Thus, 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gītā become not only 18 symbolic steps towards realising this yoga, this union within us, but also 18 sets of practical instructions, guiding us how to make it happen — how to gradually move from an ego-centred way of living towards a soul-centred (or God-centred) way of living.
Mystical Chariot
Word yoga comes from a Sanskrit root yuj, which means “to yoke”, “to bind” or “to unite”. An interesting choice of words, given the fact that the Gītā is spoken by Lord Kṛṣṇa who acts as Arjuna’s charioteer in that exact moment. He literally holds the reins of the horses yoked to Arjuna’s chariot. Is it just a coincidence or intentional metaphor hiding a deeper meaning in plain sight?
Chariot is a powerful symbol frequently appearing in Vedic literature. Kaṭha Upaniṣad sees it as a metaphor of the vehicle of our soul — the body:
“Know the soul (ātma) as riding in a chariot. The body is the chariot. Know the intellect (buddhi) as the chariot-driver, and the mind (manas) as the reins. The senses (indriya), they say, are the horses; the objects of senses, what they range over. The self combined with senses and mind, wise men call ‘the enjoyer’ (bhoktr).”
Kaṭha Upaniṣad is thus seeing our soul as travelling through life in a bodily chariot pulled by the sense-horses, who are attached to it via the link of the mind. The chariot-driver, the one who directs the horses, in normal circumstances, is the intellect, buddhi — the power of discrimination within us, which choses where to go next.
But in the chariot of Arjuna it is Kṛṣṇa Himself who becomes a charioteer. If we are satisfied with the superficial meaning of Kṛṣṇa’s words in the first chapters of the Gītā, we can easily mistake Him to be the personification of the voice of buddhi (reasoning) within us. However, as we move throughout the chapters along with Arjuna, it becomes abundantly clear that Kṛṣṇa is much more than that — He is God Himself speaking to Arjuna from highest possible perspective.
Arjuna, symbolically giving the reins of his chariot to Kṛṣṇa, the most skilful chariot-driver he could possibly choose, is a powerful metaphor of a spiritual seeker’s act of surrender to the Divine. When Arjuna gives the reins to the Lord, it is as if he is saying:
“Please, guide me, because I don’t know the way. I don’t even know how to ride this chariot.”
It is an act of surrender and realisation that, perhaps, we don’t always know what is best for us — that perhaps the limited understanding of our own mind and intellect is not the ultimate truth. It is a metaphor of humbling our own ego, letting go of the need to control things and allowing God to take over.
Ultimately, throughout the Gītā, we are led by Kṛṣṇa to a higher understanding, that whether we realise it or not, everything always happens through God’s will. He is always holding the reins and He is always with us, our only true friend. And even though God is a very humble “chariot-driver”, who often makes us believe that we are in control, ultimately, everything always happens according to His Divine plan for our soul’s evolution — as He makes abundantly clear in one of the last verses of the Bhagavad Gītā (18.66):
“The Lord abides in the heart of every being, Arjuna. By His power, He controls all their movements through life, as if they were seated on a machine.”
Getting to know who drives your “chariot”
Kaṭha Upaniṣad concludes:
“He who has the understanding of a chariot-driver, he reaches the end of his journey, that highest place of Vishnu.”
In the same way how throughout Bhagavad Gītā Arjuna gets to know Kṛṣṇa, his dear friend, better, we also get to understand our own relationship with God, our true “chariot-driver”, from a different perspective. Bhagavad Gītā teaches us how to yoke our limited mind to the Divine, and allow God’s grace to carry us through life — rather than employing other “chariot-drivers”, such as our ego. And the deeper we dive into this mystical relationship between our soul and God, the closer we are to the true meaning of yoga — the union which happens within us.
In time, as we dive deeper into our personal relationship with the Divine, we start to understand that 18 yogas of the Bhagavad Gītā are, in fact, 18 different ways or stages of how we relate to the Divine within us. And since this relationship is not only eternal, but also ever-new, there is always something new that we can learn from it — and there is always something new that Bhagavad Gītā can reveal to us.
Make your own experience of the Gītā
If you feel the inner call to dive deeper into the Gītā and its profound wisdom, do consider joining me on “Journey with Bhagavad Gītā” — a currently on-going course. This course is on a “contribute as much as you feel” basis. 100% of contributions will go towards the project of building my Satguru’s ashram and temple in Mauritius. Find more details and enrol here.
