GITA 1.28

GITA 1;28

Kara-Aravindena Pada-Aravindam
Mukha-Aravinde Vi-Niveshay-Antam |
Vattasya Patrasya Putte Shayaanam
Baalam Mukundam Manasaa Smaaraami ||

This sloka pictures Him as lying on a tender banyan tree leaf, as a small child holding the feet by His hands and the mouth tasting the toe. His feet are like lotus, His hands are lotus and His face and Mouth are lotus. Such a Bunch of lotus is delivering the Gita to Arjuna.

Today the First half of sloka 31 was explained:

nimittani ca pasyami

viparitani keshava

I foresee only evil, O killer of the Kesi demon.

Kesava = Hey! Sri Krishna!, nimittani ca psyami = I see omens. viparitani = bad ones.
Here, Arjuna further tells: Oh! Keshava, i see all bad omens.
Seeing that his dear ones have all assembled to fight, Arjuna feels that it is mistrust [in Tamil it is nambikkai droham] and so his mind swirls and body trembles. Normally, if someone betrays us, we get angry and would like to take revenge. But here, Arjuna feels sorry at the sight of his relatives and friends ready to fight him. Filled with mercy, Arjuna feels distress in seeing his relatives joining Duryodana to fight with Arjuna. Instead of taking revenge at the betrayal, Arjuna wanted to abandon fight out of distress. This happens to all when something contrary to our belief happens. He notices some bad omens or signs occurring, heralding bad things.

Unusual howling of fox or anticlockwise circling by birds are all to be noticed to be bad omens. Animals and birds observe nature closely and predict. In the recent tsunami havoc also, animals were able to know the disaster earlier and they escaped to safer places while human beings failed to notice those indications, as we are going away from nature.  This does not mean one should lead a beast's life, but we should try to respect mother nature and preserve for our own benefits. 

It may be thought that Arjuna feared defeat and so he felt bad omens. But Arjuna is ever victorious and with Sri Krishna as his Associate, where is the question of defeat for him?
 In Ramayana, Vibheeshana cautions Ravana saying that right from the time Ravana abducted Sri Sita and imprisoned Her in Ashoka forest, he saw lots of ill omen indicating annihilation of the Rakshasa community and advises his brother to release Sri Sita back to Sri Rama. So noticing nature for such messages is good. 

The lecturer emphasised the difference between noticing natural indications and irrational beliefs [mooda nambikkai].If a lady becomes a widow, we should not treat her so badly. We should understand that it was not her fault that she lost her husband and she like any sanyasin lives a secluded life and so she should be given the same respects as we give to sanyasins. They also should be invited to functions like anyone else. To observe omens, dose not mean we resort to everything for such indications. Also resorting to astrology for everything is bad. Astrology is a great science and is regarded as Vedas' auxiliary.  Our ancestors have developed that as a science and we are able to know eclipse etc accurately But referring to that for every small thing is irrational.  We tend to reject some stars as not auspicious. How can in God's creations such discrimination be possible? So all 27 nakshathrams are good and all the seven days of the week are good.

                                                            (continued)