निष्ठा, बुद्धि, आस्था और संकल्प

Consciousness and Perception,

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The Text Shrimadbhagvad-gita begins at the battlefield of Kurukshetra where Arjuna was tormented by the great sadness, conflict and agony of fighting against his own family, his  very own kith and kin.

In the Chapter 2, However Lord Shrikrishna explains to him the essence of :

Intelligence (प्रज्ञा),

Awareness (चैतन्य),

Consciousness (चेतना),

Perception (संवेदन),

Conscience (विवेक),

Conviction (निष्ठा),

Intellect (बुद्धि),

Thought (विचार, संकल्प)

Conditioning (आस्था) 

And finally;

The Action (कर्म),

In that order.

This Great Text is only a part of a Chapter from the Great Epic महाभारत  / Mahabharata, from a section भीष्म-पर्व / Bhishma-Parva.

Of this Bhishma-Parva, the chapters 25 to 42  together are titled Shrimadbhagvad-gita.

All these texts like The Veda वेद, The Purana पुराण Mahabharata इतिहास and Mahabharata is said to have been authored by the Great Sage Maharshi Veda-Vyasa  महर्षि वेदव्यास .

The name Maharshi Veda-Vyasa is again may be a title only of one who is perfectly well-versed in the scriptural / the Supreme knowledge, and may not strictly point out to one single individual.

Again, irrespective of the fact, who-so-ever might have written down this text, it is also said that the Sage Veda-Vyasa narrated the same to him. Likewise, the one who-so-ever might have noted down this in script, is said to have the name (The Lord) Ganesha / गणेश.

These titles do suggest that the author who narrated, and the person, -one who scripted, might be a Sage and a Divine Element in that order.

So even if, the text Gita might have been so narrated by the Great Sage Veda-Vyasa to Lord Ganesha, it was there as a theme in the mind of the Sage which He spontaneously and slowly developed in the style and form of a story.

These ancient people of wisdom knew and understood what they conveyed to the other people around them and the scriptures then were recorded in their memory and in the written form also.

This might be understood the Genesis of this text Shrimadbhagvad-gita.

In the Chapter 2 the theme is the Sankhya Principle (साङ्ख्य- सिद्धान्त) of Wisdom (तत्व) that was the only connecting thread of the whole text, -till the Chapter 18 of this concise and essence development Shrimadbhagvad-gita.

Even more so, there is One typical verse / श्लोक, No. 49 of this Chapter 2, that could be referred to be as the essential theme itself.

This is :

दूरेण ह्यवरं कर्म बुद्धियोगाद्धनञ्जय।।

बुद्धौ शरणमन्विच्छ कृपणाः फलहेतवः।।४९।।

Where it has been declared that the very conviction (निष्ठा) an aspirant may have, is of the two kinds :

Sankhya (साङ्ख्य) and Karma (कर्म) .

This is how aspirants (seeker of the truth)  differ from one to another.

In the next chapters the same point has been dealt with in details.

Shrimadbhagvad-gita is therefore kind of a Declaration made at this battlefield that is otherwise Kurukshetra indeed, where the  battle was Mahabharata was fought between the Princes of Kuruvansha.

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