Far from a traditional commentary or translation, this powerful work offers a bold and transformational presentation of the Gita
In a time defined by anxiety, burnout, and constant change, Priya Arora—author, survivor, spiritual seeker, and a devoted student of Vedanta—presents her latest book, Life Is a Battlefield: Insights from the Eternal Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita (Penguin India).
Far from a traditional commentary or translation, this powerful work offers a bold and transformational presentation of the Gita — tailored for those navigating the emotional, mental, and spiritual complexities of modern life.
Book excerpt – Pg 19 - 24
Who am I ? This question is perhaps the oldest that has ever been asked. Are we just flesh and blood encased in skin, merely body and mind? Are we simply clods of matter? Are we born only to fade into oblivion one day?
The Annapurna Upanishad raises similar existential questions, proclaiming that great spiritual benefit is derived from such inquiry (1.40). The ancient Vedic rishis contemplated the nature of existence at length, and in unravelling the mystery of our identity, they concluded that the truth of our reality is self- evident. We are amritasya putrah—children of immortal bliss (Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.5).
The most profound revelations of the rishis are known as Vedanta, the philosophical inquiry into the essence of our being. Vedanta asserts that:
1. We are much more than we perceive ourselves to be, and
2. Recognizing our true nature is the key to freedom from suffering.
The highest teaching of the Vedas answers the question ‘Who am I?’ with four bold declarations known as Mahavakyas:
Tat Tvam Asi: That (Brahman/Consciousness/God) thou art. —Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7
Aham Brahmasmi: I am that Brahman (Consciousness/ God). —Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10
Prajnanam Brahman: Consciousness is Brahman (God). —Rig Veda, Aitareya Upanishad 3.3
Ayam Atma Brahma: This Self is Brahman (Consciousness/ God). —Atharva Veda, Mandukya Upanishad 1.2
Brahman means vast or expansive. The word refers to God’s infinite nature but is interchangeable with any other term one may fancy. One could substitute the name Brahman with consciousness, Atman, the Self, or whatever one’s preferred image of the supreme reality may be. All four Mahavakyas convey the same message—your actual reality is divine. You are God! Though brief, these affirmations are like zip files, so to unpack and understand their meaning is to comprehend the entirety of Vedic philosophy.
But this seems like an audacious claim; how can we possibly assert that we are God?
The inner Self is the most difficult of all things to know. Most of us have a very superficial understanding of ourselves as being limited by the body and mind in time and space. We identify completely with our current material form, failing to realize that the body is inert, a mere shell that functions by the light of consciousness. Brahman is the fundamental nature of reality. The physical form is only an instrument of God, the universal awareness, so when Krishna declares: ‘My energy (Atman) permeates the whole world and sustains all beings’ (dharayamy aham ojasa 15.13), he indicates we are essentially an expression of the vast all-pervading Self, identical to all creation.
The assertion of human divinity may seem shockingly arrogant, but it is just the opposite: a complete renunciation of ahankara. One can only awaken to the vast Spirit Self by annihilating the individual ego that keeps us trapped in the minutiae of worldliness. The Upanishads illustrate this humility using the analogy of rivers that willingly surrender their separate identities when merging with the sea.
Just as rivers flowing into the ocean lose themselves, casting off name and form, the knower, freed from name and form, attains the Divine Purusha higher than the high. (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.8) To drive home the astonishing concept of non-duality— that we are not separate from Brahman, Vedanta uses the metaphor of clay. Different kinds of pots can be fashioned from the same substance, clay. Some pots may be purely decorative, while others are designed to serve a useful purpose. There are large and small pots, some with wide- mouths and some narrow. However, no matter the pot’s form or function, the underlying reality in all of them is clay. Each pot is, in effect, nothing more than its constituent clay. If pots had egos, one pot might think of itself as better than the other pots based on its more elaborate form, though, fundamentally, it is just clay, no different from any other pot. Similarly, Vedanta teaches that the Self, pure, attribute- less consciousness, called by any name—Brahman, Atman, God—is the reality underlying all creation, both animate and inanimate. It is the seed of all existence, from the tiniest microbe to the most complex organism, including us humans (sarvabhutanam bijam 10.39).
Drawing on Vedanta, the Gita explains:
1. The universe emanates from Brahman: Brahman is the source of all forms produced by the cosmic womb (sarva yonishu . . . bija pradah pita 14.4). The eternal Atman is imbued in all beings (mamaivamso jivaloke 15.7). All are amshas, ultimately the supreme consciousness, inseparable from their source, which supports and preserves all creation (vishtabhyaham 10.42). However, bound by Prakriti (nature/matter), they struggle with their senses and mind, born of their material nature (prakriti-sthani karshanti 15.7). Ego creates the illusion of separateness, though there is none.
2. The universe exists in Brahman: Brahman is the formless spirit universally present in everyone and everything. ‘Pasyadya sacaracaram mama dehe gudakesa’—see the whole world, moveable and immovable, in me, Arjuna (11.7).
Based on this theory of Brahman, every earthly manifestation has two aspects:
1. A lower temporary nature: The discernible material world of Prakriti, including the ego—basically everything we cognize and with which we are familiar.
2. A higher eternal reality: The consciousness reflected in all creation, the intelligent cause—Purusha (energy)—by which the universe is sustained (7.4–5).
Although all beings combine both facets of Brahman, we only recognize the readily observable three-dimensional aspect of ourselves, our lower nature. We do not know our higher imperceptible essence, from which we arise, the same power that sustains the entire universe and into which it dissolves (aham krtsnasya jagatah prabhavah pralayastatha 7.6). According to Vedanta, matter (Prakriti) cannot exist without energy (Purusha). Science today has concluded the same, that matter is not made from matter, but energy. The distinguished German physicist Hans-Peter Dürr found striking parallels between quantum physics and Vedanta. In a conversation with Deepak Chopra on the connection between science and spirituality, before he passed away in 2014, he said, ‘I have worked on matter and the dynamics of matter for sixty years. People often ask, what is the main result? The main result was actually there from the beginning, but I did not really believe it: that matter doesn’t exist. That is what I wanted to understand, why I wanted to pursue it. And at the end, I realized it did not exist.’
Nobel laureate and physicist Max Planck also suggested that consciousness is the basis of the universe. In an interview with the Observer on 25 January 1931, he said, ‘I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.’1 This unity of matter and energy, the non-duality of the body and the Atman, is precisely what the rishis of the hoary past taught in the Upanishads.
