On these maps you find a listing of all the sections of the mall and a detailed listing of all the stores and many other nifty features. However, for me, I find the most useful feature to be the red arrow that says.........YOU ARE HERE! No matter how much detail the map may contain unless you can find what your position is in relation to the entire thing you may still find great difficulty to successfully navigate these mazes.
The Bhagavad Gita proposes a similar solution to the situation in which we find ourselves. In the first chapter of the Gita Arjuna presents many arguments to Krsna why he should not perform his duty and ultimately he says to Krsna:
"Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me." Bg 2.7.
In other words Arjuna is saying: "Krsna............I am LOST. Please help me!" The first point I find fascinating about this is that Arjuna, despite his very elevated position, has no reservation is admitting his precarious position. Most times when we are faced with similar situations we try to weasel our way around it so that some other person may get the blame or to minimize our own short coming. This is very exemplary on the part of Arjuna!
Krsna is also very expert in setting Arjuna right. He at once gets to the heart of the matter, He begins to give Arjuna directions to relieve him of his lost condition. He immediately advises Arjuna:
"While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead." Bg 2.11.
In this verse and over the course of the verses that follow up to verse 30, Krsna gives very clear indication that Arjuna, and by extension, every living entity in existence is not the material body, rather everyone is the spirit soul who is situated with the shell of the body. Simply put, Krsna is telling Arjuna, YOU ARE HERE!
When we know where(who) we are, only then can we begin to move in the right direction to our real destination, to go back home back to Godhead. Suffice to say, as long as our term of reference is improperly placed, it will make our moving progressively in the right direction very difficult or even impossible.
Srila Prabhupada writes: "......All of this is clearly described, and if we properly utilize the instructions of Bhagavad-gita, then our whole life will become purified, and ultimately we will be able to reach the destination which is beyond this material sky (yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama). [Bg. 15.6]
That destination is called the sanatana sky, the eternal, spiritual sky. In this material world we find that everything is temporary. It comes into being, stays for some time, produces some by-products, dwindles and then vanishes. That is the law of the material world, whether we use as an example this body, or a piece of fruit or anything. But beyond this temporary world there is another world of which we have information. That world consists of another nature, which is sanatana, eternal. Jiva is also described as sanatana, eternal, and the Lord is also described as sanatana in the Eleventh Chapter. We have an intimate relationship with the Lord, and because we are all qualitatively one -- the sanatana-dhama, or sky, the sanatana Supreme Personality and the sanatana living entities -- the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to revive our sanatana occupation, or sanatana-dharma, which is the eternal occupation of the living entity. We are temporarily engaged in different activities, but all of these activities can be purified when we give up all these temporary activities and take up the activities which are prescribed by the Supreme Lord. That is called our pure life." Bg Introduction.
