sanjaya uvaacha
    ityaham vaasudevasya paarthasya cha mahaatmanah
    samvaadam imam ashrausham adbhutam romaharshanam //  18.74 //

Sanjaya  said
    Thus  have I heard this wonderful dialogue between Vaasudeva and the high-souled  Partha causing my hair to stand on end.

Earlier,  Arjuna proclaimed that he will not fight and became despondent. It is the same  Arjuna now entirely revived who declared that all his doubts were cleared and  he shall abide by `His Will'. Thus the Arjuna disease has been cured by the  Krishna Therapy.

Sanjaya  concludes his running commentary in the last five verses of the Gita. They  contain his expressions of the glory of the Gita, the revival of Arjuna, his  own reaction as he listened to the dialogue between The Lord and Arjuna and the  affirmation of his faith in the true culture of the Hindus.

The  conversation between Vaasudeva and Arjuna is a dialogue between the `Higher'  and the `Lower' in man. It is between the Spirit and the Matter.

Vaasudeva  is a symbolism that stands for the Consciousness that illumines the concept of  time projected by the intellect of man. Vaasudeva is the Atma, the Self. Partha  represents the matter. The act of understanding oneself as the matter vesture  is the art of unveiling the Infinite through the finite, the technique of which  is the theme of the Gita.

Sanjaya  describes the philosophy of the Gita so far heard by him as marvelous and  wonderful because it revealed the real personality of Arjuna. Arjuna is  referred as high souled because of his great achievement in understanding the  philosophy of the Gita and shedding all his confusions which is something  worthy of appreciation. This is also a warning to Dhritarashtra about the  consequences of war with the rejuvenated Arjuna.

vyaasaprasaadaacchhrutavaan etad guhyamaham param
    yogam yogeshwaraat krishnaat saakshaat kathayatah  swayam // 18.75 //

Through  the grace of Vyasa, I heard this supreme and most secret Yoga taught by Krishna Himself, the Lord of Yoga, in person.

In  this verse Sanjaya expresses his gratitude to Sage Veda Vyasa who had given him  the special faculty to see and hear from a distance all that transpired in the  battlefield of Kurukshetra so that he might report the events to the blind  king, Dhritarashtra.

He  terms what had been heard by him from Sri Krishna as the supreme and the most  profound Yoga. His joy is more due to his hearing the philosophy of Gita  directly from the Lord than listening to the discourse itself and hence Sri  Krishna is referred to as the Lord of all Yogas. This is also an indirect  reminder to the blind king about the futility of war with Pandavas.

raajan samsmritya samsmritya samvaadamimam adbhutam
    keshavaarjunayoh punyam hrishyaami cha muhurmuhuh  // 18.76 //

O  King, as I recall again and again this wonderful and holy dialogue between  Kesava and Arjuna, I am thrilled with joy again and again!

Sanjaya  describes the deep impression created in his mind by listening to the Gita Philosophy.  He says the discourse between Sri Krishna and Arjuna - between God and Man,  between the Perfect and the Imperfect, between the Higher and the Lower - is at  once wonderful and holy. The response in Sanjaya is so powerful that he says it  had given him the utmost thrill of joy again and again.

The  implication is that the Gita should be studied and reflected upon continuously  until we are re-educated in the way of life as expounded in It. The reward for  such a study is to know the very purpose of our existence and to activate the  power in us to tackle intelligently the chaotic happenings around us.

taccha samsmritya samsmritya roopamatyadbhutam  hareh
    vismayo me mahaan raajan hrishyaami cha punah punah  // 18.77 //
    And  as often as I recall that most wonderful form of Hari, great is my  astonishment, O King! And I thrill with joy again and again!

Sanjaya  confesses that he had been enchanted not only by the philosophy of the Gita but  also even by the memory of The Lord's magnificent form as the total manifested  Universe.

The  dialogue of Sri Krishna and Arjuna and the fact of God are not philosophical  propositions but are spiritual facts. We do not learn their meaning by simply  recounting them but by dwelling upon them in a spirit of prayer and meditation.

yatra yogeswarah krishno yatra paartho dhanurdharah
    tatra shreervijayo bhootirdhruvaa neetirmatirmama  // 18.78 //

Wherever  there is Krishna, The Lord of Yoga and  wherever there is Partha, the Archer, I think, there will surely be prosperity,  victory, welfare and morality.

In  this concluding verse of the Song Divine Sanjaya summarizes the assessment of  his total experience of hearing the conversation between Sri Krishna and  Arjuna.

Sri  Krishna, The Lord of Yoga - All through the Gita Sri Krishna represented the  Self, the Atman, the substratum upon which everything happens. He can be  invoked within us by means of any one of the techniques of Yoga taught in the Gita.

Arjuna,  ready with the bow - Partha represents in the Gita a confused, limited,  ordinary mortal with all his weaknesses, agitations, fears and pairs of  opposites. When he has thrown out his instruments of action i.e. bow and  arrows, there can be no hope of success or prosperity for him. But when he is  ready with his bow he is prepared and willing to use his faculties to face the  challenges of life.

Taken  these two together - Sri Krishna, the Yogeswara and Arjuna, the Dhanurdhara -  they symbolize a way of life wherein man, with the spiritual understanding,  gets ready to face the battle of life . For him success is assured.

The  teaching of the Gita is Yoga and the teacher is Yogeswara. When the human soul  becomes enlightened and united with the divine, fortune and victory, welfare  and morality are assured.

Today's  confusions and conflicts in society and man's helplessness against the flood of  events, in spite of his achievements in science and mastery over matter, is due  to his failure to invoke the Yogeswara in him. A happy blending of the sacred  and the secular is what is advised in the Gita as a policy for right living.

Sage  Veda Vyasa visualizes a world order in which man pursues a way of life in which  the spiritual and material values are well balanced. Material prosperity  without inner peace is savagery while spirituality without material well being  is madness. Spiritual vision and social service should go together.

The  double purpose of human life, personal perfection and social efficiency is  indicated here. Human perfection is a kind of marriage between high thought and  just action where the priesthood and the kingship move together. This,  according to the Gita, must be, for ever, the aim of man.

This  last Chapter of the Gita is called `The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation'  because to renounce false values in us is at once to rediscover the Divine  nature in each one of us which is the essential heritage of man. To discard the  animal in us (Sannyasa) is the Liberation (Moksha) of the Divine in us.

om tat sat iti  srimadbhagavadgeetaasu upanishatsu brahma vidyaayaam yogashaastre sri  krishnaarjuna samvaade moksha sannyaasa yogo naama ashtaadasho'dhyaayah ||

Thus  in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal,  the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the  eighteenth discourse entitled  The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation.