The Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the discourse given by Lord Krishna to his friend and cousin, Arjuna, the great warrior and the middle one amongst the five Pandavas. It was at a time when the forces of adharma had spread all over Bharat and appeared to be much stronger than the forces of dharma. This scenario is very familiar to us even today. Arjuna was faced with the terrible problem of having to kill his own kinsmen in order to uphold the cosmic dharma! Unable to understand what his dharma really was, he turned to his friend and mentor, Krishna and begged him to tell him what to do. The question put by Arjuna to Krishna was pertinent to his own dilemma, placed as he was in a specific context of space and time. The Gita is Lord Krishna’s answer to him, phrased in such a way that it has the ability to solve all problems on a universal scale, regardless of the space and time in which they take place. Even though almost five thousand years have passed since the discourse was first given, the Gita has such a modern approach to life that even now anyone who reads it feels that the advice given to Arjuna has a tremendous bearing on his own particular problem.
The greatness of the Gita lies not merely in being another point of view of a religious outlook, but a guide to each one of us in our day to day life. Whatever the problems we might have to face in life, horrifying or sanctifying, whatever the dilemma, it can be solved by the application of the teachings of the Gita. Hence, we can say that the Gita is a practical guide to daily life and therefore we will find solace from it only if we practise what Krishna says. It’s not a book which we can read in the hope that the reading itself will give us salvation but it’s a book which gives practical guidance and therefore we have to daily put into practise the advice of the Gita.
Even the very first reading has a mesmerising effect on those who are ripe for spiritual evolution. How could any book have such an amazing effect unless it was divinely inspired as indeed it was! It was given through the holy lips of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Incarnation.
However old we are in physical years, we are still very immature spiritually. Everyone longs for happiness but we all get an equal share of unhappiness as well and we don’t know how to deal with this. We grope about in the dark until we are old and yet we never come to realise our mistakes. A question which bothers most people is how we, who are desperate for happiness, always end up by creating more and more unhappiness for ourselves.
The Gita gives the answer. We have been born on this earth and we have to obey the rules of the planet. This is a simple truth. When we go and visit someone’s house we have to obey the rules of that house. We cannot try to change the rules to fit our own idea of how a house should be run! This is exactly what we have been doing. Even though we have been living on this globe for centuries, we have not been able to understand and adjust to the nature of the world. We think the world is made solely for our enjoyment. We are totally uncaring about the rest of creation. The universe is run on certain cosmic laws based on dharma and when we do not follow these laws we will have to pay a price for it. We have denuded the earth of all her precious articles. We have slaughtered and plundered and snatched everything for ourselves as if we were the only creatures on this earth. We have despoiled the elements which constitute our own bodies and do not realise that this is the cause of all our diseases and our unhappiness. We have not learnt how to live amicably with the different creatures of this earth and behave as if they were meant solely for our delectation. We have not even learnt how to live amicably with the rest of the human species!
Scientists may have understood the external aspects of many things which we find in this universe but they have not yet discovered the fundamental force that underlies and supports all the external facade. The tree may look great but it is the unseen roots that keep it stable and beautiful.
The scientists think that happiness can be derived from the external world and they have found many ingenious methods of giving us hundreds of physical comforts which they think will automatically lead to happiness. They have not analysed the root cause of unhappiness which is our greed. Had we been purely physical creatures like animals, we might have been blissfully happy with all the physical comforts which modern technology has loaded us with. But we also have an emotional and intellectual side in us which refuses to be wholly content with bodily satisfaction. However, we don’t like to accept the fact that we cannot become completely fulfilled with only worldly goods.
After reading the Gita, we will discover that there are two major causes for unhappiness in society. One is the fact that we are constantly going against the laws of the cosmos which are dharmic. We are constantly “using” the world for our own benefits disregarding the fact that all creatures have as much right to live in this world as we have.
The other cause of our unhappiness lies in our perception and understanding of the nature of the world. We seem to be deliberately refusing to accept the truth which is painfully apparent to the true seer. We have developed a one-sided view of the truth of life and the world. This world is a “world of duality.” Even though this is a fact which we know and experience every day, we have shut our eyes to this fact since it does not fit in with our notion of how we want the world to be. We are determined that with our intellect and our imagination we can overcome this “defect in nature” which we cannot and will not accept. From the time we were born we have been experiencing these different states like happiness and unhappiness, joy and sorrow, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, day and night and so on. We have seen time and time again that everything in nature that we experience has its opposite experience which will come to us whether we want it or not. It is an inevitable fact of life which for some inexplicable reason we refuse to accept. We always focus on the first of the two opposites, suppressing the other. This gives us a one-sided view of life and of values. We want everything that is positive and nothing which appears negative to us but however much we might want it, the world is not going to change its pattern to suit our taste.
When we look at a rose and say that we want only the rose and not the thorns we are going against nature because in nature there is nothing that is totally negative or ugly. Everything has a place and purpose. The thorn is kept as a protection for the rose. Without the support of the strong thorn the delicate rose would be in danger. Similarly, when we ask for happiness we certainly will never get perfect happiness for the simple reason that happiness and unhappiness are two sides of the same coin of life and we can never have a coin with only one side. These opposites are what are known as counter-correlatives, meaning to say that they cannot exist by themselves.
No one can keep smiling for the whole of his life. But the good news is that no one can keep crying for the whole of his life either. This is so with everything in life. We keep on praying and hoping only for one side of the coin, not realising that such a thing does not exist. This understanding will bring a great change in our lives. It will change our whole attitude to life. The river of life keeps flowing with or without our consent or even our participation. If we want to participate we are allowed to do so but if we fight against the current we will bring only misery on ourselves. If we want to be happy participants we will have to accept this dual face of nature.
Thus, Lord Krishna advises us to accept happiness and unhappiness with equanimity. Be not over elated when happiness comes, nor totally depressed when unhappiness comes, as it surely will. This is the most valuable lesson that the Gita teaches us. Everything that happens to you during the course of your life has a purpose. Nothing is a coincidence. If we are given unhappiness we should accept it as a part of the intricate fabric of life which is woven with shades of many colours. How drab it would be to have a carpet which has only one colour. It is the contrasts and contradictions which we have in life that gives it colour and zest and purpose. Not understanding this we keep on asking only for joy and thus end up by making ourselves miserable since it’s obvious that we will never have a life of joy alone. So the first lesson everyone has to learn is the technique of living which the Gita gives, which is to accept the true nature of the world as one of “duality.” The faster you learn to accept this as part of life, the faster we will become contented. But we are constantly trying to twist and mould the nature of the world to fit our personal concept of what is good. We fail to see that every “good” has a “bad” tagging behind it. The more we try to evade this truth, the more complicated we make our own lives and the more sorrow we accumulate.
The next and perhaps most important lesson we can learn from the Gita is that nature has a strange way of taking and giving. The more we give, the more we get. Even though we may not be able to accept this statement, eventually life will make you accept this truth. Giving need not necessarily mean the giving of charity or material goods but it could just be the giving of a smile or a kind word at a time when someone really needs it. Another important point which goes along with this, is the fact that if we give with desire to get something in return we may get our desire but we will be given only an equal measure of what we gave. However, if we give without any desire for personal benefits, the reward will be far greater than anything we can ever expect. If we give a gift with the hope of getting something in return we will surely get some gift of equal value but if we give a gift of anything – of time, money or love without any expectations of a favourable reward, our results will be enormous. Of course these results may not manifest themselves immediately in our lives but it is 100% sure that they will come to you at some time or other when you need them most. This is what the Gita calls karma yoga and is something which can be understood only when we start to practise doing action without expectation of reward.
Equality of vision of the outside world and equanimity of the mind inside are the two things which are stressed in almost all the chapters of the Gita. Once this attitude becomes fixed in us, the charioteer of Arjuna will reveal himself to us. He will show us that He is indeed the divine charioteer who lives in the heart of every creature and directs each one of us along the right path. If we surrender our ego to him as Arjuna did, He has the ability to take us to a glorious victory. Arjuna was an archer and all he was asked was to shoot in the prescribed manner and as advised by his charioteer. “Nimitta maatram bhava,” “Be thou an instrument alone.” This is a clarion call to all of us to forego our egos and become a simple instrument in the divine hands. This is the only way to be victorious in the race of life! Be a flute in the hands of Lord Krishna and divine music will flow through us without any effort on our part. Always remember that in the chariot race of life we have only one travelling companion and that is Krishna!
In this country we have always commemorated all the great episodes in our history by keeping a special day for them. Gita Jayanti is a celebration of the day on which this great discourse was given to Arjuna, the epitome of the human being, by the divine personage – Lord Krishna, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. This year, 2022, Gita Jayanti falls on Saturday, the 3rd of December.
May the divine charioteer guide all of us through the battlefield of life.
Hari Aum Tat Sat!
Hari Aum 🙏
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