BHAGAVAD   GITA

kamnaa ko tyaag, bhakti raah pe tu chal...
vasnaa mein kayuoN jale, aarti saa jal..

Bhakti

When the intellectual curiosity has been satiated, when there are no more questions

to be asked, when all the spiritual  knowledge catalogued and presented in flowery prose

by the learned people has been scanned, dissected and assimilated; without the person

being able to still the tidal waves of his psyche, it is then that the mental speculation gives

way to the  practice of ‘Bhakti’. It is then that the intellect surrenders to the divine in a

spirit of devotion. It is then that the man’s ascent to a spiritual life begins.

A person introduces an element of ‘Bhakti’ in his life with his very first visit to a temple.

When he gets there, the person does not have to recite any prayers, he does not even have

to  utter a single word, for the Lord can see the devotion in his heart. Just showing up

with folded  hands and devotion in his heart for a Darshan - Darshan, which requires

neither prayer nor commitment but rather is an act of being in His presence, an act

that submerges the self in a striving for the infinite - stills the troubled waves

of ones mind. About a visit to the temple, the poet says,

“kahne kee zaroorat nahin, aana hee bahut hai,
is dar pe tera sis jhukana hee bahut hai”

The practice of spirituality through devotion provides the necessary filter which takes

the sting out of the harsh realities of human existence and makes life bearable.


Rhythms of Life....

Human nature dictates that we find an anchor to build our lives around. In our desperate

search we go from door to door, we bounce from person to person and we jump from

coattail to coattail to find something stable, someone we could depend on, in times of crisis.

At times we feel that we have found that person and we latch on to him. When bad times

do come around, as they must, we are in a state of disbelief when we find ourselves

bereft of the one person we focused our lives on, one person we centered our pride on,

one person who was supposed to be our anchor. Suddenly the framework of our existence

seems to be receding from us. We are left only with shattered dreams.

A person who lacks a stable anchor cannot maintain equilibrium in the face of adversity.

And as we well know, human relations are all transitory. We have to find something more

stable, someone who would not disappoint us in times of need. That is why we have to

cultivate a consciousness in which the omnipotent Lord is the anchor. The fortieth

chapter of the Yajur Ved states that we should build our lives around Him, as He is the

only one who is eternal and would stand by us in every adversity. To  start with, one

could simply visualize the deity of Lord Krishan and chant the Hare Krishan Mahamantar

any time he is not mentally occupied with doing something. Over time this could extend to

keeping that image of the Lord in the subconscious at all times. When He rules the

subconscious mind, the person is surrendered and the rhythms of life are keyed to

performing His service.

                   In the Bhagwad Gita(12.8), Lord Krishan says, "Just fix your  mind upon Me,

and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt".

Continued practice in surrendering himself enables a person to develop the consciousness

capable of remembering the Lord at  the time of final exit. In the Bhagwad Gita( 8.5),

Lord Krishan says, "Whoever at the end of his life quits his body remembering
Me, attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt". Mahatma Gandhi did not suddenly

think of invoking the Lord's name by saying Hey Ram at the time of his death. He spent

his whole life with Him as his anchor. He constantly practiced keeping Him in  his

subconscious. And so must we!...so that our faith becomes a living experience.



Arjun's Paralysis

Many scholars have studied the Bhagwad Gita and tried to provide us with an insight

into the teaching of Lord Krishan. Although every chapter of Gita alludes to some aspect

of our moral code, the most powerful teaching arises from Arjun's  paralysis on the

battlefield. Arjun's perplexity arises over the question of dharam, which as a warrior,

bids him to fight in order to protect the goodness, and as a person, forbids him to kill

the members of his own family, his revered teachers and dear friends. Faced with Arjun's

renunciation and his inability to wage war, Lord Krishan resolves his dilemma in two parts.

He reminds Arjun that:

(1) he must observe his dharam and,

(2) the soul survives the body. In the first instance He tells Arjun that he must perform

his duty, which for a warrior is to fight the evil forces to the very end and preserve

goodness. Secondly, one should not worry about death, as the soul can never be slain.

Rather it sheds one body at death and takes on a new one, in birth after birth.

Further Lord Krishan says that successive rebirths may be avoided by observing your

dharam with complete disregard to the fruits of your action. He exhorts Arjun to hold

alike happiness and unhappiness, gain and loss, victory and defeat in pursuit of his dharam.

A person need not become an ascetic to achieve liberation, but only renounce the fruits of

his action, and perform his duty without caring about the results. Lord Krishan says that

your entitlement is only to the action, and not to the fruit it bears. These are the answers

to Arjun's dilemma. But there is another teaching which is of the greatest importance.

This is the teaching of devotion to God. Lord Krishan says that he who along with his

struggle for survival, also remembers Him and adores Him, is the greatest ascetic.

Steeped in this Hindu philosophy, one overcomes all obstacles in life and leads a

peaceful and happy life.

The Yoga of Devotion

In the twelfth chapter of the Bhagwad Gita, Arjun enquires from Lord Krishan about the

relative merits of reaching Him through devotional service versus through worshipping

the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested. Lord Krishan answers,

"Those whose minds are fixed on me in steadfast love, worshipping me with absolute faith,

I consider them to be most perfect." He further adds, "As for others who worship the

unmanifest, indefinable and changeless, that which is omnipresent, constant, eternal and

lies beyond the perception of the senses, and they do so by holding all the senses in check,

are tranquil minded and devoted to the welfare of humanity, and see the Atman in every

creature; they will also come to me" ."But the devotees of the unmanifest have a harder

task, because the unmanifest is very difficult for embodied souls to realize."

Bhakti yoga, or the process of reaching Him by being in direct devotional service to the

Lord is easier and natural for us humans. The individual soul is embodied since time

immemorial, and it is very difficult for a common man to visualize that he is not the body

and that the Lord does not have any physical attributes either. In Bhakti yoga,

as described in Bhagwad Gita, a person accepts the Deity of Krishan as Brahman with

body features and engages himself in devotional service to the Lord. So it becomes a very

easy and natural process for him to reach the Supreme Being. Janana yoga, or the process

of reaching Him through understanding the unmanifested Supreme Being is very difficult.

By his very nature, a common man has trouble identifying with the formless Supreme.

However, if he is persistent in his quest, he might realize the eternal and attain spiritual

realization through the guidance of a highly learned devotee. But the unguided 

intellectualization of the unmanifest may lead a person to become an atheist.

Unfortunately a large percentage of today's intelligensia falls squarely into this category.

Bhakti Yoga, according to the Bhagwad Gita, is the shortest path to spiritual realization.

Modes of Material Nature

The last few chapters of the Bhagwad Gita enumerate the modes of material nature and

the characteristics of people living under their influence.

The three modes of material nature are 'sattva-guna' or the mode of goodness, '

rajas-guna' or the mode of passion, and 'tamas-guna' or the mode of ignorance.

Lord Krishan says, "Sattva rules a person who offers sacrifices in accordance with

scriptural instructions and does not covet their fruits. Satto-guni, or a person inspired by

sattva is impelled by an inner sense of duty. The performance of sacrifices by a Rajo-guni

is for the outward show, in the hope of a divine reward and is inspired by rajas.

The Tamo-gunis on the other hand, totally disregard the scriptural instructions and make

no offering, no prayer of dedication, no gift to the priest and are devoid of faith."

The Lord further adds, "The austerity of the body comprises of reverance for the gods,

brahmins and gurus; uprightness, physical cleanliness and sexual purity and non-violence.

Austerity of speech comprises of speech that does not hurt anyone, is truthful, kind and

beneficial, as well as daily recitation of scriptures. The austerity of mind comprises

serenity of mind, gentleness, self control and inner purity. The triple austerities

practiced with the highest faith and with nary a thought of reward crossing ones mind is

the nature of sattva. The austerity undertaken out of self-pride, and in order to gain the

reputation and homage attendant on pious acts is of the rajas type. Austerity practiced

under some foolish misconceptions, by means of self torture or to hurt another person

is of the tamas type."

Clearly a satto-guni will do everything as an offering to God. Any work done in this mode

shall be the result of doer's best effort and will be performed with great will-power

and determination. The motive for the effort will be something higher than the next

paycheck or the next promotion. Internally a person will be all fired up to perform but

outwardly he would appear to be calm and unstressed as there is no passion involved in

the effort. The non-attachment to rewards of ones actions is sometimes considered to

suggest coldness and lack of enthusiasm. But in reality, one is freed from the fear of

failure and the desire of rewards, and offers everything he does as a sacrament of

devotion to his duty. Leading ones life as a satto-guni therefore, is the most spiritual

and stressfree mode that one should strive to achieve.

Householder

In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishan says that he who along with his struggle for survival

remembers Him and chants His name is the biggest ascetic. He clearly puts a spiritually

devoted householder ahead of any other group of people. This is very well illustrated by

the following incident.

It is said that once Sage Narad and a common householder entered the court of

Lord Krishan  almost at the same time. Lord Krishan chose to see the householder first.

Now Sage Narad  considered himself to be the foremost devotee of the Lord. So being

passed up in favor of  a common householder really hurt him. So much so that when he

had an audience with  the Lord, he complained about this incident. The Lord decided to

teach the Sage a lesson. He handed him a pot full of 'ghee' and asked him to put it on

his head and to go around the  world without spilling a drop of it. This, the Sage was

able to accomplish without any problem. So when he came back to the Lord after going

around the world, the Lord commended him on  his feat and asked him as to how many

times did he chant His name during the trip. The Sage said that the Lord must be

really joking for he was so busy balancing the pot of ghee that he  could not afford to

be distracted even for a single instant. Lord Krishan told him that the  house holder had

to juggle a thousand responsibilities that go with being a father, a husband,

a son, a brother, a breadwinner and still found time to chant His name. Sage Narad

on the other hand, had only the task of balancing a pot of ghee, and could not find time to

chant His name. Therefore the householder was leading a more spiritual life than the Sage.

The Sage felt  humbled and recognized the greatness of a householder.

Householders are the backbone of the human race. They are the ones who grow the food

we eat, design and manufacture consumer goods and appliances needed to make life

livable, and provide health care to get us back on our feet when we get sick. They are

the ones  who contribute most to the material development of society since they have a

vested interest  in seeing that their children inherit a better world than the one in which

they were raised.  In short a householder is the most important element of the human

race and spiritual  householders are the beings most loved by God.



jag to andhakaar hai, is se tu nikal...
gyan kaa prakash kar, moD tu samabhal...
Radha Krishan ke charan maiN nitya kar naman...
Man to mandir hai......haridaya hai varindavan....