November 26th,2021
This is my interpretation of Reading The Bhagavad Gita from the Initial Chapters. This is the just a drop in the ocean of Spiritual knowledge. More Articles are Coming Up!!
Interpretation of the Initial Chapters
1. Act Selflessly and Do not expect anything from Others even during helping. You have to pay something in return if you obtain something, be it materialistic or something else. Else as described by krishna, you would be a thief.
In my personal opinion, this inculcates the feeling of selflessness into your mind. Without selflessness, you may think that the object is hard earned by you and that you deserve it instead of thinking that the world has given you something. If you think you deserve something and if you do not get it, it leads to despair. We can relate this idea to how we humans have been living in this world. We take something from mother nature, yet we do not give something in return. Even though, we are acting basing out of our survival instincts, we humans have reached a stage where we think we deserve all the fruits of mother nature without offering her something. We are simply stealing. Now that it had become harder to reap the benefits of nature, it had lead us to selfishness, anger, despair and eventually will lead to our own destruction.
2. Control your senses. Do not let your senses control you. If you let that happen, your life will be bound to whatever momentary decision your brain and senses may take you to. Ultimately you will lose your soul. What you are and what your life will only be controlled by your senses. So control your senses, desires; materialistic or egoistic or physical. Else you will be bound to your instincts like an animal. Only when you take control of yourself, you will look beyond yourself. you will look into the world. And you will find your path in your life.
Those who take wisdom as their highest goal, whose faith is deep and whose senses are trained, attain wisdom quickly and enter into perfect peace. But the ignorant, indecisive and lacking in faith, waste their lives. They can never be happy in this world or any other.
- Krishna, Chapter 4
3. Your karma is what you carry; the result of all the actions you did which brought you here. But in order to break lose of the bonds of karma, you have to find enlightment.
Even if you were the most sinful of sinners, Arjuna, you could cross beyond all sin by the raft of spiritual wisdom. As the heat of a fire reduces wood to ashes, the fire of knowledge burns to ashes all karma.
- Krishna, Chapter 4
The path of Enlightment
Hinduism declares 2 paths for enlightment 1. Jnana Yoga 2. Karma Yoga
Yoga means practice.
Jnana Yoga means abstain your work insearch of spiritual wisdom. The path to knowledge. Jnana Yoga is not for everyone and should not be for everyone. Ancient rishis and saints followed this path. Yet as krishna explains that if an influential person follows this path of jnana yoga, everyone may follow similar path abandoning their duties leading to the destruction of our universe.
Karma Yoga means act selflessly while doing your duty. Karma Yoga is the best of both the worlds of fullfillment of your desires and spiritual freedom. In Modern world, everyone should practice karma yoga. If you attach yourself to the outcome, you will always be anxious, tensed and you will act on your impulses and emotions rather than logic and your duty. The Karma yoga ultimately leads to the benefit of you but that should not be the primary motivator. The primary motivation should be to help others, do your duty so that those who depend on you, the community you care ultimately reaps the benefits.
Dharma and Identity
Every person in ancient era has a dharma to follow. Now in this world, we are free to choose our own path and Dharma which is both a gift, blessing and a curse. A gift so that our dharma is not bound by our birth or location but it is our own free will that chooses our path. A curse because if you do not rules to guide your life, you will be bound to the outcomes of everchanging events in your surroundings, your mind will wander without a path. So find your dharma or set of philosophies and set of rules early in your life. Those should guide you and that defines what you are. That gives your identity. That makes you realise what your place is in the world. And thus, you will realise your duties.
Gunas
Tama gunam - ignorance raja gunam - passion, activity Satva gunam - goodness, light, purity
One cannot survive in this world with Tama Gunam. But Raja gunam is like a sword. Activity and passion leads you to great things, yet if you let them blind you. You will always be unhappy chasing them. This is why free yourself from the result of your action. After all, there are many factors at work which led you to your current place in your life. The concept of serving the world arised because I think it detaches ourselves from results. You have to control raja gunam. not the other way around.
As mentioned earlier, these are just a few of the things I absorbed from the book and then I added few of my own thoughts. Please feel free to reach out to me for more suggestions and any mistakes I made! Om Shanti !