3. Its Here and Now

 


The Bhagavad Gita is about ‘who we are’ but not about ‘what we have and what we know’. It is like being truthful apart from knowing the truth. This happens when we are centred in the inner self in the present moment of time.

Arjuna’s underlying dilemma revolves around the fear of how his actions of killing friends, relatives and teachers for the sake of the kingdom will affect his image in the eyes of the world. This appears to be very logical, and this is the first barrier to be crossed. Clarity would come when we dive deep into the Gita.

The real dilemma of Arjuna is about his image in the future. Krishna says that we have the right to do karma but no right to the karma-phal. A point to be noted is that karma (action) occurs in the present moment and karma-phal (fruits of action) is something that manifests in the future. This indicates that we have control over our present moment but not over the future. That’s why Krishna says that we have the right to do karma but no right to the karma-phal.

Like Arjuna who is worried about his image, we too strive for outcome-oriented actions. Sometimes modern life gives us the impression that future outcomes can be controlled. But the future is a combination of so many possibilities over which we hardly have any control. Our ahankaar, feeding on our past and projecting the future on the present, creates dilemmas. 

Rotation is a fundamental principle of the universe. A wheel rotates around a stationary hub. Similarly, every storm has a calm centre without which no storm can sustain momentum. Another characteristic of the storm is that the farther one moves away from the centre, the greater the turbulence becomes. 

We too have a calm centre which is nothing but our inner self and the turbulent life, with its many attributes, revolves around it. Arjuna’s dilemma is about one of such attributes which is his reputation. We too form images about ourselves by looking into the eyes of others rather than looking into our inner selves to understand who we are.

Gita says that the ‘time’ to be is the present moment and ‘space’ to be is the eternal state of our inner self. When one is realised, the other is attained automatically.


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