Gita Acharan

  K rishna tells Arjuna that atma /soul is unmanifested, inconceivable and unchangeable (2.25). It goes through the stages of childhood, youth and old age of this body so does it pass into another body (2.13). Krishna concludes that once we are aware of this, there is no need to grieve for the physical body. All the beings are unmanifest before their birth, they manifest between their birth and death and once again unmanifest after their death (2.28). Many cultures use the ocean and wave analogy to explain the same. The ocean represents the unmanifest and the wave represents the manifest. Waves arise from the ocean for some period, and they manifest in different sizes, shapes, intensities etc. Finally waves merge back into the ocean from where they arose. Our indriyas (senses) can only sense the manifest i.e. waves. Similarly, a seed holds the potential to grow into a tree. In the seed, the tree is present in its unmanifested form. It becomes manifested when it starts g...

  A t the very beginning of the Gita (2.14), Krishna says that the meeting of the indriyas (senses) with the sense-objects causes polarities of pleasure and pain. He tells Arjuna to learn to tolerate them, as they are transient. In the contemporary world this is expressed as, ‘This too shall pass’. If this is inculcated at an experiential level, we can transcend these polarities to find them equally acceptable. There are five indriyas (senses) viz. vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Sense perception happens through a combination of a physical part and a controller part. The physical parts of the senses are eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The controller parts are those parts of the brain which process the sensory inputs of the respective physical parts. However, the physical parts of the senses have a lot of limitations. For example, the eyeball can process only a particular frequency of light which we call visible light. Secondly, it cannot process more than 1...

  K rishna says, ‘Om Tat Sat’ is considered the threefold representation of the Supreme Absolute Truth (17.23). ‘Tat’ is translated as ‘That’. ‘ Tat’ is also interpreted as the ‘All’, the All-pervading Reality. Two types of wise men have guided humanity in its quest to understand ‘ Tat’ . One approaches from the positive side and another from the negative. Though the destination remains the same in both cases, the difference lies in the starting point of the journey and in the path, we choose according to our nature. The positively oriented describe ‘That’ which is indestructible, eternal, stable, and all-pervading - as ‘complete’, to which nothing can be added. ‘Creativity’ is a metaphor for it. The negatively oriented describe ‘That’ which is indestructible, eternal, stable, and all-pervading- as ‘empty’, from which nothing can be removed. ‘Space’ is a metaphor for it. In any case, both ‘creativity’ and ‘space’ can have creation and material manifestation. It is ...

  K rishna tells Arjuna, “There is no time, past, present or future - when you, I and these rulers on the battlefield are not present” (2.12). He further adds that the ‘physical side’ or manifestation of the indestructible eternal ‘living entity’ (unmanifested) is certain to perish.  Hence, the battle ahead must be fought without worrying about perishable entities. This eternal ‘living entity’ is known by many names such as atma , chaitanya , soul and consciousness. Krishna refers to the same as dehi . Krishna starts with the essence of creation and speaks of a ‘living entity’, which is indestructible, immeasurable, pervades all and is eternal (2.20 & 2.21). Secondly, the same eternal entity has a material side which invariably perishes (2.18). When Krishna mentions the rulers, he is referring to that ‘living entity’ in them, which is indestructible and eternal. We are made up of two parts. The first part is ‘body and mind’ which would invariably perish. They a...

  D welling further on ‘sat’ (real or permanence) and ‘asat’ (unreal or impermanence), Krishna asks us to contemplate on ‘That’ which is indestructible and which pervades all (2.17). The popular and easy understanding of creation is that it is the work of a Creator. But Krishna points towards ‘creativity’, which is a constant evolutionary force. For example, it causes sprouting from seeds. The sprout and the seed (both creations) can be destroyed, but not ‘creativity’, which is at work tirelessly and pervades all around. While the creation is bound by time, ‘creativity’ is beyond time.  Creation takes birth and ceases to exist after death, whereas ‘creativity’ is indestructible as well as eternal. ‘Creativity’ is the real karta in the sense that it engenders creation. It creates physical forms like our body and mind. It also creates feelings and emotions. Knowledge and memory belong to the past and creation ( karma-phal ) unfolds in the future. ‘Creativity’ al...

  K rishna says ‘sat’ (real or permanence) never ceases to be and ‘asat’ (unreal or impermanence) has no existence. A jnani is the one who can distinguish between the two (2.16). The rope and snake analogy is often quoted in many cultures to understand the intricacies of ‘sat’ and ‘asat’ . A man returned home at dusk and found a coiled snake at the entrance to his home. But in reality, it was a rope left by children that looked like a snake in the semi-darkness. While the rope signifies ‘sat’, the snake signifies ‘asat’ . Until he realises ‘sat’ i.e. the rope, he is likely to adopt many strategies to handle ‘asat’ i.e. the illusory snake. He could attack it with a stick (fight), run away (flight) or he may try to light a torch to check out the reality. The best strategies and skills would go in vain if our perceptions were that of ‘asat’ . Another example is a reflection in a mirror. When we stand before a mirror, our image appears in it. The reflection cannot exist...

  K rishna says that there are four types of devotees. The first one wants to come out of the difficulties and misery he is facing in life. The second one desires to have physical possessions and worldly pleasures. Most devotees fall into these two categories irrespective of culture, gender, belief systems etc. Krishna says that these two kinds of devotees pray and perform rituals to various devatas . It is akin to approaching the right doctor based on the ailment one is suffering from. Krishna further says that the desires of these devotees are fulfilled because of their shraddha . It is in essence, a form of surrender. The following example will illustrate shraddha . Two farmers who have adjacent farms decide to dig a well to irrigate their farms. The first farmer would dig for a day or two and upon not finding any water would change the location to start digging afresh. The second farmer persistently kept digging at the same place. By the end of the month, the first ...

  K rishna says that no one is karta for any karma . Karma is in fact the result of the interaction among the three gunas viz. satva, rajo and tamas which are a part of prakriti (nature). Krishna advises Arjuna to transcend these gunas to be free from sorrows. Arjuna wanted to know how one can become a guna-atheeth (one who has transcended the gunas ) and what such a person is like upon attaining that state. Dwandwa-atheeth (transcending polarities), drishta (witness) and samatva (equanimity) are the qualities that are enshrined in the Gita. Krishna indicates that a combination of these three constitutes guna-atheeth . Krishna says that a person who has attained the state of guna-atheeth is the one who realises that gunas are interacting with gunas and therefore, remains a sakshi (witness). He neither desires any particular guna nor is he averse to any other one. Guna-atheeth is also dwandwa-atheeth at the same time. After understanding the polaritie...

  S amatva (equanimity) is a common thread that runs across the Gita. Lord Krishna highlights samatva-bhaav , samatva-drishti and samatva-buddhi at various places. Samatva is easy to understand but difficult to internalize. The degree of samatva within us is an indicator of our progress on the spiritual journey. The Gita begins with our relationship to things, gradually extends that understanding to people, and ultimately teaches us to remain balanced in situations such as praise and criticism. Krishna asks us to regard gold and a stone alike, and to look upon a cow, an elephant, and a dog with equal vision -without assigning greater value to some and lesser value to others. In the case of people, the difficulty is that we tend to identify with one or more artificial divisions based on culture, religion, caste, nationality, race and gender. The ability to overcome the divisions and to treat two different people equally is the first step towards samatva. Krishna te...

  I f one word could describe the entire Gita it would be ‘ drishta ’ (witness), which appears in many contexts. An understanding of this is important as we think that ‘we’ do things and control situations. We need to free ourselves from this notion to lead a life of joy. Arjuna, who was about sixty years old at the time of the Kurukshetra war, had lived a good life and enjoyed all luxuries. As a warrior he had tasted victory in many battles. At the time of war, he felt that he was the karta ( aham-karta; ahankaar ) and felt that he would be responsible for the death of his kith and kin. This led to his despondency on the battlefield. The entire Gita is Lord Krishna’s attempt to tell him that he is not the karta . The Lord reveals that Arjuna is ‘ drishta/sakshi ’ - a witness. When we start realising ourselves to be nimitta - maatra – an instrument in the hands of the Almighty, we are on the firm path towards ‘being a witness’. In this state, Paramatma is recognised a...

  T hree gunas namely satva, rajo and tamas are born out of prakriti (mother nature). They bind the soul with the physical body. They are present in each one of us in different proportions. Satva guna is the attachment to knowledge; rajo guna is the attachment to action and tamas leads to ignorance and heedlessness. Just as the combination of electrons, protons and neutrons produces materials with a wide range of properties, the combination of the three gunas is responsible for our nature and actions. Though one guna is dominant throughout our lives, one of them can dominate over others at a given point in time. In fact, interactions among people are nothing but interactions between the gunas influencing them. The natural world operates according to built-in laws and automatic processes. For example, a magnetic dipole placed in a magnetic field aligns itself with the field, and objects attract each other due to gravity. Similarly, many physical and chemical pro...

  A rjuna compares the mind to the wind and asks how it can be controlled, so that it maintains balance. Krishna says that it’s certainly difficult, but it can be achieved through the regular practice ( abhyaas ) of vairagya (detachment) (6.35). The mind has evolved to judge inputs brought in by the senses as safe or unsafe and uses memory while doing so. This ability helped us survive and prosper during evolution. The same ability of the mind can also be used for internal judging, which is called awareness. We can feed our thoughts and feelings back to the judging mind to improve the quality of judging. Similar feedback mechanisms are used to enhance machine learning as well as to stabilize electronic systems. Lord Krishna is hinting at developing this faculty through practice as this doesn’t come naturally. In terms of neuroscience, it is like building new neural networks. It is easier to understand vairagya by understanding its polar opposite raag (attachment). Raa...

  T ranscending polarities or dualities ( dwandwa-atheeth ) is another master key in the Gita. Krishna advises Arjuna repeatedly in different contexts, to attain this state. The common question that intrigues humanity is ‘Why does unpleasantness/pain come to us even when we sincerely strive to attain pleasure’? Instead of looking deeper within, we reconcile ourselves by saying that maybe our efforts aren’t sufficient. However, ahankaar coupled with hope, motivates us to restart the process of pursuing pleasure and this goes on till the end of our lives. Understanding of dwandwa-atheeth helps us to find answers to this question. In the manifested world, everything exists with its polar opposite ( dwandwa ). Birth is the polar opposite to death; pleasure is to pain; winning-losing; profit to loss; attachment-detachment; praise to criticism; longing to aversion; and the list is endless. The natural principle is that, when we chase one of these, its polar opposite autom...

  The Gita contains many master keys which have the capacity to open up many doors and  bypass hurdles we face in the path of self realisation.    One such master key is to see yourself in others and others in you. Krishna implores us to realize that its HIM in all of us and he is hinting at the un-manifested (form-less). Krishna elsewhere asks us to raise ourselves to bow to a donkey or a thief as if we are bowing to the LORD.  Based on the inputs brought in by the senses, our minds are  programmed to divide and judge situations into safe/pleasant or unsafe/unpleasant. This is necessary and useful to  protect us from imminent dangers. Like any technology, the mind is double-edged too and crosses its mandate, to became our master. This is essentially the birth place of Ahankaar . What this master key says is to make the mind a slave to minimise division/judgement so that cohesion/unity appears. No complex physical entity, including our body can...