Gita Acharan

Krishna says (2.59) "sense objects fall away from the abstinent person, but not ras (longing) and longing ceases only when one realizes the supreme." Indriyas have a physical instrument and a controller. The mind is a combination of controllers of all sense organs. Krishna advises us to focus on the controller which sustains the longing.  Krishna uses the word ' ras ' whose literal meaning is juice. When a ripened fruit is cut, ' ras ' is not visible unless it is squeezed, same is the case with butter in milk. ' Ras ' is the intrinsic longing that exists in indriyas.  At an ignorant level, Indriyas are attached to the sense objects and keep swinging between polarities of pain and pleasure. In the next stage, the sense objects like sweets fall away due to external circumstances like lack of money or doctor's advice but the longing for sweets remains. External circumstances may include morality, fear of God/law/reputation, ageing, condit...

Krishna says (2.58) that wisdom gets established when one completely withdraws their indriyas (senses) from sense objects, like the tortoise withdrawing its limbs.  Krishna lays emphasis on indriyas as they are the gateways between our inner self and outer world. He advises that we should withdraw our indriyas when we see ourselves getting attached to sense objects like the metaphorical tortoise withdrawing its limbs when faced with danger. Each sense has two parts. One is the sense instrument like an eyeball and the second, that portion of the brain (controller) which controls this eyeball.  Sensory interactions happen at two levels. One is between the ever changing outer world of sense objects and the sense instrument (eyeball) which is purely automatic where photons reach the eyeball and interact as per their physical properties. The second is between the eyeball and its controller. The desire to see is the reason for the evolution of the eye and that desire ...

We tend to assign one of three labels to a situation, a person or an outcome of a deed: good, bad or no label. Krishna refers to this third state and says (2.57) that a wise person is one who isn't filled with joy when coming across good nor does he hate bad and is always without attachment. This implies that the sthithpragna (one with coherent intellect) drops labelling(2.50) and takes facts as facts without any extrapolation, which is the birthplace for polarities of pain and pleasure.  This verse is tough as it runs contrary to our tendency of instantaneously labelling facts as good or bad even in moral and social contexts. When one encounters a situation or person labelled as bad, dislike, aversion and hatred follows automatically. On the other hand, the sthithpragna doesn't label it and hence the question of hating doesn't rise for them. Thus similarly when coming across good, the sthithpragna doesn't get overjoyed.  For example, all of us go through...

Krishna says (2.56) that Sthithpragna is one who is neither excited by sukh (pleasure) nor agitated by dukh (pain), is free from raag (attachment), bhay (fear) and krodh (anger). This is an extension of 2.38 where Krishna says to treat sukh (pleasure) and dukh (pain); labh (gain) and nasht (loss); and jaya (victory) and apajaya (defeat) with equipoise.  All of us seek sukh but dukh inevitably comes to our lives as both of them exist in pairs of dwandwa (polar). This is like bait to fish where the hook is hidden behind the bait. On the other hand, the struggle always brings rewards. Sthithpragna is one who transcends these polarities and attains Dwandwa-ateeth . It's a pure awareness that when we seek one, the other is bound to follow -maybe in a different shape and after a lapse of time. When we get sukh with our planning, ahankaar gets elated which is nothing but excitement however when it turns to dukh , ahankaar gets hurt which is nothing but agitation and kro...