Gita Acharan

Krishna tells Arjun (3.30) to relinquish all actions unto HIM; to be devoid of egotism (nir-mama) and desires (nir-aasha) ; and to fight without fever (jvar) . This verse is a summary of the Gita and it answers several of our doubts in daily life.  Our first doubt is 'What to do', which arises because we are not happy with what we are doing as we feel that happiness is elsewhere in another action. But this verse advises us to 'do the job in hand’, which may have been chosen by us or thrust upon us, to the best of our abilities. It could be as cruel and complex as the Kurukshetra war, where one would kill or be killed. Scientifically, our complex human body is the evolution from a single cell where each action (mutation) is linked to the previous one. So any action on hand is always a result of a series of past actions and there is no stand alone action.  The next question is, 'How to do it'. The verse advises us to act by dropping ahankaar , desires and

Krishna says that "Those sammohit (hypnotised) by the gunas (qualities or characters) of nature are attached to the functions of the gunas ; one with perfect knowledge should not unsettle the ignorant whose knowledge is imperfect. (3.29)" Apart from being the real karta (doer), gunas have the ability to hypnotise and cast a spell on us which makes us forget our true nature. We remain spellbound till we realise we are under a spell.  Krishna talks about the ignorant and the wise. The ignorant are under the hypnotic spell (maya) of gunas and feel that they are karta (3.27) and want to achieve, be important, get noticed and fight for entitlements. Simultaneously, they take others in the family, workplace and society to be karta and expect them to behave or perform as per their expectations. This results in perpetual guilt, regret, anger and misery from ever swinging polarities of failure and success. The second stage is awareness which comes with a time lapse

Krishna says that (3.27) " Karmas (actions) in all situations are performed by the gunas (qualities or characters) of nature; one who is deluded by ahankaar thinks 'I am doer'. One (3.28) with true insight into the distinctions between gunas and karmas knows that gunas interact with gunas and hence he's not attached."  All actions being nothing but interactions between gunas is a common thread in the Gita. The three gunas namely Satva, Tamo and Rajo 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 laziness. It should be noted that no guna is superior or inferior to any other guna ; they are just gunas . For example, if one has a high percentage of Rajo guna , they would be deeply inclined towards action and would not be able to sleep, thus, a percentage of Tamas is needed to sleep. Secondly, we need to be aware of the

A fruit absorbs nutrients from its parent tree to grow and ripen. It then gets detached from the tree to start its own journey. The journey to freedom from the parent tree involves different actions to finally becoming a tree itself. An immature fruit, on the other hand, needs to be attached to the parent tree till it ripens.    A ripe fruit shouldn't lure the immature fruit to leave the tree, as it is not yet ready to start an independent journey. It would perish if it doesn't spend time to get the required nourishment from the parent tree. In a similar vein, Krishna advises (3.26) the wise man to not unsettle the ignorant, who is attached to actions.  This is an extension of what Krishna said (3.6) about individuals who forcefully control the organs of action, but whose mind still revolves around thoughts of sense objects. He calls them hypocrites who are deluding themselves and this would be no different to the state of an ignoramus whose actions were forcibly st

In our daily life, we get attached to action which is described as aasakti (interest or attachment) or we are detached from it - virakti (hatred or disinterested). However, Krishna refers to a third state, anaasakti (dropping both attachment and detachment) which is beyond both. He says (3.25) that the avidwan (ignorant) act with an attachment to action and the vidwan (wise) acts unattached, for the welfare of the world.  Actions based on aasakti and virakti can make us miserable. The presence of a loved one (aasakti) brings us happiness and their absence makes us unhappy. Similarly, the presence of a hated one (virakti) makes us unhappy and their absence brings relief. Hence, both aasakti or virakti are capable of swinging us between the polarities of pleasure and pain. Krishna, therefore, advises us to transcend both and be anaasakt , while performing any action.   The Welfare of the world can be equated to compassion which flows when the actions are performed