Gita Acharan

In the Gita, some words like anaasakti and veet-raag represent the crux of the Gita. While aasakthi (attachment) and virakti (detachment) are two polarities, anaasakti transcends these polarities. Similarly, veet-raag is neither raag (fondness) nor viraag (aversion) but transcends both. These polarities are nothing but the radiance of ahankaar (I the doer) and once dropped, one transcends all polarities. This stage is nothing but liberation. In this context, Krishna says (4.23), "One who is liberated, devoid of attachment, with mind established in knowledge and acting for yagna; his whole action is dissolved." 'I' is identification with our possessions; friends and enemies; likes and dislikes; and thoughts and feelings. Dropping them brings temporary emptiness leading to pain, fear, anger and resentment, therefore, dropping the 'I' is no easy task. Interestingly, the need is to drop the sense of ownership, identification and doership but no...

The question of vikarma (prohibited action) or sin is very intriguing. Arjun is also in this very dilemma and says that sin alone will accrue by killing relations in battle (1.36). In fact, cultures have defined various karmas (actions) as sins and the list changes with time. In the modern context, countries have their penal codes which mandate some actions to be crimes or sins and thus punishable when committed. In any case, we keep punishing ourselves through guilt, regret and shame when such perceived sins are performed by us.  In this context, Krishna says that "One hoping for nought, with controlled mind and body, having relinquished all possessions, doing mere bodily actions, incurs no sin (4.21)." Krishna earlier talked about sin and told Arjun, "To treat pleasure and pain; profit and loss; victory and defeat alike and do battle, whereby he would not incur any sin (2.38)." The subtle issue to be understood in evaluating sin is that we normally e...

A hungry fox tried to reach for grapes hanging high above, failed and moved on bringing itself to think that the grapes were sour. This familiar story presents several angles on the issue of handling disappointment, contentment and happiness.  Contemporary psychology talks about 'synthesising happiness' as one of the functions of the human brain to help us move out of difficult situations. The fox did exactly this by satisfying itself that the grapes were sour and moved on. In the context of contentment, Krishna goes beyond 'synthesising happiness' and says that, "Having renounced attachment to fruits of action, the ever content (nitya-tripth) , depends on nothing, he doesn't do anything though he is engaged in action (4.20)." Contentment with self is one of the common threads in the Gita and on many occasions, Krishna advises Arjun to be Atmavaan or Atmatripth , which is essentially contented with self. Atmavaan spreads the fragrance of cont...

Every culture evolved some dos and don'ts for peace in society and with the evolution of justice systems, some don’ts have become punishable crimes. Criminal jurisprudence requires both intention and execution to be present in a crime. Intention is the thought behind the crime and execution, the physical side. Proof of both components is essential to convict any person of a crime.  If we take the intention as sankalp (will or purpose) and execution as kaam (desire), we can understand Krishna’s saying, "He whose pursuits are free from kaam and sankalp ( kaam sankalp vargitaye ); whose actions are burnt by the fire of knowledge, him the wise call a pandit (sage)" (4.19). Society, in general, is satisfied as long as there is no criminal action, even if one is roaming about full of criminal intent. Krishna says that we should drop kaam first and subsequently should even drop sankalp . Dropping kaam can happen because of various reasons like fear of the law,...

‘Acts of commission and omission' is a phrase commonly used in the legal lexicon. A driver failing to apply brakes at the appropriate moment has committed an act of omission resulting in an accident. This act of 'omission' or akarma (inaction), leads to karma (action) of accident.  Similarly, while performing any action, we choose from many different options available to us. When we exercise one of these options and act, all other options become akarma for us, leading to the conclusion that every karma has akarma hidden in it.  These examples help us to understand Krishna’s profound statement that the one who beholds karma in akarma and akarma in karma has attained the goal of all karmas (4.18).  Krishna himself says that this issue is an intricate one and even the wise are confounded about the subtleties of karma and akarma (4.16). He further says that the nature of karma is very difficult to know. Certainly, in order to fully understand the natu...