Gita Acharan

Krishna says that the Prabhu (Lord) creates neither doership nor actions nor union with fruits of action for the world. The delusive cosmic nature is the originator of all these (5.14). The Lord is not a kartha (doer) but a Sristha (creator or creativity). There are two types of creations. One is like a potter who creates pottery and the creation (pot) gets separated from the creator for independent existence. Another is like a dancer who is creating dance but dance (creation) won't be there in the absence of the dancer. The Lord is like a dancer where the entire universe is dependent on him but he is not dependent on it. That's why dancing Shiva is depicted as Natraj and musician Krishna as Murari .  The Lord can also be seen as a catalyst in a chemical reaction where the presence of a catalyst makes the chemical reaction happen. The catalyst itself doesn't undergo any change. Krishna further says that the all pervading takes no account of anyone's virt...

Krishna says that the yogis, having abandoned sangam (unity/attachment), perform action merely by the senses, body, mind and intellect for self-purification (5.11). It is interpreted that even though one abandons attachment in the present moment, his past karma-bandhan (bondage of action) needs to be attended to. Hence, he keeps performing actions. Another way to look at it is that once attachment is abandoned, there is nothing left for him to attain in the physical or manifested world and all actions lead to purification of the inner self.   Krishna further says that the yukta (balanced/steady) having abandoned the fruits of action, attains eternal peace whereas the ayukta (imbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to fruit, is bound (5.12). One of the foundational pillars of the Gita (2.47) is that we have right over karma (action) but not karma-phal (fruits of action). Abandoning the fruits of action means that there is no preference for any specific ou...

Every physical system, including life, takes different inputs and produces certain outputs. We constantly measure or judge our outputs like words and deeds. We also judge the deeds of others as well as different situations around us. In fact, in the evolutionary process, judging threats was very important for survival itself. However, the issue is in the absence of standards for judging deeds and we often depend on ignorance based perceptions and belief systems. We feel happy and satisfied whenever we encounter a deed done which conforms to our belief system.  In this connection, Krishna says, "He who is united by yoga, who has purified and conquered self, subdued his senses, who realises his Self as the self in all beings, is not tainted although acting" (5.7). This is an assurance from the Lord as to when our deeds are not tainted.  Krishna says karmas are not tainted when performed by someone who is purified i.e. free of hatred and desires (5.3) and who has re...

Life is a two way process. We receive various stimuli and we keep responding to them. In this context, Krishna says that the knower of truth, united with self, thinks that, "I do nothing at all even while I see, hear, touch, smell, eat, walk, sleep, breath (5.8) -  talk, evaluate, accept and even my blink of eyes and the senses move among sense objects" (5.9). In this existential verse, Krishna is describing the peak experience of the knower of Truth.  As we regularly experience emotions arising out of praise and criticism, we see that praise makes us forget ourselves like the proverbial crow dropping its meat upon hearing praise from the fox about its singing ability. Likewise, when criticized, our response varies from silence to verbal to physical depending on the degree of criticism and the strength of the critic. We assume these stimuli to be true and we identify with them. This leads to misery especially when we take them personally. Our sense organs are like...