Gita Acharan

K rishna says that the Prabhu (Lord) creates neither doership nor actions nor union with the fruits of action for the world. The delusive cosmic nature is the originator of all these (5.14). The Lord is not a karta (doer) but a Srishta (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 Nataraj 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 virtue o...

K rishna says that the yogis , having abandoned sangam (unity/attachment), perform actions 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, their 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 the 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 is that we have right over karma (action) but not karma-phal (fruits of action) (2.47). Abandoning the fruits of action means that there is no preference for any spec...

E very physical system 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 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 entangled although acting” (5.7). Non-entanglement is often interpreted as being untainted, and this verse is the Lord’s assurance that the actions of the purified are not tainted. Karmas are not tainted when performed by someone who is purified i.e. free of h...

I n our daily life, we receive various stimuli through our senses and 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 and accept. The senses move among sense-objects” (5.9). In this existential verse, Krishna is describing the peak experience of the knower of truth. Secondly, these verses are very easy to understand but very difficult to inculcate as they require subjugation of senses which are powerful. For example, we regularly experience emotions arising out of praise and criticism. Praise makes us forget ourselves like the proverbial crow dropping its meat upon hearing praise from the fox about its singing ability. Similarly, when criticized, our response varies from silence to verbal to physical depending on the degree of criticism and the strength of the critic. We take these stimuli to be true and ...