Gita Acharan

O nce, an invader on horseback from Central Asia occupied Delhi and wished to hold a victory procession. An elephant was decorated and upon mounting it, he asked for the reins of the elephant. When told that it is controlled by a mahout, he jumped down and summoned for his horse, saying that he never rides on something whose reins are not in his hands. Similarly, we need to introspect as to whether we hold the reins to our happiness and emotions or someone else does. While we may believe we are in control, the reality is often otherwise. The reins may lie with a friend, someone in the family or workplace whose moods, words, opinions, praise and criticism make us happy or unhappy; could be an object like food, drink or physical possession; could be a favorable or unfavorable situation; even our past or future may hold these reins. In this context, Krishna says that he is a yogi who, at any time before liberation from the body, is able to master every impulse of lust ( k...

K rishna says that those established in Brahma (absolute), having a firm understanding of divine knowledge and not hampered by delusion, neither rejoice on getting something pleasant nor grieve on experiencing the unpleasant (5.20). We have the habit of labelling situations and people as pleasant or unpleasant. In essence, it’s about dropping such labelling (2.50). Krishna repeatedly tells Arjuna to come out of the moha (delusion) which arises out of mistaken sense of ownership of what is ours and what is not. The greatest delusion is the belief that we can attain happiness through our senses. On the other hand, Krishna offers a solution for unending happiness when he says that those who are not attached to external sense pleasures realise divine bliss in the self. Being united with God through yoga , they experience unending happiness (5.21). Krishna cautions that the pleasures arising from contact with the sense-objects, though seemingly enjoyable to worldly-minded ...

K rishna says that whose mind and intellect are established in ‘That’ (Supreme) and whose sins have been dispelled by awareness reach a state of no return (5.17). Unaware living is like living in darkness, where we keep falling and hurting ourselves. The next level is like experiencing some flashes of light where one attains awareness for a moment but falls back into ignorance. The final stage is like having permanent light like sunlight where the awareness attains a critical threshold and one never returns to ignorance. This state of no return is also referred to as moksha , the ultimate freedom. It’s not ‘my’ freedom but freedom from ‘me’ as all suffering stem from the egoic sense of ‘me’. Samatva (equanimity) happens when one attains the state of no return and in this regard, Krishna says that the wise view a learned and cultured Brahamin , a cow, an elephant, and even a dog or dog eater as the same (5.18). Samatva is one of the foundational pillars of the Gita. ...