Gita Acharan

The common observation one makes about the spiritual path is that it is difficult to follow. Krishna earlier assured such people (2.40) that small efforts bring big gains in Karma Yoga. He further makes it simple when he says, "He who appropriately (yukta) eats, relaxes, works, sleeps, and remains awake will find yoga the destroyer of suffering (6.17)."  Yoga or spiritual path is as simple as eating when hungry; Working when it is time to work; Sleeping or relaxing when it is time to sleep and relax. Anything more than this is a story that we tell ourselves and others. A baby requires more sleep than an old person. Our requirements regarding food might vary based on the physical activity of the day indicating that 'appropriately' means being aware in the present moment. The same was earlier referred to as the bounded action (6.1), prescribed duties (4.17)  or obligatory actions (3.8).  On the contrary, our minds extrapolate from simple facts and add our i...

Krishna says you are either your own best friend or your own worst enemy (6.6). To become one's own friend, he advised the path of equanimity towards the feelings of sukh-dukh (6.7), towards things like gold-stone (6.8) and towards people like friends-enemies (6.9) by controlling senses (6.8). Alternatively, Krishna suggests the path of meditation (6.10-6.15).  Krishna says to remain secluded, devoid of material possessions (6.10), sit in a clean place not so low or high (6.11), with mind-controlled, erect back and neck, without looking around (6.12-6.13), one should be quiet, without fear, remain concentrated (6.14) and by constantly seeking union with self attains supreme peace (6.15).  Attaining samatva becomes difficult with the onslaught of sensory stimuli and thus seclusion gives temporary relief. The deeper meaning is that even if we seclude ourselves physically there is a chance that we keep mentally taking our professions, situations and people along wit...

Krishna spoke about treating gold, stone and a handful of soil as equal (6.8),  further he said that he who has equal regard for the patrons, strangers, relatives, friends, enemies, meditators, hateful beings, righteous and ungodly, is the best (6.9). Krishna started with things and suggested treating them as equals. Then he moved on to people in our lives and told us to regard friends and enemies; righteous and ungodly; strangers and relatives as equals. A closer look would indicate that these are all labels we assign to the people around us and our behaviour towards them would be based on this labelling. Interestingly, a friend to us can be an enemy to another person and a friend today can become our enemy tomorrow which indicates that all these labels are situational or biased. Hence, Krishna suggests treating them as equals by dropping these labels.  The subtle message in this area of things, people and relationships is not to treat people and relationships as ...

Krishna says, "The Yogi, who is satisfied with jnana and vijnana (jnana-vijnana-triptha-atma) , who remains unshaken, who has conquered the senses, to whom a lump of earth, stone and gold are the same, is said to be realised one" (6.8). Understanding awareness, curiosity, knowledge and experience will help us comprehend what Krishna said. Jnana is awareness about self and one is content when one attains it. Vijnana, also called science, can be interpreted as curiosity about things and people. Collection of all these curiosities along with their answers is nothing but the knowledge which is always of the past and is available in books. Curiosity is helpful in the initial stages of the internal journey but has got its limitations. Even science had to content itself with limitations such as uncertainty principles and dualities regarding particles and waves. On the other hand, existence is immutable and in scientific terms, keeps constantly evolving. Curiosity looks...