Gita Acharan

K rishna says, “‘That’ which is to be known is the Sustainer, Destroyer and Creator of beings; indivisible and yet existing as if divided in living beings (13.17). The Light of lights; Beyond the darkness. Knowledge (jnana) as well as the object and the goal of knowledge in the hearts of all (13.18). Realising this; My devotee attains My Being” (13.19). ‘Knowledge dwells in the hearts of all’ was dealt with earlier when Krishna said that he who has perfected yoga finds the wisdom in the self (4.38). Shraddha-vaan (one with shraddha ) and jitendriya (one who conquered senses) obtain wisdom leading to parama-shanti (supreme peace) (4.39). The ignorant, devoid of shraddha is ruined and there is no happiness for him in this world or another (4.40). ‘That’ is indivisible and yet exists as if divided in the living beings. The inability to comprehend this at the existential level is the source of misery. Like the proverbial elephant and the five blind men, each of whom gr...

O nce, a father took his ten-year-old son to a playground. He threw a ball and told the boy that the game was to bring the ball back to him. The ground, however, was scattered with many toys. As the boy ran after the ball, he noticed a toy along the way. He got distracted, picked it up, and began to play with it, forgetting the ball altogether -until his father called out to remind him of the task. The boy dropped the toy and ran again in search of the ball. There were many other children in the playground. Soon, the boy found another attractive toy and became absorbed in it. When a stronger child came and snatched the toy away, the boy began to cry. Later, he himself snatched a toy from a smaller child. As he moved through the playground, conflicts and fights kept erupting over toys. All this while, the father was walking just behind his son. Yet, for the boy who was lost in the toys, his father -though so near, remained so far. This story helps us to understand whe...

I n the following verses, Krishna used the word ‘ Tat’ which is translated as ‘That’. When we remember or worship Paramatma , we still remain as separate entity. To end this separation ‘ Tat’ or ‘That’ is used to describe a state of oneness. ‘Tat ’ is also interpreted as the ‘All’, the All-pervading Reality. Krishna says, “I will declare ‘That’ (‘ Tat’ ) which is to be known, which having known one enjoys immortality; beginningless is the Supreme Spirit who is spoken of as neither existent ( sat ) nor non-existent ( asat ) (13.13). With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, ears and mouths everywhere, ‘That’ dwells in the world enveloping all (13.14). Shining in all the sense faculties yet transcending the senses; unattached to creation yet supporting all; free from the gunas (qualities of nature), yet the Enjoyer of them” (13.15). This is in response to Arjuna’s question about ‘what is to be known’. The fear of death is the foundation of our fears. The loss o...

K rishna says, “Whatever being is born, moving or unmoving, know that to be the union of kshetra (field) and kshetrajna (knower of field) (13.27). He truly sees who perceives Parameshwar (supreme Lord) present equally in all beings as the imperishable among the perishable” (13.28). A similar description was given by Krishna where he described ‘ sat ’ as eternal (imperishable) and ‘ asat ’ as the one which wasn’t there in the past and which wouldn’t be there in the future (perishable) (2.16); and advised us to differentiate between them. Everything we see around us is perishable. Krishna says there is imperishable behind this perishable. Instead of getting deeper into perishability to discover the imperishable, we tend to build our lives around the perishable. It is like building castles in the air. Our efforts to bring permanence or certainty to the perishable are bound to end in misery. Krishna described such a situation as the destruction of self by self and gave a s...

Krishna says, “Humility, simplicity, harmlessness, forgiveness, uprightness, service of the preceptor, purity, steadfastness, self-control (13.8); dispassion ( vairagya ) towards sense-objects, absence of ahankaar (I am doer), perception of birth, death, old age and pain as flawed (13.9); non-attachment, non-infatuation with children, spouse or residences, eternal equanimity towards desirable and undesirable circumstances (13.10). Unwavering devotion to Me through yoga of devotion ( bhakti ), comfortable with self, away from gossip of crowds (13.11); perseverance in self-knowledge, perceiving the absolute truth ( tattva jnana )- This is declared to be knowledge, what is opposed to this is ignorance” (13.12). A point to be noted is that some of these are about the self and the rest are about our relationship with the external world. Secondly, these can be considered as virtues conducive to attaining self-knowledge. Anyone suffering from the disease of ‘I am superior’, ...

K rishna refers to the physical body ( shariram ) as kshetra (field) and explains briefly its characteristics, its cause-and-effect ( vikar ); about kshetrajna (knower of the field) and the nature of His powers. He cautions that these were described by various sages and several spiritual texts in many ways (13.4 and 13.5). An important point is that kshetra and kshetrajna are described by various sages and texts in different ways. This is a universal problem where truth is described by different people in different ways in different languages making our understanding difficult. Krishna cautions about not getting lost in words. Krishna says, “Succinctly described, the kshetra and its modifications are composed of the fundamental elements (fire, air, water, earth and space), ahankaar , intellect ( buddhi ), unmanifested ( avyakta ), ten senses, mind and the five objects of the senses (13.6) and desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, assemblage (material body), consciousness (...