Gita Acharan

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...

Out of ignorance, one tends to grab material possessions thereby leading to the bondage of action to accumulate. When the first ray of awareness sets in, one starts thinking of renunciation like Arjun is trying here. The confusion lies in what to renounce. The usual tendency is to renounce all karmas or actions, as we label them as good or bad by our ever judging mind and in this scheme of things, want to drop undesirable karmas .  On the other hand, Krishna presents a complete paradigm shift regarding renunciation and says that one should always be a nitya sanyasi (perpetual renunciant), i.e. one who neither hates nor desires; is free from the pairs of opposites (dwandwa-ateeth) and is easily liberated from all entanglements (5.3). The first thing that we should renounce is hatred. This could be towards anything that goes against our beliefs like religion, caste or nationality. Hatred could be towards our profession, people or way of things around us. It is importan...

Arjun asks, "O Krishna, you praise renunciation of actions ( karma -sanyas ) and yet you also advise their performance at the same time. Tell me with certainty, which is the better path." (5.1) On an earlier occasion too, Arjun was looking for certainty (3.2) between the paths of Sankhya (wisdom or awareness) and Karma (3.1).  Krishna, however, does not advise renunciation of karma (action) and instead, he says that one doesn't attain siddhi (perfection) by renunciation of karma (3.4). One Is compelled to perform karmas as per his Gunas (qualities or characters) (3.5). In fact, even maintenance of the human body is not possible without karma (3.8). Clarity comes from the subsequent reply of Krishna that karma-sanyas is a part of Sankhya yoga.  Basically, Karma has two sides. One is the executor or Karta and another is Karmaphal (fruits of action). Dropping the sense of doership (kartapan) by realising that gunas are the real Karta is referred t...

Krishna says, "He who has relinquished work by yoga and has torn apart his doubts by wisdom, becomes poised in the self; actions don't bind him (4.41). Therefore, take shelter in yoga by cutting this ignorance-borne doubt dwelling in your heart with the sword of wisdom." (4.42) Krishna advises us to use the sword of wisdom to free ourselves from the bondage of action (karma-bandhan) .  'Regret' is the name of karma-bandhan suffered by us for both executed and unexecuted actions which result in the damage of things or relationships. Similarly, 'blame' is the name of karma-bandhan for actions or inactions of others affecting our lives negatively. The sword of wisdom is the only instrument that helps us extricate ourselves from the complex web of regret and blame. The fourth chapter of the Gita is called ' Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga '. It starts with how paramatma performs karmas and goes on to tell us that all karmas should be performe...

Once the creator was thinking about where to conceal 'that' wisdom after attaining which nothing is left to be attained. His wife suggests a high mountain or a deep sea but both were discarded as man can climb or swim. It was then decided to keep this wisdom inside man, while man searches for it outside for lifetimes. This metaphor makes it easy for us to understand when Krishna says, "Certainly, nothing in this world is as sanctifying as wisdom. In due course of time, he who perfected in yoga finds it in the self" (3.38). The essence is that 'wisdom' is in the self and by the same measure everyone has it. It's just the question of realising it both in self and others.  Krishna further says, " Shraddha-vaan (one with Shraddha ) and Jitendriya (one who won senses) obtain wisdom leading to parama-shanti (supreme peace)" (3.39). Krishna gives contrast and says, "The ignorant, devoid of Shraddha is ruined and there is no happiness...

Arjun's despondency during the Kurukshetra war is due to his feeling that he is committing a sin. He feels that killing one’s teachers, relatives and friends (1.36) is nothing but sin and that we should turn away from such sinful action (1.38). He is even more perturbed by the fact that he and his brothers were preparing to kill their own brethren out of greed for the kingdom (1.45). Krishna repeatedly speaks to Arjun about sin at various times to put things in perspective.  Krishna says, "Even if you are the most sinful of sinners, you shall safely cross the sea of sin by the raft of wisdom (3.36). Just as a blazing flame reduces firewood to ashes, the fire of wisdom reduces all actions to ashes." (3.37) For Krishna sin is like darkness, which is dispelled by the light of wisdom and awareness. The darkness may have been there for a long time or it could be pitch dark but the light instantaneously dispels it.  However, this is contrary to religious preachings ...

The ability to learn throughout life is a human endowment. The fundamental question is how to learn and what to learn. Krishna says, "Know 'that' by prostration, questioning and service, the wise who have realised the Truth will teach you the knowledge." (3.34) Prostration is humility, humbleness, willingness to understand others' points of view and open-mindedness which is an indication of overcoming our ahankaar . Questioning is a kind of feedback loop of electronic circuits where we question everything of what we say and do till questions drop. Service is compassion.   The next question is who is realised (Guru) and how to find them. In Srimad Bhagavatam, Krishna refers to a wise man who says that he has 24 gurus and learnt pardoning from the Earth; Innocence from a Child; Detachment from Air; Avoid hoarding from Honey Bees; Equanimity from the Sun; Traps of senses from Fish; and the list goes on. This implies that Guru is just around as long as t...

Krishna talked about yagna (selfless actions) at two places (3.9 to 3.15 and 4.23 to 4.32). He cautions (3.9) that motivated actions bind us (karma-bandhan) and advises action to be performed without attachment. He further indicates that the selfless action of yagna holds the supreme power (3.15) and in the beginning, using this power the creator created (3.10). He gave many instances of yagna (4.23 to 4.32) and concludes that all of them are offsprings of actions and this realisation would liberate us (4.32). This is the Lord's assurance on liberation. Furthermore, about sin, Krishna indicated (2.38 and 4.21) that action arising out of an imbalance between polarities of pleasure-pain; profit-loss; victory-defeat is the sin that results in karma-bandhan of perpetual guilt, regret and hatred. He further said, "One hoping for nothing and doing mere bodily actions, incurs no sin" (4.21). He concludes that by sacrifice (of attachment) the knowers have destroyed si...

Some activities in the human body like the beating of the heart are automatic though they may follow a set rhythm while some activities like the limbic system can be controlled. But breathing is unique as it is both automatic and can be controlled. In the context of yagna (selfless action) and breathing, Krishna says, "Some offer prana (incoming breath) into apana (outgoing breath) and apana into prana as sacrifice; some are absorbed in pranayama by restraining the courses of prana and apana "(4.29).    The duration and depth of the breath indicate the state of mind. For example, when we are angry our breath automatically becomes fast and shallow. On the contrary, by making our breath slow and deep we can control our anger. This implies that by controlling the breath, one can control the mind which gave rise to many techniques of meditation and pranayama. While explaining 112 meditation techniques to Parvathi, Lord Shiva mentions about 16 techniques that ar...

Having ‘Fire in the belly' means being full of energy and enthusiasm for pursuing one's desires, interests and duties in the physical world. When such energy is used for self actualisation it is called ' yoga-agni ' or the yogic flame. In this context, Krishna says that some offer all their sense activities and the functions of life force as oblations in the wisdom-kindled yogic flame of inner control of self (4.27). In day to day life, we offer sense objects like beautiful flowers and tasty food to the paramatma . This verse takes us beyond this and says that yagna (selfless action) is offering sense activities like taste, beauty or smell themselves and not merely sense objects. Senses keep connecting us to the external world through attachment to sense objects and when these senses are sacrificed, what remains is unity with oneness. Krishna further says that other devotees offer as oblations wealth, self-discipline, and the methods of yoga; while other ...

Yagna symbolises sacrifice or selfless actions. In this context, Krishna says (4.25), "Some yogis perform sacrifices to gods; others perform sacrifice by offering sacrifice itself in the fire of Brahman (Supreme God)." For one living without awareness, living is just gathering and preserving. The next higher stage of living is sacrificing things, thoughts and feelings. It's like sacrificing the seeds of ahankaar (I am doer) into the fire rather than letting them multiply on the fertile soil of the mind. The third stage is sacrificing the sacrifice itself realising that all of them are Brahman .  It can be said that the mind oriented karma yogi keeps looking for action and doing sacrifice is the path for him. The intellect oriented gyan yogi is about pure awareness and he sacrifices the sacrifice itself. While the former is sequential, the latter is an exponential or quantum jump, but rare. However, both paths lead to the same destination.  Krishna explain...

In the Gita, some words like anaasakti and veet-raag represent the crux of the Gita. While aasakthi (attachment) and virakti (detachment) are two polarities, anaasakti transcends these polarities. Similarly, veet-raag is neither raag (fondness) nor viraag (aversion) but transcends both. These polarities are nothing but the radiance of ahankaar (I the doer) and once dropped, one transcends all polarities. This stage is nothing but liberation. In this context, Krishna says (4.23), "One who is liberated, devoid of attachment, with mind established in knowledge and acting for yagna; his whole action is dissolved." 'I' is identification with our possessions; friends and enemies; likes and dislikes; and thoughts and feelings. Dropping them brings temporary emptiness leading to pain, fear, anger and resentment, therefore, dropping the 'I' is no easy task. Interestingly, the need is to drop the sense of ownership, identification and doership but no...

The question of vikarma (prohibited action) or sin is very intriguing. Arjun is also in this very dilemma and says that sin alone will accrue by killing relations in battle (1.36). In fact, cultures have defined various karmas (actions) as sins and the list changes with time. In the modern context, countries have their penal codes which mandate some actions to be crimes or sins and thus punishable when committed. In any case, we keep punishing ourselves through guilt, regret and shame when such perceived sins are performed by us.  In this context, Krishna says that "One hoping for nought, with controlled mind and body, having relinquished all possessions, doing mere bodily actions, incurs no sin (4.21)." Krishna earlier talked about sin and told Arjun, "To treat pleasure and pain; profit and loss; victory and defeat alike and do battle, whereby he would not incur any sin (2.38)." The subtle issue to be understood in evaluating sin is that we normally e...

A hungry fox tried to reach for grapes hanging high above, failed and moved on bringing itself to think that the grapes were sour. This familiar story presents several angles on the issue of handling disappointment, contentment and happiness.  Contemporary psychology talks about 'synthesising happiness' as one of the functions of the human brain to help us move out of difficult situations. The fox did exactly this by satisfying itself that the grapes were sour and moved on. In the context of contentment, Krishna goes beyond 'synthesising happiness' and says that, "Having renounced attachment to fruits of action, the ever content (nitya-tripth) , depends on nothing, he doesn't do anything though he is engaged in action (4.20)." Contentment with self is one of the common threads in the Gita and on many occasions, Krishna advises Arjun to be Atmavaan or Atmatripth , which is essentially contented with self. Atmavaan spreads the fragrance of cont...

Every culture evolved some dos and don'ts for peace in society and with the evolution of justice systems, some don’ts have become punishable crimes. Criminal jurisprudence requires both intention and execution to be present in a crime. Intention is the thought behind the crime and execution, the physical side. Proof of both components is essential to convict any person of a crime.  If we take the intention as sankalp (will or purpose) and execution as kaam (desire), we can understand Krishna’s saying, "He whose pursuits are free from kaam and sankalp ( kaam sankalp vargitaye ); whose actions are burnt by the fire of knowledge, him the wise call a pandit (sage)" (4.19). Society, in general, is satisfied as long as there is no criminal action, even if one is roaming about full of criminal intent. Krishna says that we should drop kaam first and subsequently should even drop sankalp . Dropping kaam can happen because of various reasons like fear of the law,...

‘Acts of commission and omission' is a phrase commonly used in the legal lexicon. A driver failing to apply brakes at the appropriate moment has committed an act of omission resulting in an accident. This act of 'omission' or akarma (inaction), leads to karma (action) of accident.  Similarly, while performing any action, we choose from many different options available to us. When we exercise one of these options and act, all other options become akarma for us, leading to the conclusion that every karma has akarma hidden in it.  These examples help us to understand Krishna’s profound statement that the one who beholds karma in akarma and akarma in karma has attained the goal of all karmas (4.18).  Krishna himself says that this issue is an intricate one and even the wise are confounded about the subtleties of karma and akarma (4.16). He further says that the nature of karma is very difficult to know. Certainly, in order to fully understand the natu...

Krishna says that actions do not taint him nor does he have a  longing for fruits of action. He also says that whoever realises him is thus not bound by actions (4.14). This reinforces Krishna’s words (2.47) that we have right over karmas (actions) but not over karma-phal (fruits of action).  As Paramatma , even he follows the same. Krishna tells us (4.13) that he is the non-doer even though he created various divisions among humans, hinting at the absence of kartapan (sense of doer-ship). He further said that liberated souls in ancient times acted with this understanding of his transcendental nature. He suggests that we perform our duty, following in their footsteps (4.15).  In the normal course of our lives, we perform karmas to obtain karma-phal . However, when we are told to drop karma-phal , we tend to drop karmas as well. Krishna here reveals a completely different paradigm for renunciation where he advises that we continue doing karmas , but by dro...

The world as we know it consists of both truth and falsehood. A careful examination would indicate that falsehood is nothing but a misinterpretation of the truth, either due to our circumstances or due to limitations of our senses and mind. In the well-known rope and snake analogy, the rope is the truth and the snake is the falsehood that doesn't exist without the rope. But, till this realisation dawns, all our thoughts and actions would be based on falsehood. Oftentimes, continuing for generations across society.  Similarly, if we consider any technology as the metaphorical truth, its malefic use is falsehood. A loudspeaker can be used to propagate good and also to instigate the gullible into violence. Similarly, today’s social media, the metaphorical truth, is falsehood when used malevolently.  An understanding of truth and falsehood is essential to understand Krishna when he says: I have created four varnas (divisions) based on differentiation of Gunas and Kar...

The physical entities are governed by predictable behaviours and properties. Krishna gives insight into the relationship between the all powerful unmanifested and manifested when he says, “In whatever way people are devoted to Me, in that measure, I manifest Myself to them. All men, in every manner, pursue a path to Me.” (4.11) This is firstly an assurance from the Lord that whatever path we pursue and however contradictory these paths may appear, all of them are paths to the unmanifested Paramatma . Secondly, the Lord responds like a multi dimensional mirror that reflects and resonates our feelings, thoughts and actions. Thirdly, when we sow a seed, it takes time to attain its full potential of a tree and this time lag prevents us from fully understanding this principle of resonance of Paramatma .  If we fill our lives with unconditional love and sraddha (trust), love and sraddha are inevitably returned in due course making our lives joyful. If we sow anger, fear, ha...

In the Gita, both Arjun and Krishna use 'I' and 'ME', but the meaning and context of usage are different. Arjun’s 'I' refers to his physical body, possessions, feelings and beliefs extending to his family, friends and relatives. Our situation is no different to that of Arjun. Essentially, we consider some things to be exclusively ours and the remaining to be not. When Krishna uses 'I' it is inclusive, assimilating all including different polarities and contradictions that we perceive through our limited senses. Krishna continues in the same vein elsewhere where he says, “I am death as well as birth”.  While Krishna is the ocean, we are but drops in the ocean with our own individuality, which is ahankaar . When a drop sheds its illusion of individuality and unites with the ocean, then it becomes the ocean. Krishna indicates this when he says that (4.9) the ‘realised’ come to him and will be free from the cycle of rebirth when they realise abou...