Gita Acharan

K rishna says, “Just like fire is enveloped in smoke; a mirror by mal (dust); an embryo by the womb; wisdom is covered by desire which is an insatiable fire and is the constant enemy of the wise” (3.38-3.39). A point to be noted is that even after attaining wisdom we should be aware of the fact that desires are constant enemies. Earlier, Krishna had said that gunas can hypnotise ( sammohit ) us (3.29). Desire, born out of rajo guna does the same. He further elaborated that the senses, mind and intellect are said to be the seat of desires and through these, desires hypnotise our soul by eclipsing its wisdom (3.40). Krishna clarifies that in due course of time he who has perfected the yoga finds the wisdom in the self (4.38). Even if one is the most sinful of sinners, one shall safely cross the sea of sins by the raft of wisdom (4.36). The fire of wisdom reduces all actions to ashes (4.37). The essence is that while wisdom is like fire, desires envelop it like smoke. ...

K rishna says that “Those sammohit (hypnotised) by the gunas (qualities or characters) of nature are attached to the functions of the gunas ; one with perfect knowledge should not unsettle the ignorant whose knowledge is imperfect” (3.29). Apart from being the real karta (doer), gunas have the ability to hypnotise and cast a spell on us that makes us forget our true nature. We remain spellbound until we realise that we are under their spell. Krishna talks about the ignorant and the wise. The ignorant are under the hypnotic spell ( maya ) of gunas and feel that they are karta (3.27). They want to achieve, be important, get noticed and fight for entitlements. Simultaneously, they take others in the family, workplace and society to be karta and expect them to behave or perform as per their expectations. This results in perpetual guilt, regret, anger and misery. The second stage is awareness which comes with a time lapse following an incident. This time lapse can be...