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. ...

K rishna says that the Prabhu (Lord) creates neither doership nor actions nor union with the fruits of action for the world. The delusive cosmic nature is the originator of all these (5.14). The Lord is not a karta (doer) but a Srishta (Creator or creativity). There are two types of creations. One is like a potter who creates pottery and the creation (pot) gets separated from the Creator for independent existence. Another is like a dancer who is creating dance, but dance (creation) won’t be there in the absence of the dancer. The Lord is like a dancer where the entire universe is dependent on Him, but he is not dependent on it. That’s why dancing Shiva is depicted as Nataraj and musician Krishna as Murari . The Lord can also be seen as a catalyst in a chemical reaction where the presence of a catalyst makes the chemical reaction happen. The catalyst itself doesn’t undergo any change. Krishna further says that the All-pervading takes no account of anyone’s virtue o...

K rishna says that the yogis , having abandoned sangam (unity/attachment), perform actions merely by the senses, body, mind and intellect for self-purification (5.11). It is interpreted that even though one abandons attachment in the present moment, their past karma bandhan (bondage of action) needs to be attended to. Hence, he keeps performing actions. Another way to look at it is that once attachment is abandoned, there is nothing left for him to attain in the physical or manifested world, and all actions lead to the purification of the inner self.   Krishna further says that the yukta (balanced/steady) having abandoned the fruits of action, attains eternal peace whereas the ayukta (imbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to fruit, is bound (5.12). One of the foundational pillars of the Gita is that we have right over karma (action) but not karma-phal (fruits of action) (2.47). Abandoning the fruits of action means that there is no preference for any spec...

E very physical system takes different inputs and produces certain outputs. We constantly measure or judge our outputs like words and deeds. We also judge the deeds of others as well as different situations around us. In fact, in the evolutionary process, judging threats was very important for survival itself. However, the issue is the absence of standards for judging deeds, and we often depend on ignorance-based perceptions and belief systems. We feel happy and satisfied whenever we encounter a deed done which conforms to our belief system. In this connection, Krishna says, “He who is united by yoga , who has purified and conquered self, subdued his senses, who realises his self as the self in all beings, is not entangled although acting” (5.7). Non-entanglement is often interpreted as being untainted, and this verse is the Lord’s assurance that the actions of the purified are not tainted. Karmas are not tainted when performed by someone who is purified i.e. free of h...

I n our daily life, we receive various stimuli through our senses and 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 and accept. The senses move among sense-objects” (5.9). In this existential verse, Krishna is describing the peak experience of the knower of truth. Secondly, these verses are very easy to understand but very difficult to inculcate as they require subjugation of senses which are powerful. For example, we regularly experience emotions arising out of praise and criticism. Praise makes us forget ourselves like the proverbial crow dropping its meat upon hearing praise from the fox about its singing ability. Similarly, when criticized, our response varies from silence to verbal to physical depending on the degree of criticism and the strength of the critic. We take these stimuli to be true and ...