Week 4: The Bhagwad Gita

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

After the last week's super exciting adventure of jet skiing and para sailing, finding adventures in routine life seemed a difficult task. But this is what this venture is about - grow as a person amidst your routine life. So my this week's learning is - a glimpse into the mighty holy book of Bhagwad Gita!

It does not matter if you are an atheist, a God fearing human or a neutral being with no feelings for God - Bhagwad Gita has a lot to teach each of you! 

The Bhagwad Gita is a holy book in which the preachings of Lord Krishna to the Panadava prince Arjuna are presented in a beautiful verse format. And why did Arjuna require Lord Krishna's teachings? Arjuna was himself the greatest warriors of his times and yet he turned to Lord Krishna for advice. Arjuna was amidst a chaos where in he is struggling to perform his duty, to fight against his own Gurus, his brothers and relatives in the righteous war between Kauravas and Pandavas.

When my dearest friend Deepti mentioned that she was reading the Gita, I took the opportunity to ask her to have a small session over phone for me based on her learning so far. To this Deepti agreed whole heartedly and we had an half an hour session on the Bhagwad Gita.

Special thanks to Deepti and her session, here is my humble attempt at precisely describing a very small part of the vast knowledge buried in this mammoth book - The Bhagwad Gita.

The Gita has the complete essence of vedic wisdom which enables the reader to awaken the pure consciousness. Lord Krishna states that there are 5 basic truths -

• Jiva: It is the immortal essence or soul of any living organism
• Iswara: Is the Lord, or Almighty
• Prakriti: Means nature, which is the essential constituent of the universe and is basis of all the activity of the creation
• Time
• Karma: It means 'action'. It is a store of good and bad actions, accumulated over many lives, and it is this store of actions that binds one to phenomenal existence.

An important lesson mentioned in the Gita revolves around the karma  - The universe responds to you, sooner or later, according to your quality of actions. If you sow good seeds, you will reap a good harvest. 

There are 3 types of Gunas (or characteristics) within us. Our nature is defined by which Guna is dominant in our actions. The Gunas - 

• Sattva Guna: This is known as the mode of goodness. It is the pure, elevated and enlightened soul. In today's world it is very difficult to find such people as none of us are pure, there is a bit of selfishness in all of us to survive this rat race.
• Rajas Guna: Or the mode of passion. This motivates us to create, acquire and enjoy. Most of us are in this form currently with the desire to create new things, acquire higher accolades and enjoy the material pursuits.
• Tamas Guna: Or the mode of ignorance. It is this characteristic which motivates us to destroy and destruct. Unfortunately we have such folks also around in today's world - the Peshawar school massacre being a mournful example.

So the human being you are is decided by which Guna are you cultivating within yourself. 

Get rid of those material possessions and your life will be happier. Do you really need those 2 cars, 2 houses and those cupboard full of clothes? It is such a simple truth and yet we just cannot get rid of all our attachments and our possessions. It is easier said than done. But I believe just being aware of the root cause of our problems takes us one step ahead in our 'self realization' journey.

This was an excerpt of my learning from the first session. The Bhagwad Gita has a lot to offer and as I assimilate Lord Krishna's teachings there is one verse which always stays with me - 

dukhesv anudvigna-manah

sukhesu vigata-sprhah

vita-raga-bhaya-khrodha

stitha-dhir munir ucyate

Meaning -  One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.