Bhagavad Gita

Eternal message of spiritual wisdom

"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument. A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return."

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most influential treatises in eastern philosophy. The Gita is the eternal message of spiritual wisdom from ancient India. The word Gita means song and the word Bhagavad means God. Often the Bhagavad Gita is called the Song of God. It has moulded traditions and made great men for thousands of years. Spoken by Krishna to his disciple Arjuna at the battlefield of Kurushetra, Gita, answers major questions of our lives and existence. Krishna, also called lila-avatar is one of those extraordinary personalities whose life stories are enough to help us attain enlightenment. Bhagavad Gita is the thought-process behind the extraordinary life that was lived; singing, dancing and remaining peaceful amidst a great battle. Lord Krishna said, "Reshape yourself through the power of your will". Those who have conquered themselves live in peace, alike, in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame. For such people a clod of dirt, a stone and gold are the same, because they are impartial, they rise to great heights.

Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed. The concept that we are not the body, but souls with eternal existence and omnipresent nature, that cannot be destroyed immediately changes the outlook we have over life. The mere rush for worldly things; name, fame, power and sensory pleasures, in order to satisfy ourselves, looks useless when we understand that we are not the body but the soul. The soul has no need for all these material things. It is a part of the cosmic spirit, divinity or God. Our essence is thus God. In reality, we are not us, but what we really are is God who is all pervading, existing everywhere and in everything. Bhagavad Gita says "The demonic, do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do"; hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to their deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue unclean ends. Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means, they can hoard money for the satisfaction of their cravings. Self-important, obstinate, swept away by the pride of wealth, they ostentatiously perform sacrifices without any regard for their purpose. "Egotistical, violent, arrogant, lustful, angry, envious of everyone, they abuse my presence within their own bodies and in the bodies of others".

With this realisation of the teaching of the Gita, the distinction that exists between men disappears. We realise that everything is a manifestation or an act of the Spirit (Brahman). The existence is non-dual; God pervades everywhere. This sacred teaching of Krishna attunes us to a higher understanding where we come to realise that all that we are looking for is within ourselves. We find that the ultimate goal of the human life is Self-realisation and the body, sense organs, mind are mere instruments to worship the divine. Gita says, the person whose mind is always free from attachment, who has subdued the mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from Karma through renunciation. Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire. Identifying ourselves not with the body but the soul, at once changes everything. The Soul is all pervading, it is eternal and it is God himself. We have an eternal fountain of wisdom, knowledge and bliss within us as soon as we get rid of our body-mind identification. That is enlightenment. That is Self-Realisation.

According to Krishna, this life is just a dream of those souls that have attached themselves to false things, to home, to family members, to the body, to the pleasures and to all things that signify dualities. Once the soul frees itself from all fetters of attachments and aversions, it attains ultimate freedom or moksha. The Bhagavad Gita is a philosophical treatise of Krishna's life. It is a formula to ultimate freedom, knowledge and bliss.

Source: Bhagavad Gita