Ram Kosuru
Thomas Huxley, the English biologist, is reported to have said: “ Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” Instead, education has come to mean acquisition of skills to become a doctor, an engineer or a business person by going to a school and/or a university for a long time. But where do we acquire techniques of life on how to act? How to conduct ourselves during the everyday trials and tribulations? The Bhagavad-Geeta has much to say on this topic.
Some people may have a misconception that the message and the teachings of the Bhagavad-Geeta are for the people who are retired from work or for those who are not actively pursuing a living interacting with the society with its prejudices and biases. On the one hand, the Bhagvad-Gita is the most complete and the most comprehensive statement on the spiritual evolution of beings. But, the Geeta also has a lot to say to ordinary human beings who are in the society struggling with everyday problems to the best of their abilities.
Mahatma Gandhi said that he could find answer to any major problem confronting him in the Bhagavad-Geeta. Sri Adi Sankara in his Bhajagovindam song says that even if a slight study of the Geeta results in no fear of death. Since death is the biggest change all of us face, surely the great acharya is implying that the Bhagvad-Gita helps us face changes in our daily lives with no fear!
In the Samkhya Yoga, all beings are a combination of Prakriti- that is ever changing- and the Purusha - the seat of consciousness. The Gita talks about gunas (सत्व रजस् तमो गुणाः) (meta-attributes) of Prakriti:
1 Sattva – Equilibrium
2 Rajas – Energy
3 Tamas – Inertia
According to Sri Krishna, all actions are performed by the gunas of Prakriti. The food that we consume, the charities we perform, the work we undertake, the disciplines we undergo are driven by these meta-attributes. Every person has a combination of these attributes. If one has a preponderance of the sattvic nature, then one performs work focusing on the purpose of work without thinking about rewards. If one has the rajasic domination, then one performs work for the rewards it brings and/or for the sake of show. Thus the Gita says that motivation as well as attitude a person brings to the work is very important.
When the warrior prince Arjuna asks why the man commits sin (Papa), Sri Krishna points to desire and anger that arise from the rajasic nature in us. These two forces arise due to attachment to sense objects. One’s anger makes one to lose discrimination. In fact, he says, as a fire that is covered by smoke, as a mirror that is covered by dust, as an embryo is that is covered in a mother’s womb, knowledge is hidden by unquenchable selfish desire that could be sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic in nature.
To describe a person who has transcended the above attributes (Gunateeta गुणातीत), Krishna stresses equanimity (समत्वम् ): one who treats pleasure and pain, praise and blame similarly; one treats a piece of clay, a rock or gold in the same way; one treats kindness and hatred in the same way. This does not mean that person is passive or indifferent, however. Nor does it mean that all actions are to be avoided.
The Isa Upanishad says give up and enjoy (त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा). Mahatma Gandhi emptied all his selfish desires and fought for a bigger purpose -for a people’s freedom- by employing these principles. This is nothing but pure love the highest human aspiration. The Gita gives us the theory as well as provides several ways to achieve this. Sri Krishna says that selfless action performed in the spirit of service does not stain personality.
Dr. Viktor Frankl- a psychiatrist and a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps- talked of his fellow inmates in the camps that exhibited remarkable selflessness by exercising an inner freedom that transcended the very grim external environment that denied food and other basic human dignities. The guards of these camps, however, could not take away the inner freedom of these inmates. The Geeta asks us to exercise our freedom and this is possible when equanimity is pursued.
"Some thinkers," Aristotle wrote "hold that it is by nature that people are good, others think it is by habit, and others think it is by instruction." For Aristotle it is the habits that reigned supreme.
William James, the 19th century philosopher, echoes Geeta when he says that "All life is a mass of habits - practical, emotional, and intellectual- systematically organized for our weal or woe and bearing irresistibly towards one's destiny. But Geeta says that habits are not our destiny. The key insight being you have the freedom to change your habits by choosing how you respond and remake them.
"Some thinkers," Aristotle wrote "hold that it is by nature that people are good, others think it is by habit, and others think it is by instruction." For Aristotle it is the habits that reigned supreme.
William James, the 19th century philosopher, echoes Geeta when he says that "All life is a mass of habits - practical, emotional, and intellectual- systematically organized for our weal or woe and bearing irresistibly towards one's destiny. But Geeta says that habits are not our destiny. The key insight being you have the freedom to change your habits by choosing how you respond and remake them.
Sri Krishna compares the human being to a city of gates; the gates need to be controlled. Like a tortoise that withdraws its limbs in the presence of a danger, a human being should control his response to external stimuli both pleasant and unpleasant. The Lotus flower blooms in muddy waters but the petals do not touch water. Similarly, actions are to be performed with the sakshi bhava साक्षि भाव (awareness of witness within). When these actions are performed with a sense of duty with the sakshi bhava, sages say, even when a person acts, he does not act. Otherwise even when a person appears inactive, he acts.
A question may be asked: do we need to perform actions like a robot? A robot does not show any passion. Far from it, Sri Krishna says any such action is a yajna: work as worship. It is not easy to practice this. But Sri Krishna promises that through self-control and restraint, this is attainable; He says, “That which is like the poison in the beginning would turn to nectar at the end; that which is like nectar at the beginning would be the poison at the end.”
The Geeta says that it is possible to be a better human being by exercising the freedom to choose your response! This freedom can’t be taken from you without your consent.
