Shri Kirshna’s Bhagvad Gita is one of the most profound and enduring works ever produced. It is the best spiritual and management book I have ever come across. There is answer of every dilemma, every problem in Bhagvad Gita. One of the most amazing thing about Bhagvad Gita is that no matter how many times one reads it, it is always refreshing. Every reading brings out a new perspective and initiates a new thought.
The second and the third chapter are the most important chapters of Bhagvad Gita. Here are some of the important teachings of Gita.
Message Of Gita
– The message of the Gita is action. Desireless action.
– He who gives up action falls. He who gives up the reward only rises!
– Renunciation of fruits of action is a must.
– Renunciation of the fruits of action is impossible without devotion – bhakti
– The body has been given to us only in order that we may serve all creation with it.
– Life is given to us for service and not for enjoyment. Hence we must impart a sacrificial character to life.
– Service rendered with selfish motives ceases to be a sacrifice
Desireless Action
– No one can remain even for a moment without doing work.
– Everyone is made to act helplessly by the impulses born of nature.
– Without work life cannot be sustained.
– Everyone should do their alloted work because action is always better than inaction.
– Action is a moral as well as a physical necessity for embodied beings
– But one free self from the desire for fruits of action / work.
– One should perform work that has to be done without attachment and thereby attain to the highest.
– Whatever a great man does, the same is done by others as well. Whatever standard he sets, the world follows.
– Desire is never satisfied by the enjoyment of the objects of desire. It grows more and more as does the fire to which fuel is added.
– Perform action with knowledge and concentration
Learning & Humility – Vidyavinayasampanne
– Great learning brings great humility
– As our knowledge increases we become aware of the encircling darkness
– Little knowledge leads to dogmatism, a little more to questioning and a little more takes us to prayer
Self
– Man should lift himself by himself
– Self alone is the friend of self
– Self alone is the enemy of self
– The supreme is within us
Enjoying Eternal Peace
That Yogi is fit to be united with Brahama and enjoy Eternal peace, who is:
– Performing his own duty
– Mind under control
– Given up the 5 sense objects
– Overcome likes and dislikes
– Lives in solitude
– Achieves mastery of mind, body and speech by abstemiousness
– Ever conscious of the living presence of God
– Given up pride, desire, anger, acquisitiveness
– Neither rejoices nor indulges in grief
Sattva, Rajas & Tamas
Three gunas born of nature bind the soul down. They are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
Sattva (Goodness) Pure, unsullied, gives light and hence source of happiness
Rajas (Passion) Attachment, craving, indulgence
Tamas (Ignorance) Delusion, negligent, indolent
Sattva brings Happiness
Rajas brings Restlessness
Tamas brings Sloth
When Sattva rules, light of wisdom shines through all the activities of the body
When Rajas rules, greed, bustle, unrest and competition are observed
When Tamas rules, ignorance, sloth and delusion rules
When Sattva dominates life, Man is born in the sinless worlds of the great sages after death
When Rajas dominates life, Man is born among those who are attached to action
When Tamas dominates life, Man returns to the womb of senseless
Fruit of Sattva is Purity
Fruit of Rajas is Pain
Fruit of Tamas is Ignorance
Sattva Man rises to higher regions
Rajas Man lives in this world
Tamas Man sinks to the underworld
Sattvic Men worship God
Rajasa Men worship Demigods & Demons
Tamasa Men worship Spirit of The Dead
Wisdom
What is Wisdom?
– Humility
– Unpretentiousness
– Non-Violence
– Forgiveness
– Rectitude
– Service of the teacher
– Purity
– Steadfastness
– Self-Restraint
– Indifference to sense objects
– Absence of egoism
– Insight into the evil of birth, death and old age
– Disease and pain
– Detachment from wife and children, hearth and home, friends and relations
– Equi-mindedness to good and bad fortune
– Whole-hearted devotion to God
– Love of solitude
– Dislike for the enjoyment of sensual pleasures in company with others
– Thirst for knowledge of the soul
– Beatific vision
Devotion
Devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness. It is no blind faith. The devotion of the Gita has the least to do with externals.
He is a devotee who:
– Jealous of none
– Flount of mercy
– Without egotism
– Selfless
– Treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery
– Ever forgiving
– Always contented
– Resolutions are firm
– Dedicated mind and soul to God
– Cause no dread
– Not afraid of others
– Pure
– Versed In action and yet remains unaffected by it
– Renounces all fruit – good or bad
– Treats friend and foe alike
– Untouched by respect or disrespect
– Not puffed up by praise
– Not dejected when people speak ill of him
– Loves silence and solitude
– Disciplined reason
– No attachment
Yogi / Devotee / Rest
– No man of honest life comes to grief
– No good man can come to an evil end
– God knows our weaknesses and the efforts we make to overcome them
– Great yogin is a great devotee
– Four kinds of devotees – the man in distress, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for wealth and the man of wisdom
– Self-discipline is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of will and emotion. Self-discipline is easy when there is vision of the highest.
– When a man dwells in his mind on the objects of sense, attachment to them is produced. From attachment springs desire and from desire comes anger.
– From anger arise bewilderment, from bewilderment loss of memory and from loss of memory the destruction of intelligence and from the destruction of intelligence he perishes.
– When the mind runs after the roving senses, it carries away the understanding, even as a wind carries away a ship on the waters. To hate the senses is as wrong as to love them. Be equi-minded.
Rituals
– Just as one who gets water from the river does not attach importance to a well, so the wise does not attach any importance to ritual action. For those of illuminated consciousness, ritual observances are of little value.
The above are key teachings of Gita which I found interesting. One can read Bhagvad Gita any time and start from any chapter. It has not to be read from start to end. It indeed is a timeless classic.
I have also read Dhammapada. According to Dhammapada, the greatest gain is health, the greatest wealth is contentment, one’s best friend is faith and the highest happiness is nirvana.
So have you read Bhagvad Gita? What do you think about it? What other spiritual books have you read? What do other spiritual texts say?
