Gita Acharan

Yagna symbolises sacrifice or selfless actions. In this context, Krishna says (4.25), "Some yogis perform sacrifices to gods; others perform sacrifice by offering sacrifice itself in the fire of Brahman (Supreme God)." For one living without awareness, living is just gathering and preserving. The next higher stage of living is sacrificing things, thoughts and feelings. It's like sacrificing the se...

In the Gita, some words like anaasakti and veet-raag represent the crux of the Gita. While aasakthi (attachment) and virakti (detachment) are two polarities, anaasakti transcends these polarities. Similarly, veet-raag is neither raag (fondness) nor viraag (aversion) but transcends both. These polarities are nothing but the radiance of ahankaar (I the doer) and once dropped, one transcends all pola...

The question of vikarma (prohibited action) or sin is very intriguing. Arjun is also in this very dilemma and says that sin alone will accrue by killing relations in battle (1.36). In fact, cultures have defined various karmas (actions) as sins and the list changes with time. In the modern context, countries have their penal codes which mandate some actions to be crimes or sins and thus punishable...

A hungry fox tried to reach for grapes hanging high above, failed and moved on bringing itself to think that the grapes were sour. This familiar story presents several angles on the issue of handling disappointment, contentment and happiness.  Contemporary psychology talks about 'synthesising happiness' as one of the functions of the human brain to help us move out of difficult situations. Th...

Every culture evolved some dos and don'ts for peace in society and with the evolution of justice systems, some don’ts have become punishable crimes. Criminal jurisprudence requires both intention and execution to be present in a crime. Intention is the thought behind the crime and execution, the physical side. Proof of both components is essential to convict any person of a crime.  If we take...

‘Acts of commission and omission' is a phrase commonly used in the legal lexicon. A driver failing to apply brakes at the appropriate moment has committed an act of omission resulting in an accident. This act of 'omission' or akarma (inaction), leads to karma (action) of accident.  Similarly, while performing any action, we choose from many different options available to us. When we exercise...

            Krishna says that actions do not taint him nor does he have a longing for fruits of action. He also says that whoever realises him is thus not bound by actions (4.14). This reinforces Krishna’s words (2.47) that we have right over karmas (actions) but not over karma-phal (fruits of action).       ...

                 The world as we know it consists of both truth and falsehood. A careful examination would indicate that falsehood is nothing but a misinterpretation of the truth, either due to our circumstances or due to limitations of our senses and mind. In the well-known rope and snake analogy, the rope is the...

               The physical entities are governed by predictable behaviours and properties. Krishna gives insight into the relationship between the all powerful un-manifested and manifested when he says, “In whatever way people are devoted to Me, in that measure, I manifest Myself to them. All men, in every manner, pursue a...

             In the Gita, both Arjun and Krishna use 'I' and 'ME', but the meaning and context of usage are different. Arjun’s 'I' refers to his physical body, possessions, feelings and beliefs extending to his family, friends and relatives. Our situation is no different to that of Arjun. Essentially, we consider some things to be ex...

Just as a rotating wheel needs a stationary or changeless axle to rotate, the ever-changing manifested physical world needs the calm and changeless unmanifested entity to sustain its existence. Arjun, like us, is at the level of the manifested human body and is worrying about the death of his relatives, who are just manifested entities. Krishna, the supreme lord, presently in a manifested form exp...

Bhagavad Gita is a coherent blending of two levels and we need to be aware of this to understand the Gita. Sometimes Krishna comes as a friend or a guide to Arjun explaining the daily issues faced by humans. Sometimes he comes as Paramatma (super-soul) and in that state he says (4.1) that I gave this imperishable Yoga to Vivasat, which was handed down in succession to raja-rishis (royal rishis) an...

A desire filled Tulsidas was desperate to meet his newlywed wife. He crossed a river at night mistaking a corpse to be a wooden log; used a snake as a rope to climb up the wall to meet his wife, only to be rebuked by her that he would be better off with an equal passion for Lord Rama. He was transformed that very moment and he went on to author the revered ‘ Ram Charit Manas ’. Tulsi’s story helps...

Krishna clarifies that just like fire is enveloped in smoke; a mirror by mal (dirt); an embryo by the womb; Wisdom is covered by desire that is an insatiable fire, which is the constant enemy of the wise (3.38-3.39). Earlier, Krishna had said that gunas have the capacity to hypnotise ( sammohit ) us. Desire, born out of rajo guna does the same. He further elaborated (3.40) that the senses, mind an...

Arjun enquires, (3.36) "How can a man perform evil even against his will as if he is compelled." This is the most common question that arises when the first ray of awareness sets in.  Krishna says (3.37) kaam and krodh (anger) are born out of rajo guna and are great evils full of insatiable craving. Beware of them to be the foulest enemies here on Earth. Krishna uses the word kaam which is an...

Krishna says that (3.35) swa-dharmam (own-nature or reality) is superior to well accomplished para-dharmam (others nature or reality) even when the former is devoid of merit. It's better to die in swa-dharmam than to be fraught with fear in para-dharmam . This intricate verse creates more doubts than clarity in our minds. In a sense, this verse is purely contextual for Arjun in the Kurukshetra war...

Krishna says (3.31) that anyone who follows this teaching with sraddha will be joyful and will be liberated from karma bandhan (bondage of action). Sraddha is usually thought to mean belief or faith, but it is something beyond and the closest meaning is trust. In this state, we are free of doubt and all our questions dissipate.  Humanity believed that the Sun was rotating around the earth unt...

Krishna tells Arjun (3.30) to relinquish all actions unto HIM; to be devoid of egotism ( nir-mama ) and desires ( nir-aasha ); and to fight without fever. This verse is a summary of the Gita and it answers several of our doubts in daily life.  Our first doubt is 'What to do', which arises because we are not happy with what we are doing as we feel that happiness is elsewhere in another action....

Krishna says that "Those sammohit (hypnotised) by the gunas which are qualities or characters of nature, are attached to the functions of the gunas ; one with perfect knowledge should not unsettle the ignorant whose knowledge is imperfect. (3.29)" Apart from being the real karta (doer), gunas have the ability to hypnotise and cast a spell on us which makes us forget our true nature. We remain spel...

Krishna says that (3.27) " Karmas (actions) in all situations are performed by the gunas which are qualities or characters of nature; one who is deluded by ahankaar thinks 'I am doer'. One (3.28) with true insight into the distinctions between gunas and karmas knows that gunas interact with gunas and hence he's not attached."  All actions being nothing but interactions between gunas is a comm...

A fruit absorbs nutrients from its parent tree to grow and ripen. It then gets detached from the tree to start its own journey. The journey to freedom from the parent tree involves different actions to finally becoming a tree itself. An immature fruit, on the other hand, needs to be attached to the parent tree till it ripens.    A ripe fruit shouldn't lure the immature fruit to leave the...

In our daily life, we get attached to action which is described as aasakti which means interest or attachment or we are detached from it - virakti which means hatred or disinterested. However, Krishna refers to a third state, anaasakti which is dropping both attachment and detachment and is beyond both aasakti and virakti . He says (3.25) that the avidwan (ignorant) act with an attachment to actio...

Children always look to their parents to understand the world, learn new things, manners, behaviours etc. and that's why it's said that the best way to bring up a child is to lead by example by walking the talk. The same dependence continues in the later stages too. It might be dependence on friends, teachers, mentors etc. This implies that there are people who are always dependent on us and look...

Krishna assures us that (3.19) by performing actions without attachment, one reaches the supreme and gives the example of King Janak (3.20) who attained perfection by action alone.  Krishna emphasises the point that a king who lives in luxuries and has several responsibilities can also attain the supreme by performing all actions without attachment, implying that we too can similarly reach th...

There are two ways of living. One is ' Sangharsh ' -struggle and the other ‘ Samarpan ', which means surrender. Samarpan is not a helpless surrender like the surrender of the defeated in war, it's surrender with awareness and active acceptance. Struggle is to be ahead of others; to have more than what is given to us; to have something different than what we have. On the other hand, Samarpan is gra...