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The matter over which you grieve does not call for any sorrow! Reevaluate the
situation, you will drop your sadness.
ashochyAn anwashochah
twam prajnAwAdAn cha bhAshase
gatAsoon agatAsoon cha na anushochanti panditAh ||2.11||
"You have grieved for those that should not be grieved for, yet you
speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the
dead."
A re-education of the mind through metaphysical and psychic methods is the last
word in psychotherapy which the West has yet to discover and accept, but which
the East has declared and justified to the world. Krishna is starting his
entire Geeta lessons with this attempt at the re-education of Arjuna.
At every level of our personality we view life and come to our own conclusions
over things. Thus, we have a physical estimate of the world outside from our
body level, apart and quite distinct from our emotional picture of the life
from our mental level; and also an intellectual concept of life from the level
of our intellect, which differs from both the above estimates. Physically, what
I see to be a woman is mentally my mother, and intellectually, the same sacred
feminine form is a bundle of
cells, each having in its protoplasmic contents a nucleus to preside over its
functions. The imperfections that I see in a physical object can fail to give
me misery if I successfully gild the object with my emotional appreciation of
it. Similarly, an object which is physically abhorrent and mentally shameful
can still fail to provide me with any sorrow if I can appreciate it from my
intellectual level.
Similarly, that which gives me despondency and dejection at the physical
mental, and intellectual levels can yield a thrilling inspiration
if I perceive it from the spiritual level. Krishna is advising Arjuna to
renounce his physical, emotional and intellectual estimates of his teacher and
his grandsire and the whole battlefield problem, and to re-evaluate the
situation from his spiritual understanding. ||5.1||
Failures and painful discoveries occur in life. Face them, not allowing them
to depress you.
yam hi na wyathayanti ete purusham purusharshabha
samaduhkhasukham dheeram sah amrtatwAya kalpate ||2.15||
"O chief among men, that firm man whom, surely, these afflict not, to
whom pleasure and pain are same, is fit for realising Immortality of the
Self."
Calm endurance in both pleasure and pain is a condition necessary for the right
knowledge of the Self, according to the technique of Selfrealisation as
explained in the Upanishadic lore. Based upon that fact, here Lord Krishna
explains that one who has found in himself a mental equipoise, wherein he is
not afflicted or disturbed by circumstances of pain and pleasure, alone is fit
for attaining Immortality.'
Through the Geeta, our poet-seer,Vyasa, is making Lord Krishna declare that the
purpose of life for everyone is the attainment of perfection. To train
ourselves to endure meekly the little pinpricks of life, and with magnanimous
joy, heat and cold, success and failure, pain and pleasure, is itself the
highest training that life can provide to all of us. ||5.2||
Rise, see what you CAN do, do it!
tasmAt tvam uttishtha yashah labhaswa
jitvA shatroon bhunkshva rAjyam samrddam
mayA eva ete nihatAh poorvam eva
nimittamAtram bhava savyasAchin ||11.33||
"Therefore, stand up! and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy the
flourishing kingdom. Verily by Myself they have been already slain; be You a
mere instrument, O left-handed Bow-man! (Arjuna)."
Here Lord Krishna is directly consoling Arjuna that he should stand up and
catch the time and claim success and glory. Whatever be the might and strength
of the negative forces, the all consuming power of Change has already destroyed
them all, and Arjuna has only to come forward, act the part of a hero and claim
the crown of victory all to himself: " I have already slain them, be merely an
apparent cause."
The concept of self-surrender and the theory of serving the world in constant
awareness of the Lord, are not idle dreams prescribed for escaping the gross
realities of the world. It is essential for man to raise both his calibre and temper so as to work efficiently and achieve
successfully in the world. It is the secret technique of keeping oneself
constantly in a mood of tireless enthusiasm and joyous inspiration. ||5.3||
Turn to God today with a sincere and intense resolve. Lord's compassion knows
no bounds. The criminal in you will be transformed to a saint!
api chet sudurAchArah bhajate mAm ananyabhAk
sAdhuh eva sah mantavyah samyak vyavasitah hi sah ||9.30||
"Even if the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, (or with single-pointedness),
he too should indeed be regarded as 'righteous', for he has rightly resolved."
THE VEDAS CONDEMN THE SIN, NOT THE SINNER. The evil ways of the sinner are but expressions of the evil thoughts in his mind, and so, if the texture of
the thoughts flowing in his mind could be changed, the texture of his behaviour
would also be transformed. He who has come to keep consistently in his mind, thoughts of the Lord, accomplishes, in the
warmth of his growing devotion, so total a rehabilitation of the mental life
that he cannot there-after carry on his career in sin.
Not only does the Geeta throw its gates open to the sinners, but the Singer of
the Divine Song also seems to have great missionary zeal to redeem all sinners,
and bless them. Even those who are given to evil ways are not debarred from
entering the field of spirituality because of their undivine actions and the
impurity of their lives. The only insistence is that the worship of the Self
must be performed by the devotee with "undivided devotion".
kshipram bhavati dharmAtmA shashvat shAntim nigachchati
kaunteya pratijAneehi na me bhaktah praNashyati ||9.31||
"Soon he becomes righteous and attains Eternal Peace, O Kaunteya, know
for certain that My devotee is never destroyed."
When a man of evil ways takes to a life of single-pointed devotion
propelled by his ardent resolve, that man "SOON BECOMES RIGHTEOUS". The term
Dharma was already explained as "the Law of Being". Just as heat is the
specific quality (Dharma) of fire, without which fire cannot exist, the Dharma
of man is the Divine Atman in his heart, without which none of his
personality layers can every come to express themselves. Therefore, the term
'Dharmatma', in the stanza, is not fully expressed when it is translated as
'a man of righteousness'.
Single-pointed devotion and self-application develop concentration, and
therefore, enhance the subtlety of perception of the mind, and such a mind
finds its balance even in the highest altitudes of meditative flights. "IN GOOD
TIME", meaning, ere long, he gains glimpses of the Infinite experience and
thus, comes to live more and more as a dynamic saint, wafting the fragrance of
divinity through his motives, thoughts, and actions. ||5.4||
Even a man of faith who practises the divine life may find a discontinuity in
his Sadhana due to a fall, a violent distraction or even death. But the
practices he did before will be again picked up by him. Fall he did, but he
will rise and march forth!
pArtha na eva iha na amutra vinAshah tasya vidyate
na hi kalyAnakrt kashchit durgatim tAta gachchati ||6.40||
"O Partha, neither in this world nor in the next world is there destruction for
him; none, verily, who strives to do good, O my son, ever comes to grief."
Based upon this principle Krishna insists that no seeker is ever lost, although
he may slip and fall, or even end his present manifestation; tomorrow is but
today confirmed. Krishna supports his statement with the philosophical truth: NEVER FOR THE DOER
OF GOOD, DEAR SON, A WOEFUL END'. The one who acts rightly in the present can
come to no grief in the future because, the future is but a product of the
present and the good is that which yields but success and joy in the future.
The fear of Arjuna that the unsuccessful YOGIN--a seeker obstructed and got
held up on the path--will get lost 'as a rent cloud' here and in the hereafter,
has risen from his failure to appreciate the logical continuity and the perfect
sequence that is ever in life.
Krishna explains that such an individual in his new life, under the conducive
circumstances, gets naturally 'UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED IN HIS
FORMER BODY'. Such a born YOGI completes his education much more easily than
others since to him, it is not an education that is needed, but only a revision
or a recapitulation. In a very short time he discovers that all knowledge is
bubbling up from within himself and to him study is but a rediscovery of a
digested knowledge which was already lying dormant in him.
Not only that he comes to discover in himself the knowledge that he learnt in
the past, but he easily finds in himself the required enthusiasm and energy for
consistent self-application and vigorous pursuit.
Knowledge without practice is a dull, dreary load upon the shoulders of a
seeker. Krishna here assures that one 'FALLEN FROM YOGA' in the past, when
reborn in the right atmosphere, not only gains all knowledge easily, but comes
to 'STRIVE MORE THAN BEFORE FOR PERFECTION. O SON OF THE KURUS'. ||5.5||
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