Krishna

Krishna & The Bhagavad Gita

Krishna. You gotta love him, too, eh?

The Bhagavad Gita is a principal book in Hinduism and is an amazing spiritual text--primarily aimed at people who “live in the world” yet desire genuine spiritual fulfillment.

Here's a quick look at some of my favorite passages. Hope you enjoy! 

 
Some of My Favorite Thoughts & Passages

On Dharma

"It is better to perform one’s own duties imperfectly than to master the duties of another. By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief."

The Gita also states this another way: "It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity."

The concept of walking our own path is essential to reaching our potential. We've already seen this theme in our look at Aurelius and Seligman and will continue to touch on it over the months to come...

Did you know?

The word dharma is derived from the Sanskrit dhri, which means “to support, hold up or bear.” The word means many things, but according to Easwaran, dharma “implies support from within: the essence of a thing, its virtue, that which makes it what it is.”

On a larger scale, dharma means “the essential order of things, an integrity and harmony in the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos. Thus it means rightness, justice, goodness, purpose rather than chance.”

The idea is very similar to Taoism’s “Tao” or “the way.” The essence of the teaching: there are universal laws. Violate them at your own risk!

There’s also a personal application of dharma. In essence, the idea is that we all have our own “dharma” or purpose and reason for being alive.

As Krishna states in the Gita, following someone else’s dharma is dangerous. If you live your life trying to impress others and not fulfilling what you’re here to do, you’ll feel the pain.

On Attachment

Krishna teaches that we should “give up attachment to the results of what you do: that is, to give your best to every undertaking without insisting that the results work out the way you want, or even whether what you do is pleasant or unpleasant."

Per Gandhi: “By detachment I mean that you must not worry whether the desired result follows from your action or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct. Really, it means that things will come right in the end if you take care of the means and leave the rest to Him.”

But this detachment “in no way means indifference to the result. In regard to every action one must know the result that is expected to follow, the means thereto, and the capacity for it.”

This attitude frees a person completely. Whatever comes—success or failure, praise or blame, victory or defeat—he can give his best with a clear, unruffled mind. Nothing can shake his courage or break his will; no setback can depress him or make him feel “burned out.”

2: The Illumined Man

“On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.”

“Just as a reservoir is of little use when the whole countryside is flooded, scriptures are of little use to the illumined man or woman, who sees the Lord everywhere.”

3: Selfless Service

“Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind.”

“I continue to act, but I am not driven by any need of my own.”

“The ignorant work for their own profit…the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought for themselves…Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion.”

“It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity.”

4: Wisdom in Action

“The wise see that there is action in the midst of inaction and inaction in the midst of action. Their consciousness is unified, and every act is done with complete awareness.”

“The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.”

“The live in freedom who have gone beyond the dualities of life. Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them.”

“Those who take wisdom as their highest goal, whose faith is deep and whose senses are trained, attain wisdom quickly and enter into perfect peace. But the ignorant, indecisive and lacking in faith, waste their lives. They can never be happy in this world or in any other.”

5: Renounce and Rejoice

“Abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace.”

“Pleasures conceived in the world of the senses have a beginning and an end and give birth to misery. The wise do not look for happiness in them…They find their joy, their rest, and their light completely within themselves.”

“Self-realization is their only goal. Freed from selfish desire, fear, and anger, they live in freedom always.”

6: The Practice of Meditation

“Reshape yourself through the power of your will.”

“To those who have conquered themselves, the will is a friend. But it is the enemy of those who have not found the Self within them.”

“…those who have conquered themselves…live in peace, alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame…To such people a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same…Because they are impartial, they rise to great heights.”

“Strive to still your thoughts. Make your mind one-pointed in meditation.”

“Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation.”

Temperance a la Roman virtues, Aristotle’s mean, Buddha’s middle path…
“When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering, like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.”

Remember why this is even a goal: it’s so that we may have mindfulness in every activity throughout our day…”

“I am ever present in those who have realized me in every creature. Seeing all life as my manifestation, they are never separated from me.”

“No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end.”

7: Wisdom from Realization

“One person in many thousands may seek perfection, yet of these only a few reach the goal and come to realize me.”

“When a person is devoted to something with complete faith, I unify his faith in that. Then, when his faith his completely unified, he gains the object of his devotion.”

10: Divine Splendor

“I am the true Self in the heart of every creature.”

11: The Cosmic Vision

“Through unfailing devotion, you can know me, see me, and attain union with me. Whoever makes me the supreme goal of all his work and acts without selfish attachment, who devotes himself to me completely and is free from ill will for any creature, enters into me.”

12: The Way of Love

“Living beyond the reach of I and mine and of pleasure and pain, patient, contented, self-controlled, firm in faith, with all his heart and all his mind given to me—with such a one I am in love.”

“Not agitating the world or by it agitated, he stands above the sway of elation, competition, and fear: he is my beloved.”

“He is detached, pure efficient, impartial, never anxious, selfless in all his undertakings.”

“He is dear to me who runs not after the pleasant or away from the painful, grieves nor, lusts not, but lets things come and go as they happen.”

13: The Field and the Knower

“Those who know truly are free from pride and deceit. They are gentle, forgiving, upright, and pure, devoted to their spiritual teacher, filled with inner strength, and self- controlled…

Free from selfish attachment, they do not get compulsively entangled even in home and family. They are even-minded through good fortune and bad…Enjoying solitude and not following the crowd, they seek only me. This is true knowledge, to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always. To seek anything else is ignorance.”

Rumi’s candy vs. self-control

“He alone sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature…seeing the same Lord everywhere, he does not harm himself or others.”

16: Two Paths

“Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve…Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, you will achieve your destiny.”

“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 a hoard of 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.”

17: The Power of Faith

“Calmness, gentleness, silence, self-restraint, and purity: these are the disciplines of the mind.”

“Giving simply because it is right to give, without thought of return, at a proper time, in proper circumstances, and to a worthy person, is sattvic giving.”

18: Freedom and Renunciation

“True renunciation is giving up all desire for personal reward.”

“By devotion to one’s own particular duty, everyone can attain perfection.”

“It is better to perform one’s own duties imperfectly than to master the duties of another. By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief. No one should abandon duties because he sees defects in them. Every action, every activity, is surrounded by defects as a fire is surrounded by smoke.”

Unerring in his discrimination, sovereign of his senses and passions, free from the clamor of lies and dislikes, he leads a simple, self-reliant life based on meditation, controlling his speech, body and mind.”

“Free from self-will, aggressiveness, arrogance, anger, and the lust to possess people or things, he is at peace with himself and others and enters into the unitive state…United with Brahmin, ever joyful, beyond the reach of desire and sorrow, he has equal regard for every living creature…”

“Relying on internal discipline, meditate on me always.”

“Do not share this wisdom with anyone who lacks in devotion or self-control, lacks the desire to learn, or scoffs at me. Those who teach this supreme mystery of the Gita to all who love me perform the greatest act of love; they come to me without doubt. No one can render me more devoted service; no one on earth can be more dear to me.”

 
Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed this quick look at one of my favorite teachers.

Here's to our pursuit of right thought!