I recently had the opportunity to learn Bhagavad-Gita in its full form through a teacher. Which is different from most common practice of giving speeches on its summary or interpretation. I am not highly religious. So to me, going through each shloka and understanding its translated meaning manifested as a personality development course. Like a massive collection of quotes, tips & best practices we commonly hear these days from famous people, self-help books, monks and psychology or management gurus. Infact my teacher presented and approached the classes as a personality development course.
Many sayings in Bhagavad-Gita resonated very well with me and I want to bring them into practice. I firmly believe following those will help me achieve a better state of mind. Everyone will have different goals in life. My goal is to have a stable state of mind and achieve happiness through inner peace. Bhagavad-Gita has many guidelines to achieve this.
Spanning 700 shlokas in 18 chapters, there is a lot of content on several topics in Bhagavad-Gita. Its impractical for me to remember and reason over all of them. But there are certain aspects which come to my mind when I sit back and think of Bhagavad-Gita. These come to my mind without looking into the book because these resonated the most with me and hence are the ones I want to try and bring to practice in my life. Those aspects are the 12 listed below. They are listed in the order of remembrance in my mid, they were neither meant to be a certain number, nor are arranged in the order of chapters.
Why this blog?
Two reasons why i am starting this blog. First, as a personal guide and reflection. Writing gives me clarity, without which I tend to get lost in random thoughts like a headless chicken. Writing down a handful of objectives and approaching them is much easier to follow than trying to implement a lot of arbitrary thoughts. So this blog will act as that guide and a daily journal showing progress towards goal.
Like me, many others have had key take-aways and are wondering how to implement them into life. Someone day if someone comes across this, like you have, my journey might help guide them.
One of the key learnings from Bhagavad-Gita is to focus on doing the right thing without doing work for the purpose of rewards or recognition. The famous karmanye vadhikaarasthe sholka. This blog is not intended to get me recognized and hence i am keeping this without my name on it.
Format :
The format will be like a daily journal, looking back and looking forward. Looking back will cover daily activities where i was able to implement one of the key learnings or failed to do so. And looking forward will list some activities that i will be involved in the next day and what learnings i plan to keep in mind as i perform those activities.
My key learnings from Bhagavad-Gita:
1. Submit to learn :
If you want to learn, then you need to honestly submit yourself and ask for help without false pride or ego . Like Arjuna did. Similarly give advice or teach only when asked, else it won't have value. (2:7 - karpanya dosho)
2. Right thing not the rewards :
Focus on doing what is right, what you truly believe is the correct thing to do in that particular situation and not do something aiming just for returns or recognition you can get. (2:47 karmanye vadhikarasthe)
3. Right action not inaction :
By not aiming for recognition, do not take the path of status quo. Inaction or procrastination does not take you to the right path.(2:47 karmanye vadhikarasthe)
4. Be fully aligned not hypocrite :
Do the things that you truly believe in, and engage yourself fully in those activities. Doing something that you don’t fully believe in or doing something physically while you are somewhere else mentally will not allow you to fully enjoy those activities. It is hypocrisy.
5. Everyone is on their own :
Every single person is solely responsible for their own betterment. Don’t get worried if someone is not doing what you believe is the right thing. You take accountability to getting yourself better, don’t wait or blame others for your actions.
6. Thank about what is controllable & is current :
There is no use thinking about things that cant be changed or that have happened in the past. Gossip or speculating over other's actions is waste of time since we cannot control someone else's thoughts or actions. Spending time on 'what I think others think of me' and 'how life would have been or would be, if something was done differently in past' only creates clutter in brain resulting in dissatisfaction and disconnection to the present. Instead try to live in the present (2:11 ashochya nanva)
7. Gym for the brain - Meditation :
Mediation is important to achieve thought maturity just like work-out is important for physical body. Meditating is not easy, thoughts are like wild horses but you can get better with continuous practice. So don’t lose heart and give up if you dint do good initially, keep practicing. Sit straight, take deep breath, focus between eyebrows and meditate to keep focus still (6th chapter)
8. Continuous contemplation of materials leads to convolution:
Continually thinking about materialistic things leads to desire to acquire it. And when that is not fulfilled, leads to anger which results in loss of rational thinking. There by creating convolution of thoughts and sadness. Thinking about Ferrari & its great features for a long period of time, researching and reading about it, viewing its pictures etc will lead to wanting to buy it, then when cannot afford leads to dissatisfaction with what you have now and sadness. So avoid those thoughts about materialistic things at the beginning. (2:62 - dhyaayatho vishayaan..)
9. Balance the eat & sleep scale :
Gain control over senses and attain a balanced state of mind. It cannot be achieved by one who eats too much or too less, or sleeps too much or too less. So, control the desire of senses and eat & sleep in a limited & balanced way. (6th chapter)
10. Be a sthitha prajna :
Forego desires & attachment. Experience things but not be attached to them and get carried away. Be like lotus leaf which doesn’t get wet even when in water.
Take all losses, gains, appreciation and criticism calmly, don’t get excited or depressed by these.
Retract when materialistic pleasures attract you, like how a turtle does when it senses danger.
11. Death is certain, expect it :
Everybody has to die someday, so don’t excessive worry or get depressed about death. Instead focus on present and make the most when people are alive. Accept death when it comes with calm mind and meditation.
12. Shamelessly go seek knowledge :
It is important to gain knowledge. There is no match to knowledge. Go in search of learned people (gnanis), serve them, ask questions and learn from them
Very well written..
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