18.64: When demoralized, let’s turn to the Bhagavad-gita

When life makes us demoralized, we need both enlightenment (knowing what to do) and encouragement (feeling confident that we can do it) to regain our morale. Those who encourage without enlightening often end up delivering shallow, cosmetic or insubstantial platitudes. Those who enlighten without encouraging often end up delivering holier-than-thou, impractical or unappealing sermons.

Lord Krishna blends enlightenment and encouragement endearingly in his message of love, the Bhagavad-gita. Therein, he first gives encouraging reassurances of the indestructibility and invincibility of the self (2.11–30), then proceeds with enlightening analyses that make self-evident for Arjuna the best course of action among the bewildering multiplicity of options open for him (2.31–18.63) and concludes with encouraging promises of his all-round loving help when Arjuna takes up the best course of action (18.64–72).

So next time we feel demoralized – or better still, even before we feel demoralized, let’s empower ourselves with the morale-boosting doses of Gita wisdom.