Gita 01.32 Don’t let the means to an end become an end that diverts us from the actual ends

Bhagavad Gita 1.30 Arjun is here giving his reasons why he feels he should not fight what will we get by the kingdom in fact what will we get by life itself what pledge can we get by life itself for those whom the very people for those whom we want this bhoga and rajya this pleasure and this thing in our life if we are not conscientious our sense of priority can become distorted and even perverted so we have our purposes and we have our priorities purpose means what we want to achieve and priority refers to what we want to achieve first sometimes when we are in the heat of a moment we may by internal or external pressure feel pushed to do a particular activity and in trying to do that activity we may get so caught so consumed that we may forget what was it that we wanted to achieve by doing this activity so for example some people seek wealth and then initially they want wealth so that they can have some security they can take care of their family members properly and they can have what is considered to be a good life however while doing this sometimes they may just get so caught so consumed by the drive to earn that that drive may completely skew their priorities if we associate too much with materialistic people initially we may start off with wealth as a means to an end but our purpose can easily get distorted if we are not alert and thereafter instead of remaining a means to an end our purpose can itself become an end for us and thus we may find ourselves getting overwhelmed by the pursuit of wealth so much so that we become alienated from the people around us even those very people for whom we were earning the wealth we work very hard we take a lot of stress and because of that stress when we come home we are curt and gruff and harsh with our loved ones and because of being curt and gruff and harsh we may end up feeling extremely distressed so it is important for each one of us to recognize that our actions and our association shapes our vision and thus in pursuing wealth we get into materialistic action and materialistic association then we may end up losing our sense of perspective so that we may end up seeking wealth as an end in itself even if that comes at the cost of the end for which the wealth was meant so wealth was meant, we wanted wealth so that we could have stronger, more secure relationships but in the pursuit of wealth we end up seeking, becoming so mad that we get carried away, we get consumed and thus we have nothing left for us to move onwards on that can be a tragic, tragic distortion so Arjun is feeling that sometimes we all face a moment of truth we may be diverted off track by small angles and sometimes we may not even realize that we are diverted off track but when we come to eventually by that small minor diversion when we come to a significantly different destination, then that is a moment of truth for us so when our priorities change and they start taking us slowly, subtly away from our purposes from our more important purposes then at one particular point in our life we come to a crossroad and we understand that when we have to choose between the means and the end and then we realize, my god the means has become an end which has come at the expense of the actual end and this is too much of a cost I can't and I won't afford this this is not what I signed up for and that understanding helps us to in a painful but purposeful way realign ourselves so when somebody is working very hard working like a workaholic having no time for their family members and then because of neglect, say their marriage breaks down or their child takes drugs and they realize what has happened I need to I need to put my put my concentrated effort on taking care of this and then maybe even choose to push our job lower down the priority so that we have time for our family members similarly Arjun's feeling over here that in the pursuit of wealth the pursuit of the kingdom and the royal pleasure that the kingdom will provide he has got so carried away that he that he is fighting against the very people for whom he is fighting Arjun had as his venerable elders as his models his Guru Drona and his Grandsire Bhishma who almost acted like a surrogate father for him so now for Arjun to feel at this stage that that he would win laurels he would he would earlier got tributes after defeating or subordinating kings and offered that tribute for the pleasure of his teachers and elders so those he would have been fighting for he now has to fight against and this is a heart wrenching dilemma for him and he gets caught thinking how can I do this this is unconscionable I cannot do this so at his level Arjun's reasoning is excellent and of course Krishna reveals to Arjun that how he can fight for a still higher purpose can fight for the purpose of raising his consciousness to the spiritual level and fighting as an instrument of the Divine and that will be described in due course in the Bhagavad Gita at this stage however the important thing to recognize is that we all can learn that our means should never become so important to us that they come at the cost of the ends for which the means were meant thank you.