Gita 01.46 – When emotions block our consciousness Gita wisdom removes the blockage

Thank you.

This is the last verse of the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. It describes a dramatic, even drastic change in the actions of Arjuna. The warrior who is the single most important warrior in the Kurukshetra war field, who is expected to lead the charge against the Kauravas, has now put down his bow, indicating that he will no longer fight.

Who is standing, he sat down. His mind was filled, afflicted by Shoka. So, our feelings are often the drivers of our actions.

And the last verse here concludes with Shoka Samvigna Manasaham. Arjuna was filled with Shoka. So, all these three words in this line are important.

Manasaham, the mind. Often in sports, especially when there is a lot at stake in a match, where it is said that cricket is a mental game or tennis is a game of the mind. Now, obviously the game is a game of the body.

But through statements such as this, that it is a game of the mind, what is stressed is that whatever skills we have for playing that particular game, be it tennis or cricket or whatever else, we can use those skills best only when our emotions are properly aligned. And if our emotions are misdirected, the misdirected emotions make us incapable of proper actions. It means that whenever our emotions start going haywire, whenever we start feeling as if this particular situation is working out in a way the opposite of what we had hoped for, what we had expected, what we had desired, then we cannot function effectively.

Emotions are one of the primary channels by which or through which our consciousness flows to the outer world. Whatever we are emotionally invested in, we tend to feel strongly about. Whatever we are emotionally most attached to, that's what we tend to feel pulled up and down by that.

So we're going along our routine work and then suddenly we hear, we know that there's a cricket match going on somewhere and we suddenly hear that, say, India has lost an important cricket match. That one news can totally disrupt us, disturb us, disorient us because we are emotionally invested over there and then we may just feel so disturbed that we're not able to do anything properly. Similarly, in life, when we are trying to do one thing, our emotions often sabotage us and take us somewhere else, not allowing us to do that which we would have wanted to do.

The solution to such misdirection of emotions is that we need to watch our emotions and respond appropriately to them. We should watch our emotions, not wait on our emotions. Waiting on someone is an idiomatic way of saying that, offering respectful deference and obedience to a person.

Of course, we can offer a deference without obedience also that we may well be able to respect someone without necessarily accepting everything that they want us to do. So like that, our emotions need to be acknowledged and when our emotions are appropriately acknowledged, then we are able to move onwards towards responding appropriately to them. So because the emotions are a primary channel of our emotions, they're not the exclusive channel.

That means, just like say if water is flowing along in a particular direction, now it may flow left, it may flow right, it may stay where it is. But the key important thing is, it needs to keep flowing steadily. Sometimes the left channel may be blocked, it may flow through the right channel if there are two channels for the water to flow through.

So we could say our emotionality and our rationality are two channels through which our consciousness flows. Sometimes the emotional channel gets blocked or sometimes the emotional channel takes all the water and locks it over there. So blocking of consciousness is different from locking of consciousness.

Blocking means that the consciousness is not able to move forward. It's like a dam may block the flow of water. But say locking of consciousness would mean that not only is water not allowed to flow in that direction because of the dam, but not is it allowed to flow anywhere else, through any other channel also.

So our consciousness may be blocked, but we shouldn't let it get locked. Emotions can both block or lock our consciousness. We may not be able to prevent the blockage, but at least we can prevent the locking.

Now how do we exactly go about doing this? We need our rational faculty to be alert. We need our overall intelligence to be strong by which we can recognize the blocking or locking that is happening of our consciousness. Otherwise, we just become paralyzed as has happened to Arjuna over here.

He's not able to do anything because his consciousness is paralyzed. And the paralysis of consciousness is reflected in his paralysis in action. He just sits down, puts aside his bow and this action itself is dramatic.

But the Bhagavad Gita is not so much about outer action. Outer action is going to be described in the Mahabharata abundantly. The Bhagavad Gita is more about inner action.

Inner action refers to the emotions that Arjuna goes through, the reasoning by which he's going to be able to deal with the emotions when the reasoning is guided by Krishna in the Gita's message. So now for Arjuna, the dramatic outer action of sitting down when he expected to stand upright or putting aside his bow or when he is expected to hold his bow aloft. Both these unexpected actions, in fact, they are not just unexpected, they are the opposite of what is expected.

Both these actions signify the emotional misdirection that is happening within him. And that is conveyed through Shoka Samvigna Manasaha. His mind is afflicted with grief, with lamentation.

And how that lamentation is to be processed with knowledge, how the emotionality is to be… how the excessive emotionality is to be countered by religious rationality, by spiritual wisdom. That is the essence of the Bhagavad Gita. So Shoka Samvigna Manasaha is the last verse of the first chapter.

It is often called as Arjuna Vishadha Yoga, Arjuna's Lamentation. And the last instructive verse of Krishna is Ma Ashu Chaha, 18.66, as in do not lament. So Arjuna, Krishna essentially tells him that I am with you, my love is there for me to protect you from all sinful reactions, do not fear, move on.

That assurance of Krishna's personal benefactory intervention, the assurance of Krishna's personal benefactory intervention is the ultimate antidote for lamentation, as is indicated in 18.66. So by looking at the Gita setting, we all can learn how to best process our emotions and how to move on towards Krishna by processing our emotions.