How Gita wisdom helps us to deal with pain

[Talk at Dallas, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, I am Chaitanya Charan.
So, I was born and brought up in India. And I was studying my engineering about 25 years ago in a prominent college. And there was a time when I first seriously was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita.
So, I could say my introduction to the Bhagavad Gita was because I was disappointed with success. My dream in life was to become a topper. India is a very educational conscious country.
So, I was always a good student. I was among the toppers in the class, but I was never the first. Second, third, fourth, joint first, but never the first.
So, in my third year of engineering, I gave GRE. And I used to love English since my childhood. So, at that time, in our 2400, I got 2350.
I was not just the first in my college. I was the first in the university, first in the whole state of Maharashtra, first in the history of my college. So, I thought, now I am going to be happy.
And I was happy for some time. But after that, it struck me that just looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give much happiness. It’s only when other people congratulate me, that’s when I feel happy.
And somehow it happened at that time that three people, three of my friends, one after another, forgot to congratulate me. And the first time it happened, I was annoyed. Second time, I was irritated.
Third time, I was infuriated. And then, somehow, whenever there are some inflexion points in my life, some major points in my life, something is happening, I sort of see myself from an out-of-body perspective. Not physically, not literally, but conceptually.
And then, as I was just about to express my anger at this person, it just struck me, wait a minute. You thought by becoming a topper, you would become happy. But actually, you have become more dependent for your happiness on others now.
Previously, you could just interact with others and go on normally. But now, if they don’t congratulate you, leave alone being happy, you’re actually being unhappy, dissatisfied. So it struck me at that time that is this path, tomorrow I’ll give you another exam, I might get another accolade.
Is this actually going to make me happy? So, that incident, that disappointment with success, made me more open to spirituality. I had recited and memorised some verses of the Bhagavad Gita in my childhood as a part of some recitation contests. But that was all my contact was.
At that time, a friend gave me the Gita. And then, at that time, I read the 6th chapter, 22nd verse. यम् लभ्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं दता यस्मिन् स्थितोन दुखेन गुरुणापि विचाल्यते So, Krishna says that having attained this, there is nothing more to be attained.
And having attained this, even the greatest of distress will not disturb you. So, it struck me at that time, this is real achievement in life. Something that frees one from hankering for more and something that gives one the inner strength to not lament when there are distresses.
So, the Gita is not making an unrealistic promise that there will be no distresses. Gita is saying that you attain a level of awareness by which you will not crave for more and will not lament when things go wrong. So, I was intrigued, how is this to be attained? And what is this all about? So, at that time, after I completed my education, I worked in software field for some time.
And parallel with that, I was studying the Gita. I was sharing the Gita’s wisdom with others. I was quite short tempered since my childhood.
But I found that by applying the principles of the Gita, my temper went down. I started feeling that the Gita is a book for inner transformation. I often, when I speak on science and spirituality at various places, I spoke at Cambridge recently.
So, I put it that science can change the outer world. Science can make things better. Spirituality can change the inner world.
It can make people better. It can help us to manage our emotions, our thoughts, our own inner world in a healthier way. So, I am also on that journey to try to attain that state where you can have that inner absorption by which we can be free from hankering and lamenting.
So, I will speak on this theme of the message of the Gita in a four point acronym. And I will quote some verses from the Gita, but I will broadly focus on one theme. The theme will be that we may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain.
Living with pain means that pain is a partner in our life. It’s a part of our life. But living in pain means pain consumes our consciousness and doesn’t allow us to experience anything else in life.
So, the Bhagavad Gita’s journey is also like that. The Bhagavad Gita begins with Arjuna in great pain. So, it is described in the second chapter, first verse that Arjuna was His eyes were flowing with tears.
Generally, children cry in public everywhere. As we grow up, we don’t express our emotions at least in public. And Arjuna is not just an adult, Arjuna is a warrior.
Warriors are trained to conceal their pain. Because if a war is going on, if they are injured, if the opponent sees that this person is in pain, he will hit more over there. In war, the policy is hit where it hurts.
So, a warrior who is trained to conceal pain, that warrior is crying and not just crying in public, crying in public in the maximum view of everyone. In a war, Arjuna is one of the central warriors over there and Arjuna’s chariot is in between the two armies. Arjuna had told Krishna, please take my chariot in between the two armies so that I can see the two sides.
So, the Pandava army is here, the Kaurava army is here, Arjuna is in between. So, he is in the position of maximum visibility for everyone. And there he is crying with tears pouring out of his eyes.
I am stressing this context to drive home this point that Arjuna must have been in enormous grief. Otherwise, he would not be crying in public like this. And at that time, this is 2.1. In 2.7, six verses later, he asks a question.
And that question is what makes the Bhagavad Gita’s message universal. He says, He says, please tell me, what am I meant to do? What is my dharma? The word dharma has many different meanings in different contexts. But if we go etymologically to the meaning of dharma, dharma means that activity which sustains our nature.
That which sustains us. The essential defining attribute. There is order in nature.
And similarly, we, if we harmonise with that order, we live in harmony. So what is it that I am meant to do? Many of you said we are trying to find our way. The whole Bhagavad Gita begins with that question.
What is my way now? I ask you, what is my way? In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is the world’s biggest poem. It has 110,000 verses.
And the Mahabharata also begins with the same defining question. What is dharma? What is the right thing to do in life? How are we to move forward in life? And Krishna answers that question elaborately. Krishna’s answer to that question is the Bhagavad Gita.
So it begins with Arjuna in distress, in tears, and he is asking, what am I meant to do now? Now the specific dilemma that Arjuna was in is specific to him. But the Bhagavad Gita goes beyond a dilemma to a universal question. In fact, in today’s world where there is often violence in the name of religion, many of us may feel uncomfortable that the Bhagavad Gita was spoken on a battlefield.
But if you look at it by the content, the context and the consequence of the Bhagavad Gita, the content, the Bhagavad Gita has 700 verses, out of which after the first chapter which sets the setting, hardly 5 or 6 verses talk about the war. There is no reference to the war after that. So the Bhagavad Gita in content is not talking about fighting a war.
In content, the war is just the starting point from which it moves up. The discussion goes from that specific to universals. The universals is when we are perplexed in life, how do we determine what course of action to follow? And by the end of the Gita, in 18.73 Arjuna says that, नश्टो मोहस्मतिल्लभ्धात् प्रसादान्मयाचुतास्तितोस्मिगतसंदेह करिशेवच्णम्तव He says I am composed now.
I am composed. My doubts are dispelled. My illusion is gone.
And he says करिशेवच्णम्तव I will do your will. So he is not saying I will fight. Fighting is just circumstantially what he has to do.
But I will do your will is actually a declaration of divine harmony. I will harmonise with you. So basically Arjuna was in great pain at the start of the Gita but by the end of the Gita he has regained his composure.
The source of pain was that a war was going to take place in which his loved ones were there on both sides. And many of them were going to die. He did not want that.
But historically it was just unavoidable at that particular time. So the reality did not change for Arjuna. So what happened? He got a bigger vision of the reality.
And the source of the pain, the war still remained. But Arjuna was not overwhelmed by it. So we could say Arjuna moved in this journey.
He was living in pain at the start of the Bhagavad Gita. By the end of the Gita he was living with pain. It was still painful.
But it was not that overwhelming. So what is it in the Gita that enabled Arjuna to change this? So I will talk about living with pain, I said, not living in pain. I will use the acronym WITH to talk about four principles.
W first is wisdom. The Bhagavad Gita begins by telling Arjuna that your identity is bigger than your biology. That you are not just a physical creature.
There is a side to you which is eternal, which is indestructible. This is a reasonable inference to make. Because all of us long to live forever.
All of us long to love forever. Nothing around us lasts forever. Even huge mountains, they don’t last forever.
If nothing around us has this enduring capacity, where does our longing to live forever and to love forever come from? If a child in a remote African tribe suddenly tells his mother, I want a pizza, the mother will ask, how do you know about a pizza? Where did this idea of a pizza come in your mind from? If there is nothing in the environment, where did that desire come from? Nothing in our environment lasts forever. But we have a desire to live forever, to love forever. Where does this desire come from? Bhagavad Gita says this comes from inside us, from a core that is non-physical.
That is the source of consciousness. So it explains that our reality is three level. That there is body, mind and soul.
This could be compared to a computer system where there is the hardware, the software and the user. So the body is like the hardware, the mind is the software and the soul is the user. The wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita is it expands our vision of our identity and this expansion of our vision helps us to see whatever is happening in our life in proper context.
If a person has put all their money in one business and that business collapses, it will be like death for them. But if they have many businesses and one business collapses, it is still distressing. But no, this didn’t work out, all these other ideas are there.
So similarly, when we identify ourselves with our physical side, with our body, with our relationships, with our material possessions, with our social positions and we think that is all that I am. Then if anything goes wrong over there, it becomes devastating. When a person has many businesses, even if one goes wrong, they don’t neglect it, they try to set it right.
But their identity is not reduced to that one business alone. Similarly, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that there is our physical side but beyond that, there is the mental and the spiritual. And the spiritual side is indestructible.
The spiritual side is the soul. The soul is actually on a journey of evolution of consciousness and this journey goes from one life to another life to another life. And in this journey, in each phase of this journey, the soul evolves by growing in wisdom and growing in love.
Growing in wisdom and love. Wisdom is what we learn from the outer world. Love is what we offer and what we do.
So Arjuna understands his first point is that I am not simply a warrior belonging to a particular dynasty and all these are my relatives, they are going to die. They are souls on their journey, I am a soul on my journey. And we all need to act in a way in which we continue to evolve.
That wisdom expands his vision of who he is. Now, any point if you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask or at the end we can have further discussion, however you like to go. So that is the wisdom part.
And I, I talked about the acronym with W I. So I is intention. We all face problems in life and actually we are not afraid of problems per se. We are afraid of purposeless problems.
Purposeless problems means that if some problem, not if we are just walking along the road and a thorn pricks our foot, we will be annoyed by that. But after that we might ourselves go to a doctor and a doctor may prick our foot with an anti-tetanus injection. At that time, although the prick might be similar, we won’t feel annoyed over there.
Because we see that there is a purpose. There is a purpose, this pain is purposeful. It serves some purpose.
So our intention, in the first case the pain was unintentional. We didn’t want it. In the second case, it’s pain, but we chose it.
Because we knew it would serve some purpose. So for us, we all have certain purposes in life. For me, my purpose was to become a topper.
And I achieved that and I found that it’s not that fulfilling. So the Bhagavad Gita tells us that our intention, when we face reversals in life, if you want to make this journey from living in pain to living with pain, the first point is that the wisdom, understand that we are bigger than our situation. We are spiritual beings.
And what is our intention? We have specific intentions. We want to take care of our family, take care of our business, take care of our health. All these are important intentions.
But there is one intention that underlies everything. That, the Bhagavad Gita tells, is the big intention. The Bhagavad Gita says that, ममईवाम् शो जीव लोके जीव भूतः सनातनः It says there is an absolute truth.
There is an ultimate reality. And we are parts of that ultimate reality. So our intention, our purpose ultimately, is meant to play our part.
When we play our part, the whole will take care of the whole. Say for example, if we go, if we catch a flight. Now when we are catching a flight, we are concerned that we will reach on time, we have a boarding pass, we have an ID proof.
But we are not concerned whether the pilot is drunk a lot. We are not concerned whether the plane has enough fuel or not. These are important.
But we know there is a higher, there is a bigger system which will take care of those things. So our intention going to the plane is that we go where we do our part in it. So the wisdom helps us to understand that beyond the physical level, there is a spiritual level.
The Bhagavad Gita further explains that the intention part is that whatever we do, all our activities are meant to be done in a mood of loving service to the ultimate. That ultimate can be known by different names in different traditions. The Bhagavad Gita knows the ultimate by the name Krishna.
The word Krishna means Sarva Akarshati Iti Krishna. One who is all attractive. That person is Krishna.
And He is the whole. So whatever we do, the Gita urges us, we can do it in a mood of loving contribution. So we take care of our family members.
We say that these are not just my family members. These are actually parts of God who have been sent in my life. And by taking care of them, I am not just serving them, I am serving the Divine through them.
So if we see, all of these are like channels for our consciousness to flow towards the Divine. If we consider the standard metaphor, you might have heard that the river flows towards the ocean. So similarly, let my consciousness flow towards the Divine.
The river may flow through different channels. And if one channel is blocked, the river will find some other path to move on. So like that, if we identify ourselves with one channel alone, this is who I am.
If I think that I am an engineer, and then I find that I lose my job as an engineer, I don’t get any other job. Then I get an identity crisis. Who am I? But if I see I am a soul who is playing the role of an engineer.
I am a soul who is playing the role of a mother. I am a soul who is playing the role of a brother, a sister, of a professional. And all these roles are ways in which the channel of my consciousness moves towards the Divine.
Then, even if one channel is blocked, still the other channels stay open. So by spiritual knowledge and by having this intention of loving contribution, we expand our understanding of ourselves in our life. So by this, even if one thing goes wrong, the other paths still remain open for us.
I had this experience of this at a, you could say, at a non-philosophical level even before I was seriously introduced to the Bhagavad Gita. Actually, when I was one, I got polio. So I was just walking along.
I don’t remember this. My parents told me. I was just walking along and one day I fell down.
And I could never walk thereafter. So my parents had given me the polio vaccine at that time. But somehow it is a remote town and the doctor who was administering that medicine had messed up.
He had not kept the vaccine properly. So what happened was the vaccine ended up giving the disease to me. So thereafter my parents were very upset.
But over a period of time, as I grew up and I started practising spirituality and I have spoken at places where there are associations of physically handicapped people. And when I talk with them, one thing that struck me is that many of them are still fighting battles that they have already lost. To fight a battle that they have already lost means they have got that handicap but still they are not mentally able to accept it.
It’s happened. It’s over now. It’s unchangeable.
So then I look back at my life and I don’t remember really resenting this so much. Whenever I have to walk, I need crutches. But for me the crutches are like my glasses.
I need them. I can’t function without the glasses. But it doesn’t occupy a big place in my consciousness.
It’s just something which I functionally need. So I wondered why was it that this never dominated my consciousness. I look back and I saw where my parents brought me up.
They never made me feel in any way that this defined me. My parents would tell me that whatever you lack in physical ability, God has given you an intellectual ability. And just by that whole point that this is a part of me but this doesn’t define me.
So when that somehow just by their acceptance, by their maturity, it entered into my mind and although it’s a part of my life but it’s never dominated my consciousness. So basically we all when we face problems if we identify ourselves with that problematic situation that’s what eases the pain. The pain is going to be there but this intention raises us above.
If we can identify ourselves as something bigger than the painful situation and we pursue a purpose that is bigger than that particular setback then we move forwards. So Krishna told Arjuna in terms of the Bhagavad Gita now that you are not just simply fighting this war to take revenge against those who have insulted you. You are not fighting this war to kill your cousins who are your rivals.
You are fighting this war to establish dharma. To establish this order in society the social order that will foster spiritual order. The order within that will help people to foster the order within.
The order without but when Arjuna saw this as a bigger purpose bigger that intention became expanded. Otherwise it was that I fight this side are my loved ones, that side are my loved ones most of them will die and what will I achieve after that. Krishna told him they are eternal they will go to a future destination but here by doing your part you are going to play a part in something bigger than yourself.
And what is that bigger? That bigger is that you will help in establishing dharma in establishing social and spiritual order. Now this, this is intention then T is tolerance. Tolerance is virtue that the Bhagavad Gita recommends repeatedly.
2.14 right in the beginning it says matras parashastra kaunteya agam apayino nityas tam sitikshasva bharata just tolerate temporary things the Bhagavad Gita says. This tolerance is quite a deep concept and I will try to explain it simply but there will be 2-3 other concepts which I will have to involve over here. The Bhagavad Gita also talks about the concept of destiny.
Destiny, destiny. Destiny or daiva. So broadly speaking there are 2 schools of thought.
One is in Sanskrit it is called as karmavad and the other is daivavad. Karmavad holds that everything is determined by our work. If we work hard if we use our brains if we shed our sweat we can achieve whatever we want in our life.
That’s karmavad. The other is daivavad. Daivavad is that everything is destined.
Nothing is in our control. Our whole life chart is already plotted and we simply have to work accordingly. Not over generalising but broadly speaking the western civilisation orients towards karmavad that everything is in our hands.
Eastern civilisations India and China gravitate towards daivavad. That things are destined. Now the reality is somewhere in between.
To put this as a if you want to put this as an equation there are 4 factors. Karma plus daiva plus kala needs to follow. Karma is our endeavour.
Daiva is destiny. Kala is time. So when our endeavour destiny and time all 3 work together then there is a fallow the desired result.
Some simple examples for this. Say a farmer ploughs the land and sows the seeds. That is the karma.
The rains come on time in the right quantity the daiva. Then the season changes to the harvesting season that is the kala. And then the harvest comes that is the fallow.
Karma, daiva, kala lead to fallow. Conversely or another example is say a couple get married and they want to have a child. Now they unite that is karma.
But not every union leads to conception. So there is something beyond which is required for conception to happen. So that is daiva.
And after that they can’t have a child immediately. There is a period of gestation. And that is kala.
And after that there will be the fallow. They will have a child after that. So in all activities in our life there is always something beyond our control which also shapes the results.
And acknowledging this is not fatalism. It is not just pessimism or resignation. It is just reality.
Now both of these karmavada and daivavada have their they have their disadvantages. If we over emphasise the role of destiny everything is destined then we end up not endeavouring adequately. So that can lead to passivity.
That can lead to people tolerating abuse. And people not doing anything at all. On the other hand that extreme of karma thinking that everything is determined by my endeavour leads to a lot of negativity when things don’t work out.
Sometimes despite our best efforts success may not come. So if you look at even the western literature failure till the 18th century roughly or even the early 19th century failure is seen as a practical problem. Tried to do this it didn’t work out.
But in today’s world failure is seen as not a practical problem but an existential problem. Existential problem means that if I fail that means something is wrong with me itself. If I study and I don’t crack an exam that means I am worthless.
If I form a relationship and that relationship doesn’t work out that means I am worthless. So when we don’t recognise the role of daiva of destiny then we often end up blaming ourselves for situations that are not in our control. Of course we also take credit for successes that are not just the result of our own work.
But this reluctance to recognise daiva that is a cause of a lot of mental health problems. When something doesn’t work out then we okay I tried my best I did what I could in this situation. I could have done better but I did what I could in this situation.
It’s not worked out. That’s just the will of destiny. Let me accept it and move on.
But when we don’t acknowledge destiny then we can’t tolerate reversals. The point was tolerance. Tolerate Tolerance comes when we understand that there are certain things which are beyond our control.
So Krishna tells Arjuna that this war is not what you wanted to fight. The war has happened in spite of your will. The Pandavas tried everything possible to avoid the war.
Sometimes we say that you do everything I have done everything humanly possible. But the Pandavas not only they did everything humanly possible they did everything divinely possible also. Now Krishna is God and Krishna himself went as a peace messenger to the Kauravas.
It’s like say if there is a India-Pakistan some conflict is at the border and the Indians may send Secretary of State or some other officer to talk about peace. But suppose the Prime Minister of India himself goes to talk about peace. There is a huge gravity to that person going.
And at that time what does Duryodhana do? There are different ways of refusing. Suppose we have some programme at our house and we invite our friends please come. And then somebody says that I would like to come but I can’t come because I have this, this, this.
So that’s a rejection of the invitation but that’s not a rejection of the person. But if somebody says even if I die my dead body will not come to your programme. That is not just a saying no to the invitation it’s like a slapping the person in the face.
So this was what Duryodhana did. Krishna told Duryodhana the Pandavas have a right to half the kingdom but give them just five villages. But what did Duryodhana say? He said I’ll not give enough land to even put the tip of a needle through.
So that I’m like even my dead body will not come to your programme. So it was a slap in the face and not only that on top of that Duryodhana actually tried to arrest Krishna. It’s like the Indian Prime Minister goes for peace to Pakistan Pakistan tries to arrest the Prime Minister.
Outrageous! So what Krishna was telling Arjuna is that there are some things which are beyond their control. They happen by the will of destiny and when they happen that way just learn to tolerate them. It’s not that just that they are pleasant but when we stop blaming ourselves for things that are not in our control then we get a lot of relief.
Many times in our life resentment of reality hurts us more than reality itself. If say we had planned to go for a outing a trip somewhere with friends and just the previous night we get flu. Now having flu is not a big problem.
We just feel weak we feel nauseous but we are lying in bed. But at that time the mind will be there beating us up And that resentment with thinking all my friends will be enjoying over there I am lying in this bed. That resentment of the reality will hurt us more than the reality.
So tolerance means we understand that there are some things which are disturbing and they are not in my control. So I just accept them. Now tolerance doesn’t mean accepting everything.
In every situation there are some things in our control and some things not in our control. So Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna that just give up everything. Tolerate means on one level he is telling Arjuna tolerate but then he also at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna takes up a bow and is ready to fight.
So tolerance doesn’t mean passivity. It just means we stop we call off our war with reality. If I have got flu I have got the flu now.
I can’t do anything about it. I accept the flu and then I take the treatment. I take the rest.
Necessary so that I can recover. So in every situation there are some things in our control and some things not in our control. And tolerance enables us to accept the things that are not in our control.
And by that actually we become free to focus on the things that are in our control. If I accept that ok I can’t go for this trip accept it. Then ok while I am in bed what can I do? Maybe I can read something good.
Maybe I can call someone. Maybe I can meet some old friends and we can have some talk whatever they can come here. So while in bed there are things which you can do.
But as long as we don’t learn this virtue of tolerance what happens is that we just can’t function properly. Krishna tells Arjuna tolerate. And again this tolerance comes when we understand that I am not reduced to this situation.
If I think that say I am a I define myself in terms of a particular relationship. I define myself as a husband or a wife or a mother or a father and if I face any turbulence in that relationship then I will think I am myself a failure. But if I understand that I am a soul and I am playing a role in which I have many different relationships and all these relationships are important for me but I am different from all these then that will enable us to tolerate and I have many different relationships and I am playing roles in these relationships.
The roles are important but I am different from these roles. Therefore, if there is any failure in any particular role that doesn’t mean it ruins me. Yes, there is a problem over there but that is just one role.
I can tolerate this because there are many other areas in which I can still continue. My personal identity is not threatened. So, tolerance becomes easier.
So, it is progressive. Wisdom and intention foster tolerance and the last part is edge that is hope. So, when I talk about hope what do we mean by this that I said earlier that some things in our control some things not in our control.
So, you can say life is like a tennis match. In a tennis match sometimes the player is serving sometimes the player is returning. Now, when we are serving at that time the player has lot of things in control where to serve forehand, backhand, into the body, what height and this player is returning at that time the player has very little control.
Wherever the ball comes you have to put the racket over there and get the ball back into play. So, similarly for us there are some things in our control some things not in our control but sometimes we have more control over things that’s like when we are serving and sometimes we have less control over things that is when we are returning. So, a lot of frustration comes in our life when we try to act like we are serving when we are returning when we are meant to return.
When a player is meant to return and that player says oh my forehand is strong so I will play from the forehand but the ball is on the backhand we will just hit the empty air. So, recognising that now there are some players who have become champions simply by their expertise returning. They are so good at returning that they just by their expertise one grand slams big big tournaments they won.
So, even within the limited control that we have if we can work expertly we can create a better life for ourselves. So, with respect to this hope I would like to do a simple thought experiment to talk about this three level reality. So, wherever you are seated you can sit comfortably and then you can close your eyes and with your eyes closed you can now take three deep breaths two three now with your eyes closed look in front of you and notice what you see.
Obviously, because your eyes are closed you can’t see physically what is in front of you. Still, it’s as if there is some kind of screen inside you and on that screen various images may come and go. You might see this room, you might see your home, your car, your phone, your loved ones or you may see just a dull haze of colours on that inner screen.
Now, whatever particular it, whatever it is specific that you see, you see it on something like a screen inside. While you are observing that inner screen, try to take a step back and catch sight of who is observing that screen. I repeat, while observing the inner screen, try to take a step back and observe the sear of that inner screen.
Try once again, try to take a step back and try to see the sear of the inner screen. No matter how many steps you take back, the sear steps back with you. What you are looking for is what you are looking with.
You are that inner sear. That you, the inner sear is the soul. The inner screen is the mind.
You can take one deep breath and you can open your eyes. Thank you. So, normal perception happens when the inner sear, the inner screen and the outer sea, all three are in one line.
Right now, suddenly you remember, oh, did I lock my home when I came? And your thoughts go over there. Oh, what is it? What about that? What about that? Then the inner screen becomes like a TV. It starts showing something else entirely.
And although you might be here, you may not see what is happening over here, you may not hear what is spoken over here. Because the inner screen has gone off elsewhere. So, the significance of understanding this, that there is the inner sear and the inner screen, that the soul and there is the mind.
So, the pain that we experience because of whatever difficulties we may have, that actually doesn’t affect the sear. It comes on the screen. It comes on the screen and there we observe it.
We compare, we consider the two of the most common mental health problems that people have nowadays. One is depression and the other is anxiety. Depression happens when this inner screen becomes like a TV and it starts replaying all the bad things that have happened to us in the past.
Oh, this went wrong, this person did like this, I made a mess of this and as we keep replaying, as the inner screen, the mind keeps replaying, this went wrong, that went wrong and we start feeling my future is going to be more of the same things again. That’s how we end up with a depression. On the other hand, if this inner screen moves forward and starts showing us all the bad things that may happen in the future, this may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, go wrong, that may go wrong, that may go wrong, that may that may this gives us a sense of calmness.
Yes, bad things have happened in my life, but those bad things don’t have to define me. I’ll conclude this whole part with one last thought. We can’t be grateful for all situations, but we can be grateful in all situations.
Grateful Grateful for all situations means whatever is happening is good. Well, bad things do happen in life, and when bad things happen, it is very easy to become resentful, but to be grateful in all situations means that the bad things are there. I accept this is a bad thing, but I see what is the good in that.
This bad thing is there, but this is good, this is good, this is good. Suppose we are diagnosed with a terrible disease, that’s a bad thing, but then we can see what is the good. At least this disease is curable.
At least I have got good medical insurance. I have got a supportive family and community who will help me. My overall health is good.
The chance of recovering is high because of that. So in every situation, the bad may be there, but if we focus on the bad, we will live in pain. Sorry, we will live in pain, yeah, but if we look at the good that is there in spite of the bad, bad is there, we don’t deny it, but we don’t obsess on it.
We look for the good, then we will see that there is things to be grateful for also. And the Bhagavad Gita describes that, as I said, the things in our control, things beyond our control. Things beyond our control, at one level we tolerate them, so that we focus on doing what is in our control positively, but the Bhagavad Gita also tells that what is beyond our control is not out of control.
There is a higher plan, that beyond our control what is, that is ultimately under the control of the divine, and that divine, even through bad, the divine can bring out some good. The divine, the bad may be there, but through it something good may happen. Normally we look at the present and we plan the future, but the divine looks at the future and plans the present.
That’s why our view and the higher spiritual view doesn’t always abide, doesn’t always agree. After Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna, Arjuna’s composure was restored. He fought the war, but in the war there were many painful moments for him.
On the 14th day, he faced an extremely painful moment when, on the 13th day actually, when Abhimanyu was killed. At that time, Arjuna was shattered, but then the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita came to his help. It was, it was actually, just as Arjuna was shattered over here, Arjuna was shattered, but before that Yudhishthira was also shattered, because the whole plan of making the Chakra view was to catch Yudhishthira.
And Yudhishthira said, Abhimanyu, that he can break in. So Yudhishthira felt very guilty, that actually I sent my nephew to death. So at that time Vyasadev came to him, and Vyasadev told him, Oh King, oh, nobody in this world can violate the law of death.
Everybody has to die. However, those who live virtuously, they attain auspicious destination. He said, Abhimanyu died heroically, he has attained exalted destination, and thus he is well situated.
He said, why did this have to happen? He said that the will of the divine works for the good of everyone. If we do his will, we will understand that in due course. So what the Bhagavad Gita gives, what this means is, at present we are not able to understand why things happen the way they do, but if we keep doing our part, eventually what good is there will be revealed.
So the hope that the Bhagavad Gita gives us is that we are not limited to our situations, we are not limited to our emotions, that there is a bigger plan at work, and even when things are going wrong, something good will emerge out of it. The Bhagavad Gita concludes with Arjuna having raised his bow in readiness to fight. Arjuna’s bow represents our confidence, our enthusiasm, our determination.
Sometimes life’s reversals just make us put aside the bow, I can’t fight. But the wisdom of the Gita can inspire us just like it did to Arjuna to pick up the bow. Let me go on with my life.
Our confidence, our enthusiasm, our determination can be restored if we internalise the wisdom of the Gita. So this is how the Gita speaks to each one of us in our particular situations, by giving us a message of spiritual hope. I’ll summarise what I spoke today briefly.
I started by speaking about how the Bhagavad Gita can help us to rise from living in pain to living with pain. Before that, I began with my journey that I was disappointed with success. And the Bhagavad Gita said that, Bhagavad Gita’s verse 6.22, that we can achieve a state where there’ll be no more hankering for more and more, and there’ll be no more lamenting even if distresses come.
That I felt was the biggest achievement of life. So then how Arjuna, at the start of the Gita, was in enormous pain. A battle-hardened warrior, trained to conceal pain, was crying in public at the position of maximum visibility.
So he was in enormous pain. And then he asked Krishna, what is Dharma? What am I meant to do in life? And the Gita’s answer I explained in terms of this acronym, VIT. What was W? Does anyone remember? Wisdom, yeah.
Thank you. So wisdom is that we are not limited to our biology. We are three-level beings, body, mind, and soul.
And even if things go wrong at a physical level, still, at the spiritual level, the soul is indestructible. It’s like when we have a material conception of life, then it’s like our whole business is, all money is invested in one business. If it collapses, we are destroyed.
But the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita reveals that actually our business is, our money is invested in various businesses. Even if one goes wrong, still there is much that is right. So at the physical level, we play various roles.
And those roles are important, but they don’t define us. Arjuna was told that you are indestructible and all your loved ones are also indestructible. Therefore, don’t just lament about the inevitable that that is there.
Then I was intention. Thank you. We all face problems.
But what we fear is not just problems, but purposeless problems. If a thorn pricks us, that annoys us. But if an injection of a dose pricks us, we are ready to pay to get that.
Why? Because it’s going to serve a purpose. So sometimes in our life, we set up a purpose for ourselves. And when that purpose is frustrated, I have set a purpose.
Because I want to be successful in this career. I want to be successful in this relationship. And that doesn’t work.
Again, we feel that my life is ruined. But the Bhagavad Gita gives the intention that we are meant to, we are parts of the whole. And whatever we do is meant to be done in a mood of service and contribution to the whole.
So if we do that, then if we play the part of the part, the whole will take care of the whole. It’s like if we get in time for a plane with our boarding pass and our ID proof, the plane being fuelled properly, being piloted by a competent person, that will be taken care of by others. So that intention that we play our part, that is what the Bhagavad Gita tells Arjuna.
You are not fighting simply to defeat people who have taken revenge, who have hurt you. You are fighting, you are part of something bigger than yourself. You play your part, you let your intention be to establish Dharma in society.
Then T was? Tolerance. Thank you. And there I talked about tolerance comes when we understand that our life is shaped not just by our actions, but also by our destiny.
So whenever results come in our life, there is four parts to it. Karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala. Just like farming or conceiving a child.
And so when sometimes in the Eastern schools of thought, Eastern civilisations overemphasise daivas at times. Western overemphasise karma. When daiva is overemphasised, it can lead to passivity and abuse being accepted.
But when karma is overemphasised, it can lead to guilt and negativity because we beat ourselves up for things that are not in our control. Failure is a practical problem. It is not an existential problem.
But when we think that if I can’t control things, then that means something wrong with me. Then that troubles us mentally. So tolerance means if something is beyond my control, let me accept it and let me focus on what is in my control.
If we keep fighting battles that we have already lost, then we simply waste our energy. My physical inability didn’t trouble me much mentally because my parents accepted me. So it is a part of me, but never became my defining identity.
And when we focus on this point of tolerance, it simply means we call off our war with reality. Resentment of reality often hurts much more than reality. So by accepting the things that are not in our control, we can focus our energy on the things that are in our control.
And the last part was H was hope. So Krishna told Arjuna that this war is not caused by you. It is caused by Duryodhana’s obstinacy.
So tolerate it. And the hope is by Krishna’s plan, good will come for everyone. So in that hope, I did this thought exercise to talk about how there is the inner screen that is the mind and beyond is the inner seer that is the soul.
So whatever distresses come upon us, they are actually impinging, impressing on the inner screen. And when the inner screen becomes like a TV showing us everything bad that has happened to us in the past, that causes depression. When the inner screen becomes like a TV telling us, displaying all that may go wrong in future, that causes worry.
But if we can focus on that, I am different from the screen, then we can have security. And then by understanding that what is not in our control is not out of control. It is in some higher control.
It is the control of the divine. So the divine works to, like we see the present and plan the future. The divine looks at the future, sees the future and plans the present.
That’s why sometimes when bad things happen to us, we may not be able to see anything good in it. And the bad thing may be bad. But if we persevere, then we can find some good emerging from it.
So we can’t be grateful for all situations, but we can be grateful in all situations by focussing on whatever is good instead of what is bad. And by doing this, whatever negativity may come in our life, we may have to live with pain, but we won’t have to live in pain. Thank you very much.
Any comments or any thoughts you have? Okay. So how do we increase tolerance? I would say there are three different levels, you could say. One is through knowledge.
The other is through spirituality. Third is through purpose. I’ll talk about each of these.
Knowledge means, I was in Florida last year and I gave this example in the class and after that one person in the audience, he told me that I had a real life experience of this. He said that, the example which I gave was that sometimes, say a leech bites us. At that time, it’s painful and it’s scary.
You can feel the tentacles going inside our skin and sucking out the blood. However, if at that time we try to pull out the leech, actually some leeches have such a firm grip that they will pull out our whole skin. So at that time, if we just let the leech do its work, it’s scary to feel it sucking our blood, but the leech’s capacity to suck blood is not unlimited.
Once its tubules are full, it will itself let go. Or once the tubules are full, it will release and we can flick it off. So similarly, sometimes some problems come like leeches.
And when those leeches are there, if we understand with knowledge that this is not permanent, this is there, it’s temporary. Like say, in India, if you are travelling in a local, the capacity is 50 people, but there are 250 people over there. And say, if we are standing and there is some bossy person who starts pushing us, how dare you push me? We push them back.
And they push us and we push them back. And we get so caught in pushing them that our station comes and goes and still pushing and counter-pushing. That would be foolish.
But if you understand, OK, I just have to stand for half an hour in this train. This person is bossy, OK, let them have their space. Let me just move somewhere aside.
So with knowledge that this is temporary, just that awareness that the problem is temporary, that can foster tolerance. Sometimes when we, our mind, what it does is, instead of contextualising things, our mind catastrophises things. This thing has happened, it’s a disaster now.
It’s a problem, but it doesn’t have to be a disaster. So with the knowledge that this is temporary, how is this temporary? If I got a flu, OK, it will be there for a day or a couple of days, three days. So that knowledge itself helps.
So that’s first step. Second is through spirituality or transcendence. What that means is that if we can understand that this is a physical reality, this is a spiritual reality.
So the physical level, I am in distress. But if I can raise my consciousness to a spiritual level, I can absorb myself in something constructive, spiritually, then what is happening at the physical level doesn’t trouble me so much. We all may have this experience that sometimes if we are very cheerful, then even if somebody does something disagreeable, it doesn’t affect us so much.
But if somebody, if you are already annoyed, and then somebody does something further annoying, there is a huge explosion over there. Because when we are cheerful, our thoughts are somewhere else. So similarly for us, our spiritual practises, they connect us with a higher reality.
They connect us with Krishna. And when we are connected with Krishna, we are in that mood of remembering Krishna, loving Krishna, serving Krishna. Basically, we are living at a higher level of consciousness.
Then what happens at a particular level, at a physical level, doesn’t affect us so much. So as we practise spirituality more and more, we will find that our capacity to tolerate will increase. And the third is purpose.
Purpose means that if we have something important to do, and we are focused on that, we won’t let small things come in the way. Tolerance is not passive resignation to whatever is happening. Tolerance is keeping small things small, so that we can focus on big things.
Say if we are driving somewhere for an important meeting, and somebody suddenly cuts across us. We’ll be annoyed, but we won’t, okay, this person’s gone now, let me focus, let me get to my destination. But suppose we’re just driving for recreation, for fun, and somebody cuts across us.
You fool, I will get the law on you. And then you forget where we’re going and start chasing that person. And that person keeps eluding us.
He may waste a lot of time in that. So quite often, our capacity to tolerate decreases if we don’t have a big enough purpose. So if we have a big purpose, then we won’t let small things come in the way.
So by knowledge, spirituality and purpose, we can increase our capacity to tolerate. Thank you. It’s easy to speak this when I am provoked also.
I also tend to get annoyed. But by speaking, we can also internalise this a little bit. Thank you.
Yes. In this verse, when I read the Gita for the first time, I heard that Gita should really be written by some king told his brahmins to write in Gita a verse so that he doesn’t have to pay any of his subjects, let them work and work and not pay them. Okay.
Yes. Yeah. That’s true.
Yeah. I agree with you. I make sense.
It’s an important question. So is Karmanyavadika Raste written by some king who just wants citizens to serve him and not demand anything for the work that they are doing? Yeah. This is one of the most puzzling verses.
I was speaking at Yale last year and there also this person said, how is this verse practical? Whatever if we, the question that one student asked me was that if we don’t, we work because the motivation for work is getting the result. So what will motivate us if we don’t, if we are supposed to be detached from the results? So actually, this verse, I talked about this framework of karma, daivak, kala leading to phala. Let’s try to understand it from that framework.
The first thing it says, Karmanyavadika Raste, you have a right to do your work. Ma phaleshu kadachana, that do not be attached to your result. And third thing it says, Do not think that you are the cause of the result.
At the same time, Do not be attached to not doing your work. After the Bhagavad Gita was spoken, let’s first be clear, the Bhagavad Gita is not telling us to have no purpose or have no focus point or have no goal for our work. Because if that were the case, when Arjuna fought the battle of Kurukshetra after that, every day the Pandavas would make battle strategies.
And every day they would plan, I am going to take this, I am going to fight this enemy today, I am going to fight this enemy today. Most famously, on the 14th day, after Abhimanyu had been killed, Arjuna took a vow that by tonight, I will bring down the person who was the cause of the death of my son. That is Jayadratha.
And Krishna did not tell him Arjuna, Maa Phaleshu Kadachana at that time. So it’s not as simple as it seems. So there’s a difference between goals and results.
Goals are what we set before we do the work. Results are what we get after the work is done. We could say our goal is to get the result.
That’s true. But in terms of conception, goals are what we set before. So the Bhagavad Gita is not telling us, don’t set goals.
It is telling us, don’t be attached to results. What is the difference between the two? The difference is that setting goals is in our hands. Getting results is not in our hands.
As a doctor, setting the goal that I want to treat my patient is very much in your hands. That’s your responsibility. But getting the result, specifically saving a particular patient, that’s not in your hands.
Doesn’t mean it is entirely out of your hands. But it’s not entirely in your hands. So if we consider karma and daiva, both have to come together and Kaal has to pass.
Then phala will come. When Krishna is saying, karmanye vadhika raste. So you can do your karma, so do your karma.
That is your right. But do not be attached to the phala. Why? Because that is not in your control.
Now Krishna doesn’t say that that is completely out of your control. We do play a part. We are doers, but we are not the sole doers.
So what happens when we are attached to the result? And if we don’t get the result, we’ll become very disheartened. And if we are attached to the result and we get the result, then we will become very inflated. And both, to be excessively inflated or to be excessively deflated, both are unhealthy for steadiness.
Consider sports like cricket. Say in cricket, some batsmen, one day they may be in brilliant form. Whatever ball comes, they just hit it for boundaries and sixes.
And the next day, they just get out on straight ball. Now obviously, every day they would like to play well. And sometimes we say this batsman is out of form.
Now no batsman wants to be out of form. No player wants to be out of touch. But it’s not entirely in their control.
So when Bhagavad Gita is telling us don’t be attached to the fruits of the work, it is simply telling us that don’t invest your consciousness too much in something that is not in your control. It is not telling that don’t do your work. And third part is why should we not be attached to the fruits of your work? Because ma karma phala he tur pur because you alone are not the cause of the fruit of the work.
There are factors beyond you which also shape the result. But at the same time, you have to do your part. So do not be attached to not doing your work.
So actually it is a very empowering call for action. Say if a student for example has to give a series of exams each successive day and the student gives the first exam. Now before giving that exam a student has to study very very seriously and prepare for the exam and gives the exam.
But after the exam is given the student starts thinking oh how much marks will I get? If I get this much marks, I will get in this college. If I get this much marks, I will get in this college. But what if I don’t get this? Where will I get admission? What will I do? Well, now that exam is over.
Now the important thing is you have got another exam tomorrow, prepare for that. So setting goals I want to study in such a way that I can get this many marks. That’s good.
But attaching setting goals setting goals will increase our focus. But attachment to results can actually decrease our focus. Because once one particular work is done one exam is done now you have to give the second exam.
And for the second exam if I don’t I need to focus on that right now. But if I am attached to the results of the first exam I can’t focus on the second. So basically this verse tells us to be detached from results.
But not that we become we become apathetic about setting goals. So it helps us to focus all our energy on the things that are in our control and leave not let our emotional energy get wasted in things that are not in our control. It is okay to I don’t know how that is related.
Okay. Is it I didn’t address your example earlier about the king. So is the Bhagavad Gita set by a king who is doesn’t want his employees to work without any pay? No, that is not the point here.
If you see the phala that is talked about is Krishna simply saying don’t be attached to the fruit. He is not saying that you don’t work for a result. So when we are if so from the employee’s perspective from the employer’s perspective see there is a this concept of destiny is actually very subtle.
I’ll give some examples to illustrate this. In the Ramayan when Ram is exiled at that time Lakshman is he is like a typical karmabadi. In today’s he says this is great injustice.
You have done no wrong. How dare the king exile you like this? You should fight against the king. You should have a coup and insurrection and I will be at your side and we will get the throne for you.
And Ram says wait a minute, wait a minute. I saw that Dashrath did not sentence me to exile out of his desire. He said it was out of his compulsion.
He says understand his position. What compulsion? He said he had promised this to Kaikeyi. Then his all anger goes towards Kaikeyi.
He says that wicked woman she is so terrible. And he says for her son she is causing you so much suffering. He says wait a minute, wait a minute.
Lakshman do you remember that Kaikeyi’s love for me was no less than Kaushalya’s love for me. Her love was like the flowing Ganga river. Lakshman is still angry.
He says that’s what I can’t understand. How did the Ganga dry up in one night? Then Ram says that that’s why when I saw this different mood of Kaikeyi I understood that this was the will of destiny and I decided to accept it. Otherwise how can you explain Kaikeyi’s sudden change of mood.
Lakshman is still angry. Lakshman says only cowards accept injustice as destiny. Heroes fight against injustice.
You should fight. Then Ram replies that I am concerned about what is my duty. He says as a duty to my father I was ready to take up the throne.
And as a duty to my father if by the will of destiny situations have changed then as a duty to my father I will go to the forest. But interestingly here Ram accepts this unfortunate event as the will of destiny. But later on when Ravana abducts Sita at that time Ram doesn’t say oh it was the will of destiny that Sita was abducted.
He doesn’t say that. Why? Because at that time his duty is different. He is a husband.
As a husband it is his duty to protect his wife. And he is determined to do what it takes even fight a war for that purpose. So basically going back to the question of employee, employer or king, citizen.
So now from the employee’s perspective the employee is meant to do the work. And actually the employee is expected to get a salary. Sometimes if by some reason say the company is going to big crisis, the company just collapses sometimes big companies also just go bankrupt.
So then if that employee does not get the salary that the employee can see ok I did this work but this result didn’t come. So that is the will of destiny. But if the employer says I won’t give you a salary and that is your destiny.
Because that is not the will of destiny. That is irresponsibility. This is actually what Dhritarashtra tries to do.
Before the Kurukshetra war Vidura tells Dhritarashtra that if you don’t stop Duryodhana from antagonising the Pandavas then there will be a war which will destroy the whole dynasty. At that time Dhritarashtra says if it is the will of destiny that our dynasty will be destroyed then who am I a tiny mortal to stop the will of almighty destiny. Vidura cuts through Dhritarashtra’s rationalisations.
And Vidura gives a very memorable sentence over there. He says O king, destiny determines the consequences of our actions not our actions themselves. If I do my karma whether the falla will come or not that is determined by destiny.
But whether I do my karma or not that is not determined by destiny. If a child doesn’t study for the exam and a mother says come on study. He says no, whatever is my destiny will happen.
No, what will happen will be because of your stupidity if you don’t study. So from the point of view of the king or the employer it is their duty to make sure that they manage things responsibly so that they are able to pay the employees appropriately. But if somehow because of circumstance we do our part but we don’t get the result then we say understand that this is the will of destiny.
So the understanding of detachment from results is not is not a rationalisation for intentionally depriving people of the results or intentionally making people labour without expecting results. It is just that we recognise that action and result are not a straight causal chain. I do action A and I will get the result B. Between the action A and the result B there are other factors involved also.
I think that summarises a lot of things. Thank you. I have a question.
I should start by saying I’m a novice here. I haven’t adopted spirituality yet. So I have a very naive question which is that the one issue I’ve always had with the Gita is that it’s basically telling somebody to go to war and how does one justify that? That’s a good question.
I should introduce this is my cousin Amita who’s just flown in from Philadelphia. She’s a very accomplished scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. So she’s here and it’s fortunate that she could join us.
Congratulations. Amazing. So she’s a hardcore scientist and we’re trying to push her to be a spiritual scientist.
I think war is inevitable in life. I think the Bhagavad Gita’s telling us from those days it’s inevitable. I think everything is a war in life.
Everything doesn’t involve killing people. I think you can interpret all of these religious books differently. It’s kind of like I could have interpreted that in your reading differently than you.
I could have interpreted it not like in reality that you kill someone but it’s like has some different meaning. But I think to me it’s like I’m not actually that, I don’t, I’m not as practising as I do. Like although my mom is just like still learning but I’m not very like I’m also, I don’t know, I’m not like I read, whatever.
But I always found that like I think what you’re supposed to take from it is that you just find a way to be happy and these things can either help you or not help you. Or like find a way to tolerate what happens in life and then deal with it or you know, what’s the point and you know, I guess I found it exhausting to not be tolerant because when I was like not tolerant it was like I was always like, you know, sad or like you know this and that and it’s like it’s exhausting and now I’m just like well just live your life you have one life and you can learn from these things or maybe you won’t learn from these things and something else Yeah, that’s a good point. And that’s a good point that you should take it metaphorically you know, where is life and you do this.
But the fact that it’s you know, based on a story where it’s actually Yeah, I understand what you’re saying. That’s true. So I just… Maybe we should let them Oh, no.
No, it’s good that everybody’s involved. Yeah, it’s nice. Yeah, it’s good.
Thank you. I just mentioned this briefly in the talk also. The Bhagavad Gita is spoken to… but it’s worth elaborating.
The Bhagavad Gita is spoken and it leads to get somebody to fight a war. So how is that justified? Actually, the Bhagavad Gita can be understood at various levels. And as you rightly said, there is at a universal level if you look at the history, the Bhagavad Gita has been an inspiration for millions of people for millennia now.
And in history, there have been hundreds of commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, but less than an infinitesimal of the commentaries have actually talked about the Bhagavad Gita as a call to fight a war. We consider traditional commentators Shankaracharya, Ramacharya, Madhvacharya, they were all ruling… they were all in India, especially Ramacharya, Madhvacharya at a time when there was invasion of India by forces who were quite antithetical to Indian culture. Temples were desecrated, texts were burned, but still none of these great commentators on the Gita used the Gita as a tool for calling people to rise against the aggressors.
So if you look at the commentaries from the… Shankara’s commentaries in the 6th, 7th century and we have Baldev with Daya Bhushan, a modern commentator in the 17th, 18th century. For these 1200 years, there have been hundreds of commentaries on the Gita, but no one has talked about the Gita as a call for war. So we can look at the book from the effect it has had.
So it’s practical. No one has seen it that way in terms of the consequence we can see. Then if you look at the content in the Gita there is no hate speech.
There is no language of revenge. The Gita has 700 verses and the first chapter talks about the war and the second chapter there is a mention, Krishna tells Arjuna, rise and fight. Third chapter he mentions once again you should rise and fight.
Fourth chapter there is no reference to the war. Fifth chapter it again concludes… Fourth chapter, third chapter there is a little reference to the war. Fourth chapter there is one reference to war.
From the fifth to the tenth chapter there is not a single word about the war. In the eleventh chapter there is a mystical vision, the Virata Rupa, the universal form that is called. There in Krishna tells Arjuna how the opponents are going to be killed.
So you could say there is a reference to the war over there. But from the twelfth to the eighteenth chapter there is not a single reference to the war. And in terms of the Bhagavad Gita’s content you could say the references to the war in terms of what Krishna has spoken it is not even, you could say one or two percent of the Gita’s content.
And at the end of the war also at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna’s understanding is what am I doing? He doesn’t tell Krishna I will fight the war. He says I will do your will. So the Bhagavad Gita is not primarily a book of violence or a book of silence.
It is a book of transcendence that develop a higher consciousness and act in that higher consciousness. So now in that context which Arjuna had to face is he had to fight a war. But his consciousness is not that I am fighting a war.
He says I am a spiritualist acting in spiritual harmony with the divine. And that spiritual harmony requires me at that particular situation to fight. But that was not the thrust of his consciousness.
Now having said this let’s look at the war that was fought after the Bhagavad Gita. But rather than looking only at the war that was fought after the Bhagavad Gita, let’s see what happens before. That the Pandavas tried in every possible way for peace.
And when nothing worked out see the Pandavas, if you know the broad history of the Mahabharata, the Pandavas were insulted repeatedly. Their wife was publicly dishonoured. But they were tolerated.
Although in anger they took vows of revenge, but when actually the period of exile ended, they were ready for peace. And they were ready for peace in the most accommodating terms. They said just give us five villages.
But even that was rebuffed. It was summarily dismissed. A request.
So it was not that the Pandavas chose war. The opponents were so obstinate that they made war inevitable. So the Bhagavad Gita does not, as you said, life is a war and sometimes we have to fight.
So broadly speaking when we have difficulties in our life, there are three ways in which we can deal with the difficulty. I call it as tolerate, mitigate or emigrate. That means we have a difficult situation, just accept it.
Tolerate it. But sometimes as I said, tolerance might be unbearable. Tolerance might lead to terrible consequences.
So then we have to take a stand to mitigate. And sometimes we find mitigating is too much effort. I don’t want to be involved in this only.
I’ll just move out of this. Emigrate. How about litigating? I think litigation is also a part of mitigation.
You are fighting back, isn’t it? So going back, I gave the example of that, travelling in a train. In a crowded train if somebody is pushing us. Now if we keep pushing them back so much that we miss out our destination.
That’s foolish. You were there for that example I gave at that time. Two people are in local.
Pushing so much. So tolerate means it’s not a big thing. Short while it is.
Just tolerate. You’ll get to the destination. But suppose that person who is pushing us in the local starts pushing us out of the local.
Then we can’t tolerate it. So I said tolerance means to keep small things small so that we can focus on the big things. But if somebody is stopping us in the big thing itself, then at that time we can’t tolerate.
So sometimes mitigation is required. And mitigation, how it is to be done? That has to be seen according to the circumstances. So now if we consider Duryodhana was so brazen that he was ready to disrobe and dishonour an honourable woman in public.
In front of his elders also. So if such a person was given untrammelled power would have wreaked havoc in society. And not only had he done it all, he was completely remorseless about it.
Not even apologetic about it. So the Pandavas fought because such a person, they were martial guardians of society. They were martial guardians of society.
That means that it was their responsibility to maintain law and order in society. So war is never desirable. And if you look at the Mahabharata, before the war begins there is a whole parva which is the whole section of the Mahabharata is all about negotiations.
How to avoid war? The Pandavas try elaborately. Udyoga parva. They are endeavouring to avoid the war.
Now we see the United Nations wants to maintain peace. But sometimes for maintaining peace it has to send a peace keeping force. So a force means aggression.
It means violence. Sometimes in the world even to maintain peace violence is required. But if you look at the overall context of the Mahabharata, it’s very clear that violence is the last resort.
The absolute last resort. So after all options have been tried and nothing has worked, at that time when war is the only way to establish dharma, at that time when Arjuna has an attack of nerves, he gets confused, then Krishna exhorts him to do his dharma. So the Bhagavad Gita is by no means a call for everyone to start fighting.
But in that context that war was inevitable. And yes, so most commentators they accept the historicity of the war. But they do not at all say that the call to fight is the universal message of the Gita.
The universal message of the Gita is to practise dharma. And the battlefield setting in which the spiritual message is given is actually meant to attract attention. Normally philosophy is not something which interests many people.
but by the Gita, by speaking philosophy right in the middle of a battlefield. If say an India-Pakistan cricket, India-Pakistan World Cup final is about to take place and then there are thousands of people in the stadium, millions are on TV and the toss has been done, the players have come out, the fielders are in position, the baller is just running in the run up to come and ball. At that time, the striking batsman calls the non-striker and they both start talking.
And they keep talking. And they keep talking. And just go on talking.
So now everybody will want to know what are they talking about. So similarly, by having the Bhagavad Gita spoken at the moment just before the most dramatic action. Bhagavad Gita actually draws attention of everyone.
So the context is not meant to universalise the call to war. Rather the context is meant to universalise the relevance of the message. Some may people will feel that philosophy is something which maybe in future I will look at it.
But the Bhagavad Gita tells that Arjuna is a go-getter. He is a warrior. He is in the middle of the biggest battle of his life.
But even a go-getter needs to know where to go and what to get. So that knowledge is what the Bhagavad Gita gives. So by talking about how philosophical knowledge can help a person in the midst of the most urgent action that is fighting a war.
It shows that the philosophical knowledge is not just abstract or otherworldly. It is practical, relevant and it can help us even in the urgent situations of our life. Does it answer your question? Thank you.
The Bhagavad Gita is a section within the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata has almost 700 chapters. Hundreds of chapters.
Out of which the Bhagavad Gita is 18 chapters. I thought Mahabharata is referring to Great India. Bharata is India, right? Yeah, it’s like a eponym.
That means the name of the book is The Story of Greater India. I am not quite ignorant. I am totally ignorant.
So I am not embarrassed to ask. No, that’s not a problem at all. All questions are welcome.
So Mahabharata refers to the events that happened. Actually that has three meanings. Mahabharata refers to geographical area in which the events happened.
And the Ramayana? Ayana means journey. So Ramayana is the journey of Ram. It is a life story.
It’s like his biography. Prabhuji, I know you have some books here. Before we go down to lunch, first of all, I just want to thank you from all our