The matter over which you grieve does not call for any sorrow!
Reevaluate the situation, you will drop your sadness.
ashochyAn anwashochah twam prajnAwAdAn cha bhAshase
gatAsoon agatAsoon cha na anushochanti panditAh ||2.11||
"You have grieved for those that should not be grieved for, yet you
speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the
dead."
A re-education of the mind through metaphysical and psychic methods is
the last word in psychotherapy which the West has yet to discover and
accept, but which the East has declared and justified to the world.
Krishna is starting his entire Geeta lessons with this attempt at the
re-education of Arjuna. At every level of our personality we view life and
come to our own conclusions over things. Thus, we have a physical estimate
of the world outside from our body level, apart and quite distinct from
our emotional picture of the life from our mental level; and also an
intellectual concept of life from the level of our intellect, which
differs from both the above estimates. Physically, what I see to be a
woman is mentally my mother, and intellectually, the same sacred feminine
form is a bundle of cells, each having in its protoplasmic contents a
nucleus to preside over its functions. The imperfections that I see in a
physical object can fail to give me misery if I successfully gild the
object with my emotional appreciation of it. Similarly, an object which is
physically abhorrent and mentally shameful can still fail to provide me
with any sorrow if I can appreciate it from my intellectual level.
Similarly, that which gives me despondency and dejection at the
physical mental, and intellectual levels can yield a thrilling inspiration
if I perceive it from the spiritual level. Krishna is advising Arjuna to
renounce his physical, emotional and intellectual estimates of his teacher
and his grandsire and the whole battlefield problem, and to re-evaluate
the situation from his spiritual understanding. ||5.1||
Failures and painful discoveries occur in life. Face them, not
allowing them to depress you.
yam hi na wyathayanti ete purusham purusharshabha
samaduhkhasukham dheeram sah amrtatwAya kalpate ||2.15||
"O chief among men, that firm man whom, surely, these afflict not, to
whom pleasure and pain are same, is fit for realising Immortality
of the Self."
Calm endurance in both pleasure and pain is a condition necessary for
the right knowledge of the Self, according to the technique of
Selfrealisation as explained in the Upanishadic lore. Based upon that
fact, here Lord Krishna explains that one who has found in himself a
mental equipoise, wherein he is not afflicted or disturbed by
circumstances of pain and pleasure, alone is fit for attaining
Immortality.'
Through the Geeta, our poet-seer,Vyasa, is making Lord Krishna declare
that the purpose of life for everyone is the attainment of perfection. To
train ourselves to endure meekly the little pinpricks of life, and with
magnanimous joy, heat and cold, success and failure, pain and pleasure, is
itself the highest training that life can provide to all of us. ||5.2||
Rise, see what you CAN do, do it!
tasmAt twam uttishtha yashah labhaswa
jitwA shatroon bhunkshwa rAjyam samrddam
mayA ewa ete nihatAh poorwam ewa
nimittamAtram bhawa sawyasAchin ||11.33||
"Therefore, stand up ! and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy
the flourishing kingdom. Verily by Myself they have been already slain; be
You a mere instrument, O left-handed Bow-man! (Arjuna)."
Here Lord Krishna is directly consoling Arjuna that he should stand up
and catch the time and claim success and glory. Whatever be the might and
strength of the negative forces, the all consuming power of Change has
already destroyed them all, and Arjuna has only to come forward, act the
part of a hero and claim the crown of victory all to himself: " I have
already slain them, be merely an apparent cause."
The concept of self-surrender and the theory of serving the world in
constant awareness of the Lord, are
not idle dreams prescribed for escaping the gross realities of the world.
It is essential for man to raise both his calibre and temper so as to work
efficiently and achieve successfully in the world. It is the secret
technique of keeping oneself constantly in a mood of tireless enthusiasm
and joyous inspiration. ||5.3||
Turn to God today with a sincere and intense resolve. Lord's
compassion knows no bounds. The criminal in you will be transformed to a
saint!
api chet sudurAchArah bhajate mAm ananyabhAk
sAdhuh ewa sah mantawyah samyak wyawasitah hi sah ||9.30||
"Even if the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, (or
with single-pointedness), he too should indeed be regarded as 'righteous',
for he has rightly resolved."
THE VEDAS
CONDEMN THE SIN, NOT THE SINNER. The evil ways of the sinner are but
expressions of the evil thoughts in his mind, and so, if the texture of
the thoughts flowing in his mind could be changed, the texture of his
behaviour would also be transformed. He who has come to keep consistently
in his mind, thoughts of the Lord, accomplishes, in the warmth of his
growing devotion, so total a rehabilitation of the mental life that he
cannot there-after carry on his career in sin. Not
only does the Geeta throw its gates open to the sinners, but the Singer of
the Divine Song also seems to have great missionary zeal to redeem all
sinners, and bless them. Even those who are given to evil ways are not
debarred from entering the field of spirituality because of their undivine
actions and the impurity of their lives. The only insistence is that the
worship of the Self must be performed by the devotee with "undivided
devotion".
kshipram bhawati dharmAtmA shashwat shAntim nigachchati
kaunteya pratijAneehi na me bhaktah pranashyati ||9.31||
"Soon he becomes righteous and attains Eternal Peace, O Kaunteya, know
for certain that My devotee is never destroyed."
When a man of evil ways takes to a life of single-pointed devotion
propelled by his ardent resolve, that man "SOON BECOMES RIGHTEOUS". The
term Dharma
was already explained as "the Law of Being". Just as heat is the specific
quality (Dharma) of fire, without which fire cannot exist, the Dharma of
man is the Divine Atman in his heart, without which none of his
personality layers can every come to express themselves. Therefore, the
term 'Dharmatma', in the stanza, is not fully expressed when it is
translated as 'a man of righteousness'.
Single-pointed devotion and self-application develop concentration, and
therefore, enhance the subtlety of perception of the mind, and such a mind
finds its balance even in the highest altitudes of meditative flights. "IN
GOOD TIME", meaning, ere long, he gains glimpses of the Infinite
experience and thus, comes to live more and more as a dynamic saint,
wafting the fragrance of divinity through his motives, thoughts, and
actions. ||5.4||
Even a man of faith who practises the divine life may find a
discontinuity in his Sadhana due to a fall, a violent distraction
or even death.
But the practices he did before will be again picked up by him. Fall he
did, but he will rise and march forth!
pArtha na ewa iha na amutra winAshah tasya widyate
na hi kalyAnakrt kashchit durgatim tAta gachchati ||6.40||
"O Partha, neither in this world nor in the next world is there
destruction for him; none, verily, who strives to do good, O my son, ever
comes to grief."
Based upon this principle Krishna insists that no seeker is ever lost,
although he may slip and fall, or even end his present manifestation;
tomorrow is but today confirmed. Krishna supports his statement with the
philosophical truth: NEVER FOR THE DOER OF GOOD, DEAR SON, A WOEFUL END'.
The one who acts rightly in the present can come to no grief in the future
because, the future is but a product of the present and the good is that
which yields but success and joy in the future. The fear of Arjuna that
the unsuccessful YOGIN--a seeker obstructed and got held up on the
path--will get lost 'as a rent cloud' here and in the hereafter, has risen
from his failure to appreciate the logical continuity and the perfect
sequence that is ever in life.
Krishna explains that such an individual in his new life, under the
conducive circumstances, gets naturally 'UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE
ACQUIRED IN HIS FORMER BODY'. Such a born YOGI completes his education
much more easily than others since to him, it is not an education that is
needed, but only a revision or a recapitulation. In a very short time he
discovers that all knowledge is bubbling up from within himself and to him
study is but a rediscovery of a digested knowledge which was already lying
dormant in him. Not only that he comes to discover in himself the
knowledge that he learnt in the past, but he easily finds in himself the
required enthusiasm and energy for consistent self-application and
vigorous pursuit.
Knowledge without practice is a dull, dreary load upon the shoulders of
a seeker. Krishna here assures that one 'FALLEN FROM YOGA' in the past,
when reborn in the right atmosphere, not only gains all knowledge easily,
but comes to 'STRIVE MORE THAN BEFORE FOR PERFECTION. O SON OF THE KURUS'.
||5.5||
Consolation
for the bereaved