There are three great characters in the Mahabharata. All the other characters are just by-products of these three characters. Duryodhana, Arjuna, and Krishna are these three main and great characters. To me, Duryodhana represents the Unconscious. He is a metaphor for the Unconscious. Arjuna represents the Conscious. He is a metaphor for the Conscious. And Krishna represents the Supreme Conscious. He is a metaphor for the Supreme Conscious. He is representing the Supreme Consciousness. When the ray of the Supreme Consciousness passes through the prism of the mind, the prism of the mind manifests the Supreme Consciousness into the Consciousness and the Unconsciousness.
To make things simple, let us understand this by way of an example. Let us suppose that the Unconsciousness is like darkness and the Consciousness is like the light. And the one that joins these two and still remains beyond is called the Supreme Consciousness. According to the psychologists the Unconsciousness is far far bigger than the Consciousness. The Consciousness is like a small candle light. And these two, the Consciousness and the Unconsciousness (the light and darkness in our example) are joined in a very mysterious way. Even though the darkness is very huge, no matter how big is its periphery and circumference, a small candle of light can disperse this darkness. And when the light goes off, the darkness comes back again. It appears as if there was no light ever. And we have to discover the light again from the very beginning. Therefore, darkness can be defined as the absence of light. And the light can be defined as the absence of darkness. When the light is present the darkness is absent. And they can never be present together. They can never go to the school together. Sometimes they behave as friends and sometimes they behave as enemies.
And probably this is the reason that in the Rig Veda the first verse is on the praise of the Agni (the fire God). The fire is eulogized as a big form of God. The outer world was dark and gloomy and there was only a light of the celestial bodies. The light was not portable. It was not near, it was far away in the heavens. And some how the ancients have worked very hard to get this light in the form of Agni closer to the human world and not only that, they have even made it portable. The outside world which was dark has now been illumined by this fire. It is true that it was a big form of God. Because after the discovery of Agni or fire many problems of the world which were because of the darkness have been greatly solved. And after Thomas Edison, who discovered the present day light, the Rig Veda has to be rewritten again, and the second verse should begin with eulogizing this present day light. The present day light is nothing less than another big form of God. This is how the fire has traveled from the basic fire to advanced light. A new industry came into existence after the discovery of fire. And a far bigger industrial revolution of the west has also come into existence after the discovery of the light. Nobody knows what light is in reality, but we have some loose definitions on light here and there. Light is a natural agent that stimulates our sight and makes things visible to us. This is only one of the definitions. Why am I saying like this? I am saying this because this could be true only when it comes to the physical world. And it is not true when it comes to the metaphysical world. When the sun light falls on an object, the object becomes visible. And when this light moves into our eyes and when the light of our eyes falls on an object before us, the object becomes visible to us. And the same is not true when it comes to the metaphysical world. The metaphysical world always remains invisible. When we observe the quantum world with the help of the light of our eyes, the quantum world remains invisible. And hence it remains mysterious. And we do not have much idea of the phenomenon happening there. And we can not say anything with absolute certainty. And we can only say in terms of probabilities and possibilities. Werner Heisenberg was at loss to know why the electrons are behaving like this in the quantum world. And later on he discovered that the electrons change their behavior when the light of our eyes falls on them. Are the electrons conscious? The answer is, we don’t know. Because, if we say that the electrons are conscious then the very definition of consciousness also undergoes a change. And then there can not be anything like living things and nonliving things in the existence. All our definitions are loose. All our definitions are on the surface. All our definitions are on the outer. All our definitions are on the periphery and on the circumference. All our definitions are relative. And all our definitions die at the center of the whole thing.
According to science the light is a bundle of energy that behaves as a particle and a wave. It has a dual behavior and hence the Latin word quantum to describe the same. And according to science nothing travels faster than light. As of now Albert Einstein has the last laugh. He said nothing travels faster than light. And it still remains undisputed. And this light, which is so powerful, also dies at the heart of a black hole. We have no idea really what happens at the center of a black hole. The gravity is so high that the light can not escape and can not even return back. And hence it can not give us any information. This is the story of the outer light. This is the story of the objective light and the objective world. The only yardstick to measure the events of the objective world is the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. And this equation also dies at the center of the black hole. And as of now we are not able to go beyond the black holes. It is as if the whole of physics has approached a dead-end. Michio Kaku is a brilliant theoretical physicist. He is also a string theorist. He tries to import the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein and applies it to the black hole. And when he solves the equation for the center of a black hole, he gets a series of zeroes and infinities. And the whole result appears to be meaningless to him. And he thinks that there is something terribly wrong with the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. And this equation is not helping in taking us beyond the black holes. And the quantum equations are also not helping us in taking beyond the quantum world. And it seems that we have arrived at some kind of a dead-end in the physical world and the quantum world.
Is the light really objective? Is light really an object? Well, this could only be a half truth. The mystics have also been talking of an inner light. It seems the reality behaves even in a more mysterious way. It seems there is an outer light and also an inner light. It seems there is another higher duality of the inner light and outer light. All the scriptures, and all the Vedas and Upanishads have talked about the five senses. And it was only Krishna who talked about the sixth sense. We see and perceive the whole physical world only through our five senses. It appears to us that all our five senses (five Karmendriyas and five Jnanendriyas) are peeping out of the body. They are gathering information of the outside world while we are interacting with the outside world. Let us just look at one sense organ. Let us look at our eyes. They look like a lens. They look like the convex side of the lens. The eyes are curving out and bulging out. And here the other half of the organ is missing. The inner and the concave part is missing.
I do a small experiment with my management students. I divide the whole team into two teams. And I show only the convex side of the lens to one team and only the concave side of the lens to the other team. And this I do with them separately. And then I ask them jointly as to what they have seen. They tell their perceptions. The perceptions of the two teams are different. And their perspectives are diagonally opposite. They do not meet and they oppose each other. The two teams do not agree and they disagree. Are they true in their perceptions? To each team their own perception is like a reality. To team A, the reality of team B is like a perception. And to team B, the reality of team A is like a perception. And both the teams are absolutely right because they have seen only half of the reality. Now reverse the experiment with both the teams. Now show them the other half of the lens which was kept hidden from them in the first part of the experiment. Now both the teams have seen the other half also. Now you ask them jointly as to what have they seen. They simply laugh. Now there are no two perceptions. Now there is no duality. Now there are no two different perspectives. There is only one single reality to all of them. And there is no opposition. There is no conflict. There is no dispute. This is how the individuals and various teams in an organization can be aligned towards the common goal and objective of the organization. And all this is part of the vision and mission of the organization.
This is how Krishna says that there is a point of convergence. There is a common center to all the five senses. And all these five senses meet and merge at a common point. And this common point is like the center of a circle. And all these five senses are emerging from there and moving out to the periphery of our being and taking us into the outer world. All these five senses interact with the outside world and create various perceptions. They give us various ideas. They create various notions. They make various concepts. And out of all these perceptions, ideas, concepts, notions and thoughts a mind is created. The mind is like a huge database. It is like a big software. It stores and retrieves information and experiences. The information is in the form of text, images, symbols, audios and videos. There can not be a far bigger software than the human mind. There can not be a far bigger computer than the human mind. We fear because there is a past experience of an accident or a death. In the past life or lives may be a snake might have bitten. I might had a fatal accident. A tiger might have eaten me. A king might have beheaded me. And all this information is there in the database. And all this past experience comes to me as an instinct in the present body. And this whole past comes to me as an instinct and becomes part of my DNA of the present body. And may in the future the biologists and neurobiologists will be able to figure this out. There are yogic methods to retrieve this information. But there is no point in all this. This is not of much help. The nature in its own wisdom does not allow us to know about our past. All our past is just a memory. Just think, what will happen to my biology and psychology if I come to know that my wife in my past life was my sister. And we have all the memory from the point of a Big Bang to till date. And this memory becomes active and passive. The more it becomes passive, the more it moves away from the active mind and we are not in a position to remember anything. And it is not in the interest of our innate wisdom to remember the past. It is of no use. The wisdom of the nature in all its ways is trying to bring us closer to the present. And the mind moves us into the past and the future like a pendulum clock. The pendulum clock nicely represents the mind. The mind can not stay in the present. And hence the biggest joys of the life remain away from us. We are always living either in the past or in the future. We are either living in the memories or in the imaginations. And both these are of no much help. Because both these keep the present away from us. And only the present is blissful. If the past is responsible for the present, then with the same analogy the present will also be responsible for the future. Therefore, there is no point in brooding over the past and it is always better to work with the present consciously. If the past is zero and infinity is the future, then here and here is the present. And if minus infinity is the past and plus infinity is the future, then zero is the present. This is how Shunya has a different meaning in the scriptures. It is symbolic of the present. And it is not a mathematical notation for zero.
In our above example, we can also represent the past as the Unconsciousness, the present as the Consciousness, and the future as the Supreme Consciousness. The present can evolve into the Supreme Consciousness only when we act with the Consciousness. We can also represent it this way. If the past is ignorance, then the future is knowledge and the present is wisdom. The ignorance is of the past. The knowledge is of the future. And the wisdom is of the present. This is like the time value of money. The money in the past has no value compared to the money in the present. And the money in the present has no value compared to the money in the future. The knowledge of the past has no value compared to the knowledge of the present. And the knowledge of the present has no value compared to the knowledge of the future. And it is only the wisdom which is not in time. It is not part of the past tense or the future tense. It just belongs to the pure present. It belongs to the timeless. And hence it is priceless. And wisdom has no utility except this. It is non-utilitarian. The ignorance is of an utility. The ignorant can be deceived. The ignorant can learn if he wishes to. The knowledge is also of an utility. The one who is knowledgeable can deceive the ignorant. The one who is knowledgeable can impart the knowledge to one who is willing to learn. All these possibilities are there. The wisdom is something that brings all this in the ever present. The wisdom is something that allows us to use the knowledge in the best way possible. It allows us to use the knowledge in the present in the best way possible. And it also allows us to create knowledge for the future. And this way wisdom makes the learning endless. The learning never stops. There is nothing like a goal. There is no dead-end on the path of knowledge and wisdom. And we have no other option but to evolve continuously with knowledge and wisdom. The wisdom makes knowledge as something dynamic. No matter we do what, the knowledge can never come closer to the wisdom. They can never meet. They can work co-jointly. The knowledge is part of the mind. And the wisdom is part of the no-mind. The knowledge is part of the time and the wisdom is part of the timeless. We can only use our mind mindfully. This is the only possibility. If the mind becomes a subset of the no-mind, the journey becomes a joy. And if the no-mind becomes a subset of the mind, the journey becomes a dead-end. The mind then becomes a monkey. And the mind becomes a zombie. And the evolution can not move further. And it appears that Charles Darwin is right and it seems that we have evolved from the monkeys and are not able to go beyond and we have arrived at a dead-end.
Krishna says that there is a possibility of a convergence of the senses. There is a possibility of a confluence of these senses. There are two points - a point of influence and a point of confluence. The periphery of the mind is a point of influence and the center of the mind is the point of confluence. There is a possibility of a unity. There is a possibility of a singularity. There is a possibility of a unification. And this path is inner. That is, the one that takes us to the center of our being. The one that takes us closer to our inner objects. And these inner objects are our thoughts and emotions. The world of the mind and the heart is something different. The thoughts are very small objects. The mind takes note of these thought objects. And the emotions are further smaller than the thoughts. The world of the heart is full of emotions. The heart makes note of these emotions. And the same emotions manifest in the mind as thoughts, and the same thoughts manifest through the body as actions. Emotions, thoughts and actions are not three different things. The heart, head and the hand are not three different things. They are three different manifestations of the same thing. The thoughts look like particles. And the emotions look like waves. And the silence at the depth of the being looks like a field. The thoughts and emotions are interacting with this field of silence in a similar way the bosons as particles are interacting with the boson field. The thoughts and emotions that interact faster are heavier because they gain more mass, and those which are lazy and interact slowly are very lighter because they gain less mass. The negative emotions and negative thoughts are very heavy. The positive emotions and positive thoughts are very light. They are almost massless. They appear as if they have no weight. And that is why we feel better when we are in a state of positive emotions and positive thoughts. The positive emotions and positive thoughts are very closer to the field of silence. And they can dissolve in no time in the field of silence. The grace of the silence is so much that they can not escape. And they have no other option but to get dissolved. This is how gravity behaves from large objects to small objects. This is how gravity moves from the objects to the subject. In the world of the objects there is gravity and in the world of the subject there is only grace. The thoughts can not escape and just die out there. The thoughts just get dissolved there. The field of silence is like that of a black hole. The chattering mind simply becomes a silent mind. It becomes composed. It becomes centered. And this gives the experience of unification, singularity, and oneness. The journey of the mind is over. It gives the experience of satisfaction and fulfillment. And the only thing that is left now is the Supreme Consciousness. It is in this state of oneness, unification, and singularity the Supreme Consciousness is termed as Ekam Evadvitium (the one that is beyond all duality). The emotions, thoughts, and actions have some forms. The silence is formless. It has no form. And in this state of silence we experience the one which is beyond the form and the formless. The Supreme Consciousness is that which is beyond all forms and the formless. It is transcendental.
When the light of knowledge is brought near the darkness of the mind of ignorance, the darkness of ignorance disperses and the mind is illuminated with the light of the knowledge. When we bring in the light of the consciousness to the darkness of the unconsciousness, the same is transformed and is capable of experiencing the Supreme Consciousness. So, the no-mind is capable of experiencing the Supreme Consciousness.
The mind moves from all the perceptions of these bodies - the sleeping body, the dreaming body, the dreamless body, the drugged body, the waking body, and the awakened body. And at the level of an individual there are various perceptions of the consciousness. And these are: waking consciousness, sleeping consciousness (dreaming consciousness and dreamless consciousness), drugged consciousness, and awakened consciousness. And this consciousness functions at these four levels - individual, collective, cosmic, and the Nirvanic. There is an individual consciousness and unconsciousness, collective consciousness and unconsciousness, cosmic consciousness and cosmic unconsciousness, and at the level of the Nirvanic there is only one and that is the Supreme Consciousness.
These are the three main characters in the Mahabharata. Duryodhana is born to a man, Dhritarashtra, who is not only blind physically but he is also blind intellectually and spiritually. He runs the kingdom like a blind-man. And his son Duryodhana, though had physical eyes, is blind intellectually and spiritually. He is not ready to seek, know and transform. He is rather ready to seek more power. He is power hungry. And when the power is not used wisely it destroys everything. The knowledge is power. And the wisdom knows how to use the power. The wisdom is higher than knowledge. The knowledge is the subset of wisdom. A bad politician is a person who wants to seek only power and not wisdom. He is the one who uses power without the help of wisdom. A bad politician is in no way interested in the wisdom. He is interested only in power. He becomes power hungry. And the power without wisdom is blind. And the knowledge without wisdom is lame and blind. And, therefore, the destruction is imminent. Arjuna is a person of an open mind. He is a seeker of wisdom. And hence he is wavering. He is lacking wisdom and he is not lacking knowledge. He has all the knowledge of the war. He had fought and won many battles in his life. He does not lack knowledge. He has open eyes. And he has not yet seen the invisible. And he is open to see the reality. Duryodhana on the other hand is not willing to learn anything. He thinks he knows. And life becomes a dead-end for him. And such person can not evolve. The one who thinks he knows can not evolve. He arrives at a dead-end. Krishna has both knowledge and wisdom. He too has immense power. And he knows how to use the power. He has a clarity. And he has the vision. And he has the experience of the invisible. He knows the very source of knowledge and wisdom. He knows the source of the power. And hence he can not misuse the power. He can only use the power for the welfare and well-being of the humanity. These three main characters have immense power. Duryodhana, Arjuna, and Krishna, they all have power and knowledge. They only differ on the scale of their wisdom. They only differ in the degree of their wisdom. Duryodhana is blind and Arjuna is open with the mind and the eyes. He is seeking. He is struggling. He is putting efforts. He is trying. He is moving in a right direction. And hence it appears that he is in trouble. Duryodhana and others see that he is in a great trouble. This is the problem of a person who is continuously learning. And since he is learning and evolving continuously, he can not conclude on anything. He can not put a full stop. He moves from one exclamation to another. He moves from one mystery to another. Krishna is the one who has transcended. He has seen the invisible. He has surrendered. He has knowledge, wisdom and a third thing, the infinite possibility of the Supreme Consciousness. And even in this state he is continuously evolving. And when it comes to the enemy, war, defeat and victory, he is open with infinite possibilities. He is ready to look into all perspectives possible and in spite of doing everything with his knowledge and wisdom he is utterly susceptible to leave the outcome on the divine. This is his hope and aspiration. And he is ready to face whatever that comes to him out of all this. And this he calls an absolute surrender. He calls the actions that emanate out of this understanding as Nishkam Karma. And he names the path that emerges out of these actions as Nishkam Karma Yoga. Nishkam means desireless of the outcome or result. Karma means doing or action. Yoga means an union. It means an unification. It means oneness. It means an experience of singularity. It means an union with the divine. Nishkam Karma Yoga is an understanding that the actions are in our hand but the results of these actions are not in our hand. We can do the best that we can with the hope that a best result will come out of the same. We can put our best foot forward. And then leave it to the divine to take care of it. And yet be ready to face the outcome. Be ready to learn and improve. And then keep on evolving continuously.
The Bhagavad Geeta begins with the first verse like this:
Sanskrit Verse:
Dhritarashtra Uvacha: Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre Samaveta Yuyutsavah. Mamakah Pandavaschaiva Kimakurvata Sanjaya. (Chapter 1, Verse 1)
Words: Dhritarashtra - King Dhritarashtra; Uvacha - Said; Dharmakshetre - Place of Dharma, Place of Worship; Kurukshetre - Place of the Kurus, Place of the Kuru Dynasty; Samavetah - Assembled; Yuyutsavah - Desiring to Fight; Mamakah - My Sons, My Party, My Camp; Pandavah - The Sons of Pandu, the other camp; Ca - And; Eva - Certainly; Kim - What; Akurvata - Did they do; Sanjaya - The Sanjaya, the one who is witnessing all the happenings of the war.
English Translation:
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, desiring to fight, what did they do? (Chapter 1, Verse 1)
This is how the blind man divides the whole thing into mine and yours. Every division leads to conflict and chaos. The outcome of every division is destruction. And the war is imminent. And there are only two outcomes in a war, defeat to one and victory to the other. And Dharmakshetra becomes the Kurukshetra. Kshetra means a place. Kshetra means a field. And Dharma means something that can neither be divided nor can be united. It means something that remains indivisible. The one which can only be known and discovered. It is already there. It is something like a law that keeps the whole existence as one unity. The other meaning of Dharma means our innate nature. It means the nature of the nature. It means the nature of the existence, that it is whole and indivisible. And we all are subset of this existence. We are called individuals. And hence we too are indivisible. This too is our nature. Therefore, we have to be very careful of a bad politician who is trying to divide our consciousness. And then there are other meanings of Dharma. It can mean a law. It can mean a principle. It can mean a duty. It can mean a responsibility towards a greater objective. Kuru means the Kuru Dynasty. So the place now belongs to the people of Kuru Dynasty. And these people are now divided. They have different goals and objectives. They have different visions. They are all self-centered. And all these divisions eventually lead to two big camps opposing each other. This is what happened before the war of Mahabharata. The Kurus are divided into two camps called the Kauravas and Pandavas. When the Kurukshetra was the Dharmakshetra, it was the place of a pilgrimage. It was in the distant past. But now it is no more the place of a pilgrimage. It is now turned into the place of a war. The same is the case with any great war. The same thing happened during the World War I and World War II. The world was divided into two big camps - the allied powers and the axis powers. There will always be a small camp called the neutral powers. And they will sooner or later jump into any of these two main camps. So, Dhritarashtra is asking Sanjaya as to what has happened. Sanjaya is just a witness. He is a pure witness of the ongoing of the war. He is just like a present day television reporter. And we all know the outcome of the war. The Pandavas won and the Kauravas lost the war.
The last verse of the Bhagavad Geeta ends with the following verse:
Sanskrit Verse:
Yatra Yogeshwarah Krashno yatra partho dhanurdharah. Tatra shrirvijayo bhuturdhruva nitirmatirmam. (Chapter 18, Verse 78)
Words: Yatra - Where; Yogeswarah - Master of Yoga; Krishna - The person Krishna and a friend of Arjuna; Parthah - Son of Pratha; Dhanurdharah - The carrier of the bow and the arrows; Tatra - There; Shri - Opulence; Vijayah - Victory; Bhutih - Exceptional Power; Dhruva - Certain; Nitih - Morality, Principles; Matih - My; Mama - An Opinion.
English Translation:
Wherever there is Krishna, the master of Yoga, and wherever there is Arjuna, the architect of an action, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion. (Chapter 18, Verse 78)
This is what Sanjaya is saying in the end. And just see the beauty. He is saying that it is just his opinion. He is not concluding on anything. He has witnessed everything with his own eyes. He has seen himself. And still he is keeping everything open ended. To me, Arjuna is a metaphor for all actions. He is a symbol for all actions. He is an architect of execution. He is a master executor. His firm belief is in first thing first. And the first thing is the action. His focus is on the action and not on the perfection of an action. And he is continuously perfecting his actions through Krishna. Krishna is a metaphor for a meditative action. He is a symbol for a meditative action. He is a symbol for a mindful action. Only action is of no use. And only meditation is also of no use. And also remember that meditation is not different from an action. And meditation does not also mean an inaction. Karma means an action. Akarma means an inaction. Karma means doing. Akarma means non-doing. And there is a third thing called the Vikarma. Vikarma means being. It means happening. Vikarma means something that unites Karma and Akarma, and still goes beyond. Vikarma is something that goes beyond doing and non-doing. It is part of the happening and being. It is already there. We can not undo it. We can only discover it. We can only know it. And we can just be it. And all our actions after that just become meditative actions. Doing (Karma) and Non-Doing (Akarma), these two are in our hands. Vikarma, the one which is beyond both, the one which is happening, is not in our hands. When we do, something will happen. And when we do not do anything, something will still happen. Things are happening whether we do something or we do not do something. The world is continuously moving irrespective of our action or inaction. I do something and there is a consequence. And I decide not to do something and still there is some consequence. There is a consequence of my doing and there is still a consequence of my non-doing. There are three ways in which we can unite ourselves with our being. One way is the Karma Yoga. It means being one with doing. It means being one with the actions. In management parlance they say that execution is the key. The first and foremost thing is doing. The second thing is Jnana Yoga. This means the knowledge of the action. This means being one with the knowledge of the action. Doing is one thing. Execution is one thing. And the knowledge of the doing or the knowledge of the action is another thing. And it is also the most important thing. I can not do things blindly. I can only do them wisely. I can not do things unsystematically. I can not do things unscientifically. I can not undo things. I can not undo my actions. And the third thing is Dhyana or Bhakti. This means a devotion to that doing or action. This means a commitment to that action. This means being devoted and committed to the action. This means being one with the devotion to that action. Since I am responsible for the consequences of my actions (doing or non-doing) I can not be mindless in doing or non-doing them. And once I have done or not done, I can not unwind them. They have happened. Doing or non-doing, action or inaction, they have happened. The moment something is done or not done, the third thing automatically comes in action and that is the happening. The happening is not in our hands. It is imminent though. Only doing and not doing is in our hands. And we can only learn from the consequences or results of the doing or non-doing. And hence I have to be mindful of my doing and non-doing. Krishna, therefore, is a metaphor for the perfection of an action. He is not a doer. The doer has died in him long back. And hence his actions are called a Lela (a play). Arjuna is, therefore, perfecting all his actions through Krishna. He wants Krishna as his charioteer. He wants Krishna as his adviser. He has his utmost faith in Krishna. Krishna stands for Enlightened Consciousness. Duryodhana lives in his ego. He thinks he knows. And hence his destruction is imminent.
Therefore, these nine things are most important. Karma, Akarma, and Vikarma are the first three things. Karma means doing. Akarma means non-doing. And Vikarma means the happening. These are the first three things that are applicable to anybody or anything. The other three things are: Dharma, Svadharma, and Pardharma. Dharma is the moral, ethical, and spiritual principle embedded in the whole existence. It is the law of the existence. You can neither divide it nor unite it. It is already there. You can only discover it. The whole creation has come out of it. It is the very nature of the existence. Svadharma means your own self. It means your own innate nature. Fire can not be water. And water can not be fire. You can not be me and I can not be you. You can be you. Do not try to be this or that. Do not try to be somebody. You can never be somebody. You will fail miserably. Pardharma means moving with the nature of the other. It is like a lily flower trying to become a rose flower. It is trying to be somebody or something. You can never become the other. And the last three things are: Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga. Karma Yoga means being one with the actions. You and your actions are not separable. They are inseparable. You can not undo them. You can not unwind them. You can not postpone them. You can not prolong them. You can not procrastinate them. It appears as if you are the action. You and your actions are not separate. The second is the Jnana Yoga. This means being one with the knowledge of the action. I can not throw a stone blindly anywhere. It can hit anybody. It can harm anybody. And I am responsible for the consequences of my action. And hence the Jnana or knowledge of the action becomes very important. You, your action, and your knowledge of that action have become together. These three elements (you, your action, and your knowledge of that action) have become one. Earlier there were only two elements - you and your actions. And now there is a third thing. The knowledge of your action is a third thing. Now all these three elements have to become one. You, your actions, and the knowledge of your actions are inseparable. And now comes the fourth thing. This is called the Bhakti Yoga. This means being one with the devotion of that action. This means the commitment to the action. This means the perseverance of the action. This means the persuasion of the action. This means being devoted and dedicated to the actions. Now, this is the tenth and the last element. Dhyana or Mindfulness is the tenth, the last and the most basic in the whole process. This is the common thread passing through all the three - Karma (action), Jnana (knowledge of the action), Bhakti (devotion and dedication to the action). Dhyana or Mindfulness brings a kind of unity in all the nine elements. And eventually all these elements become one. You, your actions, the knowledge of your actions (why you are doing what you are doing, and what happens if you do or do not do), and being mindful, being conscious, being aware of all this, they all become inseparable. Dhyana, Mindfulness, Consciousness and Awareness bring a kind of unity in these four things - you, your actions, the knowledge of your actions, and the dedication and devotion to your actions. Therefore, the last thing (Dhyana, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Awareness) acts as a catalyst. And in awareness all the three elements (action, knowledge, devotion) will be in focus. These three things - your actions, the knowledge of your actions, and the devotion to your actions, will be in the forefront, and your witnessing self, will be in the back-end and is in constant awareness of everything.
In every organization the back-end and the front-end have to be designed very carefully and cautiously. In most of the organizations these two are in conflict and they are continuously fighting with each other. And the only people who are continuously suffering from this conflict are the internal customers and the external customers.
In this way and in this process the actions become pure and divine. The doing becomes divine. And the journey becomes a joy. And the destiny becomes a destination ❤️
To make things simple, let us understand this by way of an example. Let us suppose that the Unconsciousness is like darkness and the Consciousness is like the light. And the one that joins these two and still remains beyond is called the Supreme Consciousness. According to the psychologists the Unconsciousness is far far bigger than the Consciousness. The Consciousness is like a small candle light. And these two, the Consciousness and the Unconsciousness (the light and darkness in our example) are joined in a very mysterious way. Even though the darkness is very huge, no matter how big is its periphery and circumference, a small candle of light can disperse this darkness. And when the light goes off, the darkness comes back again. It appears as if there was no light ever. And we have to discover the light again from the very beginning. Therefore, darkness can be defined as the absence of light. And the light can be defined as the absence of darkness. When the light is present the darkness is absent. And they can never be present together. They can never go to the school together. Sometimes they behave as friends and sometimes they behave as enemies.
And probably this is the reason that in the Rig Veda the first verse is on the praise of the Agni (the fire God). The fire is eulogized as a big form of God. The outer world was dark and gloomy and there was only a light of the celestial bodies. The light was not portable. It was not near, it was far away in the heavens. And some how the ancients have worked very hard to get this light in the form of Agni closer to the human world and not only that, they have even made it portable. The outside world which was dark has now been illumined by this fire. It is true that it was a big form of God. Because after the discovery of Agni or fire many problems of the world which were because of the darkness have been greatly solved. And after Thomas Edison, who discovered the present day light, the Rig Veda has to be rewritten again, and the second verse should begin with eulogizing this present day light. The present day light is nothing less than another big form of God. This is how the fire has traveled from the basic fire to advanced light. A new industry came into existence after the discovery of fire. And a far bigger industrial revolution of the west has also come into existence after the discovery of the light. Nobody knows what light is in reality, but we have some loose definitions on light here and there. Light is a natural agent that stimulates our sight and makes things visible to us. This is only one of the definitions. Why am I saying like this? I am saying this because this could be true only when it comes to the physical world. And it is not true when it comes to the metaphysical world. When the sun light falls on an object, the object becomes visible. And when this light moves into our eyes and when the light of our eyes falls on an object before us, the object becomes visible to us. And the same is not true when it comes to the metaphysical world. The metaphysical world always remains invisible. When we observe the quantum world with the help of the light of our eyes, the quantum world remains invisible. And hence it remains mysterious. And we do not have much idea of the phenomenon happening there. And we can not say anything with absolute certainty. And we can only say in terms of probabilities and possibilities. Werner Heisenberg was at loss to know why the electrons are behaving like this in the quantum world. And later on he discovered that the electrons change their behavior when the light of our eyes falls on them. Are the electrons conscious? The answer is, we don’t know. Because, if we say that the electrons are conscious then the very definition of consciousness also undergoes a change. And then there can not be anything like living things and nonliving things in the existence. All our definitions are loose. All our definitions are on the surface. All our definitions are on the outer. All our definitions are on the periphery and on the circumference. All our definitions are relative. And all our definitions die at the center of the whole thing.
According to science the light is a bundle of energy that behaves as a particle and a wave. It has a dual behavior and hence the Latin word quantum to describe the same. And according to science nothing travels faster than light. As of now Albert Einstein has the last laugh. He said nothing travels faster than light. And it still remains undisputed. And this light, which is so powerful, also dies at the heart of a black hole. We have no idea really what happens at the center of a black hole. The gravity is so high that the light can not escape and can not even return back. And hence it can not give us any information. This is the story of the outer light. This is the story of the objective light and the objective world. The only yardstick to measure the events of the objective world is the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. And this equation also dies at the center of the black hole. And as of now we are not able to go beyond the black holes. It is as if the whole of physics has approached a dead-end. Michio Kaku is a brilliant theoretical physicist. He is also a string theorist. He tries to import the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein and applies it to the black hole. And when he solves the equation for the center of a black hole, he gets a series of zeroes and infinities. And the whole result appears to be meaningless to him. And he thinks that there is something terribly wrong with the equation of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. And this equation is not helping in taking us beyond the black holes. And the quantum equations are also not helping us in taking beyond the quantum world. And it seems that we have arrived at some kind of a dead-end in the physical world and the quantum world.
Is the light really objective? Is light really an object? Well, this could only be a half truth. The mystics have also been talking of an inner light. It seems the reality behaves even in a more mysterious way. It seems there is an outer light and also an inner light. It seems there is another higher duality of the inner light and outer light. All the scriptures, and all the Vedas and Upanishads have talked about the five senses. And it was only Krishna who talked about the sixth sense. We see and perceive the whole physical world only through our five senses. It appears to us that all our five senses (five Karmendriyas and five Jnanendriyas) are peeping out of the body. They are gathering information of the outside world while we are interacting with the outside world. Let us just look at one sense organ. Let us look at our eyes. They look like a lens. They look like the convex side of the lens. The eyes are curving out and bulging out. And here the other half of the organ is missing. The inner and the concave part is missing.
I do a small experiment with my management students. I divide the whole team into two teams. And I show only the convex side of the lens to one team and only the concave side of the lens to the other team. And this I do with them separately. And then I ask them jointly as to what they have seen. They tell their perceptions. The perceptions of the two teams are different. And their perspectives are diagonally opposite. They do not meet and they oppose each other. The two teams do not agree and they disagree. Are they true in their perceptions? To each team their own perception is like a reality. To team A, the reality of team B is like a perception. And to team B, the reality of team A is like a perception. And both the teams are absolutely right because they have seen only half of the reality. Now reverse the experiment with both the teams. Now show them the other half of the lens which was kept hidden from them in the first part of the experiment. Now both the teams have seen the other half also. Now you ask them jointly as to what have they seen. They simply laugh. Now there are no two perceptions. Now there is no duality. Now there are no two different perspectives. There is only one single reality to all of them. And there is no opposition. There is no conflict. There is no dispute. This is how the individuals and various teams in an organization can be aligned towards the common goal and objective of the organization. And all this is part of the vision and mission of the organization.
This is how Krishna says that there is a point of convergence. There is a common center to all the five senses. And all these five senses meet and merge at a common point. And this common point is like the center of a circle. And all these five senses are emerging from there and moving out to the periphery of our being and taking us into the outer world. All these five senses interact with the outside world and create various perceptions. They give us various ideas. They create various notions. They make various concepts. And out of all these perceptions, ideas, concepts, notions and thoughts a mind is created. The mind is like a huge database. It is like a big software. It stores and retrieves information and experiences. The information is in the form of text, images, symbols, audios and videos. There can not be a far bigger software than the human mind. There can not be a far bigger computer than the human mind. We fear because there is a past experience of an accident or a death. In the past life or lives may be a snake might have bitten. I might had a fatal accident. A tiger might have eaten me. A king might have beheaded me. And all this information is there in the database. And all this past experience comes to me as an instinct in the present body. And this whole past comes to me as an instinct and becomes part of my DNA of the present body. And may in the future the biologists and neurobiologists will be able to figure this out. There are yogic methods to retrieve this information. But there is no point in all this. This is not of much help. The nature in its own wisdom does not allow us to know about our past. All our past is just a memory. Just think, what will happen to my biology and psychology if I come to know that my wife in my past life was my sister. And we have all the memory from the point of a Big Bang to till date. And this memory becomes active and passive. The more it becomes passive, the more it moves away from the active mind and we are not in a position to remember anything. And it is not in the interest of our innate wisdom to remember the past. It is of no use. The wisdom of the nature in all its ways is trying to bring us closer to the present. And the mind moves us into the past and the future like a pendulum clock. The pendulum clock nicely represents the mind. The mind can not stay in the present. And hence the biggest joys of the life remain away from us. We are always living either in the past or in the future. We are either living in the memories or in the imaginations. And both these are of no much help. Because both these keep the present away from us. And only the present is blissful. If the past is responsible for the present, then with the same analogy the present will also be responsible for the future. Therefore, there is no point in brooding over the past and it is always better to work with the present consciously. If the past is zero and infinity is the future, then here and here is the present. And if minus infinity is the past and plus infinity is the future, then zero is the present. This is how Shunya has a different meaning in the scriptures. It is symbolic of the present. And it is not a mathematical notation for zero.
In our above example, we can also represent the past as the Unconsciousness, the present as the Consciousness, and the future as the Supreme Consciousness. The present can evolve into the Supreme Consciousness only when we act with the Consciousness. We can also represent it this way. If the past is ignorance, then the future is knowledge and the present is wisdom. The ignorance is of the past. The knowledge is of the future. And the wisdom is of the present. This is like the time value of money. The money in the past has no value compared to the money in the present. And the money in the present has no value compared to the money in the future. The knowledge of the past has no value compared to the knowledge of the present. And the knowledge of the present has no value compared to the knowledge of the future. And it is only the wisdom which is not in time. It is not part of the past tense or the future tense. It just belongs to the pure present. It belongs to the timeless. And hence it is priceless. And wisdom has no utility except this. It is non-utilitarian. The ignorance is of an utility. The ignorant can be deceived. The ignorant can learn if he wishes to. The knowledge is also of an utility. The one who is knowledgeable can deceive the ignorant. The one who is knowledgeable can impart the knowledge to one who is willing to learn. All these possibilities are there. The wisdom is something that brings all this in the ever present. The wisdom is something that allows us to use the knowledge in the best way possible. It allows us to use the knowledge in the present in the best way possible. And it also allows us to create knowledge for the future. And this way wisdom makes the learning endless. The learning never stops. There is nothing like a goal. There is no dead-end on the path of knowledge and wisdom. And we have no other option but to evolve continuously with knowledge and wisdom. The wisdom makes knowledge as something dynamic. No matter we do what, the knowledge can never come closer to the wisdom. They can never meet. They can work co-jointly. The knowledge is part of the mind. And the wisdom is part of the no-mind. The knowledge is part of the time and the wisdom is part of the timeless. We can only use our mind mindfully. This is the only possibility. If the mind becomes a subset of the no-mind, the journey becomes a joy. And if the no-mind becomes a subset of the mind, the journey becomes a dead-end. The mind then becomes a monkey. And the mind becomes a zombie. And the evolution can not move further. And it appears that Charles Darwin is right and it seems that we have evolved from the monkeys and are not able to go beyond and we have arrived at a dead-end.
Mahabharata never ended. It just started some 5000 years back. And the new one is being fought in a new Kurukshetra (Cyberspace) with weapons like Twitter, Facebook, and Google. #Mahabharat #BhagavadGita #TwitterWars #Quotes #quoteoftheday
— Avadhoot Dandekar 🚶 (@AvadhootMe) September 9, 2020
👉 https://t.co/9SpiXK2seU pic.twitter.com/bu1VY3amMa
Krishna says that there is a possibility of a convergence of the senses. There is a possibility of a confluence of these senses. There are two points - a point of influence and a point of confluence. The periphery of the mind is a point of influence and the center of the mind is the point of confluence. There is a possibility of a unity. There is a possibility of a singularity. There is a possibility of a unification. And this path is inner. That is, the one that takes us to the center of our being. The one that takes us closer to our inner objects. And these inner objects are our thoughts and emotions. The world of the mind and the heart is something different. The thoughts are very small objects. The mind takes note of these thought objects. And the emotions are further smaller than the thoughts. The world of the heart is full of emotions. The heart makes note of these emotions. And the same emotions manifest in the mind as thoughts, and the same thoughts manifest through the body as actions. Emotions, thoughts and actions are not three different things. The heart, head and the hand are not three different things. They are three different manifestations of the same thing. The thoughts look like particles. And the emotions look like waves. And the silence at the depth of the being looks like a field. The thoughts and emotions are interacting with this field of silence in a similar way the bosons as particles are interacting with the boson field. The thoughts and emotions that interact faster are heavier because they gain more mass, and those which are lazy and interact slowly are very lighter because they gain less mass. The negative emotions and negative thoughts are very heavy. The positive emotions and positive thoughts are very light. They are almost massless. They appear as if they have no weight. And that is why we feel better when we are in a state of positive emotions and positive thoughts. The positive emotions and positive thoughts are very closer to the field of silence. And they can dissolve in no time in the field of silence. The grace of the silence is so much that they can not escape. And they have no other option but to get dissolved. This is how gravity behaves from large objects to small objects. This is how gravity moves from the objects to the subject. In the world of the objects there is gravity and in the world of the subject there is only grace. The thoughts can not escape and just die out there. The thoughts just get dissolved there. The field of silence is like that of a black hole. The chattering mind simply becomes a silent mind. It becomes composed. It becomes centered. And this gives the experience of unification, singularity, and oneness. The journey of the mind is over. It gives the experience of satisfaction and fulfillment. And the only thing that is left now is the Supreme Consciousness. It is in this state of oneness, unification, and singularity the Supreme Consciousness is termed as Ekam Evadvitium (the one that is beyond all duality). The emotions, thoughts, and actions have some forms. The silence is formless. It has no form. And in this state of silence we experience the one which is beyond the form and the formless. The Supreme Consciousness is that which is beyond all forms and the formless. It is transcendental.
When the light of knowledge is brought near the darkness of the mind of ignorance, the darkness of ignorance disperses and the mind is illuminated with the light of the knowledge. When we bring in the light of the consciousness to the darkness of the unconsciousness, the same is transformed and is capable of experiencing the Supreme Consciousness. So, the no-mind is capable of experiencing the Supreme Consciousness.
The mind moves from all the perceptions of these bodies - the sleeping body, the dreaming body, the dreamless body, the drugged body, the waking body, and the awakened body. And at the level of an individual there are various perceptions of the consciousness. And these are: waking consciousness, sleeping consciousness (dreaming consciousness and dreamless consciousness), drugged consciousness, and awakened consciousness. And this consciousness functions at these four levels - individual, collective, cosmic, and the Nirvanic. There is an individual consciousness and unconsciousness, collective consciousness and unconsciousness, cosmic consciousness and cosmic unconsciousness, and at the level of the Nirvanic there is only one and that is the Supreme Consciousness.
These are the three main characters in the Mahabharata. Duryodhana is born to a man, Dhritarashtra, who is not only blind physically but he is also blind intellectually and spiritually. He runs the kingdom like a blind-man. And his son Duryodhana, though had physical eyes, is blind intellectually and spiritually. He is not ready to seek, know and transform. He is rather ready to seek more power. He is power hungry. And when the power is not used wisely it destroys everything. The knowledge is power. And the wisdom knows how to use the power. The wisdom is higher than knowledge. The knowledge is the subset of wisdom. A bad politician is a person who wants to seek only power and not wisdom. He is the one who uses power without the help of wisdom. A bad politician is in no way interested in the wisdom. He is interested only in power. He becomes power hungry. And the power without wisdom is blind. And the knowledge without wisdom is lame and blind. And, therefore, the destruction is imminent. Arjuna is a person of an open mind. He is a seeker of wisdom. And hence he is wavering. He is lacking wisdom and he is not lacking knowledge. He has all the knowledge of the war. He had fought and won many battles in his life. He does not lack knowledge. He has open eyes. And he has not yet seen the invisible. And he is open to see the reality. Duryodhana on the other hand is not willing to learn anything. He thinks he knows. And life becomes a dead-end for him. And such person can not evolve. The one who thinks he knows can not evolve. He arrives at a dead-end. Krishna has both knowledge and wisdom. He too has immense power. And he knows how to use the power. He has a clarity. And he has the vision. And he has the experience of the invisible. He knows the very source of knowledge and wisdom. He knows the source of the power. And hence he can not misuse the power. He can only use the power for the welfare and well-being of the humanity. These three main characters have immense power. Duryodhana, Arjuna, and Krishna, they all have power and knowledge. They only differ on the scale of their wisdom. They only differ in the degree of their wisdom. Duryodhana is blind and Arjuna is open with the mind and the eyes. He is seeking. He is struggling. He is putting efforts. He is trying. He is moving in a right direction. And hence it appears that he is in trouble. Duryodhana and others see that he is in a great trouble. This is the problem of a person who is continuously learning. And since he is learning and evolving continuously, he can not conclude on anything. He can not put a full stop. He moves from one exclamation to another. He moves from one mystery to another. Krishna is the one who has transcended. He has seen the invisible. He has surrendered. He has knowledge, wisdom and a third thing, the infinite possibility of the Supreme Consciousness. And even in this state he is continuously evolving. And when it comes to the enemy, war, defeat and victory, he is open with infinite possibilities. He is ready to look into all perspectives possible and in spite of doing everything with his knowledge and wisdom he is utterly susceptible to leave the outcome on the divine. This is his hope and aspiration. And he is ready to face whatever that comes to him out of all this. And this he calls an absolute surrender. He calls the actions that emanate out of this understanding as Nishkam Karma. And he names the path that emerges out of these actions as Nishkam Karma Yoga. Nishkam means desireless of the outcome or result. Karma means doing or action. Yoga means an union. It means an unification. It means oneness. It means an experience of singularity. It means an union with the divine. Nishkam Karma Yoga is an understanding that the actions are in our hand but the results of these actions are not in our hand. We can do the best that we can with the hope that a best result will come out of the same. We can put our best foot forward. And then leave it to the divine to take care of it. And yet be ready to face the outcome. Be ready to learn and improve. And then keep on evolving continuously.
The Bhagavad Geeta begins with the first verse like this:
Sanskrit Verse:
Dhritarashtra Uvacha: Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre Samaveta Yuyutsavah. Mamakah Pandavaschaiva Kimakurvata Sanjaya. (Chapter 1, Verse 1)
Words: Dhritarashtra - King Dhritarashtra; Uvacha - Said; Dharmakshetre - Place of Dharma, Place of Worship; Kurukshetre - Place of the Kurus, Place of the Kuru Dynasty; Samavetah - Assembled; Yuyutsavah - Desiring to Fight; Mamakah - My Sons, My Party, My Camp; Pandavah - The Sons of Pandu, the other camp; Ca - And; Eva - Certainly; Kim - What; Akurvata - Did they do; Sanjaya - The Sanjaya, the one who is witnessing all the happenings of the war.
English Translation:
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, desiring to fight, what did they do? (Chapter 1, Verse 1)
This is how the blind man divides the whole thing into mine and yours. Every division leads to conflict and chaos. The outcome of every division is destruction. And the war is imminent. And there are only two outcomes in a war, defeat to one and victory to the other. And Dharmakshetra becomes the Kurukshetra. Kshetra means a place. Kshetra means a field. And Dharma means something that can neither be divided nor can be united. It means something that remains indivisible. The one which can only be known and discovered. It is already there. It is something like a law that keeps the whole existence as one unity. The other meaning of Dharma means our innate nature. It means the nature of the nature. It means the nature of the existence, that it is whole and indivisible. And we all are subset of this existence. We are called individuals. And hence we too are indivisible. This too is our nature. Therefore, we have to be very careful of a bad politician who is trying to divide our consciousness. And then there are other meanings of Dharma. It can mean a law. It can mean a principle. It can mean a duty. It can mean a responsibility towards a greater objective. Kuru means the Kuru Dynasty. So the place now belongs to the people of Kuru Dynasty. And these people are now divided. They have different goals and objectives. They have different visions. They are all self-centered. And all these divisions eventually lead to two big camps opposing each other. This is what happened before the war of Mahabharata. The Kurus are divided into two camps called the Kauravas and Pandavas. When the Kurukshetra was the Dharmakshetra, it was the place of a pilgrimage. It was in the distant past. But now it is no more the place of a pilgrimage. It is now turned into the place of a war. The same is the case with any great war. The same thing happened during the World War I and World War II. The world was divided into two big camps - the allied powers and the axis powers. There will always be a small camp called the neutral powers. And they will sooner or later jump into any of these two main camps. So, Dhritarashtra is asking Sanjaya as to what has happened. Sanjaya is just a witness. He is a pure witness of the ongoing of the war. He is just like a present day television reporter. And we all know the outcome of the war. The Pandavas won and the Kauravas lost the war.
The last verse of the Bhagavad Geeta ends with the following verse:
Sanskrit Verse:
Yatra Yogeshwarah Krashno yatra partho dhanurdharah. Tatra shrirvijayo bhuturdhruva nitirmatirmam. (Chapter 18, Verse 78)
Words: Yatra - Where; Yogeswarah - Master of Yoga; Krishna - The person Krishna and a friend of Arjuna; Parthah - Son of Pratha; Dhanurdharah - The carrier of the bow and the arrows; Tatra - There; Shri - Opulence; Vijayah - Victory; Bhutih - Exceptional Power; Dhruva - Certain; Nitih - Morality, Principles; Matih - My; Mama - An Opinion.
English Translation:
Wherever there is Krishna, the master of Yoga, and wherever there is Arjuna, the architect of an action, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion. (Chapter 18, Verse 78)
This is what Sanjaya is saying in the end. And just see the beauty. He is saying that it is just his opinion. He is not concluding on anything. He has witnessed everything with his own eyes. He has seen himself. And still he is keeping everything open ended. To me, Arjuna is a metaphor for all actions. He is a symbol for all actions. He is an architect of execution. He is a master executor. His firm belief is in first thing first. And the first thing is the action. His focus is on the action and not on the perfection of an action. And he is continuously perfecting his actions through Krishna. Krishna is a metaphor for a meditative action. He is a symbol for a meditative action. He is a symbol for a mindful action. Only action is of no use. And only meditation is also of no use. And also remember that meditation is not different from an action. And meditation does not also mean an inaction. Karma means an action. Akarma means an inaction. Karma means doing. Akarma means non-doing. And there is a third thing called the Vikarma. Vikarma means being. It means happening. Vikarma means something that unites Karma and Akarma, and still goes beyond. Vikarma is something that goes beyond doing and non-doing. It is part of the happening and being. It is already there. We can not undo it. We can only discover it. We can only know it. And we can just be it. And all our actions after that just become meditative actions. Doing (Karma) and Non-Doing (Akarma), these two are in our hands. Vikarma, the one which is beyond both, the one which is happening, is not in our hands. When we do, something will happen. And when we do not do anything, something will still happen. Things are happening whether we do something or we do not do something. The world is continuously moving irrespective of our action or inaction. I do something and there is a consequence. And I decide not to do something and still there is some consequence. There is a consequence of my doing and there is still a consequence of my non-doing. There are three ways in which we can unite ourselves with our being. One way is the Karma Yoga. It means being one with doing. It means being one with the actions. In management parlance they say that execution is the key. The first and foremost thing is doing. The second thing is Jnana Yoga. This means the knowledge of the action. This means being one with the knowledge of the action. Doing is one thing. Execution is one thing. And the knowledge of the doing or the knowledge of the action is another thing. And it is also the most important thing. I can not do things blindly. I can only do them wisely. I can not do things unsystematically. I can not do things unscientifically. I can not undo things. I can not undo my actions. And the third thing is Dhyana or Bhakti. This means a devotion to that doing or action. This means a commitment to that action. This means being devoted and committed to the action. This means being one with the devotion to that action. Since I am responsible for the consequences of my actions (doing or non-doing) I can not be mindless in doing or non-doing them. And once I have done or not done, I can not unwind them. They have happened. Doing or non-doing, action or inaction, they have happened. The moment something is done or not done, the third thing automatically comes in action and that is the happening. The happening is not in our hands. It is imminent though. Only doing and not doing is in our hands. And we can only learn from the consequences or results of the doing or non-doing. And hence I have to be mindful of my doing and non-doing. Krishna, therefore, is a metaphor for the perfection of an action. He is not a doer. The doer has died in him long back. And hence his actions are called a Lela (a play). Arjuna is, therefore, perfecting all his actions through Krishna. He wants Krishna as his charioteer. He wants Krishna as his adviser. He has his utmost faith in Krishna. Krishna stands for Enlightened Consciousness. Duryodhana lives in his ego. He thinks he knows. And hence his destruction is imminent.
Therefore, these nine things are most important. Karma, Akarma, and Vikarma are the first three things. Karma means doing. Akarma means non-doing. And Vikarma means the happening. These are the first three things that are applicable to anybody or anything. The other three things are: Dharma, Svadharma, and Pardharma. Dharma is the moral, ethical, and spiritual principle embedded in the whole existence. It is the law of the existence. You can neither divide it nor unite it. It is already there. You can only discover it. The whole creation has come out of it. It is the very nature of the existence. Svadharma means your own self. It means your own innate nature. Fire can not be water. And water can not be fire. You can not be me and I can not be you. You can be you. Do not try to be this or that. Do not try to be somebody. You can never be somebody. You will fail miserably. Pardharma means moving with the nature of the other. It is like a lily flower trying to become a rose flower. It is trying to be somebody or something. You can never become the other. And the last three things are: Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga. Karma Yoga means being one with the actions. You and your actions are not separable. They are inseparable. You can not undo them. You can not unwind them. You can not postpone them. You can not prolong them. You can not procrastinate them. It appears as if you are the action. You and your actions are not separate. The second is the Jnana Yoga. This means being one with the knowledge of the action. I can not throw a stone blindly anywhere. It can hit anybody. It can harm anybody. And I am responsible for the consequences of my action. And hence the Jnana or knowledge of the action becomes very important. You, your action, and your knowledge of that action have become together. These three elements (you, your action, and your knowledge of that action) have become one. Earlier there were only two elements - you and your actions. And now there is a third thing. The knowledge of your action is a third thing. Now all these three elements have to become one. You, your actions, and the knowledge of your actions are inseparable. And now comes the fourth thing. This is called the Bhakti Yoga. This means being one with the devotion of that action. This means the commitment to the action. This means the perseverance of the action. This means the persuasion of the action. This means being devoted and dedicated to the actions. Now, this is the tenth and the last element. Dhyana or Mindfulness is the tenth, the last and the most basic in the whole process. This is the common thread passing through all the three - Karma (action), Jnana (knowledge of the action), Bhakti (devotion and dedication to the action). Dhyana or Mindfulness brings a kind of unity in all the nine elements. And eventually all these elements become one. You, your actions, the knowledge of your actions (why you are doing what you are doing, and what happens if you do or do not do), and being mindful, being conscious, being aware of all this, they all become inseparable. Dhyana, Mindfulness, Consciousness and Awareness bring a kind of unity in these four things - you, your actions, the knowledge of your actions, and the dedication and devotion to your actions. Therefore, the last thing (Dhyana, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Awareness) acts as a catalyst. And in awareness all the three elements (action, knowledge, devotion) will be in focus. These three things - your actions, the knowledge of your actions, and the devotion to your actions, will be in the forefront, and your witnessing self, will be in the back-end and is in constant awareness of everything.
In every organization the back-end and the front-end have to be designed very carefully and cautiously. In most of the organizations these two are in conflict and they are continuously fighting with each other. And the only people who are continuously suffering from this conflict are the internal customers and the external customers.
In this way and in this process the actions become pure and divine. The doing becomes divine. And the journey becomes a joy. And the destiny becomes a destination ❤️
Duryodhana is a symbol for an unconscious action. He represents a blind action. He represents a devilish desire of an action. He represents an impure action. He is a symbol for an imperfect action. Arjuna is a symbol for a conscious action. He is a symbol for a perfecting action. He is continuously perfecting his actions. He is continuously evolving under the guidance of Krishna. And Krishna is a symbol for an action that is emerging from the experience of the Supreme Consciousness. He is a symbol for a perfection in an action. He stands for an Enlightened Action. There is a result of all these actions. And the result is not in our hands. And what is there in our hands is the type of the action and the quality of the action. This is what we can choose. This is what we can chase. And this is what we can change. And the rest all is in the hands of the divine. This is the crux of Krishna’s message of Nishkam Karma Yoga.
Bhagavad Gita Vs. Ashtavakra Gita
There is another famous Gita called the Ashtavakra Gita. Ashtavakra Gita is a dialogue between King Janaka and Sage Ashtavakra. Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Krishna and his dearest friend Arjuna in a battle field called the Kurukshetra. Both the cases are that of FAQs that are surrounding man’s quest time immemorial. The basic questions are: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What is my purpose in life? Please read and explore if you wish to explore the secrets of these two Gitas.
Post a Comment