Gita is the music of Life

Move from Dejection to Joy

 The Gita is a life-giving message with which the dormant soul comes to life again. Together with this, it being the song of war, it also is the music of life. The objective of Gita is to move from disillusionment to the heavenly bliss. The main purpose of life is to move from dejection to joy. Lord Krishna showed Arjuna the path to joy from the path of sorrow by performing good deeds. The meaning of Arjuna is simple, white and the meaning of Shri Krishna is the black with the power of attraction. The devotee should be simple and spotless. If your mind is clear then it can take any colour. Only the clear mind can be dyed with the colour of God.

Like Arjuna, the student should go in front of his teacher with a clear and clean mind. The clear mind will get coloured in such a way that nothing else can erase it. The man who will come with the degree of cool mind, he will return with that degree of peace of mind. The image of one’s mind is visible everywhere. If you go there with a clear mind you shall be blessed. If the mind is clear then everything in life can be achieved.

Be Constructive to Develop Internally

For crooked people there cannot be any development. They are not constructive. For attaining progress it is necessary to be constructive and you can also develop internally so that a good society, a good nation, and a good world could be developed. Another name of Lord Krishna is Banke Bihari, which means a person who is competent and clever. This also means that the person is filled with love and affection. This also means that his life style is different from all others. He does not compromise with the worldly distortions. This also means that the person is mysterious, is not easily understood, and it is not easy to get him. Just as the bucket, which has fallen into the well, can be pulled out only with a hook, the same way if the mind is filled with sinful thoughts it can be cleared with ‘Krishnahook’. So worship Him.

The white can be dyed in any colour but the black cannot be dyed. If anyone gets dyed with the name of Krishna then no other dye can colour him. This by itself is a fast colour. He will dye in His own colour. The name of Krishna has such an attraction and power that it brings peace in our life. To obtain the priceless treasure of life, there is only and only one straight path – the recitation of the name of Lord Krishna.

Develop Desire to know the Supreme Element

The Gita opens with the curiosity of Dhritrashtra. If the wish to initiate the music of wisdom in our life is there then it is natural to ignite inquisitiveness in the life. We come to this world together with our inquisitiveness. This inquisitiveness helps us to know and understand this world. That is why it should be remembered to live in this world let not the inquisitiveness die. Our progress is possible only if inquisitiveness grows within us.

To know the Supreme Element there should be a great desire to know about it. Dhritrashtra is expressing his anxiety but it is not to acquire knowledge but to know of the progress of the war. He is trying to hold on to the kingdom. He is sticking to it. He is anxious about his own sons. He cannot think of anything else than of his great affection for his own children. He refuses to look inside of himself. One, who tries to hold on to the world, does not get anything. Everything is lost.

Gita has everything in It

The Gita commences with the word ‘dharma’ [action]. The Gita has everything in it. Everything is explained about religion. What is the religion of the mankind? What is family life – social ethics? What is the religion of the society, what are the obligations of Kshatriyas [warriors], Vaishyas [traders], and Brahmanas [religious preachers]? What is the way of life of saints and sages? These concepts have been thoroughly explained in the Gita. The normal running life had taken a turn towards the battlefield. The unreligious trends pulled it towards the war and it is natural that religion is remembered even during the war. But the one whose mind has become indifferent does not relish anything religious. In this context Goswami Tulsidas has said: ‘Due to sins committed in the past, nobody relishes religious sermons. Just as due to the high fever one does not feel hungry.’

God’s blessings are showered equally on all

When the sky is overcast it starts raining. It rains evenly on the fertile and barren land. While there will be flowers and foodgrains on the fertile land, only shrubs and thorny bushes will grow on the barren land. The blessings of God are showered on everyone evenly but in the barren minds nothing but thorny bushes will grow. Whose mind is productive and fertile, if there is a heavenly shower of a few seeds, there will bloom fragrant flowers.

Dronacharya had imparted same type of education of warfare and ethics to all but all the students did not become equally capable. The rainfall is the same and even for everyone but if that water falls on the neem tree [margosa indica] its bitterness increases. If the same water falls on the sugarcanes then the sweetness in them increases. Similarly if that water falls on the chilli plant its poignancy also increases. That is why you should try to work hard and retain a bit of nectar in your heart so that when the heavenly blessings are showered on you this nectar also gets increased to bring welfare to you.

One day Dronacharya thought of giving a test to his students. He asked both Yudhishtra and Duryodhana to go out in the world and prepare a list of all good and bad people. After a few days both of them returned. Nothing was written on their papers. Duryodhana explained: ‘I had seen only evil in everyone. There was no goodness in anyone. As far as writing the name of any good person it was not proper for him to write his own name himself.’

Dronacharya then asked Yudhishtra to explain. He said: ‘There are so many good people in this world that this very earth would prove to be small, not to speak of this piece of paper, to write the names. Everyone had numerous qualities. If the name of a bad person was to be written then there is no use spoiling this paper. There is no one worse than me in this world. I am still not that which I ought to be. I have not yet reached there where I ought to have reached. The bad person is in front of you and the good people are spread out throughout the world.’

Upon hearing this Dronacharya hugged Yudhishtra and by placing his hand over his head said that he had been blessed in getting a disciple like him. At some juncture a time would come when Yudhishtra would do something extraordinary to preserve Dronacharya’s name for posterity. This is worth considering how many qualities we possess to qualify to be disciples. In most cases people keep on looking for the qualities in the teacher that they perform some miracles but without worrying about their own receiving qualities. Try to prove your own receptability and then you will yourself observe the miracles of the teacher.

Lord Krishna is a Friend, a Guru and a God

Lord Krishna is a friend, a Guru and a God. While Sanjaya was asked the question ‘What my sons and the Pandavas have done in the battlefield’ the state of mind of Dhritrashtra was that of a seeker. He was obsessed with “I” and “My”. This life of ours is like the Kurukshetra. This action field has to be converted into a religious field. In this life struggles have to be made but the struggles should be blended with religion [duty]. So long as the journey of breath goes on, struggles have continuously to be faced. Everyone is faced with Kurukshetra.

There are struggles in everyone’s life. Only those people remained alive and only those clans survived who remained active and vibrant. So long as you continue to work hard, the energy to live shall continue to remain strong and will continue to make progress. Whosoever has the power to live strong within even if he is lifted and thrown down and again thrown down further from where he had fallen, he would begin to rise from there. One should, therefore, keep the power of life active and alive.

It should be remembered always that the flame of fire even if thrown down would rise up because it is its nature. Once you have made up your mind that you would rise high and up-you would certainly go up to that level.

In Hard Times make God as Your Charioteer

During the hard times it should be remembered that you would always feel lonely. That time make God as your charioteer and none else. Arjuna is alone and his charioteer is Lord Krishna. Everyone else is against Arjuna. Even his teacher, Guru Dronacharya, is against him. When someone is flying high due to the pride then the wind also laughs at him and says that you are now flying high and you never know when you would fall down. When there is selfishness everyone stands in opposition. The thoughts in the mind get aligned with our feelings and that time we begin to offer similar arguments.

Lord Krishna is that type of teacher who does not ask you to renounce the world but exhorts to understand the world while continuing to live in it. That is why: ‘Live in the world but do not get entangled with it. It is better to stay in it rather than entering into conflicts with it.’ First of all, try to evaluate yourself and find out where you are entangled and what are the causes of such an entanglement.

It is from that very point that you would gradually begin to disentangle yourself. It will loosen up and the knot gets untied from the point where it had got entangled. You begin to disentangle from the point where you got entangled. There is no need to go anywhere else to get relief. If you have to liberate yourself then the knot has to be untied in a proper way.

Dr Archika Didi