Guest guest Posted November 29, 2000 Report Share Posted November 29, 2000 Namaste, Chapter 3: THE WAY OF ACTION Listening to Shri Krishna, Arjuna was utterly perplexed. He was at a loss to know which was superior: knowledge or action. He asked Shri Krishna to clear up the apparent contradiction in His words and tell him the one way by which he could attain the highest good. Shri Krishna explained that some men were suited to tread the all of knowledge e and others to follow the of action. Both existed side by side. No one could remain without action. Action was better than no action. Action was necessary even for maintenance of the body. Devotion to God, Shri Krishna said, was also action. Worship helped both God and man. He advised Arjuna to have trust in God and do his duty. This was also necessary because or ordinary men followed the great in achieving the standard set by them. Talking about Himself, Shri Krishna said that though He did not need anything, he kept on working. It was essential for the wise to show light to the unwise and encourage them to work along right lines. Shri Krishna told Arjuna to have faith in Him and make himself ready to fight. He advised him to act, leaving the fruit of action to Him. The action should be selfless. The unwise did not see the value of selfless action and therefore suffered. He made it clear that we must play our part, great or small. One must do one's duty however distasteful it may be. One must be faithful to it unto death. Doing so even death brings blessedness. Arjuna asked Shri Krishna why people committed sin against their will as if driven by an inner force. Shri Krishna replied that desire, anger and passion were at the root of all sins. They confused the mind and turned the wise into the unwise. He advised 'Arjuna to conquer desire and thus acquire control over his senses. He added that greater than the senses was the mind and greater than the mind was the intellect. The greatest of all was Atman (the Self), realizing which one controlled all desires. [C. 4 summary to follow on Nov. 30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 29, 2000 Report Share Posted November 29, 2000 Namaste, This entire chapter focuses on 'shraddha - a combination of faith, conviction, discipline and determination.' Lord Krishna wants Arjuna to develop the attitude of equanimity by continuous performance of his duties without analyzing the outcome in advance. The implied message is that we only have the authority to control our action and we have no control over the outcome! Some quotations can be helpful for us to understand subtle message contained in Chapter 3. 1) happiness is a journey and not a destination. (source unknown) 2) success is like the stream of water flowing ups and down. 3)By 'detachment' I mean that you must not worry whether the desired result follows from your action or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct. Really, it means that things will come right in the end if you take care of means and leave the rest to Him. - Mahatma Gandhi 4)"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein warmest regards, Ram Chandran advaitin , "sunder hattangadi" <sunderh@h...> wrote: > Namaste, > > ............ > Shri Krishna told Arjuna to have faith in Him and make himself ready > to fight. He advised him to act, leaving the fruit of action to Him. > The action should be selfless. The unwise did not see the value of > selfless action and therefore suffered. He made it clear > that we must > play our part, great or small. One must do one's duty however > distasteful it may be. One must be faithful to it unto death. Doing > so even death brings blessedness. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 29, 2000 Report Share Posted November 29, 2000 "Do not merely endure, be detached". -Swami Vivekananda. The first part of this sentence tells us that detachment to the world must be a natural process. Some of us try to force it on ourselves like compressing a spring, with the consequence that one day everything will bounce back.Detachment comes only with spritual awakening. So how do we be detached ? "Aapoornamana Achalaprathistham Samdudramapaha Pravishanthi Yadhvath. Tadvath Kamaayam Pravishanti Sarve Sa Shantim Aapnothi na kaama kaami" "Like the river that empties itself into the ocean which remains perfectly still, so also he attains peace in whom all desires merge, not the desirer of desires". This tells us Feel, Feel deeply, but absorb the feelings and transmute them to your source. Swami Vivekananda's lecture "My plan of Campaign" delivered in Madras ends with, "Feel therefore my would be reformers, my would be patriots. Do you feel that millions and millions of descendents of Gods and sages have become next door neigbhours to brutes? Do you feel that darkness, ignorance has come over the land. Does it make you restless, sleepless ............" He goes on next to tell us to use our intellects to think of some way to get people out of this misery, and not only that to have the will to brave all odds to achieve this goal. Here he is telling us to develop feeling first, intense feeling, but feeing without intellectual guidance will become sentimental outpour. Use one's intellect to its full too. But we need one more thing, and that is strength to pursue it amidst all odds. This will comes from the divine only, from His grace. If one has these three, one will be a karma yogi, that is my understanding. Yogah Karmasu Koushalam. Anand Some quotations can be helpful for us to > understand subtle message contained in Chapter 3. > > 1) happiness is a journey and not a destination. (source unknown) > > 2) success is like the stream of water flowing ups and down. > > 3)By 'detachment' I mean that you must not worry whether the desired > result follows from your action or not, so long as your motive is > pure, your means correct. Really, it means that things will come right > in the end if you take care of means and leave the rest to Him. > - Mahatma Gandhi > > 4)"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part > limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and > feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical > delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for > us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few > persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this > prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living > creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." > - Albert Einstein > ------------------ Get free personalized email at http://www.iname.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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