Gita In Daily Life - The Teaching of Bhagavad Gita by swami Chinmayanada-ji

[Guest guest]

friends,

i have read about the explanation given by Swami chinmayanand on

Bhagavad Gita.

Arjuna said: What, O Krishna, is the description of him who has

steady wisdom and is merged in the super-conscious state? How does

one of steady wisdom speak, how does he sit, how does he walk?

 

In Verse 54,

Arjun asks Lord Krishna to describe the characteristics of the

Perfect Sage (Sthitaprajna). Sthitaprajna represents the qualities of

the realized human soul. Lord Krishna explains his answers in verses

55 to 72. The person who realizes the true nature becomes the

Sthitaprajna. In Gita, Arjun's enquiry started with one question,

followed by more questions such as - "Who am I? "; "Where am I? ";

And "What am I?"

 

Verse 55:

Sri-Bhagavan uvaca

prajahati yada kaman sarvan partha mano-gatan

atmany evatmana tustah.sthita-prajnas tado cyate

The blessed Lord said: When a man completely casts off, Oh Arjuna,

all the desires of the mind, and when his self is satisfied in the

self, then is he said to be one of steady wisdom.

 

Bhagavan Shri Krishna points out in verse 55 that a stable human

behavior implies separation of "SELF" from the mind! When the mind

engages in selfish desires, it evaluates success and failures

(pleasure and sorrow), it never gets the freedom. The mind needs

diversion from selfish to unselfish desires to get the freedom.

Mahatma Gandhi, a perfect sage, has shown that through unselfish

service to the people, he was able to free the mind from desires.

Gandhiji was able to put away all his desires and focus his mind and

soul on the Supreme Reality.

 

Gandhiji was a soft talker, a fast walker, and never a quitter! When

a Sthitaprajna such as Gandhiji speaks, everybody listens. The

spiritual person acts for the social cause and for the community

welfare without looking for an iota of material benefit. Such a

person attains the state of a perfect sage (Sthitaprajna). No single

individual has any control over his (her) action in this world. For

example, an individual who takes a flight from USA to India requires

the collective actions and cooperation of visible and invisible

entities of the world. The conduct, cooperation, and the service of

thousands of actors from different parts of the world become

necessary for the flight to materialize.

 

Is it possible for anyone to identify all these actors, the cause for

their actions and the rewards for their actions? The answer is

obviously no! Any individual contribution to any cause or the effect

becomes infinitesimal if we measure the direct and indirect actors

from all parts of the world. How do we determine success and failure?

What is success? What is failure? For what time period do we measure

success and failure? All such questions will have plenty of answers

without any agreeable solution to satisfy everyone. The mind that

fails to understand the chain of actions and reactions rejoices over

success and regrets over failures. The duality of success and failure

indulges the mind to create endless loops of desires, successes, and

failures. When the mind perceives success from an action, ego emerges

to propel more actions and more ego. If it perceives failure from an

action, it fuels more actions in order to succeed and an endless loop

emerges. In either case, ego occupies and keeps the mind in motion.

The only way to restore stability is remove all desires from the mind

learn to be content.

 

Do we behave like a perfect sage at any time in our real life? The

answer is Yes! We as adults while playing a game with our little

child behave like a perfect sage. We spontaneously regain our true

nature and express unconditional love to the child. We concentrate

more on playing the game to keep the child happy and have no problems

in losing! At the same time, success or failure of the game affects

the child and the child shows its emotions. The coaches of all major

sports repeat the message of Gita to the players as follows! "Give

your best while playing and don't worry about the results and never

allow your emotion to drain your energy!" This bottom line message is

the central theme of Gita. Gita asks us to pursue our life with

greater goals and higher motives and perform our duties with the best

of our abilities.