SRIMAD BHAGAVAD-GITA - SONG OF GOD

'The Gita' is a composition comprised of 700 Sanskrit verses divided into 18 chapters and is dated to be written over 2000 years ago. It is taken from the Indian epic, The Mahabharata.

It takes the form of a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna on a battlefield before a great war. Arjuna not wishing to fight against his own relatives and elders faces a sorrowful dilemma. Krishna, responds with sound teachings that address the fundamental questions of human existence.

The philosophy of The Bahagavad-Gita proposes several spiritual paths, the main teachings being:

Dharma (Righteous Duty) - Emphasis towards fulfillment of responsibilies according to our nature and situation in life, without the idea of personal gain.

Karma Yoga (Path of Action) - Our emphasis when carrying out action should be dedicated to the divine and not in consideration towards fruits of action. This turns normal activity into spiritual practice.

Bhakti Yoga (Path of Devotion) - Loving devotion to God is an effective path to spiritual realisation and available to all; no matter our capabilities' and whatever background, culture or arising creed.

Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge) - Exploring the nature of the eternal self (Atman) in relation to ultimate reality (Brahman), teaching us we are not body or mind rather the consciousness that witnesses them.

Equanimity - Maintaining composure and balance throughout life's challenges.

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Bhagavad- Gita, The Field & The Knower Ch. 13: 22-25

"Within the body the supreme Purusha is called the witness, approver, supporter, enjoyer, the supreme Lord, the highest Self.

Whoever realizes the true nature of Purusha, prakriti, and the gunas, whatever path he or she may follow, is not born separate again. Some realize the Self within them through the practice of meditation, some by the path of wisdom, and others by selfless service. Others may not know these paths; but hearing and following the instructions of an illumined teacher, they too go beyond death."

Translation II

"Within the body also resides the Supreme Lord. He is said to be the Witness, the Permitter, the Supporter, Transcendental Enjoyer, the ultimate Controller, and the Paramātmā (Supreme Soul). -- Those who understand the truth about Supreme Soul, the individual soul, material nature, and the interaction of the three modes of nature will not take birth here again. They will be liberated regardless of their present condition.

Some try to perceive the Supreme Soul within their hearts through meditation, and others try to do so through the cultivation of knowledge, while still others strive to attain that realization by the path of action.

There are still others who are unaware of these spiritual paths, but they hear from others and begin worshipping the Supreme Lord. By such devotion to hearing from saints, they too can gradually cross over the ocean of birth and death."

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SELF-REALISATION

THE KEY TO HAPPINESS & ETERNITY

- Bhagavad- Gita, Self-Realization Ch. II: 55-71

They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will. Aspirants abstain from sense pleasures, but they still crave for them. These cravings all disappear when they see the highest goal. Even of those who tread the path, the stormy senses can sweep off the mind. They live in wisdom who subdue their senses and keep their minds ever absorbed in me.

When you keep thinking about sense objects, attachment comes. Attachment breeds desire, the lust of possession that burns to anger. Anger clouds the judgment; you can no longer learn from past mistakes. Lost is the power to choose between what is wise and what is unwise, and your life is utter waste. But when you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you live in the wisdom of the Self.

The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy? When you let your mind follow the call of the senses, they carry away your better judgment as storms drive a boat off its charted course on the sea.

Use all your power to free the senses from attachment and aversion alike, and live in the full wisdom of the Self. Such a sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise.

As rivers flow into the ocean but cannot make the vast ocean overflow, so flow the streams of the sense-world into the sea of peace that is the sage. But this is not so with the desirer of desires.

They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of “I,” “me,” and “mine” to be united with the Lord. This is the supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death to immortality.

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In renouncing selfish desires and abstaining from pleasing the senses we stay free from attachment and aversion, becoming aware of an inner peace in which all sorrows cease and growing in wisdom.

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SAMSARA & LIBERATION

Bhagavad-Gita - Ch 2, Verse: 13 - 16

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. O son of Kunté, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation. Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

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A concept that is always arising throughout sacred texts: to be of sober mind, not swayed by pleasure or the senses nor pain; toward liberation from cyclic death-rebirth.

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"The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul."

~ Bhagavad-Gita. Chapter 15, Verse 5.