Bhagavad-Gita - Self Awareness and Self Regulation

It was very fortunate to get an opportunity during these days to go through the teaching and preaching of Bhagavad Gita such beautiful deep, powerful immense realizations can be taken place.  If you have an access to the thought process that is made available to all of us.  An access to Bhagavad Gita , the Krishna was made available to all of us because of Arjuna.   There may be a lot of great leaders but I felt the first ever motivational seminar which was spoken on the planet on earth was 5200 ago.  The first ever motivation leadership workshop which was given on the planet was on the battlefield of Kurukshetra not in air-conditioned halls.  It was spoken when there was a deep crisis.  The war was not with the words, but in the war, people were ready to kill each other.  The way Arjuna had his own battle we all the across the world have different battles.

The lawyers, doctors, charted accountant teachers employees students everybody has his own battle.  Amongst our battle sometimes we get little demotivated and discouraged to actually fight.  So Krishna has given a detailed discussion and the entire Bhagavad Gita spoken in 48 minutes. In Bhagavad Gita 700 Slokhas in that by Krishna 574 by Arjuna 84 Slokhas, Sanjay 41 Slokhas and Dhritrashtra 1 Slokhas. In India, most of them will keep Bhagavad Gita in Pooja room, but we don’t get the opportunity to read it.  It will help us in tough times and daily life where we can apply, it gives us lot of strength.

First Slokhas was said by Dhithrastra after that he did not speak. He asked his Secretary Sanjay to tell what is happening in a battleground, he wants to know about his sons but Sanjay was very smart he gave entire Bhagavad Gita.  Sanjay was the intellectual man who gives right guidance. The Bhagavad Gita was spoken on the battleground of the Mahabharata war, an enormous war that was just about to begin between two sets of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. A detailed description of developments that led to the colossal war is given in the Introduction to this book, in the section “The Setting of the Bhagavad Gita.”

The Bhagavad Gita begins to unfold as a dialogue between King Dhritarashtra and his minister Sanjay. Since Dhritarashtra was blind, he could not be personally present on the battlefield. Hence, Sanjay was giving him a first-hand account of the events on the war front. Sanjay was the disciple of Sage Ved Vyas, the celebrated writer of the Mahabharata. Ved Vyas possessed the mystic power of being able to see what was happening in distant places. By the grace of his teacher, Sanjay also possessed the mystic ability of distant vision. Thus he could see from afar all that transpired on the battleground.

When you are doing Karma don’t focus on the fruits of that time.  Focus on sure rather than unsure leaving sure you will neither have the sure nor the unsure.  If you focus on something which is only in hand don’t put your both feet inside the water to check the depth of the water. If you focus on results lot of energy will be depleted thinking about what is going to happen.

āpūryamāṇam achala-pratiṣhṭhaṁ
samudram āpaḥ praviśhanti yadvat
tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśhanti sarve
sa śhāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī

      Krishna says the ocean is unique in its ability to maintain its undisturbed state, despite being inundated by the incessant flow of rivers into it. All the rivers of the world constantly empty themselves into the oceans, which neither overflow nor get depleted. Shree Krishna uses the word āpūryamāṇaṁ (filled from all sides) to describe that even the rivers pouring all their water during the rainy season into the ocean cannot make it flow over. Similarly, the realized sage remains quiescent and unmoved in both conditions—while utilizing sense objects for bodily necessities, or being bereft of them. Only such a sage can attain śhānti, or true peace.   The people who are resilience will accept the favorable thoughts and reject the unfavorable thoughts. Desires will come in mind but you have to fulfill those desire which actually helps you to focus and achieve in the life.  We should have the power to control mind if you are weak it will control you. So you have to pass a regulation for yourself what to accept and reject which we call it as Self-Regulation.                                                   

yad yad ācharati śhreṣhṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate

            Humanity is inspired by the ideals that they see in the lives of great people. Such leaders inspire society by their example and become shining beacons for the masses to follow. Leaders of society thus have a moral responsibility to set lofty examples for inspiring the rest of the population by their words, deeds, and character. When noble leaders are in the forefront, the rest of society naturally gets uplifted in morality, selflessness, and spiritual strength. But in times when there is a vacuum of principled leadership, the rest of society has no standards to pursue and slumps into self-centeredness, moral bankruptcy, and spiritual lassitude. Hence, great personalities should always act in an exemplary manner to set the standard for the world. Even though they themselves may have risen to the transcendental platform, and may not need to perform prescribed Vedic duties, by doing so, they inspire others to perform prescribed Vedic actions.

If a great leader of society becomes a karma sanyāsī and renounces work, it sets an errant precedent for others. The leader may be on the transcendental platform and therefore eligible to renounce work and engage completely in spirituality. However, others in society use their example as an excuse for escapism, to run away from their responsibilities. Such escapists cite the instances of the great karm sanyāsīs, such as Shankaracharya, Madhvacharya, Nimbarkacharya, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Following their lofty footsteps, these imposters also renounce worldly duties and take sanyās, even though they have not yet attained the purity of mind required for it. In India, we find thousands of such sadhus. They copy the examples of the great sanyāsīs and don the ochre robes, without the concurrent internal enlightenment and bliss. Though externally renounced, their nature forces them to seek happiness, and devoid of the divine bliss of God, they begin indulging in the lowly pleasure of intoxication. Leader is not by by instruction but inspiration.  It is not by preaching but by following, So leader has first practice and then convey to his teammates.

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śhuni chaiva śhva-pāke cha paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśhinaḥ

When we perceive things through the perspective of knowledge, it is called prajñā chakṣhu, which means “with the eyes of knowledge.” Shree Krishna uses the words vidyā sampanne to the same effect, but he also adds vinaya, meaning “humbleness.” The sign of divine knowledge is that it is accompanied by a sense of humility, while shallow bookish knowledge is accompanied with the pride of scholarship.

Shree Krishna reveals in this verse how divine knowledge bestows a vision so different from physical sight. Endowed with knowledge, devotees see all living beings as souls who are fragments of God and are therefore divine in nature. The examples given by Shree Krishna are of diametrically contrasting species and life forms. A Vedic Brahmin who conducts worship ceremonies is respected, while a dog-eater is usually looked down upon as an outcast; a cow is milked for human consumption, but not a dog; an elephant is used for ceremonial parades, while neither the cow or the dog. From the physical perspective, these species are sharp contrasts in the spectrum of life on our planet. However, a truly learned person endowed with spiritual knowledge sees them all as eternal souls and hence views them with an equal eye. Respect people is a good habit, the meaning of it is ‘Re’  means see again,‘Spect’ means ‘See’  so look good qualities in people don’t degrade them give equal respect to everyone.  If you want to improve the content first improve intent, then content will automatically improve.  Let us improve the roots behind the fruits the fruits will automatically come.

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

We are responsible for our own elevation or debasement. Nobody can traverse the path of God-realization for us. Saints and Gurus show us the way, but we have to travel it ourselves. There is a saying in Hindi: ek peḍa do pakṣhī baiṭhe, ek guru ek chelā, apanī karanī guru utare, apanī karanī chelā[v.01] “There are two birds sitting on a tree—one Guru and one disciple. The Guru will descend by his own works, and the disciple will also only be able to climb down by his own karmas.”

A man must elevate himself by his own mind and not degrade himself, the mind is friend and enemy as well.  If you see Swami Vivekananda and Dawood Ibrahim their IQ levels are very high but one made nation proud and other made national disgrace.  So same mind help you to go anywhere, you can't control the mind you can only regulate the mind by giving instructions it is called autosuggestion. So every man has to experience Sukh (happiness) Dukh (sarrow) Jaya( victory) apajaya( failure).  Whatever the experience in life he is equanimity. It helps us to regulate mind so regulation of mind is very important.  If you learn the regulate mind you can do wonders in life.

yuktāhāra-vihārasya yukta-cheṣhṭasya karmasu
yukta-svapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā

Yog is the union of the soul with God. The opposite of Yog is bhog, which means engagement in sensual pleasures. Indulgence in bhog violates the natural laws of the body and results in rog (disease).  There is a beautiful story regarding this. It is said that before gaining enlightenment, Gautam Buddha once gave up eating and drinking, and sat in meditation. However, after a few days of practicing in this manner, the lack of nourishment made him weak and dizzy, and he found it impossible to steady his mind in meditation. At that time, some village women happened to be passing by. They were carrying water pots on their heads that they had filled from the river nearby, and were singing a song. The words of the song were: “Tighten the strings of the tānpurā (a stringed Indian musical instrument, resembling a guitar). But do not tighten them so much that the strings break.” Their words entered the ears of Gautam Buddha, and he exclaimed, “These illiterate village women are singing such words of wisdom. They contain a message for us humans. We too should tighten our bodies (practice austerities), but not to the extent that the body is destroyed.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), a founding father of the United States, is highly regarded as a self-made man. In an effort to grow his character, starting at the age of 20, he maintained a diary in which he tracked his performance related to the 13 activities he wanted to grow in. The first activity was “Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.” 

naṣhṭo mohaḥ smṛitir labdhā tvat-prasādān mayāchyuta
sthito ‘smi gata-sandehaḥ kariṣhye vachanaṁ tava

Arjuna had confessed that he could find no remedy to the grief that attacked his body and senses. But he now finds himself completely transformed and announces that he is situated in knowledge and no longer perplexed. He has given himself to the will of God and shall do what Shree Krishna instructed him to do. This was the impact of the message of Bhagavad Gita upon him. However, he adds tvat prasādān mayāchyuta, meaning, “O Shree Krishna, it was not just your lecture, but your grace that dispelled my ignorance.”

Material knowledge does not require grace. We can pay the educational institute or teacher and receive knowledge in return, but spiritual knowledge can neither be purchased nor sold. It is offered through grace and received through faith and humbleness. Thus, if we approach the Bhagavad Gita with an attitude of pride, “I am so intelligent. I will evaluate what the net worth of this message is,” we will never be able to comprehend it. Our intellect will find some apparent defect in the scripture to dwell upon, and on that pretext, we will reject the entire scripture as incorrect. There have been so many commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and innumerable readers of the divine message in the last 5,000 years, but how many people have become enlightened like Arjuna? If we wish to truly receive this knowledge, we must not merely read it, but also attract Shree Krishna’s grace with an attitude of faith and loving surrender. Then we will know the purport of the Bhagavad Gita by his grace.