Responsibility Directly Leads You To Leadership
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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
hato vā prāpsyasi svargaṁ jitvā vā bhokṣyase mahīm tasmāduttiṣṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛtaniścayaḥ
Slain, you will achieve heaven; victorious, you will enjoy the earth. O Kaunteya (son of Kuntī), stand up determined to fight
Responsibility directly leads you to leadership consciousness.
sukhaduḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṁ pāpamavāpsyasi
Pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat – treat them all the same. Do battle for the sake of battle and you shall incur no sin
We all know death is inevitable.
Do not worry about victory or defeat. If you are defeated and slain you will ascend to heaven. If you are victorious, you will enjoy material benefits in this world itself.
Therefore, O Kaunteya, fight as it is your responsibility as a kṣatriya.' Kṛṣṇa says to treat pain and pleasure, gain and loss, victory and defeat all the same. He says to fight without worrying about the outcome. To fight is your responsibility. You shall incur no sin.
When the Paramātma—supreme Soul says this, it means that Arjuna does not have to worry about right and wrong, about sin or merit. Isn't fighting, isn't killing people a sin, you may ask. Then why is it that Kṛṣṇa encourages Arjuna, not merely encourages, but actually forces Arjuna to fight and kill? What is the operative logic here, you may ask.
There is no logic. Kṛṣṇa's exhortation is beyond human rationale. It is not what you do that matters; it is who you are being that matters. It is your space that matters. Whether you are being complete or incomplete matters. An Enlightened Master can do no wrong even if he kills, because when he kills, it would be with completion, not with compulsion for personal benefit. On the other hand, any average person with incompletions, even while doing an act of kindness, he may be doing something wrong.
Kṛṣṇa is not worried about what you do, He is concerned only about who you are being. If your actions are from completion, if they are innocent of motives, whatever you do is right.
If what you do is motivated by patterns of fear and greed, pain and pleasure, victory and defeat, you can do nothing right. Whatever you do for gain is sinful. Understand, if the gap between who you are and who you want to be is without responsibility, it is greed. If it is with responsibility, it is possibility! When there is no responsibility-bridge, it is greed. When you are building the responsibility-bridge to achieve what you want to be, then it becomes a possibility; it is no more greed!
Kṛṣṇa is enriching Arjuna with the bridge of responsibility to expand Arjuna's shrinking identity as a kṣatriya. Even Śrī Rāma had to build the bridge to reach Sītā! When you add responsibility to greed, the gap suddenly reduces. The gap reduces drastically! Responsibility infused into thinking removes the agitation and disconnection with you.
We always feel that responsibility is a burden. NO! It is a power!
Responsibility directly leads you to leadership consciousness.
As long as you feel responsible only for your family, you remain as the head of your family. When you feel responsible for the community, you become a leader of the community. As your feeling of responsibility expands, your leadership quality also expands. The decision to feel responsible for the whole Cosmos is Enlightenment!
Feeling responsible for the Whole and declaring to live by your feeling is responsible declaration, known in Hindu spiritual practice as nididhyāsana.
Responsible declaration unlocks the power of feeling, prema śakti in you.
Understand the science of feeling. You can feel anything as joy or anything as pain—it is your freedom! Even the greatest achievement can bring pain to you, and even the worst experience can be a joyful learning. You have the ability to decide how you want to feel!
Listen: whenever you feel empowered, you are joyful. Whenever you feel powerless, you experience suffering. All your suffering pain, anger, guilt, fear, jealousy, frustration is nothing but powerlessness expressing in different ways! When you feel responsible for everything that happens in your life, you will feel that everything is joyful—because nothing can make you powerless. So, empower yourself with responsibility and unlock the power of feeling.
By unlocking the power of feeling, you will always act from a space of power and completion and start focusing on the solution, not the problem; without worrying about its outcome. As Kṛṣṇa says, you will begin holding success and failure, pain and pleasure the same and just fulfill your responsible declaration. With responsibility, your inner space expands and opens up new possibilities and you gain higher control of your life.
Ultimately, you raise yourself to the next level of success and evolve into a new being. In these verses, Kṛṣṇa is trying to bring Arjuna out of his root pattern, his dilemma, which has obscured his normally clear vision. Kṛṣṇa is trying to get Arjuna to transcend his conditioned actions based on fear and greed relating to the killing of his kinsmen, his svajanam. He is getting him to act out of completion, out of his svadharmam, without worrying about the outcome.
- ✓ Helping each child understand the importance of completion.
- ✓ Helping each child understand that death should not be grieved but celebrated.
- ✓ Helping each child realize that they have the choice to fight and grieve or to be happy and joyous.
- ❖ What is the difference between greed and possibility?
- ❖ What is Kṛṣṇa concerned about?
- ❖ Why is Kṛṣṇa enriching Arjuna with the bridge of responsibility?
- ❖ How to achieve leadership consciousness?
- ❖ What is Enlightenment?
- ❖ What kind of declaration unlocks the power of feeling?
- ❖ What happens when you unlock the power of feeling?
- ❖ What happens to your inner space when you decide to take responsibility?
- ❖ What is Kṛṣṇa trying to do through these verses?