Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2

Character Sketch

Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.
Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.
Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to self destruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

Character Sketch act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five (745) verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty (620) verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven (57) enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karmaphalaheturbhūr mā te saṅgo 'stvakarmaṇi

You have a right only to work, but never to the fruits (outcome) of action Never let the fruit of action be your motive and never let your attachment be to i naction

Success is natural.

yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya siddhyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate O

Dhanañjaya! Do your actions dropping all attachment to the outcome, being centered and complete in Yoga. Be balanced in success and failure. Such evenness of mind is Yoga

Yoga is completion with the Divine.

Kṛṣṇa says, 'You have the right and responsibility to work. You have no responsibility or right to the results of that work. Do not focus on the result and make it either a pattern of greed to chase or fear to stay away from. Do what you have to do with a centered mind, a complete inner space without worrying about whether you will succeed or fail.

One of the biggest problems human beings have is this—you love to be successful, but you deeply believe that you are a failure. This is one of the biggest paradoxes. This shows the lack of integrity in yourthinking. Understand, some of your actions may be a failure, some of your decisions or dimensions may be a failure, but YOU are never failure, because you are still breathing!

Listen. Awareness of what Kṛṣṇa says here is the solution to all our day-to-day problems. Do what you have to do as your right and responsibility, without worrying about the results. Do not act with hopes of a certain reward. Do not stop doing what you need to do because you are afraid of what may lie ahead.

Constantly bring integrity to your thinking, authenticity to your feeling, responsibility to your actions, enriching to your lifestyle! You will see, you will realize an extraordinary space in your life, what Kṛṣṇa calls as being balanced in success and failure and being complete in yoga.

With integrity, you will literally clean your inner space of the constant unwanted beliefs that you carry, like the strong belief that you will be a failure.

This continuous belief holds you from taking responsibility for your actions, makes you worry about the results, and leads you towards failure! When you start thinking with integrity, you will diagnose those self-fulfilling negative prophecies that you constantly give to yourself.

Listen. When you take responsibility with authenticity, consciousness starts growing more intensely in the body! Shrinking does not happen. Bring integrity; you will understand that success is the natural flow of your life.

You are not in integrity with yourself, when you say one thing and do another. But, when your talk is in integrity and authenticity, then your words will become reality. You will have vāk siddhi—the power to manifest your word as reality! But if the talk itself is lacking integrity, then your actions will also be out-of- integrity and you lose self-confidence.

Integrity is the first lesson of spiritual life. If you bring integrity to your inner space, you will realize that you are attracting everything in your life, whether it is wealth or poverty, right or wrong. You are responsible for your life.

When you are in completion, with integrity, without internal conflict or contradictions, whatever you project on the cosmos is a project for the cosmos! Simply cosmos does it. That is the power of integrity!

Yoga is your realization of your own Self, your realization that you are divine. It is the state of completion, the state of truth, the state of the present, when all that you do will be in righteous consciousness, dharma.

So, do not link thoughts and create a shaft of thoughts. Unclutch from your thoughts by bringing integrity and weed out all your negative self- fulfilling patterns. Listen! Constantly listening to your own inner space is the beginning of integrity. If your inner space says that there is nothing more to listen, if only silence is there, then that is the end of integrity. As long as you are hearing something from your inner space, it is lack of integrity. Go on listening. Even while you are in action, karma— sitting, driving, talking or walking, listen to you. Integrity is the basic requirement for Unclutching. When you are in a state of an unclutched inner space, you are in completion and you are in the present moment, where regrets of your past and expectations of the future are absent from your mind. Whatever you do in such a state of completion would be the right thing to do. You are not influenced either by fear or greed regarding the outcome. You do what you have to do, naturally.

❖ Helping each child understand the power of integrity.

❖ Helping the children understand that real success comes from the state of unclutching and the space of completion.

❖ Helping the children come to a space of listening.

❖ What is one of the biggest problems human face?
❖ What is the solution to our day-to-day problems?
❖ What does integrity teach?
❖ What is vāk siddhi?
❖ How does cosmos react when you are in completion?
❖ Define yoga.
❖ When does suffering happen?
❖ How can you tell that there is a lack of integrity in you?
❖ What is the connection between integrity and unclutching?
❖ What is the connection between completion and unclutching?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

1. Carbon paper

2. Pencil
3. Plain sheet

4. Picture to trace

PROCEDURE

Give each child two plain papers, a carbon sheet and a picture.
First have each child draw the picture on their own on the paper.
Then, guide the child to place a carbon sheet in the right position, placing the ink side on the paper and trace the paper.
Show them the impressions seen on the white sheet. Ask each child to draw directly on paper and then with a carbon sheet and compare the two.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

After the carbon tracing activity, we can clearly differentiate which is done directly on the paper and which is done with carbon paper. Similarly the brain established in integrity can separate truth from untruth.

Integrity cleanses your inner space of unwanted beliefs.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

1. Paper
2. Pen or Pencil

PROCEDURE:

Students will need to listen to each other closely and listen for what's out of place in this activity. Divide students into pairs or groups and give each a unique, slightly odd secret phrase; for example, "three happy elves live in my basement." Get them to plan a dialogue that incorporates the secret phrase once or twice. When they've finished planning, let them perform the dialogue for the class. While watching, students try to guess the secret phrase and write it down accurately; they must also write how many times it was said. Give points to students who found the phrase and its repetitions. The student with the most points is the winner.

INFERENCE:

Constantly listening to your own inner space is the beginning of integrity.