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Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3

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.'

na hi kaścitkṣaṇamapi jātu tiṣṭhatyakarmakṛt kāryate hyavaśaḥ karma sarvaḥ prakṛtijairguṇaiḥ

Surely, not even for a moment can anyone stand without doing something. He is always in action, despite himself, as this is his very nature

Let your body and mind work without disturbing your inner space of completion.

karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya ya āste manasā smaran indriyārthānvimūḍhātmā mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate

He who restrains the sense organs, but who still thinks of the objects of the senses is deluded and is called a hypocrite

Bring Completion and Become One.

yastvindriyāṇi manasā niyamyārabhate 'rjuna karmendriyaiḥ karmayogam asaktaḥ sa viśiṣyate

He who begins controlling the senses by the mind and performs selfless work through the sense organs is superior, O Arjuna

Life has no purpose, only meaning.

niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hyakarmaṇaḥ śarīrayātrāpi ca te na prasiddhyedakarmaṇaḥ

Do your prescribed work, as doing work is better than being idle. Even your own body cannot be maintained without work

Even if you sit still in one place, you are sitting, you are breathing, is it not? The internal functions in your body are happening. The breath that you take in carries prāna, the life energy that sustains you. So, you cannot say you are not doing anything.

People ask, 'Swamiji, you say that life is purposeless. Then I may as well just lie down and relax. Who will give me food? Who will pay my bills?' When Swamiji says life is purposeless, he is not asking you to just lie down and relax in your house. All he is saying is, 'Let your body and mind work without disturbing your inner space of completion. You don't have to sell your inner bliss to have outer comforts.'

The problem is that you never trust your body and mind. You always trust your ego and it finally dumps you! Be very clear, your body and mind will do their work. All you need to do is keep quiet and relax from your ego.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, 'A karma yogi, one who lives the path of authenticity in action, is a man who relaxes into nitya ānanda (eternal bliss) and does his work from the space of completion.'

You always think, 'If I relax mentally thinking life is purposeless, how will I know what is right and what is wrong?

How will I finish my work on time?'

When you worry about what is right and what is wrong, you will not make small mistakes, you will commit big blunders..

When you take the jump, you will naturally make some small mistakes.

Don't worry about them. Putting up with that mistake is what is caled penance, tapas. Penance is nothing but accepting and completing with the small mistakes you make and restoring your integrity and authenticity when the conscious transition happens in your being.

When you move from worry to bliss, when you move from falsehood to truth, when you move from incompletion to completion, you will make a few mistakes. You will fall and rise just like a baby learning to walk. When babies learn to walk, they always fall the first few times.

But just because of that, can you say they should never walk? Even if they make one or two small mistakes, they have to stand up and start walking.

Life is like a river.

If you place your hands in the river and keep them open, the river will always be there in your hands. But if you try to hold it, you will have only empty hands!

If you just allow it to happen it will continuously flow through you. The moment you try to possess it, you will have only empty hands. You will not be able to have life itself. Never think that having comforts in the outer world will give you inner completion.

All developed countries are filled with depression. They have the best roads, the best infrastructure, but their people are depressed. Never think outer space will give you inner space. If you want inner space, you need to work towards creating it. You need to understand the science of completion and the creation of inner space.

Whatever you choose, whether material life or spiritual life, you will always feel you are missing the other part.

As long as you think you are the mind, as long as you live with the mind, you will have this problem of material life versus spiritual life. The space of completion or incompletion, purposelessness or purposefulness does not work logically.

It explodes in all dimensions. As long as you are caught up with material goals or spiritual goals, you travel only in one direction of incompletion, because you think you are body or mind.

The more you are caught up with purposes, the more you think you are the body or the mind. When you realize the purposelessness of it all, you will straightaway fall into the depths of your being.

See, it is like each part of your incompletion claims, 'I am you!' For example, if your name is Sundar, each part of the broken you claims, 'I am Sundar!' 'I am Sundar!' and who screams loudly, he thinks he is Sundar. And one of the worst things is one part of you spends so much of energy to disprove that the other part is not you.

So finally, whoever wins, whoever loses, who is the loser? You! One part of you winning is not you winning. Unless your whole wins, you are a loser! When you bring integrity into your thinking, you become aware of every anxiety you go through, every fear you go through; you see how you are responsible for creating negativity in your life, and you also see how you can align yourself with yourself, and the world can just align itself with you.

By nature, man has to work. The senses have to be engaged in some action.

Even if you try and control them and do nothing externally, the very act of restraint is an action in itself

KṚṢṆA SAYS VERY BEAUTIFULLY, 'BY NATURE, THE SENSES ARE TUNED TO BE EXTROVERT.'

'Extrovert' is not something negative. Extrovert senses will always be alive, creative, active and contributing.

Kṛṣṇa says, your senses, by nature are programmed to go out! You are programmed to work, to go out.

The choice is really about how to work. Here, Kṛṣṇa gives the answer to that. He says that we should perform work without unnecessarily being bothered about whether or not it will fetch the results that you expect.

When do you get worried or afraid? It is when there is an unwritten expectation, an unconscious desire to achieve something as the result of an action.

KṚṢṆA SAYS, 'DROP THE VERY DESIRE AND DROP THE VERY EXPECTATION.

Neither expression nor suppression is the solution. Only completion is the solution.

Let a child understand when we keep quiet and relax from our ego, our body and mind will do their work.

Understand that we can accept and complete with the small mistakes we make and restore our integrity and authenticity. Let children understand to bring integrity to their thinking and detach from the results of work and expectations.

  • 1. If life is purposeless, should we just down and do nothing?
  • 2. What does worry cause us to do?
  • 3. What is courage of authenticity?
  • 4. What should we do if we make small mistakes?
  • 5. Who is responsible for creating negativity in your life?
  • 6. What are your senses by nature programmed to do?
  • 7. How should we work?
  • 8. What does Kṛṣṇa say we should drop?

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