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.'

sadṛśaṁ ceṣṭate svasyāḥ prakṛterjñānavānapi I prakṛtiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣyati

Even the wise person tries to act according to the modes of his own nature, for all living beings go through their nature. What can restraint of the senses do?

When we use our energies with authenticity for our peak growth without comparing ourselves with others, we do our responsibility according to our nature.

ndriyasyendriyasyārthe rāgadveṣau vyavasthitau tayorna vaśamāgacchet tau hyasya paripanthinau

Attachment and repulsion of the senses for sense objects should be put under control. One should never come under their control as they certainly are the stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization

A human being is endowed with Consciousness that rises above base emotions and instincts.

śreyānsvadharmo viguṇah paradharmātsvanuṣṭhitāt svadharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ

Attachment and repulsion of the senses for sense objects 2nd line: should be put under control. One should never come under 3rd line: their control as they certainly are the stumbling blocks on the 4th line: path of self-realization

Each of us is unique in our capabilities and interests. Accordingly, our responsibilities are different.

śrībhagavānuvāca kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhyenamiha vairiṇam

The Lord says, 'It is lust and anger born of the attribute of passion, all-devouring and sinful, which is one's greatest enemy in this world

When you take responsibility, the higher energies start expressing through you.

Here, it is important to understand what duty means. If I have to do my duty, I need to know how to identify my duty.

The idea of duty is different for different people, different countries, different cultures, and different religions.

Hence the term 'duty' is impossible to clearly define. We have always been trained by society to consider certain acts as duty; some as good and others as bad. Duty and responsibility are totally different.

For example, it is our duty to help elderly people, to follow principles of truth, non-violence, non-stealing and such tenets. We are brought up with these concepts of morality, but have we experienced the beauty of implementing them?

What Kṛṣṇa talks about here is not socially defined duty or conscience.

He is talking about responsibility, the leadership consciousness, the law of the cosmos. The Cosmos functions on responsibilism.

When you take responsibility, the higher energies start expressing through you. When you actually take responsibility, Indra enters your hand; it becomes vajrāyudha. Yama enters your lungs; it means 'not-stopping'. Lakṣmi enters your heart; it means 'continuously sharing'.

Kubera enters your liver and kidney, keeping the whole thing alive;

Mārut, Agnī, Mārīci, all of them enter your intestine, burning anything that is offered and keeping the whole system active and alive.

Just like the wonders of the world, if you analyse the linguistic wonders of the world, Saṃskṛitaṁ, the devabhāśā— language of Divine, will be the first and only linguistic wonder of the world.

The word Saṃskrit means well done, refined, perfect. Anything created out of the space of completion stands forever, stands eternally. Completion is eternal, Nitya.

There lived a great yogi who had special powers but was not yet enlightened. He was a highly egoistic person. He was meditating under a tree in a forest. A bird sitting on the tree relieved itself and the droppings fell on him. He lost his temper and he opened his eyes, staring at the bird. The bird was killed by the power of his gaze. The yogi was very proud of what he had done. He then went on his daily round of begging for alms. He came to a house and begged for food. The lady of the house called out from inside the house and asked him to wait as she was serving her husband. The yogi was upset. He thought to himself, 'Foolish woman! She is serving her husband, an ordinary man, and she is making a great yogi like me wait!'

Suddenly he heard the lady's voice again as if in answer, 'I am not like the bird in the forest to be killed so easily.

Your powers may be used against birds but not against me, so relax!'The yogi was shocked! The lady actually knew not only what he was thinking, but even what had happened in the forest!

The yogi apologized to the lady when she came out to give him food. He asked her, 'Mother, how did you know what I was thinking? And how did you know what happened in the forest?

Please teach me how I can achieve this.

She replied, 'You have attained śakti (power) but not buddhi (intelligence).

Go to the butcher who is down the road and he will teach you.' Now the yogi was even more surprised. He thought, 'How can ordinary butchers teach me anything about buddhi?' But what the lady had done was too much for him.

So he quietly took the lady's counsel and went down the road to the butcher's shop. When he reached the butcher's shop, he saw that the butcher was busy cutting up the meat of the animal he had just slaughtered. He could not imagine learning from a butcher. But he wanted intelligence, so he approached the butcher and asked, 'I was told by a lady living nearby to ask you about intelligence.

Can you explain to me how to attain intelligence?'

The butcher explained how he himself had achieved intelligence, the ultimate experience. All he did to achieve it was do his job with complete awareness and total authenticity. He did his job with complete integrity and used the money that he earned to take care of his aged parents, which he did with equal devotion. Just the very doing of his responsibility had liberated him. The nature of his work, the act of slaughtering animals, was not important. The attitude, space from which he did it was what mattered.

In the Mahābhārat, Karṇa is a great warrior and close friend of Duryodhana; his acts of charity and generosity are much admired.

He is the immaculate son of Surya, the Sun energy and the eldest son of Kuntī, the mother of Pāṇḍavas. Being born before Kuntī's marriage to King Pānḍu, the unwed

Kuntī abandoned him at birth.

Karṇa lived as the adopted son of the royal charioteer of the Kurus, and struggled with misfortune throughout his life.

Karṇa's famous charity was out of a deep incompletion and a feeling that he is not respected. What was Karṇa's inner image, mamakāra? 'I am a failure; I am not respected anywhere I go.' This is because he did not know his parents' names, his origins. So, his inner image, mamakāra at a young age was 'I am not respected!' So he was exploding with the outer image, ahaṁkāra — 'I have to be respected, I am respectable!' And the best way to be respected was to do charity work. Even the great acts like charity, when done out of incompletion, only lead to the wrong effect. If you cause anything out of completion, what you get back will be miraculous. If you cause even a great charitable act out of incompletion, what you get back will be hell. Even the so-called moral, good deeds will only have bad effects.

Accordingly, our responsibilities are different. If you try to imitate others, thinking their responsibility appears more attractive, you will be making the mistake of following somebody else's pathIn the vedic culture, a child was taken to a Gurukul, the ancient system of living, learning at the feet of Master, before the age of seven.

The Guru taught the child based on his or her abilities. If the child had the aptitude to become a scholar he was trained in scriptures, and became a brāhmaṇa. If the child was aggressive and courageous, he was trained in martial arts, and became a kṣatriya, meaning warrior, and so on. Varṇa or caste classification was based on one's natural abilities, not on birth

These four principles of integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching exist in our very DNA. A seed becomes a tree or man realizes his potential only when these four principles are lived. A human has everything needed in him to become the ultimate reality, the divine reality. As of now, man is only a possibility. Only when these four principles become reality do you experience your actuality.

Anger is a tremendous energy we misuse because we do not understand and respect it. Greed, anger are all rājasic qualities that arise from passion and aggression from the blocked mūlādhāra cakra, the root center. These are instinctive emotions that we inherit from our animal ancestors. Indulging in these base emotions keeps one in bondage to his instinctive nature. This is the reason Kṛṣṇa classifies these as the root causes of sin. A human being is endowed with Consciousness that rises above these instincts. The meaning of a human life is not mere survival; it is the realization of one's Superconscious nature, one's highest reality. Anything that stands in the way of Self-realization is a sin.

Help children understand responsibilism, and being responsible out of completion.

What does duty mean?
What does responsibilism mean?
What is the difference between responsibilism and duty?
What happens when you take responsibility?
What does egoistic mean?
In the story about the yogi meditating under a tree, why was he egoistic?
What did the woman tell the yogi that shocked him?
Why did the yogi doubt that a butcher could teach him?
What had liberated the butcher?

In the Mahābhārat, why did Karṇa have a low inner image, mamakāra? And because of his inner image, mamakāra, what was Karna's outer image, ahaṁkāra?
What is the problem with acts done out of incompletion?
In the Vedic culture, how does the Varṇa or caste classification work?
What four principles exist in our very DNA for us to realize our potential?
Why do we need to go beyond the instinctive emotions that we inherit from our animal ancestors?