Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5

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.

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 verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in responding to Arjuna's 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.'

yat sāṅkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ tad yogairapi gamyate ekaṁ sāṅkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati

He who knows, knows that the state reached by renunciation (sankhya) and action (karma) are one and the same. State reached by renunciation can also be achieved by action,

Sometimes you are an optimist and sometimes you are a pessimist. Both can lead to the same goal if the inner space is pure and complete.

sannyāsastu mahābāho duḥkhamāptumayogataḥ yogayukto munirbrahma na cireṇādhigacchati

Renunciation without devotional service afflicts one with misery, Oh mighty-armed one. The wise person engaged in devotional service attains the Supreme without delay.

When we are complete and ecstatic, flowing spontaneously in tune with the wonderful symphony of Existence, we are true brahmacāris.

yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ sarva-bhūtātma-bhūtātmā kurvannapi na lipyate

The person engaged in devoted service, beyond concepts pure and impure, self-controlled and who has conquered the senses is compassionate and loves everyone, although engaged in work, he is never entangled.

Have the courage to live life with intelligence, with consciousness and completion, with spontaneity. Just this small shift in your space can do wonders for you; every moment will then be a celebration!

naiva kiñcitkaromīti yukto manyeta tattvavit paśyan śṛṇvan spṛśañ jighrann aśnan gacchan svapañ śvasan

One who knows the truth, though engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, dreaming, and breathing, always knows within himself that he never does anything.

When we are so involved in the action, when we are completely relaxed, we are overflowing with compassion and love, and we just do out of the blissful energy in us

pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇann unmiṣannimiṣannapi indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu vartanta iti dhārayan

'I never do anything at all.' While talking, letting go, receiving, opening, closing, he considers that the senses are engaged with their sense objects.

Understand that the senses, body and mind are not us. We are something much beyond these.

Who is an optimist and who is a pessimist? An optimist is a man who created the airplane. A pessimist is a man who created the seat-belt. In life you always play both the roles. Sometimes you are an optimist and sometimes you are a pessimist. Here, both can lead to the same goal if the inner space is pure and complete. Please listen: Whenever we move our body while feeling a particular emotion, that emotion gets settled inside our system. That emotion will become part of us and get created again and again in our system. Jiḍḍu Kṛṣṇamurti, an Enlightened Master from Bharat, made a wonderful statement about emotions. He says, 'If you can, try to remain centered, silent, without moving your body when a particular emotion rises in you, without cooperating with it. Within eleven times, or I can say within eleven emotional upsets, if you have managed to be this way, you will be liberated from that emotion.'

With integrity and authenticity, eleven times is too much. When that emotion rises in you, don't cooperate. Let your body not go after that emotion. Don't be taken away by that emotion. Just decide, 'I am not going to be taken away by this emotion. I am completing with it.' I tell you, within three or four times, you will be liberated from that emotion because you will learn the technique of completion.

Drop Greed and Fear, Live Power and Joy

When you come down to this planet, you bring enough energy to live all your desires or to achieve whatever you want to achieve in this life; to create your reality as you want. You have already brought enough fuel. You don't need fuel from fear or greed.

Work only for your desires. Don't waste your life working for others' desires. Decide clearly, 'For the next ten days, I will work only out of my power, my joy and bliss. I will do everything out of my completion.' I can assure you, it will transform your life.

When you start practicing this, for the first few days you will feel a little unsettled because a new inner space is created. Say 'No' to any desire or any fear that comes up. Initially, you will feel some emptiness, a vacuum, but don't worry. In a few days you will beautifully settle with the new space. Don't worry when you fail a few times. Starting this way is much better than staying in fear of failure. So start! At least you will know the technique. I tell you with integrity, it will transform your whole life. It will give you such great strength and courage that invariably you will be liberated.

Remove the tremendous stress and load from your inner space. Decide, 'For ten days, I will do all my actions out of deep bliss, out of a settled mood of powerfulness and joy.'

In Saṃskṛit, 'Śiva' means causeless auspiciousness, reasonless energy. It is possible to live with that reasonless, unmotivated energy. Only two things are needed for that. The first thing is trust that you have that energy. The next thing is starting to live it. Only these two things are needed to reach the Divine Consciousness. When we start working with the causeless auspicious energy, we become Śiva. Otherwise, we are Śava (dead body).

When we use the word 'renounce' the way we understand it, we exclude something. Exclusion can never be the solution. When we say 'I should give up or avoid something', we exclude some creation of Existence. When we try to renounce the world, we are renouncing the creation of Existence. We are trying to prove that we are more intelligent than Existence.

Just sit down for five minutes and be aware of how you perceive situations. With completion and awareness, look at everything you think and do, and you can understand what I mean. When we come to an understanding of our own self and are able to live as a witness to everything that goes on around us, unaffected by situations and people around us, we become a realized soul, living enlightenment. If we do things fuelled by fear and greed, we become hypocrites.

In the Mahābhārat war, Kṛṣṇa drives Arjuna's chariot. The horses represent the senses held beautifully in control by the divine charioteer. He drives the being represented by the warrior, in the body represented by the chariot towards victory, towards bliss.

When the individual consciousness surrenders control to the Divine, the Divine controls the body-mind-spirit and steers one towards one's true nature, bliss.

We have forgotten what it is to respond with intelligence. No situation can be exactly the same as before. How can it be? Can a river flow in exactly the same way at two different points? The very water would have changed from the time it flows from one point to the other. Life is like a river. It is continuously changing.

Existence is energy. It can never repeat itself. Every moment is unique.

It is just like when we are in a dream, we don't realize it is a dream. We think everything that is happening is reality. The moment we wake up from the dream we realize in a flash that it was just a dream. The way we are living life now is exactly the same. We are living life in the dream of the future and the past. And we think that the dream is reality.

The reality is actually in the present, which is the space of completion. When we realize this, we simply wake up to the true reality from the dream of illusion. Then, we understand that the senses, body and mind are not us. We are something much beyond these. With this awareness we become complete and blissful.

For the children to understand they do not need fear or greed to live their life. To understand that we should live from completion and awareness, unaffected by situations and people around us.

1. Give an example of the differences between an optimist and a pessimist.
2. How does an emotion get recorded with our body?
3. What does Jiḍḍu Kṛṣṇamurti say we should do to be liberated from an emotion?
4. What does THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM say we should do to be liberated from an emotion?
5. When you come down to this planet, what do we bring with us?
6. What is a technique to remove tremendous stress and load from your inner space?
7. What does 'Śiva' mean in Saṃskṛit?
8. What are the 2 things to live with that reasonless, unmotivated energy?
9. What does the word ' renounce' mean?
10. What does Kṛṣṇa driving Arjuna's chariot represent?
11. What is reality actually and how do we wake up

PROCEDURE:

Draw and decorate a chart with 10 boxes. Any emotion that arises in the children they should observe if they have remained silent & centered. They can tick the box with that emotion in their paper. Discuss with the children about how they can use this technique for themselves.