Читать книгу The Gita Happiness Retreat - Sheetal - Страница 10
Оглавление“Are you all liking this spiritual session on The Bhagavad Gita?” Yes is what I hear. “Great. How do you find this training room, good okay bad?” Good is what I hear. “How are the chairs, comfortable okay not bad?” Comfortable is what I hear. “Okay now what if one leg of the chair breaks, what will happen?” One participant said, “The person sitting on that chair will fall down.” I asked, “Anyone else wants to say something more, please share.” Another participant said, “Everyone will laugh when that person falls down.” Yet another participant said, “That person will feel embarrassed.” I asked everyone, “What do you think that leg of the chair represents in our life?” Someone said, “Health”, other participant said, “Wealth”. Another participant said, “Personal life” and one said, “Work life”. There was a naughty participant who said, “Sex life” and everyone laughed. “The answer is what one participant said very correctly, it’s our Work life.”
“Chapter 3 of The Bhagavad Gita talks about your work life. This chapter has 43 shlokas. I request each participant to read one shloka each that is translated in English.” Everyone started reading one after the other.
Arjuna said: O Janardana, O Keshava, why do You want to engage me in this awful warfare, if You think that intelligence is better than fruitive work?
My intelligence is confused by Your unclear opposing instructions. Therefore, please tell me decisively what is most beneficial for me.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes of men who try to realize the Self. Some are inclined to understand it by factual, analytical speculation, and others by devotional service.
Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation (giving up) alone can one attain perfection.
Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.
One who controls the senses of action but whose mind thinks on sense objects certainly misleads himself and is called a pretender.
On the other hand, if a sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga [in Krishna consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.
Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work.
Work done as a sacrifice for Vishnu has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.
In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Vishnu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving freedom.”
The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.
In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yajna [sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a thief.
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food that is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, certainly eat only sin.
All living bodies survive on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties.
Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently, the all-pervading Transcendence (Supremacy) is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.
My dear Arjuna, one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.
But for one who takes pleasure in the self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is satisfied in the self only, fully satiated— for him there is no duty.
A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.
Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.
Kings such as Janaka attained perfection solely by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.
Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by flawless acts, the entire world follows.
O son of Pritha, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything—and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties.
For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Partha, certainly all men would follow My path.
If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all living beings.
As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.
So as not to disturb the minds of ignorant men attached to the fruitive results of prescribed duties, a learned person should not convince them to stop work. Rather, by working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of activities [for the gradual development of Krishna consciousness].
The spirit soul confused by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.
One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense pleasure, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.
Confused by the modes of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in material activities and become attached. But the wise should not disturb them, although these duties are inferior due to the performers’ lack of knowledge.
Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.
Those persons who executes their duties according to My instructions and who follows this teaching faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions.
But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not follow them are to be considered deprived of all knowledge, befooled, and ruined in their attempt for perfection.
Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can suppression accomplish?
There are principles to regulate attachment and dislike pertaining to the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of such attachment and dislike, because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.
Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrishni, by what is one compelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into anger, and which is the all-consuming sinful enemy of this world.
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.
Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and confuses him.
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.
Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental (superior) to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by conscious spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this unquenchable enemy known as lust.
Now let me Summarize Chapter 3:
Everyone is forced to act according to the qualities he has acquired by nature, so one should engage in some activity in this material world. Actions can either bind us to this world or liberate us from it. So one must perform their prescribed duty without attachment for fruitive results. Surrender all your work unto Lord Krishna without desiring for any profits. Thus by working for the Supreme Lord Krishna, without selfish motives is called Karma Yoga, one can become free from the law of karma (action and reaction) and attain transcendental (superior) knowledge of the self and the Supreme. Lord Krishna tells us that it is easy for people to follow the path of Karma Yoga, the path of selfless service. Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna to do his duty and fight with knowledge and detachment. Lord Krishna also tells us that we must control our desire for sex pleasures, by keeping our mind steady and with spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] conquer this uncontrollable enemy which lead us to failure and suffering in life.
I asked everyone, “Can anyone tell me what do you understand from this chapter?” One participant replied, “Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna to do his duty of a warrior and fight the war.” The other said, “We must keep doing our duty without having any attachment to the results be it success or failure.” One participant asked, “Madam you talked about Work life, please explain.” I said, “The Bhagavad Gita has solution to every problem. Don’t we face problems in our work life as well? We worry about success and failure. Managing relationships with bosses at work place is equally challenging. How many of you agree?” Everyone raised his or her hands. Here is a story of a woman who was harassed at her work place.
“Do your duty to the best of your ability, never give up and leave the rest to God”.
There was a family of three, a husband wife and their five-year-old daughter. Both husband and wife were working professionals in top multinational companies in good positions. They were doing well for themselves; the husband and wife both had recently bought a beautiful house in a metropolitan city on loan. The wife was a beautiful lady and was making good progress in her company. Everything was going on great until one day.
One day, the wife’s boss got transferred and she had to work with a new boss. This man started asking for sexual favors from this woman on pretext of promotion. The woman was very good at her work and refused his advances every time and on purpose she was not promoted. Unfortunately, this boss knew her husband’s boss in the other company and he very tactfully played games to get her husband out of job so that his wife will agree to sleep with him. He played such wicked games that he could not get any job elsewhere. Only if she sleeps with him, not only will her husband get his job back but also this woman will get the much-deserved promotion along with increase in pay. But her boss had even more wicked plans, after sleeping with this woman he would send her to her husband’s boss to sleep with him too.
There is a saying when bad luck comes it comes from everywhere. Unfortunately, their five-year-old daughter met with an accident and this woman urgently required leave from her company to attend to her daughter. Her boss again refused to give her leave and told her to stay and work or quit this job if you need to go to the hospital.
So, what will this woman do? She is stuck from all sides. Her job and pervert boss on one side, husband without job on the other side, home loan on the third side, her daughter in hospital on forth side and the prevailing threat to quit her job and if she quits her job she has no where to go, how will they survive?
She finally decided not to quit but to continue doing her duty. You won’t believe something very interesting happened. The woman applied for an emergency leave and immediately left to attend to her daughter. After her daughter was all right and they came home from hospital, she filed a sexual harassment case against her boss without quitting her job, which was the right thing to do. After a legal battle of 6 months, she won and her husband also got his job back. Both the bosses lost their respective jobs reputation and got black listed from the employment market. This story tells us, one must keep doing their duty even if they are facing difficult circumstances or complex situations and in the mean time either try to improvise the matter, look for solutions or patiently look for better options. So do your duty to the best of your ability and leave the rest to God.
In 2008, the whole world was experiencing recession. It affected my life too. All my clients stopped giving business. There was no possibility of getting fresh business because of slow down. My funds got exhausted, my employees left. My investor refused to fund. I was in a state of hopelessness. No work, no employees, no money. What could I do? Close down. Give up. No, I decided to continue working without funds in my account. I decided to do my duty. After few months, market started opening up and slowly business got back to normal. In other words, I did my duty in a phase of hopelessness didn’t give up and left the rest to God.
Once a trainer was teaching a batch of employees about how to overcome stress. The employees were happy to gain the insight and learning. But when the trainer enquired about their wellbeing after few months, the reaction was negative. The trainer felt sad and depressed that he failed to help people in need and he even thought of discontinuing his path of being a trainer. Later I encouraged him to continue doing his duty irrespective of success or failure, one shouldn’t stop from doing work that he believes in, instead keep improvising from the feedback and leave the rest to God.
Mahatma Gandhi had said, “Gita is my Eternal Mother. I confess to you that, when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I run to the Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow.” Gita, his Eternal Mother, showed him the way from darkness to eternal light, eternal truth and eternal bliss and advised him to do two things: First, to master the skill of action and second to remain balanced and equipoised in success or failure. He said, “Do your work as duty par excellence, but renounce the desire for the fruit of action.”
In the Bhagavad Gita, when Arjuna was overcome by grief of having to kill his own blood relatives on the battlefield of Kurukshetra and he refused to fight and gave up. At that time, Lord Krishna reminded him of his duties as a Kshatriya and told him not to give up but to get up do his duty with a balanced mind and leave the results of war be it success or failure on Him. If you come across any hopeless situation, have you ever thought what would you do? Quitting and running away from problems in not the answer. Facing your problems and looking for solutions is the right thing to do. Mahatma Gandhi too followed the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Here is another important life lesson.
**Lesson No: 7 Do your duty to the best of your ability, even if there is hopelessness around. Never give up and leave the results be it success or failure on God.
One hand went up, it was Shikha. “Yes Shikha, any question?” She said, “How can we work when there are problems going on in our personal life?” Looking at Shikha I said, “That’s what I told earlier, if one leg of that chair is broken we fall down, emotionally and physically. But the above story also says, keep on working to the best of your ability even if there is hopelessness around, never give up and leave the results be it success or failure on God. Even if we face problems in our personal life, keep moving doing your daily routine work instead of just sitting at home and lamenting on what happened. The more you move out, focus on doing your work, slowly your mind will stop giving importance to the thoughts which disturb you and will start focusing on thoughts which keep you happy and busy. Surrender your problems to God; He is there to take care of it. This reminds me of a famous dialogue of Shah Rukh Khan “Main Hoon Na”. Everyone laughed.
Another participant said, “Madam most of us do not like the work we do, but just because we have a family to take care of and loans to pay we work come what may. How can we enjoy something that we don’t like and still be productive?”
Let me share a story with all of you.
One day a young boy around 17 years old was sitting near the riverfront. He was crying his heart out and his tears were filling up the river. Lord Vishnu whose home is underwater could hear him cry. Immediately Lord Vishnu disguised Himself as a teacher and went to see the boy. Lord Vishnu asked the boy, “My child I’m seeing you from a long time that you are crying. Please share your problems, let me see if I can help.”
The young boy said, “Go away, nobody can help me, I am confused myself.” Lord Vishnu again asked, “Confused about what?”
The young boy said, “I do not know what work I should do to make a living. I do not understand what career to choose. I am a lost person.”
Lord Vishnu smiled and said, “Oh it’s very simple to find out. But what do your parents say about it?”
The young boy said, “My parents are cool, they have left this burden of choosing my career on me. They say I need to find my own way and they shall respect my decision and encourage me.”
Lord Vishnu said, “Your parents have done the right thing, instead of forcing their impressions of what is good for you, they have told you to make a choice.”
Further Lord Vishnu said, “Can I share some tips with you?”
The boy said, “Go ahead.”
Lord Vishnu said, “Ask yourself what are the things you want to do before you die?”
“What are the things you love to do, that makes you happy?”
“What are the things you want to do even if you do not get paid for it, will you still do it with full love and dedication?”
“What are your Strengths and Weaknesses, analyze what kind of Opportunities you may want to grab or can come across, what are the Threats or something which you are not comfortable with or you don’t want to compromise with?”
“Just imagine, what if God comes in front of you and ask you for your wishes what would it be? Not like everyone who asks for lots of wealth, but honestly think about the kind of work you would love to do so that you automatically achieve success and happiness.”
“Ask yourself 100 times, what is my hidden talent I’m born with? Write down all the words that come to your mind and you will find your connection.”
The boy felt peaceful and happy with the answer. He said, “What if I’m still confused or not sure if I’m right, then?
Lord Vishnu said, “My child, have patience, your parents are guiding angels sent by God. Listen to their advice if you feel directionless at any point. Listen to your inner voice and I’m sure you will make the right choice.”
Boy said, “What if I fail to realize my passion then?”
Lord Vishnu said, “You may realize your passion in the very beginning at a young age, some realize in their middle age and some when they retire. But never loose hope. Keep doing your work by giving your 100% and one day you will find your way.”
Boy said, “What if I realize my passion on day but also realize that I can’t earn much from it, or it may take a huge amount of loan to get started, then what should I do?
Lord Vishnu said, “You can always continue doing the work which feeds your family and if you have the time devote part time to your passion this will give you pleasure and inner satisfaction. If you passion requires huge investment and risks you have two choices, either go for it or just forget it and keep doing your work.”
The young boy hugged the Lord and said, “Thank you for guiding me.”
Lord said, “Lord Krishna had also advised Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, that he must get up and fight the war. Arjuna was born in a Kshatriya family and his dharma was to fight. He was a great warrior. Similarly, we too need to find the qualities we are born with and do our karma, prescribed duty with full dedication without having any attachments for the results and surrender your work to God.” Here comes another important life lesson.
**Lesson No: 8 Find your own way by finding your true passion. Find your hidden talent. Follow your inner voice.
It was 12 and everyone was looking at their watch. “I know its 12, we will now have a short tea break and come back at 12.20 pm.
