Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 43 & 44

 29th February 2024

• No living being ever grows tired of pursuing happiness. From dawn to dusk, and birth to death, every soul continuously desires to be happy.
• Religions declare that the 'land of happiness' is somewhere out there, and that it can be reached by performing certain rituals, worshiping certain deities, and doing good deeds. 
• Bhagavad Gita states without any ambiguity, that the 'state of happiness' is not a place to go to, but rather an evolved state of awareness. No action can give a permanent result to anyone, so one must learn to live in the present moment. 
• The practice of meditation leads to self-abidance is the 'abode of happiness', since it is within oneself and cannot be provided by others.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 41 & 42

 28th February 2024

• Mind being what it has been, uncultivated is prone to get easily distracted by the undue importance given to the vagaries of daily life. 
• A field properly cultivated can yield the desired results. So too with our mind with concentrated, single-pointed effort will yield the result of spiritual progress
• Cultivating the mind to focus on the ultimate goal of human life is accomplished by the practice of Karma Yoga.
• Karma boga is passionate engagement, overworking, anxiety about results, and neglect of personal spiritual growth 
• Karma Yoga is dispassionate engagement, efficiency at work, a balanced view of results, and proper attention to spiritual growth by using work as the means to purify the mind.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 39 & 40

 27th February 2024

Every conscious action we take leaves an impression on our psyche. 

When we repeatedly perform actions of a similar kind, these impressions become stronger and deeper, forming our habits. 

However, when we start to depend on these habits for our happiness without any choice, they turn into addictions.

Personal spiritual growth has no failures. Even a small attempt to let go of our ego or identification with temporary pleasures of our mind, which seek happiness through habitual actions in daily life, can help us move forward towards freedom.

Our freedom is our choice, just as our slavery is.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 37 & 38

 26th February 2024

The call of Krishna is a divine call to man to discard his melancholy dejections in the face of life's challenges and to come forward to play as best as he can "the game of life" with a firm determination to strive and to win. - Swami Chinmayananda

• Every game has its own rules which must be followed by all the players. If the rules are not known, one cannot play or enjoy watching the game. 
• To play the game of life, the first rule is that life situations must be faced and there is no option of quitting. 
• The second rule is to maintain inner balance while facing the results of one's efforts so that one can enjoy the game. 
• Our eyes are able to see many colors because they do not have a fixed color, while our ears are able to hear a variety of sounds because they do not have any sound of their own. 
• Being natural and ready to experience with inner balance is the true victory in the game of life!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 35 & 36

 25th February 2024

• There are four types of people in this world. Some people never take up any challenges in life because every challenge requires effort and a conscious behavior change. 
• Others take up the challenge, but when they encounter it, they give up because they are unprepared or often afraid of the potential negative results. 
• Some will take up the challenge with initial enthusiasm, but halfway through, they give up due to the inability to sustain the strength and stamina required to complete it. 
• Very few people take up every challenge after deep thinking, planning, training, finding the right resources, and determination. The great are those who complete the task irrespective of the outcome.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 33 & 34

 24th February 2024

Sin in Hinduism is 'a mistake of the mind in which it acts contrary to its essential nature as the Self.' - Swami Chinmayananda

• Our inherent tendencies, known as vasana-s, are present within us from birth. It's unfair to blame anyone or anything else for these tendencies. 
• True liberation comes from freeing oneself from the hold of vasana-s. However, the challenge is identifying them as the obstacles to our eternal happiness and freedom.
• They remain as obstacles until we find an appropriate field through which they can be channeled and exhausted. That field is svadharma!
• For Arjuna, the field is the war. He needs to fight, not just to win the war but to destroy the obstacles on the way to his spiritual freedom - moksha!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 31 & 32

 23rd February 2024

• A fight need not necessarily only to claim one's right.  It can be fought for what is right!
• When we know our responsibility, we start to enhance our ability to respond!
• When the war is waged by the wrong, the reply to that should be exclusively strong!
• Warfield for a warrior is his altar of worship. It is a doorway to heaven and not just for the kingship!
• Before embarking to change our way of life, let us change our view of life.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 29 & 30

 22nd February 2024

True knowledge makes a man realize that he is "The soul with a body," but now in his ignorance, he thinks that he is a 'body with a soul" - Swami Chinmayananda

• Knowledge of Vedanta can bring out a major shift in the way humans think
• It can render our previous knowledge obsolete and reveal our true identity that we never thought of before.
• After experiencing this shift, one begins to wonder how he lived for so long with such a fundamental misunderstanding.
• A wise person, who lives and interacts with the same world as anyone else, is often a wonder to others because he is uniquely free from the usual idiosyncrasies of the ego.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 27 & 28

21st February 2024 

• It is important to note that no religion believes that the body is immortal or deathless, as it is evident that all bodies will eventually pass away. 
• Believers are aware that there is something beyond the physical body that will experience either heavenly or hellish realms after death.
• It is also important to understand that just as thoughts come and go, so do our experiences through our senses and the mind. Nothing remains forever, and everything in this world is constantly changing.
• Anxiety and worry are emotions that arise from the ego, which refuses to let go of things. 
• The ego's nature is to be possessive and to hold onto the hope of finding happiness in the ever-changing world of things and beings.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 25 & 26

 20th February 2024

• We can overcome our mundane worries in two ways. The first is by counting our blessings, comparing them to the suffering of those who can't even meet their basic needs for life, like hunger, thirst, and shelter. 
• The second way is by uplifting our thoughts towards our higher self, which is immutable, unchanging, and eternal. While the first way offers temporary relief, the second provides permanent and everlasting comfort. 
• Life is full of changes that we can't avoid. To help us cope with them, we can keep the mantra 'Even this will pass away' in our minds. 
• At the start of each day, when we flip to the next date in our daily calendar, we can remind ourselves that the past is gone, the future is unknown, and all we have is the present moment to face with a fresh mind, free from worries.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 23 & 24

 19th February 2024

• The Self is Sanatana - available everywhere and always remains the same.
• Wherever you go, there you are! You can never be absent nor you experience your own absence!
• Death is the absence of everything but you!
• Knowing and abiding in the Self, one recognizes that it is the same Self that the ancient seers of the past have realized in their own hearts.
• At once, you will be with them experiencing the same eternal bliss!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 21 & 22

 18th February 2024

• The sorrows associated with death are directly related to all attachments. 
• What you are will never be lost. What you are not, you never truly own!
• The body's destiny is death; the mind's destiny is rebirth. The soul has no destiny, it only has a destination - Liberation!
• While journeying toward this destination, the soul has to repeatedly experience the destiny of the body and the mind. This is called praarabdha.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 19 & 20

 17th February 2024

• Philosophy of the East is about the eternality of the Self, though it is beyond the comprehension of the mind. 
• The Oneness of the Self and God is established by the fact that eternality is not limited by time, space, and causation which is also the nature of God!
• That which is unborn doesn't cause anything and it cannot die because it is not an effect. For, death is nothing but the effect merging into the cause.
• Upon realizing oneself as the eternal Self alone one can truly live without fear of change and death. 
• Death is not the end of life; it is only the suspension of its expression through the body, just as a broken bulb cannot emit light though the power is still present!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 17 & 18

 16th February 2024

'The words "Fight, O Son of Bharat" means that it is a religious call to every Hindu to discard his defeatist mentality and face whole-heartedly and sincerely, the situations in every given field of his life at every given moment of his existence.'- Swami Chinmayananda

• Pure existence is 'Real' in philosophy and the same in the Hindu religion is 'God'
• From the religious standpoint, everything that 'exists' is God and therefore, everything is worthy of worship
• From the philosophical standpoint, everything 'exists' eternally and nothing perishes. All changes are only temporary changes of name and form
• No one can 'know' God but feel His presence as eternal 'existence' within oneself. A continuous awareness of this is the sadhana for every seeker. 

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 15 & 16

 15th February 2024

• The play of ignorance in our mind is like that of a magician on the stage - showing the unreal as real by obscuring the real from our vision
• Sri Krishna enlightens us: 'The permanent Self is never absent; the temporary self is not truly present at any time.'
• Ignorance is Self-forgetfulness - the inability to recognize one's permanent Self as oneself and that leads us to assume what is closely comprehended  as oneself such as mind, body, senses, etc.
• If you ask a year-old child, 'Who are you?', it is very likely that the child will innocently look at the mother or father. It doesn't have an answer to that question since no identification as 'I am so and so' with the body etc has been formed.
• That is not the case with us. We have so much to talk about ourselves with no awareness of the true Self which each one of us is!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 13 & 14

 14th February 2024

• The wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita does not advocate escape from the world. Conversely, it provides the correct understanding with which one is ready to meet the world with a steady and dispassionate mind
• Knowing that nothing is permanent or consistent by nature, no object or person can cause fear or sorrow to the wise man. 
• A mud pot discovering itself as mud does not change its 'pothood'. Eventually, when the pot gets destroyed, mud remains unchanged. 
• Immortality is not something away from us. It is what we are. Even as the mortal aspect of us gets destroyed, the immortal aspect remains unchanged.
• When this is discovered while living itself, we can face every change with a smile!

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 11 & 12

 13th February 2024

• The study of Vedanta aims to uplift our perception of everything from the physical, emotional, and intellectual perspective to spiritual awareness
• While the physical body disappears at the time of death, the emotional and intellectual personality known as the subtle body continues the travel to possess the next body. So, who is dying?
• Grief is always due to losing something we hold dear to our hearts. When we realize that nothing dies, but only changes its appearance from one condition to another, we start accepting the 'loss' and not grieve!
• Wisdom begins with the application of knowledge to ourselves first. Every unavoidable change that takes place in us, when observed correctly and accepted, leads to spiritual maturity

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 9 & 10

 12th February 2024

• The nature of discrimination (विवेक) is to distinguish with the help of the intellect, those that repeatedly appear in our lives :
• The right (धर्म ) and the wrong (अधर्म )
• The path of good (श्रेयस् ) and the path of pleasure (प्रेयस् )
• The merit ( पुण्य) and the demerit (पाप )
• The permanent (नित्य ) and the temporary ( अनित्य)
• When we are unable to use the power of discrimination, we become victims of the circumstances. We need external help to overcome our own intellectual inefficiencies.
• This is symbolically portrayed here in Bhagavad Gita as Arjuna deciding not to fight, while he is in between the two armies
• The Lord, acting as the savior, smilingly extends his help to the distraught friend, Arjuna.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 7 & 8

 11th February 2024

"Hinduism insists that men should be true to their own essential nature, which is godly and divine, and therefore, all efforts in life should be directed towards maintaining themselves in the dignity of the Soul and not plod on through life like helpless animals" - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• Surrender to God happens due to the following
• helpless conditions of life situations where one needs support
• disinterest in continuing life due to failure and tragedies, leaving everything to God to take over
• realizing that God alone can guide one to obtain freedom from bondage and seek His council
• Arjuna started with a helpless condition wherein, he complained about his inability to fight against his own kith and kin
• He then started to show disinterest in life by stating that he would beg and live and not seek the kingdom and the pleasures
• Now, he is seeking the answer to the question, 'What is Dharma?' What is the way to freedom (श्रेयस्)?

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 5 & 6

 10th February 2024

• The culture of Sanatana Dharma maintains education and knowledge as significant aspects of human society. Only the men of wisdom can truly guide the king and the citizens of a country
• In our own life, the educated intellect should be the guiding factor in all situations. Succumbing to the emotional mind results in errors of judgment and unhealthy prejudices
• Arjuna, on the one hand, expresses his reverence and gratitude toward Bhishma and Drona who are well-known for their wisdom and intelligence, on the other hand, he falls prey to his own emotional imbalances of the mind.
• The main function of the intellect is decision-making based on its evaluation of a situation, supported by past experiences and future plans. The mind only reacts to present predicaments, drawing its sustenance from the accumulated vasana-s.

Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 3 & 4

 9th February 2024

'Spiritual Grace must necessarily re-orientate the heart and burn away its negativities before the Spirit can radiate its sway upon matter'. - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• Our perception and action will depend on our identification. 
• When we engage in the world as an individual, we act according to our likes and dislikes, such as what food to order in a restaurant for dinner
• When we identify with an organization or a community, we MUST lose our personal preferences and work for the common cause that will benefit everyone concerned.
• When we identify with the Universal Self, there is no room to ignore anyone who does wrong. Keeping the highest vision in mind, the wrong must be corrected for goodness to survive.

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Gita reflection Ch 2 verses 1 & 2

 8th February 2024

"Only a weakling, who allows himself to be overpowered by circumstances  can be victimized by the outer happenings" - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• The world is strong only when we are weak and when we become strong, the world cannot overpower us
• The world in question includes physical and psychological layers of our personality along with circumstances and people we deal with
• Just as dirt on our shirt is alien to the shirt, and when noticed we no longer wish to wear it, so too weakening thoughts and suicidal tendencies are alien and impurity (कश्मलम्) of the mind. They need to be relinquished at once.
• Patient listening is one of the special qualities of  the wise, that too without hasty judgements!

Gita reflection verses 1.47 & Ch 2 introduction

 7th February 2024

Any conscious attempt on the part of an individual to lift his present available personality and attune it to a higher, perfect ideal is called Yoga. - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• Despair, despondency, and the inability to face failures are not signs of dispassion 
• A student of Upanishad is not one who wants to escape from worldly responsibilities. Rather, he has fulfilled them as needed and moved ahead to take up the highest responsibility of human birth, namely Self-realization
• Arjuna like most of us, though not a fit student for the direct teachings from the Upanishad-s recognizes that he needs guidance in understanding life and its purpose. There is a paradigm shift in his priority when he submits to Krishna
• The Yoga of Knowledge (सांख्य योग) is the confluence of the path of logical thought process in philosophy, action, devotion, and renunciation through knowledge

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 45 & 46

 6th February 2024

• Living our lives without putting forth extra effort does not lead to progress. This especially applies to all spiritual practices.
• As we grow older, physical health will be a challenge despite following strict diet plans and daily workouts. Conversely, every step that we take to apply our spiritual knowledge to reduce our ego, makes us progressively calm and content, despite our physical age
• Arjuna has a dilemma between the two: personal well-being (क्षेम) and spiritual upliftment (मोक्ष). He wants to settle down for immediate gain, due to the fear of the pain involved in fighting the battle for the right cause. 
• If Arjuna has decided not to fight the war with a conviction that it is the right course of action, why does he suffer distress and grief?
• He knows that his decision is not right and that he needs guidance from his mentor, Krishna!

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 43 & 44

 5th February 2024

"For the Hindus, religion is culture" - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• In Hinduism, philosophy in practice is religion, and religious values infused in daily life is culture
• While philosophy's subject is not God but Self-realization, when philosophy is translated into religious practices, God-realization becomes the religious goal
• Values and ethics practiced in Hindu society are not limited to social behavior, but the self-purification process which is essential for obtaining the religious goal.
• Thus, philosophy, religion, and culture are inter-connected in the Hindu culture
• Celebrating festivals is culture, worshiping God through festivities is religion, and understanding the spirit behind religious worship is philosophy.

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 41 & 42

 4th February 2024

• Water sustains and nourishes life. This is the very reason, most rivers in Bharat are given feminine names. 
• Hinduism is one of the very few religions that has feminine deities as consorts of the power of creation, sustenance, and dissolution.
• The wise people of the past have handed over the traditional values, after experimenting with them over many decades to the women of the society who are the primary carriers of the tradition 
• Any culture that doesn't protect women and promote their participation in the family and society is sure to perish. For, it is the women who maintain the stability of the family and in turn, the society
• Women, in particular need to be aware of their significant role as well. Mother is the first teacher of the child and what she imparts as values act as bricks for the cultural foundation of the child

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 39 & 40

 3rd February 2024

The culture and tradition of each family are units of the total culture and integrity of the whole nation - Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• Nature is the pre-conditioned behavior of creation while culture is consciously designed for growth, development, and refinement.
• A child naturally grows from the womb to an infant and into a grown-up adult. Culture refines and makes him or her a productive, useful member of society.
• By the behavior and character of a person, we understand the individual's cultural pedigree. Similar behavior of the members of a society reflects its culture
• Hindu culture is not portrayed only by its religious festivals and celebrations; its true reflection is in the collective and individual behavior. This needs to be taught by the elders and uncompromisingly imparted to the next generation

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 37 & 38

 2nd February 2024

• How do we justify our own mistakes? Often, we seek the support of our dear ones who always agree with us.
• Asking God to support the blunders that we commit, is a sacrilege!
• God, our constant companion witnesses not only what we do but also the motive of our actions.
• He generally remains silent, giving us a chance to reflect and change. 
• Devotee: 'How do we know if we are progressing in the spiritual path?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Watch your mind when no one is around; if it is quietly remembering God, or abiding in the Self, then you are moving ahead."

 

Gita reflection Ch 1 verses 35 & 36

 1st February 2024

All actions that build stronger walls between us and our cognition of the Real Divine Spark (the Self) in ourselves are called sins 

- Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

• When we are away from our Self, we become restless such as staying away from our own home
• In our ignorance, we have been thinking that our body, mind, and intellect as our real abodes; they are recognized as 'me' only by the world around us, not our true home
• Our real home is the Self which others do not see, though it is the same home for everyone.
• Only when we reach our real home we truly rest. Actions that bring us close to the Self alone are called Sadhana