Happiness and Sorrow: The Bhagavad Gita

According to the Bhagavad Gita, Happiness and Sorrow are the two sides of life. No one can change it. No one can predict it. They come and go. Whatever measures are taken to avoid sorrow, it can appear in life in many other forms. When compare happiness with sorrow, many times the sorrow takes up the lead. Sometimes it may be due to the over emphasis on the sorrow. In the totality of life the happiness felt in a life time, many people asses, is very little compared to sorrow. Everyone, naturally, searches ways to avoid sorrow in life. In this context let us think in detail about happiness and sorrow on the basis of teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

On an earlier post, Body and Soul, the reality of body and soul has explained. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the soul or consciousness is eternal and the body is transitory. It is because of consciousness that we become aware of ourselves and of other things. Consciousness or soul is the living part and the transitory body is the dead matter. A body becomes alive because of consciousness or soul. When the soul leaves a body it becomes dead body. It is the soul gives us the feeling of existence and that is called the real personality or real "I".

The soul is free and it exists without any connection with  matters in the universe. It is without any karma and without any emotion or feeling. But when it gets attached to a body (birth) it becomes jivathma or individual soul. This soul gets connected to the external world through the five senses. So it experiences the sensual subjects and gets emotions. As though the individual soul is free from all emotions, the activities of the senses gives different kinds of emotions.

Let us see the senses. Senses give contradictory and dual experiences like heat and cold, happiness and sorrow. Sometimes cold becomes comfortable (happy). But in some other circumstances cold becomes uncomfortable (sorrowful). Heat is also similar. The senses and sensual objects give happiness and sorrow without any permanency. They come and go. The dual characteristic of senses and sensual objects and their formation and decay is their own nature. No one can change it. When we depend on senses and sensual objects then we have to face the dual experiences of happiness and sorrow. If it is so, how it can be solved and won. For that one has to practice mental balance or equilibrium while experiencing the sensual pleasures. How it is possible? The only way to overcome the dual nature of senses and to practice mental equilibrium, is to tolerate the dual experiences of happiness and sorrow, without any anxiety or lamentation.

To achieve these things one has to understand clearly the truth of existence. Soul is the real truth behind the whole existence. So try to enhance the soul quality in life . Avoid sensual emotions by controlling senses. That is the only way to face happiness and sorrow with a mental equilibrium. In this way learn to tolerate both happiness and sorrow courageously.  As we are leading worldly life by receiving different experiences through the senses, then we will have the dual experiences in life. Anyway life will be with happiness and sorrow as well. Why we unnecessarily give concerned emotions to the mind. Just face everything as they come and tolerate them. What is wrong to worry about sorrows? All our responding, either favorably or unfavorably, in life create vasana or impressions in the subtle body and that cause another birth. If we continue to create vasanas through likes and dislikes in life then we have to undergo many births. On the contrary, if we live life with tolerance that will finish off the existing vasana and will not create new vasanas. Anyhow a balanced mind and the capacity of tolerance make one eligible to experience ultimate happiness through continued atma sadhana (practicing self knowledge or athma jnana). Life cannot be improved by getting attached with happiness and sorrow. Practice non-attachment in life.

Samkhya Yoga - Part 4 - Controlling Senses

Chapter 2 /part 4

Happiness and Sorrow in life

Controlling five senses and Eternal Bliss

Through Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches the true nature of sense pleasures and gives a way to overcome it. Krishna continues to say that if it is overcome then that person can achieve permanent happiness and avoid sorrow in life.

The senses and sense objects are those which give feelings of cold and heat, happiness and sorrow. They come and go and it is transitory. The only way to overcome it is to tolerate courageously. Senses and sense objects are those which produce opposite and dual experiences like heat and cold, sorrow and happiness. Sometimes heat gives us happiness. Sometimes heat gives us sorrow. Similarly the senses and sense objects give different experiences that may be contradicting and with a dual nature. It is their habitual nature. No one can change it. The senses cannot be experienced in the absence of sense objects and the sense objects cannot be experienced in the absence of senses. Above all, if there is no consciousness or soul then the senses and sense objects cannot be experienced.

So Krishna urges Arjuna to tolerate everything courageously. Krishna tells that there is only one way to overcome sorrow in life and that is practicing life tolerance. There is no point in showing anxiety and lamentation. If so, that may create likes and dislikes which in turn produces karma vasana. By practicing tolerance one can develop mental equilibrium. This enables us to face life situations courageously.

He continues to say that to whom the contradicting and dual sense experiences does not give agony and who he considers happiness and sorrow equally and withdraws intellect from sense matters, that person becomes deserving the eternal bliss or brahma-ananda.

Brahmananda or eternal bliss. This is the supreme state of joy. Every human being is searching and trying for this bliss or true happiness throughout life. He thinks the pleasures he enjoys through senses is the true happiness. We saw that sensual pleasures can only give temporary happiness. This happiness comes and goes as it is its nature. The fifteenth verse of the Bhagavad Gita says that to whom the contradictory sense experiences do not gives agony that person is entitled to experience the eternal bliss. One should consider happiness and sorrow equally. Do not feel anxiety or lamentation towards agony of life. One will be known courageous or bold when he withdraws his intellect from sense subjects. Here the emphasis goes to the senses and sense matters. By practicing life tolerance one can gain true happiness. By running after worldly pleasures no one can achieve true happiness. Control the senses and achieve the eternal bliss. There lies peace and ananda.

The Bhagavad Gita: As I See

Chapter 2 /part 3 <<<<< Go to                                           Go to >>>> Chapter 2 /part 5

Body and Soul: The Bhagavad Gita

This post is a  discussion about Body and Soul based on The Bhagavad Gita. For this, the verses 12 and 13 of chapter two are taken into consideration. There are other verses also that discusses  the same in the latter chapters.

According to the Bhagavad Gita, there are only two substances that can be seen as components of an individual. One is body (matter) and other is soul (consciousness). Consciousness is having capability of knowing about itself and about other matters. But body or matter does not have this capacity of its own and so it can be called as dead matter. A body or dead matter becomes alive and conscious only in the presence of soul or consciousness. This reveals that consciousness or soul is free and absolute and the body is not free and relative.  The absolute consciousness is unlimited and ever existing. It cannot be created or nor be destroyed. It is eternal. In the same time, matter or body is having change and death. The absolute consciousness or soul, when it gets attached to a body, becomes limited and is known as 'jivathma' or individual soul. Thus body is the dead matter that binds the individual soul. This is the abstract teaching that we get from those verses of the Bhagavad Gita. Let us see this in detail.

A body is ever changing. Body has a birth, growth and death. From prana spandana (energy vibration) to all dead matters everything is subjected to change. Even if the body is subjected to change, the innate soul is without any change. This can be understood from our direct experiences. The feeling of existence or the feeling of "I" (not the ego) is given to an individual by the soul or consciousness with its capacity of 'knowing'. Let us observe the three states of existence - deep sleep state, dreaming state and wake up state. It is the same consciousness or soul or "I" (without any change) which experiences the deep sleep, that goes on dreaming latter. After these two states, the same "I" starts doing karma or activities in the wake up state. No one can say that there are three different "I" that slept well, dreamed and woke up. Everybody experiences that they are the same "I" in the three states.

Similarly a body passes through different stages as childhood, youth and old age. While passing through these stages, it is the same consciousness or soul (without any change) that experiences the changes of body. It is the same "I" that had born, finally goes to death. If no change is happening for the soul in different stages of body or in different states of existences then there will not be any change or death for the soul when the body becomes dead.

This is the truth of existence of body and soul.  In latter verses of the Bhagavad Gita , the truth about birth and rebirth will be discussed. When the existing body becomes dead the everlasting soul receives another body (rebirth). The rebirth is happening due to the karmas. Whenever the accumulated karma is finished completely then there will not be any rebirth. Then the soul that was attached to the body (jivathma) will be released and joins with the absolute consciousness or paramathma.

Samkhya Yoga - Part 3 - Body and Soul

Chapter 2 /part 3

Bhagavad Gita: Body and Soul

The Bhagavad Gita, in chapter2 /part2 showed the ignorance behind Arjuna's emotional attachment to "my" feeling. The rest is his sadness for killing 'my' peoples in the war. To remove this confusion Krishna reveals the truth about body and soul.

Krishna tells: I had never been non existent. You also had never been non existent. Even all those kings had never been non existent. Therefore we all are had been existed for ever. We all will never become non existent hereafter.

The Bhagavad Gita: Soul is ever existing and body is transitory:

We are all souls not bodies. So there is no death by the loss of our body. Consider that nothing is happened when the physical body is dead. In this way think that I or you or those kings have no death, so no birth. All are ever existing souls.

How it is understood that soul has no death or no change? We all pass through different stages of our life. First is the birth then childhood, youth and old age. In all these stages there is no change for the "I". It is the same "I" passed through all the different stages of life. We know that what all changes happened to the body, nothing is happened to the "I" or soul. All the changes happens only to the body.

We experience three states of existence throughout our life. The wake-up state, dreaming state and deep sleep state (jagrath, swapna, sushupthi). In all these states the experiencer is the same. The "I" which do various karma in wake state goes to sleep and have dreams. The same "I" further goes to deep sleep. How it is understood? We all say after a deep sleep that "I" slept well and nothing was known.

In above two cases a particular thing is staying unchanged and that is the consciousness or soul. Here we saw there is no change for the soul during life stages and during different states of existence. So there will not be any change for the soul when it looses the physical body.

Just like an individual passes through childhood, youth and old age, similarly the soul receives new bodies when existing bodies become dead. It can also be compared to wearing new cloths when old cloths are worn out. Similarly a soul accepts new body several times. A soul has to take birth one after another till it completes the cycle by clearing off the accumulated karma.

The Bhagavad Gita reveals the secret of body and soul:

The absolute consciousness (Brahma or soul) is the only ever existing truth. All things that are visible in this universe, including our body, are perishable or transitory. There are only two components for existence - that is conscious Brahma or soul and dead matter or body. The consciousness is ever existing (without change) and the matter is ever changing. Consciousness is the only thing that have the capability of knowing its own existence and knowing other things. Matter does not have this capacity of knowing anything. A matter or body becomes live only when it have the presence of consciousness. When the soul leaves a body then the body becomes dead. Matter is subject to evolution. It always undergoes changes that is birth, growth, decay and death. Consciousness or soul has no birth and no death, it is ever existent. The individual consciousness (jivathma) gives existence to an individual . Body or mind or intelligence cannot give existence.

The individualized consciousness (because of a body and mind) is called 'jivathma' or individual soul. So, for an individual even if the body (matter) is lost (death) nothing is happened to the soul. The existence of soul continues by accepting several new bodies till its cycle of existence ends by clearing off the accumulated karma. Who he knows this truth never worries in the loss of a transitory body. In this verse13 of the Bhagavad Gita, after explaining this, Krishna urges Arjuna to give up worrying and get up and get ready for the war.

In the Bhagavad Gita the circumstance or occasion that happens here is a battle field, but the principles revealed here is not only for a battle field but also for the real battle of living. So utilize these principles in life.

Chapter 2 /part 2 <<<<<  Go to                                      Go to >>>> Chapter 2 /part4                                                           

Samkhya Yoga - Part 2 - Aham Bhavam

Chapter - 2 /part 2

Aham Bhavam: the Bhagavad Gita

Before, Krishna told that the reason for his sorrow is ignorance. Then he tells that a scholar or a knowledgeable person never becomes sorrowful about anything. The statement that the Bhagavad Gita put forward here is that the knowledge is the only solution for this. Knowledge and sorrow are two opposite things.  If a person becomes sorrowful, that shows lack of knowledge. Why the feeling 'sorrow' is sprouting up from mind? It is because of 'aham' or "I". Krishna through the Bhagavad Gita conveys the message that the feeling of "I" and "My" is the basic reason for sorrow. We feel sorrow only when something is happened to "me" or "mine". No one becomes sorrowful when something bad is happened to someone else.

Aham Bhavam and the Bhagavad Gita:

A person lives with the feeling of "I". It is called 'aham bhavam' . Then there forms the "my" feeling. And an attachment develops towards others or other things those are "mine". The Bhagavad Gita goes on mentioning that 'aham bhavam'  is the result of ignorance. A knowledgeable person or a philosopher or a Rishi never becomes sorrowful about anything or anybody. Ancient Indian philosophers or Rishis are those who used the knowledge, reason and argument in seeking  the ultimate truth of reality especially of the causes and nature of things and of the principles governing existence.

So Krishna tells Arjuna to drop the unreal and temporary sorrow and get up and perform the desired or liable karma or duty. Following chapters says that no one can abstain from desired duties. That is a sin. Further, Krishna explains that there is no point in worrying about the death of relatives in the war.

<<< Chapter2 /part 1                                                    >>> continue... Chapter2 /part 3

Samkhya Yoga - Part 1- Feeling of I

Chapter 2 / part 1

Bhagawat Gita: Feeling of "I"

The first chapter of the Bhagawat Gita concludes when Arjuna sits on the floor of the chariot, telling that he is not ready for war. In the second chapter Krishna reveals why the dilemma affected Arjuna. In the verse 2 of this chapter, Krishna uses the words - "kasmalamidam vishame". The swoon affected Arjuna is because of sorrow (vishame). Kasmalam means wicked. The dilemma comes to Arjuna because of sorrow. Sorrow arises from the feeling of aham or "I" and "My" and the feeling of attachment to it. Normally we, humans become sorrowful or worried only when some thing happens either to 'me' or 'mine'.  The feeling of "aham"  gives us unnecessary worries and that may destroy our capability of discrimination as what to do or what not to do!. Arjuna, because of his over attachment to aham, becomes sorrowful. Because of sorrow he becomes swoon (fainted) and sits on the floor of chariot like a disheartened and weak person.

Not only in this situation that he becomes affected with "I" and "My" feeling. When he starts to the battle field he might wished for his victory and fame. That is the reason he gets ready for the war. The same aham or "I" makes him sorrowful at a difficult situation. It is normal for those with  aham to happen like this. He forgot that this war is a dharma yudh (war for establishing dharma) and not for his own satisfaction.

In third verse Krishna uses these words - "shudram hrudaya dourbalyam" . The behavior of Arjuna is simply of his mental weakness (hridaya dourbalyam), and that is 'shudram' - means ,that destroys other capabilities to discriminate good and bad.

Krishna tries to help him to overcome this mental weakness. Krishna tells him that this is mainly because of ignorance. A knowledgeable person does not become sorrowful and disheartened. Ignorance can be eradicated only by knowledge- the ultimate knowledge or knowledge of existence(athma jnana). Through that knowledge one can become aware of 'who am I and how the universe formed? This is the ultimate knowledge and the lack of this knowledge makes us confused in life. That is the main utility of the Bhagawat Gita in our day to day life. Knowing about ourselves and about our universe will certainly makes us broad minded and thus we can avoid unexpected failures.

But here Krishna cannot give necessary advise till Arjuna asks or when he becomes ripe for advice/upadesa. But when Arjuna hears Krishna telling that the reason for this situation is because of the sorrow, mental weakness and lack of knowledge, he realized the need for some guidance. In the seventh verse Arjuna pleads for advice from Krishna. He says that because of ignorance he becomes incapable of discriminating dharma and adharma (righteous and unrighteous) and asking for dharma upadesa or righteous advice.The Bhagawat Gita is the advice from Bhagavan (God).

In our life we also may stuck in similar situation when an acute problem appear. Automatically we tend to turn towards God for proper guidance and help. Similarly Arjuna also surrenders to the supreme God Krishna for advice. From this occasion Krishna starts his spiritual advice/ atma upadesam. This is the Gita-upadesam (advice from the holy Gita). Krishna gives advice not as the embodied or manifested God but as Parabrahmam. And this is the total benefit we receives from the Bhagawat Gita. From the Bhagawat Gita we get knowledge how the whole universe formed and what is the position of human beings in this universe. We will come to know about ourselves and about our existence. The meaning of our life is also explained step by step in the Bhagawat Gita.

continued in Part 2 of chapter 2.Bhagawat Gita

Vishada yoga

Chapter 1

Arjuna Vishada Yoga
(Arjuna becomes sorrowful in the battle field)

In the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, as it is, deals with the mental situation of Arjuna in the battle field. When Arjuna sees his relatives, gurus and others as enemies in his opposite side on the battle field, his mind fills with sympathy in first place. Then he becomes deluded with different emotions like despondency. Why he retrogrades to such a level? Is it because of fear? Or because he is very sensitive or very compassionate to relatives? So many explanations came and expressed various opinions about the Bhagavad Gita, as it is.

The main aspect of Arjuna's  character which is revealed in this situation, is his feeling of "aham" - the feeling of I and my. It is his selfish emotions that comes up in war front. Arjuna sees the people who come for war as his relatives only. He gives importance to the attachment he has to the relatives. He is emotionally attached to the "I" and "My" relatives. He comes to the battle field as a warrior to save his country from adharmic rulers. This battle itself is to reestablish dharma. He has to fight against the evil karma of enemies. But he forgets his duties as a warrior and he gives importance to his nearest relatives. This is not right for a warrior and that may give failure to his army and country. That is the reason Krishna compels Arjuna to do his duty as it is the goal of this first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

In the verse: 29, Arjuna tells like this - "O Krishna, by seeing my peoples who came here by the desire for war,  my whole body is becoming weak; face is drying; my body is shivering".

In the above speech, the main point is that Arjuna gives stress on telling this - "my people". Not only in this verse, in verse:34 also Arjuna expresses his deep concern about his gurus, forefathers, sons, uncles, father in laws, grand children, brother in laws etc. In all these talks it is very clear that Aham is very high in him. Aham means the feeling of "I".

Then in verses:32 - 36 Arjuna expresses his desire-less attitude. He tells that he does not wish for victory in the battle; he does not desire for owning the country and other pleasures. He asks what is the benefit of getting the country through a battle? What is the use of life? They have come to kill me, but I am not ready to kill them, even if I am given the ruling power of three worlds. So I never kill them for just this country on this Earth.

From the above speeches, if we look this situation positively and in a spiritual point of view, his readiness to give up worldly pleasures shows that he is in the brim of  'non-attachment' and matured enough to receive spiritual lessons. In the battle field, Arjuna expresses his detachment to worldly pleasures. For a spiritual seeker there will be a juncture between attachment to worldly pleasures and desire for spiritual attainment. Here one becomes confused.

During the speeches that follows, Arjuna talks about his family, family members, his caste and creed. He is highly proud of his family, gothra, caste and creed. He has to be uplifted from that plane and posted to a broad minded state or towards spiritual plane. This is the effort that Krishna took through out the Bhagavat Gita as it is. According to Krishna, the reason for all the sorrows in life of any person in any filed is the absence of proper knowledge or wisdom about the very life and existence. So through giving atma jnana Lord Krishna tries to help Arjuna to overcome the situation. Here we should not think that it is only applicable in a war situation. This actually is a lesson to apply in our life situations.

Here one thing is clear that because of the agony, created by  facing difficult situation, Arjuna starts to withdraw from battle field, forgetting his duty as a warrior. This situation can be seen in our day to day life. When some problems come, we forget our duties and become lazy and try to escape from that situation. Finally, in the end of this chapter, Arjuna sits on the chariot telling that he is not ready for the war.

Karma vasana (latent tendency for karma) is of two types, one is righteous vasana and second is evil vasana.  The Kauravas represent those with evil vasanas.  While living the life, one should try to destroy evils and develop righteous vasanas through karma. Otherwise there are chances to decline in life. Arjuna is the representative of those who has grown righteous vasanas. But he does not have even some preliminary ideas about atma jnana (ultimate wisdom). For those like Arjuna, there are chances of becoming sorrowful in the midst of life problems. In such a situation if there is no chance of getting atma vidya from a proper guru, there happens many failures in life. Laziness and inactivity may affect the life. The state of Arjuna who leaves bow and arrows in the battle field resembles the same. If Arjuna goes back from the battle field, there is a lot of chance for him to lead the rest of his life by doing other evil acts, because his vasanas for doing his karma (battling as a warrior) was not exhausted.

This gives an important warning for those who leave worldly life all of a sudden and go for sanyasa (renunciation of worldly life) in the forest. Arjuna is trying to do this. In the following chapters Lord Krishna explains the need for finishing karma vasana by unselfish acts and then attain wisdom. If so, finally there will be a chance of attaining realization. To avoid any confusion in life like this, one should posses the atma jnana

....continue to Chapter2 /part 1

The Bhagavad Gita - Introduction

The Bhagavad Gita is book of scientific spiritual principles. It shows the ultimate truth about existence of universe. The Bhagavad Gita is a science that shows humans how to perform and what to achieve in the battle field of life.

Everybody knows that the Bhagavad Gita was written by maharishi Veda Vyasa. Gita was written as explaining the Upanishads principles. Upanishads are books that opens out the scientific truth about existence with discrimination and with extreme clarity. Upanishads are also called Vedanta.

Here in this site the Bhagavad Gita is not explained stanza by stanza. But meanings of important stanzas are given. Word by word meaning and explanations are available everywhere as books or in the internet. So I am not going for that. Instead, the underlying factors of the Bhagavad Gita is expressed and discussed in the view of a seeker of self knowledge or atma jnana. Only ideas of important stanzas are explained. Bhagavad Gita can be interpreted in many ways, like, to help people  enhance either their bhakthi (devotion) yoga or karma yoga or self realization. Many interpretations came mostly emphasizing bhakthi. But for a serious spiritual seeker, Gita can be viewed as a pointer to atma sakshatkaram or self realization (liberation). The ultimate truth which Gita exposes is Adwaita (principle of non-duality). Step by step or a little by little the Gita takes us to Brahma.

The Bhagavad Gita teaches how to avoid sorrows in life. Bhagavan Krishna teaches that  sorrows in life are because of the lack of wisdom about the ultimate truth. Overcome all the worries and sorrows by knowing the science of existence or the science of origin of universe.

At the battle field of Kurushetra, in the midst of enemies and friends Arjuna became sorrowful by viewing relatives and gurus as enemies. He became disheartened and became weak. In this situation Krisha who had taken the role of the charioteer, persuades Arjuna to be brave by teaching the ultimate truth about existence. Thus Arjuna becomes able to do his duty and save his country and won the situation.

The battle field explained in the Bhagavad Gita is actually the battle field of karma or actions. In this battle field of Kurukshetra, the war is fought between good and evil karma. This battle is happening every time everywhere, even inside us. But without knowing the ultimate truth nobody can win the situation. The truth lies in the Bhagavad Gita helps humans to win any field, whether spiritual or worldly or professional life.

The Bhagavad Gita explains what is the secret of existence, the theoretical explanation. Then it teaches how to test it and experience. Finally it helps us to attain or realize the truth. That is the realization of self.