In the previous episode, we had witnessed the commencement of the twelfth “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita, wherein Bhagawan Krishna has come back to His normal form in front of Arjuna. Now, Bhagawan is trying to give some tips as to how one can enter into the “Bhakti Maargam”. Bhagawan lists out a few ways to do so, such as thinking about His characteristics and significance at all times, thinking about His divine “Kalyaana Gunas”, involving oneself in “Kainkaryam” (Helping others in whatever capacity possible), etc. Thus, if we pick any of these and start implementing them in our daily lives, it is understood that we’re going to go closer to Bhagawan through the “Bhakti Maargam”. Now, as Bhagawan is talking about His divine “Gunas” that one has to focus upon, Arjuna immediately asks Bhagawan to list out His key “Gunas”. Bhagawan does so, which we’re going to witness in today’s episode.
As Arjuna asks thus, Bhagawan replies back – “Oh Arjuna! You’ve to remember one thing clearly – Love and compassion towards all living beings is the key for implementing “Dharma”. If you want to walk the path of “Dharma”, you’ve to exhibit love and compassion towards each and every living being in this world, without looking at the differences between them. You should never encourage bias or partiality towards any living being, as all of them contain the same “Atman” like yours. Hence, you should develop that compassion towards all living beings and this is the primary “Guna” that you’ve to focus on!” Bhagawan says thus,
“Adveshtaah sarva bhootaanaam maitraha karunayevacha!”
Thus, as Bhagawan explains about universal love and compassion, He moves on to the next point. Bhagawan subsequently says, “Nirmamaha nirahankaaraha”, which means that one should shun the “Mama-Kaaram” (Self-pride) and “Ahankaaram” (Arrogance / Ego) towards everyone and everything in this world. This is where many of us get trapped! We can still somehow try and exhibit love and compassion towards people, but if someone hurts our ego, we would immediately want to give it back to them, wouldn’t we? This is where we’ve to exhibit restraint. Even if someone hurts us deliberately, are we able to exhibit love and compassion towards them still? Or, even if this is not possible, are we atleast able to move away from that place? Many a time we might not be ready to do so. Rather, we will take that as an opportunity to scold the other person back with all our might and rigor, isn’t it? This is what Bhagawan Krishna is explaining here that we should avoid!
Moreover, when we experience success in whatever we’re doing, we tend to jump up and down with a lot of joy. However, when we experience failure, we tend to sit and brood over it. Bhagawan says that we should have a neutral approach towards both success and failure. In other words, if we taste success, it is not required that we jump up and down everytime. At the same time, if we taste a failure, it is also not required for us to keep brooding over it. We should be able to get over it immediately and move on further with other aspects in life. Are we having this maturity of seeing success and failure in the same plane? We should do an introspection within ourselves. Moreover, if someone praises us, our ego will shoot up several notches, and we will be “floating” in the air literally, isn’t it? At the same time, if someone insults us, our ego will again shoot up and this will result in anger and frustration towards that person, isn’t it? Bhagawan says that we should treat both “praise” and “insult” equally on the same plane.
If we’re able to do this, our ego will be in check. Else, what would happen is that, our ego will keep rising and falling, which would result in our composure and calmness taking a hit. The moment our mind loses its calm, we would not be able to think of Bhagawan constantly. We should always have this in mind – If we’ve to perform the “Bhakti Yoga”, we should embed Bhagawan into our minds completely and firmly and for this to happen, our mind should be completely devoid of ego! If we’re giving room for success, failure, praises and insults in our mind, our ego is going to lose its balance. Subsequently, we would experience happiness, joy, anger and frustration upon worldly things and not on Bhagawan! Hence, Bhagawan Krishna says that if we are bringing our ego into a balance, automatically we would start walking the path of the “Bhakti Maargam”! So for today, let us understand this important point from Bhagawan and with this, we’ve come to the end of the twelfth “Adhyaaya”. We shall wait till the next episode to commence the thirteenth “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 