My book on Bhagwadgita

The idea to obtain liberation is the main theme of Gita, advocating three spiritual paths towards it, namely Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

 

The battle of Kurukshetra (field of work or material action) is fought between two opposing forces: discriminative intelligence (buddhi) and the sense-conscious mind (manas), on a daily basis within us. It is fought at three different levels: moral, psychological and spiritual.

The material and moral struggle is between good and evil, right and wrong action on the sensory level. The psychological war is between the material tendencies of mind pulling the life and consciousness outward towards matter and the discriminative tendencies of intelligence drawing the life and consciousness inward towards the soul. The spiritual battle is fought to overcome the lower states of consciousness and dissolve all duality and sense of separation from God.

The material man will know inner peace and happiness only if he sides with goodness and wins the struggle between the good and evil inclinations that guide his actions on the external bodily field of action. The spiritual aspirant will know inner peace and happiness once he wins the psychological war defeating the tendencies of mental restlessness and sense attractions. The yogi, who seeks the ultimate goal of Self-realisation and liberation, will know inner peace and happiness on winning the spiritual battle against the magnetic attraction of the lower ego nature of body consciousness.

The impulsive mental and sense tendencies (Kauravas), and the self-disciplined offspring (Pandavas) of the soul’s discrimination (Pandu) assemble on the bodily field (Kurukshetra) of sensory, psychological and spiritual battle every day. Bhagwadgita suggests, through Sri Krishna (soul), that we should indulge in a daily (at the end of the day) honest introspection (Sanjay), to reveal to our blind mind (Dhritarashtra) which force, good or evil, won the battle that day.

comparative study

Why do people compare themselves with others? Why can’t they look at themselves and be happy/grateful for what they have, instead of peeping into others’ lives. Why don’t they realise that what they see is what the other wants them to see – it is all so superficial, it’s not the truth. Doing this, such people destroy their own lives as well as lives of those around them. This is a mental aberration, a disease – don’t live and don’t let others live either! But unfortunately, most of the people seem to be like this - its almost like an epidemic! It's seen in families, offices, businesses and of course politics...

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I remember birthdays were always special for me. My parents used to celebrate them in style. I felt great. Once I was older, as in college, the celebrations converted to treating friends to a movie and pastries, or perhaps a lunch. But still I continued to feel great.

Post marriage, I came to a painful realisation that not all families are into celebrating birthdays of full-grown adults. Well, my husband would get me flowers and we would go out for dinner. And I would be happy.

With the birth of my two daughters, I started celebrating their birthdays with much excitement and fanfare – after all a birthday is a very special day I firmly believed.

Then, they became older and wanted to celebrate in their own way – which was fine.

For my own birthday, I would call up my friends and ask them to wish me. I would throw birthday lunches wherever I would be working – for any number of people.

Subsequently, my birthdays started being celebrated by our family friends – they realised in two decades what a birthday freak I was. So, it continued to be great.

Then came my fiftieth birthday and I thought that by now everyone would be aware of the importance of birthday celebration in my life and fiftieth should be with a major bang.

Alas, nothing happened - just a small family meal in a restaurant.

And suddenly, it dawned on me that why was I so attached to my birthday, when I claimed to be detached otherwise? This was providence teaching me that all days are the same. In fact, I recalled an Oshoite friend of mine telling me this, many years ago: Why should birthday be special? Every day is special!

So today, whether we celebrate my birthday or not, I don’t really care… I celebrate my life in my heart, at all times, every day…

Started blogging

Finally, on my daughter Shruti's suggestion, I have started this blog.
Let's see how it all works out...