1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 - Lesson 4 of 11

Srīmad Bhagavad Gītā is the ultimate sacred scripture of yoga, Yogaśastra and the pristine glory of the Vedic culture, the eternal living tradition called sanātana-dharma. It belongs to the whole Universe for it is delivered to the Universe by the source and embodiment of

Universe. We salute and bow down to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who spoke the Bhagavad Gītā out of His infinite love and compassion for all beings.

Whenever unrighteousness, adharma becomes predominant and dharma, righteous living declines and the Yoga of Enlightenment is lost,

Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Consciousness appears again and again to revive this sacred yoga, to protect and to enrich the devoted beings; and destroys adharma to re-establish the pure and everlasting dharma. Song

Gītā is also called Brahmavidyā the Knowledge of Brahman, the supreme absolute truth; it is Jīvan Mukti Vijñāna the Science of Living Enlightenment.

As with all scriptures, it is the knowledge and experience that is transmitted verbally as Śri Krṣṇārjuna Saṁvād, an intimate dialogue between Master of the world, Jagadguru Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His dear devotee and disciple, Arjuna. It is called śruti in Saṃskṛit, meaning something that is heard.

Gītā, as Bhagavad Gītā is generally called, translates literally from Saṃskṛit as 'Sacred Song of God'. Unlike

the Vedas and Upaniṣads, which are stand alone expressions of Truth, the Gītā is written into the greatest Hindu epic, the Mahābhārat, called a purāṇa, an ancient historical happening. It is part of the recorded history of the greatest tradition, the paramount civilization in all its Divine grandeur and its human complexity, so to speak.

No other epic or part of an epic has the special status and space of the Gītā. No other book but the Gītā gives a scientific, systematic, applied science of living joyfully in completion, while empowering the human actionfield with authenticity to evolve into a responsible Divine play-field.

Called the royal supreme knowledge rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ (9.2), this one sacred book conveys the essence of knowledge contained in all written and oral vedic truths to enrich the simplest to complex humans at all planes. It holds within itself the direct key to every possible human enquiry, the solution to every dilemma of emotions, and the sublime righteous path and goal of every quest of rising or falling civilizations for every age, time or geography. As a consequence of the presence of the Gītā, the Mahābhārat epic itself is considered a sacred Hindu scripture.

Gītā arose from the super consciousness of Śri Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme God, the complete Incarnation Purṇāvatār, and is therefore considered Gītāśastra—the essential scripture, knowing which, one is liberated from all incompletions, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase asubhāt (9.1) and Gītopaniṣad—the essence of all Upaniṣads, the purest and highest knowledge to be ever known and cognized because it gives the direct experience of the Self pavitram idam uttamam pratyakṣāvagaṁ dharmyaṁ (9.2).

Gītā is the ultimate practical teaching on the inner science of spirituality that expresses as outer victory and success in life now and after. It is not, as some scholars incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about the impermanence of the mind and body, and the need to go beyond the mind, ego and logic.

The answers of the Divine, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, transcend time and space. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's message is everlasting and joyfully performed, and is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield over five thousand years ago. The science of Gītā is the eternal technique of living in completion; the song of Gītā is the eternal life-enriching nectar, having no expiry date, time or age!

Mahābhārat, literally meaning the great Bhārata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as Bharat. It was then a nation ruled by king Bhārata and his descendants.

Your whole life is nothing but the Mahābhārat War. The Mahābharāt should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life. The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pānḍavas, closely related to one another. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the blind king of Hastināpur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pānḍu, whose children were the five Pānḍava princes.

It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dhārmic and adhārmic,

Since Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, Pānḍu was made the king of Hastināpura. Pānḍu was cursed by a sage that he would die if he ever entered into a physical relationship with his wives.

He therefore had no children. Vyāsa says that all the five Pānḍava children were born to their mothers Kuntī and Mādri through the blessing of divine beings. Pānḍu handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother.

Kuntī, who is the embodiment of tapas, spiritual penance, had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun god, Sūrya appeared before her.

Karṇa was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhiṣṭra, Bhīma and Arjuna were born to Kuntī after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Mādri, the second wife of Pānḍu. What happened during the MahabharatA?

Yudhiṣṭra was born to Kuntī as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bhīma by Vāyu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pānḍava twins, were born to Mādri, through the Divine Aśvini twins.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred sons through his wife Gāndhārī. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pānḍava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Duśśāsana, to kill the Pānḍava brothers. Kuntī's eldest son Karṇa, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave Yudhiṣṭra one half of the Kuru kingdom on his coming of age, since the Pānḍava prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pānḍu had vacated.

Yudhiṣṭra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.

Arjuna won the hand of princess Draupadī, daughter of the king of Pāñcāla, in a svayaṁvara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel.

In fulfillment of their mother Kuntī's desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupadī became the wife of all five Pānḍava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhiṣṭra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Śakunī defeated the Pānḍava king.

Yudhiṣṭra lost all that he owned—his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Duśśāsana shamed Draupadī in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pānḍava brothers and Draupadī were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajyāta vāsa.

At the end of the fourteen years, the Pānḍava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the king of the Yādava clan, who is the eighth divine incarnation of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

However, Duryodhana refused to yield even a needlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the War of Mahābhārat ensued. In this war, various rulers of the entire nation that is modern Bharat aligned with one or the other of these two clans, the Kauravas or the Pānḍavas.

Kṛṣṇa offered to join with either of the two clans. He says, 'One of you may have Me unarmed. I will not take any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yādava army.'

When the offer was first made to Duryodhana, he predictably chose the large and well-armed Yādava army, Nārāyaṇī Senā, in preference to the unarmed Kṛṣṇa.

Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose his dearest friend, his life mentor and his Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, to be his unarmed charioteer!

This whole history is such a beautiful happening. Mahābhārat is actually your life! Every character in the Mahābhārat teaches so much! We don't need to go anywhere for our life success or fulfillment or for anything else that we may desire. We don't need to study any other book to learn the human psychology or the science of living and leaving. Whether we seek righteous living—dharma; or we want to learn business or administration, economy or abundance—artha; or we want to create the best rich lifestyle—kāma; or we want to be a leader and want the enriching life of being enlightened mokṣa, for all these purposes, we don't need anything other than the Mahābharāt!

Study each character. We will not find any more characters in our life than the characters described in the Mahābharāt!

Any character we see in our life is mapped to Mahābharāt's one character. They are either half or full representation of some character.

To know how to handle them and even handle yourself, just see how Śrī Kṛṣṇa handles them and handle them the same way. The Mahābharāt war is a representation of life as it was lived in that age.

Vyāsa, its author is an unbiased historian who recorded the whole history as it happened without trying to apply any makeup. People ask whether the Mahābharāt war happened at all!

If the Mahābharāt was a story and not history, Vyāsa should receive multiple Pulitzer prizes for his highly creative work! The Mahābharāt is the longest literary work in the whole world with hundred thousand Saṃskṛit verses—the longest poem ever written with such delicate harmony of unmatched poetic perfection. It is larger than the Greek epics. Vyāsa had no computer, no tape recorder with speech-to-text capabilities. He dictated and Bhagavān Ganeṣa wrote it down!

• Yudhiṣṭra is embodiment of Integrity the power of words, vāk śakti.
• Bhīma is embodiment of Authenticity the power of thoughts, mano śakti.

Arjuna is embodiment of Responsibility—the power of feeling, prema śakti.

• Sahadeva is embodiment of Enriching the power of living, ātma śakti.
  • Nakula is embodiment of causing reality for others.

• Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.

• Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.

• Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to self destruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

• Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five (745) verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty (620) verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven (57) enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

annādbhavanti bhūtāni parjanyādannasaṁbhavaḥ yajñādbhavati parjanyo yajñaḥ karmasamudbhavaḥ

All beings grow from food grains, from rains the food grains become possible, the rains become possible from selfless sacrifice of enriching

Integrity is the root, authenticity is the tree, responsibility is the fruit, enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen.

karma brahmodbhavaṁ viddhi brahmākṣarasamudbhavam tasmātsarvagataṁ brahma nityaṁ yajñe pratiṣṭhitam

Know that work is born of the Creator and He is born of the Supreme. The all-pervading Supreme is eternally situated in sacrifice of enriching

The Universe is a huge wave of 'Tathāstu! — so be it!' So everything is as you create, as you organize, as you arrange!

evaṁ pravartitaṁ cakraṁ nānuvartayatīha yaḥ aghāyurindriyārāmo moghaṁ pārtha sa jīvati

O Pārtha, he who does not adopt the prescribed, established cycle lives a life full of sins. Rejoicing in sense gratification, he lives a useless life

When you are blissful, when your inner space is not one of worry, fear and greed patterns but one that is in the space of completion in the present, you will automatically attract the best of things.

A person does not attain freedom from action by abstaining from work, nor does he attain fulfillment by giving up action

Abstaining from work or moving away from work cannot give you freedom from action. To have freedom from action, your inner space needs to be purified, your inner space needs to be the space of completion

Integrity and Authenticity are the ways in which you relate with the unexpressed, avyakta part of God. Responsibility and Enriching are the ways in which you relate with vyakta, the expressed part of God.

When we perform a sacrifice, we perform certain invocations to the higher energies. So, we attract corresponding effects for our actions. Our actions are like offerings in a sacrifice. When the actions are in tune with tattvas of integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching which is the flow of Existence, it is like offering ghee (clarified butter) into the fire.

When we do not flow in tune with Existence, it is like offering mud into the fire.

You know the kind of smoke which comes out of the fire when you offer ghee and the kind of smoke that comes out when you offer mud.

Just like how you can determine the quality of the offering you gave to the fire from the quality of the smoke, the result of your actions can be determined from the quality of your actions. The quality of the end result is based on our input, our offerings, our enriching.

Some goal is always put in front of you. The so-called goals in material life or spiritual life continuously make you feel you are not good enough.

Kṛṣṇa says that rains become possible from the enriching sacrifice, yajñād bhavati parjanyo and the enriching sacrifice is born of actions, yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ

If we just understand this, we will realize that everything that we do and experience is caused by our own actions. We realize that we are the source of everything, and therefore responsible for everything that is happening. We invite our destiny. As we sow, so shall we reap.

Enriching is sowing the seed for the fruit to happen. Integrity is the root, authenticity is the tree, responsibility is the fruit, enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen.

Weather is strongly influenced by earth resonance frequencies, and the same frequencies are also produced in our brains. When many people take the responsibility to bring integrity and authenticity to their thinking and actions, the individual consciousness aligns and expands to affect the collective consciousness.

So we can actually even influence the weather by our thoughts. This is what Kṛṣṇa means when He says that rains are caused by sacrifice and enriching sacrifice is born of actions. It is an ultimate statement that proves the power of enriching, the power of living.

When a large number of people collectively integrate their thoughts and align their actions to enrich others with no expectations and with full faith in the abundance of the Universe, the Universe responds. Rain falls, grains grow, and abundance results.

It has actually been revealed by various studies that when a number of people integrate their thoughts with something similar, like during celebrations or a football world championship, then certain random number generators in computers start to deliver ordered numbers instead of random ones! Also understand, all so-called natural calamities are nothing but the effects of global collective negative thoughts.

The Universe is a huge wave of 'Tathāstu!—so be it!' So everything is as you create, as you organize, as you arrange! Put a little intelligence, time and energy into creating the right space in you. If you carry the space of many births, you will have many births! If you carry the space of a soul, you will have a soul! If you carry the space of no-soul, you will NOT have a soul!

Every action has a cause and an effect. Using the same principle, you can actually create the desired effect by just causing its visualization in your inner space.

For example, when you meditate, if you visualize you are bliss, bliss is bound to happen in and around you as an effect. It would seem that the cause has created the effect. But in life, cause and effect are actually a cycle, each generating and being generated by the other

Anything that has not made its effect completely in you is cause. Anything caused which has made its completion in you is effect. Anything which has not caused its complete effect in you is cause. This is the endless cycle Kṛṣṇa refers to when He says that work originates with the Creator, who in turn originates from the Supreme Existence, and therefore all sacrifices are from the Supreme to the Supreme

Live the tattvas intensely! Bring them into your life layer by layer. Your body will listen to you. Your mind will listen to you. The world will listen to you. The Universe will listen to you. Humanity will listen to you. You will enrich the Universe and the Universe will enrich you.

If you are sensitive enough to understand life and the facts, and the truth, the Cosmos does not teach you in a very hard way; it teaches you in a mild way. If you can change your inner space from this incomplete space to the space of completion, the space of bliss, Ānanda, then the energy flow in your inner space will start brimming and your thoughts will become declarations of integrity, which is like multiplying all your past negativity by zero. Then you will be complete in the present moment.

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3

When you do this, you have power to control external incidents because you and Existence have a very deep connection at the energy level. This is the thread you need to catch in order to understand that bliss attracts fortune. When you are blissful, when your inner space is not one of worry, fear and greed patterns but one that is in the space of completion in the present, you will automatically attract the best of things.

When you throw a pebble into a lake, ripples start from that point to the edge of the lake. Similarly, your thoughts have a permanent effect on the Universe. Imagine if the lake were infinite light. Ripples with a continuous effect would be created, even though the magnitude of each ripple would be different

If you are rich, be the ground on which the seed can be sown. If not, at least pour water for the seed to become a tree. If not, at least be a gardener to weed out the unnecessary things for the seed to become fruit again. Either offer your time, talent, or treasure. If you have eaten the fruit, it is your responsibility to make the seed again into a fruit. After eating the fruit, be responsible to sow the seed and make sure the seed again brings more fruits for more people to enjoy.

Our body-mind is highly influenced by our thoughts and words. The words you constantly repeat to yourself, have to be enriching you, inspiring you, exciting you and enlightening you. The words you give to you are āhara (food), what you consume to create life in you

Help children understand that enriching is sowing the seed for the fruit to happen. Integrity is the root, authenticity is the tree, responsibility is the fruit, enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen.

• Which tattvas relate to the expressed part of God?
• Which tattvas relate to the unexpressed part of God ?
  • How are our actions like offerings in a sacrifice?
• What is the form of energy for rain and what is rain useful for?
• Why should we decide to create the space for the best possibility?
  • Can weather be influenced by people?
  • Which thread you need to catch in order to understand that bliss attracts fortune?
    • What is the responsible action for seeds?

• ❖ Coloring Pens
• ❖ Paper

Encourage each child to draw the thoughts which arise in their mind in the same sequence in which they occur. Observe the results of the drawings together.

Authenticity is you being established and responding to life from who you believe yourself to be yourself, who you believe yourself to be for others and what others believe you to be for them.

Encourage children to write down the different uses of water. After they have written the list, read out the lists written by each and every child. Each child can find additional uses from what others have written and add on to their own list

Nature listens to you when you are in authenticity. Work to retain your authenticity authentically.

A group will sit together and discuss about the unsaid words, about the irritation they carry inside which they never express outside. For example: The child may express that the teacher did not teach them properly or that their mother does not cook tasty food for them. They have to share what is the vested interest and what is the loss they experience. Vested interest – In the above example, the child does not want to do homework so they say the teacher did not teach properly. The vested interest in the second example is that the child wants to eat outside of home.

The loss is that they are inauthentic when they express that their teacher did not teach properly. The loss is they become inauthentic with themselves.

Let the world not create words in you and let your words create the world around you. They have to sit and complete with all the unsaid words

Integrity is the root, authenticity is the tree, responsibility is the fruit, enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen. The Universe is a huge wave of 'Tathāstu!—so be it!'

So everything is as you create, as you organize, as you arrange! When you are blissful, when your inner space is not one of worry, fear and greed patterns but one that is in the space of completion in the present, you will automatically attract the best of things