1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 - Lesson 4 of 10

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.'

cāturvarṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇakarma vibhāgaśaḥ I tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhyakartāramavyayam

Depending upon the distribution of the three attributes or guṇas and action, I have created the four castes Yet, I am to be known as the non-doer, the unchangeable

The present day narrative about the evil caste system of ancient Bharat is a myth and a concocted lie. The truth is that the system of classification is based on the predominant guna (sattva, rajas, tamas) in a person and not dependent on his birth.

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti na me karmaphale spṛhā I iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti karmabhirna sa badhyate

I am not affected by any work; nor do I long for the outcome of such work One who understands this truth about me also does not get caught in the bondage of work

The desires we carry from a previous birth, have the innate energy and intelligence capable of fulfilling itself without acquiring karma.

evaṁ jñātvā kṛtaṁ karma pūrvairapi mumukṣubhiḥ I kuru karmaiva tasmāttvaṁ pūrvaiḥ pūrvataraṁ kṛtam

All the wise and liberated souls of ancient times have acted with this understanding and thus attained liberation Just as the ancients did, perform your duty with this understanding

Have no unfulfilled desires, no incompletion, and no attachments, you will have no karma.

kiṁ karma kimakarmeti kavayo'pyatra mohitāḥ I tat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyase'śubhāt

What is action and what is inaction, even the wise are confused. Let me explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all ills

Work from your needs, not from your wants.

karmaṇo hyapi boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ I akarmaṇaśca boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ

The complexities of action are very difficult to understand Understand fully the nature of proper action by understanding the nature of wrong action and inaction

Proper action can be understood by understanding what comprises inaction and wrong action.

karmaṇyakarma yaḥ paśyedakarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ I sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsnakarmakṛt

He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise and a yogi, Even if engaged in all activities

Your joy is no longer dependent on what society says or thinks about you, because you are complete in yourself.

yasya sarve samārambhāḥ kāmasaṅkalpavarjitāḥ I jñānāgnidagdhakarmāṇaṁ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ

He who is determined and devoid of all desires for sense gratification he is of perfect knowledge. The sages declare such a person wise whose actions are burnt by the fire of knowledge

In the process of Unclutching, you transcend both action and inaction, karmaṇi and akarmaṇi.

tyaktvā karmaphalāsaṅgaṁ nityatṛpto nirāśrayaḥ I karmaṇyabhipravṛtto'pi naiva kiñcitkaroti saḥ

Having given up all attachment to the results of his action, always satisfied and independent, the wise man does not act, though he is engaged in all kinds of action.

Be involved completely in the action yet be detached, independent and satisfied within.

Now we come to the controversial topic of the caste system. Kṛṣṇa says, 'I have created the four castes depending upon the distribution of the three guṇas or attributes.' Guṇa means 'attribute' or 'quality' that we are born with.

It is a reflection of the prārabdha karma, the vāsana, and the mindset with which we are born. There are three basic guṇas: satva or purity, rajas or activity and tamas or inactivity.

The varṇa system was four-fold. Brāhmaṇas were the scholars and priests, intellectually inclined. Kṣatriyas were the soldiers and kings, ambitious and physically strong. Vaiṣyas were the business community with strong commercial acumen. Śudras were the workers, physically able and skillful.

Based on their guṇas, their skill sets and not birth, the children in ancient Gurukul were trained into their vocations, their varṇa or caste. Over time, this system was manipulated. Those who believed that they had a better varṇa, caste, decided to make it a hereditary right. Earlier, the son of a brāhmaṇa could not to be a priest, if he was unsuitable or the son of a kṣatriya to be a warrior if he was inadequate. Kṛṣṇa states very clearly that only the one who transcends these three guṇas can reach His state, can reach the higher levels of consciousness. To reach Kṛṣṇa one has to be a triguṇa rahita, beyond the three guṇas. Then, one becomes a non-doer, a no-caste, no-attribute person.

When a desire is fulfilled, it no longer creates ripples in the mind. Desires that get fulfilled are the basic needs one is born with, which are the result of the carry- over vāsanā, the prārabdha karma. We acquire all other desires by comparing ourselves with others. These are wants, not needs. Existence has no way of fulfilling such wants.

When one works out of basic need, he acquires no karma. These possessions born out of our wants can never be fulfilled or enjoyed. Once acquired, we seek the next acquisition. The cycle goes on.

Being 'Unclutched' is the state where you are free and liberated. Let me expand on the word 'Unclutching.' If you observe your mind keenly, you will see that you are constantly connecting all your thoughts and creating links in your mind.

You connect all painful memories, create a pain shaft and conclude, 'My life is suffering, my life is pain.' Now when you start believing your whole life is suffering, you have created a pain shaft and you are waiting only for painful incidents in your life so that you can elongate that shaft.

Whatever you believe is what you create within you and outside you. You will see that manifesting in your life over and over again.

That is why vedic ṛṣis, sages, say that you create what you want. By seeing, you create. You will wait unconsciously for painful incidents to strengthen that belief, that life judgment.

Second thing, whenever you add the painful incidents unconsciously, you will be elongating that shaft, even though you may want to consciously end the pain by breaking it.

If you believe your whole life is a shaft of joyful experiences, which we do very rarely, constantly you are in fear about whether the joy will continue. If you believe life is a shaft of painful incidents, you do two things:

• 1. Unconsciously you gather more and more incidents and strengthen your faith about how your life is painful, and consciously you try to break the pain shaft!
• 2. If you believe life is a chain of joyful incidents, unconsciously you will be in fear that it will end, and consciously you will try to prolong it.

These are two big dramas we are continuously enacting with ourselves. You forget that you can neither break the shaft nor elongate it because the shaft itself does not exist! The shaft itself is your own imagination.

When you believe that your mind is logical, you have created the first 'original sin' for yourself. Understand, by your very nature you are unclutched. Every moment you are renouncing the thoughts by your very nature. A new thought can appear only when the old thought has been renounced. But even after renouncing them you try to pick up the thoughts from the dustbin and try to create a shaft with them.

Kṛṣṇa says to understand what action is, you need to understand what inaction is. When you unclutch, you are seemingly in inaction or akarma. However, the removal of the various shafts of pain, pleasure, fantasies etc., releases so much energy within you that you are now actively passive. You are at the height of potential energy, ready to release that energy for whatever purpose you decide in that moment. If instead, you are actively daydreaming, caught in pain and pleasures shafts, then you are seemingly active and busy, but totally useless. In fact, you are counterproductively busy, pushing yourself deeper into more suffering.

When we are blissful and complete within ourselves, we would never see anything disturbing outside. That is what Kṛṣṇa says here: Be involved completely in the action yet be detached, independent and satisfied within. Then you can function spontaneously, flowing in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a celebration. Every single thing you do is an act of joy and an expression of the loving energy in you. Your joy is no longer dependent on what society says or thinks about you, because you are complete in yourself.

Make the Child understand that unfulfilled desires, incompletions, and attachments, lead to karma. Our desires should be based out of our needs and not our wants. If we practice completion and immerse ourselves in Krishna Consciousness, we will be liberated. Help the child understand that it is important to rest in the present moment, in the space of completion, in the state of nomind. In this state you can be completely involved in action yet detached.

• ❖ What is the commonly told narrative about the Hindu caste system?
• ❖ What is the basis of the caste system prescribed by Krishna?
• ❖ What happens to the desires that are unfulfilled at the time of death?
• ❖ What happens to the desires we acquire in the present lifetime?
• ❖ Are our thoughts connected?
• ❖ Are our thoughts logical?
• ❖ What is the pitfall in connecting thoughts and creating a memory shaft?
• ❖ What is daydreaming?
• ❖ When we day-dream are we caught in imaginary pain and pleasures shafts?
• ❖ What is the state of no-mind?

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 - Lesson 4

• 1. Paper
• 2. Colour pens
• 3. Crayons

Draws a picture of a person belonging to any one varna. Example you can draw a picture of a Kshatriya. Then write down all the qualities you expect to see in a Kshatriya.

The Varana system of classification is based on the predominant guna (sattva, rajas, tamas) in a person.

• 1. Paper
• 2. Pen or pencil

Ask each child to write down their own qualities on a paper. Ask the children to imagine that they have formed a country on a remote island. Now the children need to take on the responsibility of running the country. The country will need soldiers to be protected from enemies, it will need artisans and traders to sell consumer goods in the domestic market and to export to other countries, it will need farmers to grow food for feeding the nation, it will also need teachers and priests to run schools and temples to serve the people.

Ask the children to showcase how the caste system worked in ancient Bharat by dividing themselves into groups based on their best qualities so that all responsibilities can be performed with the highest quality. Each varna/group shall give a presentation introducing their members and describing how their work is essential to the national well being.

Varna system of classification was based on the gunas of each individual, with the aim of creating highest quality professionals who were naturally best suited for each responsibility.

Topic of debate is "the merits and de-merits of a caste system based on gunas versus having a caste system based on birth."

The Varana system of classification prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita is not based on birth of a person. Varna system was intended to be an economic system to achieve national excellence.