Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

CHARACTER SKETCH

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❖ 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.

CHARACTER SKETCH

❖ 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.

CHARACTER SKETCH

❖ 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 punya, 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 Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Maha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Śarva Maṅgalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

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.

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.

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.’

A warrior riding a horse on a battlefield

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day India. 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.’

नियतस्य तु संन्यासः कर्मणो नोपपद्यते ।
मोहात्तस्य परित्यागस्तामसः परिकीर्तितः
॥ १८-७॥

niyatasya tu sannyāsaḥ
karmaṇo nopapadyate
mohāttasya parityāgas tāmasaḥ
parikīrtitaḥ

Prescribed duties should never
be renounced. If one gives up
his prescribed duties through
the illusion of renunciation,
this is said to be in the state of
ignorance.

POWERFUL COGNITION

Only when you take responsibility, life happens to your body.

दुःखमित्येव यत्कर्म कायक्लेशभयात्त्यजेत् ।
स कृत्वा राजसं त्यागं नैव त्यागफलं लभेत्
॥१८=८॥

duḥkhamityeva yat karma
kāyakleśabhayāttyajet sa kṛtvā
rājāsaṁ tyāgaṁ nai'va
tyāgaphalaṁ labhet

Anyone who gives up
prescribed duties as
troublesome, or out of fear, is
said to be in the state of
aggression, does not benefit
from renunciation.

POWERFUL COGNITION

When you feel responsible in
your being, for any problem,
or anything, you find solution
for that problem or that
situation.

कार्यमित्येव यत्कर्म नियतं क्रियतेऽर्जुन ।
सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलं चैव स त्यागः सात्त्विको मतः
॥ १८=९॥

kāryam ity eva yat karma
niyataṁ kriyate'rjuna saṅgaṁ
tyaktvā phalaṁ caiva sa
tyāgaḥ sāttviko mataḥ

But he who performs what is
prescribed, as a matter of
duty, without expectation or
attachment to the results, his
renunciation is of the nature
of satva, goodness, O Arjuna.

POWERFUL COGNITION

When you take responsibility
for everything, you become
Sannyāsi.

KRISHNA

says that nitya karma or
obligatory responsibilities must
be followed with discipline and
consistency. Not doing these
takes us into the state of
tamas, inaction born out of
ignorance and laziness. Nitya
karmas vary from person to
person. The duties of a
householder are different from
those of a monk or a student.
Each has clear guidelines in
terms of what they should and
should not do.

Many times the idea
of dropping our
responsibilities and
taking up a different
role is more attractive
than growing in
completion so that
we can perform our
own responsibilities
well and without
attachment. Be very
clear, without the
right cognition of
completion, no role
that we take up will
work out for us.

Instead of taking up
responsibility and expanding
you and your life around you,
watching television, sleeping or
daydreaming seems much
more pleasant and easy. We
would rather do that than
meditate or perform pūjā or
whatever is our prescribed
duty.

FEEL RESPONSIBLE iN YOUR BEiNG

iN THE SPH'S OWN WORDS:

“I am defining Sannyāsa.
When you don't take responsibility for
anything, you live as slave, śūdra.
When you take the responsibility for
the money of the society, you become
vaiśya. When you take the
responsibility for weapon of the
society, you become kṣatriya. When
you take the responsibility for
knowledge of the
society, you become brāhmaṇa. When
you take responsibility for everything,
you become Sannyāsi.”

One of the biggest problem we have is — ‘let me have the power first, let me have the status first, let me have the position first, then I will take the responsibility.’ That does not happen in life.

Take the responsibility to build the state inside you. Then, after you are tested by the Cosmos, it gives you the status. That status can never be taken away.

Responsibility attracts more responsibility. The problem is we are afraid of more responsibility, so we deny even the responsibility that we have in our hand.

But more and more responsibility adds more and more life energy into you.

Kṛṣṇa says that doing what needs to be done because that is what is our responsibility, without attachment to the action and without desire is the ideal condition of satva.

Kṛṣṇa has said this many times in
the Gītā. He repeats it again so that
the message sinks in our muscle-
memory and bio-memory. Do what
must be done. Do what your
responsibility is, based on your
societal or religious beliefs and
codes. However, do it with
integrity and authenticity without
attachment and expectation of
results.

If you don't feel you are
responsible for something, you
don't even think in that line. If you
feel you are responsible for
something, only then will you even
look into that part of your life.
When you feel responsible in your
being, for any problem, or
anything, you find solution for that
problem or that situation.

You don't need to do any action, you don't need to do any thinking. Decide from your being that you will feel responsible for the whole world. You will take actions towards your immediate responsibility as per your prescribed duty , but you will feel responsible for the whole.

Suddenly, you will see all your actions will have authenticity, your thinking will have integrity! Mainly, whatever you are doing, if you take responsibility for the world, even if you are a doctor, you will become a better doctor. If you are a lawyer, you will become a better lawyer. If you are an engineer, you will become a better engineer, If you are a politician, you will become a better politician.

Just with this shift in your
cognition, you will be a
karma yogi; because
innumerable right things
will be added to your
thinking, to your being,
to your action and to
your life.

GOALS:

Helping students
understand the space of
responsibility of a karma
yogi.
Helping students
understand what is
“status” and what is
“state”.