Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 - Lesson 1 of 7

INTRODUCTION

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Helping you realize your possibility and supporting you to complete with your self-doubt is Kuṇḍalini Awakening. Constantly turning many impossibilities into possibilities by playing that within human laws, rules and regulations is the job of an Incarnation. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, who is the possibility of all Incarnations, teaches us how to reach our true state. This is what the word samādhi means—to go back to our true nature.

We will never get an answer or solve a problem if we start thinking about which would be more beneficial. Before we evaluate the benefits of something, we should be clear about the scale we want to use to measure the benefits. What is beneficial for one person may be completely useless for another.

Karma or Sannyāsa, What is my path? Again and again, all of us ask ourselves this question. The mind is in dilemma! The mind asks for a single instruction! Our mind will be alive as long as we are caught between any two extremes. The moment we come to any single conclusion we will be liberated. We will be ignorant as long as we are moving from one extreme to the other. Don’t say ‘Ignorance is bliss.’ If ignorance is bliss why are so many people suffering on this planet? Ignorance is not bliss. Innocence is bliss.

To overcome this isolation, this incompletion we need to realize that no man is an island. We are all connected at the spiritual level.

Innocence means we
will not carry a scale
with which
we are continuously
measuring our life.
Ignorance
means we will have a
scale but we will not
be able to
fulfill our life
according to that
scale.

Here, Arjuna is in a dilemma as to which of the two is more beneficial for him. If we look into life as a utility, as some means to a benefit, then we are creating our own hell. If we reduce life to this, we will be in hell.

LIFE iTSELF iS A BENEFiT

If we constantly try to see which of two things is more beneficial, it means we have a pure business mind. We can't do business with life. At some point we need to relax from the business mind. I always tell people, 'For at least half an hour per day, do some enriching which will not get dollars for you— some painting, some writing.'

DO SOMETHING ENRICHING JUST FOR THE SAKE OF ENRICHING, NOT FOR ANY PURPOSE

Enrich just for the sake of enriching. You will see that during that half hour, you will fall into your very being; which is the space of completion!

You can also enrich at some place of worship by cleaning it without expecting anything in return. Engage yourself in any form of selfless enriching activity. Serve food to people. Even while volunteering, we do it so that we can tell others about it and get applauded for it. So now at least for 30 minutes, authentically enrich with responsibility, without the cognition of getting yourself any benefit.

The question concerning Karma and
Sannyāsa—responsibility and
renunciation— has been asked from
time immemorial, and each time it
has been answered. Yet this question
remains.

Somebody asked me, 'Why is the
Gītā still relevant today?' I said,
'Because we never learned it.'
Although Gītā was uttered at least
5,000 years ago it is still relevant
today. Why? It is simply because
man has not listened and he has not
learnt his lesson yet! History repeats
itself. Man is not even aware of what
he is going after. He thinks he wants
something and runs after it. But by
the time he gets his hands on it, he
wants something else. So there is a
constant restlessness, powerlessness
within. This puts man in constant
incompletion, dissatisfaction and
depression. Listen! By merely
flooding completion into this
depression you can get out of it.

Do Self-completion, Svapūrṇatva

Everyday at least for forty-two minutes, consciously decide to do the self-completion process, svapūrṇatva kriya. Decide consciously to be complete: ‘Let me sit and face my powerlessness and complete with my patterns. Let me restore my space of completion today.’ Tell yourself, ‘I will allow the cognition of completion to enter into my consciousness this week. I will solve all my problems only with this complete cognition. I create the space of completion.

Surrender To Experience Karma-Sannyāsa As One

Let us deeply analyze these paths of Karma and Sannyāsa. Karma is normally out of greed and desires. Sannyāsa is always invariably out of fear, bhaya. There is a fear of life. When you are not ready to take the risk, you renounce everything. In the entire world, only three types of human beings exist: One who has surrendered to greed, one who has surrendered to fear and the one who has surrendered to the supreme intelligence, divine consciousness.

Let all our feelings, let all our mental thoughts, let all our physical deeds be directed towards gratitude to the Divine.

Image of a young ascetic figure sitting on an ornate chair

Don't work out of fear or greed, because no matter how much we achieve out of greed, we will not be fulfilled. It is like pouring ghee (clarified butter) into the fire. Can we quench fire by pouring ghee into it? Never!

Never work out of greed because whatever we achieve is going to be taken away at the time of death. Never become silent and inactive out of fear because there is really nothing to lose. Whether we are afraid or not, everything is going to be taken away at the time of death. So why be afraid? In either case, why not be blissful?