Don’t let the stray lead you astray

Suppose we are walking on a road, and someone approaches and asks us to come with them somewhere. We wouldn’t just go along – we would first evaluate whether the detour would be worthwhile.

While that is common sense, that sense is not so common when we deal with our inner world. From within stray thoughts frequently emerge and proposition us to go on detours. As these propositions are subtle and swift, we often fall under their spell. And we end up wasting our time, craving for trivial things, lamenting about unchangeable things or worrying about improbable things. Actually, time wastage may well be the least of the detour’s costs. During some detours, we may be misled into actions that are karmically incriminating, emotionally entangling or spiritually degrading.

Such misleading thoughts frequently emerge from the mind, which, the Bhagavad-gita (06.34) declares, is restless – akin to a stray wanderer. We can’t eliminate the mind’s wanderlust immediately, but we can train ourselves to resist it. The best resistance strategy is purposefulness.

Returning to the starting example, we wouldn’t let anyone sidetrack us if we were going on an important assignment. Similarly, if we keep ourselves purposefully engaged in important things, and if while doing those things we remind ourselves of their importance, we won’t let stray thoughts lead us astray.

We can best cultivate purposefulness by practicing spiritual meditation that connects us with our deepest values and highest purposes. Such meditation fosters inner alertness. If by that alertness we can put off the mind’s idea for even a few minutes, that idea’s spell will wear off, and we will regain the perspective to evaluate it objectively. Then we can go along with it on the few occasions when the idea is serendipitous, and continue on our way on most other occasions when the idea is gratuitous.

Our role in doing things is contributive, not decisive

We do things all the time, yet we don’t often think about the various factors that go into things working out well. The Bhagavad-gita (18.14) lists five components: the field of action, the doer, the instruments of action, endeavor and destiny.

Gita commentators have explained these factors variously. To make the abstruse concepts accessible, let’s consider how these factors apply to a contemporary example of action, say, a cricketer batting.

The field of action can refer to both the cricket pitch and the batsman’s body. If the pitch is waterlogged or the body is injured, the batsman can’t perform. The doer refers here to the player’s soul that animates his body and initiates the action of batting. The instruments of action refer to the specific senses required for that particular action. So, for example, if the batsman’s hand is sprained, he can’t bat, even if the rest of his body is ok. The endeavor refers to the difference made by determined, diligent practice. Practice can enable average batsmen to perform decently, and talented batsman to perform superlatively. The fifth and final factor is destiny – the divine will that, based on our past karma, determines results.

Among these factors, we are the initiators of action. So, our role is important, but it is not all-important, for we alone don’t determine the result.

Despite listing these five factors, the Gita doesn’t go into their technicalities. Instead, it uses the point that we are not the sole doers to underscore its central message: Work for pleasing Krishna instead of for enjoying the results. Such a devotional mood protects us from both the hubris that often accompanies success and the inferiority complex that often accompanies failure. Further, we can make our best contribution and, more importantly, progress towards satisfaction, purification and ultimately liberation.

http://www.gitadaily.com/our-role-in-doing-things-is-contributive-not-decisive/

The notion of doership is not an illusion – the notion of sole doership is

An oft-quoted Bhagavad-gita verse (03.27) asserts that those who think of themselves as doers are deluded. But we all intuitively perceive of ourselves as doers – we do so many things in the course of our life. The Gita (18.63) confirms our intuition when it concludingly places the onus of doership on Arjuna: Deliberate and do as you desire. And Arjuna too takes up the mantle of doership when he responds (18.73): I will do your will. Moreover, the Gita is essentially a guidebook, which presumes that its hearer is a doer who can act as guided. So our intuition that we are doers is not an illusion.

What is an illusion, the Gita (18.16) clarifies, is the notion that we are the sole doers. Everyday experience confirms that doing things is not entirely in our power. Even a consummate doer such as a virtuoso singer can’t sing when afflicted with a sore throat. Gita wisdom explains that we are spiritual beings. We can’t do anything in this material world without the cooperation of nature. Thus, nature is a co-doer in all actions. And nature works under Krishna’s supervision. So, we can’t do anything unless he sanctions it. Since he is the ultimate decider in all actions, we are definitely not the sole doers. By imagining that we alone are the doers of our actions, we aggravate our ignorance and arrogance.

Countering such illusion, Gita wisdom reveals the best use of our doership: loving Krishna. Love requires both lovers to be doers, capable of choosing to love. Bhakti-yoga helps us use our doership for striving to engage ourselves and our material resources in Krishna’s service – not for struggling to dominate material nature for gaining worldly pleasure. By thus spiritualizing our doership, we can relish everlasting spiritual happiness.

Asking who made God is like trying to draw a square circle

“Who made God?” This question betrays a fundamental lack of understanding about the very definition of God.

Every subject begins with certain foundational definitions; if we don’t accept those definitions, we can’t progress in that subject. Suppose a geometry student learns about squares and circles, learns to draw them and then asks, “How can I draw a square circle?” The question betrays a dearth of basic understanding – a circle by its very definition can’t be a square. To address the question, a wise teacher will clarify the underlying misdefinitions.

Similarly, to address the question about God’s source, we need to examine the underlying misdefinition. Bhakti philosophy defines God as the cause of all causes. The Bhagavad-gita (10.08) stresses through a double assertion that God, Krishna, is the source of everything – everything emanates from him.

So if “God” came from something, then “God” would not be God – the thing from which he came would be God. And if that thing came from something, then that something would be God. Wherever the causal chain of origination stops, that originating source would be God. Does the chain have to stop somewhere? Yes, just as a multi-story skyscraper needs to rest on the ground, so too does everything need to have an ultimate source. That source of all sources is by definition God. Asking why that ultimate source can’t be something other than God is like asking why a circle can’t be square – it’s an illogical question stemming from ignorance of basic definitions. Geometry students who open-mindedly accept such definitions grow in their education. Similarly, if we open-mindedly accept the definition of God, we can grow in our life-education as we increasingly appreciate how bhakti philosophy answers life’s deepest questions cogently. Then we realize that the question about God’s source is illogical.

Don’t let the small picture blind you to the big picture

In the spiritual context, the small picture refers to the daily struggles that characterize our inner and outer lives as seekers. And the big picture refers to the subtle but sure elevation of our consciousness brought about by our spiritual practices.

Life’s routine realities may trap us in the small picture. Therein we may become disheartened, thinking, “How is my life different from that of materialists? Like them, I have to undergo life’s many miseries. And I also have to battle with the many worldly desires that continue to tempt and torment me.”

Gita wisdom shifts our focus to the big picture, helping us see our life and our consciousness from a long-term perspective. Whereas materialists are like foolhardy alcoholics who are delighting in their indulgence, we are like recovering alcoholics who have recognized the danger of the indulgence and found a way to break free from its spell. Though both may be allured by alcohol and though both may be afflicted by its consequences, there’s a world of difference.

While materialists look forward to worldly desires as sources of enjoyment – as we ourselves may have earlier – we are now viewing those desires warily as sources of entanglement. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (05.23) indicates that the wise tolerate worldly desires and gradually become happy. The next verse (5.24) indicates that such happiness comes from a redirection of focus from without to within, thereby connecting us with the indwelling supreme spiritual reality, Krishna. This connection can act as a reliable inner buffer when we are afflicted by worldly miseries. By seeking shelter in the remembrance of Krishna, we can gracefully endure whatever miseries come our way. Further, as we renounce karmically entangling worldly indulgences, our miseries progressively decrease till we ultimately transcend miserable material existence and attain Krishna’s eternal ecstatic abode.

Focus on the mind before focusing on its focus

Suppose we were studying in a library and our neighbor repeatedly pointed our attention here and there, mostly towards unimportant things and only occasionally towards something worthwhile.

In due course of time, we would train ourselves to respond discerningly to that distracter. Instead of immediately focusing on whatever they wanted us to focus on, we would first focus on them, assess their mood and then decide whether to pay attention to whatever they were pointing to.

We need to adopt a similar strategy for dealing with our mind. The mind often wanders to various things, many of which are not important or valuable. If we naively let our attention go wherever the mind wants to go, we will find ourselves underusing our time, talent and energy. And such underuse is far from the sole result of the mind’s distractedness. In worse cases, it can even make us abuse our energy for self-defeating and self-destructive purposes.

Can the mind come up with some good ideas? It’s possible, occasionally. But that usually happens when the mind is situated in the mode of goodness, at least partially, and is capable of the sustained reflection necessary for assimilating, verbalizing and actualizing a worthwhile insight.

That’s why we need to evaluate the mind before deciding our course of action. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (06.26) urges us to restrain the mind whenever it wanders. Gita wisdom explains that we are at our core souls and we can realize our fullest potential for happiness in loving and serving Krishna. While we are engaged in purposeful service to Krishna, if the mind starts distracting us, we needn’t shift our attention to its object of interest. Instead, we can focus on the mind first, evaluate the mode influencing it and then decide whether it’s worthwhile to make its focus our focus.

To make our mind grow up, we need to realize that we are grown-up

Suppose an adult were playing in the dirt with a child, whimsically running here and there, and doing whatever the child wanted to do. We would consider such behavior odd and wasteful – an adult needs to act like a grown-up and do more constructive things.

Our mind is like a child. And we unfortunately are like the childish adult who simply dances to the child’s tune. Whereas our physical growth is automatic, our inner growth isn’t – we need to strive for it. Actually, what we need to strive for is something more precise: not growing up internally, but realizing that we are already grown up. What does this mean?

Here, grown-up refers to not a state of age, but a state of maturity. Children engaged in frivolous activities, whereas adults pursue more purposeful activities. Our inner growth refers to our embracing life’s higher spiritual purpose. We are at our innermost core souls. And the soul is ageless, existing outside the scope of time, as the Bhagavad-gita (02.20) indicates. The soul, by its very nature, is meant for loving and serving Krishna – the most purposeful and joyful activity in all of existence.

However, at present, we don’t understand our spiritual identity. And our consciousness is presently misdirected by our mind to pursuing temporary worldly things – pursuits that are frivolous and childish from the perspective of the eternal glory of immortal love that beckons us in our present human lives. Thus, our mind is presently like a child. And acting according to its tunes keeps us locked in a childish state of existence – lifetime after lifetime.

By studying the Gita and striving to live according to its illuminating wisdom, we realize our spiritual identity, thereby making our mind grow up and rejoice in Krishna’s endless sweetness.