Go beyond the blindness caused by shortage of light – and by its surfeit by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Whenever our surroundings go dark, say, due to a power failure, we become as if blind.

Something similar happens to us as souls in material existence. Due to our material attachments, we can’t see anything beyond matter – we become as if spiritually blind. To regain our spiritual vision, we need to shed our material attachments.

However, during our spiritual recovery, we may be blinded by an excess of light, just as a person on dark road may be blinded by a truck’s glaring front lights. The dazzling impersonal effulgence that surrounds the supreme spiritual truth can similarly blind us. How? Firstly, it can render us incapable of perceiving anything beyond the light. Secondly and more deleteriously, it can make us misconclude that the spiritual light is itself the highest spiritual truth, so no further search is necessary. This misconclusion terminates our spiritual quest at an intermediate impersonal level instead of the ultimate personal level.

To prevent premature termination of our spiritual quest, we need to place our experiences and inferences within the context of scriptural revelation.

To prevent such premature termination of our spiritual quest, we need to place our experiences and inferences within the context of scriptural revelation. Echoing a similar level of realization, the Ishopanishad (mantra 15) reveals a classic prayer wherein the seeker requests the Absolute Truth to withdraw the blinding effulgence and thus make the face of the Truth visible.

Gita wisdom reveals that Absolute Truth to be Krishna. While delineating a similar spiritual trajectory, the Gita (18.49-54)mentions how the seeker becomes equipoised towards everything material and attains the spiritual (brahman) level. Significantly, it (18.54) mentions this attainment not as the culmination of the spiritual quest, but as the commencement of transcendental devotion. By such devotion, the next verse (18.55) states, seekers understand Krishna in truth.

Thus the perception of the Absolute Truth that the Ishopanishad prays for, the Gita paves the path to.

Choose to act your way to feelings, not feel your way to actions by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Acting our way to feelings” means choosing conscientiously to act based on our intelligence, even when our feelings don’t agree, till eventually those actions engender supportive feelings.

“Feeling our way to actions” means letting our feelings determine our actions and reserving intelligent actions for times when our feelings agree with our intelligence.

Children usually feel their way to actions, studying and playing as per their feelings. If left to themselves, most children would play most of the time and wouldn’t study enough to have good careers. That’s why responsible parents gently but firmly push them to study. Though the children may initially sulk, over time, they realize the importance of studying and even relish its joy.

We have grown-up bodies, but our mind still remains childish – it impels us to feel our way to actions.

The human form offers us eternal souls an opportunity for spiritual education that culminates in a glowing career of eternal life with Krishna. We have grown-up bodies, but our mind still remains childish – it impels us to feel our way to actions. Because our present feelings tend to be material rather than spiritual, feeling our way to actions means that we keep groping for fleeting worldly pleasures, thus staying trapped in material consciousness.  Consequently, we can’t avail opportunities for spiritual growth and stay alienated from devotional happiness.

The Bhagavad-gita (09.14) states that serious devotees engage in devotional activities with rigid determination. Translated to the idiom of this article, this verse urges us to act our way to feelings, that is, to practice bhakti-yoga consistently, no matter how we feel. Though the mind may sulk initially at such discipline, steady contact with Krishna stimulates our swift spiritual growth. Soon, we realize the necessity of devotional service as our savior from material existence and relish its glory as the deliverer of life’s supreme happiness of pure love for Krishna.

See sense gratification as spiritual deprivation by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

You are depriving yourself of so much pleasure,” the mind whispers when we practice spiritual life seriously and regulate sense gratification.

We may neglect the mind, but it keeps repeating its proposals for sense gratification. Over time, its relentless whispers may start echoing inside us and make us feel deprived.

But the reality is that we are souls who need lasting happiness. Our need can never be fulfilled at the material level in sense gratification, which can offer at best only a few moments of titillation sandwiched between long segments of dissatisfaction. Lasting happiness is available only at the spiritual level in steady devotion to Krishna, who is the reservoir of infinite happiness.

Due to the mind’s misdiagnosis, we witlessly go away from the source of satisfaction, Krishna, and towards the cause of dissatisfaction, the sense object.

Gita savants illustrate our predicament with the example of a fish out of water. From the moment the fish comes out of water till it returns, it deprives itself. Similarly, when we give up constructive service to Krishna, we come out of the nourishing and fulfilling ocean of devotion and we start feeling tormented by dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, we fail to recognize that the torment is due to disconnection from Krishna. We unsuspectingly believe the mind’s misdiagnosis that the torment is due to disconnection from the sense object. And thus we witlessly go away from the source of satisfaction, Krishna, and towards the cause of dissatisfaction, the sense object.

To avoid being fooled thus, we need to place our faith not in the mind, but in scripture: The Bhagavad-gita (05.21) assures that those who become indifferent towards external sensations and turn inwards attain unlimited happiness. And we can reinforce our faith in scripture by recollecting our own fulfilling spiritual experiences and frustrating sensual experiences. This combination of scriptural illumination and personal recollection will convince us that the pursuit of sense gratification will cause deprivation and the practice of devotion will bring lasting satisfaction.

Don’t just read the Gita – heed the Gita By Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad-gita is a profoundly philosophical book, yet it is also an eminently action-calling book. This pragmatic nature of the Gita is seen in its conclusion (18.73): Arjuna tells Krishna, “I will do your will.”

This voluntary harmonization of the human will with the divine will is the essential purpose for which the Gita was spoken. And it is the purpose that should underlie our reading of the Gita: “Amidst my opportunities and problems, how can I do Krishna’s will?”

See heeding the Gita not as an exercise in unwilling submission but as a festival of loving reciprocation

If we read the Gita and then go on with our life as if no change were needed, then we deprive ourselves of most of the blessings that Gita study offers. Yes, contact with Krishna through his words in any form, even a cursory reading or just a casual touch, offers some benefits. The Gita is akin to a legendary herbal medicine that just by placing in a room spreads a healing fragrance. Yet just as the medicine offers full benefit when it is properly ingested, similarly Gita study offers full benefit when we heed what we read.

And heeding the Gita is not all that difficult, especially when we read it with a devotional disposition. The Gita is not a law-book coming from a dictator who wants to dominate us – it is a guidebook coming from a benevolent God who wants to liberate us. By reading the Gita, we understand that we are souls, who are parts of Krishna and can find the highest happiness by loving him. When we grasp how much Krishna loves us and how much he wants us to rejoice in his love, we see heeding the Gita not as an exercise in unwilling submission but as a festival of loving reciprocation – a festival that will ultimately elevate us to Krishna’s immortal world of love.

The Gita is a book of theology for the purpose of therapy by by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

I am not interested in God,” so say many people while turning away from the Bhagavad-gita. What they don’t understand is that the Gita is not just a book about God – it is about them and what interests them the most: the search for lasting love.

No doubt, the Bhagavad-gita is a book of profound theology. It reveals a majestic conception of God that can charm any open-minded seeker.

Emotional wounds originate not so much from our specific relationship problems as from the universal problem of the rupture of the human heart from the divine heart.

But its theologically erudite discussions are framed in the context of a broken heart that needs urgent healing. The Bhagavad-gita (01.31) depicts how Arjuna is overwhelmed by the prospect of an emotionally wrenching fratricidal war that began as a bitter relationship conflict. We all face relationship conflicts that sometimes leave us heartbroken.

The Gita is a therapeutic message for healing all such wounds. It explains that these emotional wounds originate not so much from our specific relationship problems as from the universal problem of the rupture of the human heart from the divine heart. That rupture subjects us to bhavaroga, the disease of material existence. We are eternal souls meant to love God, Krishna, but being ruptured from him, we seek the same love in relationships formed on the basis of our bodies. However, even the best of such relationships are thwarted sooner or later by the inevitable perishability of all material bodies.

The therapy for our ruptured heart is bhakti-yoga, which redirects our love from the world to Krishna. The Gita’s theology sets the stage for this therapy. Its revelation of Krishna’s glory convinces us that his love possesses the omnipotence to heal even the most inconsolably wounded hearts. No matter how worldly relationships disappoint or devastate us, our relationship with him always solaces and strengthens, as Arjuna’s restored morale at the end of the Gita demonstrates.

Restraint is not repression – it is the roadway to real expression by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Many people champion self-expression and deride restraint as repression.

But is it really repressive?

Consider musicians wanting to express themselves. Do they go on stage without preparation? If they do, what will come out will be nowhere near their best self – it will be a pale shadow. Musicians who excel at extempore performance have spent long hours in meticulous training. And what is such training if not restraint? It involves careful churning of one’s musical instincts to repress the unwholesome instincts and express the wholesome ones.

Whenever we allow uncensored self-expression, what usually comes out is our lower self.

This principle of screening applies for all forms of self-expression. Gita wisdom explains that our real self is much deeper than just some artistic or similar aspect of our self. Our essential self is spiritual – we are pure souls, reservoirs of glorious qualities, and parts of all-pure Krishna. But the way to that self is blocked by a lower self, which is primarily the mind running according to the default program created by our past indulgences. This lower self often imagines the basest indulgences to be the most enjoyable. And because we have pandered to the lower self for a long time in this and previous lives, it is frequently swifter than our authentic self. So whenever we allow uncensored self-expression, what usually comes out is our lower self, which makes us behave worse than our normal self, leave alone our best self.

Restraining ourselves according to scripture, as the Bhagavad-gita (02.64) recommends, enables us to firstly check which self is expressing itself and secondly kindle the expression of our authentic self, thereby bringing out our best. Such spiritual self-expression, by propelling us towards life eternal with Krishna, brings real freedom and lasting fulfillment, which is what champions of self-expression actually long for.

Thus restraint far from being repressive paves the way to authentic self-expression.

To grow through problems, go beyond the circumstantial to the existential by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 01

“What should I do now?” When we face this question, we usually answer based on practical concerns. But when confronting dilemmas that have no practical solutions, we are forced to either become frustrated or look beyond the circumstantial to the existential, asking questions about the very nature and purpose of our existence.  We realize we can’t answer the question “What should I do?” without confronting the question “Who am I?”

At the start of the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna faced a circumstantial dilemma that had no practical answers. He found himself torn between two courses of action. “If I am a warrior, then my duty (kshatriya-dharma) is to fight for a righteous cause, whoever be my opponent. But if I am a member of the Kuru dynasty, then my duty (kula-dharma) is to avoid shedding the blood of my family members, whatever the price.” He found neither option acceptable and felt himself trapped in a lose-lose situation, as the Gita (01.30) depicts.

Krishna didn’t offer Arjuna any pat answers, but changed his frame of reference by revealing the deepest dimension of his existential identity – as a soul. And the dharma of every soul is to love and serve Krishna. As Krishna is the greatest well-wisher of everyone, doing his will enabled Arjuna to do the best for everyone involved.

When we face intractable circumstantial dilemmas, we too can turn towards Krishna by prayerfully seeking guidance and submissively opening our heart to him. With this devotional disposition, the Gita (10.10) assures that we will get the intelligence about how to best serve amidst life’s perplexities. Such intelligence will resolve not just our circumstantial crisis, but also our existential crisis by stimulating deeper realization of our eternal spiritual identity, which is for all of life’s perplexities the only ultimate solution.