GEETA ESSENCE Swami Anubhavananda
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Foreword All the problems of life spring from Identity crisis. And they are further compounded with a strong personality Index. Perpetual success, appreciation, honour, recognition in one’s life is difficult to digest and assimilate and reaches to an unhealthy aspect of one’s personality namely, arrogance. This is depicted in the character of Arjuna in the first chapter of Geeta. War game was not new to Arjuna. However, he had never faced more challenging a war than the war with himself. We all try to prove something to someone and thereby justify all our actions. Not only that, Arjuna wanted an authentication for his wrong approach to the challenge of life from his beloved friend, Shri Krishna. A good friend never blindly supports the wrong approach in a given situation. And hence Shri Krishna did not approve of Arjuna’s approach to withdraw from the ultimate challenge of his life under the disguise of seeming goodness. In fact, Arjuna himself confessed that he is fully confused and therefore, unable to discriminate between what is good for him and for all. This riddle of life is brought out through the inspired presentation of Shri Krishna with the strength of the authority of scriptures, logic and his personal experiences of life. However, Shri Krishna did not take the final decision about fighting the war and gave full freedom to Arjuna to decide what is good for him and all in the light of wisdom presented to him. Therefore, Bhagawad Geeta is the ultimate answer to all the confused persons of the world. Swami Anubhavananda Holi, March 2, 2018
THE HAPPY TEAM That Contributes To All The Publications of Sat Bhavana Trust Adity Dhandhania
Rupal Jaisingh
Amod Sharma
Dr. Sankarkumar
Anagha Wagle
Savita Nagananda
Arvind Laxmanan
Seema Agarwal
Chaity Biswas
Sheela Chitnis
Dr.Anil Mansukhani
Sonal Behal
Gajanan Tamhan
Shyam Jaisingh
Gayatri Balasubramanian
Sneha Manjrekar
Geeta Awasare
Sujata Ambraskar
Harish Verma
Sumati Ramesh
Harshad Kulkarni
Sushma Rane
Jagannathan T K
Tarun Pasricha
Minal Dighe
Uma Ravi
Nagananda A.
Usha Gadodia
Neelam Talreja
Vaidehi Mehta
Nilu Sinha
Vanaja Saxena
Nirmala Maheshwari
Vasundhara Maheshwari
Purnima Gandhi
Vijaya Nair
Raksha Vadhaiya
Vrinda Joglekar
Rita Verma
Contents Talk 1
07
Talk 2
23
Talk 3
39
Talk 1
Talk - 1 My introduction was made in English, so why should I talk in Hindi? English is okay for everybody? Good! Rashtrabhasha is not required, that’s good! Every problem has its solution hidden behind itself. If we are able to restate our problem, we discover the solution. This I discovered from a lady who came with vengeance, anger, frustration to bombard me with questions. But after she came, she kept quiet. And while going back, she said, ‘I don’t know how to deal with you.’ I said, “Amma, what happened?” She said, ‘I came with a view to really take revenge. You have spoiled my husband.’ I said, “What did I do to your husband? I don’t even know him. Not only that, I don’t even know that you have a husband. You are unknown to me!” Then she started telling, ‘After listening to your cassettes, he has become so irresponsible. You say that the more irresponsible you are, the happier you are. Don’t carry the load of responsibility of the whole world on your head. Can you imagine the picture of Hercules carrying the load of the earth on his head and a smile on his face? Not possible! Isn’t it? So, after listening to you, he has become so irresponsible; and it is irritating, that he is enjoying and I’m suffering! See, one by one the things were coming out. I said, “Amma, can you give me some examples because of which you are holding me responsible.” ‘What one, I can quote you the whole Ramayan!’ I said, “Okay, tell me only one.” She started, ‘The other day we had to go for a marriage and he knew it very well. It was a Sunday. I requested him to come before six o’clock so that we can leave for the marriage. And as usual, he went for his tennis and when he came back, it was six o’clock! I was ready since morning.’ (Can you imagine a lady ready to go for a marriage since morning and her husband seen nowhere. There cannot be more reason for Mahabharata than this!) So when he came in his
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Geeta Essence attire - half pant and T-shirt with a bat in his hand, she was angry! He said, ‘Come on, don’t get angry, let’s leave.’ And when he said that, she was furious, ‘Will you come like this? For the marriage?’ He replied, ‘Kya farak padta hai? (what difference does it make?)’ And from that day onwards, anything I tell him, he has got this Mahamantra – ‘Kya Farak Padta Hai!’ And therefore, I just can’t deal with him. And you are the culprit who has made him like that! Friends, it is we who decide how to make our life! In one tea estate I visited in Darjeeling, there was a beautiful board the moment you enter. “Life is like a cup of tea, it depends on how you make it!” Whether you add too much of sugar, make a Gujarati tea; whether you take a lot of decoction and make a South Indian tea; or you add a lot of milk and make a Punjabi tea. It depends on you, what you want to make of your life. And therefore, if we have decided that we are in this world to celebrate; your orientation of life will be different. If you are thinking that you are here to change the world, I guarantee, you will fail. Ram has come and gone, what happened to his Ram-Rajya? He also doesn’t know! Then Krishna came, created a Mahabharata and went; and left the Yadavas behind. Now also, we are suffering! I wonder whether you know the story of Yadavas. Bhagawan Shri Krishna had 16,108 wives and from each wife, he had ten sons. So he didn’t have to go to the University, University came to him. So many children! And towards the end of his life, all of them became so rude, arrogant because of power, ability and wealth. And when the time for His departure came, the Lord thought, “Before I leave this place, if these people are not well-settled among themselves, they will be a problem to the world.” And so before Bhagawan left, He created such a situation that they started fighting among themselves and killed each other. However, few of them slipped from there and they are creating problems even today. See! So where Ram could not change, Krishna could not change; you and me will change? Friends, in this world, two messages are given to us by the Lord through Geeta. Message for himself, Yada Yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bhaarata,abhyutthanam dharmasya tadatmanam
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Talk 1 srujamyaham. - Whenever there is a need for change in the world, I will come down and take care. You don’t worry. Then what should we do? Bhagawan said - Uddharedatmanatman natmanam avasadayet, atmaiva atmano bandhu atmaiva atmaripuratmanah - You are in this world to grow yourself. Now take a simple example - Suppose we are in an education institution. The teacher arrives and starts teaching and all the students are listening. Now, have you as a teacher or a student ever heard this kind of complaint that, ‘Sir, she has not understood.’ No! When we are in a classroom, our attention is on whether we have understood or not. Similarly, we all are in this world to learn and grow. But what do we do? Do we learn and grow? The moment the process of learning is suspended, we have become old. You know the signs of old age? A person who doesn’t want to learn has become old. In many of the houses, you must have seen the elderly people getting so scared of the recent toys, the computer etc., as if it is going to pounce on them! ‘No no son, you do it.’ Why? Why don’t you learn? It is not a big deal. Therefore friends, this is one simple principle of life. We’re all in this world to learn and to grow. When we grow by age, our contribution is zero. Isn’t it? Even if you don’t want to grow, you will. And yet we say, ‘Dhoop mein baal safed nahin kiyen!’ Baal hai kahaan safed karne ke liye? So when we are merely growing at a physical level, our contribution to our life and to the world is zero. This is the first principle. We have to decide what we have to make of our life. If you have decided to be the centre of distribution of happiness to the world, your life will be different. Or have you decided to be a centre of frustration and distribute it to the world? Hum to doobe hai sanam, public ko bhi saath le dubenge! Therefore friends, this is the first step which Bhagavad Gita tells. Arjuna and Krishna, they were together for many years. Not once in a while, but for many years. And throughout that period of life, Arjuna never thought of something higher. See, first understand this basic principle. God is everywhere. Whether you want it or not, He is everywhere. But mere God’s presence makes no difference. The real
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Geeta Essence difference is made when we are taught and we learn how to utilise the God principle in our life so that we grow. See, all the laws of nature are existing. Scientists do not create any laws. Except mother-in-law and father-in-law. Isn’t it? They don’t create any laws. Then what do they do? They only discover what had got covered under the covering of ignorance. In the same manner, the Reality, the God, the Truth, whatever name you give it is abundantly available and yet we are not benefited. Now, take for example - There was a person like any one of us whose name was Narendra who metamorphosed into Vivekananda. He lived an active life not for 100 years but left the body at a very young age of around 40. He started being actively involved in the world only for last 15 -16 years of his life. And within that 15 -16 years of his life, the amount of work that he has done, and the amount of work that is recorded is so much, that even if we want to simply read what he has done, our life will not be sufficient. Now, the question comes - Is it that during his period, there were 40 hours in a day? Is it that during his period, there used to be 15 days a week and we have got hardly seven days! Is it that during his time, there were 70 days a month and 1000 days a year? No! We are operating on the same time scale on which he was operating. He was living under the same social, economic, political conditions as we are in today. When he could scale to that height, why not we? Once this becomes the springboard of inspiration of living life, our life’s direction and speed changes. On the contrary, if we have the other way - There was a father who was a clerk in some municipal office and he was telling his son, ‘You should study very hard dear. When you study, you will grow big, you will become this and that…’ So the son asked, ‘Daddy, why didn’t you study?’ Now, if we have this kind of negative approach, then we cannot grow. Therefore, we have to decide. What is that we want to achieve in life. And that is indicated in the first chapter of Gita. In these three days, I will give you the synopsis of the whole Gita.
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Talk 1 So, all of us face problems in our life. Only a few of us are able to change the spelling of problem to challenge. The first step on the spiritual path is the ability to change the spelling of problem and rewrite it as challenge. When you face a problem, you become subordinate, and thus you submit to the problem and suffer. But when you take something as a challenge, you bring out the best of yourself and want to conquer the situation. This change in attitude is what is taught in the first chapter of Gita. One day, I was seeing some of these athletic meets on T.V. And there was one old lady, 78 - 80 not out around. The lady was single and she asked, ‘Son, what are you seeing?’ I said, “Amma, I am seeing these various kinds of races and all that.” ‘Oh o!’ she said, not understanding anything, chewing her pan (betel leaf ) and tobacco. Then there was one obstacle race wherein the obstacles were kept, the boys and girls came running, jumped and jumped and ran. She said, ‘chi chi chi! Why don’t they remove those things from there? Let them run, poor fellows.’ Now for that old lady, those obstacles were a problem. And therefore, her approach was different. But those young boys and girls, they had accepted and received those problems as challenges. Isn’t it? This is the first step in life. Don’t give up! Why do we give up? We give up under the following conditions - First of all, identity crisis. The moment we have identity crisis, we have doubts about our own duties. Suppose I get an appointment letter, like you know, one of my passports once had a problem. I had to go and change them every six months, one year because of so many stamps in them and you had to change. Once they gave me a passport that had all the details in it except my date of birth. And I did not check. I asked, “Is everything okay?” ‘Okay.’ And when I went for getting the visa from some other country, they said, ‘Passport is not valid.’ I said, “No, it is valid up to 2017, look here.” He said, ‘No, it is not valid because you are not born.’ “How come?” My date of birth was missing! He said, ‘How can I accept that you are born?’ I said, “Yes, legally you’re right. So, if I kill you, you cannot prove that I have killed you because I am not born! Isn’t it?”
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Geeta Essence So, first is - When my very existence is doubtful, how can a visa be issued to a doubtful existing individual? The same thing is true when we have doubts about our own identity. Which are the identities we all have to play through? Like, some of you are students. Now, your identity in this campus is basically of students. And as a student, what is your duty? You are not required to be told because you know it well. Similarly, if some of us are teachers. Now, what are the duties of a teacher, every teacher knows. So, as regards our knowledge about duties is concerned, none of us lack that knowledge. And yet, we go the wrong way. What is the reason? The reason is, for a moment, we forget our identity. And that momentary forgetfulness is sufficient to damage our performance. See, all the bad things happen in our life in a fraction of a second. Sometimes you know, the child is frustrated and comes running and crying, ‘Dad, Dad, look at Mummy!’ And the Dad has come from outside, totally frustrated, dejected and he sees the baby easily available and gives one blow, ‘Get out of here!’ Later starts crying, ‘I never knew I hit him so hard.’ The head lay separated from the body! See therefore, this identity has to be kept alive all the time in a perfect manner. First principle. Now, the second - We cannot have the same identity 24 hours. We keep on changing our identities time to time. If it is not done, what happens? Suppose, I am a husband. Suppose! By God’s grace, I am not! Suppose I am a husband and have some fight with my wife at home. And in a very angry frustrated mood, I as a husband leave home for my office. Now in the office, what is my identity? An officer! But that day, I have forgotten to leave the husband at home. I have brought him with me to the office. My subordinate comes with an application, part of the daily routine. ‘Sir, I will be coming after lunch break because I have to take my wife for a medical checkup. I hope you will oblige. Thank you very much.’ Routine application. He leaves it on my table to leave. At that moment, I see ‘my wife’. My wife! “What happens to wives! Nothing happens!” Calls him back. ‘Yes Sir?’ “You are not going.” ‘Sir, I have to go, it’s very urgent. My wife is not well, she needs a medical check-up.’ “Nothing happens to
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Talk 1 wives!” Now, how can you nationalise your statement? Because it was the husband talking, not the officer. Think friends! Therefore, first is correct identity. Second is our ability to change roles according to the position that we are holding every now and then. Then alone we can bring out the best out of us. Now, the third - We not only should have the ability to identify ourselves correctly and change the roles but we should also not carry forward the load of one role into another role. See, this is how it happens many times and this is what is called as ‘mixing issues’. Like you know, the other day, one person came with me, an elderly man and we had to go to attend someone’s death. Now, when you go to a place where there has been a death, what do you do? You also appear to be dead and then start talking good about; what you know. And it is the most pathetic condition for me. How to talk about the dead body to a dead person? And the live people are happy actually, but they show that they are miserable! So what can you talk? “Oh... it’s very bad you know, he should not have died. (Actually he should have died but you can’t say that). You can’t say, “Oh ... it’s so bad he died. Anyway, now you too are going to die! You cannot say that. So you pretend to be serious and that you’re really miserable, but you’re counting minutes to get out of that rubbish place. Once my friend told me, ‘Swamiji, please talk on Gita or something.’ I said, “To whom? To the dead one or to the live ones who don’t want to listen!” So, after that function was over, we came out and the next place we had to go to was a birthday party celebration of a child. I went there for blessings and all that. So when I went, ha ha hoo hoo started. And this 70 not out was carrying a hanging face. Manufactures defect! After sometime, he said, ‘Swamiji, how can you be like this?’ I said, “God’s creation! What can I do? I have done nothing.” I did not ask him what he meant. Why hit your head against the wall? I didn’t ask. He said, ‘Swamiji, just now you came from that place and now you’re dancing and singing with these kids? People die in the world and you celebrate birthdays!’ I said, “Next time you die, and we will do the same thing!” Friends, if some child is celebrating his birthday, is it
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Geeta Essence required that we bring the news of the death of an old man and spoil the celebrations of the young child? No! Never mix issues in life. And if you understand this principle, what is the net result? The net result is, you are all the time in the present. We normally carry the load of our past and destroy the present. And because of this, elderly people are unwanted in the young company. Because when the youngsters are doing something, talking, dancing, giggling, laughing according to the required environment around them, we elderly people go there and then start, ‘During our childhood, it was not like that.’ It cannot be like that, what is great about it? And then they start comparing. I always remember one Gujarati. I just can’t forget. Such a lovely person. This happened in California. A Gujarati family, husband, wife and a huge structure called a son. Six plus and four plus. Sleeping diagonally at 12 o’clock in the afternoon in Bhujangasan. And when I went to their house for food, I said, “Hey, where is your son?” He said, ‘Swamiji, come and see.’ So I went and saw. I thought, maybe he is not well because at 12 o’clock in Bhujangasan, only reptiles can sleep. So I asked, “Is he not well?” ‘Swamiji, everything is alright, he is like that. Never gets up in time, I don’t know what I should do.’ I said, “Should I tell you one thing? Give me food.” That was the most important thing for me so I said, give me food. So we went to his kitchen and we had food. I said, “You also take.” He said, ‘No no, I will take later.’ I said, “Fine, who cares? Give me, that’s important.” When I was taking food, he started talking, ‘Never gets up in time. I don’t know what to do. I want to tell you how it makes issues in life and makes me miserable.’ He started, ‘Swamiji, when back home in Bombay, when my father used to enter my room, I used to run into the next room out of respect. Now, you know the situation? When my son comes into my room, I run not out of respect but out of disgust into the next room. What is this?’ I said, “You’re born to run!” Friends, never mix issues. Life is to be lived only in the present. When you live your life in the present, you remain all the time young. And the day you decide, I am not going to bring my dead past then your present will be full of inspiration. Whenever we carry the load of our past as
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Talk 1 memories and not as wisdom, we carry the load of perspiration and not inspiration. And this is exactly what has happened with Arjuna on the battlefield in the first chapter. He was never defeated in any international World Cup. He always won the match; every time! And when the final countdown began on the Mahabharata battlefield, he was totally paralysed. What was the reason? The reason was ‘identity crisis’. Now, please understand these two things. Then you’ll get the click of it. Arjuna comes on the battlefield with two negative qualities One is the arrogance of perpetual success. And the second, the bitterness and revengeful attitude towards the Kauravas. When these two things are carried in your heart, your heart is already getting dissipated and is perspiring under the load of the past memories. Now, on the battlefield, with that arrogance of success, Arjuna comes and tells the Lord, ‘Senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthaapaya me’chyut (1.21) Kindly take my chariot between the two armies. And let me see, who are those guys who dare fight with me?’ Friends, it is easier to digest failure, to digest perpetual success in life is very-very difficult. To digest success, you require tremendous strength. And when we are not able to digest success, we become arrogant. And this is what exactly happened with Arjuna. He became so arrogant and he challenged, ‘Who dares fight with me?’ When these kinds of past memories and arrogance had built up Arjuna’s personality, the Lord thought, “Here is the time. He requires operation ego.” And the operation ego was planned. The Lord said, “Yes, do you want to know with whom you are going to fight? Who dares fight with you? Here is your grandfather and here is your own Guru who taught you how to lift the bow, fix the string, pull the arrow and shoot at the target. He is the one with whom you have to fight.” Identity crisis was created - ‘Am I fighting the war with the enemies or am I fighting the war with my own grandfather and my own Guru!’ And this identity crisis created such a commotion in his heart; he was unable to come to any conclusion. Now, what is my
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