Lessons from First Read of Shreemad Bhagwad Gita

Gita Introduction

Shrimad Bhagwat Gita is among the most sacred books in Hindu scripture and includes the conversation between the warrior Arjun and Supreme Lord Shree Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra about 5000 years ago. The conversation lasted for about 45 minutes to an hour or so. But the wisdom spoken and presented has inspired generations to come.

Gita is more than a religious text. It’s a way of living.

Writing a single blog post about Gita would only capture some of its essence. And I’m not qualified enough to talk about the lessons of the Gita. Reading the source is the best way to learn.

Below, I’ll make my humble attempt to express what I currently understand from the Bhagwat Gita.

How did I come to the Gita?

I have heard of Gita for years, but my fascination grew over the last 1.5 years when I faced life’s problems. I got told by an astrologer to read the Gita, but I didn’t keep it on top of my head. Over the years, random reels on YouTube have inspired me and helped me for months. These would lead me to contemplate certain aspects for months. They were ideas that stuck with me. Mainly, it was about how Gita treats humans, not something so important, which is something my anxiously attached brain was really fascinated by. Humans are not important? Duty is more important. Also, from what I heard, Gita was straightforward. Yet, despite everything, I didn’t read the Gita.

Finally, as I couldn’t find a solution to my existential crisis, I decided to pick the book that was supposed to have all the answers in the world. So, I started reading Gita As It Is.

I currently need to improve in reading the Devanagari script. So, I kept it down. I found a podcast for the Bhagwat Gita. And this is what I listened to slowly and deeply over three months, from October 2023 to Dec 2023.

Link to Bhagwad Gita Podcast

What effects did Gita have on me?

There are two aspects in which I can explain the Gita:

• A significant improvement in my mental healthy
• Experientially unexplainable events indistinguishable from magic.

I can’t explain the two parts separately, so I’ll weave them with one another. The two parts may be inseparable.

I’m going to blur out personal events.

Removal of Fears (I didn’t do 2 of the below!)

Within the three months, three significant events happened to me personally.

• In October, I was reluctant to face a fear. It was because the action gave me a lot of trauma. On a day in October, I just faced it. Here’s the magical bit, I was afraid. I didn’t want to do. But I did it in an instant. And when I did it, my heart was pounding, and I was worried things would go wrong. But they didn’t. They were peaceful. It was as if God himself did it. I didn’t do it. God did.
• In November, the same thing repeated. I again felt like I did not do it. God did. Even though, at both times, I was doing the action.
• In December, I finished listening to the Bhagwat Gita fully. Three days before, I knew and understood what was going to happen. What do I need to do? 🧘‍♂️ It was as if Krishna was standing beside me and saying don’t care about the Outcome. Take your bow. And shoot. 🏹 And so I did. I did what I needed to do. And I left. And I didn’t regret my decision one bit.

Removal of Doubts

It was absolutely resolute. I had no doubts.

And this is the main thing I observed with listening to the Bhagwad Gita. My doubts started going away one after the other. It was coming to a place where I couldn’t believe how much progress I had been making.

Now, after 2-3 months, I still have no doubts. There was one moment when I felt I needed to do something, but when I was actually about to do it, my conscience said don’t, so I didn’t.

Randomly getting a New Job

Over the last three months, several things have happened,

In Nov/Dec, I got a new job offer. It was totally random for me. I had stopped applying to jobs over 2-3 months ago. And I had sadly accepted that my stress-filled workplace was where I’d keep working. This job offer was totally random for me. I wasn’t happy when I got the offer. I was okay. My relationship collapsed was more important to me. So these other things going good were like 👍 okayzz.

Experientially, Divine Guidance

I don’t know how much manifestation stuff works. But here, I had started to get everything without even asking. People guided me. New people came into my life at precisely the moment I needed them!

I created my New Year resolution, one of which is to study the Gita and two related to travel. 🧳 I have never travelled much. But after that, all I have been doing is travelling nearby, and when I joined the new job, I got to know I’d be travelling to Udaipur. God random.

The level of random events going well for me is so much that I believe these can’t be random. How can things get so good? So, perfect.

Free of Worries

Now, most days, I am free of all worries; I am not looking forward to something and most days, I am not looking back. Sometimes, I feel sad or panicky, but that is like the Weather. It comes and goes. (Lesson from the Gita). And mainly when I am very, very sad, and I happen to close my eyes and I try to talk to God saying, “Ye sab le lijiye”. Suddenly, in 3-4 hours, I’m back to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Auto-Manifestation

I still feel I am being guided through life. And all I try to do now is not let my personal preference affect God’s plan.

The Western way of “manifestation” is I’ll try to ask the Universe to give me something. The eastern way is to surrender, leave everything to him, and not interrupt his plans; whatever will happen will be good.

Shri Shri Ravishankar says, “When you have done everything. Exhausted every option. You surrender and let go. And let the magic take place, ” which has been my experience thus far.

Why this post?

So why this post?

This post captures about 3 things:

1. Articulate what I learned about the Gita so that I can incorporate it better myself.
2. Be able to look at the progress I am making over the months and years.
3. Help others learn about the Gita!

With this aim in mind, here’s my humble attempt to articulate the lessons I learned in the Bhagwad Gita.

My current takeaways from Shreemad Bhagwad Gita

I’ll split this into a few sections.

1. Karma (Duty): Why Karma is most important? How to do Karma Most effectively?
2. Sthir Buddhi (Stable Mind)
3. Prakriti
4. Vishwaroop
5. What to do?

Section 1: Karma

Do your Karma

The Gita says that Karma cannot be avoided. No matter how much one detaches. Gita teaches us to detach from the Outcome of our actions, but we have to do our Karma in the best way possible. There is no way to avoid it.

Detach from the Outcome

The problem is we get attached to the Outcome. We start doing things because we want to get something out. That’s wrong. One should do their Karma because they must do it without attaching themselves to the Outcome.

The task should be completed in itself. And then you leave.

Why detach from the Outcome: The best result is when you detach from the Outcome

When one is detached, they do their tasks to it’s best. When we are attached, we fear. This reduces the quality of what we do.

Consider your mental RAM. You are studying for an exam. If you were not worried, you could use 80-100% of your brain capacity. But if you are attached to your Outcome, you’d use less. Depending on how much you are attached, “I need to get the highest marks on this exam because if I don’t, then …” all these worries occupy your mental RAM, and you find it hard to focus on what’s necessary. Consequently, you’re more likely to do poorly on an exam. At the same time, remember detaching doesn’t mean you avoid your duties.

So, do your duty and detach from the Outcome.

Why detach from Outcome: because you don’t have control

I used to try to control everything. I used to “manipulate” reality and people to get what I wanted. But I never had any control over them.

It’s the universe/god / Parmatma who produces the Outcome. I believe this is another way to read: “We are not the doer of our actions”, which I’ll explain in the section on our Prakriti/Nature below. TODO: Hyperlink here.

So, we leave thinking about the Outcome to Shree Krishna. And trust he’d make the best Outcome.

Karma is the offering we make to Shree Krishna

Yagya means offering / sacrifice to God. For Shree Krishna, the highest form of offering is doing your Karma to its best, without attachment and leaving it to Shree Krishna.

Doing your Karma (duty) is more significant than Bhakti.

This has practical application too, should you do X or should you do Y? What’s you duty? Do that. That’s the highest form of offering you can give to Shree Krishna.

Worried about the Outcome? Leave it to Shree Krishna. Your work was to do the Karma (the action), not on the fruits of it. So you did your duty, now you leave everything to Shree Krishna.

Thinking this way makes doing Karma easy and effortless. And easy and effortless is a theme we see in the Gita. By Easy and Effortless, I mean the mental state of a Yogi.

Good or Bad in Karma and Pakahnd (fakeness)

In Gita, there is no standard outside metric for good or bad. It’s a mix of outside and inside.

It’s hard to explain because the Gita has no black-or-white concept of Karma. It’s either you are following Dharma or not.

We’ll explain the three gunnas later but here’s an example.

Suppose you decide to donate 1000 Rs to a beggar; the reason you are doing this is because you participated in a contest of donating, and you are doing it to win. Maybe the beggar didn’t even want the 1000Rs; perhaps they were looking for a job. But what you care for is your Outcome. This intent and action is Rajo gun. This is pakahnd. (fake).

You should avoid pakahnd.

When you do something, do not do it for yourself; do it because it needs to be done. Do it as a duty, offer it to God, and leave the rest.

Summarizing Karma Yog

All in all, do your duty to it’s best. Don’t worry about the Outcome. Leave it to God. Everything will be fine. You don’t have to worry.

When you leave your Karma offering to God, your worry becomes Shree Krishna’s worry. The supreme lord has control over what can happen. You don’t. So leave, relax and do something else.

So, let go of the Outcome. Everything will be fine. :)

Section 2: Sthir Buddhi (Stable Mind)

Yogi / Siddha Purush

A Yogi is someone who is flowing with nature. Ups/Downs. It’s not rigidity. It’s a soft discipline. It’s a calm mind in every situation.

Someone who experiences and sees happiness and sadness with the same lens and is unaffected by both.

There are many types of Yoga. All of them aim to become someone effortless. In turn, all of these lead to becoming a Sidd Purush. Sidd is a word for attained.

The description I’ll try to present is someone who is perfect yet not rigid and not someone you can guess actions of and maybe they don’t guess their actions themselves.

They have attained a flow with nature. Each type of Yog leads to one becoming a Yogi. It’s best to combine all of them to try to become the #ultimateYogi. (Be ultimate, yet don’t attach smileEmoji (Todo))

Here are different types of Yog.

• Karma Yog (Yoga of Action)
  • Someone who does their duty with a certain quality. These qualities are
    • Without attachment to the Outcome. #detached
    • Doing in engaged and fully.
    • Once the duty is done, leaving it to God. Not even thinking about the Outcome. Going and doing the next duty.
• Gyan Yog (Yoga of Knowledge)
  • Yog by seeking knowledge and truth. The ultimate truth, according to the Gita, is the realization of God. Gita expresses many different ways to help make realization easier.
• Bhakti Yog (Yoga of Division)
  • One who devotes all his trust to the supreme lord.

The goal of the Gita is for us to become free from this Maya and the cycle of rebirth

The problem with us humans is we attach ourselves to worldly affairs. When we attach ourselves to worldly affairs, we are effected by it and therefore we cannot concentrate on Yog.

By attaching ourselves to the material universe, we focus on Rajo Gun. Rajo Gun leads us to the cycle of rebirth because this is what we sought.

The goal the Gita explains is to become free of this attachment, and when we become free of attachment, we attain Mukti. We end the cycle of rebirth.

Keep your focus on God

To detach from worldly affairs, we need to attach ourselves to a higher power and surrender.

When one surrenders to the god / universe / creator, we become free of world affairs.

Note that we have to do our Karma anyway. It’s not optional.

But while doing your Karma, you’d find the mind is Chanchal (Flickering); it attaches itself to want to feel good, in external validations, in worldly affairs, it ruminates on events of the past, tasks of the future, worries our what will happen, if I will get X, if I will get Y, etc.

By bringing our focus to a higher power, we get free from these flickers of the mind because we have now attached ourselves to something bigger. We can see the world is big and that there are thousands of things going on, none of which are under our control. God orchestrates events via his Yog Maya. We understand that what we can do is do our Karma and leave and let the supreme lord handle things to their best. [I’ll later talk about the scale of Shree Krishna].

Here’s my personal experience: when reading the Gita, I was most sceptical about this step. Why should I attach myself to God? Why? Isn’t this too much? Isn’t this following an ideology? Won’t I be closed to newer ideas?

So, for a few months, I didn’t, and I realized the Gita’s effects kept decreasing. I was getting attached to world affairs, worrying, ruminating. I wasn’t able to let go. Later, when I started experimenting with the concept of attaching myself to God, something magical happened to me. All my worries went away; it was as if I was gliding over what would be more significant problems in the past.

Gita suggests twofold actions: do your Karma while being detached from Outcome and attach yourself to God.

Surrender onto me, and I will take care of all your worries. ~ Shree Krishna

The way Gita is written it’s as if God is talking to you. God speaks it. So, when Shree Krishna says,

Don’t worry. I am here. Do your Karma. Take your bow. Shoot.

You feel invincible concerning worries. The God himself is with me. What do I have to worry about? I need to do my Karma and leave. And keep my mind attached to God. Everything will be fine.

Dyana (Meditation) and Swasa (Breath)

Gita suggests meditation as a way to control the mind. And it describes a specific protocol for it.

1. Sit on a stable, clean surface on grass or an assan (soft mat).
2. Keep your gaze at the tip of the nose. This will help you concentrate.
3. Meditate.

The Gita also suggests ultimate control over your Swasa (breath). A person who is not Stir Buddhi has breath up and down. A person with sthir buddi always has his breath under control. It’s calm and deep.

Experiencially, this ultimate control is not rigid. It’s a flow (like everything in Gita).

Meditation and Swasa are something that our current science backs up a lot! [Todo For me: Learn Meditation and Breathwork Protocols from Andrew Huberman and create Meditate one a day]

Summarizing Sthir Buddi

We need to become Sthir Buddhi, someone who is not attached to worldly affairs but does their duty to its best.

We must learn to let go of Outcome and focus on our efforts.

Become someone who sees and experiences good and bad as same and does his duty.

Meditate and control your breath.

Section 3: Our Prakriti / Nature

We are not the doer of our actions, it’s our nature

The Gita says it’s not we who initiate our actions; it’s our nature.

Look at a person who drinks a lot, sleeps all day, does drugs, etc; what’s making him do these things? It’s their nature.

Free ourselves

The Gita says that the one who recognizes they are not the doer of their action is free.

Here, it means we don’t produce the Outcome. Our Prakriti (nature) is the doer of actions.

The 3 Modes of Prakriti and action

Our Prakriti comprises 3 Gunas that lead to 3 types of action:

1. Satvagun
2. Rajogun
3. Tamogun

Satvagun. It is the mode of goodness.

• This is where a person is calm and stable.

Rajogun. It is the mode of passion. Here, a person is attached to outcomes.

• Examples include:
  • Trying to become wealthy.
  • Trying to attain a goal. Etc.
  • Not doing something because it’d feel bad in the moment.
• The person with Rajogun has attached themselves to these worldly affairs, which is why according to the Gita, they are reborn.

Tamogun. This is inertia.

• This is someone who has unproductive and destructive qualities.
  • Laziness.
  • Oversleeping.
  • Addictions.

This frame of thinking has been handy for me; when doing actions, if I have been experiencing something bad, I think about what type of actions I am taking, and I try to eliminate Rajo and Tamo.

We can choose

According to the Gita, we are born with a set Prakriti. This depends on all of our Karma in the past lifetimes.

But even with this default setting, we can choose our Prakriti.

Our gunas act on us all the time. But by consciously choosing what to allow and what not to allow, we can influence our mool prakriti (core nature) and move towards one another.

When we choose one, it increases, the other two decreases

If we act in Satvgun, Rajo and Tamo will be reduced.

When we choose to act in Rajo, Sato and Tamo reduce.

If we choose Tamo, Stato and Rajo will be reduced.

Nirgun: Liberation from modes of Prakriti

Essentially, Gunnas make us act in specific ways. The Gita says one who can see the effects of Gunnas acting is free from it.

This state is called Nirgun, meaning free of the control of gunnas.

If you are conscious of the fact that your attachment to wealth is not letting you donate money to where it’s necessary, Even though your Maan (mind) wants to act in a certain way, you can use your Buddi (brain) to control it and choose something else.

Do this for enough time, and it’ll keep increasing.

Indriya, Maan Buddi Aatma and Parmatma

Our Indriya are our senses; the Gita suggests more than five senses. (I don’t remember them on top of the mind). Sight, Sounds, Smell, Taste, Touch.

Our senses are the ones that attach themselves to world affairs.

Our tongue attaches itself to tasting the tasty food of the world.

We attach ourselves to smelling certain things. To listen to certain things, to see particular things. All this to feel satisfied.

Our Indriya controls our Maan (mind / what we want).

Our mind/wants control our intellect. Overall, our consciousness (atma) remains separate from Parmatma.

We must use our intellect (Buddhi) to control our maan (mind’s wants). Use Maan intends to control our senses /Indriya. Then, we use our intellect to take our consciousness / atma to god/Parmatma.

A way to think about this control is the detachment of our senses from the stimulus, our mind from our senses and our intellect from our mind.

Summarizing Prakriti and Action

When Tamo Gun fully controls our senses. Our mind and intellect don’t get space.

Rajo guns control our senses a little but control our minds more.

Sato leads us to the best possible way to allow our intellect to be in control.

And Nirgun is the state where our intellect is actually under control.

We control our mind using our intellect and use our mind to control our senses. And we take our intellect and focus on our conscious experience and God.

Section 4: Vishwaroop (The grand reality of the supreme lord)

The Gita has a much better description of what I’ll describe, so much so that I was in awe and bliss for three weeks after reading the chapter on Vishwa Roop.

After the first few chapters about Karma Yog, Arjun is curious. He wants to know about Shree Krishna himself.

He is in everything and enables everything.

Shree Krishna = Universe.

The Gita explains the rays of the Sun, the light of the moon, the wind around us, the waves of the ocean, and everything you see in the material realm. It’s all Shree Krishna. It’s all made up of his divine essence.

• All living beings.
• All non-living things.
• the flame of fire
• everything is Shree Krishna.

It goes beyond material things to qualities.

• The inspiration of an intelligent person.
• The mastership of a craftsman.
• The voice of a singer.

Anything you can conceive of is made up of his divine essence.

He enables everything: all qualities and feelings.

Even the gods and all their powers are enabled by Shree Krishna.

He says even if you worship other gods, you are inevitably worshipping him because he enables all their powers.

Everything in the material realm is made up of him. But he is more

The Gita explains Shree Krishna is more than his creations. He controls the whole of existence. But the whole of existence does not prevent him.

He is beyond these things.

Shree Krishna and I were there all of the time. Our souls are immortal

Shree Krishna explained that he had told the Bhagwad Gita to the Lord Sun a few thousand years ago. Lord Sun passed the Gita’s knowledge to his son and so on for some time. But that knowledge was lost. He is saying it to Arjuna again because Arjun is his devotee.

Arjun asked, but Sun has been there for a long time. And Shree Krishna was born a few years ago. How is it possible that Shree Krishna told the Gita to the Sun?

Shree Krishna laughed and explained that Arjun doesn’t remember his past lives. But Shree Krishna remembers all his past lives, so he remembers sharing it with the Sun.

He says there was no time when Arjun was not there. There was no time when Shree Krishna was not there. There was no time in which we all were not there. Our souls are immortal. We change bodies, and we don’t remember our past lives.

But Shree Krishna does.

Formlessness and Creation, Preservation and Destruction

Shree Krishna is formless. But it’d be hard for us to perceive him. So, he uses his Yog Maya to create a form for us.

To see the cosmic version of Shree Krishna, Arjun had to be given divine pairs of eyes and what he saw was Shree Krishna everywhere. He was blasted with rays of 1000 suns all at once. He saw people worshipping Shree Krishna all over the planet. Him preserving all of life. Creation of galaxies and even Shree Krishna taking away lives. Arjun was frightened at one point.

He creates the Universe, preserves it, and Destroy it when the right time comes.

This is where the famous like from Oppenheimer comes from.

Dharma sansthapanathaya, sambhavami Yuge Yuge

Shree Krishna says that he takes an avatar in every Yug to balance the world and reestablish Dharma.

In Hinduism, time is cyclical. It repeats in 4 parts. Shree Krishna takes his avatar in every Yug.

Here’s another way to think about it: Shree Krishna is in everything and enables all qualities. He says, haar maat mano, yudh karo. (don’t feel defeated, fight). Each moment is new. Each moment is an opportunity to reestablish Dharma, and since Shree Krishna is present at all times, he is always there. It’s easier to explain this in Hindi. Har pal, Har Yug me Bhagwan bolte hai, vo avatar lete hai, to abhi agar kuch bura bhi hua hai, to vo avatar le rhe.

Surrenderender unto me, and I will take away all your worries

Shree Krishna says, surrender onto me. He will take away all the worries, including the Karmic cycle.

He says even if someone who hasn’t done well in life surrenders, Shree Krishna helps them in the best possible way.

He says he can only help a person fully with the person asking for help. Ask for help, and you shall get it.

He also said that since other God’s powers are derived from him, while they can help, they can’t help you in all aspects, Shree Krishna can. Therefore he says Surrender unto me, and I will take away all your worries.

I had been an atheist for some time. One of the things I lacked was trusting that everything would be okay. Often, terms like “Trust in the universe” would make no sense to me. Objectively, for someone reading, it won’t make sense. But experientially, now I understand what it is to surrender and have faith. Before, I felt all alone trying to control everything. Now I don’t. A superior being is in charge here. I am not in charge. Even if you believe in the Universe, it’s the same concept. There is something more significant in charge here; you can sit back, relax and surrender your control of the Outcome.

Summarizing Vishwaroop

Shree Krishna is in everything. He is everywhere. Krishna enables everything. He is Sanathan. He was always there. He will always be there.

He created the Universe, is preserving it and will one day recreate it.

He takes avatar every Yug to reestablish Dharma.

He says surrender to me.

Section 5: Agar Arjun jaisa archer ho aud Krishna uske sarthi ho, to Dharma Satya etc. ki hi jeet hoti hai

Towards the end of Gita, Sanjay says the above.

This was the high point for me in Bhagwad Gita.

When there is an Archer like Arjun and a guide like Shree Krishna, their Dharma is established.

So take your Gandhiv (bow) and shoot. Do your duty and leave everything to Shree Krishna.

Ending

Thank you for reading thus far. I have presented you with my humble attempt at articulating the Bhagwad Gita.

It’s a book that I can proudly say changed my life for the better.

There are many other lessons in Gita that I need to remember right now, which is why I am going to study it properly over the next few years. I plan to learn Sanskrit before it.

I have thrown 3 of my four core values away because I realized The Bhagwad Gita is a much better way of life than my three core values. My fourth core value, “Social”, stays.

If you consume the Bhagwad Gita, please share your experience. I’m very interested to know. And ask me any questions if you are stuck.

I recommend the following resources to help you understand the Bhagwad Gita.

• Gita As It Is. (Book avaibale in Hindi and English).
• Bhagwad Gita Podcast by Shailendra Bharti. This is in Hinglish. This is what I consumed.
• Swami Mukundananda: This is in English. Provides excellent commentary on the Gita.

What lessons did you take from the Bhagwad Gita?