A series of short
articles on the Bhagavad Gita for people living and working in our volatile,
uncertain, complex and ambiguous times filled with stress and fear. This
scripture born in a battlefield teaches us how to face our challenges, live our
life fully, achieve excellence in whatever we do and find happiness, peace and
contentment.
[Continued from
the previous post.]
The name given to
the first chapter of the Gita is Arjuna Vishada Yoga – the Yoga of Arjuna’s Vishada.
The word vishada is translated variously as melancholy, sorrow, grief, depression,
despondency, sadness, misery and so on.
We just saw in the
last article how Arjuna surrendered to melancholy, dropped his bow and arrows
and collapsed into his chariot telling Krishna he will not fight, he finds no
point in fighting and killing, no point in winning the kingdom, no point in
pleasures or even in life itself. Kim no rajyena govinda, kim bhogair jeevitena
vaa, he asks: “What good is the kingdom, Krishna, and what good are pleasures
or life itself?”
All over the world
today there is a lot of discussion about depression which is fast spreading and
assuming the form of a wild fire that can consume everything. I was part of the
faculty team giving an intensive training programme for doctors at XLRI School
of Business and Human Resources and we were having a pre-programme dinner when
the topic of depression came up. Several professors felt depression is fast
becoming the most dangerous problem the world is facing today with a large
number of lives claimed every day. This was of course in the days before the
covid-19 pandemic.
Bright young
people seem to be particularly susceptible to depression. In his bestselling
book The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology,
Shawn Achor speaks about depression in Harvard University where happiness was
the subject of his research for several years. Achor says “despite all its
magnificent facilities, a wonderful faculty, and a student body made up of some
of America’s (and the world’s) best and brightest, it is home to many
chronically unhappy young men and women. In 2004, for instance, a Harvard Crimson poll found that as
many as 4 in 5 Harvard students suffer from depression at least once during the
school year, and nearly half of all students suffer from depression so
debilitating they can’t function.” Shawn Achor then goes on to say that “This
unhappiness epidemic is not unique to Harvard. A Conference Board survey
released in January of 2010 found that only 45 percent of workers surveyed were
happy at their jobs, the lowest in 22 years of polling. Depression rates today
are ten times higher than they were in 1960. Every year the age threshold of
unhappiness sinks lower, not just at universities but across the nation. Fifty
years ago, the mean onset age of depression was 29.5 years old. Today, it is
almost exactly half that: 14.5 years old.”
Speaking about depression, the Himalayan monk Om Swami says in his book When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness:
“Depression isn’t just sadness. It is emptiness, it is misery. It is pain and
nothingness at once. When you are truly depressed, you lack the ability or will
to cheer yourself up. No one just ‘has depression’. You suffer from it.”
Continuing, Om Swami explains what depression feels like. “You will wake
at 5, 6, maybe 7 a.m., feeling as though you had only just fallen asleep... If
you don’t have to be somewhere, you could lie in bed for another three hours;
too tired, too miserable and pathetic to crawl out of your bed. Or maybe you will
sleep until 1 p.m., because it’s so much easier to sleep through most of the
day than actually live it, and you’re so unbelievably tired anyway. You will
push through the day, knowing that every hour will be a struggle and not
knowing how you will feel tomorrow. People will ask what is wrong, and you will
simply smile and say, ‘Nothing, I’m just tired.’ ...You will spend your days
not only lost in the haze of depression, but your mind will be so consumed with
these thoughts of escaping and self-destruction that you think you could
explode…”
But the important
question is why so many people are feeling depressed today. Why is depression
spreading across the world like a deadly epidemic today?
The reasons are
not too difficult to find. For one thing, our life has become too fast. We are
obsessed with speed – in real life as well as in virtual life. We have become
intolerant of slowness. And stillness? Of course, we have grown strangers to
it. We have forgotten that all that is beautiful in life comes from stillness.
Creativity comes from stillness. Intuition comes from stillness. Art and music
come from stillness. The essence of dance is not movement but the stillness
that is its substratum, from which arises and into which it goes back. All
inventions and discoveries are made in moments of stillness. Intuition comes
from stillness, insights come from stillness, healing comes from stillness. Medical
professionals have long recognized that silence plays an important part in
healing. For instance, the experience of even a little real silence can produce
physiological changes that neutralize the effects of stress.“When you are
still, you find that your perception of life is at its purest,” says Ron
Rothbun in his book The Way Is Within.
We are all
familiar with the story of Archimedes who ran through the streets of Athens
shouting eureka, eureka. The Athenian ruler had given him an assignment.
Someone had gifted the ruler a crown and he wanted to find out if the crown was
of pure gold or some alloy had been mixed with the gold. The specific gravity
of gold was known then, but no one knew how to measure the mass of an irregular
object like the crown. Archimedes was the best scientist of the day and he
struggled for weeks to find a solution to the problem. If only there was a way
to measure the mass of the crown! Then you could decide whether the crown was
pure gold or not.
Eventually
Archimedes gave up his struggles admitting defeat and sank into a tub for a
relaxed bath. It was then, in that moment when there were not struggles in his
mind and the mind had become still with his acceptance of defeat, that he
noticed water spilling over from the tub as his body sank into the tub. That
very instant insight was born, a great discovery happened: the mass of water
that spilled out was equal to the mass of his body that had submerged in the
water. The quantity of water that flows out when a substance is immersed in a
vessel full of water is equal to the mass of the substance.
In that still
moment, his problem had been solved and climbing out of the tub he ran through the
streets of Athens shouting that word that has now become part of every language
in the world: eureka, eureka!
We all have had
the experience of something, a name, we had forgotten coming back to us the
moment we give up the struggles and the mind becomes still.
All science and
all technology is the product of still moments. All that is precious to
humanity are products of inner stillness, of the mind is that is empty of
restless thoughts. The saying that the empty mind is the devil’s workshop is
completely wrong. The empty mind is God’s workshop!
Indian culture
says the universe is born of God’s empty mind. The Taittiriya Upanishad says,
“Sa tapo’tapyata. Sa tapas taptvaa idam sarvam asrjata. Yadidam kincha.” “He
did tapas. Having done tapas, he created all this. He created all that exists.”
It is from the mind of God that has become empty because of tapas that the
universe comes into being.
There is story
told about the world famous painter Raphael and an unknown woodcutter. One
morning as the woodcutter was going to the forest to cut wood, he saw Raphael
sitting by a lake, lazily picking up pebbles and dropping them into the lake.
The woodcutter shook his head in disapproval – what a waste of time! – and went
on his way. As the woodcutter was returning home with his load of firewood, he
saw Raphael still sitting there picking up pebbles and throwing them into the
lake! What an idiot, he thought! I have done a whole day’s work and the moron
is still sitting there and throwing pebbles into the lake!
We know today that
such a woodcutter existed because of Raphael, one of the greatest painters the
world has known.
In the ancient
Indian tradition, in fact all over the world, we began everything with a few
moments of silence, of mental stillness, of prayer. But today stillness, and
even slowness, is looked down upon. It is one of the greatest casualties of the
age of speed.
The virtues of
slowness are unlimited, says Carl Honore in his book In praise of slowness. In his book Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, Richard Carlson says more or
less the same thing. And it is that slowness that we have rejected in favour of
speed! Faster, faster, ever faster, says our culture!
Slowing down and
experiencing stillness is one of our basic needs – it is as essential as
breathing. Our brains go completely haywire unless we experience slowness and
stillness on a regular basis. Which is exactly what is not happening today. And
that is taking a heavy toll on young minds today, especially gifted young
minds, leading to depression and all that depression leads to. The philosophy
aaraam hai haraam has to go. Laziness is bad, sluggishness is bad, sloth and
apathy are bad, but relaxation is not. It is the most healing thing most of us
know, apart from sleep. In fact sleep is a form of relaxation too. The second
highest form of relaxation, after meditation which is the highest form of
relaxation in existence.
We need to spend
more time ‘plucking daisies’, we need to spend more time climbing mountains, we
need to spend more time unfocused and in ‘purposeless’ activities, like Raphael
picking up pebbles and throwing them into the lake. We need to give our souls
time to catch up with us. That is the medicine for fighting the insane
obsession with speed that drives us away from our own calm inner centre.
A European
explorer was in the Amazon forests, exploring the flora and fauna there. He had
hired a supervisor and the supervisor had hired native people to help him in
his work. One day passed the explorer and the natives hurrying from one thing
to another, then another day and then yet another day. On the fourth day when
the explorer was ready to start he found not one native was ready. When
enquired, the supervisor gave him an incredibly beautiful reply. He told the
explorer: they are giving time for their souls to catch up with them!
We all need to
give time for our souls to catch up with us.
One of the most
beautiful Chuang Tzu stories ever says:
The prince
discovered when he returned from the top of the mountain that he had mislaid
the Priceless Pearl up on the mountain.
He sent his
generals and their armies to search for it, but they could not find it. He
employed Huang-Ti, the vehement debater, to find the Pearl, but Huang-Ti was
unable to find it. He sent his skilled gardeners and his artisans to find it,
but they too came home empty-handed.
Finally, in
despair, having tried everyone else, he sent Purposeless to the mountain, and
Purposeless found the pearl immediately.
"How odd it
is", mused the Prince, "that it was Purposeless who found it!"
We are all birds
meant to fly in the open sky. Those who have known the truth, the Upanishad
rishis for instance, call us amritasya putraah – children of the Immortal, each
one of us a divine spark. The Mundaka Upanishad tells us: yathaa sudeeptaat
paavakaad visphulingaah sahasrashah prabhavante saroopaah, tathaa aksharaad
vividhaah somya bhaavaah prajaayante tatra chaivaapi yanti: Just as sparks in
their thousands are born from a roaring fire, each of the same nature as the
fire itself, so do, dear one, beings come forth from the Imperishable One and
return to It. [Mu.Up.2.1]
No, we are not
meant to spend our lives hopping about on the ground searching for worms but to
stretch out our wings, soar up and enjoy the bliss of the boundless skies – the
boundless skies of consciousness. We are meant for the bhooma, the vast, and
not for the alpa, the small. The owl will be satisfied with the rotting body of
a mouse, but not the phoenix which will touch no food other than certain sacred
fruits and drink only from the clearest springs. The chakora lives on
moonbeams, says Indian mythology, and will touch nothing else. The way man
lives today is like the phoenix being forced to live on rotten mice and the
chakora being forced to live on the food that pigs eat.
By and large, man
has forgotten the higher. We have become flotsams with no roots in our
spiritual selves. We are living not the philosophy of the rising son as we did
in the past but the philosophy of the setting sun. Frustration and depression
are bound to be there.
O0O
As we saw, the
vishada that happened to Arjuna in the battlefield is called by different names
such as melancholy, sorrow, grief, depression, despondency, sadness, misery and
so on
But there is a different
name for it. India calls it vairagya, dispassion, and considers it sacred. Vairagya
is the first step in the journey to the east, the journey to the land where the
sun rises, the journey to the source of all light. Light as bright as the light
of a thousand suns, light before which all other lights pale.
There is mantra
that is traditionally chanted when we do arati, ritually show burning lamps
before a sacred idol. Na tatra sooryo bhaati na chandrataarakam nemaa vidyuto
bhaanti kutoyam agnih; tam eva bhaantam anubhaaati saravam tasya bhaasaa sarvam
idam vibhaati, says the mantra. “The sun does not shine there, nor the moon or
the stars. How then will this fire? That alone shines and everything else
shines after it, reflecting its light.” The journey to that source of all light
begins with what Arjuna is experiencing now and that is why India considers
vairagya sacred.
This is something
that happens only to sensitive people. Much of the time the kind of questions
Arjuna asks, the feelings Arjuna feels, come to us from a great shower of blessing
that descends upon us. It is ishwra-anugraha, the grace of God, says India.
The rishi of the
Svetashvatara Upanishad declares boldly and unhesitatingly:
vedaaham
etaṃ puruṣhaṃ mahaantam aaditya-varṇaṃ tamasaḥ parastaat;
tam eva viditvaa atimṛtyum eti naanyaḥ panthaa vidyate'yanaaya. Sv. Up. 3.8
tam eva viditvaa atimṛtyum eti naanyaḥ panthaa vidyate'yanaaya. Sv. Up. 3.8
“I
know the Great Purusha, He who is luminous like the sun and beyond darkness.
Only by knowing Him does one go beyond death. There is no other path worth
travelling!”
Vairagya
is the invitation to begin our journey on the only path worth travelling.
It is
not only Arjuna who has grace showered on him as he stands in the chariot
driven by Krishna in the middle of the two armies in Kurukshertra, but all of
us, the entire humanity. Because it is in response to this vairagya he felt
that the Bhagavad Gita was born on a shukla paksha ekadashi day, on the
eleventh day of the bright lunar fortnight in the month of Margashirsha, more
than five thousand and one hundred years ago.
A well
known story from the Mahabharata says that both Arjuna and Duryodhana went to
meet Krishna seeking his help before the war began. Duryodhana was the first to
enter Krishna’s bed chamber and he went and took a seat by the head of the bed.
A few moments later Arjuna entered the chamber and he too could have gone and taken
a seat at the head of the bed as Duryodhana had done. Instead, he went and
stood at Krishna’s feet. When Krishna opened his eyes a few moments later it
was naturally Arjuna who was standing at the foot of the bed that he saw first.
As we all know, it was on him that Krishna’s grace fell in the form of his
presence with him during the war and as his driver.
Krishna is grace.
The greatest possible grace! With Krishna on your side, the impossible becomes
possible. With Krishna on your side miracles happen. Mookam karoti vaachaalam
pangum landhayate girim, yat-kripaa tam aham vande parama-ananda-maadhavam,
says one of the shlokas traditionally chanted before the study of the Gita: “I
bow down to Krishna, who is supreme bliss itself, with whose grace the
speechless become eloquent and the lame crosses over mountains.”
The choice that
Arjuna made in Krishna’s bedchamber, rejecting the Narayani Sena, rejecting the
power of a mighty army and choosing just Krishna, Krishna’s grace, it is that
choice that is now showering on him in the form of the Bhagavad Gita. All we
have to do is to make that choice, everything else happens by itself. That is
why Krishna concludes his teachings in the Gita by saying:
sarvadharmaan parityajya maam ekam sharanam vraja; aham twaa
sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shuchah BG 18.66
“Abandoning all dharmas, take refuge in me alone; I will
liberate you from all sins. Have no grief.”
Duryodhana missed
Krishna’s grace throughout his life. After the war was over, Gandhari curses
Krishna saying he could have and should have helped her son but did not. But
grace can shower on you only when you are open to it. If a pot remains upside
down when the sky showers rains, not a drop will go inside even if an entire
season passes. In fact, the only thing you need to deserve grace is openness to
it, receptivity to it, which is what Duryodhana did not have. There were a thousand occasions in his life when
he could have taken refuge in Krishna, but rejects every single one of them.
There is a famous
Indian story about a beggar who was crossing a bridge, walking with a stick in
hand. The story says that Goddess Parvati takes pity on the poor beggar and
requests Shiva to bless him with wealth. Shiva says there is no point because
even if he gives wealth to him, he will not get it because he is not open to his
blessing. But the heart of the goddess is the heart of a mother and she insists
that the man be given wealth. Shiva agrees and a treasure chest appears on the
bridge. The moment the chest appears on the bridge, the beggar has a thought:
“I am young now and I can see well, but what will happen to me when I grow old
and lose my eyesight? I must practice walking blind right from now.” With that thought, he closes he eyes and walking
with the help of the stick crosses the rest of the bridge, missing the treasure
completely!
Throughout his
life Duryodhana behaved like that beggar.
Whereas Arjuna
chose Krishna lifetimes ago. The Mahabharata tells us they have been friends
across lifetimes, meditating in the Himalayas together.
There is a mantra
in the Mundaka Upanishad that my teacher Swami Dayananda Saraswati was very
fond of. During the years when I was in the Sandeepany Gurukula and learning
timeless Indian wisdom from him, he must have quoted this mantra hundreds of
times.
pareekshya lokaan
karmachitaan braahmano nirvedam aayaan naastyakrtah krtena tadvijnanartham sa
gurum evabhigacched samitpaanih shrotriyam brahmanishtham. Mu.Up.1.2.12
“Having
examined all in the world that is gained through actions, after attaining
nirveda and realizing that the uncreated cannot be achieved through actions,
let [him who has thus become] a brahmana, approach with samit in hand a guru
who is learned [in the traditional spiritual lore] and rooted in the Brahman.”
The
soul of the entire Indian spiritual culture could be found in that one mantra.
Before approaching the guru and being qualified for his grace, we must
developed nirveda towards all that can be attained through our own power,
through our actions. Nirveda means vairagya – what Arjuna is experiencing at
the moment. It is when this vairagya is born in your heart that you become a
brahmana – one whose entire focus is on
attaining the Brahman, one whose concentration now is only on attaining
the spiritual goal. And then he should go to his guru with samit in hand. Samit
is kindling used in sacrificial fire. Carrying that to your guru is the symbol
of your joyful willingness to serve the master.
Duryodhana is
still far from the nirveda the Upanishad talks about. He is not willing to
surrender to Krishna and therefore is not ready for the grace. He has not yet
developed what makes you a brahmana – the all consuming urge to abandon
everything else and walk the path of shreyas to reach the land of the ultimate
good, the land of light, having reached which you never return – yad gatvaa na
nivartante. He is still very much with the loka of wealth, power, position,
sensual pleasures and so on.
Arjuna has developed
that urge and he is ready. That is why he is asking, “What good is the kingdom,
Krishna, and what good are pleasures or life itself?” The vishada he is
experiencing at the moment is the clear sign of that.
All vishadas, depressions, are not bad, some are good. Some can take you to the higher. They
come to you from divine grace. With them begins our journey to the east, the
greatest journey we will ever make.
O0O
