The essence of the Holy Bhagavad Gita

-------------------------------------------------------------

The following notes are derivatives according to my understanding of Holy Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita is from the great epic “The Mahabharata” which was written thousands of years ago by the great sage Veda Vyasa. Lord Sri Krishna is the universal teacher and Bhagavad Gita is his gift to the mankind to save them from grief and sorrow.

Always remember one thing. You came alone into this world crying. You will go alone out of this world crying. In between these two you come across many objects which are not belonged to you. There is no use in crying for these objects. Always try to be happy with yourself.  

You are the only real thing in the universe. Everything else is manifestation of you.

Death is not caused by age. It is the indirect result of constant destruction of our body by six enemies who live inside us. If we expel these enemies from our body we will become immortals.

Your wealth, spouse, children, relatives and friends do not follow you in the end, but Dharma does. Embrace it. Dharma is your real companion, follower, friend and relative.

Extract happiness, the ultimate bliss, from within you and not from outside because only you are real and everything else is imaginary.

From birth to death we are wasting our entire lives in search of the elusive happiness everywhere else while ignoring its abundance presence within ourselves.

If you know all about you, there is nothing else to know in the universe.

Lust is the most dangerous out of all your six enemies. Anger is its eldest son. Both of these combined together into deadly form to wreck havoc in your body to keep health, peace and happiness out of your reach. Without these three, [health, peace and happiness] your life is a waste.

 Like candle that burns in self destruction, you are destroying your body day and night by unknowingly satisfying your six enemies, who reside inside you. 

Death is nothing but transition from one form to another just as you change your dress. The only difference is duration.  The embodiment, the atma of You, is permanent.

Nothing in the universe is destructible because everything seen or perceived is an illusion.

The whole universe is born out of nothing and it will be dissolved into nothing.

Our body is an illusion born out of three gunas. Atma is real and everlasting. Atma can neither be destroyed nor created.

The only truth is the existence of “you” the atma and everything else is an illusion.

The all pervasive Atma has no bounds, no form, no origin and no end. It is everlasting and never changing.

The primary source of all objects, the seen or unseen; the heard or unheard; the imagined or unimagined; is all pervasive Atma

As fire is engulfed by smoke; mirror obscured by dust; fetus covered by amnion, so is the knowledge buried by insatiable sexual desire. The sexual desire is the biggest enemy of the wise. This insatiable burning desire will obstruct and destroy knowledge.

Attachment to all worldly pleasures is the epicenter of cyclonic storm of sorrow which damages mental equilibrium. Detachment from all worldly pleasures is the right path to salvation. 

Change is permanent and constant. Existence is ephemeral. If existence has age then there will be no “change”, the primary building block of universe. The universe is evolving at all times because of change. Without change there is no universe.

Everything visible is temporary and changing at all times. At the minute level of time there no visible thing at all. Only the Atma, the invisible, is permanent and pervasive.

The time is the result of change and not by the movement of planets and stars. Hence time is timeless.

The universe is an embodiment of visible [illusion] and invisible [real]. It oscillates between existence and non-existence; illusion and real; time and timeless.

If you go after visible things [illusion] it will lead you to sorrow because they actually do not exist. If you try to find the invisible atma [real] it will give you everlasting joy.

If visible things really give you happiness you would have stuck to the first plaything, you received from your parents, till your death. As the time elapses you will seek happiness from different objects. For happiness you constantly try to change the objects believing that happiness comes from objects. But happiness lies within you and not outside. If you fail to get the object you will get anger and anguish. Trying to form bonds between your body and outside objects is the main cause of anger and anguish.  You become sad when you lose the objects you love. Here the sorrow is not the result of losing the object but because of your attachment to the object. The attachment comes from within you towards the object. When this chord of attachment breaks the sorrow will come out of your body in the form of tears. So both sorrow and happiness lie within you and not outside. So to evade sorrow do not form bonds/attachments between you and the outside objects.

The most astonishing in the world is the fact that although man sees people dying around him every day he continues to amass massive wealth as if he is the only immortal in the world.

The crows do not read holy books and do not go to places of worship. But they share whatever a little is found and eat communally. Man reads holy books and goes to places of worship. But he amasses massive wealth only for himself and he enjoys it solely.

The source of all happiness lies within you. Try to find the source of happiness to get peace permanently.

Senses are greater than body [visible] because they control it. Mind is greater than senses because it controls them. Intelligence is greater than mind because it controls mind. Atma [invisible] is greater than intelligence. So the Atma, the invisible, is greater than anything else that is visible. So the Atma controls everything and it proves beyond doubt that the whole thing [visible] evolved from Atma [invisible]

All individuals are equal. All works are equal. When you look into the mirror the object you see is of you. The universe is a mirror. Everything you see in the universe is just a reflection of you in different forms and shades. So love everyone and everything.

One who sees no difference between individuals is the real intellectual. 

Concentrate on every work you perform. Do not bother about its result.

The ultimate bliss comes to you when you keep others happy. Jealousy is an inferno that burns you into ashes.

Sattva, Rajo, and Tamo are three primary particles of this universe. Satva propagates, Raja fosters Tama destroys.  Everything you see, perceive, think and imagine is the product of these three primary particles. Anything outside these three is the almighty. Discarding these three is said to be Moksha or liberation from all bonds.

Fear is the result of bondage that comes from attachment. Unshackle yourself from all bonds of attachment.

Note – These are my observations according to my understanding of the Holy Bhagavad Gita.

VIJAYA KRUSHNA VARMA