Sanjaya: Seeing the plight of teary eyed Arjua, Krishna said-
Krishna: Oh Arjuna! It does not give you Glory by becoming indecisive in the middle of battlefield. This will not give clamor to a person of your stature. Get rid of your weak hearted nature and start for the war.
Arjuna: Krishna, how can I hit people like Bhishma and Drona whom I respect immensely? What’s worse for me then killing these great seers? How can I enjoy the worldly pleasures obtained by killing them? I am not able to judge if it is better to do war or not. Even if I do war, we can’t say who will win. Even if we win, we would have lost the desire to live after killing so many people.
Krishna, I have succumbed to my mental weakness here. I can’t judge on what to do and what not to do now. Please guide me and tell me what is good for me now. Please teach this refugee of yours what is good to do.
Krishna: Arjuna, you are spending your energies by crying for those who don’t deserve. On top of that, you are talking like the most knowledgeable person with your meek theory of war, its consequences and death. Remember that, wise people neither cries for dead nor for alive. Understand the true nature of Atman(universal self). You, I and every living being exists all the time. There is no question that we don’t exist some time later. Similar to our body getting transformed with age, this soul gets transferred to a different body. What exists now will always exists and what doesn’t exists now will never exists. The Atman which is occupying the whole universe is indestructible. No one can destroy it.
Happiness and sadness arises when our senses get engaged with worldly things. Remember that this is not stable, it changes over time. This unstable engagement won’t have any effect on a person eligible for salvation.
The Atman, which is the true owner of this body, exists always. Yet, the body which it possesses should cease to exist at some point. So, stop worrying and start the holy war. This soul can neither be killed nor kill anyone, thinking that the soul can be killed or can kill others is foolishness. Arjuna, he who understands atman as indestructible, existing forever, all powerful can never get anyone killed. (So, take this as destroying evil rather than killing someone.)
Just as we leave our old cloths and get new cloths, atman will leave the old body for a new body. This atman has no effect with a weapon or fire or water or air. Our senses can’t sense it, our thoughts can’t reach it, and it doesn’t have any effect of what we do. It is untouched by everything but still exists everywhere.
Oh Arjuna! Even if you think that this atman is getting birth and getting death, there is no reason to worry. Every birth will lead to death and every death will lead to another birth. So, there is no use of crying at things which you can’t change. All the living beings are not seen before birth, they will not be seen after death. They will be seen for some time in between. So, don’t worry much about the death.
Arjuna, someone sees this atman wonderingly, someone talks about this atman wonderfully, and someone listens about atman carefully. But, no one is understanding the atman truly. Arjuna, this is your duty, for a warier there is no greater opportunity then participating in the war against evil. By quitting the war at this time, you will lose your glory. People will call you timid who left the war in the middle. Opponents will insult your strengths. There will not be anything to worry then this.
In this battle if you die, you will get Heaven. If you are alive, you will get the earth. So, there is nothing to lose here. Start the war whole heartedly. Take the happy-unhappy moments, gain-loss, and win-defeat as same and do the war. No sin can touch you.
Krishna: Partha, so for I have explained you what to do in a practical way. I will now explain you the yoga which when understood will free you from all the bonds. The greatness of this Karma yoga is you will get benefitted even if you are only able to perform the tasks partially. If you complete a task fully in karma yogic manner, you will get the result. If you are not able to complete the task, then you will get rid of fear. The logic of this yoga is single faced and straight forward.
Arjuna, ignorant people will keep their senses only on deeds which are supposed to be beneficial. They dwell and strive for comforts and wealth over here and they believe on only those deeds which they expect to take them to heaven. They talk sweet and interestingly about this. Those who get attracted to these voices can never attain the assertive nature. Understand it and learn to see both victory and loss as same.
Move above ordinary behavior, overcome confusion, get pure minded, forget worries and concentrate on what you need to do. As the tiny streams of water will make a huge reservoir, all the above mentioned practices will build a true karma yogi out of you. Remember that we only have right to perform the Karma assigned to us, but not on the result. Always perform duties without anticipating result. But, never ever think of abandoning your duty fearing a negative result.
Arjuna, loose interest about result and preform your duty in Karma yogic way. This way of performing duty is lot better than doing them worrying about the result. Also, it will take you above Virtuousness and Sin. The skill in performing the Karma is called yoga. People who do their deeds following karma yoga will lose interest in the results and reaches the safest position called salvation. You can reach such a stable state once you get out of the blanket called pleasures. Get rid of the useless discussions and concentrate on atman, you can reach the position I mentioned above.
Arjuna: Kesava, what are the features of a man with stable wisdom? How will he talk? How will he work?
Krishna: He who gives up the worldly desires and immerses himself in the knowledge within is said to have stable wisdom. They don’t get down with a disaster; they don’t wish to lead the safest possible life. Affection, fear, anger can’t even touch them. They don’t have any unbreakable bonds; they don’t make comments on good and bad things. Similar to a tortoise, which covers its body parts in its shell. Such a person will cover his senses from the rain of worldly desires. After all this, such a person will have very less impact of worldly desires. But, he still bears the stint of desires. This stint will be lost only when he is able to realize the Eternal being.
Arjuna, senses have the ability to drag the mind of a well-educated person towards them in unimaginable ways. So, we have to get the control over senses first. Excessive thoughts of worldly things will develop attraction towards them; attraction will ignite desire; desire will result in anger; with anger wisdom will be lost; loss of wisdom results in confusion; confusion will spoil the ability to think; with this the destruction of a man is complete.
Pleasantness will drive away all the sorrows. He who has pleasantness, his thoughts will become stable. Loss of pleasantness will lose the wit; this will lose ideas; when there is no idea, there is no peace; and there will be no happiness without peace. With the thoughts begin controlled by senses, ideas of man will become a ship being dragged into ocean deep.
In simple words, to attain stable wisdom one has to separate his senses with desire of pleasures completely.
Arjuna, behave like a yogi. A yogi keeps a blind eye on things which interests common man but he keeps his interests on those things which common man neglects or keeps blind eye. Similar to Ocean, which shows no impact of many rivers merging into it. Various desires merges and shows no impact on a stable minded person. He will get released from the process of birth-rebirth and reaches the state of salvation. A person with lust can never reach that state.
He who gets out of desires, affection and narcissistic nature attains salvation. That is the highest point of perfection. The man who attains this will get out of birth-rebirth cycle.
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