The Gita Happiness Retreat. Sheetal
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acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can suppression accomplish?
There are principles to regulate attachment and dislike pertaining to the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of such attachment and dislike, because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.
Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrishni, by what is one compelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into anger, and which is the all-consuming sinful enemy of this world.
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.
Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and confuses him.
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.
Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental (superior) to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by conscious spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this unquenchable enemy known as lust.
Now let me Summarize Chapter 3:
Everyone is forced to act according to the qualities he has acquired by nature, so one should engage in some activity in this material world. Actions can either bind us to this world or liberate us from it. So one must perform their prescribed duty without attachment for fruitive results. Surrender all your work unto Lord Krishna without desiring for any profits. Thus by working for the Supreme Lord Krishna, without selfish motives is called Karma Yoga, one can become free from the law of karma (action and reaction) and attain transcendental (superior) knowledge of the self and the Supreme. Lord Krishna tells us that it is easy for people to follow the path of Karma Yoga, the path of selfless service. Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna to do his duty and fight with knowledge and detachment. Lord Krishna also tells us that we must control our desire for sex pleasures, by keeping our mind steady and with spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] conquer this uncontrollable enemy which lead us to failure and suffering in life.
I asked everyone, “Can anyone tell me what do you understand from this chapter?” One participant replied, “Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna to do his duty of a warrior and fight the war.” The other said, “We must keep doing our duty without having any attachment to the results be it success or failure.” One participant asked, “Madam you talked about Work life, please explain.” I said, “The Bhagavad Gita has solution to every problem. Don’t we face problems in our work life as well? We worry about success and failure. Managing relationships with bosses at work place is equally challenging. How many of you agree?” Everyone raised his or her hands. Here is a story of a woman who was harassed at her work place.
“Do your duty to the best of your ability, never give up and leave the rest to God”.
There was a family of three, a husband wife and their five-year-old daughter. Both husband and wife were working professionals in top multinational companies in good positions. They were doing well for themselves; the husband and wife both had recently bought a beautiful house in a metropolitan city on loan. The wife was a beautiful lady and was making good progress in her company. Everything was going on great until one day.
One day, the wife’s boss got transferred and she had to work with a new boss. This man started asking for sexual favors from this woman on pretext of promotion. The woman was very good at her work and refused his advances every time and on purpose she was not promoted. Unfortunately, this boss knew her husband’s boss in the other company and he very tactfully played games to get her husband out of job so that his wife will agree to sleep with him. He played such wicked games that he could not get any job elsewhere. Only if she sleeps with him, not only will her husband get his job back but also this woman will get the much-deserved promotion along with increase in pay. But her boss had even more wicked plans, after sleeping with this woman he would send her to her husband’s boss to sleep with him too.
There is a saying when bad luck comes it comes from everywhere. Unfortunately, their five-year-old daughter met with an accident and this woman urgently required leave from her company to attend to her daughter. Her boss again refused to give her leave and told her to stay and work or quit this job if you need to go to the hospital.
So, what will this woman do? She is stuck from all sides. Her job and pervert boss on one side, husband without job on the other side, home loan on the third side, her daughter in hospital on forth side and the prevailing threat to quit her job and if she quits her job she has no where to go, how will they survive?
She finally decided not to quit but to continue doing her duty. You won’t believe something very interesting happened. The woman applied for an emergency leave and immediately left to attend to her daughter. After her daughter was all right and they came home from hospital, she filed a sexual harassment case against her boss without quitting her job, which was the right thing to do. After a legal battle of 6 months, she won and her husband also got his job back. Both the bosses lost their respective jobs reputation and got black listed from the employment market. This story tells us, one must keep doing their duty even if they are facing difficult circumstances or complex situations and in the mean time either try to improvise the matter, look for solutions or patiently look for better options. So do your duty to the best of your ability and leave the rest to God.
In 2008, the whole world was experiencing recession. It affected my life too. All my clients stopped giving business. There was no possibility of getting fresh business because of slow down. My funds got exhausted, my employees left. My investor refused to fund. I was in a state of hopelessness. No work, no employees, no money. What could I do? Close down. Give up. No, I decided to continue working without funds in my account. I decided to do my duty. After few months, market started opening up and slowly business got back to normal. In other words, I did my duty in a phase of hopelessness didn’t give up and left the rest to God.
Once a trainer was teaching a batch of employees about how to overcome stress. The employees were happy to gain the insight and learning. But when the trainer enquired about their wellbeing after few months, the reaction was negative. The trainer felt sad and depressed that he failed to help people in need and he even thought of discontinuing his path of being a trainer. Later I encouraged him to continue doing his duty irrespective of success or failure, one shouldn’t stop from doing work that he believes in, instead keep improvising from the feedback and leave the rest to God.
Mahatma Gandhi had said, “Gita is my Eternal Mother. I confess to you that, when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I run to the Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow.” Gita, his Eternal Mother, showed him the way from darkness to eternal light, eternal truth and eternal bliss and advised him to do two things: First, to master the skill of action and second to remain balanced