The Gita Happiness Retreat. Sheetal
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continued saying, “Okay let me tell you about The Bhagavad Gita in short. The Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual and sacred talk between the Supreme Lord Krishna and His devotee friend Arjuna, which occurs not in a temple, nor in a lonely forest, or on a mountaintop, but on a battlefield on the eve of a war.
There are 4 main Characters in the Bhagavad Gita:
1. Lord Krishna: He is the Principle Character of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna is one of the human forms or avatars of Lord Vishnu.
2. Arjuna: He is one of the Pandava brothers and an expert archer. He represents the first method and is the direct receiver of the teachings of the Gita. First method means to have stood face-to-face with God and conversed with Him. Arjuna was a blessed soul who was given the rare honor and privilege by Lord Krishna.
3. Sanjaya: He was the Blind King Dhritarashtra’s charioteer and secretary. He represents the second method. He was a man of immense spiritual strength who had mastered his body and mind to such an extent that they became perfect vehicles to receive the divine knowledge. He was student of sage Vyasa, and by his mercy, Sanjaya received spiritual vision because of which he was able to envision the Battlefield of Kurukshetra even while he was in the room of Dhritarashtra.
4. Dhritarashtra: The Blind King and the father of the wicked Kaurava brothers. He receives knowledge through the word of Sanjay. Dhritarashtra received the knowledge through the third and the most common method from another person from Sanjaya.
“The Bhagavad Gita is part of the epic Mahabharata. Would anyone like to share the story of Mahabharata in short?” One participant got up and narrated the story,
In ancient times there was a King who had two sons, Dhritarashtra and Pandu. The former was born blind; therefore, Pandu inherited the kingdom. Pandu had five sons. They were called the Pandavas. Dhritarashtra had one hundred sons and 1 daughter. They were called the Kauravas. Duryodhana was the eldest of the Kauravas.
After the death of King Pandu, his eldest son, Yudhisthira, became the lawful King. Duryodhana was very jealous. He also wanted the kingdom. The kingdom was divided into two halves between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Duryodhana was not satisfied with his share. He wanted the entire kingdom for himself. He tried several evil plots to kill the Pandavas and take away their kingdom. Somehow, he took over the entire kingdom of the Pandavas and refused to give it back without a war. All peace talks by Lord Krishna who was maternal cousin of the Pandavas and others failed, so the big war of Mahabharata could not be avoided.
The Pandavas didn’t want to fight, but they had only two choices: fight for their right because it was their duty or run away from war and accept defeat for the sake of peace and nonviolence. Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers, faced this choice on the battlefield.
He had to choose between fighting the war and killing his most esteemed guru, grandfather, who was on the other side, his very dear friends, close relatives, and many innocent warriors; or running away from the battlefield to be peaceful and nonviolent. The entire eighteen chapters of the Gita are the talk between confused Arjuna and his best friend, mentor and cousin, Lord Krishna --- an incarnation of God --- on the battlefield of Kurukshetra near New Delhi, India, about 5,100 years ago. This conversation was reported to the blind King, Dhritarashtra, by his charioteer, Sanjay. It is recorded in the great epic, Mahabharata.”
“Now let’s hear some opinions from all of you regarding The Bhagavad Gita”. One participant said, “I find it difficult to read.” The other said, “It’s quite boring. One cannot understand it much.” Another said, “I cannot connect it in today’s times.”
“Okay. By now I am sure you all are keen to know about me. Let me tell you my story and what inspired me to write the Bhagavad Gita.
One day God was very upset He was moving from one corner to the other, so His assistant asked Him, “God what happened, why are you so disturbed?” God said, “My dearest loving angel is going to earth and I’m going to miss her.” Well, that’s what my friends say about me that I’m a very caring, loving and a happy-go-lucky angel.
Dad kept my name Sheetal Khurana. Sheetal means cool and Khurana means that I come from a Punjabi family. I am born and bought up in Pune. I did my schooling from ICSE board then moved to SSC board. Further I went on to complete engineering from Pune. You see I was amongst those students who were not eligible for placements, little did I know that right after one year of college I will start my own recruitment consultancy firm with the help of a very senior experienced retired trainer as my partner. Unfortunately, he expired after 3 years. But I still remember his teachings: keep reading books, keep learning and I kept reading and continued my journey as an HR consultant for 14 years.
My family includes my father, my brother, my sister-in-law and my nephew. About my mother, I want to share an incident that changed my life forever. When I was 19 years old, my mom met with an accident, she suffered spinal cord injury and became paraplegic for life. My entire family was devastated; especially my mom when she came to know that she will be on wheelchair for the rest of her life.
One day a saint came to my house to see my mom. I asked him, “Why did this thing happen to us? What wrong did we do? Why did God do this? Is God really there?” But he could not answer. I was angry and didn’t understand what to do. Then suddenly, one day a book landed in my hands. It was The Bhagavad Gita. By looking at the book it was saying to me, the answers to your questions are right here. Now reading the Bhagavad Gita was a very big challenge for me. I thought why not start reading just 1 page or 1-2 Shlokas translated in English everyday like a prayer. It’s been 15 years till date of consistent reading and my life has changed completely. I have become more calm, wise, happy, fearless and intelligent. You all must be wondering what happened to my mother, she passed away after suffering for 4 years. Didn’t I get angry with God? Well, the answer is no, I just thanked God for relieving her from the sufferings and may God bless her soul.
One day, I asked myself, what is it that I really wanted to do before I die? Yes, I wanted to write the Bhagavad Gita. I had no idea how I will write, but somehow I started writing and slowly it transformed into a bold, simple and beautiful book. Every page just tells me that its teachings can change lives and help people in today’s times. This book “The Gita Happiness Retreat” is truly a gift to mankind. Here comes the first life lesson.
**Lesson No: 1 Do whatever your heart tells you to do, just do it consistently and see miracles unfold.
As we all now know a bit about The Bhagavad Gita. Let’s move on to Chapter 1 of The Bhagavad Gita. Immediately one participant raised his hand, got up and asked, “Madam who is the winner of the coal basket and bucket game which we all played in the morning.” I smiled and said, “Each and everyone of you is the winner.” All the participants were perplexed and they all looked at each other. One participant got up and said, “How is it possible, madam. Many of them couldn’t fill the bucket with water, few of us together joined hands tried to fill the bucket to some extent.” I smiled again and said, “Let me share a story with all of you.
Become Pure By Reading The Bhagavad Gita
On a Sunday early evening a family of four grandfather, grandson, father and mother went on a beach to have a barbeque dinner. They carried their own barbeque set along with coal required to cook. The grandfather had gifted his grandson The Bhagavad Gita on his birthday that happened few months ago. The grandson came up to him and said, “Grandpa I try to read The Bhagavad Gita just like you but I don’t understand it much. And whatever little I understand, I forget it very soon. What is the use of reading this book?”
Grandfather quietly went near the barbeque set and returned with a coal basket and said, “Take this coal basket go down to the beach and bring me back a basket of water.”
The young boy did as he was told, but all the