The Gita Happiness Retreat. Sheetal
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asked him to try again and again. But every single time, the water leaked out of the basket before he got back. Finally he got exhausted and said, “See grandpa, it’s useless!”
“So you think it’s useless?” The grandfather said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket had been transformed from a dirty coal basket to a new clean one, inside and out.
“Son, that’s what happens when you read a book like the Bhagavad Gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it again and again, you will realize the benefit one day. It will help you become pure from the inside and outside, just like this coal basket.”
All the participants looked at their clean coal basket, smiled and gave a big applaud. I said, “Everyone is a winner and what did you all win?” Another life lesson.
**Lesson No: 2 Read this beautiful sacred book The Bhagavad Gita consistently. Try to understand its teachings and do your own research. The sacred texts have a purpose that will help you find your true purpose in life and also help you find solutions to your problems.
“Let’s continue the session.
You all have a note pad which is given to you along with a pen. I want you to write down the names of all the people who matter to you, including your own name? Time is 1 minute.
Okay times up. Please count and tell me numbers randomly on your list. Anyone. Some said, “15, 20, 25, 40”. Now I want you to think and circle those names whom you are very close to, rest cross the remaining. Time is 15 sec. Please count and tell me numbers randomly on your list. Anyone. Some said, “3, 5, 7, 10”. Aren’t they you, your family and friends? Everyone nodded. Anyone crossed their own name?” Thankfully there was no one.
“In the two day spiritual session we are going to understand the importance of relationships and how to manage them with the help of The Bhagavad Gita.
There are 46 Shlokas in Chapter 1 of The Bhagavad Gita. I request each participant to read one shloka each that is translated in English. Here is The Bhagavad Gita.” Everyone started reading one after the other.
Observing the Armies on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra:
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?
Sanjaya said: O King, after looking over the army arranged in military formation by the sons of Pandu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher Dronacharya and spoke the following words.
O my teacher, observe the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple the son of Drupada.
Here in this army are many brave archers equal in fighting to Bhima and Arjuna: great fighters like Yuyudhana, Virata and Drupada.
There are also great heroic, powerful fighters like Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, Kashiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Saibya.
There are the mighty Yudhamanyu, the very powerful Uttamauja, the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi. All these warriors are great chariot fighters.
But for your information, O best of the brahmanas let me tell you about the captains who are especially qualified to lead my military force.
There are personalities like you, Bhishma, Karna, Kripa, Ashvatthama, Vikarna and the son of Somadatta called Bhurishravas, who are always victorious in battle.
There are many other heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. All of them are well equipped with different kinds of weapons, and all are experienced in military science.
Our strength is immeasurable, and we are perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhishma, whereas the strength of the Pandavas, carefully protected by Bhima, is limited.
All of you must now give full support to Grandfather Bhishma, as you stand at your respective strategic points into the phalanx of the army.
Then Bhishma, the great courageous grandfather of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew his conchshell very loudly, making a sound like the roar of a lion, giving Duryodhana joy.
After that, the conchshells, drums, bugles, trumpets and horns were all suddenly sounded and the combined sound was thunderous.
On the other side, both Lord Krishna and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses, sounded their transcendental (superior) conchshells.
Lord Krishna blew His conchshell, called Panchajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhima, the voracious eater and performer of difficult tough tasks, blew his terrific conchshell called Paundra.
King Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, blew his conchshell, the Anantavijaya, and Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughosh and Manipushpak. That great archer the King of Kasi, the great fighter Shikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna, Virata and the unconquerable Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi, and others, O King, such as the mighty-armed son of Subhadra, all blew their respective conchshells.
The blowing of these different conchshells became uproarious. Vibrating both in the sky and on the earth, it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra.
At that time Arjuna, the son of Pandu, seated in the chariot bearing the flag marked with Hanuman, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows. O King, after looking at the sons of Dhritarashtra drawn in military array, Arjuna then spoke to Lord Krishna these words.
Arjuna said: O flawless one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see those present here, who desire to fight, and with whom I must take on in this great battle.
Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra.
Sanjaya said: O descendant of Bharata, having thus been addressed by Arjuna, Lord Krishna drew up the fine chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties.
In the presence of Bhishma, Drona and all the other chieftains of the world, Lord Krishna said, just observe, Partha, all the Kurus assembled here.
There Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his father-in-law and well-wishers.
When the son of Kunti, Arjuna, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives, he became very emotional with compassion and spoke thus.
Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.
My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gandiva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.
I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is loosing its balance. I see only causes of misfortune, O Krishna, killer of the Keshi demon.
I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krishna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.
O Govinda, of what avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now assembled on this battlefield? O Madhusudana, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers,