"Gita on Human Excellence"

The cream of the Vedas is the Upanishads and the essence of the Upanishads is the Bhagavad Gita. Gita makes the Vedanta Philosophy easy to understand.

Yoga means UNION WITH THE ULTIMATE REALITY and also the PATHS LEADING TO IT. The elucidation of the Ultimate Reality and the means of realizing it are categorically stated in the Gita.

Life always bristles with problems of varying magnitude. They are as incessant as waves on the sea. Individuals solve them, each according to his discernment and ability. This process of surmounting problems constitutes progress in life. But sooner or later a major crisis crops up, proving itself insurmountable. Valour and worldly wisdom are of no avail to meet it. Self –knowledge inspired by Divine Grace alone can equip a person to overcome the crisis.

The gist of the teaching of the Gita is: “Fight the battle of life. Let the virtue in you vanquish the vice. Any useful work that falls to your lot gives you enough of opportunity for self-discipline, emulation and emancipation. The Divinity within is your ever available guide. Attuning yourself to It, do your job as splendidly as you can. Every hero is obliged to wage the Mahabharat war in and through his own life.

The goal of human life is to transcend body-consciousness.

In a normal man both virtue and vice are found intermingled in varying degrees. To eschew the tyranny of vice and to get well drilled in the growing virtue is the purpose of life. Any person endowed with normal human traits is competent both to study and to put into practice the teachings of the Gita.

Gita shows that Vedanta is as much the science of action as it is the science of actionlessness. Vedanta is the sovereign science of human life at all its levels. People in every walk of life profit by putting the Vedanta philosophy to practice. The application of Vedanta energizes man and unfolds the best in him.

Mundane life is veritable warfare. Nothing here on earth is achieved without a fight. He who has not learnt to wage the war of life does not inherit anything here or hereafter. Gita teaches one to equip oneself for the battle of life.

Religion is incompatible with bloodshed.

Do the job that is incumbent on you, as a religious act.

A weakling has no place here or hereafter. In the cosmic plan, play your part as a hero. Wake up to the reality of this world. Fight the battle of life. Fear nothing. Do not falter in your duty. At the same time, be not a slave to your duty, either. Perform your duty for its own sake. It is by working in freedom that you rise to the realm of worklessness. To a serving one, duty is as sacred as worship in a sanctuary.

In unmistakable terms, the Gita proclaims the unity and sanctity of existence and exhorts man to resort to right action in order to realize this fundamental oneness.

The

Gita awakens cosmic consciousness in the aspirant.

Yield not to cowardice. It ill becomes you. Cast off this base faint-heartedness and wake up.

Achievements both here and hereafter are born of competence and manly action. Strength nurtures life. Potency drives away disease. Virtue and righteousness are the outcome of strength.

Life both in its secular and sacred aspects get abundantly enriched by the application of the tenets of the Gita.

The Gita transforms life and it is intensely practical.

If wage-earner applies the principles of the Gita to his life, he will become a better wage-earner. A farmer will equip himself better if he only translates the Gita principles into action. A merchant is bound to thrive in his business by putting the tenets to practice. An officer will execute his duty more efficiently when he becomes a yogi. To sum up, man becomes well equipped for life by taking to yoga. An efficient man is otherwise called a yogi.

The function of the yoga is to train the body and the mind. Progress of any kind in yoga is not for him who is given to weakness or depression.

Tradition holds that spiritual life begins with karma yoga and goes on evolving into the other three, the Raja yoga, the Bhakti yoga and the Jnana yoga, respectively.

The Gita is a Directive on social fabric and social growth.

The Gita is a source of inspiration to one and all.

The Gita exhorts: “ Wake up to your supreme consciousness. Be established in your supreme consciousness. Be established in your divine nature. You are omnipotence in your sphere.

Perform your duty with ease and spontaneity. You have not come onto this world to drag out a wretched existence. There is an inviolable and holy relationship between you and this world. It is yoga to make this relationship operative. Do achieve this in a magnanimous manner. Through effective functioning, let all of your faculties pay homage to your ever-expanding consciousness. As the blossom sends forth its fragrance, let your love become all embracing and inspiring. Like the blazing sun, may your intellect…. Lustre on all that you contact.”

In unmistakable terms the Gita upholds perfection as goal of life. Self-perfection is the acme of human aspiration. Sooner or later all have to pay homage to it and attain it. The Gita is a Clarion Call to this goal.

Self-perfection is the goal in life. Yoga is the means to it.

The

Gita exhorts the aspirant to make the best of the mundane world and also prepare himself to draw inspiration from what is beyond. The Gita further contends that proper attunement with the mundane world leads to yoga or union with the supermundane; the reverse of it, equally holds good; in other words, a spiritual man alone is best equipped for worldly life.

Action by itself is neither sacred nor secular. The attitude with which it is performed brings about a magical change in it. All actions become sacred in the hands of a spiritual man. The message of the Gita is to metamorphose all action into liberating sacred ones.

A harmonious development off the will, emotion and congnition goes to constitute a perfect mind.

The plan and purpose of the Gita is to evolve out of man, a personality that is perfect from all points of view. A strong body and a virile mind form the material of which such a personality is built. Efficiency to the core is the criterion of a powerful personality. It is efficiency that makes character. To do good and to make others do good is possible only to the powerful in body and mind. The next great factor in the formation of personality is love. All living beings are endowed with love, though the degree of it may vary. And this love can be purified as well as intensified. From pure love emanates sweetness in all its excellence. It has the power to bind all beings in affable unity. The third and final factor is the intellect. It may be equated with the broad blazing sun, which reveals everything in its true light. But for the intellect, the higher qualities of things remain unrecognized. It is the intellect again that guides begins to right action. To a person endowed with an efficient hand, with a loving heart and with a clear head, nothing more remains to be added. He becomes a complete personality verging on Divinity. Perfection/excellence marks him out of its own. A harmonious development of the hand, the heart and the head is patent is such a personality.

The Gita is the perfect guide to those who aspire to build a perfect personality.
To work without any consciousness of one’s lower ego, without selfishness, to work unattached, brings the highest bliss and freedom.

Weakness is condemned downright by the Gita. To be firm of body, formidable of mind, constant of character – excellences like these are all born of strength. This world and the next one too are for the strong alone. Right conduct originates from strength; straightforwardness comes from it; enjoyment traces itself to it; practice of yoga is possible because of it; attainment of liberation is enabled by it; reaching the Ultimate Reality is impossible without it; all divine traits have their source in it. In strength lie the key and the clue to all the teachings of the Gita. Exalted life begins with Self-knowledge, which expresses itself as strength. Strength is life; weakness is death.

He who harmonized his THOUGHT, WORD & DEED verily attains perfection, excellence.
It is despondency that takes away all manliness from man.
Yoga is none other than living the life abundantly.

Detached performance of duty adds to efficiency and the required equilibrium is maintained perfectly.

Work is executed very efficiently in poise only. Attachment and aversion take away the efficiency from man.

Fondness, fear and anger – these three traits tarnish the mind. Fondness is attachment which robs the aspirant of discrimination. Man fails to see defects in those he is fond of. Detached love is what is wanted. Fear is born of ignorance; it deprives man of manliness; it is worse than death. Fearless is the message of the Gita. Practice of fearlessness is imperative for not only the seeker of wisdom, but also for all who thrive in life. Anger is unbecoming to an ethically and spiritually evolving one. It robs one of discrimination. The mind that is free from attachment, fear and anger evolves in excellence.

Excellences such as deep discrimination, benign mentation, solemn bearing and unbroken joy emanate from the practice of yoga.

Sraddha (ardent application) is a state of mind conducive to all round advancement.

Through firm devotion to duty man gains in excellence.