Lessons from Bhagavad Gita

Krishna Janmashtami is being celebrated for the second year in succession under the threat of Corona. To make things worse the possibility of a third wave still haunts us. The birthday celebrations of Lord Krishna, then, is again going to be a low-key affair. Same Precautions, and same Corona protocols need to be observed. But should that dampen our spirits? Remember Lord Krishna’s central message to Arjuna. Fight the battle. Pandava Prince was in a dilemma, reluctant to pick up his bow and arrow. Lord Krishna then chose to recite the Gita to arouse the fighting spirit of the Kshatriya Prince. The message was clear. Fight, not flight. Life is a Kurukshetra where you face challenges in the form of Kauravas. The pandemic also is like a battle of Kurukshetra for the entire humanity. A battle that must be fought. The initial response to avoid and escape took a heavy toll while we tried to live with one shut down after another. Doubts and depression got the better of us. But we now realise that wishing coronavirus away was not the best strategy. It is time to brace for the fight. With all our resources and all our might. This is the lesson that Lord Krishna delivered to Arjuna who was in complete distress seeing the famed warriors of the enemy camp. Let us recapitulate the lessons of Gita. In this war of attrition, we all are like Arjuna, full of doubts and anxieties. Let us take clues from the eternal wisdom and prepare to take the battle to the enemy’s camp. We need to muster courage, sharpen our wit and garner our resources to fight the Corona. That is what Lord Krishna exhorted. Gita offers the most practical lessons for facing life. Life is full of challenges and we can face those only with the grace of God. But to get that we must believe in him and have full faith. Initially, Arjun was in doubt and this made him avoid the fight. The Gita lesson begins from this. Lord tries to enlighten him that running away is not the answer. Doubts make people shy away from challenges but they are not aware that by not fighting you are losing the battle even before it has begun. So, fight you must, not thinking of the outcome that is not in your hands. During the pandemic we saw many people give up the fight even before it started. The outcome was disastrous. Lord Krishna says do your karma and dedicate it to Me. The rest will be taken care by Him. Thinking of the outcome weakens the resolve. We need to fight and leave the result to the Lord. But we must understand that Lord Krishna has never said that fight without preparation. This is the misconception that many nurse. Being brave doesn’t mean throwing caution to the winds. That is foolhardiness. Fighting with full preparedness is needed. This is what we must do while facing the challenge of Corona. Many thought that following Corona protocol was a sign of weakness. Certainly not. Bravery is making full use of your arsenals and face the attacks of the enemy. It is an objective assessment of the challenge. Focus on the strengths but don’t let the weaknesses come in the way. All battles are strategic challenges to be met with grit and wit. The battle against Corona is no different. Let us revisit the Gita and face the threat that Corona has posed.

Reinventing India at 75

Independent India is 75. Our tryst with destiny has reached an important milestone. We have celebrated this with a till now best medal tally in the Olympics. And the Gold in Athletics caps it. Amrit Mahotsav, then, has well begun. But the path ahead calls for some rethinking. And sports can offer some valuable lessons. We need to develop sportsman spirit in public life. Learning to work together and gel as a team is something we still find difficult. We need to perform to the best of our ability with the purest of intentions. A lesson that people in politics need to learn. Winning is important but playing fairly is more important. Winning should be an objective but not winning at all costs. There was a time when India was a rich and prosperous civilisation. A world leader in many respects. It was a knowledge society with global centres of excellence like Takshila and Nalanda. We were into global business much before the fancy jargon globalisation was coined. We had the world’s first democracy, in Licchavi of Vaishali. Ancient India was a marvel. Where did we go wrong? As we prepare to celebrate the yearlong Amrit Mahotsav, we need to ponder why we faltered. The golden bird lost its shine in the medieval. We need to think why? Our sports persons have done us proud, and the credit goes only to them. What about the rest? Are we playing our game fairly? The question needs to be answered. Finding India’s place in the world order is not only about coining slogans or taking credit. Loquaciousness is something we are known for. But talking big doesn’t give results. Doing big should be on agenda. It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit. But we are typically concerned about the credit. Let this be a year of introspection to find what we have done rather than pointing out how others have fared. India has the potential to be the world leader it was. Only we need that same character that we had. Every Indian has to play a role in nation building but for that, his involvement has to be ensured. That is where democracies are important. A system where every citizen thinks he is a part. A democracy is not just about people talking. It is more about governments listening. This motivates people to contribute their best. If a citizen is feels insecure his involvement in nation building will be half-hearted. Over the years we have seen a trust deficit society, low on camaraderie. It reminds of the British days when any disagreement with government was disaffection. As we await Ram temple at Ayodhya let’s remember what Lord Ram stood for. The comment of an ordinary citizen made Him send his wife to exile because he thought it was demand of Raj Dharma. To take India to the same old glorious heights of Ram Rajya days we must first build a values driven society, based on ethical principles rather than personal convenience. A society where right, and not might rules. A society which not only glorifies the victorious but also respects the vanquished. That is the kind of culture we need to build if we want India to be Vishwa Guru. To quote Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympic games: “Important thing in Olympics is not to win but to take part, the essential thing is not to have conquered but fought well.”

Envy is the root of evil

The problem of evil has confounded the philosophers as well as the commoners alike. Why evil persists in this world created by an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God who is supposed to be benevolent and just? It is perhaps one issue that has given the stick to the sceptics and the agnostics, as also the atheist to beat the believers. If there is God how do you explain evil? Certainly, a logical question to raise. And we still don’t have any convincing answers. Maybe, we will never have an answer except for that one reason which most religious thinkers provide — the doctrine of Karma. But this also cannot answer the problem of infinite regress convincingly. And that may again be a question that leaves many corollaries. However, though not all evil can be explained philosophically, a large part of evil prevailing in the world can be explained psychologically. And Lord Krishna explained this in his many answers to the different characters of the Mahabharata at different times. He talks about the faculty of free will that human beings have been given to guide their actions in life. It is not exercising of this free will that leads to evil in this world in most cases. The ability to discriminate between the right and the wrong calls for a special quality that can only be explained by the Sanskrit word Vivek, having hardly any English equivalent. So, the Lord comments on Duryodhana’s foolhardiness by stating that a man’s nemesis is the result of his own injudicious thinking. Vinash kale viprit budhhi is what He had said. And it is the envy that guides this injudiciousness. Envy is one of the three basic emotions that human beings are born with, the other two being love and rage. Other emotions are manifestations of these three. It was Envy that led to the killing of Able by Cane as the Bible tells us. The stories in the Indian Pauranik texts also tell similar tales about how envy perpetrated evil. Envy, then, has always proved to be the cause of most of the evil in this world down the ages. From the ancient to the medieval to the modern, history is full examples that validates this hypothesis. The many kingdoms perished due to envy, the many wars were fought due to envy. Envy is essentially a demonic trait that results from a bloated or a bruised ego. Most of the time, rather all of the time envy is a result of non-acceptance of reality and without any proper reason. Against this backdrop let us examine the current snooping controversy related to Pegasus. Why do people snoop at others? Why this interest in others? Simple reason is envy. What is the other guy up to interests only those who feel threatened. Envy is a result of insecurity. Insecurity to one’s position. But those who perceive the threat are not the only ones to be blamed. Threat often is created by suggestions and oblique references communicated by some vested interests. It is a paranoid reaction resulting from some false beliefs which the human ego nurses. The fear that someone’s position is threatened due to the presence of someone else. But this is a fallacy. When the position someone is holding is in itself transient having a limited life why this fear of losing it. That perhaps is the crux of the problem. To expect for a permanent position in a temporary world.