The Spirit Of Spirituality: Introduction To Bhagwad Gita

Human Bondage

If we think deeply and question what is it that we as humans value the most, what could be the likely answer? This is assuming that all basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, security are ensured. Again surely, this could be a highly individualized desire. Someone may say that if they have a good spouse and a happy family, that's what they value most. Another may say, wealth and a third may say power or position. Let us take an imaginary situation. Assume the person who values his spouse and family as the most, if the family were to be imprisoned in a jail, would he be happy? At this point, he has his family which he values the most. So, why should it matter if all of them are in a jail or house arrest with no freedom to move around? Same is the case with the person who has phenomenal wealth. If he was told that he could spend his wealth only on a select few items or else just keep it, how happy would he be? Surely he should be since he values his wealth and he has it. Only thing is he does not have is freedom to spend it the way he wants.

What we can notice is that in spite of having what is supposedly valued the most, the inability to have a free choice makes an individual unhappy and not fully able to enjoy the most valuable thing that he or she has. In a similar vein, what is it that entire societies or countries desire the most? India desired freedom to determine its own destiny and broke free from British rule. Similarly, the blacks in South Africa desired freedom of expression and broke the tyranny of White rule. When India got independence, the entire country erupted in joy. When Perestroika happened and the Eastern bloc people tasted democracy, their joy was unsurpassed. So, if we look at these cases, it is apparent that independence or free will with an ability to express oneself freely without any bondages is what truly every human being desires and deserves.

Lurking behind our sense of freedom is a vicious invisible bondage which curbs our ability to truly express ourselves. I can almost sense the disagreement among readers telling that they are totally free to do anything and act the way they want. Let me give a couple of examples and then we will decide whether a human being is really free.

Case 1: Encounter in office

Mr X, a senior executive in a MNC is getting ready for work and is expecting to eat his choice breakfast before he leaves for work. His wife accidentally has burnt the toast which gets Mr X to accuse her of neglect while cooking. She responds back telling she had to get the child ready for school. Conversations and accusations flow between both of them and finally in anger, Mr X smashes the plate and walks out. He gets into his car seething with anger and reaches office and he has a meeting. In the meeting, one of his colleagues makes a suggestion which runs counter to X's ideas. X immediately breaks into a rage and shouts at his colleague. X is normally known as a pleasant person and everyone is shocked at the outburst.

Let us analyze this. Did X want to shout at his colleague? Was it really the fact that his colleague had a different view so angered X? What was driving X to react the way he did? Is it not obvious that X's behavior was clouded by the anger emotion that he was carrying from his fight at home? To that extent, was X really free in his interactions with his colleague or was he bound by emotions? It is clear to anyone that X was not free. The anger emotion had so bound and blinded X that he totally reacted negatively to a routine office situation.

Case 2: The beautiful flower in the party

Y is a hardworking smart lady and is seen as an excellent worker. She has a loving father at home who one day decided to surprise his daughter and went to the florist and bought a bunch of red roses. As he was walking back home he felt faint and as he fell, he was hit by a passing vehicle and he was hospitalized with serious injuries which kept him paralyzed for life. The thing that kept on hurting Y was the fact that her father had bought her red roses and and as he was bringing them, he had this accident. Several years later, when Y was promoted, there was an office party with lot of congratulations and fun. Then one of the colleagues went to her and presented her a bouquet of red roses. Y immediately became sad and broke into uncontrollable tears.

Now what made Y become so sad? It was a joyous occasion when she had to be enjoying her success. But the reality of the situation was clouded by the emotion of the red flowers. This emotion and thought of her paralyzed father prevented her from enjoying the current environment. The red roses based emotion bound her to a past sadness and prevented her from being happy in the current.

Case 3: The GMAT exam day

P is a loving kid and he has been pampered by his parents, grand parents and his various uncles and aunts. He is a smiling kid, well behaved and does well at school. His only dread in life is being separated from his loved ones. P has studied well and after finishing his engineering studies, has been preparing for the GMAT. His dream is to do an MBA from Harvard and for that he has been incessantly preparing. On the day of the exam, his maternal uncle has dropped him off at the exam center. As P enters the exam hall, he is full of dreams of cracking the GMAT. He sits down at his desk waiting for the exam paper. He thinks of himself cracking the paper, of getting admission to Harvard and he getting ready to leave the country to go to the US. He imagines himself at the airport surrounded by all his loving friends and relatives. Then it suddenly hits him. He is going to go far away from all his loved ones. He will not be able to see them whenever he wants and who knows whether his grandparents will be alive or not when he returns. As he thinks of it, sadness envelops him and he sits motionless. The examiner hands him the question paper. But P's hands are barely moving. He is just not able to focus on the task. His thought is only of separation from his loved ones and he feels he should not even attempt answering the paper since that can take him far away from his loved ones.

What made P who was preparing so ardently for the GMAT sink into a helpless state? For something that he had been dreaming of, why did he suddenly develop a disdain? Inspite of being a brilliant person, why could he not focus and crack the question paper? It is obvious that his free will was bound by emotions, the emotional pain of separation.

Emotions and the intellect

To understand what is happening, we need to briefly understand the structure of a human being. We have a body consisting of the five sense organs and five action organs; We have a mind which emotes and an intellect that thinks. The sense organs send cues about sense objects to the mind, which directs the sense organs to go towards the sense objects for fulfillment. It is only the intellect which provides the discerning ability and guides the mind. Just as a car needs a good driver to avoid accidents, the mind needs to be under the control of the intellect to ensure that the body goes in the right direction. In a situation where the intellect is not in control, emotions take over and can lead the body in the wrong direction, very similar to a drunk driver potentially taking a car to a disaster.

So in all the above cases we have seen that emotions have taken control over an individual and he is not being guided by the intellect. He is bound by emotions and cannot exercise his free will. Nor does he know whether he is doing the right thing or not. Our mental state determines the way in which we perceive, feel, think or act in a given situation. Most of the times, mind is not in a well placed state. There is a constant conflict between discriminative thoughts and destructive emotions We are confused and disturbed when facing challenges with an inability to focus or concentrate on the problem in hand

Problems associated with emotional bondage

Some of the problems associated with emotional bondage are as follows:

We cannot perceive the situations as it exists. Rather, we see them as interpreted by our unsteady mind which may be different from the reality. The interpretation of the same fact may vary from time to time depending on our mental state.
Our mood or state of mind is not in our control. As a result our behavior in the world outside is not in our control
We cannot consistently express our full potential in the activities we do, making our inner peace and external efficiency a mere chance.
We cannot bounce back to life easily after facing a difficult situation which is not in our hands

Gita, Chapter 1 : A Masterly Self Analysis

The situation described above is the context of the first chapter of the Gita. Two sets of cousins are on the battlefield with their massive armies to get control of the kingdom of Hastinapura. On one side are the Pandavas who have been cheated from the throne and banished to the wilderness for 13 years by their cunning cousins and on the other side are the Kauravas who have cheated the Pandavas and have been ruling Hastinapura. The chief archer on the Pandava side is Arjuna who has been practicing archery ardently so that he can defeat the Kauravas. He requests his philosopher and mentor Sri Krishna who is also his charioteer to take him to the middle of the battleground so that he can see the people on both sides. Seeing his cousins,uncles, grand uncles on the other side, Arjuna is overcome by emotion of losing them all as he fights them and he lays down his arms and refuses to fight. His emotions have totally taken over control and even though he knows he is here to fight a just war to regain the kingdom, he uses all the logic given by his emotions to justify not fighting.

Using Arjuna as the protagonist, the first chapter gives a brilliant exposure to self analysis. It is for each of us to reflect on Arjuna's arguments to justify not doing the right thing and see how we relate to that in our day to day lives. By clearly showing the problems associated with our mind, self analysis helps us to make a cognitive change which can make a significant impact to our internal mental state and our ability to perform in the world outside. This self analysis helps us to identify and understand the problems associated with our own mind. Self Analysis is the first step towards Self Improvement. Here the Gita tells us clearly that a strong and well placed mental state is a prerequisite for our mental well being and for pursuing any goals in life. Each chapter of the Gita provides us a process for transforming our mind to the optimal mental state.

Solutions to most of the problems are already there within us. In any counseling session practitioners use the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Brief Solution Therapy in order to change the patient’s mindset towards a higher good. All solutions to each and every problem or issue that we face are very much dictated within us. All we need to do is to calm our emotional mind and be able to see through the situation in order to get a clear view of the sources available within our own intellect to solve the problem. In the first chapter, The Gita provides us this valuable tool of self analysis.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality