The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most revered texts in the world. A part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, it is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna during the war of Kurukshetra. Though delivered in the middle of a battlefield, the Bhagavad Gita is ripe with practical solutions for challenges faced on a daily basis. In fact, the challenges faced by Arjuna in the battle of Kurukshetra is a metaphor for us humans navigating life day by day facing ethical and moral dilemmas. Here is how we can use the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to fill our days with joy, empathy and productivity –

1. Focus on your work, not on the results

“karmany evadhikaras te
ma phalesu kadachana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur
ma te sango ’stv akarmani”

The most famous adage of the Bhagavad Gita is that we should focus on the task at hand, not on the outcomes - for we can only truly control our actions, while the results are a permutation of many different variables. Internalizing this concept in our day to day lives makes us more productive, as we can expend all of our energy into the task at hand without worrying about the results.

2. Be stoic

Noted Indian writer Khushwant Singh believed that the Bhagavad Gita’s philosophical essence was that of stoicism – adopting a mindset of being indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain. If we are to truly enjoy a joyous existence, we should not be too attached to labels or objects. Suffering comes from being obsessed with one’s success and failures. Being stoic frees us from the bondages of pain and suffering.

3. Cultivate empathy

Love is at the core of Bhagavad Gita’s message. One might think that because the Bhagavad Gita was delivered by Lord Krishna on a battlefield, it focuses only on the principles of duty and action. But the Gita is actually a treatise on life as a whole. Krishna’s call to Arjun to perform his duty is ‘Karma Yoga’ while the principles of love and devotion explained by the Lord form the essence of ‘Bhakti Yoga’. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that a spiritually advanced person can understand both the happiness and the distress of others. Thus, empathy is a key step in aligning one’s mind with spiritual mastery. In our day to day lives we come across many different people, each with their own joys and sorrows. Cultivating empathy towards them sets us on a path of spiritual enlightenment and also helps to lessen the misery of people around us.

4. Don’t give in to gratification

‘ye hi samsparsha-ja bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te’

‘The pleasures that arise from contact between the senses and their objects are in truth the sources of all suffering.’

What often deviates us from our goals is the habit of sense gratification – doing things for the mere purpose of pleasuring one or more of our senses. It breaks our focus, wastes our energy and stops us from achieving our full potential. By applying this teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, we can make or day to day life more rewarding and productive.

Learn more practical uses of the Bhagavad Gita’s timeless wisdom in an exclusive commentary by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.