It was a great honor for me to participate in the three-day commentary on chapter 14 of our ancient text, the Bhagavad Gita by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar earlier this month. This text has been used universally by people around the world to draw out wisdom and lessons for everyday life.
In this chapter, Lord Krishna gives the knowledge of how three gunas (qualities) of sattva, rajas, and tamas (purity, activity, and inertia) play out in our behavior, relationships, and life. When sattva dominates, there is enthusiasm/ brightness. When rajas is high, it leads to too much activity/ feverishness, and when tamas is high, there is dullness/ laziness/ doubts.
Key takeaways from day 1
Knowledge of how time and the three gunas affect people and their behavior can free you from cravings and aversions
This is valuable in most professional relationships and situations for three reasons:
1) To know that a person is behaving in a particular way due to the dominant guna can help us rise above blame and finger-pointing.
2) It can free our mind from judgments and bias.
3) It can help develop an attitude of compassion and understanding, instead of anger and hatred.
It is a key to foster happy and long-lasting personal and professional relationships.
Wanna know all the secrets to the best lifestyle?
Key takeaways from day 2
Day two of the commentary fell on the auspicious day of Janmashtami (the birthday of Lord Krishna). To listen to the Bhagavad Gita on this day is such a blessing. On this day of the commentary on chapter 14, Gurudev’s knowledge was comforting, uplifting, profound, and purifying. These are my five key takeaways:
1. In the final moment of life, you will do the same thing that you do throughout your life. So, live a good/ pure life every moment. You don’t know when your last moment will be.
2. You are the reason for the sadness in your life. No one else.
3. When you rise above the three gunas and witness the effect and impact they have on you as well as others around you, then you come close to the Divine and can know the Divine.
4. Live like a lotus leaf in society. Don’t let it stick to you, neither you stick to it. Do your dharma (duty), don’t run away from it. That is true Sanyas (asceticism).
5. Purshartha (self-effort) is the key to ensure that rajas and tamas don’t increase in life.
This is so valuable for life, especially in our roles as leaders.
When we put in self-effort, keep the focus on performing our duty, live every moment as if it could be our last, stay above negativities and most of all, live our life like a witness - it can foster integrity, beauty, humility, and justice in us. Making us truly inspiring leaders.
Key takeaways from day 3
The concluding day of Gurudev’s discourse on the Bhagavad Gita chapter 14 was filled with pearls of wisdom, practical examples, which helped us savor the very nectar of pure and high living. I learned these six things:
1. Wise is the one who can treat happiness and sadness equally. They both come and go in life. Be a witness to it. Don’t get swayed by happiness or drowned in sadness.
2. We are either busy in self-blame or blaming others. A yogi is the one who is stable in between these two states.
3. In a bus or train, people keep boarding and alighting. You don’t welcome people, send off people. You continue your journey being indifferent/ unaffected by their joining/ leaving. Like this, stay strong in all situations of life. Don’t get affected by good or bad people.
4. Think that you will die now! What use or value is all your wealth to you? Only the mere remembrance of our death can remind us that everything material is of no value. Then why worry about it?
5. We get disturbed so much by words! If someone says something unkind/ rude, it pierces through our heart. Know that the world is a play of words. If you are sincere and doing the right things, what fear do you have? Rise above and over this.
6. To stitch a cloth you need a scissor and a needle. One cuts and the other stitches together. Same way, some enemies in our life cut our happiness, some friends stitch it. Both have a place in shaping our life.
The experience of life is the Bhagavad Gita. If you understand your life, you understand the Gita! It enables us to live like a Sanyasi (the one who is steadfast in the Self) while living a worldly life.
The Bhagavad Gita truly contains valuable knowledge for every aspect of life, personal and professional.
Written by: Rajita Bagga
The writer is President, World Forum For Ethics in Business and Sri Sri University, Orissa (India). She is also a faculty with The Art of Living.
You can leave your feedback and experiences at @RajitaBagga and @ArtofLiving. You can also connect with the writer at rajita.kulkarni@gmail.com.
