The Bhagavad-gītā, often known as The Gītā, is one of the most popular scriptures in the Vedic tradition. It is an in-depth conversation between the prince Arjuṇa and Lord Krṣṇa and takes place just before the great war and presents a range of philosophical topics that offer helpful ideas about how to live our life.
The text is a synthesis of high quality of the core teachings from the Vedic culture, and hence is also often called as an Upaniṣad, despite it not being part of the four Veda-s. It combines many different elements from Sāṁkhya, Yoga and Vedānta philosophies and therefore provides insight into various facets of the Vedic tradition.
Fact 8 | Watch what you eat!!! Watch how you live!!!
Many people think that the Bhagavad-gītā is a spiritual text and is only focused on Dharma and Bhakti. It certainly does talk a lot about these topics and even suggests that we use meditation as a tool to focus on the divine. However, there is more to the text than just this.
While reminding the virtues of meditation, Dharma and Bhakti, Lord Kṛṣṇa reminds Arjuna that all of these are useless unless there is also a healthy balance in day-to-day activities. He says that a person is bound to fail in meditation if he does not strike a balance in his daily activities. Meditation can help a person to overcome all sadness, but one must eat and sleep well and work daily.
He presents profound teaching on what kind of food we must eat, and with what attitude we must consume so that we can lead a healthy life with a healthy mind. He talks about the benefits of healthy nourishment and its impact on our energy, clarity of thought and ultimately effectivity in our actions.
The same applies to a healthy lifestyle, which must include a balance of work, relaxing activities and enough sleep. As modern society has made us into human-machines, merely earning money to consume unhealthy products further, we must reflect on the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā to find a balanced lifestyle as well.
If not, we will not only fail in fulfilling our dharma, devotion or meditation, but we will ultimately fail in life. Reflect about this!!!
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In October 2020, we are offering an online seminar titled The Yoga of the Bhagavad-gītā, where Dr Kausthub Desikachar will present key Yogic Concepts presented in the text and compare it with how they have been presented in the Yogasūtra-s of Patañjali.
Don’t miss this chance to dive deep into the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā.