Thursday, February 13, 2014

Bhagvad Gita and the Work Place

I have had a crazy work schedule the past 4 weeks - barely getting the time to make ends meet in matter of time...yet every Sunday for a couple hours I pull up my Bhagvad Gita Online Course and get immersed in it. I do this for 2 main reasons :
  • I feel closer to my Bapa. He spent his last year  doing the same Online Course through his chemotherapy rounds and his stays in the ICU and I  believe it made him a more strong and positive person
  • I feel like I am making some progress along the spiritual knowledge path. Yes, I am one of those weird ones who believes in God.
As time passed me by, it's been almost 10 months and 14 Lessons (out of 30 Lessons) completed. Some weeks I have been a better student than others...Yesterday, I had an AHA! moment in the shower (one of the few quiet places in my life where I am not inundated with fires at work, sms pings, pressure cooker whistles or a clingy snotty nosed 7 year old these days) - my mind is the battleground and there are constant battles being fought internally between the ignorant and the wise, the positive and the negative and the right and the wrong...ultimately the good in me needs to win over the bad...
This is probably one of the key verses that has worked for me in the past couple months, coming into a society that believes action should have results, in instant gratification -- I have struggled with this concept for many months (unsure I have internalized it yet...) yet it is an important learning for me
  1. For action alone have you the right
  2. None concerning its fruits
  3. Let not the desire for the fruits of action be your motivation
  4. Nor should you desire to abstain from action
  5. Act with equanimity of mind and intellect sans attachment to success or failure 
The Bhagvad Gita speaks of two kinds of (work) culture that can be broadly defined as the following -
(a) Daivi Sampat which involves fearlessness,  self-control, straightforwardness, calmness, absence of fault-finding, envy, pride and greed and a gentleness towards dealing with people and (b)  Asuri Sampat which involves egoism, delusion, instant gratification, self-promoting work, constant fear etc. Mindfully practicing the former is a goal I have set for myself.
I have been so preoccupied with life and such other things that  a wonderful thing as the Cherry Blossoms had escaped my notice till my son pointed them out to me yesterday. He made me literally "stop the car and take in the sights"....here is a  picture from my trusty Nokia.

How has life been treating you?

2 comments:

  1. Yessss, gotta be fearless - how about you start with the 'mizhagai bajjis'?? ;) ;)
    Jokes apart, wonderful that you have consistently kept up with the Gita course.....envious :) Wonderful still, that sweet K2 pointed out the Cherry Blossoms :D
    Happy Valentine's day my friend.

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  2. I did get the Mizhagai Bhaji's....thanks to a wonderful wonderful friend (last Sunday) :)

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