Lessons I’ve learnt from the Bhagavad Gita (hindu text) on faith, death and duty
So about 3 years ago my grandma passed away. It was a sad period for all of my family especially my dad and his siblings. In our culture, we have this ritual where we read out of this book called the Bhagavad Gita after the funeral process has been completed. In a nutshell, it is a conversation that took place between a warrior named Arjuna and the avatar of god about how life works and how it is sustained. How death is the routine of the soul ‘changing clothes’ and how the soul’s reincarnation is dependent on the Kharma it has created in its lifetime. It’s a reminder on how one should live and in what manner should one work and treat others.
My curiosity flared up, and I borrowed an English version of the book and read it. I am on and off reading it at the moment for the third time, and I can say I wish I had read it earlier since it’s given me so much insight in life. I am not promoting Hinduism as a religion in this article but more talking about what I learnt from this book about living a great life.
Being motivated by material gain is absurd and gives temporary gain
Being the son of parents who were the first to immigrate to Australia, they struggled financially, in turn, we did not have the best of everything. Coming into a westernised country, you can imagine all this class and materialism is new us and just bombarded us mentally. Even though my parents were learnt in their religion, it was overwhelming for them. More is better, earn more, be more, do more. I was thought with the values of doing things for the sake of gaining and not trusting others as that can lead to betrayal.
I got a hint of this capitalism trick after watching the pop culture movie fight club, about materialism and its effect on people. Reading the Gita, it I got reminded of it again. How greed and lust become traits that are hard to control when we start worshipping things like class, wealth and status. The famous quote in the Gita goes ‘don’t be motivated by the fruits of your actions and don’t long for inaction’. Krishna is the main character in this chapter which is the avatar of the god Vishnu and says that work should be completed for his satisfaction and him alone. This line felt powerful as yes working for the pleasure of fruits will only bring temporary joy while working for a purpose actually brings genuine happiness, which brings me to my next topic.
We all have a duty to commit ourselves to
Everything in life, whether it’s the good that happens to you, the bad that happens, the people you meet, the coincidences. I believe that they are all products of faith and karma. Bad things happen because of bad things we have done in our past or the previous life. Part of creating good karma is committing to our duty, whatever it is we are given. We are one of four energies according to the Hindu scriptures. The four castes as Hindu society calls it. Before I explain them, I am not a fan of the way the caste system has brought down Indian society, but I am a true believer that we are of different energies with different talents. We have Bramins (intellects), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (merchants) and Sudras (serving). Depending on our caste we are able to excel in one type of job rather than another. For example, someone of the warrior class will do really well being a policeman but won’t thrive at being a CEO of a firm. A great adaption of this epic story is the lion king in which Mufasa explains to Simba the cycle of life and the class of animals. How lions eat the gazelles, and when the lion’s body decomposes they help the grass grow to feed the gazelles in turn.
This analogy on duty really helped me understand my place in the world and brings happiness into my day even with the day to day stresses of running a business. It kept me hungry to do more, to commit to this duty I am born to do. Creating and distributing wealth and value into my society is my place in this world. Being part of this system brought joy.
On how to conquer fear
A lot of our concerns are based on death, physically and mentally. We fear to get into life-threatening situations which involve physical pain because it threatens our existence. We fear to go into uncertain situations because the pain of uncertainty cripples us. What the Gita thought is that I am the soul and I have a human body. The human body is like a piece of clothing I wear and one which I take off when I pass away and reincarnate into a different body according to my karma. In that sense, we are pretty much naked all our lives with really nothing to lose. All the things we own is not something we can take to the next life. This image and ego we have built for ourselves is nothing but an illusion. True, the only thing that lives on after we die is the legacy we leave behind, but even that is accomplished by conquering fear. In short, when we got nothing to lose there is nothing to fear.
Sin is based on worship and wanting something which promises happiness (although its short-term)
The two reasons my mum and dad pushed me to do well in school was to one; make a lot of money after I graduate and two; give the family a great image. This motivation brought a lot of grief, anxiety and stress into my life. I also realised a few things down the track. Money is something that takes a while to understand and control, even to this day I have trouble organising my finances. Also, your image is bullshit half the time. Everyone is too busy worrying about their own flaws rather then pointing out your bullshit (if they do they are just trying to feel right about their own insecurities, bullying 101). After reading the Gita, I learnt what my parents were teaching me about money, and hard work was pretty counterintuitive to the book. Don’t be motivated by the fruits of your actions means not thinking about money or image with every action your doing. In this sense your success metric and hunger are based on something material and in turn you are giving power to something you largely have no control over, and in the long run, it won’t make you happy. Statistics shown that earning any amount of money over 75k a year does not increase your happiness anymore. It’s probably the opposite as working those extra hours and neglecting having a life brings less happiness in.
Lusting over things, especially in a society that caters for it just creates greed and anger (when those things are not received). This is all attributions on the bigger picture of why there is an underworld both in the criminal world and in the business world.
Thats all folks
We all need faith or something we believe in. If we don’t believe in something, we fall for anything. Being happy requires us to say no to many many things, in turn, committing ourselves to the things we believe in. The world is getting more and more sinful. Honesty is becoming a thing of the past as commodity is getting more and more abundant. People are losing their sense of duty and purpose in their work, and we as a nation are getting more and more isolated and self-centred to the bigger picture of things.
If there is one piece of take-home advice I would like you to take from this article is: Create a daily oath which you will tell yourself before your day begins. One which you will swear upon so when you get to positions in your day where you have to pick between the right way and the easy way, your reminded of what you swore upon. Commitment to our words is a trait I am still working on and a quality I wish others to work on too, not for image glorification but so you can strengthen your faith in yourself and breed honesty and courage within yourself too.
Keep on hustling yo!
Instagram: @monishswamy
