Baghavad gita...... ACTION, INACTION AND KNOWLEDGE

In this teachings, Krishna talks to Arjuna about discipline of action. This teaching focuses on two major ideas which are action and inaction. Action is for example when someone hits you and you hit them back, while in inaction instead of hitting them you say something back. According to Lord Krishna action is better but when done with detachment, discipline, and sacrifice. If you do this the Gods will be pleased and you will be enriched.

“Perform necessary action;
it is more powerful than inaction;
without action you even fail
to sustain your own body."



Action imprisons the world
unless it is done as sacrifice;
freed from attachment, Arjuna,
perform action as sacrifice!” pg 44

Then, Krishna also talks about actions as a source of leadership.

“Whatever a leader does,
the ordinary people also do.
He sets the standard
for the world to follow.” Pg 46

I thought this was very interesting since it makes a lot of sense. If nobody takes action and does something, other people wouldn’t have anyone to follow as a leader and everything would collapse and nothing would function. This is what gives a certain stability to the rest of the community. Krishna then says that this is good but that the actions have to be taken with discipline and that you can not be ignorant when taking decisions.

After this, Lord Krishna also talks about knowledge and ignorance. Krishna tells him that knowledge is fundamental for everything and that it makes you better. According to her, men with knowledge have more wisdom since they are able to see reality and take good decisions based in all of their knowledge.

“Know it by humble submission,
by asking questions, and by service;
wise men who see reality
will give you knowledge.” Pg 56

Krishna also says that knowledge is everything and by gaining it you will have more peace and says that ignorant people will end up just lost.

“An ignorant man is lost, faithless,
and filled with self-doubt;
a soul that harbors doubt has no joy,
not in this world or the next.”I totally agree with this since i believe that being an ignorant person is one of the worst things you can be since you really don´t care or know about anything and without knowledge it is hard to live or to contribute something to society.

Finally, In teaching five Krishna gives a lesson about renunciation of actions and says something to Arjuna that I thought was very wise.

“Detached from external contacts,
he discovers joy in himself;
joined by discipline to the infinite spirit,
the self attains inexhaustible joy.

Delights from external objects
are wombs of suffering;
in their beginning is their end,
and no wise man delights in them. “pg 62

I really liked this part of the teaching since I think it is true that you should find happiness in yourself and your actions rather than in external objects since most external things end or get destroyed and nothing will be left, but if you have inner happiness those things can´t affect you.

The Second Teaching: Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline

In this second teaching we learn about a lot of topics. First of all, Krishna talks to Arjuna about reincarnation and death. Krishna tries to convince Arjuna to fight by telling him that killing someone is not a reason to feel guilty since life is a cycle and we all die and are born again.

“Death is certain for anyone born,
and birth is certain for the dead;
since the cycle is inevitable,
you have no cause to grieve!” pg 35

I found this very contradictory since in the first teaching Krishna tells Arjuna not to fight and in this second teaching he is telling him the opposite. It is really weird how someone can change its mind so quickly.

By talking about death and reincarnation, Krishna, gave me a completely new concept about life since according to him/her death is very natural and killing someone is not bad. She talks about death as if it was just a process to become another person through reincarnation.




“As a man discards
worn out clothes
to put on new
and different ones,
so the embodied self
discards
its worn-out bodies
to take on other new ones. “pg 35

I really liked this part of the teaching since Krishna compares death to the simple act of changing clothes and looking different. This is telling us that reincarnation is becoming a new self and that dying is nothing to be afraid of.

When I read this I couldn’t stop thinking about my religion. The Catholic church does not believe on reincarnation, but in resurrection so I really liked this other point of view shown I the book. It is completely different the way that all of us, human beings, look at death. For many, death is so natural, for others it is horrible and we are scared of it, and others just look at it as rebirth and reincarnating into another person. These topics can turn out to be very controversial since none of us knows what really happens when you die, and we will never know that until the day we have to leave this world and our lives end.

After this, Krishna talks about his duty to kill them. She tells him that he has to fight and kill them in order to fulfill his duty and overcome all his fears. I totally disagree with this because Krishna is completely forcing him to do something he does not want to do. I see this as an example of how religion manipulates us. Everyone should be free to do what he thinks is best and not what they force you to do.

Family Duties in Baghavad Gita

In the first teaching of Baghavad Gita they talk about family duties and happiness. Arjuna has to face the dilemma of fighting and going to war against his own family and because of this he decides to ask Krishna for advice. Krishna tells him that family duty is very important and that he shouldn’t take it for granted and that he should not go to war against them.

What joy is there for us, Krishna,
In killing Dhritarashtra´s sons?
Evil will haunt us if we kill them,
Though their bows are drawn to kill.

Honor forbids us to kill
Our cousins, Dhritarashtra´s sons?
How can we know happiness if we kill our own kinsmen? ---pg 28

In this quote we can see how Arjuna does not want to fight against all of the people he loves and does not want to betray them. This is a perfect example of family duty since Arjuna´s duty is to protect his family and not to destroy and kill it. If there are no family values the world would be a complete chaos. If the community loses these values, the balance of everything would be lost and people would go completely crazy. We would live with a constant disaster and anarchy.



When the family is ruined,
The timeless laws of family duty
Perish; and when duty is lost,
Chaos overwhelms the family.

In overwhelming chaos, Krishna,
Women of the family are corrupted,
and when women are corrupted,
disorder is born in society.

………………………………………….

The sins of men who violate
the family create disorder in society
that undermines the constant laws
of caste and family duty. ---pg 29

I really liked this lesson since it is very true that family duty and values it’s what maintains order in society. Family is what makes us all happy and sometimes we end up destroying and hurting the people we love the most because of greed and honor. For me, family is everything and all the people that surround me are very special for me so I totally understand Arjuna´s desire of not fighting. At the end of this first lesson we can see how Krishna tells him not to fight in an indirect way.

“Saying this in the time of war,
Arjuna slumped into the chariot
And laid his bow and arrows,
His mind tormented by grief. ----pg 29