“O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me – the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.16)

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चतुर्-विधा भजन्ते मां
जनाः सुकृतिनो ऽर्जुन
आर्तो जिज्ञासुर् अर्थार्थी
ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ

catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
janāḥ sukṛtino ‘rjuna
ārto jijñāsur arthārthī
jñānī ca bharatarṣabha

“Have you looked around, recently? I mean, really looked, taking stock of the situation at hand. It is like my eyes are finally open. All these years I was moving along with everyone else, not too concerned. Now it seems that no one has their act together. If you find someone who wakes up on time every day, who cleans themselves, who eats meals on time, who goes outside, who is actually pleasant to be around, then it is like a miracle. You almost want to invite a documentary film crew to capture the proceedings. It could be the feature story of their next episode. The one person in this world who is actually sane.

“Otherwise, there is laziness. There is addiction. To drugs. To pain pills. To anxiety pills. To alcohol. There is sadness, despair, despondency, and hopelessness. In the midst of the descension, the same people find time for envy. It reaches a boiling point, where they consider harming someone they don’t like. They could be triggered by something they heard. Someone looked at them the wrong way. They perceived a certain response as an insult, when there might actually be nuance and detail underneath the surface.

“This is all to say that your approach of attempting to bring light to the teachings of Bhagavad-gita is a waste of time. Sorry to burst your bubble. That is my opinion, at least. No one cares, man! No one has interest in what some bow-warrior did five thousand years ago. They have rejected God. The ones who have accepted will never step out of their comfort zone. They are fine with their dogmatic insistence, with following blindly and living in perpetual fear of punishment inflicted by some invisible and angry man beyond the clouds.

“The person from your book looks like a cloud. I don’t say that in jest, either. That is the literal description. The Sanskrit is megha-varna. In all seriousness, do you get what I am saying? How do you expect people to meditate on timeless principles constituting Vedanta study when they can barely stand up on their own? How will you get them to take interest?”

The barrier is that if such individuals do believe in God, they have the viewpoint of a vending machine. Something to which they offer payment. Something from which to extract a personal benefit. There is little interest with right and wrong. Who is to say what is right, anymore? As long as you can get away with it, as long as you are enjoying, then you are surpassing the competition. As long as you are not lagging behind, you must be doing something right.

Bhagavad-gita begins with the premise of searching for the right way to live. Arjuna’s dilemma is over the risk of adharma. He does not want to kill others if that is the wrong thing to do. If succeeding in the day at the office, which happens to be on location at a battlefield, involves serious bodily injury, then Arjuna would rather sit things out. At the same time, he has a feeling that quitting is not the right move. He asks his friend, his cousin, his charioteer, and his great well-wisher named Krishna to settle the doubts.

Arjuna was qualified for the discussion because of something missing. Envy. Arjuna was not jealous of Krishna. Arjuna did not view Krishna as a rival. The son of Devaki, the jewel of the Yadu dynasty, the maintainer of the people, Janardana, was not competition. From that standing alone, Arjuna could have his doubts settled in such an amazing way that countless others would simultaneously benefit in the future. This is provided they eventually had the same lack of envy.

श्री-भगवान् उवाच
इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं
प्रवक्ष्याम्य् अनसूयवे
ज्ञानं विज्ञान-सहितं
यज् ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसे ऽशुभात्

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ
pravakṣyāmy anasūyave
jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ
yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ‘śubhāt

“The Supreme Lord said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.” (Bhagavad-gita, 9.1)

But what about someone who is envious? What about someone who thinks of God as only an order supplier? What about someone who only wants to take, without giving anything? Even such an individual can benefit from Bhagavad-gita, since they fall into one of the four categories of people who approach Krishna.

If everyone we know is in distress, it means that they can take a step towards the only person who can account for both my short-term interests, svartha, and my long-term welfare, paramartha. The healing formula is the association itself. Arjuna had that association, due to the many ways he was related to Krishna. This means that Arjuna was actually liberated both prior to the Bhagavad-gita conversation and after it.

The excuses are many. Lack of time. Existing religious affiliation. Desperate search for meaning in life. The solution is still the same. Take some time, hear the conversation through the presentation of someone who actually knows, who follows the path of Arjuna, and then see what difference is made. The ones who choose to stay, who keep that closeness in worship, upasana, and maintain it, become fixed in their resolve. They are always in tune with the truth, because they have the Absolute Truth lifting them up.

व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धिर्
एकेह कुरु-नन्दन
बहु-शाखा ह्य् अनन्ताश् च
बुद्धयो ऽव्यवसायिनाम्

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca
buddhayo ‘vyavasāyinām

“Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.41)

In Closing:

In sadness, misery, and despair,
For religion not a care.

What some old book to do?
When troubled and envious too.

Even if full from desires shaking,
Something from conversation taking.

That moving closer to charioteer who,
Benefitting Arjuna and everyone too.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, god, poem, poems, poetry, religion, worship