Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Bhagavad Gita


As I continue to grow in age, my mind continues to expand with new profound knowledge that I acquire from observing others or reading a new novel. I have come to learn that every experience I have faced and lecture I've listened to all had a message that was not always clear at first but ultimately had an influence on how I view life.


Starting off the semester with the Bhagavad Gita, in my opinion, was brilliant. It is filled with so many lessons and view points that are valuable to first year students in a huge institution like the University of Texas and more importantly the world. Since alot of practices are built from inspirational and holy books like the Gita and the Bible, it's almost a given that one can find strategies and alternatives to deal with the situations that comes with living on earth.



I am now at a stage in my life where I am responsible for making every single decision about the different aspects of my life. The responsibility also comes with dealing with the consequences if I make a wrong decision. I know that as humans we were already predetermined to sin at least once in our lifetime. Knowing that I am predestined to go wrong on my journey to adulthood, I am pressured at the present moment to know the direct career path I want to take. Whenever the typical question asked of college students come up "What are you studying," I immediately say law. The answer always seems to be "You will make alot of money being a lawyer." I was once victim to that untrue statement, but as I got older I began to see that wealthy lawyers are not in abundance and there are also average income lawyers.


Once first semester of college began, I started to really evaluate why I wanted to enter the competitive field of law. As I was reading the Gita, I learned that our main focus should be on a higher being or God and how he feels about us. I am a Christian and I believe in the Bible so I have faith in the presence of God; I believe that there is life besides the one on Earth. With that already in mind, the Gita also reiterated that I should not get caught up in worldly possessions like money and material things and focus on my relationship with God. So along with that lesson, I once again turned to the reason why I want to pursue law. I decided that the law excites me and that the financial aspect of it does not have an influence on my choice, which made me feel that I can still pursue my interests without compromising my faith and beliefs of holy books like the Gita or Bible.

Chapter One of the Gita presented another life lesson in the conversation between Lord Krishna and Arunja. "Wisdom cannot be imparted to a person unless he or she asks for it" (6). Our lives are filled with relationships and interactions with other individuals. I am known as the psychologists or the right person to talk to among my friends. I love to talk to people and help them out the best way I can, but it is extremely frustrating when I put my heart and time in helping someone resolve the problem or situation that they wasn't ultimately ready for help or change. This quote was very effective in helping me solve my problem of attempting to help others that doesn't want help. I will always keep that quote in mind because I am going to keep helping others but now I won't get so upset when they do not follow my advice right away. I am also an individual that will not make changes until I am truly ready for change. This particular part of the Gita has influenced me to become less stubborn and evaluate the suggestions of others before I dismiss their help.

"The real attitude of non-violence follows from the perception of God in all beings. Only the man whose mind has gone beyond good and evil does not resist evil, for he does not see evil" (8).

This quote introduces another aspect of life we all have to deal with. Should we retaliate with violence or negativity when others inflict pain or harm against us? My answer, of course, was YES. I feel that you should protect yourself to some extent and not let others run over you. The Gita presents a different perspective on this subject. I learned that if your devotion is with God, then you do not focus on evil and non evil but on your faith in God existing in all beings. I wish that this view point was shared throughout the world because alot of harm and devastation would be nonexistent. When I think about the quote, I absolutely believe it and see the validity. For example, the War in Iraq has been going on for several years now and there still is no clear ending point to it. Everyday Iraqis and Americans are dying because of unresolved tensions and hatred. I know see that it is not worth it to retaliate and inflict further violence to a situation because in the end, a peaceful conclusion will not become of it. I am a person that loves to argue for what I believe is right; reading this quote and the surrounding passages transitioned me to not focus on who is right or wrong but how a compromise can be reached.

In Chapter 11 Ramana Maharshi states, "The Self is universal: so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not...It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the Higher Power" (92).

This quote goes along with the last two lessons that were discussed. We should not take justice into our own hands and should not pressure others into doing things they are not ready for, but we should leave it up to God to show them the right path. I also struggle with trying to determine exactly how my future is going to play out, but the Gita showed me that God has already predetermined the path I will take in life and to accept what happens because it is going to happen anyways. I have already encountered situations and obstacles I had not expected to face, but I am learning how to cope with them. It's kind of amusing to know that they were going to take place whether or not I wanted them to.

Lastly, I want to end with a quote from Eknath Easwaran. "All life is a battlefield...; whether we like it or not, we are born to fight. We have no choice in this, but we do have the choice of our opponent and our weapon" (8). Our life is not always going to be easy and there are always going to challenges. I feel that as I get older my maturity will increase. This quote seems to portray a mature way to look at challenges life will through at us.

The Gita was filled with many more insights and lessons. I chose these because they described the areas where I need the most improvement on how I look at life.

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