ANTICIPATION AND PREPARATION

Verse 2.14

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya

śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

āgamāpāyino 'nityās

tāḿs titikṣasva bhārata

Translation

O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Let us analyse this verse and look at its application.

Krishna’s rule book states that both happiness and distress are temporary. HE has made a comparison with that of changing seasons. It has been made amply clear that both happiness and distress appear permanently one after the other in a cycle in this material world. So, their appearance and disappearance one after the other is permanent although their duration is non-permanent. Therefore we can quite confidently state that when one of them appears in our lives, the counterpart is just around the corner and will appear sooner or later. This brings us to today's topic – Anticipation and preparation.

It is a known fact that when we anticipate something and that takes place, the impact of that situation on our behaviour or personal lives is just about casual, because the surprise factor is no longer there. It is accepted with much more ease than what it would be when the reverse occurs. We are not shocked or surprised by the occurance of that scenario. The point is when we anticipate a situation or its consequence thereof, we can face it with much more confidence and will power. We will be better prepared mentally to face the situation. 

Example- Let us say that we are going through a challenging phase in our lives. If we understand that this is non-permanent and that its counterpart happiness will soon follow, then the challenge itself will not seem like a big deal and might become a little easier to deal with. On the contrary if we are enjoying happy times and again understand that these moments are also temporary, then, instead of getting carried away by those happy moments we will actually start  preparing mentally to face any challenges ahead. By doing this we can train our inner mind to be are neither overly joyous nor overly distressed at the appearance or disappearance of happiness and distress respectively. We cannot hold on to either of them, more importantly happiness because no wants distress anyway.

Krishna explains that material happiness or distress actually arise from sense perception and hopefully today’s topic will help you develop your ability to tolerate them alike, i.e. not going overboard when you are happy and not being depressed when you are distressed. After all, the human body itself is temporary, so any happiness or distress associated with the temporary body cannot but be temporary.

Hare Krishna.

Introduction

 

This is the beginning of a very humble attempt to help myself and all my fellow beings to start Living The Bhagavad Gita. What do I mean by that?  We will get to that shortly.

Attaining permanent happiness has been the goal of everyone alike. Since time immemorial, many philosophers from the East to the West have commented on what real happiness is.. Now, we are all aware that material happiness is temporary, and that ,there is not much point chasing it any more than running after a mirage in search of water in a desert. Well, we have heard this time and time again from several Mahatmas, as well as the Supreme Lord, Krishna himself. Although we have known this fact for so long, the question remains: why are we still miserable?  Lord Krishna has clearly stated in the Bhagavad Gita

mama maya duratyaya (BG; Chapter 7, Verse 14).

‘ My Maya is very difficult to cross’ -

Are we perhaps just speaking the Bhagavad Gita and not living it?

The material world in which we are now, is an ocean of miseries. These miseries can be threefold:

Ø  Adhidaivik – those caused by external agencies more powerful than us; natural calamities, for example.

Ø  Adhyatmik- those caused due to our mind/atma –self construed mental concoctions,

and

Ø  Adhibhowtik – caused by other living entities.

Any problem or distress that we face in this material world falls under one of these categories. Should we then try to tackle each one of our problems by understanding the category it falls under, and then seek the solution by living the Bhagavad Gita in our day-to-day lives? The formulae to tackle any situation in life are foolproof, as the they have been spoken by none other than Krishna, the Supreme Spiritual Master(Krsnam Vande Jagadgurum ) and also the spiritual master of all other spiritual masters (bhūyāt sa īśaḥ paramo guror guruḥ - Srimad Bhagavatam- 8.24.48).

We may have seen the following quotes on the interiors of many homes:.

Have the Courage to change the things you can.

Accept the things you cannot change.

And wisdom to know the difference

Let us look at them, one by one:

Having the courage to change the things we can- These are mainly directed at Adhyatmik distress, caused due to our mind or spirit soul which gets carried away by the illusory world and has been conditioned eternally due to its contact with material nature. They may also be referring to some Adibhowtik distresses caused due to other living entities. We can work on changing them by understanding our real position and our connection with the Supreme Lord, and of course by following his instructions submissively.

Accepting the things we cannot change - This is probably the most misunderstood statement. Usually, we tend to think that we must accept everything that cannot be changed, as it is, even if some of those situations or behaviours might not be to our taste. These may be classified as Adibhowtik miseries -those miseries caused by other living entities.  These can, therefore, cause many pent-up feelings of dissatisfaction or grudge in our minds. These emotions, when expressed, manifest as anger or some other form of unacceptable behaviour. What we fail to understand is that although we may not be able to change some of these challenging situations, we can always work on getting better at dealing with those situations. This then takes us back to the first-point - having the courage to change the things that we can.

And of course, some of the things we have to accept that cannot be changed are Adhidaivic miseries which are beyond our control, such as natural calamities and disasters..

Knowing the difference between the two is said to be wisdom.

‘Living the Bhagavad Gita’ is aimed towards following the instructions of Lord Krishna  and lead a life that can take us to eternal happiness . It is about living within this ocean of miseries, and yet, not be attached to it, just like the droplets of water that do not get attached to the petals of a lotus. It is about dealing with difficult situations caused due to unrestrained senses, by withdrawing them from the sense objects, just like the tortoise that withdraws its limbs when not in use(Bhagavad Gita - 2.58). We may have read all of this in the Bhagavad Gita several times in our lives. However, many of us are still miserable, aren’t we? Are we perhaps not practicing the principles within?

How do we practice these faultless principles? How do we apply them?

Well, Lord Krishna himself has showered his mercy on us by instructing us on how we can achieve this, by being an example Himself. Let us look at some of His instructions in the days to come, one at a time, and take time to reflect on them and apply them daily in our day-to-day activities.