Chapter 3
Karm Yoga
Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, titled "Karma Yoga" or the "Path of Selfless Action," emphasizes the importance of fulfilling one's prescribed duties and responsibilities without attachment to the outcomes. Lord Krishna teaches Arjuna that selfless action, performed as an offering to the Divine, is the key to spiritual growth and liberation. The chapter highlights the significance of duty, sacrifice, and maintaining equanimity in the face of life's challenges, ultimately guiding individuals on the path of selfless service and inner peace.
Participants Speak....
My chapter 3 learnings:
Gyaan and Karm go hand in hand. It's not possible to achieve gyaan without Karm, and vice versa. Once we have attained Gyaan, all action will become easy.
We associate the concepts of paap-punya with the given action, instead in reality it's the intent behind those actions that matter and paap-punya are earned basis those.
"Nishkaam bhav se karm karo toh paap-punya ka koi matlab hi nahi"
Karm karo, but don't be the doer. See yourself as an instrument in the hands of God/ nature. Do all karm with the intent of a yagya - with total dedication and without any expectations of outcome. But when we are in synchrony with the universe, outcomes get aligned automatically.
When we are in alignment, there is no dukh, dukh also becomes sukh.
Live your destiny, don't try to become someone else. It's better to fail at doing your duty, be your nature than try to do someone else's duty, live their nature.
The way to control the senses is by willpower, when you become conscious of your presence, you can tell the body that you have heard it's demands but that you are not going to give into it's demands, the body stops demanding.
Senses are superior to the gross body; superior to the senses is our mind; beyond the mind is the intellect but above everything is the soul.
Rajesh Lalwani
My learnings on Chapter 3
1 - Universe is governed by law of cause & effect.
2 - Humans duty is to only act and not worry about the results. We need to do action as only action is in our control. We don't have any control over the effect, so we shouldn't sit and regret as regret will only bring about another regretful "effect". Whatever happens, we should just step back and relax.
3 - Yoga is skill in action wherein we are acting but we aren't thinking that we are the doer. We are free from foolishness, feverishness, fear.
4 - When everything is falling apart, that's the time when one really shouldn't lose their equanimity, strength and courage. Yoga can bring this strength and balance-equanimity.
5 - When do we see we are not doing anything? When we are doing so many things. The intelligent one sees inaction/silence in action and action in inaction (ex: when we are silent- we see the breath moving etc.). When we become silent, we can observe all the happenings-activity.
6 - How to do this? By being in Yoga i.e. united in self, observe inaction in action.
7 - Spiritual action (yagya) (it brings comfort to 3 levels- body, mind, soul)
8 - When we sit, meditate, chant, listen to knowledge together, that enriches the subtle universe and makes the angels happy. When we do sewa (help those in need), we get merit.