GITA FOR CHILDREN - PART 4
Continued from the previous issue….

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53. ‘A person who is not cool will not be at Peace. Peace is inside and not outside! A person who feels Peace inside will experience Bliss. And a person in a Blissful state would radiate Peace in his neighbourhood. This is how Peace can be brought on earth. Someone must get the ball rolling. It is like lighting many candles with one candle.’

54. ‘A flower is beautiful. But it also radiates fragrance. In the same way, Shanti is inside; when it spreads outside like the fragrance of the flower, it becomes Prashanti!’

55. ‘Arjuna, what I am telling you now is not merely practical advice related to fighting this battle ahead of you. It has deep inner significance because it is related to fighting life’s battles.’

56. ‘A man who has vanquished internal enemies becomes a pure and elevated being. And when such a person finally leaves his body, he merges once and for ever with God. No more rebirths for him because he is merged in God, and is ever in a Blissful state. Remember – true happiness is total and complete union with God!’

CHAPTER 3

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1. Arjuna says to Krishna, ‘Krishna, I am totally confused. On the one hand you are asking me to act, to get up and to fight. At the same time, you are also asking me to look inside, develop discrimination and become wise. How can I do both? If I have to act, I can’t be spending time looking inside. On the other hand if I start looking inside, I am sure I would get lost there! In which case, how would I be able to act? How would I be able to fight, as You are asking me to do? Therefore, please tell me clearly, which of these two paths is better and where exactly do they lead?’

2. Krishna smiles and replies, ‘Arjuna, this is what they call a good question! Let Me, to start with, make two things very clear.
      1) The two paths as you call them, are called respectively the Path of Action or Karma Yoga and the Path of Wisdom or           Sankhya Yoga.
      2) Both these lead to the same goal, namely Eternal Bliss and freedom from rebirth.’

3. ‘You are possibly wondering how that could be possible, since these two paths seem to be so very different. That is what I shall now explain.’

4. ‘Let Me start with the so-called Path of Action. When I ask you to follow the Path of Action it does not mean that I am asking you to become a workaholic, go-getter and things like that. I mean something very different.’

5. ‘First and foremost, a person dedicated to the Path of Action accepts the role Destiny has carved out for him and does his best in that role. Now take your own case. You are born a soldier, a warrior. The duty of a soldier is to fight for Dharma. That is what you must do, and not run away talking like a Sannyasi, as you were in fact trying to do a short while ago.’

6. ‘Next, you must plunge into action with perfect calmness. You must always be cool and unperturbed; in other words, you must be the very embodiment of equanimity.’

7. ‘Further, the action that you perform must be done as a sacred duty. Action becomes sacred only when duty is performed for duty’s sake and not for personal gains and ends. You should never calculate about success and failure or dream
about the benefits that would come to you if you were to act in a particular way.’

8. ‘If it is destined that you should “fail” in whatever it is that you are trying to do, accept that outcome calmly as the Will of God. Let us say there is a person who is very sick, and that a doctor is treating the patient. The doctor cannot say, “This fellow is going to die anyway so why bother?” He must do his VERY BEST and leave the rest to God. And whatever happens, he should calmly accept that as the Will of God. With God’s Grace, the patient may even pull through. For your information, this has happened any number of times.’

9. ‘By the way Arjuna, don’t ever get the idea that God causes failure. Things may not exactly happen the way you want things to happen but that does not mean that the effort is a failure. You see God always knows what is best, and if He has postponed what you regard as “success”, it is with good reason. In the meanwhile, do not jump to the conclusion that there has been a failure.’

10. ‘Arjuna, two important points must be noted concerning action. The first is that no one can be perfectly still and stay away from action. You talked of the Wise as if they did not engage in action. This is not correct. Don’t the Wise eat, walk, bathe, etc.? Are these not actions?’

11. ‘The second point is that there is action everywhere in the Universe. In fact a static Universe where nothing ever happens is impossible! Up there in the heavens the Sun shines, the planets move about and so on. All this is Divinely-ordained action.’

12. ‘If you examine carefully, there are generally two aspects to action, that of receiving and that of giving. In fact, in all cases except that of man, the giving is much more than the receiving. Just consider the example of the tree and examine how much it receives and how much it gives. This one example ought to convince you of the truth of My statement. The tree is really a fine example because in the end it gives its entire self up.’

13. ‘Arjuna, the key principle on which the Universe functions is sacrifice. That one word says it all. That is why at the time of Creation God told man, “You can prosper only if you sacrifice”.’

14. ‘People imagine that sacrifice means giving up something valuable or giving
away something precious, something that you would very much like to keep for yourself. This is a very limited interpretation of the word sacrifice. I use that word in a larger sense. I would in fact prefer to use the word offering in place of the word sacrifice.’

To be continued…

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