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The Attachments Of Hindu Or Indian Thoughts Through The Bhgava Gita
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The attachments of Hindu or Indian thoughts through the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is a book about life, its mysteries and how to solve the problems in life. The questioner, Arjuna, is a characterization of the reader as he seeks to find answers to some important questions. Arjuna’s confusion can be summed up with one line form the third chapter, “Your advice seems inconsistent. Give me one path to follow to the supreme good.” (Bhagavad Gita, 3:2).
The path to self-realization is very evident in the text as it indicates that the material world is not the ultimate goal, neither is it a good thing to be sought. Rather, the book explains, one must free himself from the material world and its distractions and work towards self-realization. This can be achieved by looking within oneself rather than outside. It means that true happiness lies within oneself and that self-discovery should be the ultimate goal for everyone. The second chapter summarizes this when it says, “Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.” (The Bhagavad Gita, 2:56-57). This implies that the noisy and distracting world has only served to further our confusion about reality and peace within. Therefore, the only way to free oneself from the anguish is to look within and venture into the journey of self-discovery.
Selfless service is another important aspect of the Bhagavad Gita as we are told two ways to attain enlightenment (ultimate state of peace and tranquility). Karma Yoga or selfless service is one of the two as the book explains that people should seek to help other living things. People are bound to work anyway for sustaining themselves financially and otherwise. Therefore, it is better to work towards helping others rather than oneself only because working only for the sake of selfish desires is akin to wasting one’s life. This is evident in the third chapter when the book says, “Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life” (The Bhagavad Gita, 3:19).
Works Cited
Easwaran, Eknath. The Bhagavad Gita:(Classics of Indian Spirituality). Vol. 1. Nilgiri Press, 2007.
Gandhi, Mahatma. The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi. North Atlantic Books, 2010.
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