Putting The Gita’s Teachings to Work, by Mahendra Mathur
This is the final article in the Bhagavad Gita series.
We have seen that the Gita sets out a system of practices, yogas, for bringing us into union with Brahman. And when those practices work, as they did in the case of Arjun, then comes the mystic vision. In the eleventh chapter Krishna gives him “divine sight” so he can see Krishna’s cosmic form. Arjun sees the whole universe there in front of him, all around him, with the radiance of a thousand suns – all creation coming and going to Krishna.
Yoga is really any practice we undertake with the intention of coming closer to God. There is no human act that cannot be hallowed into a path to God. That is why the Gita is mainly concerned with the path of Karma Yoga. It tells us how to carry on our spiritual quest right in the midst of our lives in the world. It spells out the way we can do that: by offering our actions to God, by acting without any attachment, and by accepting the results as His “Prasad.”
Note that the highest statement of Karma Yoga is also a full expression of the act of sacrifice – we sacrifice our gratification into selfless, dharmic action. We can turn any part of our lives into a sacrifice, into an offering. We can turn our feelings into our sacrifice. If you are having trouble with someone, make them your sacrifice. Add a picture of him or her to your altar; like British General Montgomery did of Nazi General Rommel during Second World War in North Africa. Sacrifice and renunciation are kindred practices. Sacrifice, in a way, ritualizes our acts of renunciation.
The practice of renunciation is ultimately about renouncing our suffering over this or that, and when that happens, the whole melodramic part of the renunciation trip starts to fade away. Renunciation is a means to end. Once we are free, renunciation is irrelevant. When we are without desires, without attachments, we will act only when we are drawn by our dharma to act. There will be nothing we’re looking to get from the situation that would take us away from our doing our Karma Yoga.
In Chapter 12 Krishna says that Bhakti is the highest form of Yoga. Bhakti yoga and Karma yoga are woven together. It’s the goal of the karma yogi to act out of pure dharma – that is, to have every action guided by God’s will. And here Krishna is telling us the way that is accomplished is simply by adding love to the equation. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught, “Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Krishna, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Krishna expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.” Simply by spreading the chanting of the holy names of God all over the world we can put a complete stop to crime and terrorism.
When you offer your food you are directly offering it to God. When you chant Om Namah Shivaya or Hare Krishna you are directly addressing the Lord and His energy to engage you in their service. In this way you should be developing a personal loving relationship with the Lord. You must always introspectively observe your thoughts, words, and deeds to make sure that they are pleasing to the Lord. Don’t do these things impersonally. Do them for the pleasure of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord reciprocates by returning the offered foods back to us in the form of prasadam. He reciprocates with the chanting by showering us with transcendental bliss. I love Shiva because He is so beautiful and so wonderful and so absolutely amazing and because He bestows upon me the highest happiness. I can feel the bliss He is showering upon me at every minute. (The intimate loving affairs of Radha and Krishna are an invitation for us to become intimately involved in those loving affairs.) Visiting sacred places of pilgrimage helps in cultivating devotion.
Chapter 9 ends with Krishna telling Arjun, “Give me your mind and your heart, and you’ll come to me.” We can see a kind of daisy chain of practices here: first karma yoga and bhakti yoga are linked. Now we see that bhakti yoga and jnana yoga are linked – to get to God, we have to give over both our hearts and minds. We need wisdom to keep us from getting trapped in clinging attachment; but the thinking mind needs to be balanced by the bhakti heart. When that combination of jgana and bhakti comes together, it is powerful! The devotion gets clearer and clearer, and the wisdom gets more and more subtle. The bhakti takes us through the emptiness, and into a loving dharma.
Pure devotional service is so spiritually relishable that a devotee becomes automatically uninterested in material enjoyment. That is the sign of perfection in progressive devotional service. A pure devotee continuously remembers the lotus feet of Lord Shiva or Krishna and does not forget Him even for a moment, not even in exchange for all the opulence of the three worlds.
The body is to be used for selfless service (karma yoga); the heart is to be used for devotion (bhakti yoga); and the mind is to be used for discernment (jnana yoga). There are practices that focus the mind, like meditation or mantra. And there are practices that let us take a step back from the mind, like witnessing. Witnessing lets us move outside the dramas of our lives. It isn’t judging – good, bad, it’s all the same. It is simply witnessing. With this practice comes a kind of pervasive perception of everything, which comes out of total nonattachment.
Ask not which method you should adopt for self-realization – karma yoga, bhakti yoga or gyan yoga. To put the Gita’s teachings to work, adopt all the three yogas. Simply put, a person seeking self-realization carries God into all his/her works, seeks nothing but God and becomes one with God in every thought.
Colonel Mahendra Mathur prematurely retired from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army in 1975 to build a highway in Tobago. Subsequently he was appointed Director of National Emergency Management Agency of Trinidad and Tobago before retiring in 1998. He has been a student of the Gita all his life. You can contact him at mmathur@tstt.net.tt.
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October 2nd, 2008 17:48
Relevance and practical view:
Organisation and Management ‘O&M’ imply orderly synchronisation and harmony in activity may it be domestic, professional or social. Striking equilibrium in thoughts, between thoughts and actions [karma], between goals and accomplishments, between target performance and actual performance and between strengths and weaknesses is the gist of any management.
Vision – We need a vision, that is based upon long term effects, collective efforts, collective actions, repercussions, effect and cause, action and reaction. Every single of our thoughts, be it strategic, or planning, or business decision based on anticipation is a “vision” – a vision for the welfare of all and a vision for the benefit of all. When vision becomes obscure, abstract, dualistic in purpose, that vision is a vision of a selfish man aka “DURYODHANA” and “Kauravas”.
The Kauravas are a reflection of GREED [SELFISHNESS BASED ON ACCENTRICITY OF MAKING OTHERS SCAPE GOAT], FALSITY [CONTROL BASED ON FALSE OWNERSHIP], ANGER [aggression], DESIRES based on selfish motives and selfish ambitions of egocentricity, proliferations based on corruption and unfair means, and, competitive advantage based on inappropriate business practices and unfair principles of unfair contractual terms. When VISION is based on wrongfulness, the result will be ADHARMA or WRONGFULNESS. When vision is based on righteousness, the result will be RIGHTEOUS and just.
The “PANDAVAS” FIVE NOBLE PRINCES represent Strength, courage and essential brevity of Bhima, the spiritual prowess of Arjuna, the skills, and expertise of the professional teamwork, and the unity of ORGANISATION of HUMANKIND at large. In the absence of unity, any organisation of humanity or social infrastructure becomes futile and corrupt.
Leadership and selflessness is WHAT SHREE KRISHNA BHAGAVAN teaches Arjuna and makes Arjuna contemplate upon the collective KARMA rather than momentary karma. This is so true of the present crises that U.S.A. faces. One must contemplate upon the collective KARMA of the USA over 100 years.
Excellence: Delivering the arrows of skills, innovation, proficiency, and expertise imply making more way for technological advancement and competence based on finesse of mind power. The particular attitude that management require is that of purity, clarity and single purpose. Purpose cannot be dual. Excellence therefore, comes from the crux of YOGA, MEDITATION, CONTEMPLATION, PRACITICE, AND CONSTANCY. This is the core of the teachings of Gita.
Development of human resources: One critically needs to put in place, a process of assimilation and deliberation based on higher intelligence, higher consciousness, and awareness. When we do not have in place any motivation program or inspirational program to transform our resources from the base mundane repetitive labour to much more exuberantly profound contribution by bringing equal opportunities and equality and removing discrimination, we end up with organisation based on chaos. We witness this everyday. The critical issue of “how the mind flows to effectiveness of job” Gita proclaims clearly in its teachings to “learn to manage one’s own self and one’s own emotions” before attempting to manage others. Only then one will be an achiever rather than a face amongst crowd.
Teamwork: Sri Krishna exemplifies clearly that absence of motivation, lack of culture, and inspiration brings disaster, low efficiency, and defective organisation. Hence, wise policy and wise corporate directorship bring optimal utilisation of scarce resources.
Attitude to work: Gita tells us not to mortgage the present commitment to an uncertain future. If we are not able to measure up to this height, then surly the fault lies with us and not with the teaching of management schools. Attaining effective work performance by becoming the work itself ‘nishkama’ karma is the right attitude to accomplishing happiness and contentment in work.
Delegation, motivation, communication; reviewing performance and taking corrective steps whenever called for: When we delegate our corporate work to others, we must do so in the spirit of Gita:
Self-transcendence is overcoming insuperable obstacles in one’s path. It involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, team-work, dignity, sharing, co-operation, harmony, trust, sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, seeing others in you and yourself in others etc. The portrait of a self-realizing person is that he is a man who aims at his own position and underrates everything else. On the other hand the Self-transcenders are the visionaries and innovators. Their resolute efforts enable them to achieve the apparently impossible. They overcome all barriers to reach their goal.
There is also another dimension in the work ethic. If the karmayoga is blended with bhaktiyoga then the work itself becomes worship, a seva yoga.
Daivi work culture - means fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice, straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.
Asuri work culture - means egoism, delusion, desire-centric, improper performance, work which is not oriented towards service. It is to be noted that mere work ethic is not enough in as much as a hardened criminal has also a very good work culture. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.
The counsel ‘yogah karmasu kausalam’ should be understood. Kausalam means skill or method or technique of work which is an indispensable component of work ethic. Yogah is defined in the Gita itself as ’samatvam yogah uchyate’ meaning unchanging equipoise of mind.
Gita tells us how to get out of this universal phenomenon by prescribing the following capsules:
• Cultivate sound philosophy of life, family, society and work.
• Identify with inner core of self-sufficiency and detachment.
• Get out of the habitual mindset towards the pairs of opposites.
• Strive for excellence through work is worship, servitude and love.
• Build up an internal integrated reference point to face contrary impulses, and emotions.
• Pursue selflessness and sattvic attitude of purity, clarity and care.
Sri Krishna Bhagawan’s advice is relevant here :
“tasmaat sarveshu kaaleshu mamanusmarah yuddha cha”
‘Therefore under all circumstances remember KRISHNA and then ACT ‘ (ACT means perform your duties).
Sri Krishna’s advice with regard to temporary failures in actions is ‘No doer of good ever ends in misery’.
One who follows Krishna and GITA’S ideal in all walks of life without losing faith in the ideal or never deviating from it, Krishna provides such humankind with needs (Yoga) and protects what such humankind has already got (Kshema).
Gita principles are hence very relevant and prudent in today’s management.
Prannamm Namaskaram
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
Jyotikar Pattni