Life before and after the Bhagavad Gita
1. Before the Gita, one ‘s life is a battlefield where Dharma and Adharma are pitched against each other
After the Gita, one ‘s life is an instrument (flute) of Dharma allowing Bhagavan Sri Krishna to play his sweet song. (Bhagavad Gita)
Dharma wins.
Before the Gita, one does self diagnosis and makes helpless attempts at self medication for the human problem of limitation (birth and death). Life felt like a burden.
After the Gita, one has understood the right diagnosis (of avidya) and taken the right medication (of brahmavidya).
Life is a blessing and a celebration.
Before the Gita, one battles with inadequacy, sorrow and grief
After the Gita, one sees that there is no reason for sorrow.
Before the Gita, one is burdened by the weight of karma (to-do list for all roles) on one’s weary shoulders
After the Gita, one transforms karma into karma yoga, lifting the weight off and becoming light-hearted
Before the Gita, one gives up by escaping from problems at work, family, society
After the Gita, one takes sannyasa and gives up the identities of the karta and bhogta (doer and experiencer).
Aligned with Dharma, one happily navigates work, family, society.
Before the Gita, one was bound by compartmentalised spirituality and other pursuits of wealth, pleasure and contribution
After the Gita, your life is whole. You are whole.
One is free to pursue wealth, pleasure and contribution as an expression of abundance.
Before the Gita one was judgmental, harsh and critical of oneself and others
After the Gita, one becomes a friend(bandhu) – warm, encouraging, gentle and firm with oneself and others
Before the Gita one was consumed by ‘I’, me and mine or He/she/They and theirs (situations, thoughts, feelings)
After the Gita one’s ‘I’ expands to include all. One lives a life of harmony and dynamic balance.
Before the Gita one fears old age, disease and death, especially of loved ones
After the Gita one knows that one was never born and can never die
Before the Gita one was asleep to the presence of God, sleepwalking through life
After the Gita one wakes up to ‘All that is here is Ishvara’
Before the Gita, one sought darshan of God’s form for blessings
After the Gita one sees that Vishva (world) alone is his form (visvarupa darshanam)
Before the Gita one ‘did’ bhakti as some sporadic acts of love (puja, singing bhajans etc)
After the Gita you are a bhakta (devotee and a loving person) whose whole life is a puja, an offering to Bhagavan.
Love for Bhagavan flows into all your roles and actions.
Before the Gita oneself, the world and God were separate, stressing you all the time
After the Gita all that is here is ONE, all apparent forms interacting with each other
Before the Gita one resisted people and situations (People should change, Situations should change)
After the Gita, one sees the play of gunas between people and situations, while participating with a full heart and remaining untouched
Before the Gita, differences, one-upmanship, the dynamics of duality was your everyday reality
After the Gita, oneness in and through all the duality is the unchanging reality. One responds with Dharma to (apparent)duality
Before the Gita wealth meant only money and property, ephemeral as they are
After the Gita wealth also meant the qualities of the devas (daivi-sampat) which you carry forward as samskaaras across lifetimes
Before the Gita, one struggled with trusting oneself, others, shaastra and the guru.
After the Gita, the trust walk with Sri Krishna helped you to trust the process of life making you shraddhavaan.
Before the Gita, ‘success’ was having externals (wealth, family, pleasure and social media validation) and occasional internal peace of mind
After the Gita, success is a life of svadharma and sweet surrender to whatever needs to be done across all roles
One was always Ananda, fullness in and through all externals and internal
Om Tat Sat
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita Jayanti – 22nd December 2023)
(Do feel free to add to what happened to you before and after the Bhagavad Gita…)
