My Gita

by Devdutt Pattanaik

History seeks to be everyone’s truth, but is limited by available facts. More often than not, what is passed off as history is mythology,

Karna, who sought all his life to be an archer and a king, thus dies as a charioteer, the profession of his foster father that he shunned.

interesting reference to Karna and hiss actual pediogree

Where there is life, there is hunger. Where there is hunger, there is food. Where there is food, there is violence. Where there is violence, there are consequences. Nature is violent, as the hungry seek food.

For non-violence is only possible when one gives up hunger, and no one, not even a hermit, can give up all hunger. His body needs nourishment and for that he needs food. The act of cultivation of food is violent, as is the act of keeping away those who wish to steal our food. Only the non-living (a-jiva) are non-violent as they are not hungry. The living (sa-jiva) eat; eating involves violence.

Arjuna, better to do what you have been asked to do imperfectly than try to do perfectly what others have been asked to. All work has inadequacies; even fire is enveloped by smoke.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, verses 47 and 48

In astrology, jog means alignment of the stars that results in favourable conditions for an activity. From jog comes the word ‘jogadu’, the resourceful individual, a word typically used in the eastern parts of India for one who is able to create alignment and connections in a world full of misalignment and disconnections. The word ‘jogadu’ has given rise to the words ‘jugad’ and ‘jugadu’ in the northern parts of India, where it means improvisation and even by-passing the system. Sadly, today, jugad is used in a negative sense, for it is practised for the self at the cost of the other, in the spirit of adharma, not dharma.

Ah so from here comes the word JUGAAD!