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Vishnu sleeps and awakens, and smiles, turning the unproductive fight into a productive churn whenever he can, as Brahma and his sons struggle continuously to control life, rather than accept and enjoy it, despite Vishnu’s numerous interventions.
The Gita does not speak of changing the world. It speaks of appreciating the world that is always changing. Belief in one life makes us want to change the world, control it or resign to the way things are. Belief in rebirth enables us to appreciate all three possibilities, without clinging to any.
Krishna replies that nothing is wasted or destroyed in the cosmos. All efforts are recorded and they impact future lives.
Knowledge acquired in the past plays a role in the wisdom of future lives.
As long as we resist reality, we will not discover the immortal, and go from lifetime to lifetime, hungry for meaning and validation.
immerse your mind in me and I will uplift you from the ocean of recurring death. If you cannot do that, then practise yoga and work on your mind. If you cannot do that, then do your work as if it is my work. If you cannot do that, then make yourself my instrument and do as I say. If you cannot do that, then simply do your job and leave the results to me.—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 12, verses 6 to 11 (paraphrased).
As long as we seek validation from the world around us, we are entrapped by aham. As soon as we realize that all meaning comes from within, that it is we who make the world meaningful, we are liberated by atma.
ability to measure and delimit reality is called maya.
Maya distracts us from infinity and immortality, from the feeling that the world can continue without us. Maya makes us feel important.
This is moksha, liberation, where we no longer seek validation from the outside, but feel eternally validated from the inside. Moksha is liberation from fear.
The Gita, however, is the doctrine of the householder, not the hermit, the one who does not withdraw from the battlefield but fights without attachment or hatred, and so is neither violated nor violates.
