My Gita

by Devdutt Pattanaik

What you take away will be your subjective truth: your Gita.

Limited truth is mithya. Limitless truth is satya.

We are also aware that any study of The Gita eventually becomes a study of how humans see the world, how Indians saw the world, how the West wants to see India, how India wants to see India and how we want to see The Gita.

Imagination helps us create concepts, which filter our sensory inputs and ultimately impact our emotional experience. Thus, we can imagine a rock or river to be a deity and so condition ourselves to feel joyful whenever we encounter that rock or river.

That which is expressed (shabda) contains layers of meaning (shabda-brahmana), some literal, some metaphorical. These evoke multiple emotions (rasa) and experiences (bhava). Shabda is tangible (sa-guna), shabda-brahmana is intangible (nir-guna). Only through shabda, can shabda-brahmana be expressed and experienced.

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.

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. This is the fundamental truth of life.

Who is responsible for Sita’s abduction by Ravana? Should we blame her for taking a risk and feeding a hermit? Should we blame Lakshmana who cruelly cut the nose of Ravana’s sister Surpanakha? Or should we blame Surpanakha who tried to kill Sita so that her husband, Ram, would be free to love other women? Should we blame Ram who refused to indulge Surpanakha’s desires because he wanted to be faithful to his wife? Or should we blame Sita for accompanying Ram into the forest where rules of marriage have no meaning? Should we blame Ram’s stepmother, Kaikeyi, for demanding his forest exile? Or should we blame Ram’s father, Dashratha, for giving boons to Kaikeyi that the royal family was bound to uphold? Even if we identify the cause, can we control the action and determine future consequences?

If karma yoga is action without expectation, then what should the motivation of our action be? Plants and animals act in order to find food and security only for themselves and their young ones. Humans can also act to find food and security for others, even strangers. Can this be human motivation? To realize this potential is dharma.