The Gita Way, Aligning with Your Inner Strength for a Purposeful Life

By Shweta Chandra and Santosh Srivastava

Unveil the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita in a fresh and empowering way with "The Gita Way." This third edition offers unconventional interpretations and practical applications, guiding readers on a journey of self-realization and purposeful living.

Unlike traditional mythological or God-centric discourses, this book presents insight

• Language: English
• Publisher: TGW
• Release date: Jul 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9789359175362

Book preview

Shweta Chandra and Santosh Srivastava

The Gita Way

Aligning with Your Inner Strength for a Purposeful Life

First published by General Press, New Delhi 2016

Copyright © 2016 by Shweta Chandra and Santosh Srivastava

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

The first edition of the book was published under the title The Gita Way - Secret Recipe to Achieve the Purpose of Life in 2016, and it was followed by a second edition with a revised title The Gita Way: How to Achieve the Purpose of Life in 2019.

Third edition

ISBN: 978-93-5917-536-2

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

Contents

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOOK (BY SANTOSH SRIVASTAVA)

PREFACE

How to find the right perspective?

INTRODUCTION

A SENSE OF PURPOSE IN LIFE

GOAL

FINDING UNIQUE STRENGTH AND DEVELOPING IT

THE JOY OF THE SELF- HOBBY VS. PROFESSION

How to Approach Goal-Setting

DOUBT IN ANY FORM IS THE BIGGEST ENEMY TO SELF- REALISATION:

The Story of Barbarika; why was he sacrificed?

YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE OF SELF

ELEMENTS OF SELF

Required Qualities in Self

HOW DOES ONE ACHIEVE ‘ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE’?

Discipline of knowledge

Discipline of Action

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS IGNORANCE WHICH CREATES FEAR

KARMA YOGA

PRESCRIBED ACT AND PROHIBITED ACT

YOGA AND THE ATTRIBUTES OF A YOGI

HOW DOES ONE BECOME EQUIPOISE?

DESIRE-ENTRAP

HIERARCHY OF CONTROL

Theory of Prarabdha or destiny

Butterfly Effect

HURDLES IN THE PATH OF KARMA-YOGA

Vikarma

Law of Growth

ULTIMATE DISPASSION: NISHKAM KARMA

HOW TO STAY ON THE PATH OF KARMA-YOGA?

COMBINED DISCIPLINE OF KNOWLEDGE AND KARMA

SELF-REALISATION

CENTRING AND POWER OF REAL-SELF

YOGA OF SELF-CONTROL

YOGA OF DEVOTION

THE CYCLE OF LIBERATION

HOW DOES DEVOTION COME TO US?

DEVOTION TO TAME THE MIND

RELEVANCE OF DEVOTION TO THE THEORY OF PRARABDHA

SYMPTOMS OF LACK OF DEVOTION

VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL FORM

UNIVERSAL FORM OF GOAL

CONCEPT OF SELF

REDIRECTING THE PURPOSE OF DESIRE

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ON THREE MODES OF NATURE

INNER PURIFICATION BY KNOWING SATTVA, RAJAS, AND TAMAS

The Gita Way of Continuous Improvement

YOGA OF LIBERATION

HOW IS SATTVA LINKED WITH THE SUPREME GOAL?

HOW DOES ONE ATTAIN SATTVA?

AUSTERITY OF MIND

SATTVIKA INTELLECT

SATTVIKA SACRIFICE

LEADERSHIP BY CREATING ORDER AROUND

YOGA OF LIBERATION

AUTHORS

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOOK (BY SANTOSH SRIVASTAVA)

The development of this book is based on my connection with the Gita, which started many years ago. My mother gave me a copy of the Bhagavad Gita when I was eight or nine years old, with a view to teaching me something about Vedic Hinduism. I remember that hardbound book from Gita Press, Gorakhpur, with translations of each verse from the Gita into Hindi.

My mother is a devout follower of religious practices and worships. In the beginning, as my mother guided me, I tried reading the whole Gita as it is in the Sanskrit text. Later, I started finding its Hindi translation easier to follow. Thus, my childhood forays into reading the Gita was the beginning of my need to understand religion and philosophies, a desire that continues to enrich my life.

A temple near our house used to organize Satsang and Ram Katha events, which are recitations and narrations of stories of Lord Ram. There was a Guruji named Sharadanand-ji- Maharaj, who used to take these sessions. Often, he used to stay at our home for the duration of these sessions. Whenever he came to stay with us, my mother made sure that I was the one responsible for his care and comfort. That gave me an opportunity to ask him some of the questions that had started to creep into my mind.

I remember when I was around 13 years old, in one of Sharadanand-Ji’s lectures, he was explaining a particular verse from the Ramayana:" Hoi Hai Soi Jo Ram Rachi Rakha". Whatever happens in this world is already decided by Lord Ram. This gave birth to a lot of worrisome questions in my mind.

One day, while Sharadanand-Ji was staying in our house, I asked those questions: If everything is pre-decided, what is our role? We say that God has created us; what could be his purpose behind such creation? Whether there is a pre-decided purpose or not, how can a creator expect all his creations to worship Him? If God has made us and given us each a purpose, then why are we expected to worship at all?

These questions started a series of debates in various gatherings in my home. These conversations gave me a lot of religious insights – some helpful – on the personified form of God. Once, during one of these discussions, my uncle explained that in nature, everything does not happen for a purpose, but when it happens, we discover the purpose in it. He explained with an analogy birth of a child; it’s not necessary that parents always plan and decide a purpose before taking a step to achieve parenthood. Often, it happens unconditionally, because they love each other.

This insight left an impression on me. I understood the cause-and-effect process of nature and started evaluating it in all aspects. Still, there were questions for which I could not find an answer to this theory.

During my MBA days, I attended Gita-Shibir organized by the college at the ashram of Swami Viditatmananda in Ahmedabad. That was an opportunity for me to go deep into the science of spirituality. Later, it helped me develop my concept of the natural order, presented in a few sections of this book.

When I met Shweta, we had this spiritual connection in our discussions. We exchanged, at length, our views on eternal love much before our wedding. Later, she joined my effort and helped me research the Gita and related subjects. This book would not have been possible without her support.

I understood conceptual blending while working as a product manager in my first job after my MBA. Whenever I had to take a pricing decision, concepts of operations management helped me. I learned concepts such as operational research, the theory of constraint, and linear programming as part of operations management, especially manufacturing and they were helpful in considering various scenarios while taking a decision. Conceptual blending is the application of one concept in the premise of another completely different situation. ‘The Gita Way’ is the result of such conceptual blending. We have tried to translate its spiritual insights into workable knowledge of our thought and action.

While researching the Gita, we could correlate the insights that I had accumulated from childhood with various quotes in the text. We found a pattern, a step by step guideline, right from knowing strengths to discovering a purpose in life to aligning all the resources for a purpose to actually realize it.

While working on this book I wanted to explore views from others. I called my close friends with their families for an informal get-together. That was the first time Shweta and I unveiled the idea of ‘The Gita Way’, with a work-in-progress disclaimer. We explained the basic concepts we were working on and asked our friends for their views.

Friends in that group can be said to be aspiring middle class, with an impressive educational background and a promising career in various corporates. We felt that their feedback would have a connection with what we were researching.

That evening, we started a long discussion on purpose and happiness. We explored fury in managing frustration, infuriation, and stress. During the discussion, we asked a question which is worth mentioning here in the context of this book. How do you manage stress? There was a flood of answers similar to those available in various self-help books. The responses ranged from meditation to various tricks at the time of stress, such as taking a deep breath, thinking of a favourite song, and other similar examples. Surprisingly, no one has given a solution to defeat the cause of stress in the first place.

Then we asked our friends about the possibility of working on the root of it and eliminate it permanently. A discussion ensued about finding the root cause of stress. We were still far from ‘The Gita Way’ solution. One of the best answers was that most of us fail to manage a work-life balance, which is what causes stress. Both work and family demand time, which is scarce. ‘The Gita Way’ explores why we treat work and life as two different elements. If they were the same, there would be no need to balance them.

Some of them added other reasons of stress related to the profession, such as politics and favouritism in office, no fun at work, a tough boss, setbacks on the career path, the earning potential of a profession, and the like. The hidden reason why we do not love our profession was not answered. After all, love does not lead to stress.

In all such discussions, we found that the way in which we manage ourselves leaves much to be desired. There is a big gap in what was taught and followed hundreds of years ago and what we are taught today. We are not spiritual gurus; we are just regular people seeking self-worth in this world. ‘The Gita Way’ is an attempt to interpret the insights gleaned from the tenets of the Gita, which were known thousands of years back. The only difference is the discovery of subtle interpretations in the context of our modern world and lives.

How can you get the best out of this book? Before I answer this question, let me explain some interesting facts in the context of the Gita. I wonder why even for Lord Krishna, the symbol of God himself, took a counselling equivalent to eighteen chapters to convince Arjuna? Krishna had to enumerate the realization of one’s purpose collectively through knowledge and karma with intact devotion. This implies that conviction does not come to us easily. Along with Arjuna, there were two more people who heard this divine conversation; Dhritarashtra, the contemporary king of Hastinapur and Sanjaya, the advisor and charioteer of Dhritarashtra. Did the divine knowledge of Gita impact them in a similar way as it did for Arjuna? Sanjaya might have contained himself in the purpose of serving Hastinapur unconditionally. The words from Krishna supports his stand. However, the position of Dhritarashtra after knowing about Gita is debatable. Had he understood the supreme purpose of righteousness and the salacious attachment of his sons to the kingdom, he might have tried to stop the war.

The point here is that even with clear insights, different individuals may interpret the same text differently. It happened with Vedic Philosophy as well. The real insights lost in the transition from one generation to other. Let us be little bold in saying this that the known meaning of re-birth, the outcome of karma, dharma, sacrifice, devotion and yoga are far away from the real insights our Vedic philosophies tried to convey. The knowledge was always there but over generations, we acted differently and drifted ourselves significantly away from real insights.

Therefore, it is important to understand the subtle difference between knowledge and action based on that knowledge. We can find hundreds of references, books and spiritual materials around. Some of us must have attended various seminars and training sessions on these topics. Though we recognize the content of all such works, we never internalize it enough to create a significant mark in our thinking and action. In most of the cases, the impact of even a good input does not last long. Why it happens so? The answer is within us. We need to find this missing link between knowing a good thing and making it an integral part of our thoughts and actions.

As per Edgar Dale’s cone of experience, we retain merely 10% out of reading something. We retain maximum when we teach; around 90%. The same theory also suggests practising or doing gives the second-best retention rate of 75%. Therefore, to get maximum out of this book, we recommend