Things we can learn from the book "PERSONAL EXCELLENCE THROUGH THE BHAGAVAD GITA" by Swami Sukhabodhananda

 

                                                          

                                                   

About the Author:- 

Swami Sukhabodhananda is the founder Chairman of Prasanna Trust, a non-profit organization in Bengaluru, Karnataka. He is also the founder of the research wing of Prasanna Foundation, which focuses on the scientific aspects of meditation. His several books have many discover a new way of living life. He is also an invitee to various forums in India, USA, UK and Switzerland. He has been addressing many gatherings at important Universities in India and Abroad. 

His self-development programs have benefitted many in the corporate sectors of reputed institutions like banking, finance, industry, education, armed forces and police. 

He was also one of the top best five exponent of spiritual knowledge.

Swamiji's another books include "Oh, Mind Relax Please" and "Oh,Life Relax Please" are the top best-sellers in the country and has set a new bench mark in the lives of many people. 

Swami Sukhabodhananda was invited as a dignitary on five different panels of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and was a special invitee to the United Nation World Millennium Summit of spiritual Leaders. 

He was awarded 'Karnatakas's Best Social Service Award' by Essel Group and Zee Network. 

     Let's move to some of the important contents of the book;

    Awareness- The Inner Alchemy:- The term 'Raso vai sah' means 'He is sweetness', which is a life stage for the living entity is the attaintment of devotional life and about the life experiences. In this book it tells that we people are busy with changing the life experiences, but the inner state of being rather changing the experiences, change the events of life. Change the inner peace and state of mind. If we change the inner peace and inner state the experience will change.

    The Greatest Catastrophe:- The Greatest Catastrophe that has happened to religion is this has become words, it has become concepts, it has became dogmas and opinions, it has become beliefs systems but it has still not become an experience and the greatest harm we are doing to religion is that we are conventing it into a belief system. 

NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER:- We jugde and understand from the outer layer, we don't look at inner layer. Often we make snap judgements based on its characterstics, missing the depth and complexity beneth. This principle can apply in every aspects of life. A shabby restaurant might serve exceptional food. A challenging experiece might offer valuable lessions. An uncovenential idea may lead to innovation. 

Judging by appearences is a cognitive shortcut, but it can lead to missed opportunities and unfair prejudices. To truly understand something or someone, we need to look deeper, ask questions, and be open to surprises. 

Practicing this wisdom requires conscious effort. It involves suspending immediate judgements being curious and giving things a chance before passing a verdict. This approach can lead to a richer experience, better decisions and more profound interactions with one's environment and people. Finally, this informs people that there is more to appearance, appeals to reduce the judgemental and hasty nature that people have with them when interacting with their surroundings. 

Increase your awareness and increase your silence:- Learn to look at everything as a wonder. Focus on what you are doing, one has to focus on the moment, he/she has to identify with the audience, focus on his game and even more he has to focus on the moment, not even thinking of what the next game is going to be. The book has given a good example, we observe a good sports man when he plays sport, he just focuses on that game and he is not attached to the audience, whether thay are clapping or not clapping. 

Everything is temporary:- Everything visible is temporary and changing at all times. At the minute level of time there is no visible thing at all.

A person's who has became highly successful has to leave all his success behind at the time of death that will be the greatest failure. 

The very success can also become a failure because either some other competitor can beat another achiever or if he is at the top at the time of the death, he has to drop his success and the soul has to go and in that he has the experience of his failure because all has done is invest in a sinking ship. 

 

                     The four fundamental types of yogas in the Gita

In Gita, there are four fundamental types of yoga

1. Gnana:- understanding

2. Bhakti:- devotion

3. Karma:- action

4. Dhyana:- self-control

Gnana:- As we mentioned earlier, the Gnana in yoga is understanding. Gnana yoga is one of the forms of yoga which teaches a rigorous way of achieving knowledge and enlightment about the environment one lives in and most importantly about one's self. This is like being a detective of one's mind and existance. 

In a manner that is completedly different from bodily workouts, the Gnana yogis engage in mental exercises and seek to find answers to some of life's questions intellectually studying texts. It is therefore to be the king of the world, where one has the ability to penetrate through the illusions and have and absurd vision of life. 

For example, a Gnana yogis may set aside a portion of each day to close his or her eyes and ask a question like " Who am I really"? 

Some elements in this world change but a person's body and mind always remain constant and underlying this is the witnessing consciousness that observes all changes. By such kind of questioning and reflection, they seek a concrete contact with their self, a self that is not apprehend conceptually. Such realization is said to result in a state of tranquity, freedom and judgements, being curious and giving things a chance before forming opinions. This can apporach and can lead to richer experience, better decisions and more meaningful connections with others. 

Ultimately, this reminds us that true value often lies benath it's surface, encouraging a more thoughtful and nuanced apporach to the world around us. 

Bhakti:-  Bhakti is one of the well-known paths to spirituality that is the part of Hinduism and Yoga, where the emphasis is made on the worship. It is also a yoga where the mechanical emotions transform into a magnetic centre. Bhakti Yoga may be translated as the Yoga of devotion or the yoga of love. For some, it is about climax. Thus religious faith is about having an intimate experience with God or the devine. The devotees apply love in the various forms, including singing with the conch shell and colourful dress known as kirtan, chanting mantras, prayer, and the performance of rituals. Muslims still seek to develop passionate love and submission to Allah, perceiving him in people and all the phenomena existing in the world. 

For instance, a bhakti yoga may begin the day with chanting of hymns in praise of the particular deity or idol and may offer flower/food items to God as offering and endeavour to perform all the actions in the day's activities as an offering to the deity. They may also go for fellowship meetings as well as their formal prayers common in the church or, they may even go for a pilgrimage. The important thing  is that all these actions are made with love and kind of devotion, not only because somebody orders it. 

Karma:- Karma therefore is the law of compensation in a person's life. It suggests that everything that we do, everything that we think and everything that we plan shapes our regard as well as the event in our lives. The fundamental premise is that desirable behaviour is followed by a reward and on the other hand undesirable behaivour attracts a punishment. Karma is not only for that one life but continues in further lives for traditions that stick to rebirth concept. For example if someone is always helping others then by the law of karma then they will be equally helped when they are in a need. On the other hand, if they harm others then they could face a few certain issues in the future. Karma forces a person to act properly and be cautious since what one does will define where one will be in the next life. In the quote of Bhagwat Gita it says, the meaning of Karma is in the intention. The fruits for action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. If a person do a Karma withselfless action, then that person will be able to free himself/herself from the bondage of desires. 

Dhyana:- Dhyana refers to meditation or deep connections in yoga and Hindu philosophy. The practice in dhyana can include postures of seclusion and meditation where one is to just sit and watch his breath, a mantra or icon. While sustaining focus to the object in your mind, all other thoughts and intruding ideas appear to vanish resulting in tranquity. For excluding every other stimuli to the point where he/she is only aware of the flame's existance. Dhyana is regarded as a stage in the process to samadhi where the meditator and the object of the competitiojn become one in realoisation-- the highest state of meditation. In Bhagwat Gita there is a quote which says, one should engage oneself in the parctice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without expectation, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.  

                                              From Prison to Presence

The mind is a greatest prison, where we fill evereything and pack up such as our unlimited desires, jealousy and achievements etc. The "prison" is a metaphor which also suggests that our body, mind, emotions and intellect while essential parts of our human experience, can become sources of confinement if we relate to then unconsciously or rigidity. The goal is to transform this confinement into a state of presence, awareness and freedom. 

One must understand that our body can become a prison and that we have to transform the body into presence. Emotions could become a prison, but they should become a presence. So, too intellect can be a prison has to become a certain presence. Therefore, from a prison to presence should be a overall vision.  So our concept of mind as a prison and the journey from imprisonment to presence involves significant self-transformation. We can rise above the constraints of our conditioned life by developing consciousness and actively interacting with our body, emotions and intellect. With this change, we can pass from an unconscious prison to freed consciousness, where we can live more fully and honestly. We are liberated from our ingrained habits in this condition of present, allowing us to react to life with comparison, clarity and inventiveness. In the end, this path opens doors to a more expansive way of being, where the very parts of ourselvs that previously seemed like prisons seemed like prisons became openings to a more fulfilling life. 

"There is a lot of fair and unfairness in the world. Life is a combination of fair and unfair." 

If you don't have the power to accept, then you don't have the power to accept, then you find that every grey hair gives you a depression. Acceptinglife entails understanding that either the high or low level tide is a part of life. In place of getting sidetracked by bitter disappointments you can build up yourself to be a strong person and make yourself be more thankful for the good times that you get. Of course, this change in vision helps you face life challenges more gently, and you learn to embrace the struggles as sources of happiness and learning. If we do not posses the ability to accept the reality, life becomes unberable and its day to day issues as a heavy load causing frustration and depression.

The external and internal world as explained by  Lord Krishna in the sacred text of Gita. It encompasses all that can be experienced with the organs of perception that is the eyes, ears, tongue, smelling sense and the feeling sense. The world is constantly undergoing a lively activity, instability, mortality and two fold in it's nature. According to the Gita, there is a reality of the externity of things nonetheless but it is also the highest. It is called "maya", literally means "illusion", not because it is a cloak for the true, real and eternal reality behind that. On the contary the internal world relates to what is inside a perosn, the mind, the psyche, the self or atman (soul). The Gita thus lays a lot of stress on this inner world, which is considered more real or in fact more diverse than the outer world or the Brahman. This internal realm is where people transform and one can attain the ultimate state of communion in spiritual sense.  

The Gita suggests the majority of people's suffering stems from confusion between these two realms. Human beings get so caught up with the external environment and tend to get bound by things and events that are temporal in nature. This is in turn, produces desire, fear and suffering. This approach that the Gita offers to this problem is not to deny the exsitence of the world and indulge in totally renouncing it but rather it suggests that one's attitude towards this world should be positive and proper. 

The messagen by Swami Sukhabodhananda provides a perspective of the Bhagavad Gita on themes of excellence and spirituality. It focuses on upliftment of consciousness or being conscious about oneself, being disciplined and doing the right thing or acting in accordance with the truth. The Gita presents four key paths to spiritual development. Thus, the four steps on the road are Gnana (knowledge), Bhakti (devotion), Karma (action), and Dhyana (meditation). These paths afford different ways of attaining one's perfections and of changing one's heart. One of such themes is "Prison to Presence" informing that one's body, feelings and mind that may be prison, sourse of oppression can become modes of attentiveness, freedom. On the same note, the Gita also goes on typology between the external world that is Bahya Jagat and the internal world also the Antar Jagat, and many consider it the right approach in growing spirituality. 

Finally, the Gita is highlighted on aspects of correlating and linking the exterior actions or interior.