Hinduism
Related Articles
Articles
by M.P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner to the Government of
Kerela, Radhanivas, Thaliyal, Karmana, Trivandrum, 695 002, Kerela, India.
M.P. Bhattathiri
Bhagavad
Gita and Management
Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O
Krishna, it is more difficult to control the mind than to control the wind ~
Arjuna to Sri Krishna
Introduction
One
of the greatest contributions of
India
to the world is Holy Gita. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his
relatives with whom he has to fight. The Bhagavad Gita is preached in the
battle field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as a counseling to do his
duty while multitudes of men stood by waiting . It has got all the management
tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis
situation. The Bhagavad Gita can be experienced as a powerful catalyst
for transformation. Bhagavad gita means song of the Spirit, song of the
Lord. The Holy Gita has become a secret driving force behind
the unfoldment of one's life. In the days of doubt this divine book
will support all spiritual search.This divine book will contribute
to self reflection, finer feeling and deepen one's inner process. Then life in
the world can become a real education—dynamic, full and joyful—no matter
what the circumstance. May the wisdom of loving consciousness ever guide us on
our journey. What makes the Holy Gita a practical psychology of
transformation is that it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest
intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with
right knowledge.
There is no theory to be internalized and
applied in this psychology. Ancient practices spontaneously induce what each
person needs as the individual and the universal coincide. The work proceeds
through intellectual knowledge of the playing field(jnana yoga),
emotional devotion to the ideal(bhakti yoga) and right action that
includes both feeling and knowledge(karma yoga). With ongoing
purification we approach wisdom. The Bhagavad Gita is a message
addressed to each and every human individual to help him or her to solve the
vexing problem of overcoming the present and progressing towards a bright
future. Within its eighteen chapters is revealed a human drama. This is the
experience of everyone in this world, the drama of the ascent of man from a
state of utter dejection, sorrow and total breakdown and hopelessness to a
state of perfect understanding, clarity, renewed strength and triumph.
Management has
become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or
factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group
of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management
principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and
planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of
carrying out activities in any field of human effort.
Its
task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses
irrelevant, says t Management Gurus. It creates harmony in working together -
equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and
performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they
in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with
the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes
disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing
men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances
and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful
management.
"We're
discovering that what we thought was fine, which was to be more efficient,
harder working and richer, doesn't actually lead to the Nirvana we hoped for
... those who are making the most money are not sure it's worth it. Who wants
to be rich in the graveyard? And those who aren't making any money think that
the world doesn't make sense, because money is supposed to be the only thing
worth having and they haven't got any."
“Tomorrow
we are going to wake up in a world in which we all need to realise that we are
condemned to freedom ... There is no escape. Institutions won't shoulder
responsibility because they are in a state of confused flux. There is no
church, no nation state, no market to rely on. There are no cut and dried
values to use as escape tools ... we are faced with the prospect of taking
charge of our own freedom ... responsibility for our own health, for our own
education, for our own careers - responsibility for our own lives."
"The
recent anti-capitalist protests indicate a growing frustration with the
institutional arrangements currently in place. They also, largely, miss the
point. Global market capitalism is not a political ideology. It is neither
good or bad, right nor wrong - it just is."
Management
guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita
There
is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing.
- Effectiveness
is doing the right things.
- Efficiency
is doing things right.
The
general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the
differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's
functions can be summed up as:
Thus,
management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work
for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence.
The
critical question in all managers’ minds is how to be effective in their
job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad
Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that “you
must try to manage yourself.” The reason is that unless a manager reaches a
level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the
crowd.
Old
truths in a new context
The
Bhagavad Gita,
written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques
leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the
conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common
in most of Indian enterprises today – and probably in enterprises in many
other countries.
The
modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation,
excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision
making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad
Gita. There is one major difference. While
Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external
and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles
the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic
thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his
actions and their results.
The
management philosophy emanating from the West, is based on the lure of
materialism and on a perennial thirst for profit,
irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This
phenomenon has its source in the abundant wealth of the West and so
'management by materialism' has caught the fancy of all the countries the
world over,
India
being no exception to this trend. My country,
India
, has been in the forefront in importing these
ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by colonial rulers,
which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is good and
anything Indian is inferior.
The
result is that, while huge funds have been invested in building temples of
modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the
improvement of the general quality of life - although the standards of living
of a few has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of the
economy, criminalisation of institutions, social violence, exploitation and
other vices are seen deep in the body politic.
The
source of the problem
The
reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The Western idea
of management centres on making the worker (and the manager) more efficient
and more productive. Companies offer workers
more to work
more, produce more, sell more and to stick to the organisation
without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more
work from the worker is to improve the bottom-line of the enterprise. The
worker has become a hireable commodity, which can be used, replaced and
discarded at will.
Thus,
workers have been reduced to the state of a mercantile product.
In such a state, it should come as no surprise to us that workers start using strikes
(gheraos)
sit-ins, (dharnas)
go-slows, work-to-rule etc. to get maximum benefit for themselves from the
organisations. Society-at-large is damaged. Thus we reach a situation in which
management and workers become separate and contradictory entities with
conflicting interests. There is no common goal or understanding. This,
predictably, leads to suspicion, friction, disillusion and mistrust, with
managers and workers at cross purposes. The absence of human values and
erosion of human touch in the organisational structure has resulted in a
crisis of confidence.
Western
management philosophy may have created prosperity – for some people some of
the time at least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring betterment
of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and large
a soulless edifice and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of poor
quality of life for many.
Hence,
there is an urgent need to re-examine
prevailing management disciplines - their objectives, scope and content.
Management should be redefined to underline the development of the worker as a
person, as a human being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed
perspective, management can become an instrument in the process of social, and
indeed national, development.
Now
let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of the Bhagavad
Gita which is a primer of
management-by-values.
Utilisation
of available resources
The
first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilise scarce
resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War,
Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected
Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the
nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the latter,
wisdom.
Attitudes
towards work
Three
stone-cutters were engaged in erecting a temple. An HRD Consultant asked them
what they were doing. The response of the three workers to this
innocent-looking question is illuminating.
- 'I
am a poor man. I have to maintain my family. I am making a living
here,' said the first stone-cutter with a dejected face.
- 'Well,
I work because I want to show that I am the best stone-cutter in the
country,' said the second one with a sense of pride.
- 'Oh,
I want to build the most beautiful temple in the country,' said the third
one with a visionary gleam.
Their
jobs were identical but their perspectives were different. What the Gita
tells us is to develop the visionary
perspective in the work we do. It tells us to develop a sense of larger vision
in our work for the common good.
Work
commitment
A popular
verse of the Gita advises
“detachment” from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course
of one's duty. Being dedicated work has to mean “working for the sake of
work, generating excellence for its own sake.” If we are always calculating
the date of promotion or the rate of commission
before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It
is not “generating excellence for its own sake” but working only for the extrinsic
reward that may (or may not) result.
Working
only with an eye to the anticipated benefits, means that the quality of
performance of the current job or duty suffers - through mental agitation of
anxiety for the future. In fact, the way the world works means that events do
not always respond positively to our calculations and hence expected fruits
may not always be forthcoming. So, the Gita
tells us not to mortgage present commitment
to an uncertain future.
Some
people might argue that not seeking the business result of work and actions,
makes one unaccountable. In fact, the Bhagavad
Gita is full of advice on the theory of
cause and effect, making the doer responsible for the consequences of his
deeds. While advising detachment from the avarice of selfish gains in
discharging one's accepted duty, the Gita does not absolve anybody of the
consequences arising from discharge of his or her responsibilities.
Thus
the best means of effective performance management is the work
itself. Attaining this state of mind (called “nishkama
karma”) is the right attitude to work
because it prevents the ego,
the mind, from dissipation of attention through speculation on future gains or
losses.
Motivation
– self and self-transcendence
It
has been presumed for many years that satisfying lower
order needs of workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc.
are key factors in motivation. However, it is a common experience that the
dissatisfaction of the clerk and of the Director is identical - only their
scales and composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs
are more than satisfied, the Director should have little problem in optimising
his contribution to the organisation and society. But more often than not, it
does not happen like that. (“The eagle
soars high but keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the dead animal below.”)
On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher, or a self-employed artisan, may
well demonstrate higher levels of self-actualisation
despite poorer satisfaction of their lower-order needs.
This
situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in the Gita.
Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself,
emphasising team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and trust – and,
indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the opposite of Maslow.
“Work
must be done with detachment.” It is the
ego that spoils work and the ego is the centrepiece of most theories of
motivation. We need not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of
inspiration.
The
Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known as "Gurudev")
says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as
“disinterested work" in the Gita where
Sri Krishna says,
“He
who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work
done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those
who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and
failure.”
Disinterested
work finds _expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two
are psychological while the third is determination to keep the mind free of
the dualistic (usually taken to mean "materialistic") pulls of daily
experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental equanimity or
the state of “nirdwanda.”
This attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of
the Supreme Intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such
de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in
the supremacy of organisational
goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement.
Work
culture
An
effective work culture
is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit of given or chosen
tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work culture – “daivi
sampat” or divine work culture and “asuri
sampat” or demonic work culture.
- Daivi
work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice,
straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding,
absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.
- Asuri
work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper
performance, work not oriented towards service.
Mere
work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent work
ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.
It
is in this light that the counsel, “yogah
karmasu kausalam” should be understood.
“Kausalam”
means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work
ethic. “Yogah”
is defined in the Gita itself
as “samatvam yogah uchyate”
meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that
acting with an equable mind is Yoga.
(Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, 1856-1920, the precursor of Gandhiji, hailed by the people of
India
as "Lokmanya,"
probably the most learned among the country's political leaders. For a
description of the meanings of the word "Yoga", see foot of this
page.)
By
making the equable mind the bed-rock of all actions, the Gita
evolved the goal of unification of work
ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical process no mind can attain an
equipoise. The guru, Adi Sankara (born circa 800 AD), says that the skill
necessary in the performance of one's duty is that of maintaining an evenness
of mind in face of success and failure. The calm mind in the face of failure
will lead to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong
so that corrective steps could be taken to avoid shortcomings in future.
The
principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work done is
the Gita’s prescription
for attaining equanimity. It has been held that this principle leads to lack
of incentive for effort, striking at the very root of work ethic. To the
contrary, concentration on the task for its own sake leads to the achievement
of excellence – and indeed to the true mental happiness of the worker. Thus,
while commonplace theories of motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage
or extrinsic rewards, the Gita’s principle
leads us to the intrinsic
rewards of mental, and indeed moral, satisfaction.
The
Gita further
explains the theory of “detachment” from the extrinsic rewards of work in
saying:
- If
the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not be
appropriated by the doer alone.
- If
the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does
not accrue to the doer.
The
former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents
excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these
dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the cause
of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers.
Assimilation
of the ideas of the Gita leads
us to the wider spectrum of “lokasamgraha”
(general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the work ethic - if
the “karmayoga”
(service) is blended with “bhaktiyoga”
(devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a “sevayoga" (service
for its own sake.)
(This
may sound a peculiarly religious idea but it has a wider application. It could
be taken to mean doing something because it is worthwhile, to serve others, to
make the world a better place – ed.)
Manager's
mental health
Sound
mental health is the very goal of any human activity - more so management.
Sound mental health is that state of mind which can maintain a calm, positive
poise, or regain it when unsettled, in the midst of all the external vagaries
of work life and social existence. Internal constancy and peace are the
pre-requisites for a healthy stress-free mind.
Some
of the impediments to sound mental health are:
- Greed
- for power, position, prestige and money.
- Envy
- regarding others' achievements, success, rewards.
- Egotism
- about one's own accomplishments.
- Suspicion,
anger and frustration.
- Anguish
through comparisons.
The
driving forces in today's businesses are speed and competition. There is a
distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of the moral fibre, that in
seeking the end, one permits oneself immoral means - tax evasion, illegitimate
financial holdings, being “economical with the truth”, deliberate
oversight in the audit, too-clever financial reporting and so on. This
phenomenon may be called as “yayati syndrome”.
In
the book, the Mahabharata,
we come across a king by the name of Yayati who, in order to revel in the
endless enjoyment of flesh exchanged his old age with the youth of his
obliging youngest son for a thousand years. However, he found the pursuit of
sensual enjoyments ultimately unsatisfying and came back to his son pleading
him to take back his youth. This “yayati syndrome” shows the conflict
between externally directed acquisitions (extrinsic motivation) and inner
value and conscience (intrinsic motivation.)
Management
needs those who practise what they preach
“Whatever
the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow,” says Sri Krishna in
the Gita.
The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely practical, intensively
dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This dynamism and
strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and spontaneous motivation to
help others. "I am the strength of those who are devoid of personal
desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate desire in those, who are
not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in the 10th Chapter of
the Gita.
In
conclusion
The
despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita
is typically human. Sri Krishna, by sheer
power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna's mind from a state of inertia to
one of righteous action, from the state of what the French philosophers call
“anomie” or even alienation,
to a state of self-confidence in the ultimate victory of “dharma”
(ethical action.)
When
Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna reminded
him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action - not for his own
benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for the good of
many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over unethical actions and
of truth over untruth.
Sri
Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, “No doer of good ever
ends in misery.” Every action should produce results. Good action produces
good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always act well and
be rewarded.All clouds will vanish. Light will fill the heart and mind. I
assure him of this. This is the message of Holy Gita.
My
purport is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of efficiency,
dynamism and striving for excellence but to tune these ideals to
India
's holistic attitude of “lokasangraha”
- for the welfare of many, for the good of many. There is indeed a moral
dimension to business life. What we do in business is no different,
in this regard, to what we do in our personal lives. The means do not justify
the ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake, is ultimately self-defeating.
(“Profit,” said Matsushita-san in another tradition, “is the reward of
correct behaviour.” – ed.)
M.P.Bhattathiri
Let
us go through what scholars say about Holy Gita.
No work in all Indian literature is
more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the
Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge
of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal
artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all
things. . . . The Swami does a real service for students by investing
the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may
be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this
illuminating work."
Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
University of Southern California
"The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great
religious civilization of
India
, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The present translation
and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living
importance of the Gita."
Thomas Merton, Theologian
"I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's
scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most
valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great
utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly
recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done
book."
Dr. Samuel D. Atkins Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University
"As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of
Bhagavad-gita As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the
majestic title of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us
is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the
principles of the Caitanya tradition."
Olivier Lacombe Professor of Sanskrit and Indology,
Sorbonne
University
,
Paris
"I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes
published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of
excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on
Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT edition and
translation of the Bhagavad-gita."
Dr. Frederick B. Underwood Professor of Religion, Columbia University
"If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist,
there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since
those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually
missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people."
Dr. Elwin H. Powell Professor of Sociology State University of New
York,
Buffalo
"There is little question that this edition is one of the best
books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is
an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight."
Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins Professor of Religion,
Franklin
and
Marshall
College
"The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as
yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less
because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind
of close interpretative commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta
has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar's but
a practitioner's, a dedicated lifelong devotee's point of view."
Denise Levertov, Poet
"The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in
classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami
Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a
text already known to many, he has increased our understanding
manyfold."
Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr. Department of South Asian Languages and
Civilization University of Chicago
"The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many
times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his
commentary."
Dr. J. Stillson Judah, Professor of the History of Religions and
Director of Libraries Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
"Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France,
where many hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought,
beyond the commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the
time Europeans first penetrated India.
"Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a
reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable.
For many this will be the first contact with the true
India
, the ancient
India
, the eternal
India
."
Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences Institute of
Political Studies,
Paris
,
France
"As a native of
India
now living in the West, it has given me much grief to see so many of
my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus and
spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the
publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and
unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to all
people to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture."
Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies Center for Oriental
Studies, The University of Mexico
"The Gita is one of the clearest
and most comprehensive one, of the summaries and systematic spiritual
statements
of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done" __________________________________________Aldous
Huxley
"It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully
explained work. I don't know whether to praise more this translation
of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless
fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita
with such an important voice and style. . . . It will occupy a
significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man
for a long time to come."
Dr. Shaligram Shukla Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University
"I can say that in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I have found
explanations and answers to questions I had always posed regarding the
interpretations of this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I
greatly admire. If the aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which
form the message of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is were more widespread
and more respected, the world in which we live would be transformed
into a better, more fraternal place."
Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of
Paris
"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created
this universe everything else seems so superfluous."
Albert Einstein
"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face,
and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita
and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in
the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will
derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."
Mahatma Gandhi
"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and
cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which
our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial."
Henry David Thoreau
"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of
mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions."
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
"The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living
creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a
new meaning for every civilization."
Sri Aurobindo
"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have
been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is
provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not
an earthly but a heavenly plant.' This correlation can be discerned by
what
Krishna
expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita."
Carl Jung
"The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual
foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the
obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual
nature and grander purpose of the universe."
Prime Minister Nehru
"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful
revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into
religion."
Herman Hesse
"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first
of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or
unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old
intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus
disposed of the same questions which exercise us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita
with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to
it."
Rudolph Steiner
"From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of
human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest
quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures."
Adi Shankara
"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual
evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear
and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed;
hence its enduring value is subject not only to
India
but to all of humanity."
Aldous Huxley
"The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the
science of devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual
knowledge. The Supreme Lord Krishna's primary purpose for descending
and incarnating is relieve the world of any demoniac and negative,
undesirable influences that are opposed to spiritual development, yet
simultaneously it is His incomparable intention to be perpetually
within reach of all humanity."
Ramanuja
The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and
the Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine
which is transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of
Bhagavad-Gita one may think that they are advised to engage in
warfare. When the second chapter has been read it can be clearly
understood that knowledge and the soul is the ultimate goal to be
attained. On studying the third chapter it is apparent that acts of
righteousness are also of high priority. If we continue and patiently
take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try to ascertain the
truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate conclusion
is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which we
possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord.
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
"The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to
evolve and protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is
the epitome of the Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and
pollen is the essence of flowers."
Madhvacarya
Yoga has
two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning.
The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or
more things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and
peace and the means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad
Gita uses the word with both meanings. Lord
Krishna is real Yogi who
can maintain a peaceful mind in the midst of any crisis."
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi.
Karma,
Bhakti, and Jnana are but three paths to this end. And common to
all the three is renunciation. Renounce the desires, even of going
to heaven, for every desire related with body and mind creates
bondage. Our focus of action is neither to save the humanity nor
to engage in social reforms, not to seek personal gains, but to
realize the indwelling Self itself.
Swami
Vivekananda (England, London; 1895-96 )
"Science
describes the structures and processess; philosophy attempts at
their explaination.-----
When such a perfect combination of both science and philosophy is
sung to perfection that Krishna was,
we have in this piece of work an appeal both to the head annd
heart. " ____________Swamy
Chinmayanand on Gita
I seek that Divine Knowledge by
knowing which nothing remains to be known!' For such a person
knowledge and ignorance has only one meaning: Have you knowledge of
God? If yes, you a Jnani! If not, you are ignorant.As said in the Gita,
chapter XIII/11, knowledge of Self, observing everywhere the
object of true Knowledge i.e. God, all this is declared to be true
Knowledge (wisdom); what is contrary to this is ignorance."
Sri Ramakrishna .
Maharishi calls the Bhagavad-Gita the
essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It
provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to
the highest possible level.” Maharishi reveals the deep, universal
truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone.
Maharshi Mahesh Yogi
ref. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com,
sai.org,chinmaya.org, vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com
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