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Bhagavad Gita – The Stress Reliever Guide

In today’s competitive world when people are running after fame and money, stress and anxiety are common. Many people reach a breaking point and sink into depression. It is really painful to lose things that we value. Attachment often leads to disappointment. Either the object of our attachment does not continue to satisfy us or it does not last forever. Our loved ones may let us down and sometimes even hurt us deeply or circumstances separate us from the people we love. The final separator is death, which is inevitable. Our own death drags us from everything and everyone we are attached to and the death of a loved one is surely one of life’s most painful experiences. These kinds of suffering and many others are inseparable parts of our life.

Bhagavad Gita, an integral part of the epic Mahabharata goes to the very source of the problem and gives solution not only for how to cope effectively with stress but also how to remove permanently the very cause of anxiety, which prevent us from realizing our full potential of happiness and productivity.

In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna gives directions to His friend Arjuna, a warrior who is suffering from extreme stress on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Krishna observes that Arjuna has become overwhelmed by fear and ignorance and has failed to see beyond the fear of death. Lord Krishna therefore begins His instruction by informing Arjuna of a higher knowledge.

Let us see some verses from Bhagavad Gita (B.G)

B.G (2.47):- You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

B.G (2.62-63):- While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops and from lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

B.G (6.6):- For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

B.G (16.13-15):-The demoniac person thinks: ‘’ so much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed. I am the Lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and I shall rejoice.’’ in this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance.

Arjuna was thus advised by the Lord to fight as a matter of duty without attachment to the result. His non-participation in the battle is another side of attachment. Such attachments never lead one to the path of salvation. An attachment, positive or negative, is cause for bondage. Inaction is sinful. Therefore, fighting as a matter of duty was the only auspicious path of salvation for Arjuna. When one works and is unattached to the fruits of his work, he is performing ‘KARMA-YOGA’. Detachment is then perfected when he offers the fruits of his work to the supreme Lord. Therefore Krishna tells Arjuna not to renounce work, but to renounce the fruits of work.

KRISHNA IS NOT SAYING THAT THE RESULTS SHOULD BE IGNORED OR THAT THE DUTIES BE CARELESSLY PERFORMED WITHOUT CONCERN FOR THE RESULTS. HE IS SAYING THAT WE ARE NOT ENTITLED TO BE THE ENJOYER OF THE FRUITS OF OUR DUTY OR ACTIVITY.

Results are meant to be dedicated to the Lord. For example, if we are cultivating a garden, we should make every effort to get the best yield; however the actual yield of that garden is up to the Lord. Whatever is produced, offer those fruits to the Lord. The Lord is the actual proprietor of everything including the strength and intelligence with which we perform our work.

Another most important truth which we have forgotten due to which we are having a stressful life has been revealed by lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna teaches that a true understanding of the self and situation will give a person strength to carry on even when things are against him. So the truth which we have forgotten and Lord Krishna is revealing to us is:

WE ARE NOT THE BODY BUT THE SOUL WITHIN.

The soul has no lasting connection with either the body or anything related to it. Knowing this supreme knowledge and truth one can easily detach oneself and attain perfection. Now we will see verses from Bhagavad Gita:

B.G (2.12):- Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

B.G (2.13):- As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

B.G (2.14):- O son of Kunti, the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance are like appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

B.G (2.20):- For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

In my concluding lines I would like to add mind is doing 3 functions – Thinking, Feeling and Willing. Mind’s main function is producing sense enjoyment thoughts. If one allows those thoughts to go further, then it will turn in to feelings. Once if it reaches feeling stage, then it is difficult to control it, automatically it will go to willing stage and then execution.

B.G (6.35):- O mighty-armed son of Kunti, it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by suitable practice and by detachment.

B.G (6.26):- From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.

Mind’s function is like a factory. Whatever input is given, output will come accordingly. Inputs are sense enjoyment thoughts. These thoughts are processed and it comes out as desire. Like a commander General who is very vigilantly watching for the progress of enemy’s camp. Similarly, we should be vigilantly watching our thoughts and change it.

Actually the strive to achieve something and get attached to something are misplaced attachments for the Lord. We are working hard to get something or the other but since we do not have the light of knowledge so we are searching in darkness. We should come out from darkness of anxiety and stress with the help of light given by the knowledge in Bhagavad Gita and then work hard to strive for the truth and the ultimate.