The Bhagavad Gita and Mother Theresa

The Bhagavad Gita
The infinite joy of touching the Godhead is easily attained by those who are free from the burden of evil and established within themselves. They see the Self in every creature and all creation in the Self. With consciousness unified through meditation, they see everything with an equal eye.
I am ever present into those who have realized Me in every creature. Seeing all life as My manifestation,they are never separated from Me. They worship Me in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from Me. Wherever they may live, they abide in Me.
When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.

Compare this to what Mother Theresa said, you will be left stunned and cold!
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Some months ago we went out in Kolkata and we picked up four or five people from the streets, and we took them to our home for the day. One of them was in a very bad condition, I told the sisters, I will take care of her. I did for her all that my love could do. I put her in bed, she took hold of my hand. There was such a wonderful smile in her face! She said one word - Thankyou and she died. She gave me much more than I gave her, she gave me her grateful love. She was so beautiful in her giving.
The poor are great people, they give us much more that we give to them. We must love them not by feeling pity for them, We must love them because it is Jesus himself in the distressing disguise of the poor.
They are our brothers and sisters, they are our own people. Those lepers, those dieing, those hungry, those naked - They are Jesus!

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On Why Arjuna should Fight

About why Arjuna should fight

The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.

"There is no God," they say, "no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?" Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.

Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, "Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer."

Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.

"I got this today," they say; "tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity." This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.

One man believes he is the slayer, another believes he is the slain. Both are ignorant; there is neither slayer nor slain. You were never born; you will never die. You have never changed; you can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial, you do not die when the body dies. Realizing that which is indestructible, eternal, unborn, and unchanging, how can you slay or cause another to be slain?

As a man abandons his worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.

The Self cannot be pierced with weapons or burned with fire; water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundation of eternity. The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you should not grieve.

Bhagavad Gita 16.7-16

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Quotes from the Upanishads and the Gita

This is a Random collection of quotes. They are not necessarily in the right sequence. If you want to study the Upanishads or the Gita in their entirety, pl refer to sites dedicated to this. I have some links ion the left pane

Select a clean spot, neither too high nor too low, and seat yourself firmly on a cloth, a deerskin, and kusha grass. Then, once seated, strive to still your thoughts. Make your mind one-pointed in meditation, and your heart will be purified. Hold your body, head, and neck firmly in a straight line, and keep your eyes from wandering. With all fears dissolved in the peace of the Self and all desires dedicated to God, controlling the mind and fixing it on Me, sit in meditation with Me as your only goal. With senses and mind constantly controlled through meditation, united with
the Self within, an aspirant attains Nirvana, the state of abiding joy and peace in Me.

Arjuna, those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. Through constant effort they learn to withdraw the mind from selfish cravings and absorb it in the Self. Thus they attain the state of union.

When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the eternal Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self, an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfilment. Having at-
tained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind, he never swerves from the central truth. He desires nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow.

The practice of meditation frees one from all affliction. This is the path of yoga. Follow it with determination and sustained enthusiasm. Renouncing wholeheartedly all selfish desires and expectations, use your will to control the senses. Little by little, through patience and repeated effort, the mind will become stilled in the Self.

Wherever the mind wanders, restless and diffuse in its search for satisfaction without, lead it within; train it to rest in the Self. Abiding joy comes to those who still the mind. Freeing themselves from the taint of self-will, with their consciousness unified, they become one with God.

This is true knowledge: to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always. To seek anything else is ignorance.

Few see through the veil of maya.

Arjuna: Tell me of those who live established in wisdom, ever aware of the Self, O Krishna. How do they talk? How sit? How move about?

Lord Krishna: They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will. Aspirants abstain from sense pleasures, but they still crave for them. These cravings all disappear when they see the highest goal. Even of those who tread the path, the stormy senses can sweep off the mind. They live in wisdom who subdue their senses and keep their minds ever absorbed in Me.

Bhagavad Gita 6.10-27

In a clean, level spot, free from pebbles, fire, and gravel, By the sound of water and other propinquities Favorable to thought, not offensive to the eye, In a hidden retreat protected from the wind, one should practice yoga.

Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.8-15

When all the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not--then, say the wise, is reached the highest state.

This calm of the senses and the mind has been defined as yoga. He who attains it is freed from delusion.

Katha Upanishad 2.6.10-11

Within the lotus of the heart he dwells, where the nerves meet like the spokes of a wheel at its hub. Meditate on him as OM. Easily may you cross the sea of darkness.

Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.6

As one not knowing that a golden treasure lies buried beneath his feet may walk over it again and again, yet never find it, so all beings live every moment in the city of Brahman, yet never find him because of the veil of illusion by which he is concealed.

Chandogya Upanishad 8.3.2

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