GITA Acharan
   Date :31-Aug-2024

GITA Acharan
 
 
By SIVA PRASAD :
 
A fruit absorbs nutrients from its parent tree to grow and ripen. It then gets detached from the tree to start its own journey. The journey to freedom from the parent tree involves different actions to finally becoming a tree itself. An immature fruit, on the other hand, needs to be attached to the parent tree till it ripens. A ripe fruit shouldn't lure the immature fruit to leave the tree, as it is not yet ready to start an independent journey. It would perish if it doesn't spend time to get the required nourishment from the parent tree. In a similar vein, Krishna advises (3.26) the wise man to not unsettle the ignorant, who is attached to actions. This is an extension of what Krishna said (3.6) about individuals who forcefully control the organs of action, but whose mind still revolves around thoughts of sense objects. He calls them hypocrites who are deluding themselves and this would be no different to the state of an ignoramus whose actions were forcibly stopped by a wise man. In a class of a hundred students, each one understands the same lesson in a different manner depending on their character and state of mind. That's why, a sanyasi who realises the futility of motivated actions in life shouldn't encourage a brahmachari to desist from family life as the brahmachari can better learn the same futility by his own actions. There is no way other than this. Krishna waited for the hunger to learn in Arjun to impart the Gita to him. Till then, Krishna let him keep doing worldly actions, go through pleasures and pains in life and waited for an opportune moment. Thus, learning happens when there is an inner hunger for it where each entity that we see and each life situation that we face can become a teacher.
 
(The writer is senior IAS officer with the Punjab Government)