Raw: Bhagavad Gita through my lens

Every time, I am lost, confused, and need an idea of where to go in life, I turn to one book and that is Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. I am quoting a paragraph that I learned from it, "He who remains serene in Cold and heat, pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour, for such a self-controlled man the Supreme self is properly established, that is, present in the form of the Self. The Yogi who is content with knowledge and wisdom, who is free from perturbation and has conquered the senses, to whom clay, stone and gold are alike, he is said to be united with the Supreme.....", further more it goes on to say, "He who has the same regard for friend, companion, enemy, the indifferent, the mediator, the hostile, and kinsmen, as well as for the righteous and for the sinful, he is the best". Beautiful.... the book teaches so much beyond self control. It teaches us about regarding everyone alike. Whether that's your manager or whether that's your colleague. Everyone should be treated equally. Now that's such a great thought to have. There are so many different books in the world, but for some reason when I genuinely need to steady my mind in stillness, these quotes hit different. 

To remain the same in honour and dishonour: 

A self controlled man is the one who remains the same in honour and dishonour. The most important thing in the world is stillness. Today's world can be harsh. It can critique you one day, and honour you the other. You can be successful one day and the other day, you won't be. So during such times, one has to remain the same. It's about treating everyone equally even when things are not going your way. Sometimes that is the level of stillness that we need in our mind. I have seen so many youngsters chase results. They want the promotion, once that's done, they need the next promotion, then the next. So the point is that the chase never ends. When you obsess over the results, suddenly when you win, you will feel more confident, but when you lose you will lose your patience and consistency that made you win in the first place. So well, it's about having the correct lifestyle that matters a lot more. You have to be the same in success and defeat. We all talk about it in theory but in practice, I can understand that it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to make sure that lust, anger and greed don't take over. It could be hard to make sure that we are not drifting away in a negative direction. We still need to live an intentional life, even when things are not going your way. So well, what I mean out here is this. We need to be stable beyond everything and everyone. Stability, and mental peace should never go away. That's why I say, being comfortable in silence for an hour is a practice. It's a practice that helps you with stability. It's a practice where you will be able to sit at one place for an hour. 

To treat everyone in respect

Let's take a look at the second quote. He who has the same regard for a friend, a companion, an enemy, the indifferent, the mediator, ... etc, he is the best. What it means is that Bhagavad Gita teaches us that we should have the same regard for everyone. For example, whether someone can benefit you or not. That should not matter. However, what really matters is that you treat everyone with respect. Irrespective of whether someone is a junior or a senior. But that's where you have to be extremely calm and thoughtful. If we are able to choose respect over reactivity every single time, more often than not, you will win. You will learn so many more things, you will understand so many more things well enough. So that's why I say, we treat everyone with respect and create a culture where treating with respect is a norm. The reality is that not every day you will be in the same mood. But still treating everyone with respect will be our habit. When that habit is formed, it will not matter who you are talking to, but because its a habit, it will be a very normal thing for us to teach everyone that respect is the most important thing in the world. That's why I say, respect yourself, but respect others as well. Don't encroach someone's space, when you don't like someone encroaching your personal space. So well, here we are, we need to find out what exactly we can bring out in the world. It's not about being busy, it's about choosing the direction and working towards that direction. 

Moderation

Bhagavad Gita, also says this thing. Yoga becomes the destroyer of sorrow for him who is moderate in eating and recreation, who is moderate in effort and who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness. Bhagavad Gita says that dhyana yoga, which is about the yoga of concentration will destroy all the sorrow for a person who does not eat very little or does not eat too much. Someone who spends time not too much in recreation, but not too less either. Someone who is sleeping just the adequate amount. That person will have whatever sorrows, they will be destroyed by dhyana yoga. So we should practice this sort of yoga, that we will be living in moderation about everything. Not too much sleep and not too little sleep, these are both quite important for us. Personally, I do the effort and I also do the eating in right proportion. I don't think I eat too much or too little, at least in whatever I consider the right proportion. So well, one needs to practice moderation when doing anything in life. Too much work, will spoil your life too and too little work will also spoil your life. Everything in moderation is good. 

Karma Yoga: 

Now that's about dhyana yoga, or the yoga of mind or concentration in simple terms. Let's talk a little bit about Karma Yoga. According to Karma yoga, with what I understand it;s' about mastering our senses by doing the work for the sake of work. I have heard Srk say that he works so that he does not become depressed or does not go into self pity. I think Srk has faced those issues or problems and have come out on the top. Similarly, I believe that Karma Yoga is also about trying to stay away from our desires. We all desire so many things in life, mostly, for satisfaction of our senses. However, Bhagavad Gita says that we should be in control of our senses and our senses should not control us. This is why we need Karma Yoga. Karma yoga means to remove your desires of the work that you do and doing the work for the sake of the work. For me, it will be about being away from lust and anger, for someone else, it might be something else. But what I mean to say is that we need to think about Karma yoga as actions without attaching yourself to the fruits of actions. In fact, for example, you are studying, or learning something, don't think what will I get if I do the learning. I am sure you will get something or the other. But the satisfaction should be I learnt something good. I know it's going to be hard in real life to do that. But silence will help you reach there in my opinion. 

Examples

Imagine you are a student studying for a test. If your intention for studying is that you score some XYZ marks in the test, you will be miserable. However, when your mind is about, I want to give my best, whatever comes, that's still better. But when your mind has devised a process where the mind wants to understand things, then and then only you will love studying. Once you start loving studying, you will not look to complete the portion, rather you will look to understand the things well enough. You will look to not haste, but take your time while learning something. You will be able to sit for an hour and just sit with the concept, not run away, but stay with the discomfort of that being. The idea is that you will not haste it, rather if you are looking for a particular score in the test, you will always have the external pressure of doing well. That external pressure will create more resistance to study towards the test. So well, that's why I say, don't let external pressure crumble you. Rather expose yourself to external pressure more often. Take your time while reading and understanding. Develop a niche about a subject. That's where we will be able to grow and out class your own self. So well, the external pressure will tell you to compare with other people. But internal stability will tell you to be still for an hour and focus. It's that focus that will bring out the best in you. You won;t be distracted by the messages on the teams or anything else. You will have crystal clear focus and understanding of the material. Now you should not care about the results of the actions that you are doing. It's the process that's most important. The results usually follow. If they don't you change the process. 

Example - 2

Imagine an employ working solely because he or she wants to move up the ladder. Maybe they want a promotion to the next level. Maybe there's something else that they want. What will happen in that case? Everything that they do will be for the fact that they need a promotion. For example, they will start trying to prove themselves to the world. They will take less time to understand the things and just rush through things. They will try and cut corners while working. Why? Because in their head there's a race that's going on. For some reason, they want to prove everything to the world. However, in reality, we should not be worrying about proving yourself to the world. This type of engineer will say yes to everything and eventually burn out. So this engineer will rather get burned out rather than getting promoted. Now, there's another employee, who is still. Who is not trying to prove himself to the world, he will focus on learning. He will rather focus on understanding things rather than rushing through things. Now this employee, will after some point, find challenges to be easy. They will be okay to take on new challenges. Understand things deeper and in general think deeply and root cause things. He will do less context switches as well. He will have internal metrics that he will be counting rather than the external metrics. After all, working or being focused for 3 hours a day, counts a lot in the long run. He won't be visible all the time but when he is really visible, he will be completing some real good work and will deliver a lot of value. So well, that's how they will win in life. It's the work that they do, that will help them not anything else. Someone who is not rushed will also take good decisions that are thoughtful and will move the needle forward. Hasty decisions won't be the right thing done. So well, we have to be thoughtful and we have to do the right thing more often than not. If you take good decisions, you will naturally win. 

Example - 3

Now imagine that the employee 2 above started working very well, and started understanding the nuances, he got more challenges and grew more and more. However, when the time for promotion came, he didn't go through. Now what happens now? That's a question that we need to ask ourselves and the world. What are the things that can happen now? The truth is that the employee 2 has still developed a great habit. Employee 2 is still taking the right decisions more often than not. He is not rushing, but thinking through the problem. He is not trying to overdo, but just being still and working with the problems at hand. Sooner or later he will get promoted. If not, he will get a better job. The reality is that the market rewards good talent. The talent with good attitude is even better. Moreover, people who consistently do hard things they will be rare and will be always rewarded in this world irrespective. It's the rare traits in the world that makes people valuable. 

Summary

I know we discussed a lot of things out here. But we never said, the how. I personally feel moderation is that one idea that connects all the dots together. Personally, I have been in places where I have tried too hard to do well at work however, moderation meant that when you learn something, just learn for one hour a day. Do this day in and day out. That is moderation that way, you will have the stability and focus on that one hour rather than trying too much at once. If you are working, focus on 3 hours not more. I swear, not more. Our idea that we want to optimise our working life, will be wrong in the long run. 

If you want to do exercise, do it for 45 minutes not more. Even if your impulse wants you to do it. Don't do more than necessary. That's all the thought that I will leave you with. Develop a process and simply focus on that process.