Bhagwad Gita – Ramana's Musings

Favourite Book Or Film.

This week’s LBC topic comes from Maria who as I write this is and when it will get published will still be in her beloved Ireland winding up her visit. She should get back to bring in the new year at her home in Lucknow and I hope that 2016 will see her back to blogging for the LBC.

Rather than write on book or film let me write about both. And, as a bonus mention two films, one in Hindi and one in English.

My favourite book, one that I keep going back to again and again for reference as well as to refresh my memory is the Bhagwat Geetha. Does that surprise any of my readers?

My all time favourite film that I can see again and again is Guide. I first saw it in Ahmedabad in 1965. There was little else to do in that town those days and the theater oddly enough called the Relief Cinema was the only air conditioned one in town. I saw the film seven times while it still ran there, I think for more than a hundred days if my memory serves me right.

I saw it again a number of times on reruns at morning or matinee shows as well as on the Television.

It is more difficult to choose an English film but I would plunk for The Magnificent Seven. I have simply lost count of the number of times that I have seen it and would still see it if it was shown on TV or even at special screenings. I used to own a VCTape of it and will now investigate if I can get a DVD to keep for posterity.

And to conclude this post on this glorious day of the 25th of December 2015, I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Mine started being one since yesterday afternoon with the arrival of my sister, her son and his family. I hasten to add this last paragraph before I run away to be with them for the rest of the day.

Action.

Blogger Mother had a post on Blog Action Day in her blog and we exchanged comment and response as follows there.

I: I wish that I had known!

Mother: I wish you had known, too. Do it now!

And that gives me the inspiration to write this post. As my regular readers know, I am finding it difficult to write every day on my blog and this gives me an opportunity to write.

Action inevitably leads to reaction which in turn becomes an action that creates a reaction. In the spiritual path that I am on, the whole purpose of the disciplines that one is expected to follow is to become action oriented and to give up being reaction oriented.

The way one goes about it is to stop performing any action with the outcome in mind. Outcomes of any action can be, 1. Exactly as expected; 2. Less than what was expected; 3. More than what was expected, or 4. Completely different to what was expected. The Yogi knows this fully and accepts whatever comes as a result of his action as the result of the laws of karma and prevents generating further action / reaction cycles.

This is best described in the Bhagwad Gita as:

KARAMANYAVADHIKARASTHE MAA PHALESHU KADACHANA
MAA KARMA PHALA HETUR BHURMA TE SANAGOSTVAKARMANI

You have the right to work only
but never to its fruits.
Let not the fruits of action be your motive.
Nor let your attachment be to inaction.

Ch II V 47

The most powerful part of that advice from Krishna to Arjun is in the last sentence where he is clearly told not to take recourse to inaction to escape the cycle of action and reaction.

Those who are interested can of course go deeper into this by just googling for Bhagwad Gita Ch.II Verse 47.

Good Intentions.

Good or Bad as adjectives imply a point of view. Like in the picture above, the girl can have the good intention if she had been violated before and the guy is trying to make amends, or, she may just be a misandrist with a long history of hate and so on and so forth and unless we know all the relevant facts, such value judgements are always difficult. I am normally averse to using these words except to state the obvious like Masala Dosa is good food.

Proceeding further, Intentions, good or bad presupposes Free Will. Yes, I know that I am now opening the Pandora’s Box, but like in that myth, I hope that at the end of this story, Hope will arise!

Before I go into my convictions on the entire debunking of intentions, good or bad, let us take a look at two responsible scientists. The first – “The Illusion of Conscious Will” by Dr. Daniel M. Wegner
and the other –“The Meme Machine” by Dr. Susan Blackmore

The former painstakingly establishes empirical proof that the concept of a unified self, which is a necessary precondition for free will, is an illusion. And therefore, free will is also an illusion.

The latter contends that our minds are really just bundles of memes, the beliefs and habits and predilections that we catch from one another like viruses. Take all of the memes out of a mind, and there is no self left to be free and therefore, no free will either!

Let us go for some more empirical study – Read all about Donald Crowhurst here. Were his intentions, good, bad or did he have any free will at all?

Having established my pseudo scientific logic, let me go to my favourite source for wisdom, The Bhagwad Gita. In the last chapter, Krishna tells Arjuna the following:

If you depend only on your pride, If you decide not to fight this war,
That decision is in vain, For your nature would oppress you.

Oh son of Kunti, you are already bound, By your own nature, and if by delusion.,
You decide not to fight in this war, You will be forced to do it, in spite of yourself.

Oh Arjuna, God lives in the mind of everyone,
And causes all of them to revolve like a robot.

Oh Arjuna, take refuge on that God with sincerity,
And you will attain the supreme peace of his eternal abode.

So, I have no free will and therefore I have no intentions good or bad and I go through life in a blissful state of ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. I hope that The Old Fossil will be happy with my attitude and my take on the subject!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where thirteen of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Conrad The Old Fossil. The twelve other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Anu, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, Rohit, Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!