Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita, as translated by Stephen Miller.  Yoga Course assignment sketch.

There is an immediate recognition here, my life is that of Arjuna.  And the problem for here is for Arjuna to bring the teaching of Krishna home, to awaken to it, to bring it out of the general unconscious dream of life's experiences and situations previously thought of in many different of emotionally exhausting ways.  This is the problem, the ignorance, which causes great suffering, taxing the mind, leaving one in despair over the past, the future and largely incapable of understanding the present, all of which will always be subject to interpretation:  is an action good, or is it bad, or is it a mix of both in an agonizing way.  This leaves a person in the agony of adulthood, stuck in a realm of blindness, ignorance to the Truths of Lord Krishna.

We each lead the life of Arjuna, here, as the battle waits, about to tip, frozen on an edge, into all the horrors of war.   No wonder Arjuna is stuck, what to do?

Why so?  Because of the human nature Lord Krisha will reveal out of all of us.  We already, unbeknownst to ourselves, within the stages of development of karma yoga itself.  We know within ourselves, by our nature, which must be revealed by divinity to us, that we can only act by the only vision, the only sight we have, to do an act for the best of reasons, for the intentions we find within us.  Krishna is telling Arjuna, the atomic nutshell of humanity, representative of all, that we do indeed act, in the final analysis, on our intentions, and that these intentions are and can only be detached from the desire to possess any outcome.

And so to us, it is revealed which side of the battlefield we live upon and in.  Rather than the logical, who, by the way, turn out to be evil and greedy and self-centered, completely without access to the awakening Arjuna has the capacity to receive as Gospel and greatest of teachings, as divine forces have placed him just so, through the greatest of Universal Laws, which he must accept, Arjuna is in touch with the purest forms of intention.   We see it in him.  He cares, even about his enemies.   Even in victory in this battle, surely beloved brothers will meet death in war.  And for what?  For the vanity of rulership?  Not worth it, thinks Arjuna.  His look at even the outcomes are complex.  And this is not the problem, at all, for the other side, who think in baser terms, greed, no problem with a simple and uncomplicated desire to hold power, for the sake of power.  

As if burdened so deeply into a frozen state of inaction by the complexity of things troubling to the mind, which we ourselves are now as much as ever brought to face, as our planet runs out of room for everyone's greed and ambitions, and even basic life, quite starkly, Arjuna, thoughtful and reflective enough, is ready to receive the greatest of lessons from the highest of sources.  Krishna reveals himself, as Himself, with an open maw such as to blow away all shreds of illusion as if in a great fire, burning away all one might have thought he knew.  (The Book of Job catches some of this, in different terms.)

And in this great fire of recognition Arjuna now can understand. The motive of an action is pure as one might make it, and why not strive to be good and pure rather than evil and corrupt, and that the material results or those ones of sensual desire are of little consequence, and must be so, things to actually ignore, if one is to achieve the appropriate end, the one in tune with the very matter, the fiber, the energy of all that is created, created just so.

 All of this can only be to look at ourselves, deeply within.  Here, the great lesson of the Gita, reveals a portrait of our own lives, an accepting one.

For myself, a quick sketch, that I think bears some parallels to the ones we've read about from Todd Norian's own life events, that could take into consideration our true and most purest of desires as described in Tantra Illuminated, that we ourselves are to be regarded as facets, angles, individualized pieces and parts of the Universe looking back in at itself with its own consciousness, placed just so, to see ups and downs, frail difficulties at life's crossroads, the so called bad habits and sins which deposit some form of sand on a beach so that things have a base to grow upon.

Was it a bad thing that I raised a glass, sometimes over-exhuberatnly, with weary workers needing a break to catch up with themselves before facing the chores of home...  Was it a bad thing to practice compassion and hospitality, in a blind dumb ignorant way, just so that I was moving, that the depression of my own life would be abated as I kept moving as a busy bartender...  Was it a bad thing to be placed just so, and become more of a poor person, even with all his college education and verbal talents, than a solidly placed financially responsible one...  Was it a bad thing that I honor my mother, with all her anxieties, rather than forge away from her and find and make my own family... 

As Arjuna, we cannot know.  We are bitten and infected by the spirit of a Saint Francis, humble and non materialistic in a world grasping for material, for the illusions of security which themselves seem pretty real most days.  How far behind are we, we ask ourselves, fearful of abject displacement and poverty, even as we, with a good heart, feed the dog and the cat, with a pat to both.

So do we accept and hold onto the Cosmology of the Lord Krishna who holds us, first as an earthly gentleman charioteer aiding his own master, then revealing himself to show, in essence, that all things, all actions, all the things one might do in the future have already been completely resolved any way, so why worry about the larger things.

Maybe in a deep rest, in sleep itself, can one conjure up the alignment of deep poetic understandings to craft them into a truth to follow.  What is action, what is inaction?  It is the intent that matters.  An action can be done for many different reasons, as Krishna outlines, and so the heart virtues we bring to a task are the significant things at play.

 But again, hospitality, an ancient mitzvoth to welcome strangers, neighborliness, respect, listening skills, unselfishness, forms of poverty, humor, acceptance, a love of flora and fauna and the cleansing airs from spaces wild and natural, are things to hold within our intentions.

As a writer, I add, there can be no fear of death in its practice, no wish for anything of security if words are to ring true, and there can never be any emphasis on the wealthy riches such as one might think his talent deserves.  

Rather, the Don Quixotes and Cervantes, the Hamlets and Shakespeare, the Kerouacs of the world, as much as they ended up suffering, all the poets of the world, the Irish rebels, the Hafiz Persian poet singing, lay firm a general intention, to go out on the road, as both observers and participants with the intention of encountering the great wisdom of the Lord...

Who would have known, the importance of intention...

It's as if our view of how we achieve success and even the nature of defining success has completely changed.

The hero must enter the practice of karma yoga, which is action in the world.  And in karma yoga guided action, Arjuna can only overcome his great paralyzing fears, through the lesson Krishna teaches him.  That the outcome has already been decided, simply waiting to be played out, in accordance with one's inner nature, is one of the comforts offered to Arjuna.  He must not be attached to the outcome, he must not worry at all about it, but simply engage in the battle.  And in engagement, Arjuna will learn, he will explore, he will find enlightening experiences, as when Krishna opens a godly maw to show the deeper true nature of the Universe.  

Thus detached from attachment to an outcome, the actions may be now offered up to Krishna, for the divine rather than any earthly development, for in doing so the actions of Dharma Yoga are elevated, purified to Bhakti Yoga.