Hinduism: Receivers of Gita Gyan: II
The Gita-acharya, Krishna, lists four qualifications that are necessary prerequisites for any listener of the Gita, without which on ewill not benefit from the knowledge. Anyone can buy the book and do a rapid reading.
The first qualification is Tapas and Devotion, that is living a simple disciplined life in true surrender to the Lord. Swami Chinmayanandaji explained, “True surrender cannot demand a conducive and beautiful situation… you may face tough situations, but you cannot be tying up the Lord with conditions… Luxury and convenience seekers cannot do Tapasya.” You have to “earn the joy of wisdom.” You cannot dissipate your mental and physical energies by indulging in unnecessary talking, needless shopping and useless activities that merely feed your mind with impurities. This helps cleanse the mirror of the mind to absorb and reflect divine teaching.
The second condition is selfless service. Sympathy and love for others help seekers to serve the society around them. Service is a powerful tool to purify the mind and intellect so that one can attune oneself to this knowledge. Those who are merely consumers and not contributors to society, will fail to understand or appreciate this knowledge and therefore will never be capable of living the higher joys of life. They wriggle about in the gutters of selfish, sensuous living, as they have never bathed in the purifying waters of selfless service. They cannot rise from “why is my name not mentioned?” and “why are my contributions not announced or clapped for?”.
It is not just service but selfless service that achieves purity of mind. If you are trying to court the Gita way of life, you have to have devotion for the Lord and devotion means unconditional love. In the Gita, Krishna is in the role of a coach who is bound to give the trainee a good drubbing (sorrow) so that he is strong enough to run the race.
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.
