While celebrating good occasions (birthday parties, weddings, housewarming parties, retirement parties, festivities….) we have received many gifts π from our families & friends....(or bought gifts for someone) starting from toys π§Έ , bikes π² , candies π , sweets, books π , shoes π , clothes, gadgets, cars, furniture......a long list. Unfortunately, each & every gift we have received or bought for someone gets used up, broken down or outdated over time. Whatever we have in our possession now is temporary; nothing lasts forever.
Is there any valuable gift we have bought or have in our possession which is useful forever & never gets outdated? Yes, there is one Everlasting Gift--Bible, Quran, Torah, Tripitaka, Agama, Guru Granth Sahib, Gita or any other Scriptures...we should have in our lives.
I am happy to share a few lines of wisdom from my Everlasting Diwali Gift-- Srimad Bhagavd Gita.
1. Regulate the Lifestyle: It is healthy for us & our family to live a regulated life meaning balancing our eating, sleeping, recreation and work. There is happiness in the Mode of Goodness lifestyle. Yes, we should work hard & stretch our boundaries to do more & achieve more, but at the same time, pay attention to our limitations & health. Bend yourself, but don’t break your self. Don’t sacrifice your family, friends & health for power, position, fame or wealth.
Bg 6.17 -- He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
2. Duty without Expectation: We should do our prescribed duty either as a parent, child, spouse, student, teacher, friend, colleague, employee, employer....etc, but don’t expect anything in return & remain detached from the result. When we expect anything in return, we set ourselves up for misery.
Bg 2.47 -- You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
3. Be prepared for miseries in our lives: All life on Planet Earth π wants to be happy & peaceful all the time. Unfortunately happy moments can not last for long time due to duality nature of the material world meaning everything rotates in a cycle like.....Illness-Recovery, Birth-Death, Success-Failure, Praise- Criticism, Winter-Summer, Happiness- Sorrowness....etc. The material miseries are unavoidable, unstoppable and sometimes come unexpectedly. Spiritual wisdom will help us to swallow & digest the Pill of Miseries..LOL... π.
TEXT 14: 2.14: O son of KuntΔ«, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
4. Don’t Compete with others: Don’t compare & compete with others. Every one of us has a different mindset & passion to do good for our family & society. Be yourself but continue to improve yourself. Don’t expect a fish to climb the tree or a bunny to swim. Everyone is a genius in their own way.
Bg 3.35 -- It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.
5. Sweet & Encouraging Speech: Our relationships, enthusiasm, success and overall direction of the life shape up by the sweet, beneficial & stimulating words we hear from our loved ones or we speak for our loved ones & others. And of course have some LOL π π moments with friends/family/colleagues.
Bg 17.15 -- Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneο¬cial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature. Vedabase.io
Out of 700 verses from Gita, by implementing only these 5 verses in our lives, we can be on the right track.
It is easy to say, but difficult to follow.
Jay Shree Krishna
Thank You π.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra.
I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness).
