[English] Krishna’s 4 paths to ultimate happiness Podcast By cover art

[English] Krishna’s 4 paths to ultimate happiness

[English] Krishna’s 4 paths to ultimate happiness

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[Quick links] [Pause] I salute Sage Vyasa the author of the great Epic Mahabharata for lighting the illuminating lamp that is Bhagavad Gita.The Upanishads are the cows which are milked by Krishna. Arjuna is the calf that motivated the release of milk which is nothing-but the Bhagavad Gita. And lucky are the ones, who get to drink this divine immortalizing milk. All of us want to be happy. It is a different matter though, that the definition of happiness varies from person to person. Even the same person may experience happiness differently at different times.At various stages in our lives we derive happiness from different things. Early on in our life, our happiness was largely physical. A child may start deriving happiness just by being fed, cuddling close to its mother, playing with toys etc.But as it grows physically as-well-as intellectually, it shifts more and more towards happiness derived through intellectual pursuits.Is there something beyond physical and intellectual happiness? Apparently, there is. For want of a better word, I call it spiritual happiness. That happiness is neither derived through physical means nor through intellectual indulgence. It is not dependent on any physical object, nor it is merely a mental pleasure.As we move on in pursuit of spiritual happiness, we look for higher and higher realms of spiritual happiness. Is there something called 'ultimate happiness'? Is that happiness same for everyone, or does it differ from person to person? If it doesn't, then can everyone get it? What is the way to go about experiencing that ultimate happiness? What are the pre-requisites if any? What makes us a better candidate to attain that ultimate happiness? These are some of the questions that we are going to discuss in this book.I am going to base these discussions on one of the most well-known of the ancient Indian scriptures, namely, the Bhagavad Gita.There are hundreds of books written on this philosophic text almost in every language of the world. More than as a religious text, the Bhagavad Gita is often viewed as a book on human psychology. Even if we strip it off from the religious context, we can see lot of ideas in this great marvelous book, that are relevant to us even to this day. The book gives a closer look at how humans behave under different situations, why they undergo stress and how they can come out of such stressful conditions. And last but not the least – how one can attain the ultimate happiness.Bhagavad Gita uses the word Yoga in a wide connotation. Though each of the 18 chapters in this book are titled as some Yoga or the other, the word Yoga is mostly used to mean a path. The book starts off with the mental turmoil of the great Indian warrior Arjuna, who is confused about what is right for him – to fight or not to fight.Krishna, Arjuna's 'friend, philosopher and guide', helps Arjuna to come out of this mental turmoil by analyzing various alternatives and paths, all of which leading to happiness and freedom from stress. So, in a way it is a book heavily steeped in psychoanalysis.I am going to look at this book mostly from this point of view. To me, the dramatic setting of the Bhagavad Gita, and its religious undertones, are of secondary importance. I am going to discuss mostly the psychoanalytical aspects of it, and various paths it suggests to help anyone who wants to attain the ultimate happiness. What that ultimate happiness is, we will see as we discuss various paths.And not surprisingly, though the paths are different, the ultimate happiness is one and the same! We will see how, towards the end.Path of intellect or Jnyana YogaThe path of intellect or Jnyana Yoga as it is called, involves analysis of things. Basically, it is a deep-thinking process. You go on asking questions, and finally arrive at the ultimate truth about whatever you are pondering over.If you are pondering over some material object or some worldly issue, then this continuous process would finally lead you to a better understanding of the object of your interest. That is the way a scientist progresses. He looks at a problem, thinks about all aspects of the problem, goes on thinking very deep till he finally understands it fully.Before you start thinking about the problem, you should first listen to someone who probably knows about it more than what you do. It could even be reading what some expert has written about it. That provides you with some starting point.Once you are equipped with sufficient starting material, then you go on thinking about what you have just heard or read. That is the process of assimilating what you have heard or read. This pondering helps you in understanding the thing better.And the final step is to keep thinking further deep into the issue. Or to meditate on the issue. Such focused thinking would provide you further insights about the issue. It exposes newer facets of the same issue that you probably had neither read nor pondered before.In ...
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