qatarperegrine | Hari Krishna

I just finished the Bhagavad Gita, just in time for the trip to India. It was a very interesting read, and not at all what I expected. All I really knew about it is that it is the conversation between Arjuna (a warrior), and his charioteer (who turns out to be an avatar of Vishnu), and that Krishna convinces Arjuna he ought to fight in the upcoming battle, though he worries it's the wrong thing to do. This, of course, didn't predispose me to liking the Gita. But of course, it's not really about the battle, it's about the nature of reality and stuff, and it turned out to be very interesting.

I wrote down some of my favorite shlokas (verses) as I went along, which only goes to show that I didn't absorb the message of the Gita, which is (at least in part) that if I were truly enlightened I wouldn't worry about picking favorites. So here is a list of favorite verses, because sadly that's all the reflecting I have time to do right now.

Favorite quotes from the Bhaghavad Gita:

He in whom all longings subside, even as the waters subside in the ocean which, though ever being filled by them, never overflows -- that man finds peace; not he who cherishes longing. (2:70)
Whenever Right declines and Wrong prevails, then O Bharata, I come to birth. To save the righteous, to destroy the wicked, and to re-establish Right I am born from age to age. (4:7-8)
The offering of sacrifice is Brahman; the oblation is Brahman; it is offered by Brahman in the fire that is Brahman; thus he whose mind is fixed on acts dedicated to Brahman must needs pass on to Brahman. (4:24)
When thou hast gained this knowledge, O Pandava, thou shalt not again fall into such error; by virtue of it thou shalt see all beings without exception in thyself and thus in Me. Even though thou be the most sinful of sinners, thou shalt cross the ocean of sin by the boat of knowledge. (4:35-6)
He who finds happiness only within, rest only within, light only within, -- that yogi, having become one with nature, attains to oneness with Brahman. (5:24)
Self [Atman] alone is the friend of self, and Self alone is self’s foe. (6:5)
The man equipped with yoga looks on all with an impartial eye, seeing Atman in all beings and all beings in Atman. He who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, never vanishes from Me nor I from him. The yogin who, anchored in unity, worships Me abiding in all beings, lives and moves in me, no matter how he live and move. He who, by likening himself with others, senses pleasure and pain equally for all as for himself, is deemed to be the highest yogi, O Arjuna. (6:29-32)
Know that these two [My lower and higher aspects] compose the source from which all beings spring; I am the origin and end of the universe. There is nothing higher than I, O Dhananjaya; all this is strung on Me as a row of gems upon a thread. In water I am the savor, O Kaunteya; in the sun and the moon I am the light; in the syllable AUM in all the Vedas; the sound in ether, and manliness in men. I am the sweet fragrance in earth; the brilliance in fire; the life in all beings; and the austerity in ascetics. Know me, O Partha, to be the primeval seed of all beings; I am the reason of rational beings and the splendour of the splendid. Of the strong, I am the strength, divorced from lust and passion; in beings I am desire undivorced from righteousness. Know that all the manifestations of the three gunas, sattvas [purities], rajas [passions] and tamas [ignorances], proceed from none but Me; yet I am not in them; they are in Me. (7:6-12)
Whatever form one desires to worship in faith and devotion, in that very form I make that faith of his secure. (7:21)
Whatever is the seed of every being, O Arjuna, that am I; there is nothing, whether moving or fixed, that can be without Me. ... Whatever is glorious, beautiful and mighty, know thou that all such has issued from a fragment of My splendour. (10:39, 41)
The faith of every man is in accord with his innate character; man is made up of faith; whatever his object of faith, even so is he. (17:3)

Quotes taken from Gandhi's translation, lovingly if inexpertly transcribed here.