(Image Courtesy Mahanidhiswami)
To Progress Materially or Spiritually, One Has to Evolve Above The Consciousness of “I” and “My”
अकीर्तिं चापि भूतानि
कथयिष्यन्ति तेऽव्ययाम् |
सम्भावितस्य चाकीर्ति
र्मरणादतिरिच्यते || 2.34||
akīrtiṁ chāpi bhūtāni
kathayiṣhyanti te ’vyayām
sambhāvitasya chākīrtir
maraṇād atirichyate|| 2.34||
Shloka Translation
BG – Ch. 2- Ver. 34:
People will refer to you as an escapee and a coward. Infamy is worse than death for a respectable person. Furthermore, everyone will talk about your bad reputation for the rest of their lives. For an honourable person, this will be profound grief.
Explanation
Shri Krishna employs an appeal to emotion and reputation as a weapon of persuasion after using logic in his teaching.
Krishna flips levels from magnificent to mundane. People will talk about his infamy, which is worse than death, he warns Arjuna. If you’re doing the right thing, it doesn’t matter what others say. It makes no difference to a righteous person what others have to say. She/he simply follows his or her conscience. But, because Krishna knows Arjuna values other people’s opinions, he adds this after providing the philosophy to be sure that Arjuna understands it.
Social prestige is extremely vital to respectable people. Warriors’ unique gunas make respect and honour extremely vital to them. Dishonour is worse than death for them. Shree Krishna tells Arjuna of this so that if great knowledge does not inspire him, he will be motivated by lesser knowledge.
Many nations around the world follow the tradition to exclude a warrior who flees the battlefield out of cowardice. If Arjun fails to perform his responsibility, he may face this level of disgrace.
Verse & What we can learn
One may not be interested in spiritual progress, but if even one thinks of his materialistic name or fame/family/is conscious what people in society will think, reputation etc even then he needs to follow the path of righteousness/Dharma.
When the consciousness and thinking pattern move from ‘I’ even materially and we start thinking about others (humans or life let it be trees or animals) we start our journey towards we and then gradually towards ‘universal consciousness’.
If we want to make progress spiritually also we have to surrender to God and depend on him leaving behind ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and thinking of him all the time and doing everything in his consciousness. Constant remembrance and daily meditation help us in this process.
There are many types of meditation like Buddhist meditation, heartfulness meditation, mindfulness meditation, meditation for stress, and each meditation benefits are countless. There are also numerous meditation techniques for beginners which help in practicing daily meditation so go ahead and start your journey towards a peaceful and balanced life.
In the next verse, Lord Shri Krishna elaborates to Arjuna what opinion will other generals have about him if he leaves battle field.
Let’s learn to live with “The Gita” via Meditation Affinity…