GEETHA MAALA

(Passages  from  Bhagavad  Geetha,  compiled  by  Krishna  Gutala,  from   “ The  Song Celestial “  by  Sir. Edwin Arnold)     
                                 

INTRODUCTION :

          In general, the most desirable traits for anyone are, a healthy and positive attitude, peace of mind and equanimity, and, resilience and composure, even in the most trying circumstances and stressful situations.  It is said, what matters in life is, not what befalls to one anytime, but, how one reacts to what happens. It is this tuning of mind, and this molding of one’s outlook, that Philosophy and Vedanta attempt to do. In this respect, of all the ancient Indian scriptures, it is the Bhagavad Geetha that uniquely stands out to exquisitely accomplish such a task. In reviving even a broken-hearted and sinking individual back to valor and action.  A magic wand as it were, transforming pessimism into optimism, and, despondency into dynamism. Taking anyone from one’s “as is where is” condition, and providing practical and needed guidelines, for treading on the right path, leading towards the right objective.

          From all the eighteen chapters of Geetha, apt passages at random, have been picked up, to accomplish the above purpose, and made into a garland of Sloka-s, offering the quintessence of the very quintessence of the Upanishadic Wisdom of ancient India, and named as ‘Geetha Maala’, which has been made brief enuf to be even committed to memory and recited in a mere quarter hour, as has been demonstrated during my talk at ICC on this subject, on 20^th June 2016.      

           Herewith is presented the Geetha Maala, also along with the  Chapter and Sloka numbers of each random passage, so that anyone can spot and recite them from Bhagavad Geetha text in their own mother-tongue: 

- - - - -  By what force doth man

Go to his ill, unwilling as if one

Pushed him that evil path ?

Kama  it  is.

Passion it is !  born of the darkness

Which pusheth him.  Mighty of appetite,

Sinful and strong is this !  man’s  enemy.

As smoke blots the white fire, as clinging rust

Mars the bright mirror, as the womb surrounds

The babe unborn, so is the world of things

Foiled, soiled, enclosed in this desire of flesh.

The wise fall caught in it;  the unresting foe

It is of wisdom, wearing countless forms,

Fair but deceitful, subtle as a flame.

Sense, mind and reason – these O Kunti’s  son!

Are booty for it; in its play with these

It maddens man, beguiling, blinding him.

                                           [  3 -  36 to 40  ]

  

 - - - He who shall draw                                                           

As the wise tortoise draws its four feet safe

Under its shield, his five frail senses back

Under the Spirit’s  buckler from the world

Which else assails them, such an one, my Prince!

Hath wisdom’s mark !  - - - - -

                                             [  2 -  58 ]

- - - - -  That man alone is wise

Who keeps the mastery of himself !  If one

Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs

Attraction;  from attraction grows desire,

Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds

Recklessness; then the memory  -  all betrayed

Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,

Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.

But, if one deals with objects of the sense

Not loving and not hating, making them

Serve his free soul, which rests serenely Lord,

Lo !  such a man comes to tranquility;

And out of that tranquility shall rise

The ending and healing of his earthly pains,

Since the will governed sets the soul at peace - - - -

                                               [ 2 – 61 to 65 ]

- - - - - - -     The mind

That gives itself to follow shows of sense

Seeth its helm of wisdom rent away,

And, like a ship in waves of whirlwind, drives

To  wreck  and  death.

                                               [2 – 67 ]                                                

- - - - Yea! Whoso, shaking off the yoke of flesh

Lives Lord, not servant of his lusts ;  set free

From pride, from passion, from the sin of “Self”

Toucheth  tranquility !  - - - - - - -

                                                [ 2-71 ]

- - -- Good pleasure is the pleasure that endures,

Banishing pain for aye ;  bitter at first

As poison to the soul,  but afterward

Sweet as the taste of Amrit. Drink of that !

It springeth in the spirit’s  deep content.

And painful pleasure springeth from the bond

Between the senses and the sense-world. Sweet

As Amrit is its first taste, but its last

Bitter as poison - - - -

                                               [ 18 – 36 to 38 ]

- - - Steadfast a lamp burns sheltered from the

Wind;  such is the likeness of the Yogi’s mind

Shut from sense-storms and burning bright to Heaven.

                                                 [  6 – 19 ]

- - - Who troubleth not his kind,

And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath,

Living too high for gladness, grief or, fear

That man I love!  Who dwelling quiet-eyed –

Stainless, serene, well balanced, unperplexed,

Working with Me, yet from all works detached,

That man I love!  Who fixed in faith on Me,

Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not

And grieves not, letting good or evil hap,

Light when it will, and when it will depart,

That man I love. - - - - -    

[ 12 -  15 to 17  ]

He who with equanimity  surveys

Luster of goodness, strife of passion, sloth

Of ignorance, not angry if they are,

Not wishful when they are not; he who sits

A sojourner and stranger in their midst

Unruffled -- -- he is named

Surmounter  of the  Qualities -- --

                                                [ 14 – 22, 23 ]

-----------  Be not over-glad

Attaning joy, and be not over-sad

Encountering grief, but, stayed on Bramha, still

Constant let each abide !  - - - -

                                                 [  5 – 20 ]

Do all thou dost for Me !  Renounce for Me !

Sacrifice heart and mind and will to Me !

Live in the faith of Me !  In faith of Me 

All dangers thou shalt vanquish by My grace; 

But, trusting to thyself and heeding not,

Thou canst but perish ! - - - -

                                                 [  18 -  57, 58 ]

- - - -   There lives a Master in the hearts of men

Maketh their deeds, by subtle pulling-strings,

Dance to what tune He will.  With all thy soul

Trust Him, and take Him for thy succor, Prince!  

So  - only so  -  Arjuna !  -- shalt thou gain –

By grace of Him  -  the uttermost repose,

The  Eternal  Place !  - -   - -

                                                  [  18 – 61, 62  ]

----  Who doeth all for Me, who findeth Me

In all,  adoreth always,  loveth all

Which I have made, and Me, for love’s sole end,

That man Arjuna!  Unto Me doth wend - - - -

                                                   [  11 – 55  ]

------  And  whoso  thus

Discerneth  Me in all,  and all in  Me,

I never let him go;  nor looseneth he

Hold upon  Me - - - - -

                                                   [ 6 – 30  ]      

Where so any doeth all his deeds                                       -                      

Renouncing self for Me, full of Me, fixed

To serve only the Highest, night and day

Musing on Me  --  him will I swiftly lift

Forth from life’s  ocean of distress and death ---

                                                   [ 12 -  6, 7 ]

------  Faith, yea,  a little  Faith –

Shall save thee from the anguish of thy dread.

                                                    [  2  -  40  ]

------  Be certain  none can perish trusting Me !

Pritha’s son!  Whoso will turn to Me,

Though they be born from the very womb of sin,

Woman or man, sprung of the vaisya caste

Or lowly disregarded  sudra, ---  all

Plant foot upon the highest path -- --

                                                     [  9 – 30 to 32 ]

----- -----  This world’s  Lord  makes

Neither work, nor passion for the work,

Nor lust for fruit of work ;  the man’s own self

Pushes to these !   The Master of this world

Takes on Himself  the good or evil deeds

Of no man dwelling beyond!  Mankind errs here

By folly, darkening knowledge ---  ---

                                                      [  5  -  14, 15  ]

-----  -----  He  that  abstains

To help the rolling wheels of this great world,

Glutting his idle senses, lives a lost life,

Shameful  and  vain --- ---

                                                        [   3  -  16  ]

If knowing thy duty and thy task, thou bidd’st

Duty and task go by,   ---  that shall be sin !

                                                         [  2  -  33  ]

---  ---  Do  thine  allotted  task !

Work is more excellent than idleness ;

The body’s  life proceeds not,  lacking  work -- --

                                                         [  3  -  8  ]

----  Abstaining from a work  by right prescribed

Never is meet !  So to abstain doth spring

From darkness, and, delusion teacheth it --  ---

                                                         [  18 – 7  ]

But, abstaining from attachment to the work,

Abstaining from rewardment in the work,

While yet one doeth it full faithfully,

Saying  “ It is right to do “  --  that is “true” act

And abstinence!  Who doeth duties so,

Unvexed if his work fail, if it succeed

Unflattered, in his own heart justified,

Quit of debates and doubts, his is “true” act –

                                                         [ 18 – 9, 10  ]

----- -----  Find  full  reward

Of doing right in right !  Let right deeds be

Thy motive, not the fruit that comes from them.

                                                           [  2 -  47  ]

-----Because, no heart that holds one right desire

Treadeth the road of loss ---  ---

                                                           [  6  -  40  ]

--- --- He that acts  in thought of Brahm,

Detaching end from act, with act content

The world of sense can no more stain his soul

Than waters mar the enamelled lotus-leaf --- ---

                                                          [  5 – 10  ]

--- ---  The  wise  in  heart

Mourn not for those that live, nor those that die.

                                                          [  2 – 11  ]

--------------------------  The   birth   of

Living things comes unperceived; the death

Comes unperceived; between them beings perceive.

                                                            [  2 – 28  ]

----  ----  Birthless  and  deathless  and  changeless

Remaineth  the  Spirit  for ever ;

Death hath not touched it at all, dead though

The house  of  it  seems !  ---  ---

                                                             [  2  -  20  ]

----  ----   Let  each  man  raise

The Self by Soul, not trample down his Self;

Since Soul that is Self’s friend, may grow Self’s foe.

Soul is Self’s friend when Self doth rule over Self.

But Self turns enemy if Soul’s  own  Self

Hates  Self  as not  itself  ---  ---

                                                             [  6  -  5,6  ]

--- --- Seek refuge in thy Soul; have there thy heaven

                                                            [  2  -  49  ]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -The  joys

Springing from sense-life are but quickening wombs

Which breed sure griefs; those joys begin and end.

The wise mind takes no pleasure,  Kunti’s  son!

In such as those!  - - - - -

                                                           [  5 -  22  ]

             

When mind broods placid, soothed with holy wont;

When Self contemplates Self, and in Itself

Hath comfort, when it knows the nameless joy

Beyond all scope of sense, revealed to Soul –

Only to Soul!  And knowing, wavers not,

True to the farther Truth; when holding this,

It deems no other treasure comparable,

But, harbored there, cannot be stirred or shook

By any gravest grief, call that state “peace “,

That happy severance Yoga, call that man

The perfect  Yogin --  --  --

                                                           [  6  -  20 to 23  ]

------ Who wealth and power most desire

Least fixity of Soul have such, least hold

On heavenly meditation - - - - -

                                                         [  2 – 44  ]

             

 - - - - Hero long-armed !  Beyond denial, hard          

Man’s heart is to restrain, and  wavering;               

Yet may it grow restrained by habit,  Prince!             

By wont of self-command.          

                                                        [  6 – 35  ]

------  --------   --------   ------- I am not known

To evil-doers, nor to foolish ones,

Nor to the base and churlish; nor to those

Whose mind is cheated by the show of things,

Nor those that take the ways of Asura-s.

Four sorts of mortals know Me:  he who weeps,

Arjuna! and the man  who yearns to know;

And he who toils to help; and he who sits

Certain of Me, enlightened - - - - -

                                                        [  7 – 15, 16  ]

------ When at all the gateways of the body shines

The lamp of knowledge, then may one see well

Soothfastness settled in that city reigns;

Where longing is, and ardor, and unrest

Impulse to strive and gain, and avarice,

Those spring from passion  --  Prince!

Engrained, and where

Darkness and dullness, sloth and stupor are,

It is ignorance hath caused them - - - - - -

                                                         [  14  -  11 to 13  ]

-------  The fruit of soothfastness is true and sweet,

 The fruit of lusts is pain and toil ;  the fruit

 Of ignorance is deeper darkness.

                                                        [  14  -  16  ]

----------------   The  doors  of  Hell

Are threefold ,  whereby men to ruin pass ---

The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door

Of Avarice.  Let a man shun those three!

He who shall turn aside from entering

All those three gates of Narak, wendeth straight

To find his peace, and comes to Swarga’s gate. 

                                                        [  16  -  21,22  ]

Hear from me, long-armed Lord! The makings five

Which go to every act, in Sankhya taught

As necessary.  First the force.  And then

The agent; next, the various instruments,

Fourth the especial effort;  fifth the God.

What work so ever any mortal doth,

Of body, mind or speech, evil or good,

By these five doth he that -----    

         [  18 – 13 to 15  ]

             

-------- Words causing no man woe, words ever true,

Gentle and pleasing words, and those ye say,

 In murmured reading of a Sacred Writ –

 These make the true religiousness of speech.

                                                            [  17 – 15  ]

--------   And let go those –

Rites and writ duties!  Fly to Me alone ---

Make Me thy single Refuge!   I will free

Thy soul from all its sins!  Be of good cheer.

                                                             [  18 – 66  ] 

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