This Attitude – In Gita Verse 18.34 But that determination by which one holds fast to fruitive results in religion, economic development and sense gratification is of the nature of passion, O Arjuna.
Krishna says that a person whose determination is on the fruits is of the nature of passion.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 1.2, blog I wrote – His son, when he took over, realised that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest. The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even smaller.
What was the difference between a farmer and his son? Only one thing, the farmer gave the best seed to the universe, his focus was how to return to the universe the best he got big watermelons. Son also gave seed to the universe but of lowest quality he got small watermelons.
Farmer was grateful towards the universe for giving him the opportunity to grow watermelons. Son for the same opportunity was on receiving from the universe. Nothing is wrong with that intention or determination but what was missing is his focus was on receiving more money from big watermelons. This focus Krishna calls passion.
Let’s understand this verse from Kaivalya Upanishad’s this sutra: THEY HAVE UNDISTURBED SPACE, RESTING IN A COMFORTABLE POSTURE, CLEAN AND PURE, WITH THE NECK, HEAD, AND BODY IN ONE LINE; HELD ERECT, IN A MENTAL ATTITUDE OF SANNYAS, HAVING CONTROLLED ALL THE SENSES, SALUTING ONE’S OWN TEACHER, GURU, DEVOTEDLY, MEDITATE WITHIN THE LOTUS OF THE HEART; THE UNTAINTED, THE PURE, THE CLEAR AND THE TRANSPARENT, THE GRIEFLESS PRINCIPLE OF DEVOTION.
This sutra says you can prepare the heart by throwing all the impurities out of it. But instead we go on accumulating. You can forget if someone has helped you, but you cannot forget if someone has harmed you. You can forget something which has been a bliss, but you cannot forget something which has been a suffering. We go on accumulating negatives; these negatives become the impurities for the heart. Everyone goes on accumulating negatives. If someone is friendly to you for years, and for a single moment is not friendly, then all that friendship will go down and that moment of unfriendliness will become the most significant thing – and you will remember it.
This attitude must be changed. One must go on accumulating positives and throwing out negatives; then the heart becomes purified. Go on accumulating positives. Never accumulate anything negative; it is not going to help you, it is going to destroy you.
Someone has been angry at you: don’t remember it. What to do? – One has to remember something – find something positive. Someone is angry – why be so much concerned with anger? Why not be concerned with the PHENOMENON of anger? There are some people who are beautiful only when they are angry – why not look at the beauty of it? Even if they are not beautiful, everyone when he is angry is vital. Why not look at the vitality, the energy, the aliveness, the radiance of it?
Why be so much concerned with anger? Why not be concerned with the phenomenon? Something is happening – a beautiful phenomenon in itself, a very radiant phenomenon – energy expressing, alive. Why not look at it in that way? Why not look – when someone is angry – why not look at yourself? What happens to YOU when someone is angry? If you are also angry then he has won, you are defeated. Why not be victorious? Why not be indifferent? Look at the anger, look at it as if you are looking at a psychodrama – someone is playing a role and you are just a witness. Why not be a witness? And then you will feel grateful to the person who has been angry with you. If you can be a witness when someone is angry, you will feel grateful, because he has given you a situation in which you could know your own mastery.
Whenever someone was with Gurdjieff, he would create many situations. He would create unnecessary situations in which someone would become angry, so angry that everyone would feel that he was going to explode. And then suddenly Gurdjieff would tell him, “NOW BE AWARE! Now be a witness to it!” – And everyone would begin to be a witness. Anger becomes a situation, an object to be studied, and that person himself who is angry feels a sudden change, because it has become a study project. Now it is not anger, it has become a drama. So why not look at a thing from the positive, with something to learn from it? Why go on accumulating the negative? This is just a habit – it is not inevitable; it is not.
Try to remember that all the circumstances are nothing but to express our gratitude. I gave you an example of a farmer and his son. Also how Gurdjieff creates situations to become aware in anger, so that same energy we can use for gratitude. Let the universe decide what it wants to give us.
Krishna says determination is not good or bad. All the circumstances are nothing but how we can be in gratitude. If we are focused on giving, then it is a mode of goodness. And if we are focused on receiving, then it will be a mode of passion.
Tags: This Attitude
