Gita Classes – Life lessons
When I first got to know that ‘The essence of Bhagavad Gita’ class is going to be a part of the Life classes at our school I was not sure if I wanted to take it up. I was wondering whether it would be too heavy to attend and if I would be able to relate to it.
But then I made up my mind and decided that I will go for it. The first session itself spoke so much about how life actually is that I was sure I had taken the correct decision. Our facilitator, I realized has such immense knowledge about life and the realities of it and as he says it is not something he has learned on his own. It is a ‘Parampara’ which has been passed down from generations, from one to another, something which is very true about our culture. The best thing he said at the start of the class was that all that he is saying is his perspective and his belief. We can believe it if we wish to and not if we don’t wish to. There is nothing that we should believe just because he is saying it. However, he did back up all his sayings with some logical reasoning, evidence in life, examples etc.
The sessions taken up till now ranged from a variety of life lessons from parenting to our goals, desires, wants, needs, struggles, the right thing to do etc. Sir spoke about how one should always be like a support wall for our kids. We need to tell them what is right, what is wrong and then let them make their own decisions. They need to experience the effects of the decisions they have made so that they learn from it, We need to just let them know that we are there if they fall.
Another such discussion we had was about Raga-Dwesha and Dharma. Raga means your binding desires, what you want to have and Dwesha means what you don’t want to have. What is Dharma? He asked. As rightly said by him, we usually think the word ‘Dharma’ means religion. However, that is not so. Dharma essentially means ‘To be done’ or ‘Our duty’. The way Sir spoke about what is Dharma and why we should do our Dharma is unexplainable. It is something we can understand only if we listen to him and try to make connections with experiences in our life. We always have a question in our minds ‘Why me?” or “Why is this happening with me?”. This he said is because of what we have done in the past. What actions have we taken in accordance with our Dharma and what actions have we taken against our Dharma. There is no human being who can say they do not have the knowledge of what is right or wrong in any given situation. We all undoubtedly have that knowledge but whether we act according to that knowledge or against it depends on us.
A few more interesting learnings from the Gita class are:
- We need to love ourselves and help ourselves grow. Our growth is essential for us to help others.
- Papa and Punya are the two things which lead to the kind of experiences we have.
- We all get angry. Anger is normal. But how we react to it is something we need to think about. We must not victimize the one we are angry on.
- Desires are something which we should have. It is not wrong to have desires.
- We need to keep Dharma as our focus in life. We can start by practicing Dharma in small situations in daily life and then move to the bigger situations.
- You are your own enemy and your own friend.
- You act, the results will be taken care of by the laws.
During the sessions, I found myself introspecting my life and the situations I face in life, about the decisions I make in life, how I look at the problems in my life. I knew Bhagavad Gita does give out a lot of life lessons but never knew I could make connections with each and every lesson.
Apart from all this, these classes have definitely helped me realize the amount of wisdom the Bhagavad Gita contains in itself. We just need the right guidance to understand it and require commitment towards ourselves to apply the teachings in our life.
Last but not the least, I have learned the power of Meditation after attending these classes. A few minutes of meditation gives me time with myself, with who I am, away from all the worries and away from all the people. It leads to immense peace within me!