The Value of Kindness in Bhakti According to Vyasa’s The Bhagavad Gita

Another teaching the “Bhagavad Gita” offers is stability of mind. Knowing our own mind can help us understand the world we are living in, react to problems, and make sure we can change them to ensure survival. This can help us with challenging decisions,

The quest towards developing the ideal human character is sought after in both the Bhagavad-Gita and Confucius’ The Analects. In the Bhagavad Gita, the concept of sacred duty is prevalent throughout the text, as the warrior-prince Arjuna faces a moral dilemma throughout the story. In Confucius’ The Analects, filial piety is a virtue which impacts an individual’s character in relation to the Confucian religion. Sacred duty within the Gita requires the protection of one’s dharma, which is defined as the religious and moral law that manages an individual’s actions. Within Confucian thought, filial piety is a virtue of respect for one’s elders, ancestors, and parents within a community. Despite the differences between the contextual meanings of developing the ideal human, both the Bhagavad Gita and The Analects utilize their teachings towards developing ideal human character within the themes of sacred duty and filial piety with the goal of establishing a set of communal ethics to be maintained through different caste systems, essentially protecting the existing social structure. To argue this claim, I will begin by analyzing the similar intentions of deviating from selfish actions and thoughts to develop ideal human character. I will then express how the nature of this character leads towards the development of one’s sacred duty and filial piety. I will then connect these two ideas to show how together they work to develop a communal set of ethics aimed at maintaining order

For more than 100 pages, Krishna mainly talks about three types of yoga in The Bhagavad Gita: jnana (knowledge) yoga, karma (action) yoga, and devotion yoga.

The paths help to explain that for one to evolve they should worship more, "Men who worship me, thinking solely of me, always disciplined, win the reward I secure" (Gita 9:20 p.58) and be following and doing your duties, "Look to your own duty do not tremble before it" (Gita 2:31 p.57). These two ways of fixing the problem are explained by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna is set to fight in a battle but in the last minute he twirls around the idea of retreating because of the fear of dying and killing. He believes that the act of killing will be bad in karma. Krishna is outraged with this non-sense and makes it his duty to open Arjuna's eyes to see and realize that he has a duty and that it is to be a warrior and fight. Krishna argues that by not fulfilling his duty in reality will be what brings him the bad karma that he so truly fears. In the end, Arjuna can not back down into his fears because that would be like turning your back on the God. A Hindu must follow their duties, beliefs, and many rituals in order to reach their inner peace, to receive good karma and possibly a better ranking in the caste system and stages of life.

Genesis, a text in the Hebrew Bible, and The Bhagavad Gita, a dated Hindu poem, are both influential classic texts that tell the accounts of two powerful Gods, who share a similar agenda. Although they are similar deities, each has a different way to influence the world. It is apparent in the text that Krishna seems not to care about what acts one commits in the material world, but rather if one person fulfills his or her spiritual duty to him; his concept of spiritual duty is to have complete reverence and idolization of him and him only. Unlike Krishna, in Genesis, God’s main goal is to have humankind refrain from evil and do what is righteous by following commandments. In addition, even though both gods display themselves in a self-glorifying

One of the most important divergences between Buddhism and the Gita is how dharma is interpreted. In the Bhagavad Gītā Krishna is able to shed some light on the significance of dharma. On the subject of dharma Krishna says: “It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity” (BG 3:35). Here Krishna is talking to Arjuna. Krishna is trying to get the point across that Arjuna is always better off following his svadharma rather than adhering to what others want him to do. It is important for Arjuna to follow his own path in order to reach moksha. Krishna is stressing that Arjuna must follow the path that has been carved out

The Bhagavad Gita uses the conversation between Pandava Prince Arjuna and his guide Lord Krishna to portray Hinduism world view and Krishna’s view on the different fundamental questions. When he’s facing a war, Arjuna is guided by Krishna to be a selfless leader, and dedication to the cause.

Mirabai’s life and devotional practices serve as a model of the spiritual path of bhakti yoga. Initially considered mad, Mirabai brushed off any hostilities and danced with a blissful ecstasy in the streets (Fisher 105). She paid little heed to social conventions and described herself as, “defiant of world censure or family shame” (Fisher 105). Free from societal constraints, Mirabai sung devotions like, Without Krishna I Cannot Sleep, during her time as a wanderer around 1500 and 1550.

In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth discourse which is composed of forty-two verses, Lord Krishna, the narrator guides Arjuna- a warrior who is finding himself pondering about the simple principles of life while he is fighting the war. In the fourth discourse Arjuna learns from Lord Krishna about faith, wisdom sacrifice, ignorance, doubts of the soul, action and inaction, selfless service, and self-realization which ultimately leads to the ultimate truth, which is the path for the spiritual soul to reach its maximum potential here on earth and the afterlife.

According to the Bhagavad Gita, a truly wise person should seek to subdue his senses in order to achieve Brahman State. The Bhagavad Gita opens with a scene in which Arjuna, a warrior prince, is speaking to his chariot driver who is really the god Krishna. Arjuna is deeply troubled by the fact that he is fighting his relatives and wishes to abandon the fight. It is here that his dialogue with Krishna begins. Their conversation revolves around many issues and questions that Arjuna has, one of them being about emotion and desire. There seems to be a fairly straightforward answer to his question. Many times in the book, Arjuna is told that he should subdue his emotions. However, there are still more questions to be answered. Why should emotions and desires be supressed? How does one suppress these desires? Finally, what is the cultural effect of this teaching? It is through these first two questions that Arjuna is able to understand the role of his desires, and through the third that the cultural effects of this doctrine can be explored.

Bhavagad-Gita, is the earliest known yoga scripture dated back to around 500 B.C. The Gita is dedicated entirely to yoga, its main aim is that -- "to be alive means to be active and in order to avoid difficulties in our lives and in others, our actions have to benign and have to exceed our egos." Its connection to the Upanishads is paralleled to the relationship between the Vedas and Upanishads, strengthening each other's meaning.

India gave birth to Hinduism which expanded quickly. This spiritual tradition focused on finding peace and eternal tranquility rather than temporary satisfaction from the worldly pleasures. In order to transmit the idea to other people and guide them through it, they came up with different writings to illustrate this. The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads are popular writings that exemplify the beliefs and thoughts of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita addresses the question about how a person can be one with Brahman, the universal soul or god, while living in this world. This document is set as a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna. Arjuna is being encouraged by Krishna to fulfill his duty as a warrior and part of the Kshatriyas, one of the higher divisions in the caste system. Arjuna has to enter this battle and fight in order to live up to his duty and consequently live free from attachments and walk in the path of finding himself as one with Brahman. On the other hand, the Upanishads guided all kinds of people regardless of

Hinduism and Buddhism are both eastern traditions with much to say about the human condition as well as the reason human beings exist at all. In some ways they are different while also being similar in other ways. In this essay, those differences will be discussed and the similarities examined for their message. In conclusion, we will examine what these two faiths offer to the human beings of the twenty-first century.

While reading the Bhagavad-Gita, I found it interesting how different the meanings of self-denial were in Hinduism and Christianity. After writing a discussion post on the differences, I wanted to dive deeper and explore the ways and meanings of self-denial described in the Bhagavad-Gita compared to Christianity. This paper will contrast the differences in self-denial between Christianity and Hinduism as described in the Bhagavad-Gita. Specifically, how Christian self-denial has a much better effect on the relationships and well-being of an individual, in that it gives us a purpose and reason to live and hope, while Hinduism is without hope, and denying everything that can bring joy to a person.

The Bhagavad Gita is a sacred Hindu text that serves to illustrate many of the morals and ethics of Hindu culture, by way of the exchange between Arjuna and Krishna. One of the things Krishna tells Arjuna is that the war he is fighting in is righteous. Is this to say that all wars are righteous, that those of the warrior caste will know if a war is righteous, or that they have to guess and then suffer the consequences if they’re wrong? The first two seem naïve and oversimplified from the modern perspective, and the third seems unjust because regardless of caste, Hindus are said to be capable of fulfilling their dharma. Krishna also assumes that people know their purpose in life, which may have been the case at the time the text was written, but is no longer true. While in Arjuna’s day people were born into certain castes, today people are descended from a combination of what would have been considered castes, and often switch between castes within a lifetime. Regardless, Krishna’s argument for why Arjuna should fight seems relatively sound in that specific situation, but can be twisted to condone what many consider to be evil actions in others. Nonetheless, Krishna seems confident in the fact that it is a universal truth for everyone to know his or her dharma, and that he or she needs to follow it to achieve moksha. Although Krishna makes a strong argument for Arjuna’s specific case, it can be seen to condone evil, raising the questions that if all wars are righteous, and