Bhagavad-Gita: Teachings 7-9

In these teachings I recognized various Buddhist principles that Krishna talked about.

"One man among thousands

strives for successes,

and of the few who are successful,

a rare one knows my reality."

(page 73)

Last semester, a friend's dad (who is a buddhist) came to school to talk about buddhism and he mentioned enlightenment. He said that very rarely a buddhist will achieve reaching enlightenment, and when you have, it is because you have reached a state of complete nirvana (free from suffering and rebirth). Buddhists strive to reach this point, but few ever do. What Krishna called eternal unmanifest existence ("...what men call the highest way, the goal from which they do not return; this highest realm is mine.") is what I related to Buddhist Enlightenment. Later, Lord Krishna was saying was that he was beyond man, he was the one men had to thank for their self-discipline and knowledge. Another buddhist idea I noticed was that Krishna stated Arjuna had to rid himself of desires.

"I am the taste in water Arjuna,

the light in the moon and sun,

OM resonant in all sacred lore,

the sound in space, valor in men."

(page 74)

"Disciplined through practice,

his reason never straying,

meditating, one reaches

the supreme divine spirit of man."

(page 80)

Meditation:

In the eighth teaching, I found the concept of the infinite spirit to be really interesting. Like a being that lives in you forever, just that you change bodies. Like reincarnation.

"A man who dies remembering me

at the time of death enters my being

when he is freed from his body;

of this there is no doubt.

Whatever being he remembers

when he abandons the body at death,

he enters, Arjuna,

always existing in that being."

(pages 79-80)

Krishna talks about reincarnation, calling it a cycle you have to go through and through until you've reached perfection.

"Without faith in sacred duty,

men fail to reach me, Arjuna;

they return to the cycle

of death and rebirth."

(page 85)

He stated many times how he was the leader, the father, and the lord of the universe. When Krishna proceeded to talk about this, blaming men for thinking themselves smarter and bigger than the God, I was reminded of Catholicism (or at least what my grandmother taught me about it). How some catholics despised atheists, calling them fools that think themselves higher than God because they think they can outsmart him by proving he does not exist. I just thought that in Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna just like God, does not want to be outsmarted.

"I am the enjoyer

and the lord of all sacrifices;

they do not know me in reality,

and so they fail."

(page 88)