The end goal of every human pursuit is said to be happiness. But can happiness be obtained by material success alone? Can money buy happiness? Do great achievements bring true happiness? The truth is that riches, success and achievements may bring name, fame and pride, but they do not bring happiness. If lack of money and success gives sorrow and suffering their possession also does not give true happiness. The question then is how to find this elusive end of human pursuit? How can one be peaceful and happy, irrespective of whether one has success or failure in life?
Lord Krishna gives answer to this eternal quest of mankind in Verse 2:66 of the Gita. He says:
There is neither intellect nor Bhavna [feeling for God] for the Ayukta [un-united], and to one devoid of Bhavna, there is no peace. To the one without peace, how can there be happiness? Chapter 2:66
Mankind has been ignoring these words of God in his pursuit of happiness. Lord Krishna says, clearly, that unless a person is united (to God) he cannot have peace and without peace, he cannot be happy. Not only this, Lord Krishna says that an un-united person does not have intellect.
All that a person has to do to attain peace and happiness is to unite with God. And for this, he does not have to leave his pursuits of riches, success and achievements in life. As explained earlier, God is self-knowledge and wisdom of sameness towards all beings with the realization that all are God. A person having ego who looks at him and other beings as ‘I’/different men and women, is not united to the wisdom that is God. As against this the person who is free from the ego and who looks at all the beings as God is united to the wisdom that is God. He will be freed from sorrow and will attain peace and happiness.
To free the beings from the ego and unite them to God, Lord Krishna says in the Gita that the beings do not have right to the fruits of action and, therefore, they should perform actions renouncing the fruits to God. Explaining these words of God, most of the writers say that one should do one’s work without worrying about the fruits of action. However, they do not tell how one can avoid worrying about the fruit while performing actions. When a person regards the fruits of action (success or failure) as ‘mine’ and performs with mind on the objects, he is automatically worrying about the fruit. Moreover, when one regards the fruits (success and failure) as ‘mine’, one fails to abide the law of God, which says that one does not have right to the fruits. What one has to really do is to steady one’s intellect on the thought that the fruits of actions are of God. And when the fruit accrue in the form of success or failure, joy or sorrow, one has to mentally renounce the fruit to God by saying within that the success, failure joy or sorrow is of God. When one performs actions with steady intellect fixed on God and thinks that all is happening for God and all fruits of action are of God, one is not worrying about the fruit. He is then united to God and this will give him peace and happiness. Since he does not contemplate the objects, he will not be attached to the objects as stated in Verses 2:62-63. He will break the chain that starts with attachment and gives rise to desire, anger, delusion, confusion of memory, loss of intellect and death. His intellect will become steady and he will not perish but become a non-perishable being.
The wisdom of steadying one’s intellect by renouncing the fruits of action to God has been called Buddhi-yog (Discipline of Intellect) by Lord Krishna. Unless one is united to God by Buddhi-yog one can neither have peace nor happiness and nor can one be freed from constant births in different bodies. A person, who performs actions without renouncing the fruits to God, is bound by the actions. He loses his intellect due to attachment, desire, anger, etc. and perishes to take another birth in a new body.
As denoted by its name, Buddhi-yog is a discipline of intellect and one does not have to bring any change in one’s life style and actions to practice this Yog. To steady one’s intellect and to attain peace and happiness by uniting to God one has to bring change in one’s thoughts and not in actions and enjoyments. One has to remain engaged in usual actions and enjoyments as earlier but with a steady intellect fixed on the thought that all fruits of action are of God and God is enjoying the objects of the senses. This will free him from desire and the ego, unite him to God and give him eternal peace and happiness.
All beings are devoid of peace and happiness and all die since the wisdom of Yog has not been understood. When the beings will understand and follow this highest wisdom of God, they will not just attain peace and happiness they will stop taking constant births in different bodies and become non-perishable beings.
Man needs to take the words of God seriously and understand the true purport of those words. He needs to realize that God is his well-wisher; that God has imparted the self-knowledge and wisdom of Yog for his well being and happiness. He must believe the words of Lord Krishna in Verse 2:66 that unless he is united to God by Buddhi-yog he can not have peace and happiness. The same wisdom that will give peace and happiness to man will also give him self-realization and make him a non-perishable being. It will lead the world to a new age where all beings will live in peace, happiness and oneness realizing that all are God.
So if you wish to know more about this wisdom then get your hands on the book
Shashi Verma is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has been in practice for the last 30 years. He is Chairman of Noble Foundation, a charitable organization engaged in disseminating the wisdom of God. He has authored several books on spirituality and wisdom of God. His recent book, You Are God- The Bhagavad Gita as never before unfolds a unique wisdom lying unexplored in the Bhagavad Gita for thousands of years. According to him this wisdom will lead the world into a new age where all of us will live in peace, happiness and complete harmony having realized that all beings are forms of God, that is, they are God. Shashi Verma has given numerous talks in India and abroad on this wisdom of God contained in the Gita.
Tags: bhagavad gita, buddhi yog, ego, God, happiness, lord krishna, peace, religion, spirituality, yog
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