II m. Be a Pro on the path (2.40-41)

milk once curdled
cannot go back
day after day,
imperceptibly
the seed grows,
a growth which cannot be undone.

every step, every action,
whether comforting,
out of a mind wide awake
or from a stressful moment,
a disconcerting mistake
it all leads you forward
on the path
even a tiny step, a little action
resonating with your nature
leaps you light years ahead
freeing from the greatest fears

you have no choice
but to move closer
ha....
did you know?
that the way back home
...its a one-way street?

you could move straight
or you could move
chasing this chasing that,
zigzag
you will reach home anyways

but the unprofessional
with a million stopovers
and the smart-focussed one
on a direct flight....

so integrate your mind
and resolutely focus
on what the moment needs from you
scattered and frizzled into
uncountable fruitless rivulets
is the thought/creative power of the uncaring...
be professional and diligent on this path to now-here too!

"Be very busy . . . and just be.The events come and go, they perish like flowers.But every event and every person contains some honey. Like a bee, just take the honey out of every event and every moment and move on.Be like a busy bee and be in the Being." -Sri Sri

Mahatma Gandhi's version

40. Here no effort undertaken is lost, no disaster befalls. Even a little of this righteous course delivers one from great fear.

41. The attitude, in this matter, springing, as it does, from fixed resolve is but one, O Kurunandana; but for those who have no fixed resolve the attitudes are many-branched and unending.

sanskrit transliteration

nehaabhikramanaashosti pratyavaayo na vidyate
svalpamapyasya dharmasya traayate mahato bhayaat (2.40)

vyavasaayaatmika buddhirekeha kurunandana
bahushaakhaahyanantaashcha buddhyoavyavasaayinaam (2.41)

II l. Fight, but with unshaken smile (2.38-39)

untempted by pleasure

unrepulsed by pain

undeterred by losses

not working for some little gain

undaunted facing failure and

unexcited by success
valiant amidst defeat or victory
even in the toughest test

celebrating life with grace and poise

Not to win or to avoid forfeit,

but just to sport

your personal best

and to stretch your own limits

when you fight the war

just playing

in your role/s all the way upto
and beyond your edge

in this strange and bewildering

battle of life

there will be no way
for guilt, regret, ignorance, blame,

and their smoke-depression: sin

to even arise or haunt you...

established in one's pure
eternal nature
one can celebrate
what one must do
the warrior fights
peacemaker unites
and you can do either-
when the time is right..

The claim to glory,
in heaven and earth
is by doing whatever is necessary
whenever the moment needs you to

such is the wisdom of "Saankhya"
And now assimilate
the way of Yoga
which brings freedom
while living in the world
overflowing with committments too!

That karmaa could ever tie you down
will appear a joke
if you ruminate and act
on what i am about to tell you...

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Mahatma Gandhi's version

38. Hold alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, and gird up thy loins for the fight; so doing thou shalt not incur sin.

39. Thus have I set before thee the attitude of Knowledge; hear now the attitude of Action; resorting to this attitude thou shalt cast off the bondage of action.

Sanskrit
sukhaduhkhe same krutvaa laabhaalaabhou jayaajayou

tato yuddhaaya yujyasva naivam paapamavaapsyasi (2.38)

esha teabhihitaa saankhye buddhiryoge tvimaamshruNu

buddhya yukto yayaa paartha karmabandham prahaasyasi(2.39)

II k. Fight with determination(2.35-2.37)

The One continued:

Giving up, whether out of
compassion or discouragement

will put you down,
in the eyes of the revered
among the armament
who will think you chickened out
because of fear, irresolution and detriment

to whom your war-art is an inspiration,
to those yet to come
and to the young and new
you will no longer be
a glorious example to look upto

running away from arrows,
you will be shot down by words instead
undeserved criticisms, draining out
your self-respect and strength.

Whereas on the inevitable
commitment if you act
even death will be heaven
and your victory
making history
will have a lasting impact

Hence get up
oh son of devotion
and face the conflict,
fight the battle-the commotion
with clear focus on knowledge
and single-minded resolution

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Mahatma Gandhis version

35. The Maharathas will think that fear made thee retire from battle; and thou wilt fall in the esteem of those very ones who have held thee high.

36. Thine enemies will deride thy prowess and speak many unspeakable words about thee. What can be more painful than that?

37. Slain, thou shalt gain heaven; victorious, thou shall inherit the earth: therefore arise, O Kaunteya, determined to fight.

Sanskrit (Krishna speaks)
bhayaadraNaaduparatam mansyante tvaam mahaarathaah
yeshaam cha tvam bahumato bhootvaa yaasyasi laaghavam (2.35)

avaachyavaadaanscha bahoonvadishyanti tavaahitaah
nindantastava saamarthya tato duhkhataram nu kim (2.36)

hato vaa praapsyasi svargyam jito vaa bhokshyasi mahim
tasmaaduttishTha kounteya yuddhaya krutaniShchayah (2.37)

Dr. Ramanand Prasads version

The great warriors will think that you have retreated from the battle out of fear. Those who have greatly esteemed you will lose respect for you. (2.35)

Your enemies will speak many unmentionable words and scorn your ability. What could be more painful than this? (2.36)

You will go to heaven if killed, or you will enjoy the earth if victorious. Therefore, get up with a determination to fight, O Arjuna. (2.37)

II j Responsibility is your nature(2.31-2.34)

The ONE continued:

When you come back
to the magic of this moment
and express life dynamically,
your nature is to respond and act
with power and humility
Be unshaken in your committment
and act with total responsibility

for running away from participation
and hiding in desolate inaction
is not the way natural
to YOU,
a supreme warrior of the light
blessed
with all skills and ability

Lucky indeed are those who can see
this conflict as the door
to light and inner scenery
Escaping via excuses from challenges
will only move you away from naturalness
and hurt your self-esteem and glory

your lapse from your commitment
will be a tale often told
and to a man of repute
oh honourable one
ill-reputation is a bigger suffering
than death.

What a wonder when the ONE
strikes the ego of the topgun
how skillfully can a sattvic ego be harnessed
to move from confusion to responsible action!!
Isnt it sometimes good to do the right
even if just to protect one's reputation?

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Mahatma Gandhi's version

31. Again, seeing thine own duty thou shouldst not shrink from it; for there is no higher good for a Kshatriya than a righteous war.

32. Such a fight, coming unsought, as a gateway to heaven thrown open, falls only to the lot of happy Kshatriyas, O Partha.

33. But if thou wilt not fight this righteous fight, then failing in thy duty and losing thine honour thou wilt incur sin.

34. The world will for ever recount the story of thy disgrace; and for a man of honour disgrace is worse than death.

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Sanskrit

Svadharmam api chaavekshyam na vikampitumarhasi
dharmyaddhi yuddhaachhreyoanyat kshatriyasya na vidyate(2.31)

yaddruchhaya chopapannam svargadvaaramapaavrutam
sukhinah kshatriyaah parth labhante yuddhameed-drusham(2.32)

atha chetvamimam dharmyam sangraamam na karishyasi
tatah svadharmam keertim cha hitvaa paapamavapsyasi (2.33)

akeertim chaapi bhootani kathayishyanti teavyayaam
sambhaavitasya chaakeertirmaraNaadatirichyate (2.34)

II i. The wonder of you! (2.29-2.30)

the play of the unchanging amidst the change
the silence amidst the thoughts
the empty space amidst the dance of the elements
Aho! how amazing?!
some envision, some tell,
Oh What a wonder
beyond ignorance
beyond knowledge
beyond words
beyond silence
beyond events
beyond emotions
beyond the moments
pleasant and unpleasant
beyond past and beyond the future
Oh what an amazing phenomenon
beyond comprehension
YOU are?!
the unmoving axis
around which change revolves !!!
The eternal energy fountain
of dynamic life
from which the body, the mind emerges
and into which they dissolve!
amazing to ponder and yet beyond grasp!

And not just you
in every wave
the same immortal ocean roars
So drop the resistance
and wake up the wonder-source!

Mahatma Gandhi's verse by verse:

29. One looks upon This as a marvel; another speaks of This as such; another hears thereof as a marvel; yet having heard This none truly knows This.

30. This embodied one in the body of every being is ever beyond all harm, O Bharata; thou shouldst not, therefore, grieve for any one.

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Sanskrit
Ashcharyavat pashyati kashchidena

ashcharyavat vadati tathaivachaanyah

ashcharyavachchainamanyah shruNoti

shrutvapyenam veda na chaiva kashchit (2.29)

Dehi Nityamavadhyoayam dehe sarvasya bhaarata

tasmaatsarvaaNi bhootaani na tvam shochitumarhasi (2.30)

II h. Even if you are the change! (2.26-2.28)

even if you think
the self is recycled
from birth to death
like colours of dusk and dawn
or a beautiful rainbow
why worry?

That which has begun
has to have an end
and that which has ended
revives again
death is certain
of that which is born
and birth is certain
of that which dies
its all just a play of energy
the same water rising
the wave that rises
has to have a fall
and the fallen crest
bound to rise again

sometimes as one wave
sometimes as other...
like an abstract feeling
unspoken before words express it
and unspoken even after the attempt to express!
the abstract going to the abstract
through the forms in between
why worry about so?

events come and events go
feelings come and feelings go
from the ocean, to the ocean
waves but on the surface!
why worry about what you are not!


Mahatma Gandhi's version
26. And if thou deemest This to be always coming to birth and always dying, even then, O Mahabahu, thou shouldst not grieve.
27. For certain is the death of the born, and certain is the birth of the dead; therefore what is unavoidable thou shouldst not regret.
28. The state of all beings before birth is unmanifest; their middle state manifest; their state after death is again unmanifest. What occasion is there for lament, O Bharata?


Sanskrit

Atha chainam nitya jaatam nityam vaa manyase mrutam
tathaapi tvam mahaabaaho nainam shochitumarhasi (2.26)

Jaatasya hi dhruvomrutyurdhruvam janma mrutasya cha
tasmaadaparihaaryerthe na tvam shochitumarhasi (2.27)

avyaktaadini bhootani vyaktamadhyaani bhaarata
avyaktanidhananyeva tatra kaa paridevana(2.28)