From Purity of Mind ensues Selfless Work – Bhagavad Gita Verses 3.6-3.7

Dear Sudha,
As usual a super FB from you!!
Now do not lag behind in duty & give IL as excuse. Then, not Gita, C & C will be held responsible !
Getting rid of ego is by no means a child's play, but can developed in "miniscule" doses with awareness. That is where the thought of dedicating our actions to the Lord helps us in regulating our thoughts and actions.
Two of my favourite one liners are
Thy will be done
Ella pukazum iraivanulle
Do not think, we can suppress ugly emotions. It is better to allow them to take their course, but thereafter be done with them forever.
Refinement is an extremely slow process but we should learn to make it a steady process with the study of the Gita.
Love,
Chithra.

Originally Posted by sudhavnarasimhan

Dear Chithra,
Accept my apologies for the late fb....i did read it and i have clicked on the reply button too many times....but duty called every time, and had to get away.....So had to do my duty without IL temptation luring me away! It did irk me , but tried to handle the emotions...another lesson in Doing duty without attachment!

Loved this week's post too, gave me a lot to Think!

But this restraining the mind is definetely not a Child's play! I have been trying of late quite extensively.....Mind or should i say Ego here, does not LET GO so easily!
I also realised that the minute i laid the Churning emotions at his FEET, it brought me a sudden relief and a peace of mind. For that i feel reading such Gita posts and thinking on these lines all the time, does help keep the mind a bit cleaner and stronger , so that when such disturbing emotions arise we can handle them. es desire, ugh, we cannot recognise it, until its ugly head has risen and has spitted all those emotions inside us!( oh what an imagery, i am going to keep this image in my mind from now on!)

"Moksha is the liberation of the mind from getting entangled in the meshes of the material world."
What a bliss this sounds to be.....being without entangling ourselves in this Maya of the world!
Thanks for another interesting post!

Originally Posted by sudhavnarasimhan

Dear Cheeniya,

As usual your introduction was par excellence......this offering of our actions to Lord, is something which really brings peace ....i agree with this statement!
" This is a noble commitment, because if this were genuine then there is no way that we can get anger or hate or jealousy or greed."
I was grinning reading about your "spiritual hypocrite" description, .....have seen many such examples. I guess in a way i must say these people especially women are so associated with this world, they cannot let go and just be with their inner self!

"Singing His praise is not half as important as bearing testimony to His Existence in all our actions as the ‘vernal wood’!".......this line says it all! If only we can all understand this underlying truth in our existence.
Thanks once again for bringing in the wider perspective.

Dear Sudha
The spiritual hypocrite is called in our native lingo as 'Ashadabuthi' He is not just a run of the mill hypocrite. The more clogged with dirt is his soul, the cleaner he'll be on the exterior. He can be seen in spotless dress. He'll have the holy ash smeared on his forehead in the most elegant way. It is possible that there will be a large 'Panchumukha' rudraksh hung around his neck in a 5 sovereign gold chain. Every sentence that he speaks will be prefixed or affixed with the Lord's name.

It is a big surprise that such hypocrites consider the Almighty as gullible as the people that they take for a ride!
Sri

Dear Mrs.Chith,
very well explained what Karma Yoga in a nutshell...
Do your duties, without expecting the result and control of mind over senses...

one thing I cannot understand, if self-control brings purity of mind, then how come that the purity of mind comes first and then control of body and senses are its results...


Cheeniya Sir,
Very aptly said, that if we think that our actions are like 'prasadam' offered to him, which is cleaned first, we will definitely do them without any impurities in our mind too..but this is not possible always for me...what to do....
I also chant the prayer you had mentioned in the begining..even when the meaning is known...i think I recite it mechanically, thinking that God would forgive me for all the wrong-doing from my side..what an ignorance!

sriniketan

Originally Posted by Sriniketan

Cheeniya Sir,
Very aptly said, that if we think that our actions are like 'prasadam' offered to him, which is cleaned first, we will definitely do them without any impurities in our mind too..but this is not possible always for me...what to do....
I also chant the prayer you had mentioned in the begining..even when the meaning is known...i think I recite it mechanically, thinking that God would forgive me for all the wrong-doing from my side..what an ignorance!

sriniketan

Dear Sri
God goes about with a magnifying glass to look for even a infinitesimally good deeds of ours in His anxiety that no good deed of ours should go unrewarded. So even the mantras chanted mechanically get noticed by Him! There is no need to give up our daily rituals merely because we do them mechanically.
But spiritual evolution is totally a different cup of tea altogether. It aims at identifying the Godhead. It can not be achieved by chanting of Mantras. It requires a lot of introspection and self enquiry.
Sri

Dear Chith

I liked the following sentece Sin and virtue accrue ever from the frame of mind and never from the restrictions imposed on the senses. - As said a thought is changed into an action. This explains how important it is to purify our mind with good thoughts. And that will result in good action and selfless work.

Love
Vidhi

Dear Cheeniya Sir

Your example of offering a fruit to God gave an idea how we should dedicate our actions to God. It is a very excellent thought. As said before offering we have to make sure that it is cleansed from all the impurities. So any action done should be free from hatred, jealousy, envy etc and it should be done with love and compassion. And this clearly explains why only a very few people have succeeded in offering the actions to God.

regards
Vidhi

Dear Bhargavi,
I would say, it is a vicious circle!! When we are no longer enamoured by sense objects, we learn to exercise control over senses and the mind becomes pure. The same feelings go cyclic!
Love,
Chithra.

[quote]

Originally Posted by vidhi

Dear Chith

I liked the following sentece Sin and virtue accrue ever from the frame of mind and never from the restrictions imposed on the senses. - As said a thought is changed into an action. This explains how important it is to purify our mind with good thoughts. And that will result in good action and selfless work.

Dear Vidhi,
The order is
desire leading to thought which leads to action.
Desire is nomore selfish, but universal. This leads to selfless work & action becomes good.
Love,
Chithra.

Originally Posted by vidhi

Dear Cheeniya Sir

Your example of offering a fruit to God gave an idea how we should dedicate our actions to God. It is a very excellent thought. As said before offering we have to make sure that it is cleansed from all the impurities. So any action done should be free from hatred, jealousy, envy etc and it should be done with love and compassion. And this clearly explains why only a very few people have succeeded in offering the actions to God.

regards
Vidhi

Dear Vidhi
In the Aranya Kandam of Ramayan, there is a beautiful episode of the Sage Sabari offering Sri Rama some fruits. In her anxiety that the Lord should be fed only with ripe fruits, she takes a bite of each fruit before offering it to Rama. He accepts it with great joy though Lakshmana is a bit sceptical about Rama's action of partaking of fruits tasted by Sabari. Rama tells His brother that it is only out of her abundant love for Rama that she did it and that love made the fruits fresh again.
If our intentions are pure as that of Sabari, the Lord will accept us with great joy!
Sri

Dear Chithra,

Once again we get to read verses of Gita laden with profound advise.
It is of course up to us to use or lose it.
To control the mind and commence work with our organs of action is easily said than done. Yet, if one strives sincerely towards it, it can be achieved, with the Lord's blessings I guess.
I have to think of my dear father who worked in the glamorous world of cinema but would not let himself succumb to its charms, which were manifold in that field.
For one to achieve even a relative success in controlling of the mind, one should constantly engage in good thoughts and deeds.

L, Kamla