Heaven on Earth

Posted on 1/4/2007 Post Comment -

Everytime some disaster struck and innocents got killed, injured or maimed for life I used to wonder whether there was a really a God who would protect all the good people and punish the wicked. As such, the crooks seemed to be having a wonderful time everywhere while the good ones suffered.

 

The "Bhagavad Gita" seems to provide the answer.  This is no ordinary book. It forms part of the epic Mahabharata that narrates the story of how the five "Pandava" princes were divested of their kingdom by their "Kaurava"  cousins through cheating in a game of dice and exiled for 14 years. When they were refused their kingdom even after the exile was over, war remained the only option.

 

But Arjuna, the finest warrior among the Pandavas could not bear the thought of killing his own cousins. He is then counselled by Krishna, incarnation of  Lord Vishnu to perform his duty  as a fighter for a just cause. This took the form of  the Bhagavad Gita in which Krishna provides the answers to God's relationship with all lving beings and how to free oneself from the shackles of pleasure, pain  and attachment to realise God.

 

Krishna at one place says as God, he is not attached to his devotees or want to wreck revenge against those who hate him. But then, what is the use of having faith in God? If you wholeheartedly believe in him, you will find that he is within you, all the time. When God is within us, we would not be doing evil and ultimately would be at peace with the world at all times.

 

One does not have to be a great believer to follow this simple prescription. It does not enjoin on you to propitiate God with offerings, pilgrimages or various ways of self mortification. On the contrary, it is enough if you do everything in the right spirit, without causing offence or inconvenience to others, to attain salvation.