Action, Discipline and Knowledge

In the third teaching, sacrifice and action are words that are used over and over again. According to Kishna with action comes sacrifice but you need action to survive. Basically they talk about how change is good for man and that by taking action you are making a difference. I agree with Kishna about action being good but not in the context it is in the book still trying to convince Arjuna to kill his family.

pg 44

pg 45

In the quote from page 44 I found it interesting how Kishna is trying to explain action through sacrifice and how one cant exist without the other. Still isn't a sacrifice supposed to be something you don't do for yourself but for others? Though they have a point that it has to be free of attachment because most wars in the present are usually to support someones vision and not look at the big picture. If you are going to cause a war cause it for a reason that is free of attachment.

pg 45: I found this quote funny and interesting because I didn't really understand why in prayer Hindu people said OM. I found it funny because that someone takes the sound so seriously was kind of comical. I also liked the last part because it sounds like the type of thing the bad guy would say to the good guy in a movie when he has him dangling by a foot on top of a building. "you are weak, surrender!"

In the fifth teaching I liked that at the beginning we got a clearer idea of who Kishna is. "Though myself unborn, undying, the lord of creatures, I fashion nature which is mine, and I come into being with my own magic." pg 52. I found it interesting that they explained everything about the in actions and how you are expected to take action to enter paradise. Its also pretty cool how sacrifice action and knowledge are attached to one another. I m still not sure if Kishna could be compared to God in some way though. Because they both seem to be pretty high powers but I don't know if Kishna is the ultimate power but how she mentions how people seek her for comfort and she guides them kind of reminds me of God. I also found it very interesting that it was Kishna who invented knowledge and taught it to the other gods and then to man. She didn't leave man to learn for themselves but taught them from the start which could be good or bad depending on your views on how to raise mankind.

I agreed with the views explained in Teaching 5 because I also believe that to be happy you do not need material things. Still I wouldn't want to completely separate myself from material things but just the general knowledge that I can live happily without it is pretty good no?

pg 61

I really liked the metaphor on how knowledge will illuminate everything like the sun. Ive also noticed that it could be hard for a person to achieve this perfect knowledge mentioned in the book. My father is always reminding me how the only thing I have to do right now in my life is get a good education so I guess he could support his reasoning with this book.

pg 63

Even breathing is part of sacrifice? The person who follows all these rules must be really happy according to this. Not only happy but really smart. I think that your happiness depends on how you want to create it and not on how someone wants you to live your life. Finding peace and happiness to me are two very different things. Peace is when everything in your world is in place but it doesn't necessarily mean you are happy and the same with happiness you could be super happy but not at peace with the actions you took to get there. For example a drug dealer could be happy but not at peace because he is causing some kind of pain to have his own happiness.