All Teachings Come to An End

Krishna explains to Arjuna about the divine traits and the demonic traits. He favors the divine over the demonic because the traits contained in the divine include kindness, charity, and basically being a good human being. In these teachings they explain how the demonic traits lead to an unhappy material life. But if you follow the divine traits and “relinquishes all three gates of hell” (pg 130) rebirth will not be a punishment. Krishna also says: “All creatures in the world are either divine or demonic; I described the divine at length ;( pg 128). By saying this we discover that the past teachings were all about being divine beings and the paths the divine are supposed to follow. I agree that in the world there are divine and demonic people and the way Krishna describes those that are demonic could be a new dictionary description of the ghastly beings in our world.

Three new categories emerge in teaching 17. Lucidity, passions, and dark inertia are fully explained in this teaching and lucidity is better than any other. When “sacrifices” (pg 132) are to be made Krishna sheds darkness over dark inertia and passions because they do the sacrifice without faith in it. Meanwhile a good sacrifice should “be offered with lucidity when the norms are kept and the mind is focused on the sacrificial act, without craving for its fruit.” (pg 132). In dark inertia these sacrifices are done without feeling and in passions (which are desires) only the fruit of the end product is wanted.

Probably the most interesting part of teaching 17 was the last page because it explained the sounds you make when doing anything. OM. SAT, and TAT make up the words to be used when asking for forgiveness, doing charity and admitting your wrongs. ASAT is described as “penance given without faith and have no reality here or after death” (pg 134). It is not showing any emotion in the actions you do and walking around doing something that doesn’t fill you with faith and is not appreciated by Krishna.

Action is all around us and can also be described as passionate, lucid and dark inertia. Those who perform the actions that are expected from them in a lucid way will always find the way to have a good life. Those who choose to complete the action either with passion or dark inertia suffers from spiritual unrests. The end of the Bhagavad Gita is very good and shows that through learning and listening one can come to understand how things are supposed to be and what is expected of you at the end.

In this drawing I did I drew Krishna as I imagined him in his own form. It shows his power and how superb he is to everyone that surrounds him. You see how everything that surrounds him is how he expects the universe to be and all the teachings are somehow demonstrated.