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Addictions / Habits
Exercise for Second Chapter of Gita
This will be one of the most challenging
exercise for you to do. But Fun!
Second Day of War
On the second day of war between the
Kauravas and Pandavas , once again the battle drums, conches and trumpets
were sounded. The second day of war was more ferocious and cruel. Duryodhan had
appointed Bhishma, the great-grandfather of both the Pandavas and Kauravas,
as the General of his army.
Bhishma caused heavy damage to the Pandava army on the second day. Seeing this, Arjuna asked Krishna to take him to Bhishma. Arjuna faced Bhishma and a very
terrible fight ensued. All other soldiers stopped fighting to watch the
spectacle. Arjuna was able to check Bhishma to some extent but he was still
hesitating to kill his beloved great- grandfather, even after having
understood the Gita taught by Krishna.
Exercise for Second Chapter.
This is going to be a great exercise. We understand from Krishna's teaching
that only by transcending the ego we will know that we are not this body with
petty desires, longings, 'mine-ness', attachment and fear. All the
confusions occur
because we think we are this ego, mind, body, intellectual complex. Now as Arjuna asked Krishna, our question is how to transcend this
ego. The beautiful answer lies in the events of the second day of war. Duryodhan
(Ego) knew that Arjuna would be emotional in killing his beloved great-grandfather, Bhisma. Therefore Duryodhan employed Bhisma to lead his army; every time Arjuna encountered his
great-grandfather, he became
emotional and loses the desire to fight.
Now, it is very important to understand
that Bhisma has a boon that he will not be killed and will die only
when he wishes for death. Isn't it interesting to note that our
habits or addictions are like Bhisma? No matter
what advice we receive, unless we ourselves sincerely wish, can we see the
death of our habits and addictions? We all have one or more Bhismas in us! Like Arjuna, we become emotional and hesitate to fight
our habits and addictions when it comes to the point of fighting or
confronting our habits and addictions.
Like Duryodhan, our ego employs habits and
addictions to dance to its tunes. Like Bhisma, in Mahabharat, we may be
tired of our habits or addictions but cannot abandon them simply
because of the controlling power of our ego. To weaken the power of ego, we
must first overcome the chief commander of the army - Bhisma. Duryodhan
(Ego) is the main enemy but it cannot be destroyed in one shot because it
employs others to fight for it in the battlefield. He
is killed only on the 18th day and till then Arjuna has to fight with his
beloved relatives. Similar is our plight! We fight our ego and in the
process we have to kill many of our beloved habits and addictions.
This is the sole reason behind many spiritual practices
advocating denial of our habits. Giving
up smoking, alcohol, sweets, long hours of sleep, taking up practices
of fasting, silence etc. are all oriented to fight the Ego indirectly. We
cannot confront our Ego immediately but can only march forward step by step.
So, our exercise for the second chapter is this step
of giving up our habits or addictions. Find one of your long lasting
habit or addiction and work on it. The criteria for choosing one habit
should be meet the following conditions.
1. Should be of long period and deep rooted.
2. Should be something that you want to give up and find difficult to give up.
3. You would feel miserable, emotional in giving it up.
Arjuna was raised by his great-grandfather. Among all
the 105 grand children Arjuna was Bhisma's darling. Bhisma always gave
Arjuna an extra share of sweets and would tell him bedtime stories. So, Arjuna
finds it difficult to kill this loving grandfather. But Krishna warns Arjuna that
unless Bhisma is killed Duryodhan cannot be defeated.
It is certain that you will grumble
about giving up your great-grandfather Bhisma (habits and addictions), but
understand, without that you cannot win your Mahabharata! Understand clearly that giving up the habit and making you
miserable is not the point here, but by using this we will be able to confront
our ego and finally transcend it to reveal our real nature of peace.
Please
click here
to read about the precautions while doing this exercise.
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