When I was planning the topic for our annual retreat in Thailand for 2025, suddenly “Yoga of Action” came to my mind. Perhaps it was because we already had “Yoga of Love,” “Yoga of Wisdom,” and “Yoga of Light” in the previous years as I did not have a particular logic or urge to go with this topic. When we had a discussion among a small group of Thai students, however, there was some resistance to this topic because of the concern that Thai people (mostly Buddhists) may be discouraged to join if they know that the teaching is based upon the “Bhagavat Gita,” a sacred Hindu Scripture. Nonetheless, we decided to go with this topic.
A few months later, I read an AHYMSIN newsletter and surprisingly found that “Perennial Psychology of Bhagavat Gita, by Swami Rama” was mentioned as a recommended book for this year; the year of Swami Rama’s centennial celebration. I took that as a confirmation for our decision. Then, the challenge came, with a lot fewer (than normal) number of people registering for the retreat. We decided to do commercial advertising to promote our event, which did not help at all, as no single person out of 2,000 people seeing the ad registered, although we received a few inquiries. With the Guru’s blessing, however, during the last two weeks before the retreat began, we had many more people joining, including some who initially could not join because they had other commitments.
The teachings of the “Bhagavat Gita” could be very controversial as they are based upon a story of the war between members of the same family who were fighting to reign the Kingdom. On the surface, it is understandable that many people found it contradictory to spirituality. We were very lucky to have Shi Hong and Pandit Priyadarshana (Pierre Lefebvre), whose sharp insights into this sacred text made it easier for participants to understand the deeper meanings of the teachings, clearing most of their doubts by the end. One participant told us after the retreat that while she is a Buddhist and fully embraces the Buddha’s teachings, she does not see the Bhagavat Gita teaching in contradiction with her mainstream belief after listening to our two teachers.
Those who see Bhagavat Gita as a spiritual message metaphor asked why the story has to be about the killing of one’s own family members and teachers. Shi Hong explained that it has to be extreme in order to create a very strong inner conflict even for a highly evolved human being (like Arjuna), which most of us can relate to in our daily conduct (where so many conflicts arise in the mind). If the war is between two sides that are not closely related, then a sense of conflict would not be there in full. And because of intense conflict, a high degree of non-attachment is required to make a discriminative choice to act. Rooted in ignorance (Avidya), attachment is a starting point of the downward spiral. People with strong attachment live in fear (of losing what they are attached to) and anger, losing mindfulness, coming under delusion, and finally destroying their own lives. Killing enemies who are one’s own family members here means killing attachment and ego that are as close to one’s self as one’s own relatives.
At the higher level of the teachings, the body (that is killed) is not one’s own true nature but only a garment one wears. Atman or Self (one’s own essential nature) can never be killed as it is never born (so it can never die). Self-realization (realizing Atman) will thus remove all ignorance and liberate us from samsara (birth–death cycle). Atman (individual consciousness) is like a drop of Brahman (universal consciousness) wrapped in the body like a drop of water from the ocean put in a bottle. A body or a bottle is formed by each person’s karma. Self-realization means a drop of water is released from the bottle, returns to the ocean, and becomes part of the ocean again permanently.
For people who take Bhagavat Gita as a real story, Pandit Priyadarshana explained that the five Pandavas brothers had done everything possible to avoid the war in the past many decades. However, the Kauravas’ only goal was to completely destroy the Pandavas, forcing the eventual war. So, it is the war between virtue and vice. The Kauravas were given Krishna’s whole army as Arjuna (one of the five Pandavas) chose to have only Krishna as adviser. Yet the Kauravas lost the war and everyone was killed. This reflects the essence of the teaching that if one chooses the Lord of life (represented by Krishna), he/she will attain victory in the end over thousands of enemies (attachment, fears, selfishness, lust, etc.). Panditji also enlightened us with the knowledge of the laws of Karma. Karma means action, which subsequently leads to the fruit, and the fruit motivates one to perform the next action and reap another fruit, and so on. This creates a vicious cycle with no end. The only way one can be free from the bondage of karma is to perform one’s action selflessly, without expecting anything in return. But this requires a high degree of mindfulness, non-attachment, and skill. While nobody can do anything about past karma (either in this life or previous lives), whether they have already produced fruit or not, one can definitely choose to perform future actions that are not binding.
This is where the practices play a vital role. Meditation is the highest form of practice as it is a tool to release the highest level of wisdom hidden very deeply inside each human being. However, successful meditation will be facilitated greatly by the practices of Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, relaxation, and the rules of conduct (Yama and Niyama). During the retreat, participants learned these techniques as taught by our Gurudeva, Swami Rama, and Swami Veda Bharati.
At the end of the retreat, the teachers reminded us to keep the inspiration to practice daily (as they know how hard it is to stick to this discipline). Panditji said that the inner battlefield of the Bhagavat Gita needs not be something extremely dramatic like the Kurukshetra war, but it can be something very subtle in daily life, like whether I should sacrifice my time for practice, etc. Shi Hong wished all the participants that the bottle (which imprisons their own essential nature) will become thinner and thinner until it finally disappears one day, so all of us can rest permanently in our own essential nature (Self) that is one and the same.
The organizing team is deeply grateful to the Guru force, which always guides us silently through all the challenges, to Shi Hong and Pandit Priyadarshana who have selflessly served the tradition for so many years, to all the volunteers (translation, book selling, etc.) who have worked hard to give their services at the highest qualities, and finally to all the participants who have contributed their time and financial support that made this retreat possible and successful.
By Little Student of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition.