Source: hinduism.about.com
Bhagavad Gita for Modern Times: Secrets to Attaining Inner Peace and Harmony is a unique commentary on the Gita – the most profound Hindu scripture. This “universal manual for peaceful living” by Swami Sadashiva Tirtha seeks to offer modern-day guidance based on the teachings of the holy book of the Hindus.
The
physicist Leo Szilard once told a friend he intended to keep a diary
“to record the facts for God”. “Don’t you think God knows the facts?”
his friend asked. “Yes,” said Szilard, “He knows the facts, but He does
not know this version of the facts”.
Perhaps, this is what best
describes this book. We all know or have heard the venerable teachings
of the Gita, but we do not know how to apply it to our busy lifestyles.
We cram myriad activities in our daily schedule, and easily discard
much that does not contribute to our kind of living.
Most
often, The Bhagavad Gita adorns personal bookshelves, but remains there
gathering dust for posterity. Although aware of its profound wisdom, no
one has the leisure to ruminate on its teachings and apply it for
betterment or empowerment.
Swami Sadashiva Tirtha does that
for us. With his acumen, deep insight, and clarity of thought, he
elucidates the verses of the Gita in the language of modern times,
lifting theory off the page and creating an at-home Gita seminar for
one person, the entire family, or study group. He draws parallels from
the verses of the Gita and casts them in the chapters of our everyday
lives so fluidly we start reworking or rethinking on those lines of
wisdom. To draw the point home, here is an excerpt from Tirtha’s
Commentary on the three gunas – sattwa, rajas, tamas that control everything – in the language of the corporate world:
"Imagine
three brothers: Sat, Roger, and Tom Goona. They want to start a
computer software company named Goo-Na. It was Sat’s idea, and he did
all the groundwork to get the company up and going. He got Good Ol’ Dad
(G.O.D.), venture capitalists, to loan them the startup funds. But
since Sat loses interest in the daily activities and likes to move on
to create some more dot-com startup companies, Roger was the perfect
choice to run the company.
Roger doesn’t have much creative sense,
so he was happy that Sat started the company; Roger’s god-gifts lie in
management and organizational skills. So he runs the day-to-day
operation.
Sat and Roger talked Tom into leaving his job at
his salvage company and use his cleanup skills for their new company.
Some of Tom’s responsibilities will be clearing out old computers,
furniture, cell phones, cars, software, and so on, since the company
must stay on the leading edge of technology and fashion to impress the
clients. Tom also has the responsibility to compassionately deal with
people when they must be let go. He is also in charge of disbanding
parts of companies that their company takes over.
The people who
work at Goo-Na have enjoyed their jobs, their salaries support their
families, and everything runs smoothly. As the company becomes larger
and more powerful, the brothers, human nature being what it is, begin
to lose their idealistic focus.
Roger becomes
power hungry, i.e., busy with hostile takeover attempts. Tom has become
lazy and sloppy, not clearing out old inventory, not showing up for
work, preferring to sit and watch plasma screen TV all day. And Sat,
well, he spends all of his time either creating new companies or
reading scripture and meditating.
As a result, corporate ethics has
slipped and customers are not getting quality products. Creative ideas
to serve humanity have fallen by the wayside. Other companies are being
harassed where they were previously community partners, and there are
even some financial scandals afoot.
There remains one employee,
Archie, who joined the company, and who is still inspired by its
idealistic mission statement; however, he is quite upset that the
company is not allowing him to truly help society. No one listens to
his creative ideas. When he tries to talk to any of the brothers, they
ignore him. Archie is stuck, trapped by the three brothers. The only
way to get out of this predicament is to go to … the venture
capitalists G.O.D... Since Archie alerted G.O.D. about the loss of
vision at Goo-Na, the G.O.D. company may be able to bring integrity,
ethics, compassion back into this company by threatening to close them
down (i.e., stop funding them). As a result of Archie’s devotion to
helping people, G.O.D. succeeded in putting Goo-Na back on track.
This
story gives a brief idea of how the gunas work. Sattwa creates life.
Rajas keeps things going. Tamas concludes the life cycle. To avoid
getting caught up in material life and really know the eternal,
non-changing Divine bliss, Krishna advises Arjuna to go beyond the
three gunas and to directly seek God."
Filled with such evocative allusions, this book serves as a guide to
applying ancient wisdom in one’s daily life to find oneself, strengthen
family ties, develop a more meaningful career, achieve greater peace
and harmony, discover life’s purpose and vision, understand the
connection between various religions, apply the exercises to cultivate
a more peaceful life. The book incorporates the essence of the Gita’s
revered teachings with fresh concepts, including how to reduce stress
through meditation, how to achieve familial harmony, how ecology and
nature affect inner peace, how to nurture well-rounded education for
children, and how to impart social entrepreneurial benefits to
communities.
Throughout,
the commentary remains true to the wisdom of the original text. It also
offers a wealth of stress-management advice—perfect for yoga
instructors, business professionals, even busy parents. And very
appropriately, Tirtha dedicates the book to all people seeking greater
peace, harmony and balance of their spiritual priorities with their
worldly goals and responsibilities, all bhaktas who are seeking how to integrate Vedanta and Bhakti, and all those seeking some insight into the universality of religions, spirituality, nature, and ethics.