Zen Master's Work Ethic - Three Gunas - The Middle Way Pt. 2

"If you focus your mind on me
and revere me with all your heart,
you will surely come to me; this
I promise, because I love you."

~ Lord Krishna

The book Siddhartha is a book that was written to illustrate the changes that one (that is to say, a seeker) of any time or place undergoes when trying to find the truth. Just like the historical Siddhartha Guatama buddha, the main character in Herman Hesse's book Siddhartha undergoes radical changes in order to become the man that he eventually becomes. He starts off being very monastic, then goes into the work, meets women, makes money, eventually gets fed up and leaves, only to find himself once again rediscovering himself. This is a great illustration of the "middle way" which I was talking about yesterday.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) "There is the man who wants power, there is the man who wants happiness, both these men are wise men, but the one who is wise and detached is, not clinging to anything, is most like me, therefore I love him most." This is also a reference to the middle way... the "sattvic" quality.

The version of the Bhagavad Gita which I highly recommend is translated by Stephen Mitchell and can be found here. It's wonderful...and it may just capture your imagination like it did me. There are some things to look out for with the Bhagavad Gita that may surprise you...and Stephen does a good job of explaining these things to a Western Audience.

The strange things....

First of all, the weirdest thing about the Bhagavad Gita which I am only too happy to point out (because I love shattering people's pardigms) is that it is not a doctrine of Non-violence.

Picture Ghandi with his broken teeth....

It is not in fact, a doctrine of non-violence. Not only that, it is a book which actually ENCOURAGES a soldier to fight in war. This is one of the things which I absolutely love about it... which will bring me right into tomorrow's talk, I'll explain why.

The second thing is, the book is sexist. VERY. Hindus, at least during the ancient times, believed that to be born a woman was a lesser state. That it was the result of bad karma (I know....) this may put off some if not all women. However, there is no mention that women are any less capable of attaining divine knowledge, but still the implication is still there.

Thirdly, Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita that he in fact founded the "four caste system" which means that hindus (at various times in history, not as much today) believe that the caste system is divinely ordained...which is a bit strange. And you might say racist. If not racist certainly class-ist (?.)

So with all these set-backs, why do I like it? I'll go further into it in lessons in the future and you will understand more and more why I like, but for now I'll just say, it's ancient, and there is a wisdom in it that is absolutely unshakable, and can save you from literally ANYTHING no matter how messed up your life is, no matter how insane you feel, it will be there, telling you everything is okay and how to get out of your situation. So for that reason, I have to like it. But I'm not sexist, or racist. I promise!