Girish's Blog

The Hindu scriptures abound in lists, starting with the six changes that apply to every living being: 1. Birth 2. Subsistence 3. Growth 4. Maturity 5. Decline 6. Death The fourteen qualities of a good character 1. Knowing about time and place 2. Fortitude 3. Endurance 4. Capacity to think of all consequences 5. Skill 6. Self-defence 7. Keeping one's counsel secret 8. Avoidance of pointless debates 9. Courage 10. Capacity to identify strengths and weaknesses 11. Faith 12. Sheltering those who seek refuge 13. Showing anger at the right time 14. Capacity to steadfastly pursue a course of action The  eight virtues characterizing intelligence, according to the Ramayana, are: 1. Attentiveness 2. Capacity to listen 3. Capacity to grasp 4. Capacity to remember 5. Ability to discriminate 6. Ability to ascertain the truth 7. Deep understanding 8. Capacity to distinguish between good and bad actions The fourfold strength  consists in the capacity...

The lockdown due to the Covid-19 virus has meant that I've had some time to study some of the foundational texts of Indian philosophy. I started with the Bhagavad Gita, the text which was buried in the depths of the Mahabharata, until Sankaracharya, in the 8th century CE, extracted it and wrote a commentary on it in the light of the non-dualism of Advaita Vedanta. Chapter 2, the Yoga of Knowledge, starts with a rousing call:  O Partha! Yield not to unmanliness! It does not befit you. Shake off this petty weakness of the heart and rise up, O dreaded hero! This was one of Swami Vivekananda's favorite verses in the Gita. He says: If one reads this one Shloka —क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः पार्थ नैतत्त्वय्युपपद्यते । क्षुद्रं हृदयदौर्बल्यं त्यक्त्वोत्तिष्ठ परंतप॥ — one gets all the merits of reading the entire Gita; for in this one Shloka lies imbedded the whole Message of the Gita. If you, my sons, can proclaim this message to the world — क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः पार्थ नैतत्त्वय्युपप...