I AM GITA

In Deep Trivedi’s I AM GITA: Psychology of Bhagavad Gita, we are presented with the three key aspects of our inner struggle; the brain (Arjuna), the ego (Duryodhana) and the witness (Krishna). All our external struggles, such as the battle about to take place, come from this internal struggle. The trick is to bring the brain and ego into alignment with the witness. Once this happens all struggle subsides.

Great.

However, the question is, how do be bring about this alignment?

That is the journey the Bhagavad Gita takes us on. For Deep Trivedi the first chapter of the Gita teaches us that we are all struggling with our own battles. The first step therefore is to recognise our own brain / ego / witness struggle. The brain’s cleverness, attaching importance to logic, that invariably mires us in confusion and stops us from connecting to truth and wisdom. The ego’s stubborn disregard for what is right and wrong, it’s fondness for power that leads to trouble for ourself and others. And the witnesses, often unheeded, quiet assessment and right decision-making based on the greater good.

What I find interesting in Deep Trivedi’s reading is that in chapter two there is no judgemental approach, which I too often hear expounded in spiritual circles, around our wants and desires. Desire in itself is not problematic, indeed the greatest vibration is the desire for oneness. The issue is the timing of the desire. If the timing is wrong, then “your doom is certain”, but if the timing is right then you should “engage in fulfilling it (your desire) with all your heart.” This connects to what Sat Shree, in The Bhagavad Gita Revealed, calls the Yoga of Discrimination.

This desiring mentality is continued in chapter three, when we become more and more desirous of that which is. This is akin to taking on an attitude of abundance, where we feel gratitude for all that we have, and focus wholeheartedly on the task in front of us. Sat Shree calls this the Yoga of Action; the actions that take us closer to who we truly are, which reflects The Song of Mahamudra, in chapter 8 of Osho’s book, Tantra, ‘Whoever clings to the mind, sees not the truth of what’s beyond the mind.’ Osho says ‘Choice is bondage, choicelessness freedom’, connecting to the philosopher on queer theory Gilles Delueze’s statement that true thought (action) is the ‘ascetic power of letting yourself be chosen’.

Chapter four brings this to a focus around karma, vikarma and akarma; that which we do with an expectation, that which is at variance to our inner truth, and that which is in full alignment and unison with consciousness. Sat Shree refer to this as the Yoga of Knowledge, knowledge of the truth of our self. This is when we can start to open up the possibility for the cultivation of a more impersonal self, an ascesis, that is, the spiritual exercise of self-fashioning.

The next chapter Sat Shree calls the Yoga of Renunciation, when we mature and start letting go of our old habits. For Deep Trivedi this is where we “expunge all differentiation and discriminations” seeing everyone and everything as the Supreme Soul, ie, part of the divine. This is where we truly start to let go of our identities, our ego, our self-deceptions; to work through our distorted constituted subject.

From this point we start to eliminate all selfishness, the root problem of life. In chapter six then we begin to stop attaching importance to logic, that invariably mires us in confusion and stops us from connecting to truth and wisdom (the brain), and our stubborn disregard for what is right and wrong, (the ego’s) fondness for power that leads to trouble for ourself and others. Here we start to take heed (of the witness), of its quiet assessment and right decision-making based on the greater good, what Sat Shree calls the Yoga of Meditation.

Bringing it all together

You would expect at this point that Arjuna would recant and return to the fight. However there are another 12 chapters before Krishna eventually convinces Arjuna to fight. And yet even at this point Arjuna is still attached to his “desire for fruits.” Showing us that Arjuna indeed fulfils his karma, but not akarma. The whole thrust of the Gita then appears to be that we should not be like Arjuna, missing our chance to perform akarma, by merely consenting to perform our karma.

Connect on Twitter / Instagram / JustFor.Fans

Message me direct if you are interested in mindful, embodied, trauma-informed, or spiritually-informed 1-1 coaching robert.pinktantra@gmail.com

Contact me to join my new Pink Tantra Towards Awakening group for chat rooms, video channels and in-person workshops around tantra and kundalini yoga practices robert.pinktantra@gmail.com

See my personal development / personality profiling book DISCover the Power of You published through John Hunt Publishing Ltd, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-78535-591-2

And for those who enjoy historical fiction, stories of underrepresented life’s, see my first novel Fermented Spirits published through Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022. ISBN-13: ‎978-1398437159