Flipping through an old diary I found these entries from Year 2004. Those were days when I regularly attended Bhagwad Gita Classes with my husband. My father's illness and my mother's struggles perhaps led us to a more contemplative, reflective frame of mind. Swami Paramarthananda's weekly Gita lectures led to some jottings in my diary. Here is one extract:
26.09.04
Bhagwad Gita - Preamble
Three principles to follow:
1. I am responsible for my life and actions.
2. I derive confidence for carrying out my responsibilities from the God within - the perennial spring of faith and strength. I have faith.
3. I must live a life of values always. Values are psychological hygiene and as important as physical hygiene.
Three changing lifestyles to follow in one's lifetime:
1. Life of Action, or Productive Life: Here you contribute to family, society, world. Here one's face is turned outward into the world.
2. Life of Re-orientation: Here one turns one's face from the world without to the world within. This time of one's life involves a re-adjustment of one's vision and attitude.
3. Life of inquiry, or Life of Wisdom: Here one inquires into the world within. One tries to understand the many worlds within one. One begins by asking questions and seeking answers to them - who am I, why am I here.
Three lessons to be learnt:
1. Truth about Life, Jeeva, Oneself. The truth about the microcosm, or the God within.
2. Truth about Creation, World, God. The truth about the macrocosm.
3. Aikyam, or the Truth about Oneness. The truth that Life within and Life beyond are one. God is One.
