Book: Gita-In-Action

Book: Gita-In-Action

By - O P Sharma, University Book House.

It is a small but very good book written telling us how to manage ourselves. I have read this book very long back may be in 2004 or 2005 and below are the extracts/notes I have taken.

· SELF is the CAUSE and SELF is the EFFECT.

· Action is thy concern & not the results. (Thiru - I don’t this…as whatever we do…we do it for the result)

· Keep working. Results will follow.

· Perform your worldly duties enthusiastically according to your respective positions in life for the universal good without concerning yourself with the results with a self identifying vision.

· Self realization is activated by the individual’s initiative and abiding sense of commitment.

· VED – means to know, to be, to obtain, to consider, to feel, to tell, to dwell.

· Why do you worry; Fear what; who can kill you; the soul never takes birth nor it dies.

· What has happened is good; whatever is happening is good; whatever will happen will be good. (Thiru – I used get angry when I read or hear this sentence in the past. But after reading this book, I realize that whatever has happened in the past, either good or bad is due to your past karma. And your karma is what you have done in the past. If you have done good, u would have acquired good karma and good things will happen to you. So if something or someone or you have done good or bad for you, then it is due to your karma. If bad things happened to you, u must realize that the bad karma u have done in the past has been worked out and u r free from that past bad karma. In the same way, based on your past karma, good or bad things will happen in the future also….This sentence alone can summarize the concepts of all the spiritual literature.)

· Do not regret the past. Do not worry for the future. The present is ongoing. Take care. (Thiru – Another great realization after reading this sentence from this book. Normally we have read or heard about these in our life, but it the greatest of the author who brings this point to the notice of the reader and makes him realize the important of that sentence by giving examples or explaining the same in detail. 90% percent of our worries are due to our thoughts on the past or on the future. If we look at ourselves, normally we will be OK in the present situation.)

· What have you lost; why do you cry; what did you bring with you; you accumulated everything here; you leave everything here; you enmassed things on his behest, you return these things to him; you came empty handed; you leave empty handed; what you possessed today belonged to someone else; it will pass on to an another after you depart. You rejoice taking all these possessions as your exclusive. That is what causes misery. (Thiru – rightly said above but the problem with all of us is not something we brought by birth. The biggest problem are with those things which we accumulated in this life (experiences, feelings, ambitions, relationships, attitude and many more) and more important we are not able to leave them even thought we know that these are harming our life to large extent. It is not about bringing something by birth and leaving by death but having something during this lifetime which is the problem. And we are not able to handle properly the possessions we have.)

· Change is the law of nature.

· You! Then fight for the cause of fighting, without considering the effects of happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat. By so doing you shall incur no sin. (Thiru – This I tried but not possible for me and for the people surrounding me. Everyone wants only the results and all we do in this life is for the results only….)

Note – The above points are notes I have scrubbed down while reading the book “Gita-In-Action” written by O.P.Sharma. I am blogging this material only to encourage the readers who see my blog to read the book and is not meant for any commercial purpose. It is just sharing information about a good book.

Regards,

Tirumalanath

tirumalanath@gmail.com