The Gita Happiness Retreat. Sheetal

and properties and are standing before me, why should I wish to kill them, even though they might otherwise kill me? O maintainer of all living entities, I am not prepared to fight with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth. What pleasure will we derive from killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?

       Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore, it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhritarashtra and our friends. What should we gain, O Krishna, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?

       O Janardana, although these men, their hearts overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing one’s family or quarreling with friends, why should we, who can see the crime in destroying a family, engage in these acts of sin?

      With the destruction of dynasty, the never-ending family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of the family becomes involved in irreligion.

      When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Krishna, the women of the family become polluted, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vrishni, comes unwanted children.

      An increase of unwanted population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. The ancestors of such corrupt families fall down, because the performances for offering them food and water are entirely stopped.

      By the evil deeds of those who destroy the family tradition and thus give rise to unwanted children, all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are devastated.

      O Krishna, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those who destroy family traditions dwell always in hell.

      Alas, how strange it is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts. Driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness, we are determined on killing our own kinsmen.

      Better for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapons in hand, were to kill me unarmed and unresisting on the battlefield.

      Sanjaya said: Arjuna, having thus spoken on the battlefield, cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief.

       Now let me Summarize Chapter 1:

      As both the armies stand well positioned for battle, Arjuna asked his charioteer friend Lord Krishna, to drive his chariot between the two armies so that he could see the Kaurvas army. Arjuna felt great compassion after seeing his relatives, teachers and friends on the opposite side ready to fight and sacrifice their lives. He must kill them to win the war. Overcome by grief and pity of having to kill his own blood relatives, Arjuna’s body started to tremble, his mind loosing its balance, he became confused. Arjuna got completely immersed in grief caused by attachment and delusion. He started speaking about the evils of war causing destruction of the dynasty; he simply refused and gave up his determination to fight.

      I asked, “Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with Arjuna?” One participant replied, “Confused fight or not to fight”. The other said, “He thinks it’s better not to fight this war, this way he won’t need to kill his own blood relatives.” Another participant said, “He felt compassion when he saw his blood relatives ready to lay down their lives and properties to win this war.” One more participant said, “He was overcome with feelings of grief and pity”. One participant asked, “How is this relevant today?”

      I said, “Let me share a story with all of you.

Special Horse That Always Wins The Race

      One day at a restaurant, I happened to overhear a conversation between two friends. One friend said, “I am not able to stick to one relationship, I have changed three girlfriends in 6 months.” The other friend then said, “Let me share a story with you about a special horse that always wins the race.

      Once there was a rich man who used to place bets on different horses in every race. Everyone was surprised to see him winning every time. So, one gentleman went up to him and asked him, “Sir what’s your secret to winning? How is it that you know exactly which is the special horse that will win the race?” The rich man smiled and said, “It’s a secret! When the horses are not racing, I keep a watch on them all the time, I talk to them and I also feed them.” The gentleman asked, “But what’s the connection, I didn’t understand.” The rich man replied, “I decide which special horse will win the upcoming race. I start by feeding that special horse with good food. To the rest of the horses I make them starve or feed them with less food. Also, I talk positive things with that special horse by using encouraging, motivating words and with remaining I talk negative and depressing words. The result is what I get winning on the special horse that I feed with good food and positive talks.”

      The other friend looked at his friend and asked, “So what did you learn from this?” First friend said, “It means we too can win in our lives, when we feed ourselves as well as our mind with good, positive thoughts and positive words. For that first I need to become good friends with the girl I really like and then invest decent time to get to know her and then decide to be in a relationship with that girl. Think positive about our relationship. Only by feeding my mind with positive thoughts, will help me achieve success in a relationship.”

      The other friend said, “Very well said and learnt. The point of the story is that if we want a stable relationship or a stable life and a balanced mind, we need to feed our mind with positive thoughts. So that we can experience happiness, joy and peace, plus we will be able to achieve whatever we want in our life. If we feed our mind with negative thoughts, we will end up experiencing negativity such as stress, anxiety, fear, anger and sadness. Which will lead us nowhere but to confusion. Imagine achieving success by becoming that special horse that always wins the race.

      One participant raised his hand and said, “It’s easy to say think positive but practically things don’t go as planned or as imagined. Our relatives, family, friends, bosses, colleagues, clients, customers or some outsider are just waiting to bark negative thoughts at us and we like fools keep thinking about it over and over again in turn getting ourselves disturbed, sad and upset. So what’s the solution to this?”

      I asked everyone, “Let me all ask you a question? If some unknown guest comes to your house knocks at your door, what do you do? Do you just open the door and let that person in or do you see through the keyhole? Of course you see through the keyhole first. Similarly, first we need to find out that negative thought is knocking at your door, how do we do this? By seeing through our inner keyhole. That’s nothing but our “Awareness”. Second thing is to not let it enter your home that’s your mind, how do we do this? By refusing to think about it and telling it to go away, automatically it will go away when you start focusing on the special horse that always wins the race.

      I myself have experienced being in trap, feeling sometimes positive and most of the time negative, having mood swings, didn’t really understand what to do. When I asked my friends to help me. One said, “Make it a point that you do not listen to negative talks at all, this will help you stay positive and happy always”. The other friend said, “Think positive in every negative situation you experience”. My best friends taught me how to keep thinking about the special horse that always wins the race.

      Finally, this story of the special horse that always wins the race also closely relates to the Bhagavad Gita, where Arjuna is overcome by negative thoughts of grief and pity of having to kill his own blood relatives on the battlefield of Kurukshetra and Lord Krishna helps him to think positive and guides him on how to become that special horse that always wins the race. This teaches us a very important life lesson.

      **Lesson No: 3 Think Positive. Feed your mind with positive thoughts always and this will help you focus on achieving success in life.

      Silently a hand went up, it was Shikha. “Yes Shikha, any question?” She said, “How can we think positive if the person whom we love cheats on us?” Another participant said, “Madam Arjuna’s feeling of compassion towards his relatives