Wellness Wednesday: Overcoming Our Greatest Fear Every Spri..

Wellness Wednesday: Overcoming Our Greatest Fear

Every Spring/Summer I teach a Yoga series exploring “The Bhagavad Gita.” This ancient story teaches many things. But one of its most important lessons is overcoming our fear of death.

For those who have never read the Gita here is a brief synopsis. The passage that I read in the video is from Ecknath Easwaren’s translation. I highly recommend this translation.

At the beginning of the ancient spiritual epic called “The Bhagavad Gita,” or “Song of God,” we find a well intentioned Prince Arjuna on the brink of a huge battle.

When I say on the brink, I literally mean on the brink; the story opens with two armies massed and facing each other across the vast plain that will be the site of the conflict. Thousands of soldiers are banging swords against shields. Giant military elephants are trumpeting. It’s a scene of chaos.

Prince Arjuna is leading his army to defend his older brother’s rightful claim to the throne. With him are cousins and Uncles and teachers he has known his whole life.

On the other side of the plain stands the army he will fight. And this is where The Gita gets truly interesting. The army Arjuna and his family are going to fight to the death aren’t some invading army of strangers, they are members of his own family who have for years cheated and killed members of Arjuna’s side of the family in order to keep the throne for their side of the family. This is truly the mother of all family feuds.

Standing with Arjuna as he surveys the other army across the plain is his Charioteer Krishna. Now just as his character’s name implies, Krishna is no ordinary Charioteer, and the way he came to be Arjuna’s Charioteer is also very extraordinary. More on that in a moment.

Krishna is a physical incarnation of God. He takes on a physical body in every Epoch when things in the universe get really bad; when the energies of evil are about to win the day. It is Krishna’s role through the ages to show up and preserve and protect the universe from the dark energies that are constantly working to corrupt and destroy it.

Now, the position of a Charioteer is a lowly one, even if you are the Charioteer for a warrior Prince like Arjuna. So how did such a powerful individual come to be Arjuna’s Charioteer?

In what we will call the “prologue” to the Gita, when it appears that war is inevitable, Arjuna and his cousin Duryodhana (who is leading the other army), both go to Krishna and ask him for his help. And like Solomon, Krishna says to them, “OK, here are your options. One of you can have all of my weapons and all of my armies....and the other one can have me. Choose.”

Arjuna immediately chooses Krishna. And his cousin is just fine with this. He wants the weapons. So basically, the good guys (Arjuna’s side of the family) now have God on their side and a small army of made up of members of their immediate family and loyal friends, and the bad guys (Arjuna’s cousins side of the family) have more weapons than any army could every use and a massive number of soldiers.

But even with God on his side, the battle of the Gita is still Arjuna’s to fight. Charioteers just drove the chariot, they didn’t fight in the battle. But Krishna, as Arjuna’s Charioteer is in the perfect position to give the prince advice and encouragement. And this dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, this “Song of God” is what the Gita is all about.💙