Krishna Commands

In my reading for this week, three particular shlokas stood out to me.

“Be kind and pure and never waver in your determination or dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving and full of the desire to serve. Realize the truth of scripture; learn to be detached and take joy in renunciation.”

These words from Krishna tell us to “walk the walk.” In many of our other readings, out of The Bhagavad Gita and other yoga texts, we learned the philosophy behind yoga, and the broad ideas behind how to live a good life. Here, in Chapter 16, Vishnu’s avatar gives readers direct instructions for living right. Obviously, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. Jesus, my pre-school teachers, my parents, and the cartoon characters on the shows I watched have all told me the same things over the course of my life. Just because Krishna’s revelation isn’t new news, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pay close attention to it. In fact, perhaps it’s because we’ve heard these seemingly simple instructions so often that we should listen all the more carefully.  

“Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all.”

This particular shloka turns the commandments out word. Most of the first shloka focused on things we can do internally to be happy and become enlightened, but, as we’ve learned, yoga isn’t just about focusing on one’s self. Krishna tells us to treat every living creature as we would treat ourselves. When I first read this I groaned a bit; is Krishna seriously gunna drop this cliché on me again? Then, I flipped back to the cosmic realization, the description of Krishna’s awful and terrible true self, and decided not to question the avatar of God.

“Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, Arjuna, you will achieve your divine destiny.”

I picked the third shloka  to share because it sums up the other two quite nicely, and then reminds us exactly why we are following these rules in the first place. Krishna tells Arjuna that if he obeys these commands, he will be able to “achieve [his] divine destiny.” After all, isn’t that what we’re here for?