The Gita Chapter 4

You can read the previous part here: Chapter 3 Part 2

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At the beginning of the Gita, Krishna comforts Arjuna. Arjuna is thrown into a situation in which he has to kill his relatives, and he feels terrible about it. Krishna explains that he is not harming anybody’s soul, and is simply destroying their bodies.

Arjuna is still upset, as he cares about the bodies that house these souls and not the souls themselves. So Krishna says that killing relatives who are on the side of adharma could be looked upon as a service to society. He explains to Arjuna all about selfless service. Krishna tries to spur his friend into action, making Arjuna realize that he is serving the world by fighting against his family.

No such luck, but Krishna does intrigue Arjuna, who wants to know what the point of all of this wisdom is. “This is great,” he says. “But why should I take the trouble to apply all of this wisdom? How will that help me, whether in this current situation or later in life?”

Krishna proceeds to tell Arjuna how important applying wisdom is. He says that this knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation as a sort of tradition. This knowledge has the power to wash away all of one’s past mistakes. What does he mean by this?

This knowledge will not erase the consequences of your past actions. If you have made a mistake in the past, you must deal with the results. However, this knowledge will enable you never to make that mistake again. It will also help you cope with the difficulties ensuing due to your action.

Some people are luckier than others. Children could be born into a billionaire’s home or in a homeless person’s home. This is not in their hands. Compare that with your past actions. You can do absolutely nothing about them, and you need to deal with your problems.

You shouldn’t complain about not being born a billionaire. Instead, it would help if you worked towards achieving your goal – in this case, earning billions. However, it’s clear that this is a difficult goal to achieve. How would you reach this target? That’s where SMART goals come in.

The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This is a perfect way to remember just how to set targets. If you do this, there is a much higher chance of you succeeding.

Specific goals are ones that detail exactly what the target is. Let’s use the goal of making a beautiful painting and selling it as our example here. As it is right now, this is not a specific target. How do you make it detailed?

The answer is simple: answer the questions who, what, where, when, why, and how. In this case, the answer to who is me. What is my goal of selling a painting. Where is irrelevant in this scenario. Why is the reason why I want to achieve my goal (in this case, making money). How is the exact procedure of what I’ll do.

That takes care of “Specific”. Next, we have “Measurable”. How are you going to measure your goal? In this case, I will measure by parts of the painting that are complete. A measure needs to be clear enough for you to record.

Then, there’s “Attainable”. Is your goal even reachable? If not, you should probably consider making it a bit easier temporarily. It’s for the best. “Relevant” means that everything that you have planned should be on the same track as your target. Everything you do should be aimed at the final goal, like an archer shooting an arrow at the bulls-eye.

Finally, we have “Time-Bound”. This means that all of your goals should be within a set time. If you haven’t finished so-and-so by a certain time, you should probably adjust your schedule slightly.

If you perform all of these actions, your goals will be much more reachable. This text has the power to change lives if it is applied. That is the important part of all of this – applying these lessons into your everyday life. Trust me, you’ll be happier if you correctly use the principles of the Gita.

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You can read the next part here: Chapter 5