Top 6 Bhagavad Gita Quotes of Wisdom
The Bhagavad Gita is ancient Hindu writing in India. It is considered as one of the best sources for wisdom. The following is a list of some of the best quotes from Bhagavad Gita.
1. “What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world.”
Everyone has the one thing in their life that they are good at and that creates value to the world. Everyone has the different “one thing” but the idea is the same. Be the very best version of yourself. When people see what you can do being the best version of yourself, they will follow and become the best version of themselves. That’s how the world evolves.
2. “In this world three gates lead to hell — the gates of passion, anger and greed. Released from these three qualities one can succeed in attaining salvation and reaching the highest goal.”
Passion, anger and greed are the three sources of unhappiness. Many people agree with the part about “anger” and “greed”, but they can’t agree with the “passion” part. I think a lot has to do with how you define “passion”. In Angela Duckworth’s famous book “Grit”, she explains that there is a type of passion that is like fireworks. It is very strong but doesn’t last. That type of passion is mostly created based on ego and isn’t a source of true happiness or true achievement. For example, you may just want to learn to play a song on the piano just to show off on social media. There is a better word for the kind of passion that is long-lasting and valuable. The word is “purpose”. Instead of thinking about “passion”, try to think in terms of your life purpose of the single big goal that you want to achieve most in life.
3. “When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.”
The above quote tells us the importance of meditation. In this era, more and more people have realized the benefits of meditation. It’s great to see people understand that meditating is not weird at all and you don’t have to believe in a certain religion to meditate. The most well known ways to meditate is to close your eyes and be aware of your breath or repeat a mantra. But in fact, if you don’t want to do that, you can meditate while you are walking. You can even meditate when you are washing dishes. In my experience, doing the “close my eyes” kind of meditation is the most effective. It can help me clear my mind in less than 20 minutes usually. Taking a long walk while not listening to anything such as music, news or podcasts may help me clear my mind in about an hour. Regarding “washing dishes” meditation, if I try my best to be aware of the dishes, the water and every movement I made during the washing dishes process, I may have my mind calmer and more clear in around 20 minutes, but I don’t feel that my mind is as clear as it would be after 20 minutes of “close my eyes” meditation.
4. “Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation.”
Whether you choose to do meditation or do long-walks, the above Bhagavad Gita quote is a good reference for how to find inner peace. Have enough sleep but not too much. To translate it to modern language, that means don’t stay in bed until noon on weekends. Don’t eat too little to a degree that you are losing weight in an unhealthy way. The “don’t eat too much” part is quite hard to do for most people. We have to learn to be mindful when we are eating. When we still want to eat after we have eaten enough, ask yourself, “Am I eating this because I have a lot of stress so I want to make myself happy by eating?” If so, be aware of that. Try to use the awareness to get rid of your desire to eat that cake. If not, at least try to see less or replace it with some healthier food. By the way, there is a method that is very useful. Since will power is a limited resource, if you walk by places with tasty and unhealthy food after a day of work, you are almost certainly going to buy that junk food or desert. Know that your will power is at the lowest after a day of work and change your route so that you won’t walk by places with temptation.
5. “There is more happiness in doing one’s own path without excellence than in doing another’s path well.”
Find the thing that both you like and you are good at. That’s your life purpose and it’s your path. For example, don’t be a doctor because your parents want you to be one. Don’t be an investment banker because your banker friend makes a lot of money. It takes time to find your path and it takes hard work to stay on that path.
6. “The actions of a great man are an inspiration for others. Whatever he does becomes a standard for others to follow.”
The above quote says a lot about both leadership and parenting. Let’s say you are a parent. You can easily tell your child a lot of beautiful lessons such as the importance of hard work and honesty. However, if you are doing what you say yourself, the child is going to learn from your actions but not from your words. For a leader, you should also lead by examples. Words are useful for communication, but they are only effective if you can back them up yourself.
