Everyday Geeta

June 19, 2013 I came across Ron Finley thanks to the wonderful program on NPR's Ted Radio Hour called " Giving It Away" . It is full of wonderful stories of people who gave their time and energy to something bigger than themselves but not necessarily, something glamorous. They brought change the best way they know how. There are so many wonderful quotes for a Geeta lover - it is easy to connect these to the topic of Yajña spirit (cooperative endeavor for a higher cause) and generosity (दान). I can't resist quoting verbatim from the NPR program. RAZ is Guy Raz , the NPR presenter of the TED Radio Hour. RAZ: And his garden, it's literally in front of his house, on the sidewalk, open to the public 24/7. No formal invitation required. And in the beginning, the idea of a community garden on the sidewalk in South Central was so strange that his neighbors would mock him. They'd call him ... FINLEY: Ronny Appleseed. RAZ: Ronny Appleseed. FINLEY : I remember this ti...

December 30, 2012 Thanks to NPR 's TED Radio Hour broadcast on the " Power of Crowds ", I present Marcin Jakubowski and Open Source Ecology . It is a great follow-up to my earlier post on Wikipedia's 10th Anniversary . In that post, I had extolled Wikipedia as a great example of the यज्ञ that is at the heart of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's prescription of Karma Yoga as the road to freedom from the bondage of action. Take this wonderful TED talk by Marcin Jakubowski and take a look at the Open Source Ecology website (OSE). I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I needed to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn't exist yet. I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly efficient and optimized, low-cost, made from local and recycled materials that would last a lifetime, not designed for obsolescence. I found that I would have to build them myself. So I did just that. And I tested them. And I found that industrial productivity can be achieved o...

December 12, 2012 In Geeta 3-10, Śrī Kṛṣṇa states: सहयज्ञाः प्रजाः सृष्ट्वा पुरोवाच प्रजापतिः | अनेन प्रसविष्यध्वमेष वोऽस्त्विष्टकामधुक् ||३-१०|| At the beginning (of creation), having created mankind, together with sacrifices, The PRAJAPATI (the Creator),said, "by this shall you prosper; let this be the milch-cow of your desire - "Kāmadhuk" (the mythological cow which yields all desired objects). I came across a wonderful letter by Param Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji in my personal collection. Pujya Gurudev always referred to his public Geeta talks as Geeta Gnana Yagna borrowing from verse 4-33 in which Śrī Kṛṣṇa declares that Gnana Yagna is superior to any form of material Yagna. He also referred to the process of organizing the Yagna as an exercise in working in the Yagna spirit as in the verse above. Pujya Gurudev constantly guided us (the organizers) with boundless compassion, yet was always insistent on high quality planning to ensure that the audience be a...

April 8, 2012 Recently, at the Bhagavat Geeta Study group we were discussing the following portion of the Geeta नायं लोकोऽस्त्ययज्ञस्य कुतोऽन्यः कुरुसत्तम ||४-३१|| naayaM loko.astyayaGYasya kuto.anyaH kurusattama .. 4-31.. O Arjuna (Kurusattama), even this world is not gained by the non-performer of sacrifice; how then the other (world)? I am struck by how Śri Kŗşņa beautifully connects the spiritual and the secular. For instance, Usain Bolt, featured in the video above, could break six world records because he put in many weeks, days and hours of practice while his classmates were probably out doing what typical teenagers do. While Usain Bolt might be an extreme example, even the simple act of buying a house calls for the homeowner to have saved money by giving up on small pleasures and easy gratifications. Some might see Mark Zuckerberg and think a 'billionaire brat' but I recall how the movie, The Social Network revealed a very focused, hard working young guy who was cons...

January 14th, 2011 Today is the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia. Click here for a detailed view of Wikipedia in Wikipedia. In todays world, this crowd-sourced encyclopedia is wonderful example of what Pujya Gurudev refers to as the Yagna spirit as described by Śhri Krishna in chapter 3. यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः | तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसङ्गः समाचर ||३-९|| yaGYaarthaatkarmaNo.anyatra loko.aya.n karmabandhanaH . tadartha.n karma kaunteya muktasaN^gaH samaachara .. 3-9.. The World is bound by action other than those performed 'for the sake of Yagna' ; do thou, therefore, O son of Kunti, perform action of that sake (for Yagna) alone, free from all attachments. Gurudev in his commentary defines the Yagna spirit as "any self-sacrificing work, undertaken in a spirit of self-dedication, for the blessing of all" What is creditable in all the 10 years of its existence is that Wikipedia has remained free for anyone to access the world over and does not accep...