| Three Questions pertaining to WILL-POWER (Verse Nos. 33.34, 35 of Ch.XVIII, The Gita) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Did the individual have a steadfast will-power, fixed in unshaken faith and piety? OR Did he have his will-power stained whereby one held to the ego for the sake of life and gains? OR Did he have the will wedded to sorrow, folly, despair, misery and a path of least resistance? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comment: Here the word used by the Gita is dhriti, which means, steadiness or firmness of mind. If this hold of the mind is vehement on the side of the vital ego, that becomes the root cause of all sin and wrong-doing. Then the will uses its hold and power only to satisfy the ego which in turn is satisfied only by exercising its proprietory rights on the effects of its actions. This leads on to a complacency that the decisions made are correct and leads further on to a continuation of the same style of exercise of will -- again the obedience to the egoistic ends and a further descent down the vortex of samsaara. punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam. Of course if the will is weak enough not even to hold on to its own selfish aspirations, it takes the path of least resistance and lives with a permanent hang-over of an aversion to any change or progress or self-correction. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| February, 15, 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright Ó V. Krishnamurthy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Four character-types | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Homepage Overview Beginning of this Section Previous Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||