Bhagawad Gita- The Encyclopedia of Psychology & Counselling

 As today is the auspicious day of Gita Jayanthi, Vaikuntha Ekadashi, let us focus on Bhagawad Gita.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gita_Jayanti

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikuntha_Ekadashi

There are so many interpretations, learnings, teachings, perspectives by so many people, devotees, gurus, babas & researchers throughout the world.

My views are as follows-

From the Psychology perspective, I feel Bhagad Gita is the first ever form of counselling done in the ancient history of India by the Supreme Master Psychologist, Lord Shri Krishna to Arjuna, who was under full of confusion about his roles and responsibilities and was about to quit the battle field. The Lord Sri Krishna enlightens Arjuna about several aspects of life, relations and how to deal with all. He makes him feel the responsibility and fulfill it. Though, it appears to be a one-to-one counselling, it has become the reference manual for several people. The spiritual intelligence gained by mastering the principles of Bhagawd Gita has become a basic foundation of the spiritual gurus and babas for their philosophical and spiritual discourses (Mass Counselling).  

As the solution for every problem in life can be found in Bhagawad Gita, it has become a usual practice to refer to it in such difficult situations only. It is almost similar to the kind of negative perception people used to have about psychology and counselling earlier. But, the fact is that there is a lot of positive things we can learn from Gita. Gita is the way of life which all people should know and follow in their daily practice. The positive psychology offered by Gita gives a proper direction to our lives so that the Happiness & Peace in life are achieved with higher level of Consciousness.

We can refer to some of the relevant research literature for understanding the use of Gita in Psychology and Counselling-

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361835/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705702/

http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijap.20140402.01.html

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2018/jan/25/psychology-lessons-from-bhagavad-gita-1763041.html

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311908.2018.1467255

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/gita-my-basis-for-counselling-hindus-in-us-military/article6605265.ece

https://www.mygov.in/newindia/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/newindia285254_1507102842.pdf

 

Let us try to understand the essence of Gita and integrate it to our lives…

लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु || - Happy World - A Prospective Perspective

Continuing the concept of making the Good Morning wishes as discussed in my blog earlier, I started thinking about the general wish we all normally make “Good morning” with the wish that if the morning is good the day will be good. So, our aim is to wish Good day… In my first blog post https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/04/happiness-main-goal-of-life.html, I explained why Happiness should be the main goal of life. So the word “Happy” is comparatively a better term than “good”. That’s why even most of the motivators or psychologists say whenever we are asked how we are… we should reply “I am happy” rather than saying “I am fine or I am good”. As “Happy” is superior to the word “good”, I thought of replacing it. Then the wish has become "Happy Morning”. In stead of wishing for only morning why can’t we wish for the whole day. With this thought in my mind I changed the wish to be “Happy Day” thinking that Happy Day= Good (morning+evening+night).

But on observation, I felt somewhere we are wishing the time to be good as day, morning, evening, night belong to time scale. Actually, our wish is that he/she whom we are wishing should be happy. Then thought of wishing “Be Happy & Keep Smiling always”.  To include me in the wish, refined it as “Let us be Happy & Keep Smiling always”. But, somewhere in the mind, I felt whether we are becoming selfish by saying so… Then started thinking of a much bigger word with a broader sense… Found the Sanskrit verse “Sarve Janah Sukhniobhavanthu” (All people should be Happy). Then thought why only people should only be happy… Found much broader one… “Lokah Samasthaah Sukhinobhavanthu” (Wishing the whole World to be Happy) … This is the Beauty of our rich Indian culture… Thousands of years ago only, we used to wish the whole world to be happy which included the nature, animals & ecosystem etc. Just think how our thought process was about the Sustainable Development in those ancient times…

Thus, let us go back to our basics and selflessly wish & contribute to the whole world to be happy & healthy…

With the globalization throughout the world, one country alone cannot prosper or be healthy or wealthy unless all are healthy & wealthy… This is proved during this corona pandemic situation. The disease is spreading from one person to the other, one place to the other, one country to the other… Even some diseases spread from the animals to the people then became pandemics.

Happiness is also contagious... So let us spread Happiness...

Being conscious of ourselves as the part of nature ecosystem and making the affirmations, wishes and blessings according to that broader perspective is the key for real happiness…

 

 लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ||

Lokah Samasthaa Sukhino Bhavanthu

HAPPY WORLD

Please find herewith the latest Good Morning & Happy Day wishes I made in continuation with my previous blog post https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/09/good-morning-greetings.html