the great recession gita

Arjuna was weary of industry. He was sure that business sapped the strength of all concerned, and he wished no part of that destruction. Instead he vowed to remain above the fray.

From his vantage point, he watched as banks defaulted and corporations declared bankruptcy. Even countries were failing. The world was going wrong while politicians fiddled their old tunes.

His old friend Krishna dropped by one day, and Arjuna asked him what he, himself, thought of this dire situation. Your dream has gone off-balance, Krishna replied. Your refusal to follow destiny, and dharma, has set your world adrift.

But Krishna, Arjuna answered, certainly I am not responsible for the daily news. Even I, the Great Arjuna, have limits to my ego.

Ah Arjuna, the daily news is only your present news. What is called global recession is only your depression. Do not waste your time considering all the dreams of others. You must act now only for yourself.

But Krishna, nothing really matters in the end. This dream is but a dream.

Krishna replied: do not think about what matters. That is not your duty. Consider this: you are not the dreamer. It is yours to act when acted, dream when dreamt.

But Krishna, even if that’s so, then my action to take no action is being acted for me.

Krishna looked Arjuna in the eye: your thoughts are very intricate, Arjuna. But they are not for you. Don’t listen. They are only thoughts of others you have gained in battle all these years. Listen instead to your heart. Then take action.

But I cannot hear my heart and therefore here I stand knowing no action to take at all.

Arjuna, of course you can hear your heart. Right here, right now, it's speaking to you. And you certainly have answered. Its name is Krishna. Get a job.


Peace to All and One,
Son Rivers

Thoreau the Yogi

It's not surprising that a copy of the Bhagavad Gita was in that hut at Walden. Thoreau was one of my first spiritual teachers, although I wasn’t aware of that fact. I knew him to be telling truths that were irrefutable although impractical in the real world. Of course, now I understand why. It turns out the world as I knew it wasn’t real at all. Or myself, for that matter. In a way, he was transmitting the truths of Yoga, and I was struggling with the beginnings of self-inquiry.

The ascetic mystical love of nature that brought Thoreau to Walden Pond gave him access to the central teaching of the Gita. He perceived the discipline of living in nature as a path leading toward self-knowledge and spiritual realization. He writes in his journal in 1841:

One may discover the root of a Hindoo religion in his own private history when in the silent intervals of the day or night, he does sometimes inflict on himself like austerities with stern satisfaction.

In Walden he emphatically states "My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles.” Walden was for Thoreau a spiritual retreat where he strove to deepen his understanding of his existence and through this understanding to gain release from the terrible bondage of life's compelling illusions. In Indian terms it was the retreat of a yogi who carefully practiced spiritual discipline. In a letter of 1849 to his friend H.G.O. Blake, he wrote about yoga and its private meaning for him:

"Free in this world as the birds in the air disengaged from every kind of chains those who practice the yoga gather in Brahma the certain fruits of their works.

Depend upon it that rude and careless as I am I would fain practice the yoga faithfully.

"The yogi absorbed in contemplation contributes in his degree to creation; he breathes a divine perfume he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him with- out tearing him and united to the nature which is proper to him he goes, he acts, as animating original matter"

To some extent and at rare intervals
even I am a yogi.

~Barbara Stoler Miller from 'Why Did Henry David Thoreau Take the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond'