Planning for war involves taking into account all factors that may influence the outcome. One needs to have the resources necessary to fight and ultimately prevail, even if the war is long. It helps to have allies, and accurate intelligence about the enemy, its capabilities and tactics.
The same is true of the war that takes place in the mind, against our weaknesses. For victory in this war, we must avoid disappointment and hopelessness after any temporary setbacks, and to keep the morale high, have the right knowledge and spiritual resources in the form of virtues and inner powers, and allies in the form of good company.
The Bhagavad Gita is a treatise on how to win the war against vices.
When Arjuna put down his bow and refused to fight his kin on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, God as represented by Shri Krishna proceeded to instruct him on the true nature of the self and God, one’s duties in this world and the way one should conduct one’s life.
He tells Arjuna how desire leads to delusion and sorrow, and how to conquer it.
“Controlling the senses first, do thou kill this sinful thing (desire), the destroyer of knowledge and realisation,” He tells Arjuna.
Wisdom is enveloped by the constant enemy of the wise in the form of desire, which is unappeasable as fire, He says. “It is desire, it is anger born of the quality of ‘Rajas’, all-sinful and all-devouring; know this as the foe here.”
This effort, God says, is not just for sages and renunciates, but for everyone, and can be made even while fulfilling one’s temporal duties.
God tells Arjuna about the qualities we must possess in order to attain salvation, or victory over vices. He speaks of the traits of those given to ignorance and devilish ways, and of how our flaws bring sorrow and bondage.
Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in yoga and knowledge, control of the senses, generosity, sacrifice, austerity and straightforwardness, peacefulness, compassion, vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, absence of hatred, absence of pride — these belong to one born in a divine state, says God.
In this way, God sums up the resources needed for success in the battle against vices.
He also makes clear what one must avoid or give up. “The demoniacal know not what to do and what to refrain from; neither purity nor right conduct nor truth is found in them.” Filled with insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, they work with impure resolves. They are given over to egoism, power, haughtiness, lust and anger.
God says three principal vices lead to hell. “Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self — lust, anger, and greed — therefore, one should abandon these three.”
One who avoids these three gates to darkness, “practises what is good for him and thus goes to the supreme goal. He gets the company of sages, which leads to liberation. He receives spiritual instructions, practises them and attains self-realisation.
In the above passage, God indicates the importance of good company and the benefit it brings. Such company helps the spiritual aspirant in his daily life, keeps up his zeal, and is a valuable source of support if dejection or disappointment set in for some reason.
But above all, the best friend of the spiritual aspirant – other than God — is the self, He says.
“Let a man lift himself by his own self alone, let him not lower himself; for this self is the friend of oneself and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.”
And the way to make the self a friend is to control the lower impulses of the body, mind, and senses by the power of the higher self. “Then the higher self becomes one’s friend”, God says. Enriched with virtues, fortified by inner strength, supported by enlightened companions, and with God’s guidance and protection, one ultimately attains victory.
B.K. Usha is a Rajyoga teacher at the Brahma Kumaris headquarters in Abu Road, Rajasthan.