GITA Ch.3 - Arjuna's confusion

Gita Chapter III: Krishna's reply in Slokam-3

Purify Mind thro' Karma Yoga, practise Jnana Yoga, gain Atma Jnana and achieve freedom from bondage (moksha)

Desiring for the fruits of actions initiated for fulfillment of one's desires creates pain/pleasure and an ever-repeating cycle of 'action-reaction-action' known as samsara saagara. It is also the cause of rebirth. We take a new body repeatedly to experience karma phalam. If, however, we perform actions with Ishvara bhaava in fulfillment of His purpose without desire for fulfillment of the desires of the ego-self, we cross the samsara sagaram and are released from the bond of repeated births, attain to the blissful state of the immortal abode. Sages who possess stitha pragnya dedicate the fruits of their actions to the Vasudeva Kutumbam, not for personal 'enjoyment'. The buddhi referred to in the three verses 49, 50 and 51 of Gita Ch. II is the wisdom of the Sankhyas, i.e., the knowledge of the Self, Atma-Jnana which dawns when the mind is purified by Karma Yoga.

Chapter III opens with Arjuna expressing his confusion: Yoga of Knowledge or Yoga of Action? Krishna instructs him that self-less action through Karma Yoga cleanses the mind and prepares the sadhaka to receive atma gnyana, knowledge which takes him to the Goal. Ramana Maharishi described the nature of such action as: Ishvaraarpitam na icchayaa kritam, chitta shodhakam mukti saadhakam - that action which is dedicated to the Lord and is not initiated to satisfy the mind's ego-based desires for power, possession and pleasure but action for the benefit of the samudaayam, society at large and public weal. Such action, Karma Yoga, leads to the Jnana Yoga path and the ultimate goal of sat-chit-ananda, bliss-experience.

God created the world, with many dedicated, determined people who can and are willing to work for establishing harmony in the world; these are the karma-yogis, aware of the duty entrusted to them by the Creator. They motivate people like Arjuna to join them in their work for God. Perhaps, that is the reason for the last slokam in Bhagavd Gita (18.78):
yatra yogeshvarah krishno/ yatra partho dhanur-dharah/
tatra shreeh vijayo bhootih  dhruvaa neetih matirmama 
Swami Chinmayananda has explained the significance of this picture of the togetherness of Krishna and Arjuna lucidly thus:

 यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः।

                     तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम।।18.78।।

"ARJUNA, READY WITH HIS BOW (Paartho-Dhanurdharah) --- Paartha represents here 'the confused, limited, ordinary mortal, with all his innumerable weaknesses, agitations and fears.' When he has thrown down his "instrument" of effort and achievement, his bow, and has reclined to impotent idleness, no doubt, there is no hope for any success or prosperity. But when he is "READY WITH HIS BOW," when he is no more idle but has a willing readiness to use his faculties to brave the challenges of life, there, in that man, we recognise a 'PAARTHA READY WITH HIS BOW'. Now putting these two pictures together --- Lord Krishna, the Yogeshwarah, and Arjuna, the Dhanurdharah --- the symbolism of a way-of-life gets completed, wherein, reinforced with spiritual understanding, man gets ready to exert and pour in his endevours, to tame life and master prosperity (shreyas). In such a case, there is no power that can stop him from success. In short, the creed of the Geeta is that spirituality can be lived in life, and true spiritual understanding is an asset to a man engaged in the battle-of-life.

In modern, day-to-day lives we will be taking the first few steps if we work towards maintaining harmony between the husband and wife, ourselves learn and practise ethical/moral values and inculcate values in the children, keeping a check on our own egoistic behaviour. As Rajaji defined: Culture is restraint. Gita instructs us in many ways how to be successful in this art. Let us make a beginning in this janmam, the present life. - krishnaswamy
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Commentary on Gita Ch.III-Sloka 3 from GitaSuper-site

Sri Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary
English translation by Swami Adi-devananda

3.3 The Lord said -- You have not properly understood what I taught you before. In this world, full of people with varying degrees of qualifications, I have taught in the days of yore two ways, that of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and that of works, according to the qualifications of aspirants. There is no contradiction in this. It is not possible for all people of the world in whom the desire for release has arisen, to become capable immediately for the practice of Jnana Yoga. But he who performs the worship of the Supreme Person without desire for fruits and thereby gets completely rid of inner impurities and keeps his senses unagitated --- he becomes competent for the path of knowledge.That all activities are for performing the worship of the Supreme Person will be taught in the Gita verse, 'He from whom the activities of all beings arise and by whom all this is pervaded --- by worshipping Him with his duty man reaches perfection' (18.46). Earlier also performance of activities without any attachment to the fruits is enjoined by the verse beginning with. 'You have the right to work alone ...' (2.47). Next for those whose intellect has been redeemed by this kind of discipline, is enjoined Jnana Yoga by the words, 'When a man renounces all the desires ...' (2.55).Consequently, firm devotion to Jnana Yoga is taught only to the Sankhyas, i.e., those persons who are competent to follow the discipline of the knowledge of the self, and Karma Yoga to Yogins, i.e., to those competent for the path of work. Sankhya means Buddhi and those who are endowed with the Buddhi (intellectual or mental disposition) having only the self for its object, are Sankhyans. Therefore those who are not fit for this are qualified for Karma Yoga. Those who are possessed of Buddhi which is agitated by objects of the senses, are the persons qualified for Karma Yoga, whereas those whose Buddhi is not thus agitated, are qualified for Jnana Yoga. Therefore nothing contradictory and confusing is taught.It is said in the next stanza that Jnana Yoga is difficult to practise all at once, even when the desire for release arises in any worldly person.
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Sri Sankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary
English translation by Swami Gambhirananda
3.3 anagha, O unblemished one, O sinless one; This word of address suggests that Arjuna is qualified to receive the Lord's instruction. dvividha, two kinds of ; nishTha, steadfastness, persistence in what is undertaken; asmin loke, in this world, for the people of the three castes who are qualified for following the scriptures; proktaa, were spoken of; maya, by Me, the omniscient God, who had revealed for them the traditional teachings of the Vedas, which are the means of securing prosperity and the highest Goal; puraa, in the days of yore, in the beginning the creation, after having brought into being the creatures.Now then, which is that steadfastness of two kinds? In answer the Lord says: The steadfastness jnaanayogena, through the Yoga of Knowledge-Knowledge itself being the Yoga Here jnaana, Knowledge, refers to the knowledge of the supreme Reality, and Yoga is used in the derivative sense of 'that (Knowledge) through which one gets united with Brahman'.-; had been stated saankhyaanaam, for the men of realization-those possessed of the Knowledge arising from the discrimination with regard to the Self and the not-Self, those who have espoused monasticism from the stage of Celibacy; itself, those to whom the entity presented by the Vedantic knowledge has become fully ascertained (see Mu. 3.2.6)-,the monks who are known as the parama-hamsas, those who are established in Brahman alone. And the steadfastness karma-yogena, through the Yoga of Action-action itself being the Yoga Yoga here means 'that through which one gets united with, comes to have, prosperity', i.e. such actions as go by the name of righteousness and are prescribed by the scriptures. had been stated yoginaam, for the yogis, the men of action (rites and duties).

This is the idea. Again, had it been intended or stated or if it will be stated in the Gita by the Lord-and if it has also been so stated in the Vedas-that Knowledge and action are to be practised in combination by one and the same person for attaining the same human Goal, why then should He here tell His dear supplicant Arjuna, that steadfastness in either Knowledge or action is to be practised only by different persons who are respectively qualified? If, on the other hand, it be supposed that the Lord's idea is, 'After hearing about both Knowledge and action, Arjuna will himself practise them (in combination); but, to others, I shall speak of them as being meant to be pursued by different persons', then the Lord would be imagined to be unreliable, being possessed of likes and dislikes! And that is untenable. So, from no point of view whatsoever can there be a combination of Knowledge and action. And what has been said by Arjuna regarding superiority of Wisdom over action, that stands confirmed for not having been refuted; and (it also stands confirmed) that steadfastness in Knowledge is suitable for being practised by monks alone. And from the statement that they (Knowledge and action) are to be followed by different persons, it is understood that this has the Lord's approval.

Noticing that Arjuna had become dejected under the impression, 'You are urging me to that very action which is a source of bondage', and was thinking thus, 'I shall not undertake action', the Lord said, 'Na karmanaam anaarambhaat, not by abstaining from action,' etc. Or:-When steadfastness in Knowledge and steadfastness in action become incapable of being pursued simultaneously by one and the same person owing to mutual contradiction, then, since it may be concluded that they become the cause of attaining the human Goal independently of each other, therefore, in order to show-that the steadfastness in action is a means to the human Goal, not independently, but by virtue of being instrumental in securing steadfastness in Knowledge; and that, on the other hand, steadfastness in Knowledge, having come into being through the means of steadfastness in action, leads to the human Goal independently without anticipating anything else-,the Lord said.
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Commentary by Swami Sivananda
The path of knowledge of the Sankhyas (Jnana Yoga) was described by Lord Krishna in chapter II, verses 11 to 38; the path of action (Karma Yoga) from 40 to 53. Pura Prokta may also mean "In the beginning of creation the twofold path was given by Me to this world." Those who are endowed with the four means and who have sharp, subtle intellect and bold understanding are fit for Jnana Yoga. Those who have a tendency or inclination for wok are fit for Karma Yoga. (The four means are discrimination, dispassion, six-fold virutes, and longing for liberation. The six-fold virtues are: control of the mind, control of the senses, fortitude (endurance), turning away from the objects of the world, faith and tranquility.) It is not possible for a man to practise the two Yogas simultaneously. Karma Yoga is a means to an end. It purifies the heart and prepares the aspirant for the reception of knowledge. The Karma Yogi should take up Jnana Yoga as soon as his heart is purified. Jnana Yoga takes the aspirant directly to the goal without any extraneous help. (compare: ch.V.5).
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(Individuals like Ramana Maharishi who have cleansed their mind in previous births are born ready to continue their travel on the spiritual path, to practice Jnana Yoga and realise moksha. - krishmaswamy)

GOD AND EVIL

CEM Joad (author of "God and Evil", was an active, crusading atheist who changed after experiencing the “evil at large in the world” during World War II. He has explained the change thus, in his own words:

".... the conclusions of the intellect deny that the orthodox God of the religious hypothesis - omnipotent and benevolent, could have been the creator of the world; and deny it precisely because of the fact of evil. But if the intellect denies what the heart demands, what then? [...] perhaps the deadlock is a sign of, perhaps it is even a punishment for, intellectual arrogance...

The considerations which have set my mind working again on the problems of religion are of an emotional order [...].the emotions are those connected with inadequacy. The life that lacks religion lacks, so I have come to feel, fullness and roundness, and the desire to find that true which I have always believed to be false, to know something of that which I have thought to be unknowable grows as the years pass by. One is dismayed by the evil at large in the world and in oneself, depressed and humiliated by the inadequacy of one's efforts to cope with it, humiliated then by the inadequacy of one's own self.

It is from precisely such a feeling of humiliation that, religious writers have often urged, the search for and need of God, take their rise. What is more, the seeker who is inspired by such a mood may not be wholly without hope of succeeding in his quest. For alienated by intellectual pride , they have assured us, God draws nearer to those who approach Him in humbleness of spirit."
***
My own change from disbelief in my younger days to starting on the path of self-enquiry was aided by a reading of this book and later, other writings and attending discourses. At the root of the problem is the hard fact that if one does not become aware of the limitations of the logical mind and allows it to have dominance over oneself, it will never be possible to reconcile the existence of God with the prevalence of evil and develop Faith. This same ever-questioning mind is also capable of changing into a silent one with deeper and different perception of the world, through contemplation and meditation.
I have only made a beginning in this life - much later than present day youngsters who commence the walk on the spiritual path much earlier. I hope that these late efforts will carry me through to the next life as assured by Shri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita and as envisaged in the following statement about re-birth by John D Barrow: "Perhaps, the end of life in the universe is really just like turning off your computer, and then turning it on later on — the same information stored. But, I don't know."
Seems similar to the Hindu Vasana theory, of tendencies carried over from one birth to the next. We are free to delete, modify, add, erase and start afresh every time and any time.

Oprah, Elie Wiesel, problem of God Evil
Oprah's interview with Elie Weisel, is published at: http://www2.oprah.com/omagazine/200011/omag_200011_elie_b.jhtml.
An extract, in which Wiesel reiterates his acceptance of God, inspite of his traumatic experience:

Oprah: Where are you and God with each other these days?

Elie Wiesel: We still have a few problems! But even in the camps, I never divorced God. After the war, I went on praying to God. I was angry. I protested.
I'm still protesting—and occasionally, I'm still angry. But it's not because of the past, but the present. When I see victims of a tragedy—and especially children— I say to God,
"Don't tell me that you have nothing to do with this. You are everywhere—you are God."
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If we read our Puranic stories, we notice that God took avatars (literally - came down to earth) *after* atrocities by evil tyrants had happened. In the famous Gita Slokam "*yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanir bhavati*" Krishna assures only that whenever Adharma prevails over Dharma, He comes down to restore the balance in favour of Dharma. There is no explanation as to why adharma was allowed to prevail, in the first instance.
The problem baffling all genuine seekers (not those who merely question to satisfy their intelligent ego), is the obtrusiveness of evil and the absence of a logical explanation for its power and its existence in an universe that owes its origin and existence to God, who is portrayed/ postulated as omnipotent and benevolent. If Elie Weisel could accept God's presence with Faith, why can't we too?

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A few relevant Quotes:
We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.-A. W. Tozer

Whatever be our conception of the universe we must, it is obvious, start somehow; we must begin with something; and the something with which we begin, from the very fact that we do begin with it, must itself be without explanation, since, if something else were invoked to explain it, then the "something else" must needs be logically prior to that which it is invoked to explain. Thus the "something" being explained by a logically prior "something else" could not have been ultimate. -- C. E. M. Joad, in God and Evil

Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal -- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever. ... Dwight Lyman Moody

If we consider the lives of people who believe in God, we so often find that they make good sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, employers, and employees -- they have many individual virtues; but they have no way of life other than that which has been imposed upon them by their environment. It is their sociological conditions, their social class, their neighbourhood, their national characteristics, rather than their spiritual faith, which determine their outlook and values: they are an overwhelming demonstration that it is the economic conditions and background of one's life which determine what one is and what one will think. This is an intolerable condition, and so long as it persists we shall not be able to make any impact on the world, because it will be abundantly clear that it is the world which is making its impact upon us. ... Douglas Rhymes, in "The Place of the Laity in the Parish"

When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs. -- Thomas à Kempis

When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!” -- Richard Bach

IGNORANCE IS BLISS?

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise" - Thomas Gray

The oft-quoted mantra of 'Ignorance is bliss' is a clever but specious quip. It has raised the status of Ignorance to a pseudo-virtue. Many are quite fond of quoting it to justify to themselves their general indifference to all things religious/scriptural. But the quote is actually a statement of sad and profound irony. It appears at the end of a poem by Thomas Gray titled "Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College":

• To each his sufferings: all are men,
  Condemned alike to groan;
  The tender for another's pain,
  Th' unfeeling for his own.
  Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
  Since sorrow never comes too late,
  And happiness too swiftly flies?
  Thought would destroy their Paradise.
  No more; where ignorance is bliss,
  'Tis folly to be wise.

The "Ode" by Thomas Gray is a poem of great moral despair and it ends with those famous lines on a deeply ironical note. It was written at a time when England was in the throes of great economic and social turmoil caused by the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The poet was reflecting upon the many ills and injustices that were bedeviling his country but of which his countrymen, the silent and thoughtless, seemed utterly ignorant. The line "Where Ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise" actually was meant to describe the attitude of the young but ignorant English masses of those times. They had really "no sense of ills to come"; they didn't seem to know "their fate". They busied themselves only with the humdrum, day-to-day cares of personal life and livelihood. They did not seem to "care beyond today", believing that any thought of the Beyond would only "destroy their (petty, private) paradise" (an apt description, perhaps, of the non-voting population every where).

From the Unreal to Real - Upanishad

ASATO MAA SADGAMAYA
Thanks to: http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/asatoma.php

asato maa sadgamaya
tamaso maa jyotir gamaya
mrtyormaa amrtam gamaya

Lead me from the asat to the sat.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)

This is true prayer—the seeker’s admission of his sense of limited-ness and his heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is not a prayer for the things of the world. It is not a prayer for food, shelter, health, partnership, riches, success, fame, glory or even for heaven. One who recites these three mantras has realized that such things are full of holes, soaked in pain and, even in abundance, will forever leave him wanting. It is in this full understanding that one turns to this prayer.
The essence of each of these three mantras is the same: "O, Guru, help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings regarding myself, the universe and God, and bless me with true knowledge." It is in this spirit that devotees regularly chant these mantras twice daily, both at the conclusion of the morning archana and after the evening aarati.

The first mantra, asato maa sadgamaya means, "Lead me from the asat to the sat." In fact, it is best to not translate sat (nor its negative counterpart asat) for, as with many Sanskrit words, sat has many meanings; not only are most of them applicable here, their deliberate combined import provides a depth that no one of them could hold independently. These co-applicable meanings include: existence, reality and truth. (Co-applicable meanings for asat being: non-existence, non-reality and untruth.) We often speak of religion or philosophy as a search for Truth. But only in India’s philosophy of Advaita-Vedanta has the concept of "truth" been so meticulously and successfully dissected.
According to Advaita, for something to be considered true in the ultimate sense, it must be true not just at one given moment, but always be true — true in all three periods of time: the past, present and future.
In fact, Advaita goes one step further. It says: if something does not exist in all three periods of time then it does not truly exist, it is not ultimately real. Thus, truth, existence and reality are one and the same. That reality, Vedanta says, is what we call God.

The universe and its things are in a constant state of change. The planets are in constant motion, their positions in relation to each other and the other astral bodies are in continuous flux. The seasons similarly are ever-shifting. Scientifically, we can easily understand that our bodies (and the cells within them) come into existence, are born and then go through periods of growth, sustenance, deterioration and death. In fact these six modifications are part-and-parcel of everything in creation. On the level of emotions, we move back and forth between happiness, sorrow and anger. Even our intellectual convictions rarely stay fixed for very long. Therefore, according to Vedanta, we cannot call this world ultimately real. It is not ultimately true. Ultimately, it does not exist. It seems real etc. but it is not. Such a thing is called asat.

The seeker giving voice to this prayer has come to understand the finite nature of all the objects of the world, and he wants the Guru to guide him from the asat to the sat. He is fed up with depending on things that are not real. Why? Because just as the sandcastle is always washed away by the tide, dependence on the asat always ends in pain. sat is our True Self— the blissful consciousness that ever was, is and ever will be. Being beyond time, this consciousness can never be washed away by time’s tides. In fact, sat is there as the essential part of all of the asat objects. It is a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were. When speaking about the ultimate reality, Sages say it is of the nature of sat-cit-ananda: pure existence, pure consciousness and pure bliss.

The second mantra — tamaso maa jyotirgamaya — means "Lead me from darkness to light." When the Vedas refer to darkness and light, they mean ignorance and knowledge, because ignorance, like darkness, obscures true understanding. And in the same way that the only remedy for darkness is light, the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge. The knowledge spoken of here is again the knowledge of one’s true nature. Currently, in the darkness of our ignorance, we believe ourselves to be bound and limited. But the Guru and the scriptures are telling us that, in truth, we are not, never will be and never have been bound. Eternally we are sat-cit-ananda. The only thing that can remove our ignorance regarding our true nature is spiritual education at the hands of a True Master. At the culmination of such an education, light floods the room, as it were; darkness vanishes.

The final mantra mrtyormaa amrtam gamaya — means: "Lead me from death to immortality." This should not be taken as a prayer to live endless years in heaven or on earth. It is a prayer to the Guru for assistance in realizing the truth that "I was never born, nor can I ever die, as I am not the body, mind and intellect, but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the substratum of all creation."
It is important to remember that, with all these mantras, the leading is not a physical leading. The Atma is not something far away that we have to make a pilgrimage to, nor is it something we need to transform ourselves into. Atma means "self". We do not need to transform our self into our self. Nor do we need to travel to it. We are it. The journey is a journey of knowledge. It is journey from what we misunderstood to be our self to what truly is our self. What the mantras really mean is "Lead me to the understanding that I am not the limited body, mind and intellect, but am, was and always will be that eternal, absolute, blissful consciousness that serves as their substratum."

The first step in attaining the knowledge for which one is praying when one chants these mantras is satsang: listening to spiritual talks, reading spiritual books and being in the company of spiritual seekers and, most importantly, spiritual masters. We need to continuously be fed the knowledge that our true nature is the Atma and not the body, mind and intellect. Through satsang, our attachment to the asat gradually lessens. Slowly as we understand that everything in the world — all worldly relationships, all worldly things — are ever-changing and impermanent, our attitude towards the world changes. We gain detachment. As we become more and more detached, our desires also naturally decrease, because we know that the things of the world are impermanent and cannot bring us lasting happiness. As the desires decrease, the mind becomes less and less agitated. It obtains serenity, stillness, peace. Then, with this stilled, subtle, penetrating mind we can finally come to realize our true nature.

In Vedanta, heaven—or rather heavens—are accepted as part of the lower reality. Unlike in other religions, going to heaven is not professed to be the ultimate goal of life. According to Vedanta, heaven can be likened to a vacation resort. After death, if one has done enough good deeds in life, one can go to heaven for a very long time. But eventually he will have to return to the earthly plane. Thus even though one may be in heaven, he is still bound and mired of ignorance to his true nature.

As it says in the Bhagavad-Gita:
From Brahma Loka to the lowest world,
all are places of misery wherein
repeated birth and death take place O Arjuna.
But one who comes to me, O son of Kunti,
never takes birth again. (Gita 8:16)

The human goal according Vedanta is Self-realization. The Atma is the ultimate reality. When one realizes one's true nature, one attains spiritual fulfillment in this life itself. Then, upon death, one does not go to any heavenly abode but simply merges into the supreme reality.

THE KALPATARU TREE

May I share with the readers, Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya's excellent essay on
"Desire under the Kalpataru Tree" in which he quotes extensively from the Mahabharata: http://www.boloji.com/hinduism/076.htm and explains how we in our wish-fulfillment efforts, have to pay a high unanticipated future-cost and why we have to be wise in wishing for anything.

At the end of this very well-written article, the author concludes:
"This, then, is the picture of 'Desire under the Kalpataru': Desire, if powerful, does get fulfilled, but brings in its wake a price to be paid which, more often than not, outweighs the gratification experienced through fulfillment of the desire. [....] It is Yayati who sums it up in words of deceptive simplicity that go straight to the mark:

Desire never ends,
Desire grows with feeding,
Like sacrificial flames
Lapping up ghee.
Become the sole lord of
The world's paddy fields, wheat-fields,
Precious stones, beasts, women...
Still not enough.
Discard desire.
This disease kills. The wicked
Cannot give it up, old age
Cannot lessen it. True happiness
Lies in controlling it. (Mahabharata Adi parva, 85.12-14)

The experience of Vyasa's Yayati is echoed by a great epic poet of the occident John Milton, in 'Paradise Lost':

...They, fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with lust, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter ashes.

This is the existential experience which pervades the Mahabharata and which Vyasa, the oriental seer-poet, envisions as an outcome of man's fascination with the Kalpataru. Vyasa creates a marvelously eidetic picture of this symbol in the words of Krsna in the Gita (15.1-3):

Mention is made of a cosmic fig-tree
Rooted above,
whose leaves are said to be the Vedas;
the knower of this fig-tree
is the knower of the Vedas.
Its branches reach out below and above,
its flowers are the objects of the senses;
below the ground flourish more roots,
giving birth to action.
You may not see its real shape,
nor its end, birth and existence.
Slice this fig-tree with non-attachment".

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My Note:
For an illustration of Yayati's statement: "Discard desire. This disease kills" and Oscal Wilde's ironical observation:."When the Gods choose to punish us, they merely answer our prayers" , you may like to read the strange, scary story of "The Monkey's Paw" "

Miscellaneous:

The Kalpataru had kindled in us a spark of fire by granting our first wish and this has now grown into a blazing fire which consumes us and we are unable to control or extinguish it.
We generally do not know what is ultimately good for ourselves. Instead of leaving it to the Lord to grant our needs, we demand from God the granting of our desires, like a petulant child not knowing: "Mother knows best". The result, according to Oscal Wilde:
     When the Gods choose to punish us,
     they merely answer our prayers!
     To have all our prayers answered might be a curse!
Therefore, the Wise surrender to the Lord's Will, believe with great faith that He best knows what we need and accept what we receive from Him as Prasadam.
Krishnaswamy
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The Kalpataru Story as told by Sri Ramakrishna, retold by Pradip Bhattacharya:

The Wish-Fulfilling Tree

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Hinduism/2000/08/The-Wish-Fulfilling-Tree.aspx# 

BY: Pradip Bhattacharya  (Reprinted from Indianest.com with permission.)

One way of gaining insight into the cosmic doctrine of karma is through the parable of the Kalpataru, the wish-fulfilling tree, narrated by Sri Ramakrishna:

Into a room full of children at play walks their uncle, who, of course, knows better. Laughing at their preoccupation with make-believe games, he asks them to go out to the massive banyan tree, which will grant them whatever they wish! The children rush out, stand under the branches of this huge tree that cover the sky, and ask for what all children crave: toys and candy. In a flash they get what they want, but along with an unexpected bonus: the built-in opposite of what they wished for. With toys they get boredom; with candy, tummy aches.

Sure that something has gone wrong with their wishing, the children ask for bigger toys and sweeter candy. The tree grants them their wishes, and along with them bigger boredom and bigger tummy aches. Time passes. They are now young men and women and their wishes change, for they know more. They ask for wealth, power, fame, sexual pleasure--and they get these, but also cupidity, insomnia, anxiety, and frustration/disease.

Time passes. The wishers are now old and gather in three groups under the all-encompassing branches. The first group exclaims, "All this is an illusion!" Fools, they have learnt nothing. The second group says, "We are wiser and will wish better next time." Greater fools, they have learnt less than nothing. The third group, disgusted with everything, decides to cop out and asks for death. They are the most foolish of all. The tree grants them their desire, and with it its opposite: rebirth, under the same tree. For, where can one be born, or reborn, but within this cosmos!

All this while one child has been unable to move out of the room. Being lame, he was pushed down in the scramble and when he dragged himself to the window, he was transfixed watching his friends make their wishes, get them with their built-in opposites and suffer, yet compulsively continue to make more wishes. Riveted by this utterly engrossing  lila of desire and its fruits, a profound swell of compassion welled up in the heart of this lame child, reaching out to his companions. 

In that process, he forgot to wish for anything for himself. In that moment of spontaneous compassion for others, he sliced through the roots of the cosmic tree with the sword of non-attachment, of nishkama karma. He is the liberated one, the mukta -purusha.

WHAT IS GOODNESS? - by TAGORE

The question will be asked, "What is goodness? What does our moral nature mean?"
My answer is that when a man begins to have an extended vision of his self, when he realizes that he is much more than at present he seems to be, he begins to get conscious of his moral nature. Then he grows aware of that which he is yet to be, and the state not yet experienced by him becomes more real than that under his direct experience.
Necessarily, his perspective of life changes, and his will takes the place of his wishes. For will is the supreme wish of the larger life, the life whose greater portion is out of our present reach, most of whose objects are not before our sight.
Then comes the conflict of our lesser man with our greater man, of our wishes with our will, of the desire for things affecting our sense with the purpose that is within our heart. Then we begin to distinguish between what we immediately desire and what is good. For good is that which is desirable for our greater self. Thus, the sense of goodness comes out of a truer view of our life, which is connected view of the wholeness of the field of life, and which takes into account not only what is present before us but what is not, and perhaps never humanly can be.
--Rabindranath Tagore, in Sadhan

ON CONSOLING

Over the years, I’ve tried to find simple ways to help ordinary people know what to do and remember how to be when in the company of someone in sorrow. A simple acronym, SALT— as in the salt of tears—emerged as a teaching tool to help learn by heart four basic premises for support. Four chapters in the book, a chapter for each letter, are dedicated to illustrating each skill:

• See them.
• Allow them.
• Listen to them.
• Trust them.

If you can simply See those in grief without acting on the urge to do something right away, you have taken the first step toward helping them to heal. Your unconditional compassion, without criticism and without your own projection, will Allow them to do what they need to. They may need to talk; your best response would be to Listen generously, without interruption, without asking questions or telling your own story. And finally, Trust that within them is everything they need to traverse this difficult path. They do not need your rescue. They need your quiet, steady faith in their resilience. -Marianna Cacciatore http://mariannacacciatore.com/introduction.htm