Cultivating Divine Qualities

In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna has

enumerated the pure, the noble and the divine attributes
that a seeker must cultivate. Fearlessness is the foremost
quality stated by the Lord. Becoming fearless is by no
means a small achievement. Human beings live in the grip
of so many fears. What’s more, many are not even aware
of what all they are afraid of. Fear of pain, suffering,
sickness, old age or death – these are some of the overt
sources of fear gripping all of mankind. And you don’t
have to do anything to be fearful of these conditions, as
these fears are instinctive, ingrained. Then there are other
subtler types of fears like fear of heights, fear of darkness,
fear of closed spaces, fear of reptiles and so on. These are
often referred to as phobias. But a devotee, a person
enriched with divine attributes is fearless, totally free from
all kinds of fear, and thus the Lord cites fearlessness as the
foremost divine quality.

The second noble attribute is purity of the antahkaran. A

person of divine disposition always strives to keep his
heart and mind free of all impurities. And no sooner does
he see the presence of any impurity, he readily takes
efforts to cleanse it. Attachment, aversion, anger, lust,
greed, envy are mental impurities. Thus as soon as you
become aware of their presence, endeavour to cleanse, to
expunge them from your mind.

Lord Krishna lists the further noble attributes as steadfast

establishment in gyāna yoga, benevolent sāttvic alms-
giving, bridled senses, performance of yagyās, study of the
scriptures, ascetic practices, uprightness and simplicity of
the mind.

Honesty, straight-forwardness, simplicity of the mind is a

noble quality. Being what you are, with no pretensions, no
facade – it is much better to openly express your
sentiments than try to mask them. But many people are
unable to do this. Thus although they may be seething
with anger within, yet they will wear a fixed smile on their
faces!

In the context of alms-giving, bear in mind that the Lord

says, it should be sāttvic and not rājasic. Rājasic dāna means
alms which are given with the desire for a certain fruit –
be it for the attainment of heaven or acquisition of puṇya
(merit). Such desire prompted acts are selfish acts and are
hence not sāttvic. In sāttvic dāna, alms are given just for the
sake of giving, where the act of giving imparts joy to the
giver and he seeks nothing in return of the charitable act.
Such noble charity is not motivated by any selfish desire.
The giver experiences joy in the very act of giving,
irrespective of what is being given – it could be food,
clothes, money, or knowledge and so on.

The next attribute is disciplining the senses. The Lord says

that for others one should do charity, whereas for oneself
one should be in discipline. This does not mean
suppression of the senses, rather it implies consolidation
of the senses and an obedient mind. Some misconstrue it
to mean that one should close one’s eyes so as to not get
swept away by worldly pleasures. However, in the true
sense it means that even though one may live a worldly
existence, yet not a trace of desire taints the mind.

The next virtue is performing yagya - dravya-yagya, gyāna-

yagya, séwā as well as mantra japa are all yagyās. In
addition, yagya also includes offering wooden sticks, ghee
(clarified butter) and other requisite items in the sacrificial
fire while chanting mantrās.

The next divine treasure is absence of anger. You must be

well aware of how easy it is for people to get angry
whenever someone upsets them. See, it is not possible that
no one will ever upset you or oppose you or cause you
some loss or the other, as this is an inescapable reality of
this life. The Lord says, the only person you can change is
your own self, so do that. But your problem is that you
insist upon changing others. Only then you believe that
you will be fine. Don’t focus upon changing others. Focus
upon your own self, your own behaviour, and your own
reactions. Thus whenever anyone opposes you or does
something wrong, observe and analyse the situation level
headedly. Don’t succumb to the knee-jerk reaction of
getting angry, rather keep your cool. Śrī Krīshna says that
not getting angry even when someone causes you loss or
does something wrong is a divine quality.

Lord Krishna enumerates the next noble virtue –

swādhyaya. One should do swādhyaya which includes
studying the scriptures like the Bhagavad Gītā, Upaniṣads,
words of wisdom uttered by the master. One derives
immense bliss from reading these. Actually swādhyaya
doesn’t mean just studying the scriptures, it means to
study the self; one observes what’s going within. To know
one’s witnessing self is swādhyaya.
The next noble attribute that Lord talks about is austerity,
which can be mental, bodily or pertaining to speech.
Enduring adverse conditions – be it heat, cold, hunger,
thirst without complaining and cribbing. Performing the
Panchagni tapa (five fire asceticism), bathing in the Ganga
in the winter months are forms of austerity too.
Remember, one should never be dependent on bodily
comforts to such an extent that one cannot live without
modern amenities.

The Lord continues enumerating the much needed divine

qualities in the next verse: Non-violence, truthfulness,
absence of anger, renunciation of the sense of doership,
chitta in total repose, absence of malice, vilifying no one,
selfless compassion towards all beings, non-attachment of
the senses to the sensory objects, gentleness, modesty and
refraining from futile activities.

Non-violence doesn’t refer only to not physically harming

anyone but also entails not harming anyone through
speech and even thoughts. Remember that violence first
appears as thoughts and only then does it get expressed
through either speech or physical action. Thus a seeker is
non-violent at the level of his thoughts too. Be non-violent
in thought, speech and action. And how will this happen?
Through practice of truthfulness supplemented with
gentleness. Speak with tenderness, warmth, congeniality.
If someone errs or does something wrong, don’t rush in to
rebuke them. Instead, speak gently, explain tenderly and
moreover try to teach by example. First you walk the talk,
and then it will be easier to get your point across to others.
Lord Krishna lists the next noble attribute, which is
renunciation of the sense of doer-ship. When you perform
actions seeing yourself as the body-senses-mind-intellect,
then you are the doer of those actions. On the contrary,
performing actions whilst knowing that I am not the
body-senses-mind-intellect, that is performance of actions
with a non-doer attitude. And remember, when you are
not the doer of actions, you are not the bearer of the fruits
of the actions. But if you are the doer, you have to be the
bearer, the receiver of the consequences of the actions.

The next attribute mentioned by the Lord is peace,

tranquility. And he defines this as a state wherein the
mind is in complete repose and there is a total absence of
restlessness, agitation and fickleness of the mind. No
waves arise in the mind. And the way to bring the mind
into complete repose is by consistent contemplation upon
the ephemeral nature of this world. Always contemplate
that the world is ephemeral, momentary, fragmentary; it is
this very thought which will lead to dispassion.

The next quality one should aspire to cultivate is not to

talk evil or bad about anybody. Lord Krishna lists another
divine attribute as not being attached to the sensory
world. The senses keep interacting with their respective
sense objects but during all this interaction the possessor
of this divine quality will stay detached, unattached to the
sensory objects.

Blessed are those who are endowed with such divine

treasures, and blessed are those too who get the
opportunity of meeting such great treasure holders.

The next noble quality the Lord cites is tenderness,

gentleness, soft-heartedness. Your worldly interactions as
well as your behaviour should be in accordance with the
scriptures. How you sit, how you talk, how you walk, how
you eat, what you eat – all activities reflect the state of
your mind. A seeker ought to be aesthetic, gentle and
graceful. These are the noble attributes, divine qualities to
be cultivated if one wishes to walk on this path.