Chapter 1, Verse 26
tatrapasyat sthitān pārthaḥ
pitṛn atha pita-mahān
ācāryān mātulan bhrātṛn
putrān pautrān sakhims tathā
Then Arjuna saw standing on opposite sides, uncles and grandsires, teachers, brothers, cousins, sons and grandsons, comrades, fathers-in-law, benefactors.
Looking at the other side, Arjuna said, "Oh, I know these people!" When one starts on the spiritual journey, one has to first strengthen oneself before going to help others. You have to first remove your own negativity, change it, and then, when you are strong enough, you go and help other people. Otherwise you will get drowned in their negativity. Here Arjuna looked at all these people and said, "Oh my goodness! I know these people! These people are my great-uncles, like Bhishma, Somadatta, Bahlika. These are my teachers, Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Purujit. Shalya is the brother of our dear Madri. How can I go and fight them?"
Everybody has a certain connection to their own negativity. For example, if we decide to make a debate of gossiping, everybody will be full of energy to participate. If we start discussing negative things, everybody will put their part into it and make a biryani out of it.
However, when you start self-analysing, you become the observer. When you start to observe, you start to see clearly within the core of your heart, within your consciousness. And you say, "Sometimes I consider these qualities to be very good qualities; but in reality they are not. I thought that they were good qualities at that time, but in reality, they were not." Like that, Arjuna saw everybody in front of him and felt deep regret because he had spent his whole life with them. When you spend your whole life with somebody, how can you be detached from them? These people had been together their entire childhood; they had grown up together and now they were fighting! You are born with all your negative qualities. They are dormant inside you. Throughout many lifetimes you have carried them with you, but when the time comes for you to remove them, you just sit there and say, "No, I can't do it!" The same was true for Arjuna. He was just sitting there saying, "I can't do it!" because he was still holding onto his weaknesses. Last week, when we were in Kiel (Germany), somebody asked me, "Swamiji, how can I love myself?"
I asked him the question, "How can you love others, when you don't love yourself?" Love starts with you! All these good qualities, all the qualities which God has given you, starts with you. Why is it easy to love others, but when it comes to loving yourself, you only look at your bad qualities and meditate on them and say, 'No, I can't love myself!' That has to transform.
The Gita is about the Self, you know? It is about seeing the Lord within you. When you see Him within you, then you will perceive Him everywhere, in the flower, in the deity, in everyone. Know that deep within, it is the same Narayana who is seated in each one's heart. He is the One who is talking, the One who is listening, the One who is acting. You will see only this four-handed Narayana Himself who is doing everything. But for that Reality to reveal Itself, one has to train oneself. One has to train one's mind not to hang onto these negative qualities. You have to focus and transform the mind. At that moment only, the Divine will reveal Himself. Seeing this sadness arising inside himself, Arjuna carried on in his weakness, saying, "No, I can't do that!" It is like when you say, "I want to love myself but, oh my goodness, I have this and that bad quality. I can't love myself." You say, "Ah Swamiji, I can't love myself!" And then you go on in your weakness.
Bhagavad Gita
