7 Important Life Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita contains many lessons that you can use for better living. Here are five (and two bonus) important life lessons from Bhagavad Gita for people looking for a meaningful life.

1. Focus On Your Dharma

What is your dharma? Dharma refers to what you ought to do. Check out what needs to be done at this moment for the benefit of people at large, including yourself. As such, there is no specific definition of dharma. It generally means what you need to do. Don’t go about doing things just for the sake of doing things.

Think of the benefits you wish to provide for your people and for yourself. If you think you are right in doing something, you are good. That doesn’t mean irresponsible actions. While considering your dharma, you need to think about things like humankind and how you are going to contribute to it.

Mindless and reckless action is not your dharma. Your actions should benefit people, including yourself, positively. Out of all the life lessons from Bhagavad Gita, this one is the most important. If you need help figuring out your dharma, please refer to my post on spiritual duties by Sri Ramakrishna.

2. Don’t Obsess Over the Outcome of Your Action

Perform your actions as if you were worshipping. Dedicate the fruits (outcomes) of your actions to God and do what needs to be done. If you are not attached to the outcome of your actions, you won’t be overwhelmed by the results. This Bhagavad Gita lesson says you have rights to the action alone and not to the outcome. If your actions are pure, the outcome won’t harm you. In spirituality, you won’t incur any sin. In your day-to-day life, you won’t feel overburdened if you don’t think much about the results of your actions.

3. Do Not Dwell on Pleasure and Pain

Pleasure is temporary. So is pain. The wise do not dwell on it because they know it will pass. Just like the seasons that keep changing, happiness and pain keep changing. It is a cycle and will pass eventually. Just learn to keep calm. Being calm helps maintain the proper balance of life so that you can make the proper decisions required to live satisfactorily.

4. Understand Your Desires

Desires and attachment to desires may bring destruction to the person holding onto them. If a desire remains unfulfilled, it brings anger and frustration. Anger clouds the mind and brings about destruction. You might have heard how a person lost his cool and killed the very mongoose that saved his infant child from a snake. A person must try to overcome their desires to avoid anger and, thereby, destruction.

5. Inaction Is Not the Way Forward

Lord Krishna said inaction is also an action, and people are compelled to act because their very own nature will make them restless if they don’t act. Though Lord Krishna was comparing Sanyaas and family people, it makes sense to act instead of opting out of society.

If you don’t take part in society, your mind will make you restless. It is the nature of a human being to act in some way or another. Inaction will make your mind dwell on things beyond your control, and you will be agitated as you tend to overthink things.

Even a sanyasi is busy performing acts that make them understand God. By doing things in his own way, the sanyasi attains peace, but he too must act until he attains peace. A family person, too, needs to do what needs to be done for himself and others in society and family. If they ignore and tend to renounce action, they’ll not be at peace. Their minds will always be wavering over things they should do.

Bonus Life Lessons from Bhagavad Gita

A. Influential People Should Act More Than Others

Lord Krishna said that though He is God, He is always occupied by work. He said people look up to Him, and if He doesn’t act, others will follow his lead, and the world will go astray.

Leaders and influential people should work harder than others to show them the right way. If they don’t, people influenced by them will stop acting in the proper way. Therefore, to lead others, the influential must work harder than their followers. They should also keep in mind what they are doing, if it is right or wrong, and if they are sending out the proper signals, etc.

B. Eat Satvik (Good) Food for Better Life

The Bhagavad Gita classifies food into three types: Satvik, Rajasik, and Tamasik. The Rajasik food includes food rich in oil and spices that can result in ailments related to the stomach and gut. Tamasik food is stale food that can result in drowsiness and food poisoning. Satvik food is fresh and not loaded with too many spices. It offers peace and helps you grow. Fresh food, fruits, nuts, and roots belong to this category. For more information, read about the types of food in Hinduism.

The above explains some of the most important life lessons from Bhagavad Gita in detail. Please read the chapter-wise summary of Bhagavad Gita for more lessons.

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