There is no older text on the planet today than the Sanskrit body of writing known as the Vedas. Veda is a word meaning “knowledge” and the conclusions of the Vedas are called “Vedanta”. Having studied Vedanta philosophy in my youth, I learned a lot of technical skills in living life, keeping the right mindset and staying focused on the goal, even when trading bitcoin. The favourite classic book among the many Vedic literatures is, of course, Bhagavad Gita. I recommend everyone read the 700 verses to get the big picture of what life is about.
Written down around 5000 years ago the Gita speaks about absolutes – concepts and insights that never change with time, place or circumstance. They apply to every person from every walk of life throughout all times in history. In other words these are the real guiding ideologies for humanity. These are the real business of the human form of life. The rest is secondary or relative by comparison. It’s tragic how we are generally taught to focus on the frills and not the main issue in the modern world, where leaders simply want the masses dumbed down as consumers – particularly of debt – so that we become enslaved to the system that keeps us chasing the carrot, while the free grass grows abundantly by the roadside.
Well sometimes some of us awaken enough from the illusion to realize that life on earth is no place for a gentleman or lady. It is a hard struggle for existence, a place of suffering, particularly via the fourfold miseries. They are pain from our bodies, our minds, other living entities, and nature. Those are the fourfold miseries. Trapped in ignorance by leaders who deprive us of proper education at schools and steer us into the economic machine via the debt illusion, we misunderstand our real natures and walk high and mighty…along the wrong path.
What use is successfully achieving the summit when you are climbing the wrong mountain? This con by the materialistic elite keeps us stuck on the animal level of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Artificial consumerism to feed their banking system leaves us always feeling like we are lacking in something. We think that we need more money to be happy, to be seen as successful. This false notion plagues many and leaves them feeling dissatisfied with life. The opposite is true though because we already have everything we need within. All happiness, peace and satisfaction are already a constitutional part of our real natures. Our real personality is one of bliss, presence in the now, and full consciousness or cognizance. Other than that there is nothing more to attain, to achieve or to be. That’s it. And you already have it.
However, forgetfulness is rife, fuelled by the illusory nature of life, engineered by the elites who need us ignorant to feed their weakness. Fortunately we have the solutions, the revelations, the answers hiding in plain sight, if we simply become receptive, sincerely inquiring or somewhat self-reflective. The absolute truth is known to us inherently. If we can’t immediately reach a mindset to hear the answers to the questions of life, then there are texts like the Vedas that tell the full story for Everyman. Bhagavad Gita is the easiest Vedic reference to grasp.
For example here is a text in Sanskrit to shed some light on the direction to satisfaction and fulfillment:
adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca
nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ
sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī
santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī
yatātmā dṛḍha-niścayaḥ
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
“One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service (yoga) with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me – such a devotee of Mine (yogi) is very dear to Me.”
Bhagvad Gita As It Is, chapter 12: 13-14 translated by Swami A .C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada
If you look at the third word in the first line of the second verse, you will see it says “yogi”. This text refers to the qualities of a true yogi. And a yogi is one who has proceeded to practice the process of union with transcendence or divinity. S/he is a person who is “linking up” (literal translation of yoga) with the absolute, who is finding union within as opposed to division or alienation or seperateness from anything or everything.
Many traders are either hankering – for more profits – or lamenting – for lost profits. Even those who have made lots of profit and are rich will still need to overcome the ultimate challenge, namely the disintegration of health and eventual demise, and nothing we have accumulated in our wallets can change that. Therefore, to be successful in life one cannot depend on crypto. Money is not the goal or solution in life. But the right state of consciousness is. And this verse mentions the state of consciousness needed to make a success of life, regardless of monetary achievements. And even with crypto profits or losses, these personality traits are the keys to success in the highs and lows of trading, and life in general.
Here are the qualities recommended in a list:
• Non-envy
• Friendly to all life
• Freedom from the need to be a controller
• Freedom from false ego
• Equanimity in gain and loss (happiness and distress)
• Tolerance
• Self-satisfaction
• Self-control
• Pursuing awakened consciousness (via yoga) with determination
These could be labelled the qualities of transcendence, and are required to consider oneself a success at life. Nothing else on the mundane platform will substitute as success when it comes to what this human form of life is really capable of. This list is the crowning glory of a person who has won, who has been victorious – over the illusion, over the material energy, over their own mind and body, over all the challenges life throws at us. This list is what success looks like. Forget the bank balance, the crypto wallet profits, the Moon. This is finding the universe within you. Or these are the symptoms of one who has found the universe within. It’s as simple as that. Now you know.
Of course, attaining this level of consciousness is harder than merely knowing the theory. We need to have had the realization to accompany the theory. We need to embody the text. But at least knowing the text or the goal on paper is a good start. This is the start of the human level of existence. Anything less is still no more than “polished animal”. To attain these qualities internally requires unlearning the bad habits and conditioning of our past, of our forefathers or society. It also requires practice, on a daily basis if possible, in a lifelong process. We are never really attached even to the goal, but are forever engaged in the process.
Life is primarily more about the journey than the destination. It is a work in progress. It does however, help to have some directions, to have the guidelines or map toward the destination, otherwise we are making it up as we go along, or following the herd and bypassing the treasure of true self-mastery. All the crypto on the blockchain is futile if you have not attained at least some degree of self-mastery as revealed here in the Bhagavad Gita.
So in conclusion, if I can give you one tip out of all the lessons I’ve learned in trading and in llife, it would be to understand the real goal, find the map to it, and make an effort to get there. The rest will follow. And as you experience some insight and realization for yourself, the other goals will become secondary and some even superfluous. When you water the root of the tree, all the other parts of the tree are automatically satisfied. Just remember your roots, remember who you are, and be yourself. You already have all you are seeking, because you are the one you are seeking.
Be blessed
Pic: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-theme-of-international-yoga-day-2018-yoga-for-peace-133564
Previous posts on Bhagavad Gita:
https://steemit.com/life/@julianhorack/bhagavad-gita-pt-2-the-original-yoga-text-on-who-we-are-and-the-meaning-of-life
https://steemit.com/mindset/@julianhorack/bhagavad-gita-a-study-in-transcendence-ancient-jewel-of-the-vedas-full-of-wisdom-for-today