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Background Articles
The Dru Bhagavad Gita
Story and Foundation – Mansukh Patel
Commentary – Chris Barrington, John Jones, Savitri MacCuish
Compiled by Yamuna Loyal The Bhagavad Gita for Menopausal Women
- Yamuna Loyal
Emotional strength through spiritual wisdom
Lets face it, emotions can be a problem. They come upon us when we least expect them, jumping out like muggers from the bushes, to beat us up and leave us in a crumpled heap. Whoever invented hormones has a lot to answer for, because they don’t immediately appear to assist our cause. We are each meant for great things. We are not meant to stumble through our day, a mass of emotional reactivity. Where is the noble warrior archetype whose courage, tenacity and wisdom enables us to sail through every encounter untouched, unaffected and emotionally triumphant? How long can we let ourselves be tossed around on the sea of emotions, buffeted by every passing boat? Where is our deep reservoir of inner strength? The indomitable spirit we all long to feel and identify with?
Well, according to the Bhagavad Gita, and Mansukh Patel, it is definitely there, albeit somewhat hidden and obscured by a whole set of belief systems. Mansukh Patel is a co-author of a remarkable version of this time travelled treatise on the human condition, The Dru Bhagavad Gita. Written with John Jones, Chris Barrington and Savitri MacCuish of the Life Foundation, the Dru Bhagavad Gita, is a very modern interpretation of an ancient coping system. It was mapped out thousands of years ago and like so many other advice packs from ancient cultures, still stands up today. Mansukh Patel tells us that this is because even though life may have been moving at a slower pace, with chariots reaching only 30 mph, our human nature hasn’t changed one jot.
Many today would observe that we are just as confused, egocentric and tormented as our ancestors were and in just as much need of a guiding light.
The beauty of Mansukh Patel’s approach in the Dru Bhagavad Gita is that it gives us clear instructions as to how to get a hold on emotions. Did you know, for instance, that the root of all our emotional pain is attachment? Whenever we get angry or upset, a brief analysis will always expose something we are attached to either having or not having. It could be a thing, a state of mind or some emotional state. Let it go, says Mansukh Patel and the Gita, and you will let go of the pain it causes you. Confusion, fear, despondency and despair are not our birthright we are told. We are born to conquer all those lower tendencies and to rise into another, more transcendent reality, belonging to a higher and previously unknown part of ourselves. The Gita acquaints us with this ‘Higher Self’ and helps us to disassociate from the lower nature that lives in life’s emotional bog.
And it works. The Gita promises to free us from everything that causes us pain. It’s quite a promise and definitely one worth investigating. After many years studying and teaching the Bhagavad Gita, Mansukh Patel has also produced what could almost be described as an ‘emotional bible’ entitled The Dance Between Joy and Pain, which he co-authored with Rita Goswami.
The Dance Between Joy and Pain maps out all thirteen primary emotional entanglements we can fall prey to. Each emotion is examined briefly and then Mansukh Patel and Rita Goswami take time to outline the solutions in depth.
This summarises Mansukh’s approach in the Dru Bhagavad Gita. ‘So often, people put too much focus on the problems of life,’ says Mansukh. ‘Put 90% focus on solutions and 10% on problems and your whole experience of life will change.’
The Dru Bhagavad Gita inspires us all to turn our lives around – to reach out for the tools that make life work, instead of concentrating on what is not working. Its just common sense really…..
The Dru Bhagavad Gita by Mansukh Patel, Savitri MacCuish, Chris Barrington and John Jones and The Dru Bhagavad Gita Correspondence Course by Yamuna Loyal and Chris Barrington is available from:
UK: the Life Foundation School of Therapeutics, Snowdonia National Park, Nant Ffrancon Valley, Bethesda, Gwynedd, North Wales, LL57 3LX, tel: 01248 602900 and Maristowe House, Dover Street, Wolverhampton WV14 6AL tel: 01902 409164;
gita@druexperience.org, www.drugita.org
Australia: Life Foundation Australia, 4 Pandanus St, Fisher, ACT 2611,
Tel 02 6161 1468, sales@druyoga.com.au; www.druyoga.com.au
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