Be Courageous, Be Fearless, Be Discriminating

Krishna's teachings were aimed at freeing Arjuna of his infatuations, and the grief and sorrow which resulted from them. The two most important steps in this process are surrender and elimination of body-consciousness. Once Arjuna's body-consciousness was gone, Krishna was ready to reveal to Arjuna the highest spiritual teaching, that of self-knowledge. With that, Krishna awakened Arjuna out of his sleep of ignorance. He said, "There are a number of reasons for your sorrow but the most fundamental one is your ignorance. You have been unaware of your true nature and therefore you have become overwhelmed with grief. But now you have cried out for God. You have cried out for righteousness. You have cried out for me. When you cry for me, I will take care of you and give you everything you need."

You all cry for so many different things, but do you cry out for God? Do you shed tears when there is a decline of righteousness? When you do, the Lord will establish himself in your heart, teach you his highest wisdom, and make you an instrument in his mission. For this, you must have courage and inner strength. Krishna told Arjuna, "You should never have any kind of weak-heartedness. It is only after you remove such weakness from your heart that the divine power will enter and reside in your heart. If you do not have courage, even sheep will frighten you, not to speak of evil minded men. You must have the capacity to face all circumstances. If you run away in fear, even monkeys will attack you. But, if you have a stick and stand your ground, the monkeys will not come near you. Whatever the circumstance, face it squarely and do not show your back. Then will you be able to achieve what you set out to do."

The essence of this teaching is, "Be courageous! Be fearless!" Courage is the primary instrument for achieving any kind of success. You need to have more courage and more determination. But you should not have blind and foolish courage. Courage must be accompanied by discrimination; only then will success be assured.