Parallel philosophies of Lord Krishna and Jesus Christ

There are many parallels in the philosophies of Lord Krishna as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and Jesus Christ in the Bible. This post highlights some of the parallels below

Christ: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Condemn not, lest ye be condemned.
Lord Krishna: Enlightened men are those who see the same in a Brahmana with learning, a cow, an elephant or a dog. In other words the yogi does not form opinions or judgments about others. A true yogi treats all persons with the same footing.

Christ: Love your enemy. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who treat you with disdain.
Lord Krishna: A true yogi is unaffected by praise or criticism. By always dwelling in the Atman he is unruffled by hatred, contempt or anger. According to the Gita, a true yogi is a person who is expansive in his heart. He has risen above the joy that comes from praise or the hurt that comes from bitter criticism

Christ: The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. For behold, the kingdom of the God is within you.
Lord Krishna: Above the senses, the mind, the intellect is the Atman which is within you. In the Upanishad’s this is also mentioned as “Tat tvam asi”, “Thou art that”. The Atman is inside you and we become aware of it through self-inquiry.

Christ: You cannot serve God and Mammon at the same. Here Mammon refers to the desire for wealth.
Lord Krishna: Perform niskama-karma or desireless action. Offer all the fruits of your action to God. Rise above desires and passion. Lord Krishna in the Gita enjoins us to rise above the rajasic nature of passion to a sattvic nature of principled living.

Though the words were different Lord Krishna and Jesus Christ were saying the same thing.

A yardstick for life!

Is there a yardstick with which we can measure our lives? In his extremely thought provoking and insightful article "How will you measure your life?" Clayton M. Christensen, the Harvard Business School professor provides this extremely useful yardstick. He says "Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people."

What an extraordinary statement to make? We, as individuals, tend to measure our success in life based on achievement of personal glory, power, personal wealth etc. But what is really required for happiness and enduring satisfaction in our lives is in what way we are able to make the lives of those around us just a little better. This is truly a noble endeavor.

It does not mean that that the only way we can influence others is through charity. While charity can help there are possible several other ways in which we can help others. For e.g we could use our learning to educate. We could provide moral support to those who lack in confidence. We could spend some time in making happy those who are terminally ill or have some debilitating disease. There are several ways that we can extend our help and care for those around us.

But typically what happens is that we lead very self-centered lives. We are in a race to make the most money, grab a chuck of power, look to garner personal glory. We live a life that is self-centered all the time.

We may achieve success by way of fame,power and wealth but in the long run it may not give you as much a glow of satisfaction as helping others lead better lives.

We need to shift the focus of our lives from ourselves to those around us. That way we will lead a far more fulfilling life!