The Gita Response 1

As I read Sri Krishna's advice to Arjuna in Chapter 2, I felt as though he was talking directly to me. I am fasting with my church for the next few days. The first time I fasted was last year, and I skipped dinner. It was awful. I had a bunch of meetings and homework, so it was hard for me to focus on anything but being hungry. Instead of spending time with God when I felt famished, I had to work. This time around, I took my parents' advice to do the Daniel fast, which basically involves cutting out processed foods. I've given myself some leeway since my diet is largely centered around what is served in the dining hall. I'm not about to skip my morning veggie omelette because it's cooked in canola oil. 

This is day one of my three day (unless it's working well for me, but we'll see) Daniel fast and I have already had a little slip up. I was sticking to my dietary guns today until I got to my staff meeting where my coworkers were passing around Chex Mix and peanut M&Ms. My goodness. My weakness for chocolate was made strong...the first time the bag got passed around. After that, it just sat there. I watched everyone else happily pop those candy colored treats of salty and sweet treats into their mouths. I quickly reasoned with myself that it was social snacking. (I'm shaking my head now...) THIS IS WHAT KRISHNA'S WARNING AGAINST! I should have read this before staff meeting. 2.67 "When you let your mind follow the call of the senses, they carry away your better judgment as storms drive a boat off its charted course on the sea." Unfortunately, I lost sight of my goal. I let the big yellow bag of candy sit in my line of sight. I neglected to give more power to the reasonable side of things, in that there are things that are better for me like vegetables, and scripture (I'm not equating the two, I'm just trying to make my point). Krishna is right, in the line before that, 2.66, "The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?" It is hard enough praying in the midst of sugar withdrawals, but it's harder still with a guilty conscience. Nevertheless, all I can do is pick up and do better tomorrow :)