In time of war it is useful to revisit the Bhagavad Gita, which challenges us to always remember love as we pursue our warlike activities.  I have been reading the Bhagavad Gita recently again for probably about the fifth time--and it is funny how each time it brings new meaning to my life.  Anyway, yesterday i was reading Chapter 14, and i thought it worth sharing today.

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Lord Krishna continued:

Purity, Passion, and Ignorance are the Qualities which the Law of Nature brings forth.  They fetter the free Spirit in all beings.

O Sinless One: Of these, Purity, being luminous, strong, and invulnerable, binds one by its yearning for happiness and illumination.

Passion, engendered by thirst for pleasure and attachment, bind the soul through its fondness for activity.

But Ignorance (e.g., "el Trumpo"), the product of darkness, stupefies the senses in all embodied beings, binding them by the chains of folly, indolence, and lethargy.

Purity brings happiness, Passion commotion, and Ignorance, which obscures wisdom, leads to a life of failure.

O Prince: Purity prevails when Passion and Ignorance are overcome; Passion when Purity and Ignorance are overcome; and Ignorance when it overcomes Purity and Passion.

When the light of knowledge gleams forth from all the gates of the body, then be sure that Purity prevails.

O best of Indians!  Avarice, the impulse to act, and the beginning of action itself, are all due to the dominance of Passion.

Darkness, stagnation, folly, and infatuation are the result of the domination of Ignorance, O joy of the Kuru (Republican) clan.

Where Purity prevails, the soul on quitting the body passes on to the pure regions where live those who know the Highest.

When Passion prevails, the soul is reborn among those who love activity; when Ignorance rules, it enters the wombs of the ignorant.

They say the fruit of a meritorious action is spotless and full of Purity; the outcome of Passion is misery; and of Ignorance darkness.

Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.

When Purity is in the ascendant, the man evolves; when Passion, he neither evolves nor degenerates; when Ignornace, he is lost.

As soon as a man understands that it is only the Qualities which act and nothing else, and perceives That which is beyond, he attains My divine nature.

When the soul transcends the Qualities, which are the real cause of physical existence, then, freed from birth and death, from old age and misery, he quaffs the nectar of immortality.

Arjuna asked:

My Lord: By what signs can he who has transcended the Qualities be recognized?  How does he act?  How does he live beyond them?

Lord Krisha replied:

O Prince!  He who shuns not the Quality which is present, and longs not for that which is absent.

He who maintains an attitude of indifference, who is not disturbed by the Qualities, who realizes that it is only they who act, and remains calm.

Who accepts pleasure or pain as it comes, is centered in his Self, to whom a piece of clay or a stone or gold are the same, who neither likes or dislikes, who is steadfast, indifferent alike to praise or censure.

Who looks equally upon honor and dishonor, loves friends and foes alike, abandons all initiative, such is he who transcends the Qualities.

And he who serves Me and only Me, with unfaltering devotion, shall overcome the Qualities, and become One with the Eternal.

For i am the Home of the Spirit, the continual Source of immortality, of eternal Righteousness, and of infinite joy.

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During this period of "Moral Clarity" the above words (as well as the entire Bhagavad Gita) are worth our consideration.