Bhagavad-gītā is the oldest and most widely read book of theistic science in the world today. Also known as the Gītopaniṣad, the Bhagavad-gītā has been the principle handbook of yoga for more than 5,000 years. In contrast to many mundane literatures of the present day, the Bhagavad-gītā is free from mental speculation and is complete in knowledge of the eternal self (ātmā), the process of bhakti-yoga and the nature and identity of the Absolute Truth, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. As such, the Bhagavad-gītā is the single most important book in the world, surpassing all others in wisdom and enlightenment. The first word of Bhagavad-gītā is dharma. Sometimes dharma is mistaken to mean religion or a particular belief, but it is not so. Dharma means the quintessential duty or knowledge that elevates our consciousness to a direct connection with the Absolute Truth. This is also known as sanātana-dharma, the occupational duty of all living beings. The Bhagavad-gītā begins with the word dharma – thus we can understand from the outset that Bhagavad-gītā is not about dogma or a sectarian way of thinking. Indeed, Bhagavad-gītā is the complete science of realising the Absolute Truth. Bhagavad-gītā is certainly a scholarly work, but one need not be a scholar to understand the Gītā’s straightforward and simple message. Indeed, Arjuna, the first student of Bhagavad-gītā, was not a scholar, but a warrior. In the past many great scholars, gurus and self-realised masters have written illuminating commentaries to accompany the Gītā – its ‘as it is’ meaning, its poetry, philosophy and its hidden treasure – so that the people of their time, as well as the people of future generations, may have a better appreciation of the message of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Since time immemorial, the Bhagavad-gītā has been a prime source of inspiration for many great thinkers and philosophers in both the east and the west. In ancient times, the first commentary on the Gītā was written by Ādi Śaṅkara, who was the first ācārya to treat it as a freestanding text. Subsequently, other great ācāryas such as Rāmānuja, Madhva, Śrīdhara Svāmī and others wrote commentaries on the Gītā that presented its essential devotional significance, in stark contrast to Ādi Śaṅkara’s impersonal interpretation.
Originally, the Bhagavad-gītā is part of the ancient historical epic, the Mahābhārata, composed by the great sage Vyāsa in approximately 3100 BCE. The eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad-gītā are found within the Sixth Canto of the Mahābhārata known as the Bhīṣma-parva, which altogether contains 117 chapters. Initially Vyāsa wrote the 8,800 core verses of the Mahābhārata and later his disciples Vaiśampāyana and Sūta added further historical details until the Mahābhārata finally consisted of 100,000 verses – seven times the size of Homer’s Illiad and fifteen times the size of the King James Bible.

There is a subtle difference between growing as a person and spending your life trying to fix yourself. One comes from a desire to explore your potential. The other comes from the assumption that who you are right now is somehow not enough. And if you aren't careful, even personal development can become another way of rejecting yourself. You start believing you need to heal a little more, become a little more confident, eliminate a few more limiting beliefs, or reach some perfect internal state before you can finally live the life you want. But what if you stopped making your life conditional on becoming a finished product? You can pursue meaningful goals while still experiencing uncertainty. You can build something extraordinary while working through difficult emotions. You can change old patterns without turning them into evidence that something is wrong with you. You do not have to be perfect to participate fully in your own life. Think about how often your attention gets pulled towards what you don't want. You don't want to feel anxious. You don't want to repeat old mistakes. You don't want to feel stuck. You don't want to be the person you used to be. These concerns may be understandable, but there is another question worth asking: What do you actually want to create instead? Rather than making your entire focus the elimination of fear, consider what you would pursue if fear no longer dictated your decisions. Rather than concentrating exclusively on what has gone wrong, consider what you want to build from where you stand today. Rather than waiting until you feel ready, identify one meaningful action you can take now. This isn't about pretending that difficulties don't exist. Some challenges require practical solutions, support, patience, and genuine work. It is about recognising that a difficulty does not have to become your entire identity or determine the direction of your life. Your circumstances may influence your next move, but they don't have to define your ultimate destination.

The opulences offered by māyā, the illusory material energy, are unlimited. Even on this planet, we can experience many varieties of material enjoyment. But according to Vedic descriptions, there are higher planetary systems where the opportunities for material pleasure, power, beauty, and longevity are far beyond anything we can imagine. There are planets such as Candraloka, the sun, Maharloka, Janaloka, and Tapoloka, and ultimately Satyaloka, the highest material planet, where Brahmā resides. The duration of life there is so vast that it is almost impossible for us to comprehend. The Bhagavad-gītā explains that even Brahmā's conception of time is far beyond ordinary human calculation. Brahmā is described as the being appointed to create the material universe. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other scriptures describe these higher planetary systems and their extraordinary forms of enjoyment. But there is an important point: ALL OF THIS IS STILL MATERIAL. It may be incredibly refined, powerful, beautiful, and long-lasting compared with our experience here, but it is still part of the external energy of the Supreme Lord—māyā. The yogīs can also attain extraordinary powers through their spiritual practices. They may develop abilities that appear supernatural to us. But these powers are also material. They are not the ultimate goal of spiritual life. What are we really trying to achieve? A sādhaka, a spiritual practitioner, does not ultimately aspire for these forms of material enjoyment, even if they could be obtained simply by desire. This is an important lesson for all of us. 
An entrepreneur may dream of unlimited wealth and influence.
A woman may be taught to measure her worth by beauty, youth, or social status.
A gamer may become absorbed in achievement, ranking, power, and recognition.
A spiritual practitioner may even become attracted to mystical abilities or extraordinary experiences.
But the question is the same: Are we simply looking for a more impressive version of material life?

When you picture discipline you probably think of someone waking up early, doing deep work at their computer, and taking cold showers, that sort of thing. Those things are excellent and really good and healthy. But that disciplined mindset still applies to something as sweet and wholesome as mental health too. Let me explain. To get results in something it's all about being disciplined and just doing the work even when you don't feel like it. I'm sure you know that. Whenever I was first started my improving mental health journey about 3 years ago now, I thought that all that advice about working hard, cold showers, going to the gym, and all that would just make your life more depressing. Generally speaking whenever you live that life and you delay gratification, you just enjoy hard things more. They're actually good for you and that will help yourself. It will just make your life better and it will get you the things you want, like wealth, health, and relationships. An actionable step for you is just for discipline: you should really have a routine jotted down for your entire day, like 6 am wake-up, 7 am commute to work, something like that for every hour of the day. It just helps you be organized instead of being all over the place, not knowing what you're doing and when you're doing it. You just won't be able to achieve much if you don't have a routine and a schedule. Just do that and put your healing trauma journey in a block in this timetable and your mental health habits. Make the routine on google calendar.

Let me tell you a story. Back when I was younger and I was first looking into mental health and healing traumas, I was too arrogant for my own good. What I mean by this is that an expert would say some advice and I would just be like, "Ah well, no, I disagree with that. No, I think that's false." This was how I was with so many things and of course that did me no good. I didn't get any results because I was too arrogant and egotistical. I just needed to take some advice from an expert. The same applies if there's some advice that your mentor or whatever gives you and you're like, "Ah, I don't want to. It sounds uncomfortable. I don't like that." Then you just need to not listen to that part of you and simply do the work anyway. It's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be hard but do you really think healing trauma and mental health would be easy? Of course not. It's difficult. Remember this.