Sunday, August 2, 2009

What the Virgo type of personality could learn from the Gita

One of the outstanding characteristics of a Virgo personality type is being of service to others, self lessly. This is a very rare characteristic, but one which the Virgo could not live without. Virgos are also workaholics, even perfectionists at work. We Virgos cherish all work that will lead to self improvement in one way or the other, or else, to be of service to others in one way or the other.

The core messages of the Bhagavad Gita are 1) Work for Work's own sake 2) Show the way to the world 3) Work selflessly, either for self purification, or for the betterment of the world or for divine blessings. I feel these ideas, with their emphasis on work are most suitable for Virgos.

Virgos are intellectual types as well, however in the Gita the intellectuality is a tool towards achieving improvement in work. Similarly, we Virgos seek to improve using our intellectuality, not just our work, but almost everything we are involved with.

I feel that applying these principles of Gita will help the Virgo type of person to develop his/her strengths in the best possible way.

Arjuna, born in the same day as Krishna, embodies the Virgo skills of perfectionism as well as eternal worry :-) Arjuna's cherished aim was to become the best archer in the world and he explores all avenues, all means towards perfecting his skill. At the same time, his constant worrying nature shows up prominently at a critical moment in the war when, due to reasons which might not have appealed to anyone else in his army, he gives up arms, and the opening Chapter of the Gita portray him as a nervous wreck under the circumstances. It is likely that this was a worry gnawing at him for a long while, probably ever since his relatively easy success against the Kurus towards the end of the Ajnaatavasa, and a worry which he probably sought to silence through various kinds of analytical reasoning, but which, nevertheless reasserted itself once he came to see the teachers and kinsmen once again in the battlefield.