‘‘The Bhagavad Gita Didn’t Come to Comfort You — It Came to Wake You Up”
Why Don’t Others Appreciate Your Worth? The Bhagavad Gita on Self-Value
We’ve all experienced it — that instant when you realize that nobody seems to recognize your value. It can be something minor, like a disregarded message, or something significant, such as being overlooked for an opportunity that you know you are made for. The familiar punch to the gut arises: Why am I not appreciated? You begin to second-guess everything. Perhaps it’s you. Perhaps you’re not putting in enough effort. Perhaps you’re too much of this or not quite enough of that. But the reality is, none of this should concern you. In fact, if you’re frequently gauging your worth based on outside approval, you’re ensnared in a trap of your own making. It’s a trap that has existed for ages, and it’s one that Lord Krishna addressed in the Bhagavad Gita — a message that remains relevant today.
1. The Core Issue: Delegating Your Self-Value
External validation must not determine your self-worth.
Imagine this: you’re Arjuna, positioned on a battlefield. On one side are your companions, your family, your cherished ones. On the opposite side are your principles, your responsibilities, and the life you understand you were destined to lead. Your thoughts are in conflict. Should you engage or should you flee? What will people think? How will they perceive you based on your behavior? What might they say about you if you do the right thing but fail to get the praise?
Consider this: when you behave purely to win the approval of others, you’re perpetually reliant on their reactions. You resemble a marionette, anticipating the next tug to feel affirmed. However, when you operate from a foundation of self-awareness — when your deeds stem from your principles and sense of mission — you can attain liberation. You determine your own value.
2. Cease Allowing Others to Determine Your Identity
Do not allow the views of others to control your self-perception.
There’s this perilous belief that many of us seem to hold — the idea that our value is dictated by how many people acknowledge our brilliance. It’s a falsehood that has been marketed to us for years, and it’s one that is sustained by social media, societal expectations, and even by those nearest to us. However, Krishna doesn’t subscribe to that. Your worth doesn’t lessen simply because someone else fails to see it. In truth, if you allow their absence of acknowledgment to influence your identity, you’re relinquishing your strength. You are no longer the master of your value — it’s being determined by outside elements unrelated to the essence of your being.
And still, we persist. We continue to look for affirmation, attempting to demonstrate to others that we are significant. The truth is, you are important no matter what. And when you begin to genuinely embrace that — without requiring affirmation from others — that’s when your real strength comes to light.
3. A Greater Purpose: Discover Your Meaning, Not Your Acclaim
Actions motivated by a true purpose hold greater significance than the pursuit of admiration or acknowledgment.
Krishna’s lessons center on a core truth: it’s not about others’ perceptions of you; it’s about your own view of yourself. The Bhagavad Gita is not merely a summons to act — it’s a summons to comprehend your responsibilities, your aim, and to live in harmony with those realities. When you cease to seek approval from others, something remarkable happens: you liberate yourself. You are no longer a prisoner to another person’s perception of your value. You can remain confident in your own being, aware that your worth is inherent — not acquired or reliant on external factors.
Consider it like this: when you’re engaged in your true purpose, you’re not seeking validation from others. You’re not on the lookout for acknowledgment or anticipating someone to comment, “Well done.” You know it’s good because you’ve experienced it, you’ve felt it, and that’s sufficient.
4. Why Does This Matter?
Pursuing affirmation is draining and causes your value to fluctuate.
It matters because the continuous pursuit of external approval creates an endless loop. It’s exhausting. It causes you to doubt yourself at every opportunity. It transforms your worth into something unpredictable. However, the reality is that your value remains constant regardless of another person’s temporary perspective. You were inherently valuable from the start. You are the benchmark — not the reverse.
Why We Hold Onto Those Who Cause Us Pain — Gita’s Perspective
We’ve all been there — holding on to someone who has inflicted suffering upon us. Be it a friend who deceived us, a partner who exploited us, or a parent who failed to provide the affection we longed for, we sometimes find ourselves attached to those who have harmed us. Strangely, we keep returning. We sift through past messages, revisit painful conversations, and even justify their behavior to others.
Krishna instructs Arjuna to perform his actions without attachment, emphasizing dharma (duty) rather than outcomes. In the same way, perhaps the reason we feel trapped isn’t because of weakness — but because there’s a soul lesson we haven’t yet completed.
5. Desire Masquerading as Love
“Longing and rage arise from fervor… They are our adversaries.” — Bhagavad Gita 3.37
Many mistake desire for love. We seek someone’s approval, their care, or merely their presence. But love in the Gita isn’t needy — it’s altruistic, expansive, and liberating. What we often call “love” arises from the ego’s desire to be chosen, to succeed, or to repair what feels broken.
When we confuse ego with love, we trap ourselves in a cycle of expectation. And each unfulfilled expectation intensifies our pain.
6. Fear of Emptiness
Why do we stay? Because the suffering we know feels safer than the emptiness we don’t understand.
The Gita repeatedly emphasizes the importance of inner peace and self-discovery. Krishna tells Arjuna that true strength doesn’t come from external sources but from the Self — unchanging, eternal, and beyond emotions. Until we find that inner stability, we keep searching outside — even toward those who bring us pain — because silence can feel more frightening than sorrow.
5. Hope Becomes a Chain
Hope is beautiful. But when misplaced, it becomes a burden: “They’ll come back.” “They didn’t mean it.” “If I just love them enough, they’ll change.”
The Gita teaches the importance of discernment (viveka). Acting without attachment doesn’t mean abandoning hope — it means not tying your worth to someone else’s growth.
It’s not wrong to hope. But it is harmful to hope without clarity.
6. The Ego’s Participation: “Yet I Contributed So Much”
“The wise do not grieve for the living or the dead.” — Bhagavad Gita 2.11
We often cling because we feel entitled. “I gave so much — my time, my emotions, my forgiveness. How could they leave or treat me this way?”
This is the ego seeking repayment. Yet the Gita guides us to move from ego toward inner peace. To act because it’s right — not because we expect something in return.
When we let go of the ego’s scorekeeping, genuine healing begins.
7. Releasing Is Also a Responsibility
Releasing doesn’t mean you never loved. It means you choose your path, your peace, your dharma.
Krishna never tells Arjuna to stop caring. He asks him to fight — not out of hatred, but out of duty, to restore balance. Similarly, letting go of someone who causes you pain is not rejection — it is alignment with your higher purpose.
Staying in cycles of pain delays your growth and diverts you from your aim. And in the Gita, your aim (swadharma) is sacred.
Release, But Not with Resentment
“Renounce all attachments and take refuge in Me alone.” — Bhagavad Gita 18.66
The Gita doesn’t ask us to love less — it asks us to love more wisely. With awareness. With boundaries. With clarity.
True peace doesn’t come from being chosen by others. It comes from choosing yourself — again and again.
You don’t need to hate the one who hurt you. You don’t need to erase memories. But you must stop bleeding from wounds that those very hands caused.
Releasing isn’t weakness. It’s realizing that your soul was never meant to be confined.
How the Gita Instructs You to Stop Accepting Mediocrity
Have you ever whispered to yourself, “Maybe this is all I’ll ever get”?
That inner voice — the one that compromises, settles, and shrinks itself — is not your truth. The Gita wasn’t spoken in silence but on a battlefield. Its central message is that life isn’t only about surviving — it’s about rising, expanding, and claiming your worth.
Through Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna, the Gita becomes a wake-up call for anyone settling for less than they deserve. It urges us to stand — not just for a fight, but for our own value.
If Life Continues to Shatter You, You’re Heading in the Correct Direction — Gita Explains
There are times when everything unravels — relationships, health, career, even the sense of self we carefully constructed. In those moments, we often wonder, “Why me?”
But the Bhagavad Gita responds with timeless wisdom: you are not breaking down to suffer — you are breaking open to release. Just as Arjuna stood shattered on the battlefield, we too are called to rise from our failures. Krishna’s teachings remind us that when life weighs down the spirit, transformation begins.
Recall Your Authentic Self
This isn’t just philosophy — it’s a declaration of strength.
We accept a diminished existence when we lose sight of our divine nature. In Chapter 2, Krishna tells Arjuna: “You are not this physical form; you are the everlasting spirit.” This is not mere philosophy — it’s empowerment.
You are not here to silently endure. You are here to rise in authenticity. When you deeply remember your essence, you no longer beg for scraps — because the divine does not beg. It manifests. It chooses. And it departs when anything dims its light.
2. Uncertainty Is the True Adversary
We grow complacent when we attach ourselves too strongly — to people, places, careers, or comfort.
Krishna doesn’t shame Arjuna for questioning; He understands. But He also warns: “The one who doubts is lost.”
When you constantly question whether you are enough — enough to be loved, to succeed, to matter — you compromise. Not because you lack value, but because uncertainty drowns out your true calling.
The Gita teaches: let your understanding rise above your doubts. Act as if you already trust your worth, even when others fail to see it.
3. Action Over Attachment
We become stagnant when we cling too tightly to people, places, or familiar patterns. Krishna’s timeless guidance: “Perform your duty, but do not become attached to the outcomes.”
If something no longer nourishes your spirit — release it. Letting go doesn’t mean failure; it means progress. That job, that relationship, that old version of yourself may have once been right, but the Gita reminds us that growth requires action. And action often requires release.
4. Face Your Inner Battlefield
The Gita doesn’t ask us to be aggressive — it asks us to be courageous.
Every time we stay in situations that dim our spirit, we are like Arjuna on the battlefield — shaking, uncertain. Yet Krishna never told him to run. He said: “Rise up. Confront it.”
Sometimes your battlefield is fear. Or guilt. Or old wounds. Avoiding the conflict only prolongs the pain. True peace comes when you face your reality.
5. Cease Expecting Validation from the World
Krishna didn’t ask Arjuna to be admired — He asked him to stay awake.
Arjuna faced the entire Kaurava army, yet Krishna was enough. The Gita declares: “One who remains steady in honor or dishonor is wise.”
When you chase validation, you weaken your standards. Decisions become about pleasing others rather than uplifting your soul. But your journey is sacred. Even if no one applauds, walk it anyway.
6. Surrender Is Not Giving Up: It’s Rising Higher
In the end, Arjuna didn’t win because of his strength. He won because he surrendered — to wisdom, to truth, to higher purpose.
When you yield to your soul’s true calling, you stop settling. You stop living half-alive. The Gita teaches that strength isn’t about controlling everything — it’s about releasing what isn’t yours to carry and trusting the path that is.
Stop shrinking yourself. Begin to yield.
7. Breakdowns Lead to Breakthroughs
At the beginning of the Gita, Arjuna is shattered — physically trembling, mentally adrift. But Krishna doesn’t hand him comfort. He gives him clarity.
That breakdown wasn’t defeat; it was the doorway to awakening. When life knocks you down, it strips away illusions. What remains is your truest self.
The fall is not the end. It’s the beginning.
8. Discomfort Is a Sign You’re Being Prepared
Krishna tells Arjuna: “The wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead.” Why? Because pain is temporary — it’s a passage.
Every heartbreak, every loss — it’s shaping you. The Gita never promises a life without struggle. It promises that struggle builds resilience. You are not being punished. You are being prepared.
9. The Most Resilient Souls Face the Greatest Trials
Ever wondered why your path feels harder than others’? Krishna’s reply is profound: the soul closest to awakening faces the greatest challenges.
Arjuna wasn’t weak — he was chosen. And so are you. The Gita reminds us that suffering is not punishment — it is proof of growth.
10. Releasing Control Is a Sign of Strength
Krishna says: “Relinquish the fruits of your actions.”
Holding on to what hurts only prolongs suffering. Releasing isn’t weakness — it’s wisdom. Life will keep breaking you until you let go of what was never yours to hold: false identities, broken expectations, unhealthy ties.
Only when you release can your hands be free to receive what is truly meant for you.
Surrender is strength disguised as softness.
11. Rise, Even When You’re Not Ready
Krishna doesn’t wait for Arjuna to be fearless. He urges him: “Stand up, O Arjuna!”
Healing doesn’t require perfection. Life won’t wait for the ideal moment. Even in fear, even in brokenness — you are enough.
Rise anyway. Speak anyway. Try anyway. Healing begins not after fear disappears, but while you act in spite of it.
12. Your Suffering Has a Reason
Every wound carries wisdom. Krishna’s teachings are not about escaping life, but about understanding it.
That heartbreak, that setback — it didn’t happen to you, it happened for you. To wake you. To guide you. To align you with higher purpose.
The Gita teaches: pain is a doorway, not a destination. Walk through it.
Fragility Does Not Define You — It Calls You to Action
You are not weak for breaking. You are alive, and your breaking is proof that you are being reshaped.
The Gita doesn’t promise an easy path. It promises transformation. Every collapse is not your end — it is your initiation.
If Life Continues to Shatter You
If life continues to shatter you, don’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?” Instead, ask, “What is this awakening within me?”
Because the Gita shows us that the most broken hearts often hold the deepest truths.
Yes, it hurts. Yes, you feel exhausted. Yes, you want to give up. But Krishna would look into your eyes and say: “You are far stronger than you realize. Keep moving forward.”
And that is how you rise. Not in spite of being broken — but because you were.
Alone? Good. Krishna Says It’s Time to Grow — Bhagavad Gita Wisdom
In an era of infinite scrolling, group chats, and constant noise, solitude can feel intimidating. We often associate being alone with failure — as if being by yourself means something is wrong.
But ancient Indian wisdom, especially the Bhagavad Gita, views it differently. Lord Krishna does not condemn solitude. On the contrary, He honors it — not as an escape from life, but as a sacred opportunity for growth, evolution, and clarity.
Solitude Is Not Emptiness, It’s Insight
Isolation helps remove distractions and reveals inner truth.
In Chapter 6 of the Gita, Krishna describes the qualities of a true yogi:
“One who is content with knowledge and wisdom, who is firm, who has control over the senses… who dwells alone in solitude and is free from desire, such a yogi is said to have attained union with the Divine.”
Here, Krishna is not glorifying isolation — He is encouraging self-reliance. When you are alone, distractions fall silent. You finally hear your thoughts, notice your emotions, and meet your true self — something many avoid their entire lives.
Don’t Just Endure Solitude, Evolve Through It
The Bhagavad Gita doesn’t promise a life without solitude. Instead, it teaches how to use solitude as fertile soil for spiritual and personal growth.
Being alone is not a detour. It’s often the main road toward becoming your next self.
So if you find yourself alone — good.
You’re exactly where Krishna begins His best work.
