What's in my Bag?

Imagine that every human being is given a bag at birth. We spend our life filling it.

Some things we put into it are beautiful: love, compassion, wisdom, generosity, devotion, selfless service.

But we also put other things into it: anger, greed, jealousy, fear, resentment, possessiveness, unfulfilled desires, attachments and the memories and impressions created by all these experiences.

And according to the wisdom of the Gita and the Upanishads, death does not necessarily mean that the journey ends. The body is left behind. But the subtle baggage associated with the jiva continues.

What exactly travels?

The Bhagavad Gita says:

मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ।
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛtisthāni karṣati
“The embodied self draws to itself the mind and the five senses.”
— Bhagavad Gita 15.7

Then Krishna gives a striking image:

शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वरः ।
गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात् ॥

“When the embodied self obtains a body, and when it leaves it, it carries these with it, just as the wind carries fragrances from their source.”

— Bhagavad Gita 15.8

The analogy is subtle. The wind does not carry the flower itself. It carries its fragrance.

Similarly, what continues from one embodiment to another is not the physical body. The subtle conditioning of the individual continues: the mind, senses, impressions, tendencies and desires that have been accumulated through experience and action.

The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad makes the connection with desire particularly explicit:

तदेव सक्तः सह कर्मणैति
लिङ्गं मनो यत्र निषक्तमस्य ।

“Being attached, he goes together with his work to that object to which his mind is attached.”

And then:

तस्माल्लोकात्पुनरैत्यस्मै लोकाय कर्मणे ॥

“From that world he returns again to this world for further action.”

— Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad 4.4.6 

This gives us a profound way of looking at life. Our attachments become our baggage.
Our desires give direction to the baggage.
Our actions add to the baggage.
Our repeated thoughts and emotions strengthen its contents. And therefore, life is not merely about acquiring things. It is also about deciding what we are putting into the bag.

The bag becomes heavier

Consider anger. Someone hurts us. We experience anger. But instead of allowing the experience to pass, we repeatedly revisit it.

“I will never forgive him.”

“How could she do this to me?”

“I must make him pay.”

Every repetition strengthens the impression.

The event may have lasted five minutes.

But the mind may carry it for fifty years.

The same happens with desire. We obtain something and immediately want something more.

Then something else.

Then something else.

The object changes, but the underlying tendency remains. Eventually the tendency becomes part of our conditioning. This is what makes the baggage heavy. Not merely what happened to us. What we repeatedly chose to hold on to.

The Upanishadic teaching goes even deeper.

 Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad describes the subtle body as associated with impressions and explains that attachment and desire play a role in determining what follows after death.

 It says that the person who desires continues in transmigration, while the one who becomes free from desire reaches Brahman. 

That is why spiritual life is not simply about becoming a better person socially.

It is about becoming lighter inwardly.

What should we put into the bag?

This does not mean becoming emotionless.

It means transforming what we carry.

Anger can become understanding.

Possessiveness can become love without ownership.

Fear can become trust.

Desire can become aspiration.

Ego can become humility.

Pain can become wisdom.

Experience can become compassion.

And action can become karma yoga.

The Gita gives us a practical direction:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।

“You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits.”

— Bhagavad Gita 2.47

The idea is not that we should stop acting or stop caring about results. Rather, we should stop making the result the basis of our identity and inner peace.

Do what is yours to do.

Do it sincerely.

Do it well.

Then let go of the claim:

“I must get this particular result.”

That begins to clean the baggage.

How do we clean the baggage?

There are several complementary paths in the Gita.

1. Watch the mind

The first step is awareness.

Before we can clean the bag, we must see what is inside it.

Watch your thoughts.

Watch your reactions.

Watch what repeatedly disturbs you.

Watch what you cannot let go of.

Watch what you desperately want.

These are clues to the contents of the baggage. Do not immediately condemn yourself. Simply observe. Awareness weakens unconscious patterns.

2. Reduce unnecessary desire

The Upanishad gives us a particularly powerful teaching:

योऽकामो निष्काम आप्तकाम आत्मकामो…
ब्रह्मैव सन् ब्रह्माप्येति ॥

The one who is free from craving, whose desire is fulfilled in the Self, reaches Brahman.

— Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad 4.4.6 

This does not mean that we should stop living.

It means we should examine our desires.

Ask:

“Do I really need this?”

“What will happen if I don’t get it?”

“Is this desire serving me, or am I becoming its servant?”

Every unnecessary attachment that we release makes the bag lighter.

3. Perform action without accumulating attachment

This is Karma Yoga.

Work.

Serve.

Create.

Earn.

Care for your family.

Fulfil your responsibilities.

But gradually remove the egoistic claim:

“I am the doer.”

And the possessive claim:

“This is mine.”

And the demand:

“Life must give me what I want.”

This is how action can stop creating additional bondage.

4. Purify the emotions

Suppression is not purification.

If anger is pushed down, it remains in the bag.

If resentment is merely hidden, it remains.

If grief is denied, it remains.

Purification means seeing the emotion completely, understanding it, allowing it to be experienced, and then releasing the identification with it.

A useful daily practice is:

What happened?
What did I feel?
What story did I create around it?
What am I still holding?
Can I release it today?

That is practical spiritual housekeeping.

5. Cultivate sattva

The Gita describes three gunas:

Sattva — clarity, harmony, luminosity
Rajas — activity, passion, restless desire
Tamas — inertia, confusion, darkness

Initially, the task is not to jump directly beyond the gunas.

We first move from tamas toward rajas, and from rajas toward sattva.

Bring more:

clarity into the mind

discipline into life

moderation into consumption

truthfulness into speech

compassion into relationships

awareness into action

stillness into the daily routine

A clean bag is easier to examine than a chaotic one.

But even sattva ultimately has to be transcended.

That is a crucial point.

6. The final step: go beyond the three Gunas

Krishna says:

गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान् ।
जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते ॥

“Having transcended these three Gunas, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, old age and suffering, and attains immortality.”

— Bhagavad Gita 14.20

And Krishna then gives a direct means:

मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्तियोगेन सेवते ।
स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान् ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥

“One who serves Me through unwavering devotion, transcending these three Gunas, becomes fit for Brahman.”

— Bhagavad Gita 14.26 

Notice the progression.

First we clean the baggage.
Then we become less attached to the baggage.
Then we recognise that even the purified baggage belongs to Prakriti, not to the Self.
Finally, we discover that we are not the baggage at all.

That is transcendence.

And what are the “better places”?

The Gita does speak of different destinations and different births according to one’s state and actions. The Upanishads likewise speaks of different destinations and eventual return according to karma and desire.

 Bṛhadāraṇyaka 4.4.4 describes the self taking another form, while 4.4.6 connects attachment, action and subsequent return. 

But the highest teaching is not merely

“Clean your bag so that you get a better bag next time.”

That still keeps us inside the cycle.

The ultimate objective is

Why keep carrying the bag at all?

That is freedom. 

The Gita’s 14.20 does not merely promise a more comfortable future birth. It speaks of becoming free from birth and death and attaining immortality. 

So, there are really two levels of the teaching

A cleaner bag may lead to a better journey within samsara.

But:

A completely purified and liberated consciousness no longer needs another journey through samsara. That is the deeper destination. The most important message and  Perhaps this is the simplest way to understand it,

You are travelling through life with a bag.

Every thought that you repeatedly entertain puts something into it.

Every desire you become attached to puts something into it.

Every resentment you refuse to release puts something into it.

Every selfish action adds something to it.

But every act of forgiveness removes something.

Every selfless action cleans something.

Every attachment surrendered makes it lighter.

Every desire understood loosens its grip.

Every moment of awareness prevents unconscious accumulation.

Every act of devotion turns the mind toward something higher.

And eventually you discover something even more profound:

The bag is not you.

The body is not you.

The mind is not you.

The desires are not you.

The impressions are not you.

Even the subtle baggage is not the Self.

The Bhagavad Gita’s teaching is therefore not merely:

“Carry better baggage.”

It is:

“Clean the baggage, lighten the baggage, understand the baggage and finally discover the one who was never the baggage.”

That is the movement from samsara(bondage) to freedom.

- Ashutosh Tewari trying hard to check what’s in my bag 

- ⁠After reading this go back and check what’s in your bag🤗🤗🤗😍☺️🙏