Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01/11/2019. 12. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He would not say why he had come. He was ashamed. He thought that Sri Krishna would know that it was due to his poverty. But Sri Krishna did not say anything about it. He did not ask, “Why you have come? Do you want anything? Can I give you something, or do anything for you?” He would not utter one word. Sudama was in a state of chagrin. “How is it that he doesn’t utter one word? I cannot ask. I am ashamed. I am so wretched in the presence of this great man.” After giving Sudama a cosy bed to sleep in, Sri Krishna bid him farewell, giving nothing to him, not even a little gift as a memento, a token. Nothing was given. Barehanded, helpless, the p

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31/10/2019. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Bhagavadgita - 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Here is the whole point. How can two persons be independent and yet be cooperative to the hilt? #How can you expect total sacrifice on the part of a person who is also independent like you? If you consider that the other person is not independent, then you also may not regard yourself as wholly independent. If an abolition of independence assumed by persons can be considered as necessary for a cooperative life of sacrifice, conflict may not arise. Even nations may avoid war if it is not absolutely called for. But a peculiar trait called egoism in human nature which is in families, in communities, in

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30/10/2019 (Spoken on Gita Jayanti in 1974) 7. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Medical people know that 450 or so muscles are working when we stand up on our two legs. When we stand up, these 450 muscles are very active and very conscious that we are standing; otherwise, we will fall down. But who is aware of this fact? We think we are standing, but it is not so simple an affair. Not merely this, the brain is active, the heart is active, the lungs are active, the alimentary canal, the respiratory system – everything is active when we are merely standing up. In that simple act of standing, so many factors are involved that we are unaware of. And to understand the various factors of an action is e

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29/10/2019. (Gita Jayanti Message spoken on December 26, 1982.) 10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So when you recite the Bhagavadgita, even when you touch the book, you are, if you are honest to yourself, in divine communion. The vibrations of Vyasa, Krishna, and Ganesha are all trying to enter you. When you read a textbook, you are in an internal communion with the author’s ideas. You think like the author himself when you read a book. You are emotionally set in a proportion commensurate with the powerful ideas expressed by the poet or the author. Read Shakespeare, for instance. Your whole emotion will be turning upside down when you read through the plays because of the force of language,

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28/10/2019. 5. Earthly Pleasure is Transitory : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whatever be the "daulat" of this earth, whatever be the pomp of this passing pageantry, the real Hindu knows that true and lasting happiness is not to be got in this perishable world. Anityamasukham Lokamiman Prapya Bhajaswa Maam. This is the clarion call of Sri Krishna in the Gita. This is the main theme. Things here are not going to last. We cannot depend upon any objects for our permanent bliss or satisfaction. Also it is Asukham: there is no real pleasure in the objects of the external universe. There is no real pleasure in any enjoyment of the human senses. This knowledge is ingrained in every son

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 27/10/2019. (Spoken on July 15, 1979.) 6. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The systems of karma yoga, bhakti yoga, etc., are only internal arts of self-adaptation to the conditions that are demanded of us by the existing rules prevailing in the cosmos. Neither excess on one side nor excess on the other side is permitted. "Yuktaharaviharasya yuktaceshtasya karmasu, yuktasvapnavabodhasya yogo bhavati duhkhaha." (B.G. CH-6, SLO-17). An excessive emphasis on the side of austerity or an excessive emphasis on the side of indulgence, both are equally disadvantageous

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26/10/2019 (Spoken at a conference in Delhi on December 27, 1973.) 4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was Arjuna’s condition. His personality was torn to shreds by the psychological conflict that arose within himself. He did not know whether it was proper to be or not to be, as Shakespeare puts it in his Hamlet. You do not know whether it is proper to be or not to be. You do not know what to do and what not to do. Karpanya-doshopahatasvabhavah pucchami tvam dharmasammudhacetah (B.G. 2.7) was the query of Arjuna to Bhagavan Sri Krishna : “Lord, I do not know. I am confused. What is proper for me in this condition? Please tell me. Am I to engage in this bloody deed called war and kill

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25/10/2019. Chapter-1.The Yogam of the Despondency of Arjuna -2.4 Slokam-22 to 27. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arjuna Uvaacha : Sloka- 22 & 23. Senayor ubhayormadhye ratham sthaapaya me’chyuta. Yaavad etaan nireekshe’ham yoddhukaamaan avasthitaan; Kair mayaa saha yoddhavyam asmin ranasamudyame. -22. Yotsyamaanaan avekshe’ham ya ete’tra samaagataah; Dhaartaraashtrasya durbuddher yuddhe priyachikeershavah.-23. Arjuna said: 22 - In the middle of the two armies, place my chariot, O Krishna, so that I may behold those who stand here, desirous to fight, and know with whom I must fight when the battle begins. 23 - For I desire to observe those who are assembled here to fight, w

======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24/10/2019. Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The context in which Arjuna, the hero of this epic, the symbol of humanity in general, finds himself, is the total human situation. It is our situation, and everybody’s. The Mahabharata is not a book giving us merely a story of some historical event that occurred in ancient times. It is an exposition of the nature of the culture of the nation—one may say, the whole of humanity. It is a teaching which is intended to show the path to humanity in its entirety, leading it up to its destination by gradual stages; and the Bhagavadgita is the kernel of this intention of the Mahabharata epic. The purpose of the B

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23/10/2019. Chapter-1: The Colophon of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita-3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brahma-vidya is the art and the science of educating oneself in the manner of correctly perceiving the world as such, including one’s own self, in the totality of relations, so that no partial vision of things can be regarded as a passport to the concept of the Absolute. Mostly—or always, I may say—our perceptions are partial. They are limited to certain conditions. It is a condition related to a marketplace, a railway station, a bus stand, an office, a factory or a house. These are the things that limit our thoughts, but we do not rise above the apparent outwardness of these conditions and go insid

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22/10/2019. Chapter-2. The Sabha Parva of the Mahabharatam-1.. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recap : Now, this is a great question which students who wish to live a higher life raise before themselves and try to answer. To find this answer they come to holy places of personages who are in a position to guide them – teachers, masters, Gurus or yogis, whoever they are. In this ashram of Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, we are all here to seek an answer to this great question, to answer our own questions. I have to answer my question, and you have to answer your question. For this purpose, to receive guidance along these lines of answering our questions, we are gathered here. Hence, may we consider oursel

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21.10/2019. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "mama  yonirmahadbrahma  tasmin  garbham  dadhamyaham, sambhavah  sarvabhutanam  tato  bhavati  bharata." bharata  =  hey,  Arjuna; mahat  brahma  =    the  prestigious,  supreme,  brahmam  ( Prakrti /nature )   (  the total material existence ); mama  yonih  =  is  My  Garbha-Dhana-Sthanam  ( source  of  birth  ); tasmin  aham  =  in  that  I; garbham  dadhami  =  do  Garbha-Dhanam  (  create  pregnancy ); tatah  sarvabhutanam  =  thereafter,  from  that,  all  Chara-charam  (  all  living  /  non-living  entities ); sambhavah  bhavati   = 

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19/10/2019. 2.The Search For Wholeness -4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The avarana, as it is called in Vedantic parlance, is a screen over the reality which keeps us out of touch with it. That is what is known as ignorance. We are not only screened away from what is there but are presented with what is not there, so that we are made a double fool. Not only are we ignorant of the presence of God, but we are conscious of the presence of a world outside, so we are deceived in two ways. There is a double deception taking place at the same time. Not only are we completely cut off from the vital root essence , the sparent of all thing , which is sustaining us here— 'mata dhata pitamahaḥ&#