The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity- 3.4. Swami Krishnananda

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20/02/2020.

Chapter 3: The Aranya Parvam of the Mahabharatam-4.

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1.

#My dear spiritual seeker, we find ourselves in a wilderness after some time. We hop from place to place in search of different kinds of spiritual security and atmosphere. It is a kind of psychic wilderness where we do not know how to properly place ourselves. 

##It is an exile from our original aspiration and the satisfaction and security, the balance of approach and positivity that we seemed to have in our minds in the early days. 

###The Kauravas drove the Pandavas out into the forest.

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2.

#The wild tendencies within us, which are also in this kingdom of our personality, gain an upper hand. 

##In one interesting, humorous place Acharya Sankara, in his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, says the devils in the universe are more in number than the gods. It is a very amusing statement indeed. The devils are greater in number than these gods. 

*Why should the gods be small in number and the devils be more? 

*Anyway, each one of you can make a commentary on this sentence of Acharya Sankara. 

###The gods get defeated. Sometimes even gods get defeated. In our epic stories and Puranas, we hear of gods being dethroned and vanquished by asuric forces. 

####The Pandavas, the virtuous, good, righteous ones, are in the thick of the wilderness of the forest, and the licentious, greedy and unsympathetic forces of the Kauravas are on the throne.

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3.

#This should not happen to a spiritual seeker. 

##One has to guard oneself against such a predicament. 

###Whatever be the security we may have, however much we may guard ourselves, yet we may find ourselves in the position of the Pandavas. 

####There is a glory of young age of spiritual aspiration. I am not referring to our physical age. Spiritual aspiration also has a young age, which is exuberant and joyous. We feel that we are happy if we have all facilities, and sometimes we appear very elevated as seekers if we become pundits, learned in the sutras, masters of commentaries, or teach in a classical style of language. 

*All these are satisfactions, no doubt. 

**We are enthroned in something. In the Sabha Parva there is enthronement, but the trouble is yet to come. 

***Trouble comes only when the unattended impulses inside are going to speak in their own voice. 

****Unattended impulses are those with which we have not yet made peace.

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To be continued ...

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