The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 4.7. Swami Krishnananda

================================

---------------------------------------------------
15/04/2020.
Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite - 7.

----------------------------------------------------

1.

Well, this is a story about every one of us. 

It is not merely a tale to hear, it has some connection with all of us. Such is the poor understanding we have of God and such the nature of the moksha that we are thinking of in our minds, in a peculiar manner of our own. 

Don’t you think that we would like to exist somehow in this very way even in the garden of Eden, in the presence of the Almighty? 

And would you like to be swallowed up by the lion of God? 

No, that is a terrible thing! 

No one can gainsay that there is a basic love for bodily existence, and our idea of immortality is of a long duration of existence in this very state of affairs in which we are living today. Only, we would not like to have the pinpricks of daily life we are trying to get over. We want to have a free hand in everything, but with the justification of this ego’s desires. 

The attachments which were the basis of the arguments of Arjuna, mentioned in the First Chapter, are the opposite of the spiritual gospel that Krishna gave in the Bhagavadgita. Yes, Arjuna was prepared for renunciation also, if it came to that. 

He suggested, “I renounce the whole thing and become a mendicant. If that is spiritual life and religion, I am ready.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

2.

Now, we are ready for that, really. 

Suddenly we say, “We renounce father and mother, renounce every connection with the world. We shall have nothing to do with people. We seek God.” 

We move from one place to another place in this very world, and satisfy ourselves that the renunciation is complete. The great renunciation which the Bhagavadgita speaks of is not this much merely. 

It is not just a coming away from California to the Himalayas. 

It is a different thing altogether, which would not be easy for all people to understand; and if it had been so easy we would not be bungling in our spiritual life in the way we do every day. 

Arjuna could not grasp it, and how can we grasp it?

We stumble into the same rut of thinking in spite of all our arguments and abilities and our efforts to get at the significance of true spiritual life.

To be continued ...

======================================