Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, June 30, 2020.. 8:04.PM. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-26. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slokam-26. "Mam  ca  yovyabicarena  bhaktiyogena  sevate, sa  gunan  samatitaiyatan  bramabhuyaya  kalpate." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Translation : mam  =  I Paramatma, unto Me; avyabicarena  =  without  devotion; bhaktiyogena  =  the  bhakti; yah  sevate  sah  =  one  who  do  the  seva,  he; etan  gunan  = these  guna= bramabhuyaya  kalpate  =  he  is  eligible  to  receive /obtain  Brahma-tvam.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tattvam : (Essence ) : And he who worships me with the unwavering yoga of de

Sunday, June 28, 2020. 9:42. AM. Chapter-1. Introduction to the Bhagavadgita-9. 1. The Bhagavadgita is the Lord’s song, as they say. Bhagavan is Bhagavat. Song is a musical message that has sprung from God, as it were. When God speaks, He speaks in a language of Eternity. He does not speak in English or Sanskrit or Latin. It is the tongue of the Eternal that spoke here. That ferocious and fear-striking picture that is painted in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is a faint attempt that is made by the best ability of the poet to tell you what you can expect finally when the world does not want you any more.  When you go to war, you do not always go with the idea of coming back safe.  You may go to the other side also; but what is the use of going to the other side?  What is the purpose?  Even if death is the outcome of a war which is considered as very unavoidable, what happens to you after death? 2. If nothing happens after death, perhaps nothing happens in this life also. There

Saturday, June 27, 2020.8:20.AM. Chapter 3: Samkhya – Right Understanding-4. 1. Now, the second chapter and the third chapter have some sort of relationship from the point of view of the theme discussed. It is merely pointed out in the second chapter that right understanding is necessary, and only an introductory remark is made as to what samkhya means, so far as the second chapter goes. Right from the beginning till the end of the second chapter, the word samkhya is used in many, many places, suggesting that samkhya is the knowledge of the harmony that is there among all things – samatva – the equanimous, organisational, cooperative feature operating between one and another, thus cementing all particularities or individuals into a sort of cosmic organisation or universal society.  This is the suggestion of the second chapter when it says :  Samatvaṁ yoga ucyate (Gita 2.48):  Equanimity is yoga, balance is yoga, harmony is yoga, cooperation is yoga – not competition, not battle, not wa

Thursday, June 25, 2020.9:29.AM. Chapter 5: The Mortal and the Immortal-9. 1. Death is a transformation of ourselves from one space-time order to another space-time structure. We move from one continuum of space-time to another continuum. It does not mean that the universe is made up of one type of space-time only. The present system is one particular arrangement of space-time, and this particular body of ours is in consonance with the requirements of the order of space-time in which we are at present. When the time series and the spatial order changes in the higher ascent of ourselves, the whole physical form has to be shed completely and a new form has to be assumed for this purpose. But inasmuch as our consciousness, the soul, is connected with this particular bodily complex, we imagine that this transformation of ourselves from one space-time order to another is a destruction of ourselves, and as destruction is fearsome, we hate death. 2. Now, therefore, the fear of death is due to

Wednesday, June 24, 2020.8:41.AM. Discourse 4: The Second Chapter Continues – How to Live in the World-3. 1. Thus, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, “Don’t be a coward, saying that one day you will die and afterwards everything will be annihilated, saying that you don’t know what will happen afterwards.” The fear of death implies the futurity of the soul. We say that we must do good actions, we must be righteous, we must live moral and ethical lives. These injunctions cannot have any meaning unless the soul is deathless, because at any moment one can pass away. If tomorrow is the end of this individuality, all good actions also go with it. Therefore, all the injunctions for being righteous and good and humane become futile but for the fact that there is a possibility of the continuity of life after the perishing of this body. That is, rebirth of the soul is implied in the very injunctions to be good in this world, to do some service, and to have a worthwhile existence in this world. 2. The reb

Monday, June 22, 2020. 8:25.AM. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 5: The Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata - 4 1. There is a difficulty. We have a difficulty always, and there is not a single moment when we are not in some difficulty because if there is no difficulty of any kind, in any sense of the term, at any place, in any aspect of our life, it would be difficult to imagine that we would be living and doing things in the manner that we do now. There is perpetual motivation in some direction in our life, and our life is a complicated network of involvements and relations. What is meant by ‘our life’? It is a large web of interrelations where everything is connected in some way, in some proportion, in some emphasis of intensity. It is my particular need or necessity felt at this hour, but my need or necessity is not unconnected with the environment in which I am living, and it is not possible to assure myself that I am totally free from any kind of association with my

================================================================ Sunday, June 21, 2020.. 11:16.AM. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-25.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slokam-25. "Manapamanayostulyah  tulyah  mitraripakshayo, sarvarambhaparityagi   gunatitah   sa  ucyate." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Translation : Manapamanayoah                    =  respect  and  disrespect,  both; tulyah                                       =  take  ( consider / think )  as  equal; mitraripakshayoah                    =  friends-side  and  enemies-side,  both; tulyah                                       =  look  in  one  state; sarvarambhaparityagi  ( yah )  =  one  who  is  not  beginning  anything  with  selfish  motive  and  karma-s  with  desire; sah  gunatitah  uciyate             =  he  is  sa

Friday, June 19, 2020. Chapter-1. Introduction to the Bhagavadgita-8. 1. Arjuna never knew that there is such a profundity involved in his relation with the atmosphere outside. He thought he was a Pandava, a son of so-and-so, brother of so-and-so, relative of so-and-so, student of so-and-so – none of which is our description. The Bhagavadgita becomes an eternal gospel only because of the fact that it stands above all sciences, all teachings, and every branch of learning in schools and colleges as a solution to your ultimate problem, which is the relation of yourself to creation itself. When you die one day, what happens to you? Your sciences, your geographies and histories do not know what happens to you, though it is an event that can take place at any moment. What is the good of your education, your degrees, if tomorrow something happens to you and they cannot help? The whole thing is gone. You have gone to the winds. You have become ashes. Is this the tragedy you are expecting in th

Thursday, June 18, 2020. Chapter 3: Samkhya – Right Understanding-3. 1. Now, we are lifted to a higher level of thinking when the word 'samkhya' is used in the second chapter of the Bhagavadgita, meaning thereby an understanding of the true relationship that obtains between you and everything that is around you, and not merely that which appears to be around you. Though it may appear that there is nothing around you except people to whom you are concerned positively or negatively, by means of like and dislike, etc., there are more important things that condition our existence than the existence of other people like us.  This was revealed to us to some extent by our study of the cosmology of the Samkhya. The very existence of human beings as individuals or isolated personalities is due to an event that has perhaps taken place in the process of the creational or the evolutionary activity of the whole structure of the universe. 2. You may have to remember what I told you last time

Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Chapter 5: The Mortal and the Immortal-8. Any change, any transformation, any movement whatsoever, anywhere in this world, at any time, is a consequence of this impulse from the finite in the direction of the Infinite; and no one can remain for ever as a finite, inasmuch as the finitude of being is an unnatural state of being. The unnatural cannot always be; it tries to overcome and transcend itself and expand itself into the higher stage which moves gradually towards an infinitude of realisation. This tendency of the finitude in us towards the Infinite that is really there is the reason behind transmigration, birth and death. What we call birth and death, or rebirth, transmigration, metempsychosis, etc., is a necessary obligation on the part of everything that is finite in the light of the all-comprehensiveness of the Infinite. We cannot maintain our individual personalities continuously intact. As a matter of fact, we cannot be the same individuals even for tw

Monday, June 15, 2020. Discourse 4: The Second Chapter Continues – How to Live in the World-2. The Atman, or the soul of man, is not in space and time. The soul is not in space and time because it can know that there is space and time. The knower of an object is itself not the object. The consciousness in us, which is the Atman basically, is aware of the existence of such a thing as space and time; therefore, the knower, which is consciousness, cannot itself be involved in space and time.  The knower of space is not in space. The knower of time is not in time. Hence, basically, essentially, the soul within is spaceless and timeless—avināśi and tatam—spread out everywhere, wider than space and more durable than time.  This soul, which is deathless, is encased, as it were, in a perishable body. The human being is partly in the world of death and partly in the world of the immortals. We are involved physically, and to some extent psychologically, in space and time. We know very well that

Sunday, June 14, 2020. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 5: The Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata - 3 1. What exactly is meant by the words ‘battle’ or ‘war’?  We have our own prosaic, human, political and historical ideas about this very unpleasant event which has always been part and parcel of history and human existence. But while it is true that people engage themselves in battles and wars to solve a particular problem or a situation prevailing at a given moment of time, it is not the intention of the Bhagavadgita to say that any problem of human existence can be solved merely by reading the historical aspect of the human side of empirical existence. 2. We never do anything unless we are sure that our doing is going to solve a particular problem or necessity in our life. If a necessity does not arise, we will not budge an inch, and we will not act. There is a need felt for action, and that need is commensurate with a difficulty behind it.  What is meant by ‘a need’ o

Saturday, June 13, 2020. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-24.  "Samaduhkhasukhah  svasthah  samaloshtasmakanjanah, tulyapriyapriyo  dirah  tulyanindatmasamstutih." Translation : ( yah )  sama-duhkha-sukhah      =  one  who  keeps  his  mind  balanced  in  joy  as  well  as  sorrow; svasthah                                       =  ever  situated  in  his  'Self '   ( ever in  his  atma ); sama-loshtah-asmah-kanchanah  =  loshtam ( clay-mud block ),  asmam ( stone ),  kanchanam ( gold )  these  three  are  as  of  equal  status; tulya-priya-apriyah                     =   consider  likes  and  dislikes  equally; dirah  =  courageous, ( strong minded ); tulya-nindha-atma-samstutih      =  about  him  disgrace  or  grace  he  has  no  change  in  his  mind; sah  gunatitah                              =  he  is  'Gunatitan'.    Tattvam (Essence) :   Lord Krishna  continued  to  explain  more  details  of  a  'Gunatitan

Friday, June 12, 2020. Chapter-1. Introduction to the Bhagavadgita-7. You may ask, “Is the world so unkind to us? Is God so merciless?” It is nothing of the kind. These ethical and social rules do not obtain in a world which is wider than human society and family relation. ‘Mercy’, ‘goodness’, ‘kindness’, ‘affection’ are words which are meaningful to us human beings; but the cosmos God has created is not made up of human beings. God has not created human beings, actually. He has created forces, energies. As modern science will tell you, quanta of powers by a process of permutation and combination become larger by logical embodiments and may look like organisms, plants, animals, and human beings; but really, in God’s eye, or to the eye of the world itself, there may not be plants, animals and human beings. There are only cosmic forces operating. Any kind of attachment or aversion, any emotion which is sunk in love and hatred, is not the way in which the world is working or, perhaps, God