A Study of the Bhagavadgita :11.3 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, May 04, 2022. 20:45.

Chapter 11: Beholding God as He Beholds Himself-3.

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"Anta-kale cha mam eva smaran muktva kalevaram

yah prayati sa mad-bhavam yati nastyatra sanshayah."  (Gita 8.5). 

BG 8.5 : Translation

"Those who relinquish the body while remembering Me at the moment of death will come to Me. There is certainly no doubt about this."

This last question is taken up for detailed explanation in the whole of the Eighth Chapter, while the other questions were briefly answered in a few words. Whenever the time comes for a human being to depart from this world, that particular context of the time of passing decides the nature of rebirth, the kind of embodiment into which the soul will enter in the region to which it will gravitate on account of its own present karmas.

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The karma theory is very complex. The Lord Himself tells us the nature of karma is hidden so secretly that its operations are not easy to understand because on the one hand, action seems to be connected with the individual initiative because it passes through the egoism of personality, but on the other hand, it is actually not entirely confined to the structure of human individuality; it is cosmically oriented.

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The difficulty that you feel in your personal life is regarding the understanding of the nature of the relation that seems to obtain between the cosmical impulsion behind all things and your individual initiative. Where does the demarcating line come between your assertion of personality and the operation of God's will? This is why it is said it is very hard. However, it is decided that the karmas of individuals will decide their future. Whatever you think intensely produces a vibration within as well as without. Outwardly it affects people in the world, in your vicinity, in everything outside. Inwardly, potencies or intangible layers of impulsion get piled up one over the other on account of your continuously thinking varieties of things throughout the day. As every click of a camera creates the impression of a particular picture on the film that is inside, every thought which is connected with an object of perception through the sense organs creates a sensation, a kind of picture of the object with emotion attached to it of like or dislike, or neutrality, as the case may be. Somehow or other, some impression is formed by the perception of any object through the sense organs. How many times do you perceive things during the day, and what are the thoughts that occur to your mind during the perception of things in the world? There are hundreds and hundreds of thoughts. Some thoughts are of an impersonal nature, and some are personal.

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The personal thoughts which are connected with feelings, emotions and evaluations of any kind have a very strong effect upon you, and they will not leave you so easily. These impressions, which are stored in the psyche continuously for days, months and years throughout your life, appear like a thick, dark cloud, as it were, covering the consciousness of the Self inside. This cloud becomes the causative factor for the future embodiment of the soul, because whatever you desire has to find an expression sometime or the other. You cannot stifle your desires. The thought which is charged with an emotion or a feeling of desire is certainly to be allowed a channel of expression today or tomorrow. As you know very well, there are many desires in human individuals, and all of them cannot be fulfilled in this world due to various restrictions – personal, as well as social.

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There are difficulties of your own. For example, you have debility of the physical body, weakness of the sense organs, and other hindrances which are psychological in nature. Due to the personal lacunae of the instrumentality for the purpose of fulfilling a desire, you cannot fulfil all your desires. The desires will remain, and are simply like building castles in the sky. Yet these castles will be there, and they cannot vanish into thin air. On the other hand, there are social restrictions. The world of people will not permit you to fulfil every kind of desire that emanates from your mind.

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So what do you do at that time? You repress the desires, and keep them inside: "Go back. Withdraw." Well, the desires will tell you, "Yes, we will withdraw." Afterwards, they will ask you, "What happens to us?" You will say, "Keep quiet. Don't say anything," because you are afraid of telling them anything of a positive nature.

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To be continued ....

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