A Study of the Bhagavadgita :14.5. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, September 18, 2022. 06:00. 
Chapter 14: Our Involvement in the Whole Creation -5.

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Tatraivaṁ sati kartāram ātmānaṁ kevalaṁ tu yaḥ, paśyaty akṛtabuddhitvān na sa paśyati durmatiḥ (Gita 18.16). 

Idiotic is that person, a fool is that individual who imagines that their individuality is responsible for everything: "I have done everything. I have purchased so much land. I have built this house. This is my family. I have so much money." Why are you boasting? You have nothing with you. Nothing will remain with you, even for a second. Everything will desert you and run away if the will from the Supreme Being does not operate.

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Sarvaṁ tam parādād yo'nyatrātmano sarvaṁ veda (Brihad. 2.4.6) is a great proclamation from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. 

As the great sage Yajnavalkya says, everything will leave you if you consider yourself as an isolated individual. The whole Gita and the Upanishads are busy telling you one thing only: that you are organically, livingly, vitally involved in the whole of creation. Your body is a part of the physical universe. The sense organs are controlled by the divinities. The prana is a part of the cosmic prana; the mind is a part of the cosmic mind; the intellect is a part of the cosmic intellect; Brahma Hiranyagarbha, your causal sheath, is a part of Ishvara; your Atman is Brahman. Therefore, as an individual you do not exist.

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You say this is a building. This building is nothing but a conglomeration of various materials – brick, iron, cement, lime, etc. If each item that constitutes this structure is withdrawn, you will find that there is no building at all. "I have a house," you say. You have a house, which is simply a name you have given to a shape taken by various ingredients such as iron, cement, brick, etc. "I am here. I am coming. I am doing this." When you say this, you do not understand what you are actually blabbering. If the materials which constitute your personality are withdrawn, let us see where you stand. Let the gods withdraw themselves. Let the bricks of this physical body go to the physical universe – the mind goes to the original source, etc. You will vanish in one second. The individuality will not be there.

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*Therefore, what does the Gita tell you? Your knowledge, called sankhya, should be so perfect that you should never for a moment forget your universal fourfold involvement, which is basically involvement in your own five sheaths, involvement in human society and living beings outside, involvement in nature which is manifest as the visible world, and involvement in God Almighty Himself. Keep in mind that you are a bundle of involvements; you are not an indivisible, solid, isolated entity. 

Do not say, "I am doing, I am doing." Let this egoism go, let the ahamkara be surrendered, and let Reality take possession of you.

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Next-

Chapter 15: Krishna and Arjuna Together is Victory

To be continued ....

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