The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita -1.2. : Swami Krishnananda

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Chinmaya Mission  :

Chinmaya Mission members of Auckland New Zealand were waiting with bated breath during the second week of November 2022 to host Pujya Swami Swaroopananda at their new Centre - Chinmaya Nikunj. 

Due to the pandemic Swamiji could not be there in person for the grand inauguration of the new centre in 2021. Members rejoiced and celebrated Pujya Swamiji's presence with a special weekend retreat and public talk series on the topics Re-Program Your Mind and Discover the Wellbeing Code respectively. 

During the weekend retreat the workshops and lectures emphasized on how our mind, thoughts and our world are all inter-related, hence the emphasis on auspicious thoughts to bolster transformation and change for a happier living.

When speaking on Wellbeing, Swamiji reiterated how a life lived in line with the teachings of our scriptures can facilitate the rediscovery of our natural state - that of wellbeing.

A special event of the week encompassed the Brahmachari Deeksha of Anish Aya who studied in the 17th Batch of Vedanta Course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya who has now committed to serve Auckland residents as Br. Ishaan Chaitanya through his Selfless Seva.

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Saturday, November 19, 2022. 08:30.

Chapter 1 : The Universal Scope of the Bhagavadgita - 2.

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As I mentioned a little earlier, the message of the Bhagavadgita is not religious in the common-sense meaning of the term; it does not teach any ‘religion', if by religion we mean the so-called faiths of the world that are prevalent today, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam or any sectarian cult, though under an outer cloak we may imagine that it is a Hindu scripture. It is a scripture that has originated in India, may be by an accident or a contextual necessity in the history of the universe. But it is not meant only for the people of India; it is for all people, and for all times. It is, therefore, not a message that Krishna gave to Arjuna so that we can just set it aside as something relevant to those times and not applicable to these days. It is a message of eternity, and it has a timeless significance for every one of us. It does not get rusted or worn out by the movements of time or the changes that take place geographically, socially or politically. The vicissitudes of life have no impact upon this message, because it arises from a source which transcends the transitions of life.

In a few words which occur towards the end of each chapter, as a colophon thereof, we are given an indication of the eternity, practicality and divinity of its content. The Bhagavadgita is supposed to be a message which embodies the knowledge of what is ultimately real, and not merely temporarily valuable or significant. When everything passes away, something shall remain, and what that something is, is the object of the quest of this knowledge which is embodied in the Bhagavadgita. It is called ‘Brahmavidya', the knowledge of the Absolute, Brahman.

The reality that cannot be further transcended is called the Absolute. It is so called because it is not related to anything else; it is non-relative Being. I am socially related to you, and you are related to me; and therefore our empirical existence is relative, one thing hanging on the other. But the Absolute does not hang on something else for its description, characterisation or existence. In our case, or in the case of anything, existence is conditioned by other existences. For instance, we are dependent on various factors for our life in this world. We require sunlight, water, air, food, we require social cooperation and protection and many other things of this nature, so that if these external conditioning features are absent, our personal or individual existence may be wiped out in a few days. We have no independent status of our own; we depend on other factors for our existence. 

There is a mutual dependence of characters, individuals and things in this world. Therefore, we say, the world is relative, and it has no absolute reality. But this relativity of things in the world is a pointer to the possibility of the existence of something which is not relative. The idea of relativity cannot arise unless there is something which makes us feel that things are relative. That which enables us to be conscious of the relativity of things cannot itself be relative. So, there is a necessity to admit the existence of that which is not relative, and it is designated, in scriptures like the Upanishads, as Brahman. This is a name that we give, for the purpose of our own descriptive understanding, to that which must exist as transcendent to anything that we see with our eyes or anything that we can conceive with our minds. 

The Bhagavadgita is the knowledge of the Absolute, Brahmavidya, which is mentioned at the end of each chapter. It is also called an Upanishad—something very strange to normal sense. It is an esoteric teaching, plumbing the depths of the essentiality of things behind the veneer of encrustations in the shape of names and forms. An Upanishad is a secret teaching. It is secret because it has concern with that which cannot be seen with the eyes. It is not related to appearances. The names and forms of the world are not the subject of the Upanishad. Its relationship is with that which is behind the names and forms. As its connection is with that which the senses cannot perceive, and even the mind cannot think adequately, it is to an extent regarded as a secret and, therefore, it is an esoteric teaching. It is ‘Upanishad'.

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To be continued

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