The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 6.1. : Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) :

The auspicious Maha Shivaratri night was celebrated in a grand way in the Illom, the maternal birth home of Sri Adi Sankaracharya. 

The Chaturyama puja performed by Brahmachari Ved Chaitanya began at 7:00 PM IST on 18th February and culminated with the last Yama puja early the next morning at 5:30 AM IST, followed by prasada. 

All present onsite reveled in the glory of Lord Shiva with the yama pujas, chanting and bhajans throughout the night. 

Students of Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth presented a dance as part of the shodashopachara puja and also participated in the chanting and bhajans. 

Prior to the puja the Chinmaya Swayambhu Ayyappa Temple temple complex was lit with beautiful oil lamps with the offerings of Chuttu vilakku.

▶️Watch the Maha Shivaratri Puja: https://www.youtube.com/live/p4QoUTcQ6Ts?feature=share

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Tuesday, February 21,  2023. 06:30.

Chapter 6: The Meaning of Duty -1.

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The reply of Sri Krishna to Arjuna's questions comes from various levels—the social, the personal, the cosmical and, ultimately, the spiritual. A problem has to be tackled in every way, because our difficulties arise from the depths of our being. No difficulty belongs merely to one side of our life, just as a disease has a root in the layers which are beneath the mere physical. Interpreters of scriptures and students of philosophy are asked to take into consideration all the possible aspects of a particular situation, even if it be a commonplace event. A little event is a cosmical event, though it may be a very insignificant, meaningless something for common perception. But a thing is not so redundant as it may appear on the surface. The universe is awake at the birth of every event. That is why we are told that there is no such thing as a secret in this world; everything is public, open and common. An event has to be viewed from various angles of vision. Mostly, we are inclined to study things in a one-sided manner. We study themes, for example, from the political context, and interpret them only from that viewpoint, as if there is nothing else about things. Students of sociology and psychology, again, think only from their points of view. There are others, who are the religious people, who interpret everything theologically, and so on.

There is an objective universe, no doubt. The world appears to be outside us, and the objectivity of the event is also something that has to be taken into consideration. But we, as subjects, take part in the event that appears to be objective. Inasmuch as we, as subjects, participate in the objectivity of the event, there is also a subjective aspect of the event. So, no event or circumstance is wholly objective, nor can it be said to be wholly subjective. There is an intermingling of the outer and the inner, the objective and the subjective in the occurrence of any event. There is also a transcendent meaning inherent in the occurrence of anything. It is not merely the world and the individual that react upon each other, there is a final deciding factor which requires the objective and the subjective aspects to react in that manner. Often, we call this transcendence the Will of God. There is also the social side of it, because an event occurs in a social atmosphere. By society we need not necessarily mean a group of human beings. Society, in general, is an organised order, whether it is human or otherwise. And an event that occurs in an organised atmosphere has the impact of this organisation, whatever that organisation be—it may be a family, an institution, or the entire mankind.

There are many other aspects which will be gradually revealed through the course of the chapters of the Bhagavadgita. Arjuna, as the representative man, the specimen of a disciple, is admonished by the great example of the teacher, Sri Krishna. It is, no doubt, true that every human individual, Arjuna or whoever it is, is in a social atmosphere, and to argue on a basis which has absolutely no relevance to society would not be a completely valid procedure. Though it is true that a purely sociological argument is also not complete, because there are other aspects to it, yet, initially, we speak as social units. Rarely do we imagine that we belong to the vaster physical nature. Only in the philosophy classrooms may we be thinking in this manner, perhaps, but in our work-a-day life we imagine that we are human beings living in a human society concerned only with human relations. We are not so much bothered about the five elements.

The sociological argument is the primary argument, the initial step. Have we a duty to human society? One cannot say, “I have no duty. I am the soul, the Atman, a consciousness that is immortal, eternal, infinite.” This would be a fallacious argument, because here we are trying to inject a metaphysical level into a social atmosphere, which should not be done as long as one is obviously aware of the fact that the social atmosphere is a reality. When the reality of social relationship has vanished like mist before the sun, and we cannot see it with our eyes, then, may be, we need not take it into consideration in the judgement of anything. Anything that we are compelled to recognise as a reality cannot be ignored when any argument is put forth. And what human on earth can affirm that one does not belong to human society and that social laws do not operate?

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To be continued

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