The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita : 10.1. - Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF)

Limitless joy for Janmashtami day 🦚

At Adi Sankara Nilayam, celebrations began with the Nagar Sankirtan and Akhanda Nama Japa in the Illom, where devotees chanted the sacred names of the Lord

Swami Sharadananda led the celebrations and proceedings through the day.

At dusk, the temple came alive with the lighting of Chuttuvilakku, followed by a beautiful procession with kids dressed as Krishna and Radha, and a stunning demonstration of Kalaripayattu in front of the Illom.

The beautiful puja at 10 PM was accompanied by the recitation of Vishnu Sahasranama stora. As part of the shodashopachara - students of Puja Vidhanam course and CVV performed a captivating play portraying Krishna’s birth and his delightful childhood antics.

The chanting of the Lord’s name continued until midnight with increased fervor as the lights dimmed and everyone looked on in wonder as a beautifully decorated cradle was revealed to announce the birth of Lord Krishna. 

Joyous bhajans that enamoured devotees to dance with joy and singing continued as the Mahaprasad was distributed. 

May Lord Krishna's blessings continue to guide us on the path of righteousness and love.

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Wednesday, 13 Sep 2023 06:10.

Chapter 10: The One Supreme Absolute Alone Is - 1.

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The faculties of knowledge and action in the human individual correspond, practically, to the functions of reason, will, emotion, and the impulse to act. We rationally and intellectually consider the pros and cons of a particular step to be taken – this is the rationality behind our way of living. Apart from pure intellectual or rational assessment, there is also a faculty in us which goes by the name of will – volition – which decides and determines a course of action or a purpose to be fulfilled. There is also a very important contributory factor in all of our engagements in life, namely emotion or feeling, and there is also the vigour which impulses to act. Practically, the human being is exhausted by these operations: reason, will, emotion, and an impulsion to vibrate as activity in some direction or the other.

The way of life of the human being is also the way in which we live a religious life. Even our practise of yoga and our concept of God, everything for the matter of that which is connected with this, has to be cast in the mould of these endowments. We cannot go beyond the limitations set by these facets of human individuality. In our adventures in life, we operate one or the other of these faculties – sometimes one preponderating over the others, and often, some one faculty assuming such an importance that it may even bury down the other aspects as if they do not exist at all. But we are a blend of all these faculties. It is not wise to over-emphasise any of these, because we are a wholesome, total human organism; and health, whether it is physical or psychological, is to be considered as a balance of our forces – the forces which constitute us, whether they are physical or otherwise.

The religious life that we live is also conditioned by these principles of our psyche, and though it is true that we should harmonise the operations of all these faculties due to certain inborn traits in us, characteristics into which we are born right from the beginning of our life, we are not capable of paying equal attention to all these. There is an automatic preponderance of one or the other of these faculties, so that people are either predominantly intellectual, and the emotions do not play such an important role in them, or they are pre-eminently feelingful, touchy, sentimental, emotional and the reason does not play an important part in their life. There are others who are terribly active, they cannot sit in one place; there is always a tendency to move and do something or the other throughout the day, whatever the reason behind it be, and the feeling also be. There are psychic types who are accustomed to concentrate, and this also sometimes assumes a special importance for some characters. It is rarely we see people with all these faculties in proper proportion – such an integrated individual is difficult to see.

These faculties in the human being are the instruments of the practice of yoga, so that we cannot contact reality except through the apparatus with which we are endowed. These four features mentioned determine and decide our encounter with God, the Supreme Being; and the way in which we visualise the Supreme Being through these faculties goes by the names of the various yogas: jnana, yoga, bhakti, karma and the like. In the Bhagavadgita we have a large detail opened up before us of all these methods of spiritual practice, though we cannot say that anywhere does the Bhagavadgita create a watertight compartment among these procedures or ways of approach. In every verse of the Gita there is a touching of everything practically, and there is no airtight distinction of one from the other. However, to be more precise and to make it more convenient to us, teachers of the Bhagavadgita and interpreters of this gospel have tried to discover instructions and teachings in the Bhagavadgita which accept the employing of these faculties for the purpose of religious living or spiritual practice, and particularly references to some of the verses from the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavadgita which, at least according to certain careful interpreters like the great Madhusudana Saraswati, seem to take into consideration these four yogas, so-called, which adopt the techniques of reason, will, emotion and action.

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To be continued

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