The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 3.6. Swami Krishnananda
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24/12/2019.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -6.
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6.1
Arjuna was such an individual. He had likes and dislikes. The whole story of the Mahabharata is a description of the conflict among the varieties of likes and dislikes. The spiritual seeker is taught, through the epic atmosphere of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita, the lessons of life and the morals that follow from these lessons.
When our reasoning capacity is turbid, our knowledge is inadequate, and our adjustments with the world outside, including human society, are not strong enough. They collapse at the least touch of confronting situations, because human relationships are only an outer form of an internal propulsion of these three forces—sattva, rajas and tamas—which are cosmically present everywhere. There is a cosmic purpose behind even our individual likes and dislikes.
And our entanglement in like and dislikes is the result of our not understanding our wider involvement in a cosmical meaning that is at the base of all human situations. We always feel, “I have a like” and “I have a dislike”, but we do not know why we have that like, why we have that dislike.
#Why is it that we should like this and dislike something else?
We cannot give a satisfactory answer except that which is purely sentimental and emotional. But the world does not live on sentiments and emotions. It is a perfectly logical system, and all the parts of the mechanism of the universe are scientifically arranged; and our behaviour outside as well as our thoughts and sentiments inside, our relationships of any kind, are conditioned by this final structure of things in general, of which we are integral parts.
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6.2
The mistake of the human being in Arjuna was the incapacity to go deep into this involvement of the human individual in the larger setup of things. It is difficult for us to imagine that we are related in a more significant manner with things than what appears on the surface. The son is related to the father, the father is related to the son, there is a relation between friends, etc. This is only the outer form of some of the relationships that appear before our eyes.
But these relationships are metaphysically conditioned, cosmically organised by an impersonal government which has no friends or foes, and which does not bestow favours on anyone. It is like a large computer system which has no friend and which has no enemy. It depends upon how we manipulate the mechanism, how we feed this system, how we approach it and how we conduct ourselves in relation to it.
If our conduct is in any way disharmonious with the requirement of the setup of the mechanism, we will find that an undesirable result follows, something we did not expect. And the reason behind this unexpected occurrence cannot be attributed to any kind of error in the setup of things, in the mechanism we call the computer, but in the mistake we have committed, in the error that is involved in our relationship, in our not understanding properly how it works.
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6.3
#Arjuna, and anyone, could not and cannot easily understand or grasp this circumstance.
#So, we have hundreds of occasions every day to be jubilant in joy and hundreds of occasions to be sunk in sorrow.
#The Mahabharatam concludes with these words: “Fools find themselves in umpteen situations every day when they can be happy, or when they can be unhappy, also.”
#It is the stupid man, not the wise one, who sees occasions for joy or sees occasions for grief in the world.
#The world is not intended to bring us joy, nor is its intention to pour on us sorrow.
#A vast computer has no intention to give us satisfaction, nor is it intended to be there to bring us sorrow.
#It is impersonal, and it has no such emotional meanings behind it.
#But human beings are emotionally composed. They are not bathed in the light of wisdom at all times.
##We have secret directions from impulses which sometimes appear to be irrational because they cannot be explained in a scientific manner, though ultimately there is an explanation for everything in this world.
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To be continued .....
=======================================================================
========================================================================
24/12/2019.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -6.
========================================================================
6.1
Arjuna was such an individual. He had likes and dislikes. The whole story of the Mahabharata is a description of the conflict among the varieties of likes and dislikes. The spiritual seeker is taught, through the epic atmosphere of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita, the lessons of life and the morals that follow from these lessons.
When our reasoning capacity is turbid, our knowledge is inadequate, and our adjustments with the world outside, including human society, are not strong enough. They collapse at the least touch of confronting situations, because human relationships are only an outer form of an internal propulsion of these three forces—sattva, rajas and tamas—which are cosmically present everywhere. There is a cosmic purpose behind even our individual likes and dislikes.
And our entanglement in like and dislikes is the result of our not understanding our wider involvement in a cosmical meaning that is at the base of all human situations. We always feel, “I have a like” and “I have a dislike”, but we do not know why we have that like, why we have that dislike.
#Why is it that we should like this and dislike something else?
We cannot give a satisfactory answer except that which is purely sentimental and emotional. But the world does not live on sentiments and emotions. It is a perfectly logical system, and all the parts of the mechanism of the universe are scientifically arranged; and our behaviour outside as well as our thoughts and sentiments inside, our relationships of any kind, are conditioned by this final structure of things in general, of which we are integral parts.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2
The mistake of the human being in Arjuna was the incapacity to go deep into this involvement of the human individual in the larger setup of things. It is difficult for us to imagine that we are related in a more significant manner with things than what appears on the surface. The son is related to the father, the father is related to the son, there is a relation between friends, etc. This is only the outer form of some of the relationships that appear before our eyes.
But these relationships are metaphysically conditioned, cosmically organised by an impersonal government which has no friends or foes, and which does not bestow favours on anyone. It is like a large computer system which has no friend and which has no enemy. It depends upon how we manipulate the mechanism, how we feed this system, how we approach it and how we conduct ourselves in relation to it.
If our conduct is in any way disharmonious with the requirement of the setup of the mechanism, we will find that an undesirable result follows, something we did not expect. And the reason behind this unexpected occurrence cannot be attributed to any kind of error in the setup of things, in the mechanism we call the computer, but in the mistake we have committed, in the error that is involved in our relationship, in our not understanding properly how it works.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3
#Arjuna, and anyone, could not and cannot easily understand or grasp this circumstance.
#So, we have hundreds of occasions every day to be jubilant in joy and hundreds of occasions to be sunk in sorrow.
#The Mahabharatam concludes with these words: “Fools find themselves in umpteen situations every day when they can be happy, or when they can be unhappy, also.”
#It is the stupid man, not the wise one, who sees occasions for joy or sees occasions for grief in the world.
#The world is not intended to bring us joy, nor is its intention to pour on us sorrow.
#A vast computer has no intention to give us satisfaction, nor is it intended to be there to bring us sorrow.
#It is impersonal, and it has no such emotional meanings behind it.
#But human beings are emotionally composed. They are not bathed in the light of wisdom at all times.
##We have secret directions from impulses which sometimes appear to be irrational because they cannot be explained in a scientific manner, though ultimately there is an explanation for everything in this world.
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To be continued .....
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