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The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity- 3.8. Swami Krishnananda

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============================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01/04/2020. Chapter 3: The Aranya Parvam of the Mahabharatam-8. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #Then there are social norms. You are in an ashram, for instance. You have to live like the other people in the ashram. There are certain systems and norms of behaviour. It is not possible to behave as you would behave in a railway train or in a circus tent, and so on. An ashram is an ashram. If you are in some other place, it is a different matter. And you have got a physical body. It is a reality.  *Who says it is not a reality?  If you say you are not involved in it, then it is not reality. As I mentioned, a reality is that with which you are involved and which you consider as real.  *Do you consider the body as real or unreal?  ##If you say it is unreal

The Tree of Life - 3.8 : Swami Krishnananda

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====================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31/03/2020. Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life - 8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The forms of experience which are the objects of the mind are the bondages which confine everyone to the processes of life called samsara, which is equated with suffering.  ##This is the tree which the Bhagavadgita expects us to cut at the very root—the tree of phenomenal experience. Asanga is supposed to be the methodology to be adopted. We should not be attached to anything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. #Leaving aside the other more intricate teachings of the systems of yoga for the time being, we may take for our present consideration what this anasakti means. It appears to us that this is hammered into our minds aga

The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita - 2.1. Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30/03/2020. Chapter 2: The Difficulties of the Spiritual Seeker - 1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #Spiritual life is the greatest of adventures. In that way we can compare it to a battle. It involves careful preparation, as in a war. And, when you engage yourself in a war you do not go there merely to get defeated and thrown out; the intention is to win victory.  ##So the practice of yoga, which is the greatest project that a person can embark upon in life, is in a way comparable to a battle or an encounter, for the purpose of which one has to make an almost infinite set of preparations – for days and months and years perhaps – as a culmination of one's existence here

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14, Slokam - 13.

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====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29/03/2020 Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slokam-13. "Aprakasopravrttisca  pramado  moha  eva  ca, tamasyetani  jayante  vivrddhe  kurunandana." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ kurunandana  =  hey  Arjuna! aprakasah  =  lossing light / illumiation  in  the  intellect ( darkness  in  bhuddhi ); apravrtti   pramadah  =  inactivity /  committing  mistakes; mohah  eva  ca  etani  =  misunderstandings etc; tamasi  vivrddhe   =  when  tamo-gunam  at  peak; jayante  =  happens  so. ---------------------------------

The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 4.4. Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28/03/2020. Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite - 4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The whole world is a mystery because of this fundamental something that is conditioning our life.  *This is what great philosophers sometimes call maya. We glibly translate it as ‘unreality’ or ‘illusion’, while it is a mystery which cannot be understood, but which controls us to such an extent that we are helpless totally.  ##So the arguments based on this kind of relationship will fail in the end. In the same way as there cannot be an ultimate justification for the principle of relationship between things, there cannot be a justification for the validity of any argument based on rela

Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita-2.9 Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27/03/2020. The First Chapter – Vishadha Yogam, the Yoga of the Dejection of the Spirit-9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #In this condition, our only resort is the Guru. Fortunately, Arjuna had a good Guru; and, fortunately, he had the sense of feeling that it was necessary to surrender himself; and, fortunately, he knew that his egoism was not going to work any longer.  #Had his self-confidence continued and had he stuck to the wrong arguments that he put forth in the First Chapter, nothing would have come out of it. However, some sattvic karma rose up, and he felt that it was necessary for him to know what was to be done. ------------------------------------------------------

A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in Bharatham - Ch - 7 : The Bhagavadgita - Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26/03/2020. Chapter-6 : The Bhagavadgita : DEATH AND AFTER - Continued .. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. *In its classification of the three natures of the individual, the Gita makes mention of the fate of the soul in accordance with the predominance of the qualities of Prakriti operating in it.  #When, through every sensation or perception in the body or personality, the light of intelligence gets radiated, it is to be understood that Sattva is predominant in the person, and meeting death in that condition, one attains to the shining regions attained by those who are knowers of the highest Reality.  ##When greed, restless activity, impulse to undertake initiatives, distraction an

Sri Krishna as Revealed in All Levels of Reality - 9. Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 25/03/2020. Spoken on May 1, 1983) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Here is a point of view which may require our further consideration and meditation, a point of view which seems to emanate spontaneously from the well-known meaning of the last verse of the Bhagavadgita : - Very Important Slokam,  Follow  this  slokam, Never  tell  Lord's Gitopadesam  to  others - as told  in  this  slokam.  Keep  this in   mind  ever. Connect this slokam with the previous one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita Chapter-18. { Moksha-sanyasa-yogam } -------------------------------------

Stabilising the Mind in God -11. Swami Krishnananda.

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======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24/03/2020. The Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Spoken on June 26, 1983) Post-11. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. #Now, do you consider this as an easy method of meditation? #It may be, or it may not be. Four ways are mentioned here in these four verses. ##Which of them is easy, which of them is difficult, let each one think for oneself. You will find there is no choice, actually. ##These fourfold alternatives given to us do not actually mean a higher way or a lower way or a more difficult way or an easier way. All ways are equally compulsive in the sense that they require tremendous discipline of our consciousness in the direction of God. ###They are called jnana, yoga, bhakti

The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity- 3.7. Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23/03/2020. Chapter 3: The Aranya Parvam of the Mahabharatam-7. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #All the things that are inside the mind will slowly start moving when you are alone. There should be no noise. Even scorpions and lizards in the house will not move if you make a lot of noise. They will be still or go into a hole.   ##We make a lot of noise in our life, and so all our impulses are buried inside. This is what psychoanalysts call suppression and repression of impulses, which are not likely to be good for the health of the psyche. They create complexes – a kind of odd behaviour which we sometimes have. Our behaviour is not always very fine and happy, cultured and sweet.

The Tree of Life - 3.7 : Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22/03/2020. Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life - 7. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #Now we can imagine the extent to which we have to go in the control of the mind in order that it may be steadfast in the practice of yoga. If yoga is steadfastness of the mind in the Ultimate Reality of things, no thought, ordinarily speaking, can be regarded as a healthy thought in the light of the requirement of yoga.  ##There is a morbidity attached to every thought, even if it be a so-called unconcerned thought. As the mind operates, it takes a form in the shape of the object; therefore, it is a vritti. When I see a wall, the mind is connected to that operation of the sight.  #

The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita - 1.8. Swami Krishnananda

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======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 21/03/2020. Chapter-1: This Drama of Life-8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #This transcendent principle which is called law, which operates in a country and operates in the world, operates everywhere, is not always a pleasant thing for a person who seeks a hundred percent freedom to one's own self. Nobody likes the word 'law'; it is a hateful word.  ##We do not like the word 'discipline' – we resent it. It is very bitter to hear these terms because we are not prepared to allow that amount of freedom to others which we like to allow to our own selves, which requires a slight impersonality on our part, above and transcendent to our individual way of thinking

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14, Slokam - 12.

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======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20/03/2020. Now here   Lord  explains  the  symptoms  ( lakshanam-s ),  seen  when  rajo  gunam  develops : Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-12. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Lobhah  pravá¹›ttirarambhah  karmanamasamah  sprha, rajasyetani  jayante  vivrddhe  bharatarshabha." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bharatarshabha  =  hey  Arjuna! lobhah  pravrttih  =  greed  and  hankering; karmanam  arambhah  =  starting  new,  new  ventures ( endeavor  activities ); asamah  sprha  etani  =  uncontrollable / never  ending    desires,   all  these;