Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01/05/2020. Chapter-1. Introduction to the Bhagavadgita-1. Post-1. ----------------------------------------------------- 1. There are two forces in this world, upon a balancing of which everything functions. They may be designated as the positive and the negative powers of nature, or the subjective and the objective sides of experience. There are two sides for everything in this world: one which receives, and another which is received; that which is conscious of an act taking place, and the object towards which the action is supposed to take place. Philosophically, these phases of experience, or activity of force, are known as the subjective phase and the objective phase. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. There is a world in front of you, and you are also there in this world. Right from morning till evening...

================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29/04/2020. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) Slokam-17. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slokam : "Sattvat  sanjayate  jnanam  rajaso   lobha   eva  ca, pramadamohau  tamasah   bhavatojnanameva  ca." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Translation : From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, grief develops; and from the mode of ignorance, foolishness, madness and illusion develop. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sattvat  jnanam  =  from  sattva-gunam,  "Knowledge" and; rajasah   lobhah   eva  ca  =  from  rajo-g...

=================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28/04/2020. Chapter 2: The Difficulties of the Spiritual Seeker - 5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. *The first chapter, which is a yoga no doubt, is yoga in a very, very specific sense.  #Difficulties and doubts of the type expressed in the first chapter are not likely to arise in the minds of people who are normally happy in the work-a-day world. When you investigate deeply, philosophically, into the structure of things, you'll have doubts which would not have occurred to your mind normally.  *Nobody bothers about how the world came in, why the sun is rising always in the east, and where does it go in the night. These questions do not arise in the minds of anybody; everything is taken for granted. ##But when you start probing into these difficulties, my...

================================================= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27/04/2020. Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite - 9. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The universal has to be implanted in the particular. God has to descend into the heart of man. At least as a little iota of reality, a spark of that Fire should be present in us. Then we can be said to be set on the spiritual path. What we call the spiritual way of living is the way of God, the way of the Absolute, the way of the Tao, as they call it.  ##Though we might have not achieved it, contacted it or understood it fully, we should be sure of moving in that direction, rightly. Even if we move only one inch in the direction of Badrinath, it is an achievement in that pilgrimage. But if we move in the direction of Delhi, it cannot be called a movement in the direction of the shrine. ...

================================================= --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26/04/2020. Discourse 3: The Second Chapter Begins – Sankhya Yogam -5. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. *The world is movement.  *It is a fluxation. #It is a continuity of bits of force tending in some direction, and never does a single bit of matter rest in itself as an undivided something. Prakriti continuously changes its characteristics. It is a continuity that is a flow consisting of three strands—namely, sattva, rajas and tamas. ##Like a wheel that moves when the car moves, there is a cyclic movement of prakriti through the gunas of sattva, rajas and tamas, and it is not a solid object. There is no such thing as solid objects in this world; there is only fluxation.  ###A person may appear on a screen, while the person is not really there. Thousands of small ...

======================================================= #Sutlej River in Punjab --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25/04/2020 The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 4: Stories from the Aranya Parva - 4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. *Now this is another miracle which we will not be able to understand, and because we cannot understand, we cannot appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. She had bolted the door from inside, and was weeping. Again there was another knock, two knocks, three knocks.  #When she opened the door, it was Sri Krishna standing there. Sri Krishna said, “I am hungry. I want some food.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. *Draupadi said, “I am crying with sorrow. Don’t come and taunt a...

================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24/04/2020. Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life - 12. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. We cannot really love God, let us be honest to ourselves, because we have subtle loves for our children, for our families, for our properties, which of course we will deny outright if it is told. We say it is not so, that we are fed up with everything. But we are not fed up because, again to reiterate, we have a personality deeper than the one which we know about ourselves, and we cannot know what we are thinking. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. So there is, again, a very great necessity before us to sit at the feet of powerful Masters who emanate a force of rejuvenation and positive thinking, who have dedicated themselves entirely t...

========================================= ------------------------------------------------------------- 22/04/2020. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) ----------------------------------------------------- Slokam-16. "Karmanah  sukrtasyahuh  sattvikam   nirmalam   phalam, rajasastu   phalam  duhkham  ajnanam  tamasah  phalam." --------------------------------------------------------------- Slokam -Translation. "By acting in the mode of goodness, one becomes purified. Works done in the mode of passion result in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sukrtasya  karmanah  phalam  =  the  result  of  sattvic  actions; nirmalam  sattvikam  =  ( is )  pure   goodness,  and; rajasah  tu  phal...

========================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 22/04/2020. Chapter 2: The Difficulties of the Spiritual Seeker -4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. #The complacency of a happy person in this world is really a danger to the individual.  *This was the complacency of Arjuna and the foolhardy heroism that he manifested before he entered the battlefield.  **A person who may be appearing to be healthy and very pleasant in his life may be attacked by an epidemic tomorrow, and this possibility cannot be prevented merely by a precedent happiness a day earlier.  ##The tentative illness that you seem to be in, psychologically, when you tread the path of yoga is the one in which many of us find ourselves – a sense of having lost oneself and a feeling that one does not know where one is standing, which feeling you would not have had before you...

============================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 21/04/2020. Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite - 8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #We cannot properly appreciate the connection that exists between God and the world, between God and ourselves and between one person and another person. And the whole of metaphysical philosophy is supposed to deal with these supreme principles—God, world and soul—an understanding of whose internal relationship is supposed to be philosophy proper, or ontology, as they call it these days.  ##But these principles elude our grasp because even in our endeavour to grasp the internal relationship among these ultimate principles we commit a basic mistake, an error which worms itself into the very situation of understanding. We remain as justifiable ego-centres, we remain ‘ourselves’, we remain just what we are today....

========================================== ========================================= 20/04/2020. Discourse 3: The Second Chapter Begins – Sankhya Yogam -4. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #Sankhya calls the objective character of perception as prakriti, and the subjective consciousness which perceives is called purusha. So the Sankhya divides reality into two phases, or blocks of power—consciousness and matter, subject and object, purusha and prakriti.  ##Experience is supposed to be engendered by a contact of consciousness with prakriti. Purusha comes in contact with prakriti. It is very interesting to notice here that there can be contact between two dissimilar things. Consciousness is never an object; prakriti is never a subject. The contradiction between these two principles is obvious.  *How can we bring about a rapprochement between the subject and the object, which stand poles apart?  **Ho...

========================================= --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19/04/2020. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 4: Stories from the Aranya Parva - 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. *Another incident was very humorous.  **Many of you might have heard this story. The jealous, envious Duryodhana did not want that the Pandavas should have peace, even in the forest.  ***They had been exiled, were in a very bad condition, had lost everything, and this man need not have any fear of them. Even then, he did not want to know that they are alive.  #One day he had a peculiar idea in his mind, which arose due to some sudden circumstance that occurred. The great sage Durvasa came to Duryodhana’s palace, and he was very mightily pleased with the hospitality accorded to him by the king, Duryodhana. “Ask for a boon,” said the sage. ------------------...

===================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ 08/04/2020. Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life - 11. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Don’t you feel, even all you people seated here, a slight sense of relief when you finish the satsanga and go out? “Oh, the boredom is finished. Let us breathe.” You feel a sense of limitation and uneasiness when you are restrained like this inside a hall.  This is unnatural satsanga, if going out of this place is natural to your minds. If you feel a sense of relief when you go out into the open air, and feel the other way around when you are inside the hall, this sadhana is unnatural.  But if you feel restless when you go out—“Oh, it is over. I want it more. I want to be seated here. I want to listen. I want to contemplate. I want to absorb myself in this idea”—then your sadhana is natural. Otherwise, the kitchen wo...

===================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- 17/04/2020. Chapter 2: The Difficulties of the Spiritual Seeker -3. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Thus, Arjuna was confounded, as any one of us can be. In this adventure of spiritual life, which is metaphorically presented before us in the form of the Mahabharata, we are likely to be faced with certain doubts and difficulties. While in the earlier stages it may appear that the whole sky is very clear, when you move onwards you'll find that heavy, thick clouds are hanging above your heads, and there is darkness in the front. This is the darkness of the spiritual aspiration. The first chapter of the Bhagavadgita is a chapter of sorrow of the seeker – Arjuna Vishada Yogam. It is the weeping of the seeking individual. However, you will be surprised to note that the colophon or the concluding line of the first chapter is de...

===================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- 16/04/2020. Srimad  Bhagavad-Gita : Chapter-14. ( GUNA-TRAYA-VIBHAGA-YOGAM ) ----------------------------------------------------- Slokam-15. "Rajasi  pralayam  gatva  karmasangishu  jayate, tatha  pralinas  tamasi  muddhhayonishu  jayate.: --------------------------------------------------------- Slokam -Translation.  When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when he dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom. ------------------------------------------------------------ Rajasi ( pravrdhe )  =  on  the  fully  developed  rajo-gunam  ( in passion ); pralayam  gatva  =  if  one  dies, ( that jivatma ); karma - sangishu  =  in  the  association  of...