Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

---------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, October 31,  2020. 08:02. AM. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 7: Can War Ever be Justified ? - 7. (Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Now, this is a human question which was humanly answered because we are always faced with some counter-correlative of a position whenever an issue is raised. Every issue has a counter issue. You cannot have an absolute issue in this world, and you do not know how to correlate these two sides of an issue where two sides are always there for every issue. When there are two sides of an issue, which side are you going to take? And how do you know which is the right side? The question of the Bhagavadgita is: How do you know what is right? -------------------------------------------- I will close by quoting an interesting suggestion made by an ethical philosopher who wrote a small book called Situation ...

  ---------------------------------------------------- Thursday, October 29, 2020. 06 : 04. AM. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita Chapter-15. Purushothama-yogam Slokam - 12. "This  chapter is very important, hence kindly  follow  and  understand  each  slokam  well." ----------------------------------------------------------. Slokam-12. "yadadityagatam  tejah  jagat  bhasayatekhilam, yaccandramasi  yaccagnau  tattejo  viddhi  mamakam." -------------------------------------------------------------- Translation : adityagatam  yad  tejah  =  that  which  shines/illuminates  the  whole  world; akhilam  jagat  bhasayate  =  the  thejaus  of /in  the  Sun  and; candramasi  yat,   agnau   ca  yat  =  the  thejaus  in  the  Moon  and  the  Fire  and; tat  tejah...

  ------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, October 27, 2020. 12:12. PM. Chapter 3: The Transmigration of the Soul - 1. -------------------------------------------------- As I mentioned, the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavadgita constitute, in a way, stages of the development of the spirit of man from levels of greater involvement through higher and higher levels of lesser involvement. The worst of involvements is the picture of the war, the scene of the battlefield that is presented in the First Chapter, the Mahabharata context. Nothing can be worse in this world than hatred, and war is the pinnacle of this attitude. You dislike a thing a hundred percent, and more than a hundred percent; then war takes place. ------------------------------------------------- The dislike is the counterpart of what you call ‘like’ for certain things. It is not possible to have only one side of a coin, as you know. Every coin has two sides. Your dislike does not mean that you dislike...

------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, October 26, 2020. 10 : 19. AM. Chapter 5: Life as a Yajna or Sacrifice - 3. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This again brings us to the point of the cosmological scheme. We can know, to some extent, what we are, by placing ourselves in the cosmological scheme, and we do not require instruction of any kind in this context, because the moment we know how we have come, we can also know where we are sitting. Our duties become explicit and perspicacious the moment we know our condition and the atmosphere in which we are living. The control of one's self – sense-restraint, self-control – is the restraint of consciousness, finally; it has little to do with our physical limbs. It is not tightening the legs, plugging the ears or closing the eyes physically speaking, because our joys and sorrows are the outcome of a movement of a consciousness in a particular way. Thoughts are joys and sorr...

------------------------------------------- Sunday, October 25,  2020. 09:43. AM.  Chapter 7: The Nature of Right Understanding-5. --------------------------------------------- Yoga is the balance of attitude which consciousness maintains on account of the presence of the samkhya buddhi, or knowledge behind the performance of duty—“samatvam yoga uchyate.” And this equanimity, or poised attitude of consciousness in the performance of a duty or action, accelerates the process of the action, and one becomes dexterous due to the element of impersonality that is present there. The more are you unselfish, the more are you capable of executing a deed in the proper manner. Dexterousness or adroitness in action is Yoga: ‘yogah karmasu kausalam’. An expertness in action is Yoga, an expertness that follows from the equanimity that is behind the performance of an action. Thus, Yoga has been defined in a novel manner in the Second Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, not necessarily in the way in ...

  ------------------------------------------------ Saturday, October 24, 2020. 11:10. AM. Discourse 5: The Second Chapter Concludes – The Establishment of the Soul in Universality - 8. ------------------------------------------------- When we contemplate an object—which is the only thing that we are doing every day, as some object or the other is on our mind—we do not think of the Universal principle involved in the object. Very few can do that. We think mostly in the exteriorised fashion of the sense organs working in terms of an object outside. The moment we think of an object, the desire of the sense organs increases.  They want to possess it. " Samgat sanjayate kamah." (BG. 2.62).  The desire to possess that particular object many a time comes in conflict with a similar desire that others may also have to possess it. There is some land. We want to possess it, and another person also wants to possess the same land.  There is a clash. So there is a possibility of o...

---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, October 23,  2020. 07:43. AM. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 7: Can War Ever be Justified ? - 6. (Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti) ---------------------------------------------------------------- I had a little talk with Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj on the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. We had a little celebration here. I had a peculiar brainwave. It was between us only. That question which I raised before him is still unanswered. He is trying to answer it, and I am also trying to answer it. Anyhow, we have tried to reconcile ourselves somehow or other, and come to a conclusion in some way. I wrote on a small piece of paper and handed it over to him, because it was the occasion of the birth of a great man who was an uncompromising protagonist of ahimsa: Under any circumstance one cannot kill. I asked in this little note I passed to Swami Chidananda, “Do you believe that ahimsa is ...

---------------------------------------------------- Thursday, October 22, 2020. 11 : 04. AM. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita Chapter-15. Purushothama-yogam Slokam - 11. "This  chapter is very important, hence kindly  follow  and  understand  each  slokam  well." ----------------------------------------------------------. Slokam-11 : "Yatanto  yoginascainam   pasyantyatmanyavasthitam, yatantopyakrtatmanah  nainam  pasyantyacetasah." ---------------------------------------------------------- Translation :  yatantah  yoginah  =  seekers,  who  practice  in  the  right  way; enam  =  him  (  the  active  Paramatma  in  the  form  of  Jivatma ); atmani  avasthitam  =  this ( Paramatma )  situated  in  every  one's  heart  ( within ); pasyanti  =  can  see; akrtatmanah  =...

  ---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, October 21, 2020. 07:22. PM. Chapter 2: The Background of the Bhagavadgita-11. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Firstly, the notion of reality is not clear in the mind. Whatever your consciousness encounters and believes to be real should be regarded as real for you. It is difficult to define what reality is. That which is subject to transmutation or change is not supposed to be absolutely real, but is perhaps relatively so. But as far as consciousness is concerned, it will certainly cling even to relative realities because though they are relative, for the time being they appear to be real. We see a continuity in the flow of a river, though we are told a thousand times that every minute new water is flowing; so is also the case with the burning of a flame in a lamp. Though everything is transitory and everything is moving and we are today totally different from what we ...

  ------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, October 19, 2020. 07 : 07. AM. Chapter 5: Life as a Yajna or Sacrifice - 2. ---------------------------------------------------------------- We, in our daily life, seem to be totally ignoring this fact; and by a complete violation of this principle, asserting our individuality, seem to be totally disconnected from everything else as if we have nothing to do with anybody else. We have various types of selfishness – attachment to one's own body is the grossest form of it, and it has subtler forms of egoism, such as psychological self-assertiveness. Attachment to anything that is connected to one's self also comes under the purview and the gamut of selfishness. Anything that would not accept the basic organic relations of one's self with what is external to one's self, should be considered as a form of selfishness, whatever be the height it has reached; it may be a national egoism, or even an internati...

------------------------------------------- Sunday, October 18,  2020. 10:11. AM.  Chapter 7: The Nature of Right Understanding-4. --------------------------------------------- 1. We have only a duty, and we have no right to expect any fruit out of the performance of duty. This is the great ringing tone of the teaching of the Bhagavadgita. This is something which the modern mind cannot easily understand because it is sunk in the mire of the expectation of fruits even before the seed is being sown. We are always after the rights that we have to expect from the world, minus the duties that we seem to owe to the society in which we are. One cannot expect the fruits of one’s action. There is a great mistake in this expectation because the fruits are not in one’s hands, while action is obligatory. Even to take a common example of sowing the seed in a field, look at the work of the farmer. He does his duty very well, but we cannot say that the fruit is entirely in his hands. Many fa...

  ------------------------------------------------ Saturday, October 17, 2020. 10:28.AM. Discourse 5: The Second Chapter Concludes – The Establishment of the Soul in Universality - 7. ------------------------------------------------- 1. The reason why the fruit of an action should not be expected by us is that it is not in the hands of any one person. It is in the hands of a big cabinet of forces, as it were, as I mentioned earlier, and, finally, the will of the Supreme. Inasmuch as the fruit comes from all sides though the action proceeds from one side, we should not concentrate our minds on the fruit of the action. 2. Because our desired fruit is not going to accrue from our particular action, and we are disappointed because somebody is controlling the destiny of our actions, what is the good of doing anything at all? We will keep quiet. We should not be attached to action with the desire for fruit, nor should we be attached to non-action:  "Ma karmaphalahetur bhur ma te sam...

  ---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, October 16,  2020. 10:13. AM. The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 7: Can War Ever be Justified ? - 5. (Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. There is a little story in the Chhandogya Upanishad. There was a poor, learned Brahman, almost starving to the point of dying. He was going to attend a sacrifice, or a yajna, that was being performed by the king or the ruler of that country, expecting to receive some presents in that great performance. Utter poverty is the only word that can explain his condition. On the way he met an elephant driver, a person who was considered a low-caste man, from whose hands nothing can be accepted by a high-caste Brahmin. That elephant driver was eating some beans, and he had eaten half. Firstly, one cannot eat from that man’s hand. Secondly, half-eaten stuff is the worst thing. It cannot even be touc...

  ---------------------------------------------------- Thursday, October 15, 2020. 08 : 05. AM. Srimad Bhagavad-Gita Chapter-15. Purushothama-yogam Slokam - 10. "This  chapter is very important, hence kindly  follow  and  understand  each  slokam  well." -------------------------------------------------------------- Slokam-10 : "Utkramantam  sthitam  vapi  bhunjanam  va  gunambitam, vimudha  nanupasyanti  pasyanti  jnana-cakshusah." ------------------------------------------------------------- Translation : utkramantam  =  either quitting the body; sthitam  api  va  =  or  situated  in  the  body; bhunjanam  va  =  enjoying  the  sense-objects; gunambitam  va  =  according  with  the  changes  in  bhava  of  guns-s,  the  behaving  jivatma; vimudha  na  anupasy...

  ---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, October 14, 2020. 09:27. AM. Chapter 2: The Background of the Bhagavadgita-10. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “Kuru! They are my own people. I am also a member of the family of the Kurus. The great king Kuru was the grand ancestor of us all. The blood of the ancient master, the king Kuru, flows through our veins, the veins of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. We are blood relations, biologically bound up into a single family. Whom am I seeing in front of me? It is my grandsire, my beloved master, my loved one, the great Bhishma. Who do I see in front of me? My venerable teacher Drona, who has taught me archery; and if I know anything today, it is because of him. Am I against him? Is he against me? Am I to direct an arrow against Bhishma and Drona? What a sin! This is not for me. I put my bow down. Even if I am unarmed and the Kaurava forces attack me and I die, it is good...

  ------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, October 13, 2020. 09 : 53. AM. Chapter 5: Life as a Yajna or Sacrifice - 1. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. In the middle of the fourth chapter of the Gita, certain instructions are given on the performance of different kinds of sacrifice, known as yajnas. The word 'yajna' is a very significant one throughout the Bhagavadgita, perhaps through most of the scriptures in India, indicating that the principle of life consists in sacrifice of some sort or the other. The philosophy of India may, in a way, be summed up by the word 'yajna' – sacrifice. Every moment of our life is a sacrifice that we perform in the direction of a higher fulfillment, and a sacrifice is therefore a gain and not a loss. In ordinary language we praise a person who has performed a sacrifice, thinking that sacrifice involves a sharing of one's joy with others, in a sense a sort of loss which...

  ------------------------------------------- Monday, October 12,  2020. 12:21. PM.  Chapter 7: The Nature of Right Understanding-3. --------------------------------------------- 1. Svadharma is usually regarded as one’s obligation towards the society in which one is placed. And we have observed what society is. It is not merely the human atmosphere that we are referring to as society, but everything that is around us which cannot be exhausted merely by the human world. The whole universe becomes an atmosphere later on, and we seem to be owing a duty towards this vast expanse of the universe, which touches us on our very skin in various degrees of its manifestation, including what we call human relationship. 2. Thus, from the point of view of the ultimate nature of Reality, from the standpoint of one’s connection with the society around, as well as the interest of one’s own self—from all these angles of vision, if we consider the duty of a person, it appears that no one i...

  ------------------------------------------------ Sunday, October 11, 2020. 07:00.AM. Discourse 5: The Second Chapter Concludes – The Establishment of the Soul in Universality - 6. ------------------------------------------------- 1. Actions done either knowingly or unknowingly will produce some reaction. Many times we feel that we have made a mistake unknowingly and, therefore, we should be pardoned. The law does not seem to think exactly the same way. There are one or two interesting stories in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. There was king who had many cattle, and in that country there was a Brahmin who had a cow. One day it so happened that the Brahmin’s cow strayed into the herd of cattle which belonged to the king. As was the custom of ancient rulers, charity of cattle and gold were given to people every day. One day the king gave some cattle in charity to a Brahmin, and it so happened that this stray cow was included. The Brahmin was leading this cow which was a gift from ...