The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 12.4. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Thursday, July 15, 2021. 9:30. PM.
Chapter-12. Control of the Senses : 4.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)
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1.

Where are we actually standing now, inward or outward? Sometimes we are pulled inward, sometimes outward. Now, mostly viewing things in the light of what we see in humanity at this moment of the twentieth century, we may say there is an extroversion of attitude, an impulsion to evaluate everything in life in terms of outward appearance and external arrangement. There is no inclination of any person to view things in terms of an inwardness of values.

“So Arjuna, I am now going to answer your question, after having told you something as an introduction. This is the truth of the matter. Having known everything, yet we cannot live according to what we know, and the reason is this. Mostly people who are phenomenally involved are conditioned by phenomenal 

What are the phenomenal impulses? 

They are vehement subjection to the requirements of objective existence which psychologically goes as desire, greed, hatred, and anger: 

(BG 3.37). :

Sri bhagavan uvacha

"kama esha krodha esha rajo-guna-samudbhavah

mahashano maha-papma viddhyenam iha vairinam".BG 3.37

Translation : The Supreme Lord said: It is lust alone, which is born of contact with the mode of passion, and later transformed into anger. Know this as the sinful, all-devouring enemy in the world.

Commentary : The Vedas use the word kām, or lust, not only for sexual desires but also to include all desires for material enjoyment based on the bodily concept of the self. Thus, lust shows itself in many ways—the urge for money, physical cravings, craving for prestige, the drive for power, etc. This lust is only a perverted reflection of love for God, which is the inherent nature of every living being. When the soul associates with the material energy in the form of the body, its divine love for God is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. Since divine love is the highest power of God, its perversion in the material realm, which is lust, is also the most powerful force in worldly activities.

Shree Krishna identifies this “lust” for worldly enjoyment as the cause of sin, as the malignant allure sitting within us. The mode of passion deludes the soul into believing that worldly objects will give satisfaction, and so one creates desires for acquiring them. When desire is satisfied, it gives birth to greed; when it is not satisfied, it gives rise to anger. One commits sins under the influence of all three—lust, greed, and anger. Greed is nothing but intensified desire, while anger is frustrated desire. Hence, Shree Krishna labels lust, or desire, as the root of all evil.

2.

Mostly, there is a vehemence of outward approach in the human individual. We always see outside. There is no other tendency in us, presumably. We wake up in the morning and start looking outside. All our engagements are outside. Our fears and longings and expectations are outside. Everything is outside. There is nothing but outsideness in this world. We are sold, as it were, to this world of externality. Well, literally we may say we are just what Christ describes in his great statement: We have gained the world and lost our souls. We have lost our souls because we do not even believe we have souls. We have no time to think that we have souls at all. Why think of souls? We do not have time to think that we exist at all. Only others exist. 

The world exists, problems exist, relationships exist, occupations exist, troubles exist; all are existing except myself. I have lost myself, drowned myself in that which is outside, as if I am not there at all. My existence is completely sold out to that which is totally outside. The world is an externality. Hell is nothing but an extreme of externality, and heaven is a tendency to internality.

3.

Now, this difficulty of the reason why you cannot put into practice in your daily life this wondrous message of the need to participate in a cosmic purpose arises due to there being kama, krodha and lobha in everyone – desire, anger and greed. There is a susceptibility to long for things, though we may not be always longing for things in an obvious manner. For instance, we are seated here. We are not going on thinking of some object of longing. We may not be even aware of what we are wanting at all, but it does not mean that the tendency is absent in us. A particular atmosphere presented now in this little room is not permitting the manifestation of submerged longings of the mind. But as seeds grow in the field when the atmosphere is conducive, the potentialities for expression outside as desire, greed and anger rise up into action and become large trees, as it were, when conditions become favourable.

To be continued ...

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