A Study of the Bhagavadgita :13.9. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya Mission

Chinmaya Mission Pune and Chinmaya Yuva Kendra Navi Mumbai jointly organised a 4-day residential youth camp at the divine Chinmaya Maauli Ashram in Pune. The camp, titled “TBH: To Be Happy” saw the enthusiastic participation of over 50 youngsters under the leadership of Br. Ved Chaitanya and Brni. Maitreyee Chaitanya.

Spread over an action-packed weekend, the camp sessions, which were based on “Jeevanasutrani: Tips for Happy Living” by Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda enlightened the youngsters with extremely simple tips towards happiness, fuelled even more by Vedji’s captivating mannerism and clarity of thought. Along with daily sessions, the camp saw an abundance of fun activities, the groups were asked to make mud sculptures single handedly. Other than that physical outdoor games like Bhasmasur, Villager, Chain Chain, Relays, and Volleyball were thoroughly enjoyed by the campers.

Evening Aarati followed by Bhajans were the perfect way to sing the glory of the Lord and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere of Chinmaya Vitthala Rukmini Temple.

With Pujya Gurudev’s grace and blessings, the camp concluded on a high note. All returned from the camp in high spirits finally ready TO BE HAPPY!!

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Monday, August 29, 2022. 06:30. 
Chapter 13: The Positivity and the Negativity of Experience-9.

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Yat tadagre viṣam iva pariṇāmemṛtopamam, tat sukhaṁ sāttvikaṁ proktam (Gita 18.37). 

We seek pleasures in this world without knowing what kind of pleasure it actually is. We can be happy for various reasons. Sometimes there can be a demonical pleasure in us, there can be a highly distracted rajasic pleasure, or there can be a sattvic pleasure. A pleasure which is sattvic will look very bitter in the beginning. That which is real divine satisfaction will come to you as something not palatable in the beginning. For instance, if you are asked to do japa, mantra japa or purascharana, or sit for an hour chanting mantra of the divine name, or meditate for an hour, you will not take it as a very pleasant exercise. All kinds of excuses come – pain of the body, distraction or tension the mind, other occupations, emotional difficulties, and what not. But if you persist in it by abhyasa, intense practice, you will see a good result. If you want milk and curd you have to tend the cow, and tending the cow is not a very pleasant task; but drinking milk and curd is very pleasant. If you want to harvest wheat, corn or rice from fields, will it suddenly come from the skies? How much hardship is there in it – sowing the seeds, ploughing, protecting it from pests and other things, cutting, and so on. What a great difficulty of the farmer! And then you eat the rice. So anything that is really good has some unpleasantness in the beginning.

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But tamasic pleasure is very pleasant in the beginning, and afterwards bitter. You seem to be very elated on account of possessing or gaining something by wrong means. Very happy! When a person gets something by wrong means, the consequence of it is not known. Disturbance is the outcome of any kind of pleasure that comes by wrong means or that comes through the sense organs. Pleasures that are sensory, pleasures that are material and physical, and pleasures that come through means which are not proper are engenders of sorrow one day or the other.

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Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te, ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ (Gita 5.22): 

All pleasures born of contact of subject and object are wombs of pain. Think for yourself: Have you any pleasure in this world that is not born of contact of yourself with something? All your pleasures and joys in this world are contact-born. Therefore, one day or the other there is bereavement. Either you go, or something goes. If you go, it is bad. If something goes, it is also bad because all the joys you are expecting in this world are born of the union of subject and object. As there cannot be a real union of subject and object on account of their separation in space and time, there also cannot be real happiness in this world. Therefore, pursuing joy in this world is pursuing a phantasmagoria, pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp. Na teṣu ramate budhaḥ (Gita 5.22): A wise one will not hanker after the pleasures of sense organs, and will not employ wrong means to have pleasures in this world.

The whole of the Seventeenth Chapter is of this kind, the description of performances through three media – sattva, rajas and tamas. It is expected that your deeds, your performances, your sadhana, your attitude, your life itself should be conditioned by pure sattva guna, the property of equilibrium, harmony and the goodness of Prakriti.

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Oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmaṇas trividhaḥ smṛtaḥ (Gita 17.23). 

Supreme Brahman is designated as Om Tat Sat, says the Gita. Om Tat Sat are three terms which are considered as very holy. Whenever we conclude some holy act, we say Om Tat Sat. When we utter that, the work is over, the performance is complete, the holy act has reached its consummation. Om is the inclusiveness of all the vibrations in the cosmos; and, as you know, the whole universe is nothing but a concretisation of vibrations. Forces of motions, vibrations constitute even the stuff of the hardest rock. When you disintegrate even the hardest of subjects or objects in the world, you will find that these objects that are stone-like in substance, weight and quantity will vanish into thin air. They become continuous forces which touch every corner of creation. Everything touches everything else in the world, provided it is reduced to the condition of a force or energy or motion.

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Therefore, Om is the cosmic vibration which is identified with the original nada or the supersonic will of God Himself. It should not be called a sound; it is super-sound. And every other sound, every other vibration, every other motion, even in the form of electricity, is the manifestation of this supreme designation of God, Om. Tat is the That-ness of the Absolute. Sat is the This-ness of the Absolute. It is That as well as This – etad vai tat, as the Katha Upanishad will tell us. This verily is That – tat tvam asi. The Thatness is the exteriority, cosmicality, transcendence of the Absolute. God appears to be the supreme extra-cosmic creator to the ordinary empirical perception. Even the Absolute Supreme Brahman looks like an all-pervading supremacy above us. So it looks like a That – bhutatathata, as Mahayana Buddhists call it. It is also This, the very thing that you see before your eyes. Sadbhāve sādhubhāve ca sad ity (Gita 17.26): All this was pure sattva existence in the beginning. Or, Tat and Sat may also mean transcendence and immanence of the Absolute. The immanent character and the transcendent character are represented by the terms Sat and Tat. Tat is the transcendent, Sat is the immanent, and the Om is the inclusiveness of both the transcendent and the immanent. It is a wonderful term, Om Tat Sat. The whole Absolute is in your grip. You have visualised the Absolute as a transcendent creative super-cosmic existence; you have also envisaged this Absolute as immanent in every nook and corner of creation. It is not only far away from you, it is also very near you. It is also everything. Om is the Absolute.

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So thus, the concluding verses of the Seventeenth Chapter give you some wonderful definition of the Supreme Reality – Om Tat Sat.

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Next- Chapter 14: Our Involvement in the Whole Creation

To be continued ....

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