Srimad Bhagavad - Gita

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Saturday, October 01,  2022. 08:30. Discourse 50: The Eighteenth Chapter Continues – Knowing One's Duty-2. ======================================================================== Though society is stable, somehow or the other, by an administrative system that is introduced in this manner by bringing about some harmonious adjustment of capacities and intelligences, there is also a need for working out a system of inner development. It is not enough if we are merely stable socially. We also have to be perfect inwardly in our own individuality. Varna dharma, which is actually what is meant by this social group mentioned, is concerned only with external society, and ashrama dharma is concerned with ourselves. Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra are external, social, outward, whereas Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa ...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Friday, September 30, 2022. 06:00. Chapter 26: Being Spiritually Alone to Oneself-4. ======================================================================== What do you think of this state of affairs of the mind of a human being not wanting to live a life of yoga? It is lack of faith arising out of lack of understanding, an absence of yoga due to an absence of sankhya, to repeat the very words of the Bhagavadgita. We are totally deprived of correct understanding, and therefore the way of life chalked out by this right understanding is not acceptable to us. It is not intelligible and, therefore, not acceptable. But all the course that we have now covered through these chapters of the Gita would have given us a little bit of an awakening into the facts of life. The world is made in such a way, truly speaking, that it is not necessary to a...

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================== Thursday, September 29, 2022. 07:00.  Chapter 15: Krishna and Arjuna Together is Victory-2. ========================================================================= If the interrelation of things in the cosmos frees a person from attachment to particular objects only, that person is broadminded – we could say educated, cultured, and a gentleman. That is a higher kind of knowledge, a medium kind of knowledge – interconnectedness. But there is a knowledge higher than that, also. The idea of the interrelation of things is again dependent upon the notion of the duality and plurality of things. The items of the world are considered as bits of process which act and react upon one another, and therefore it is that sometimes we feel there is an organic relation among things in the world. Everything is different from everything else; this is...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================= Tuesday, September 27, 2022. 04:40.  Chapter-18.  Moksha-sannyasa-yogam. ======================================================================== Slokam-42 : "Shamo damas tapah shaucham kshantir arjavam eva cha jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Translation-1 śhamaḥ—tranquility;  damaḥ—restraint;  tapaḥ—austerity;  śhaucham—purity;  kṣhāntiḥ—patience;  ārjavam—integrity;  eva—certainly;  cha—and;  jñānam—knowledge;  vijñānam—wisdom;  āstikyam—belief in a hereafter;  brahma—of the priestly class;  karma—work;  svabhāva-jam—born of one’s intrinsic qualities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Monday, September 26,  2022. 06:30. Discourse 50: The Eighteenth Chapter Continues – Knowing One's Duty-1. ======================================================================== The Bhagavadgita has been telling us varieties of things in terms of the three gunas—what is sattvic, what is rajasic and what is tamasic. Nothing on earth or in heaven can be said to be free from the operation of the three gunas. Not even the gods are free from the action of gunas on them. brāhmaṇakṣatriyaviśāṁ śūdrāṇāṁ ca paraṁtapa karmāṇi pravibhaktāni svabhāvaprabhavair guṇaiḥ (18.41) śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaṁ kṣāntir ārjavam eva ca jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahmakarma svabhāvajam (18.42) śauryaṁ tejo dhṛtir dākṣyaṁ yuddhe cāpyapalāyanam dānam īśvarabhāvaś ca kṣātraṁ karma svabhāvajam (18.43) kṛṣigaurakṣyavāṇijyaṁ vaiśyakarma svabhāvajam paricaryātmakaṁ ...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Sunday, September 25, 2022. 06:00. Chapter 26: Being Spiritually Alone to Oneself-3. ======================================================================== The law of the higher self, therefore, is a protector of the lower self. Hence, the higher is the friend of the lower, but law can also look like a terror. The disobedient may feel that law is an enemy. The obedient feels secure in the face of law. The one who is obedient to law is ever secure, always protected, guarded by the strength of law. But the disobedient is always in fear of law. The rods of administration are frightening. The arms of law reach up to the corners of the earth, and so the thief has no place to stay anywhere. So the law, the administration, is an enemy sometimes, but we know very well it is really not an enemy. Thus is the meaning here.  The higher self i...

 ======================================================================== Chinmaya Mission : Pittsburgh Chinmaya Mission Pittsburgh has taken another step forward to impart Indian cultural traditions and Vedic values to today's generation. The inauguration of Chinmaya Amarnath in August 2022 of a new Vedanta centre and temple was held with grandeur in the presence of Swami Swaroopananda, Global Head of Chinmaya Mission and Swami Shantananda, President Chinmaya Mission West.  As a temple and place of learning Chinmaya Amarnath will serve all ages from toddlers to youth and all those young at heart with its 21,000 square foot facility. As a temple, Chinmaya Amarnath will be the home of Bhagavan Shiva in the Linga form of Amareswara Swami, Devi Parvati in the form of Devi Lalitha Tripura Sundari, Shri Ganesh in the form of Kshipra Prasada Ganapati. In this city teeming with temples, Chinmaya Amarnath will be the first one dedicated to Bhagavan Shiva.  The centre will also ho...

 ========================================================================= ======================================================================== Thursday, September 22, 2022. 06:00.  Chapter 15: Krishna and Arjuna Together is Victory-1. ======================================================================== Earlier we deliberated on what the Gita has to say in the Eighteenth Chapter about the nature of action or work. We dilated upon yajna, dana and tapas as obligatory duties on the part of everyone, the meaning of which we tried to understand. The Gita has been insisting on a combination of knowledge and action. It started by saying Yoga should be rooted in Sankhya, with Yoga being the expertness in the performance of action, and Sankhya being the knowledge on which this action has to be rooted. This has been the viewpoint of the Gita throughout. Work, of course, is obligatory on your part, but not just any kind of work. It is work based on a correct understanding of your...