Bhagwat Geeta, Class 162 – Chapter 12 Bhakti Yoga Verses 15 and 16

After talking about the five stages of bhakti yoga, Lord Krishna is talking about a person who has successfully gone through all five stages and therefore he is the highest bhakta who is para bhakta or advaida bhakta or jñāni bhakta or one who has jivan mukthi.

Moksha is not a benefit which we get after death, but it is a benefit here and now. This benefit is at mental level and not mystical or miraculous powers. Jivan mukthi is freedom from samsara or free from kama, krōdha, moha and permanent disturbances we endure during waking stage.

Four fundamental disturbances are:

Harsha: We saw this in last class.
Amarshaha: Intolerant at many levels. Intolerance is that I can’t accept the success of other party. We look for something to criticize of others and find something to put the other party down. This envy or jealousy is Amarsha. It is very difficult to find remedy to jealousy. To free from that and admire another person’s superiority in my field, is very difficult. Moksha is freedom from this envy or jealousy.
Bayam: Innate fear that starts from birth to the end. Fear is because we hold on to wrong things. Most of the things we hold on to cause fear. Whatever we like usually creates a variety of problems. If I am very proud of my family, but there is a fear that our children protect the name of the family. Our biggest fear is what others will think. When we have money, we are afraid of tax. If I become famous, I am worried about my dishonor. For a person who is honored, losing that honor is worse than death. Fear of competition and rivalry is common in any field. If I love my body and its beauty, then I am afraid losing that beauty in old age. When I am committed to various sciences and theories, I am afraid of others challenging my theories. If I am dharmic person, other adharmic people start putting me down. If I am attached to physical body, I am afraid of death. Learning to depend on yourself is the only solution.
Uthevga: Mental disturbances and sorrow.

All these disturbances are happening without my control, and these are called samsara. Our travel out of all these mental disturbances is gradual – world dependence to god dependence to self-dependence. Self-dependence is independence.

Verse 16

The devotee of Mime who is independent, pure, resourceful, impartial, undisturbed of all action is dear to Me.

The one who is not emotionally dependent on any external factors to be happy, does not have any expectations. Freedom from dependence is freedom from expectations. Freedom from frustrations is possible only when there are no expectations. If at all you want to have expectations, let them be non-binding expectations. If it is fulfilled, great; if it is not fulfilled, be willing to accept it. This resilience of mind is required to come out of frustrations.

One must be pure both internally and externally. One must be indifferent, meaning the one who is not partial and must not belong to any groups; one who belongs to everyone. The one who is free from sorrow. We do not have control over our experiences. Experiences are controlled by desa (space), kala (time) and praraptha. After jñānam all experiences do not become favorable, but jñānam makes me endure those experiences. We all require different experiences for spiritual growth. Every experience is specially chosen by an eeswara. Let me not judge what experiences given by eeswara; my spiritual lesson should be to learn from those experiences. From tragic experiences we learn more. That is why sorry is a spiritual lesson or sadhana, if I am willing to learn from a tragic experience. So, a jñāni welcomes all experiences. Any action you do, thinking that once that action is successful, my life will be complete, that action is a binding karma. Because no karma or karma phalāḥṃ gives poornatvam.. Action is finite, result is finite. Finite plus finite cannot become infinite. If I am expecting poornatvam, that will not happen with more and more action; life becomes a struggle or bondage. Jñāni has understood this fact; and therefore, he does not do anything for poornatvam, but he does everything from poornatvam. Poornatvam becomes a way of life, and it is not destination. Poornatvam as a destination makes life miserable, poornatvam as a way of life is liberation.