Continuing his teachings Swamiji said,

From the 7th verse of the 16th chapter, Sri Krishna is talking about asuri sampat, which we have to know as an obstacle to spiritual growth; and therefore, we should take all pains to avoid these traits; And asuri sampat includes, rakshasic Sampath. Asuri sampat means raga pradhāna life; a life in which raga or attachment is dominant; rajasic raga is dominant and rakshasic sampat is that in which dvesha pradhāna behavior, tamasic behavior is dominant. In raga pradhāna life, one is utterly selfish and in dwesha pradhāna life, a person harms other people. Only difference is when I am selfish, I do not directly and immediately harm the people, but in the long run, a selfish person affects the society because he takes more and gives less to the society. And therefore, this behavior will create a disharmony in the society in due course, and it will hurt the society and also the very selfish person himself. but this disturbance is not immediately felt, it is a gradually poisoning of the society. Thus, a raga pradhāna person hurts the society very gradually, whereas dwesha pradhāna person hurts the society immediately and directly. But both of them harm the harmony of the society and both of them harm themselves, ultimately. And Sri Krishna is describing both asuri people as well as the rakshasic people; both are included.

And we generally call them materialistic people; or artha kama pradhāna people who do not value dharma and moksha. And we should remember when we criticize the materialistic people or materialism, we are not against the materialism totally.

Criticism of materialism must be carefully understood. We are not against materials, because we need them for our living; we require money for food, we require money for shelter. So, we are not against money and materials; we do not want to hate money and materials; but what we are criticizing is the over-emphasis of artha kama to such an extent, that this person has no time for dharma and moksha. And therefore, if we are not careful from attachment to money; we may go to the other extreme of hatred of money. If attachment to money is an evil; hatred of money is also equally an evil. And that is why in our culture money is seen as Lakshmi devi. Please give respect to money; even a sanyasi has to respect money, because money alone fetches the food that he eats; money alone fetches the dress that he is wearing; and if he has an ashram, money alone runs the ashram not Gita and Upanishads. Therefore, attachment is an evil; hatred is an equal evil. A balanced attitude towards money is what we are recommending and what is a balanced attitude? Use the money for spiritual growth; earn the wealth and use it for spiritual growth of yourselves as well as the other people. And these materialistic people do not have this balanced vision and therefore, they are obsessed with materialistic thing, they do not understand that behind the matter, there is spirit. Behind the body, there is atma, respect the body, respect the atma also. This is the balanced approach which the asuric people are missing.

And ,therefore, Sri Krishna is describing their thought pattern; what preoccupies their mind most of the time; they are obsessed with what type of thinking most of the time; our scriptures point out that one should start the day with thought of the Lord, as I said; think of Lakshmi, but have some time to think of Narayana also. How can you be so selective concentrating on Lakshmi only and miss Narayana? These people do not have the balance. And therefore what happens, we were seeing from verse No.13, the pattern of their thinking all the time is calculative wondering what all things they have acquired in life, and what all things they plan to acquire and how they want to implement those desires; And not only they are interested in things, they are interested in wealth also, only for their wellbeing and anybody who obstructs this, they consider as a competitor; a rival and they do not have any scruples at all. They want to finish off all those obstacles without any compunction.

Just as big companies swallow the small companies. They say in globalization, at the end, there will be only a few international giant companies and they can adjust the market itself in such a way; because they can afford that all these small people will be swallowed and they will be so powerful that they can even change the government.

These are the materialistic people; and their thinking is, I am the most powerful person; I alone enjoy, power and money; I am the most successful person, the strongest and given to all types of enjoyment.

Shloka 16.15:

आढ्योऽभिजनवानस्मि कोऽन्योऽस्ति सदृशो मया।
यक्ष्ये दास्यामि मोदिष्य इत्यज्ञानविमोहिताः।।16.15।।

16.15 ‘I am rich and high-born; who else is there similar to me? I shall perform sacrifices; I shall give, I shall rejoice,’-thus they are diversely deluded by non-discrimination.

These are the thoughts of the materialistic people.

 I am the richest person and I belong a noble family, although it is doubtful if he even knows the Gayathri.

A culture which has started from millennia before, all of them have been surrendered at the altar of money.

Bhrthari in his Vairagya shatakam looks back: Oh Lord in search of money what all I did; I dug all part of earth, hoping to get some wealth from ground; I went in search of all types of ores, to extract the metals, gold, silver, etc. I went in search of; I went all round the globe in search of the wealth and for this travel, I have to please so many bureaucrats and politicians and counsels and all types of people; I did not propitiate the devatas and gods; I propitiated all these arrogant human beings;

What all should not have been eaten, I ate, all for the purpose of business promotion; I went to the black money people , I ate all kinds of things which are banned in the religion, what all should not be drunk, eaten, everything I did contrarily, in concentrated form; At least am I happy now; at the fag end of my life; I have not improved anything at all; only losing the culture and tradition; is only the thing that happens; You read Bhrthari, you will feel like running away; so powerful is his writing;

So, he says; I belong to wonderful family but I did not make use of the advantage that I had; I squandered this manuṣya Jenma advantage and the rival won and I lost.

Bhrthari says such a person is the embodiment of arrogance. He does not believe in the scriptural study or puja, but still he wants to perform certain rituals, not for

inner growth; but for the publicity. And therefore, he says; I will do big rituals and make sure that it is captured in the photos and videos so that my name will

spread. Even puja is done only to pump his arrogance.

 I will give charity but I will make sure that my name appears in the appropriate newspaper in the appropriate magazine;

When person after person comes and glorifies me, institutions glorify me, because they need my money, they will glorify and all adding to the ego which is the cause of spiritual destruction. More bloated the ego is, less the chances of spiritual growth.

And Sri Krishna says, thus, all these people are utterly deluded and confused; they do not know, they are digging their spiritual grave, they do not know what is good and what is bad; and they are suffering. In fact, Lord is angry with those people and only feels pity for them. And Lord has provided methods of avoiding these traps. We have got mahatmas to guide us; we have got the scriptures to guide us; from these traps; but the problem is that he does not make use of them, because his arrogance does not allow him to go to a Mahatma or even read a few verses of the Geeta.

And therefore, Bhagavan says, medicine is there; but he does not make use of it

And Bhagavan cannot come and force the medicine down his throat. Bhagavan has given us something called grey matter.

Therefore, Sri Krishna says: he is deluded by utter ignorance. And as I have often said, ignorance itself is not a sin; because all of us are born with ignorance; In

fact, that is our capital; that is the only wealth we all uniformly brought. Therefore, ignorance in itself is not sin; but perpetuation of ignorance is the greatest sin;

because Bhagavan has provided methods for the removal of ignorance, he has provided wonderful pramanams, but these people do not expose themselves to them.

Shloka 16.16

अनेकचित्तविभ्रान्ता मोहजालसमावृताः।
प्रसक्ताः कामभोगेषु पतन्ति नरकेऽशुचौ।।16.16।।

16.16 Bewildered by numerous thoughts, caught in the net of delusion, (and) engrossed in the enjoyment of desirable objects, they fall into a foul hell.

Therefore  deluded by ignorance; carried away by the abovementioned thought patterns;  given in the previous three slokas, 13, 14, and 15, they are immersed and lost in, a network of moha or delusion, or misconception, the misconception being that money and possessions will give the ultimate goal, will give the ultimate security, will give everything that I want. Thus, we have a set of beautiful sayings: They say money can buy a house, but it cannot buy a home; money can buy bed, but money cannot buy sleep; money can buy people; but money cannot buy love. In fact, money can buy many things; but all-important things in life, like peace, knowledge, love, all these things money cannot buy; But these people do not understand this and it is called moha.

A materialistic society will use all its resources only to improve methods of entertainment. That is the indication of a materialist society; whether there is material resources or scientific advancement, all

of them will be used to improve sense pleasures and they think that is the growth of the society; and that is why, you can find in India, any scientific improvement comes first, it will be used in religious field; TV, Ramayana and Mahabharata serials. All swamis will start appearing in TVs. that is our culture; any

scientific advancement, we imagine, we think of using for spiritual purpose; that is called a healthy society; a materialistic society will think of improving sense

pleasures; and these materialistic people are lost in entertainment and enjoyment of sense objects.

And even medical advancement, they want to use the body to become younger and younger so that again that the body can be used not for spiritual sadhana but for, how I can be young at the 90th year.

So, what will happen to them?

Sri Krishna gets so wild; he says they will go to hell. Animals are the only living beings which have got only two purusärthas; after-all animals work for their

security; animals work for their enjoyment; animals do not know what is dharma; animals do not know what is moksha; animals do not require veda purva; animals do

not require veda anta.

This inferior life is called is called narakam.  Spiritually inferior life is called naraka for one’s who are spiritually backward. Such a person falls.

Shloka 16.17

यजन्ते नामयज्ञैस्ते दम्भेनाविधिपूर्वकम्।।16.17।।

आत्मसम्भाविताः स्तब्धा धनमानमदान्विताः।

Self-conceited, haughty, filled with pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform sacrifices which are so in name only, with ostentation and regardless of the injunctions.

When our dharma shastras talk about a dharmic way of life, it is a way of life in which I maintain harmony at all levels. It starts with internal harmony; harmony between my thought, word and deed, is internal harmony. Even my eating, sleeping, etc.

should have a harmony, even among the various organs of the body, there should be harmony. It starts with internal harmony; then I lead a lifestyle in which there is harmony in the family; among the various members. There is no stress; strain or tension, I am not

uncomfortable I should feel at home. That is why it is called a home; inter-action should be smooth, well-oiled, there should not be any friction

 And similarly, I should have harmony in the society; and therefore, social customs, social manners, politeness, etiquette; all of them are also part of dharma.

Dharma is not mere religious activity but even social interaction must be in keeping with harmony. And therefore, every refined civilized society has its own manners all indicating my refined conduct and behavior expressed in my body language.

The way you stand; the way you sit; the way you talk, the way you eat; because the body language communicates something and therefore in our culture, they say; we all have as children, we have experienced, when some mahatma or somebody comes, our

parents will say sit properly, how you hold your hands, your head, your legs; therefore these are all body language should convey, respect, love, humility; and not only body language should convey my refinement; even my words should convey my refinement; that in a group, I do not dominate by talking all the time.

And Sri Krishna says when a materialistic person grows in money and power, chances are he becomes more and more puffed up with power and pride. He becomes more and more gross. He becomes more and more desensitized and he does not bother about his behavior; his conduct, his manners, his language and the

first causality is humility; and the unfortunate thing is when I become a man of power and wealth, there will be always a coterie of sycophants around me. They want to take advantage of my power and money; and therefore, they will come and they will glorify me

An oft quoted shloka says: Once you have got money and power, everybody would come and say, that you are beautiful, you are cultured; and your language is

wonderful, you are educated, they will do namaskar. Already arrogant, these people already pumped and their ego gets bloated and bloated, First humility goes

and then devotion to God disappears. Arrogance and Ĩśvara bhakti cannot go together. You study the life of all our rakshasas, whether it is Ravana or Kamsa, or

Hiranyakashipu, or Hiranyaksha, as money and power comes, arrogance comes, humility goes, and then devotion goes.

Once humility and devotion goes, the mahatmas will begin to avoid me; because where there is ego, the great people do not go there, as God is absent; and therefore mahatmas avoid; Therefore my few chances of correcting myself is also gone; if I have at least some great people around; they will tell me as it is.

Brhathari says:

A few cultured and refined people you associate with; they will guide me; but in the case of this person, Mahatmas go away gradually; and sycophants surround me, and they will further see to it that all my culture, manner, politeness, all of them go away as well. As we have read in purana, Kamsa refused to even to get up, when Sri Krishna came. So, these are all the problem.

Therefore, Krishna says, every namaskara I receive from others, can bloat my ahamkara; that is why there are people who do not take namaskara from

others; there are some swamis who do not allow; or if at all they do, they say that you do not receive the namaskara, quietly hand over to your guru; let him handle it; and what will your guru do, he will give his guru; and ultimately it will go to God, no problem, because God deserves all the namaskara.

Therefore, glorification is deadly and these people, they

are egoistic, power hungry, arrogant, full of materialistic desires; and full of anger, because they can get away with any form of behavior; because money and power

compensates. Therefore, nobody will criticize me, nobody will correct me; They will be dominating any group.

Because of dhanam, wealth, they have these weaknesses; they do lot of puja alright, but the puja should give them more humility; but if puja is not approached properly, instead of giving humility, that puja itself will add to arrogance; he will say that I have done this, I have done that; means pujas for names sake only; there is no heart in the puja but for pomp and show.

Shloka 16.18

अहङ्कारं बलं दर्पं कामं क्रोधं च संश्रिताः।
मामात्मपरदेहेषु प्रद्विषन्तोऽभ्यसूयकाः।।16.18।।

16.18 Resorting to egotism, power, arrogance, passion and anger, hating Me in their own and others’ bodies, (they become) [As the finite verb is missing in the verse, we have supplied ‘they become’. S. adds the verb prabhavanti, wax strong, from verse 9, and constructs the last portion thus: ‘৷৷.the envious ones wax strong.’ Following S. S., however, one may combine this verse with the preceding verse by taking ‘perform sacrifices’ as the finite verb.-Tr.’] envious by nature.

So, all the refinement in his behavior is the causality; all the social etiquettes, humility, politeness in manners everything goes away, because there is nobody to correct him; and he can get away with all those things. Therefore, what all things happen? His life is dominated by ego, power; born out of status; with resulting arrogance; and desire and anger. And gradually this will lead to a nasthika svabhava also; because it is unconducive to devotion and therefore devotion will gradually get eroded.

So, they begin to hate me, says Sri Krishna; not only he begins to hate the Lord, he begins the hate the scriptures also; he becomes highly critical of the scriptures, which are supposed to be the gifts from the Lord himself.

Shloka 16.19:

तानहं द्विषतः क्रूरान्संसारेषु नराधमान्।
क्षिपाम्यजस्रमशुभानासुरीष्वेव योनिषु।।16.19।।

16.19 I cast for ever those hateful, cruel, evil-doers in the worlds, the vilest of human beings, verily into the demoniac classes.

So thus, religious life disappears from them; religious life goes away; religious practices goes away; and of course, spirituality also disappears.

They feel bad declaring that I am a Hindu; I am a vaidhika; they consider themselves secular.

We do not want to declare to anyone, and even the names are chosen in such a way, and you

do not know what they are; original name is Meenakshi, Kamakshi, but now they keep pinky, chinky, etc. but they do not want to reveal their identity.

They are also very rude in their behavior, lacking politeness, culture, and refinement. So, they are representatives of ashubha; ashubha means deterioration in spirituality; amangalam, means dharma and moksha deterioration, they are representatives of amangala.

And Sri Krishna says what can I do; I have to throw them into naraka. First, I try through scriptures and mahatmas; hoping that the scriptures and mahatmas will change the society; and when the society is so corrupted, that even the mahatmas and scriptures cannot change, I will take avathara and I will annihilate them.

Take away:

They say money can buy a house, but it cannot buy a home; money can buy bed, but money cannot buy sleep; money can buy people; but money cannot buy love. In fact, money can buy many things; but all-important things in life, like peace, knowledge, love, all these things money cannot buy;

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka 16.9:

16.9
Holding on to this view, (these people) who are of depraved character, of poor
intellect, given to fearful actions and harmful, wax strong for the ruin of the
world.

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, In our scriptures, they talk about four goals of human life, known as purusharta’s.

Purusha
meaning human being, artha means
goals. Therefore, purushartha means human goals. They are called human
goals; because human beings alone can fix a goal and work consistently to
accomplish that, because fixing the goal and working for that requires a
freewill and human beings alone are endowed with this freewill and therefore
they alone can have short-term and long-term goals and consistently work for
their accomplishment and since freewill and these goals are unique to human
beings, they are called purushartha; Of these four purusharta’s, the
first one is well-known and every human being naturally goes after that; and it
is called artha; artha means material possession that make sure that
the life is secure.

So material possessions for the sake of my
security is very natural for even animals and certainly it is instinctive and
natural for human beings and all material possessions are called artha; it may be in the form of money, in the form
of shares, land etc.

And the second is kama, kama means all forms of sense pleasures or entertainment. This is a season of entertainment and therefore people know what entertainment is; it is sense pleasure. This artha and kama are called material pursuits and this is very natural to human beings. One need not have any special training; we do not require gurus; we do not require scriptures to train people in these two pursuits.

But Vedas say that these two are human goals; but do
not stop with these two; there are two more human goals; uniquely human, not
available to other animals and the third in that list is called dharma, by
which we mean inner refinement; or refinement of the mind. In Sanskrit we
call it samskara;
chitta samskara. In fact,
we have several ceremonies from conception to death; 41 such ceremonies are
mentioned. Each ceremony is called a samskara.
Garbhaadharana, pumsavana samskara,
seemanthonanyana, jathakarma, nama karana,
choula, annaprasana,
upanayana, vedavrathini, vivaha; 41 such
samskaras are
mentioned; the culmination being the rituals done at the time and immediately
after death. All of these are samskaras, because they are supposed contribute to
the inner refinement;

And not only the rituals contribute to the inner samskara, even a life of values contribute to this inner refinement. All the ethical values are part of the inner samskara and not only rituals and values, even healthy attitudes contribute to the inner refinement; our attitude towards the parents; matru devo bhava; pitru devo bhava; Our attitude towards elders; which is unique to our culture, we are asked to do namaskara. Namaskara indicates our reverence for age; our reverence for experience; because certain type of refinement can come only through experience. Therefore, attitude towards wealth; attitude towards people, attitude towards the environment; attitude towards the world in general, they all form part of the lifestyle; contributing to inner refinement. This chitta samskara is called dharma; Thus, the third unique human goal is mental refinement; In Vedanta it is called sukshma buddhi.

But unfortunately, this inner refinement is
not a tangible goal. Money is a tangible goal; people can understand it. And
entertainment is tangible; I can switch on a show; but dharma is an intangible
goal. Therefore, it takes time for the human beings even to know the value of
this goal; Why is dharma an important human goal? Even to appreciate that it
requires sensitivity. Plus, dharma is inner refinement, attained through
combining religious life as well as ethics and morality. And this will lead to
inner refinement. This is called dharma purushartha or in the language of sixteenth chapter;
daivi Sampath or inner wealth or invisible wealth.

And then the fourth purushartha, which
is the culmination of these three is moksha, otherwise called spiritual enlightenment
or spiritual knowledge. Spiritual wisdom is the fourth purushartha, which
is called moksha. Moksha means freedom from ignorance. Knowledge
will give me freedom from ignorance. And freedom from ignorance means freedom
from problems created by ignorance and according to our scriptures; all human
problems are caused by ignorance. And this spiritual knowledge or wisdom is
also an intangible goal; I also cannot show what is moksha.

Dharma is an intangible inner goal; moksha is also an intangible inner goal; but the scriptures say they must be included. And Vedas say, even if you do not know the worth of these two higher goals, even if you do not understand what is dharma; even if you do not understand what is moksha; it does not matter; you follow the lifestyle that I prescribe; then if you follow that; in due course you will know the value of dharma and moksha. Like a mother, cannot teach everything to the child; because child is too young to understand what is hygiene. Child cannot understand; therefore, mother blindly commands: wash your hands before eating. The child does not understand the significance of washing, infection; hygiene; bacteria and disease; mother cannot teach a small baby; therefore, the mother says, do what I tell you now.

 Even though the child may be unhappy because the mother is forcing too many things; but mother does not feel bad, the motive of the mother is the wellbeing of the child. Therefore what the Veda’s say is: You may not understand the significance of inner growth; you may not understand the significance of a value based life; you may not understand the significance of religious life itself; even if you do not understand, follow with faith in the Veda’s; with the attitude that veda is my mother; whatever it tells will be for my good. And even if I do not understand the significance now; as I grow, I will understand. Thus, dharma and moksha purushartha’s also should be included even as a person is pursuing artha and kama. Such a person is a religious person; a person given to daivi sampath.

And Sri Krishna says the problem with the materialist people is they will value only artha kama purusharta. A materialistic person is defined as that person, who looks upon only two goals in life; artha and kama alone. He will not understand what is dharma; he does not want to understand what is dharma; He will not understand what is moksha; He does not want to understand; At least if he blindly follows the vedas, it will be fine; but he does not have faith in the Vedas; So, no faith in god; no faith in vedas ; no faith in gurus; and himself, he cannot understand as well.

These people, artha kama pradhana, are
called materialistic people.

Sri Krishna is very strongly criticizing
these materialistic people; he said; their goal is work for 5 days, enjoy for 2
and then die.

They do not know the higher possibilities of
human life, the wonderful ananda born out of dharma and moksha; they
do not understand what is inner growth; they are short sighted people; And when
I try to talk about dharma, they only argue.

They say, I do not value dharma or ethics,
morality or devotion; I see many dharmic and religious people going through all
types of problems. Devotees are suffering; ethical people are suffering; while
all those adharmic people are enjoying. This is the argument they give. They ask, what is the use of being a bhaktha?

This is the silliest argument, because, if
you look at life in this manner, you cannot accept any law of life. For example,
there are so many rules prescribed for good health in health magazines. They
talk about do’s and don’ts with regard to health. But if you observe, you will
certainly find that there are many people who follow all the health rules and
they fall sick. They do not smoke; they do not drink; they do not eat meat;
they exercise regularly and yet they suffer heart attack. And, there are others
who violate all the health rules and yet enjoy without any diseases.

Now can I argue, therefore, that all the
health rules are meaningless. They say cigarette smoking is injurious to
health; yet there are people who smoke, and who are healthy. And there are people
who do not even touch a cigarette and have cancer. Therefore, can you say that
rules of health are meaningless. We can never give such an argument. Similarly,
we say dharma is good; adharma is bad. This is based on a shastric vision. To argue that dharmic people
suffer while adharmic people enjoy, is the silliest approach.

So, we should not argue that
dharmic suffer and adharmic people enjoy. Adharma is not good for our spiritual
health. Dharma alone protects our spiritual health and this asuric people will not accept and they argue.

We can only pray for them.
Therefore, Sri Krishna says, they are short sighted and they will take to
violent lifestyle; because even though himsa is adharma, they do not believe in adharma, whatever is an
obstacle to them, they want to destroy; and thus, they are enemies of the world. As I said
in the last class; violation of dharma will create an imbalance in the cosmic order;
imbalance in the cosmic order will cause the destruction of the universe. And therefore,
they are enemies of the world and they cause destruction.

Shloka 16.10:

Giving
themselves up to insatiable passion, filled with vanity, pride and arrogance,
adopting bad abjectives due to delusion, and having impure resolves, they
engage in actions.

There
is no limit to materialistic desires. Fulfilment of worldly desires can never
give total satisfaction. So, it is like a mirage; from distance there seems to
be water; when I go near, it recedes further. And similarly, we have a false
hope that the fulfilment of materialistic desires will give us satisfaction,
but we find once, one set of desires are fulfilled; the next set is ready;
Swami Chinmayanand nicely says: Happiness is the Number of desires you fulfil
divided by the Number of desires you have.

But
the problem is we only study the increase in the numerator while we are
assuming that the denominator, the number of desires, will remain stationery.

The
problem is that the denominator also increases very fast.  You will find that you have fulfilled so many
desires; but instead of increasing, the happiness decreases, because there is
no end to the fulfilment of desires.

Therefore,
Sri Krishna says, nobody is satiated; and they say it is like pouring ghee into
the fire; you want it to subside; you want it to quench; reality is that they
will never quench by offering of ghee; it only increases. So, having fulfilled
their petty desires; they get dambha, pomp and show, ostentation; and mana meaning
pride and mada; meaning haughtiness or arrogance; they are full of these
negative traits. All because of delusion. Now, what is the delusion? Finite
plus finite is equal to finite only. By effort whatever I achieve in life; will be limited both in time and in
size. I start as a finite being; by adding any number of finite goals, I only
go from finitude to finitude; infinitude will not come. This they do not
understand, because of delusion.

So, it means they believe in
false values that the external objects will give me security not realizing that
the external object itself is insecure. Money is insecure; inflation problem
and interest is coming down; And the expenditure is increasing; cost of living
increases, and the interest decreases; What security do we have? Therefore,
money is insecure, property is insecure, people around are insecure; job is
insecure; so, by holding on to other insecure things, how can I find security.
But the human being never thinks.

They have all kinds of vratams; which are all asuchi or Evil
resolves; So instead of taking the religious vratams, like sabarimala vratams they take to evil resolves. In the olden days 41 days Vratham
was taken to go to Sabarimala; now no vrathams are taken anymore.

But these people have got asuchi vratams; What is their resolve or
Vrtham? Resolves such as, I will finish that competitor. Their resolves are
usually negative ones.

Their vrithams are like those of rakshasas. They also follow religious discipline but for the destruction
of the world.

Shloka 16.11

16.11
Beset with innumerable cares which end (only) with death, holding that the
enjoyment of desirable objects is the highest goal, feeling sure that this is
all.

These materialistic people learn only to depend more and more on external factors; their very acquisitions indicate they want happiness and security that are based on external factors. Therefore, the number of external factors they depend upon increases gradually. Whereas the vedanta tells us to reduce dependences. The fundamental motto of Vedanta is sarvam paravasham Dukham or dependence on external factors is sorrow. External factors may be person; may be things; may be situations. Vedanta says, sarvam atma vasham sukham or Non-dependence on external factors or self-dependence or independence is joy. Whereas materialistic society is a consumerist society; And the more the number of external factors are, the more unpredictable my life will be; because which factor will fail, how and when, I do not know; so therefore, hidden variables will increase, unpredictability increases. Therefore, I do not know what will breakdown tomorrow and therefore whether I am happy or unhappy will depend upon perfect functioning of so many gadgets from telephone; computers and so many things. And, therefore, the problem is, the more life becomes unpredictable, the more the stress will be. Unpredictability leads to stress and strain; And the materialistic person depends upon more unpredictable external factors for his comfort and happiness; whereas the spiritual person requires only one thing; atmni eva atmana tushta; Fortunately, atma will not break down; and therefore, these materialistic people are full of stress and strain.

So, they have limitless worry and sleepless nights,
whereas, a devotee who is a karma yogi, a
man of daivi sampath, he says, let whatever happen, happen. Let not my peace
depend upon these unpredictable factors, Oh Lord. Therefore, Oh Lord give me
the inner strength, spiritual strength.

This devotion, the materialistic person does
not have.  His worries have no end at
all.

He remains committed to money and entertainment.

These materialistic people are miserable and unfortunately,
they convert other people also to materialism because that is a more tempting
philosophy.

Shloka 16.12:

16.12
Bound by hundreds of shackles in the form of hope, giving themselves wholly to
passion and anger, they endeavour to amass wealth through foul means for the
enjoyment of desirable objects.

So, these materialistic people
are shackled by countless attachments; whereas the daivi sampth approach is, I
do not own anything. His attitude is everything belongs to the Lord; I use them
with the grace of the Lord, that is why when I build a house, I do not enter
without placing the picture of the Lord. The idea is this house is not my
house, it is a temple; and I am using that house with the grace of the Lord.

Therefore, a satvic person disowns everything;
whereas the rajasic, tamasic and materialistic people; they hold on to things.

They are rich in kama and krodha. And unfortunately, a
materialistic society praises only these rich people. When there is a humble
person who has value for dharma; society does not honor him. Vedic society always valued
renunciation. If Buddha was valued it was because he renounced everything.

A materialistic society will
value possessions.

They are also given to kama and krodha as the ultimate thing.

They
are busy people, workaholics; and they have no time for pancha maha yagna. They
work for amassing wealth and all is done for entertainment. Earning money
itself is not bad; when you earn more and own less; you become a blessing to
the society. In fact, a karma yogi is one who earns more and owns less. A karmi
is one who earns more and owns more; because when I earn more and own
everything I earn; he has no money to share with others.

While
Karma yogi is the most important person because he earns plenty and owns less;
that means he has a big buffer which is available for pancha maha yagna.

Therefore,
we are not against earning, but what we are against is earning and owning all.
These are the people who earn wealth and but do not give to others.

Shloka
16.13:

6.13
‘This has been gained by me today; I shall acquire this desired object. This is
in hand; again, this wealth also will come to me.’

So generally, these people are
busy and their philosophy is: Time is money.

 Therefore, they do not waste time, they
utilize all the time to convert into money. This is the philosophy; therefore,
generally they do not have free time; and even if they have some free time,
they only think of how to increase their money and not about God.

In these three verses, Sri
Krishna talks about the thought pattern of the materialistic person.

And what is their thought pattern?
They are always calculating the money they possess and planning to expand their
possessions. They do not have time to think of anything other than artha and kama.

In short, the idea is: he also
meditates; only

difference is the object of meditation
is Lakshmi rather than Vishnu. Therefore, his is money dhyanam.

Shloka 16.14:

16.14
‘That enemy has been killed by me, and I shall kill others as well. I am the
lord, I am the enjoyer, I am well-established, mighty and happy.’

And once there is inordinate
greed, naturally I will see all other people as my competitors. So, greed means
I see enemies everywhere; as obstructing my goals; and therefore, shatrus increase; And in business field, liquidation of the competition
is part of the program, and therefore different normal and abnormal methods are
used to finish off the other people. So big companies swallow the small ones.

They even use goondas and even physically
liquidate the people, because of their inordinate greed.

Initially there may be some guilt but after
sometime, their heart gets benumbed that there will be no regret or guilt also.

Once I have destroyed all the competitors and
I have got the monopoly in that field, nobody can come in front of me. I am the
one who will enjoy all the wealth as the Siddha or successful person; I am the
most successful person, but how he attained success is a big question.

I am the strongest person, even the law
cannot do anything because police are in my hands, because I know what is their
rate; once I know the rate, everybody can be fixed. And politicians no problem.
So therefore, I hear that all the politicians are in the hands of big business
groups. So therefore, all are in my hands.

 He
thinks, I am the happiest person in the world; thus, these people dream their
future.

Take Away:

Dharma
means inner refinement or refinement of the mind.

Vedanta says
dependence on external factors is sorrow. External factors may be persons,
things or situations.

Vedanta
also says, non-dependence on external factors or self-dependence or
independence is joy.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka 16.4:

16.4
O son of Prtha, (the attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature
are religious ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is
abhimanah, self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance.

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said,

In the 16th chapter of the Gita, Sri Krishna is talking about two types of lifestyles, one that is conducive to spirituality and moksha and the other one non-conducive to spiritual goal and these two lifestyles are called daivi sampath and asuri sampath.

We can roughly translate it as spiritual value system and materialistic value system; and the based on this, the spiritual value systems were mentioned in the first three verses; and the materialistic value system, Sri Krishna summarized in the 4th verse and he will elaborately deal with that from the 7th verse up to 21st verse later on. But before elaborating the asuri sampath, Sri Krishna points out that if you want to gain moksha, then your life style should be governed by daivi sampath. This is mentioned in the 5th verse and we will read:

Shloka
16.5:

16.5
The divine nature is the Liberation, the demoniacal is considered to be for
inevitable bondage. Do not grieve, O son of Pandu! You are destined to have the
divine nature.

Sri Krishna says, the spiritual value system which I gave out in the first three verses will take you towards Moksha. It is conducive to self-knowledge. Whereas the asuri sampath, the materialistic value system; will keep you in Samsara and bondage. And naturally Arjuna is worried as to which category he belongs to, therefore, Sri Krishna pats Arjuna and says, Arjuna fortunately, you are with daivi sampath only.

You
are born with spiritual inclination. You have a value for spiritual growth; Interest
in spirituality is possible only if inherited from the previous birth.

Sri Krishna
has said before that spiritual development takes place through many janmas. If
we had such a lifestyle in this birth, we will have a natural inclination for
religious or spiritual life. Arjuna, you are born with such an inclination. You
have got a satvic tendency; you are a guna brahmana by birth itself and
therefore you can feel happy. And you can nourish that spiritual tendency more
and more.

Shloka
16.6:

16.6
In this world there are two (kinds of) creation of beings: the divine and the
demoniacal. The divine has been spoken of elaborately. Hear about the
demoniacal from Me, O son of Prtha.

So, here, Sri Krishna says, O Arjuna, the entire humanity can be divided into two groups. Not merely Indians; not merely the vedic people, the entire humanity can be divided into two groups; based on their tendencies; their values.

One group of humanity we can call
daiva group, which means naturally having a spiritual tendency. They might be
born in a materialistic society; but something pulls them towards spiritual
people, spiritual books, spiritual topics, something attracts them, they
themselves do not know the reason.

And there is another group, asuric; utterly materialistic group, down to earth group, as a Yamadharma raja said in kathopanishad. Yamadharmaraja calls them Shreyas and Preyas group. So Asura meaning People with materialistic tendencies; even though they born in a spiritual family; surrounded by Vedas, surrounded by Brahmaṇas, surrounded by temples; father himself may be a Gyani, but in spite of all these influences; these are people who turn towards materialism. Therefore, known as asuraha.

And, I have talked about the daiva group, the spiritual people, who have a spiritual value system, I have talked about them in the first three verses, but I have not elaborately talked about the materialistic value system. and I have briefly mentioned that in the fourth verse, but Sri Krishna feels that it should be elaborated. Therefore, he says the elaborate study of Asuri sampath, Arjuna, may you learn from me; so that you can avoid such a tendency. Thus, Sri Krishna gives an introduction to the asuri sampath; and hereafter He will elaborate on that.

Shloka 16.7

16.7
Neither do the demoniacal persons under-stand what is to be done and what is
not to be done; nor does purity, or even good conduct or truthfulness exist in
them.

All the human beings by nature and by birth are materialistic in character. Nobody knows that there is a such a goal called Moksha. And nobody knows that there is such a thing called dharma, because dharma is not visible to our eyes; moksha is also not visible to our eyes. Both of them are called apaurusheya purushartha; goals not available to our sense organs; or even to science. And since these two goals are not known, every human being has got only two purusharthas called artha and kama. Artha means money, and wealth. And the second thing is kama pleasure or enjoyment; therefore, everybody by birth has a value for artha kama purushartha’s; and therefore, our mind develops its own raga-dvesha’s. raga means likes and dvesha means dislike. Right from birth, our life is governed by raga-dveshas, our instinctive likes and dislikes; which are again based on artha kama purushartha; and our scriptures point out that this raga-dvesha based life is OK in the beginning stages. But once a stage is reached when we are capable of discrimination and thinking, this raga-dvesha based life should be changed; and a new value system should replace the old value system; and the new value system that is prescribed by our scriptures is the spiritual value system. And we do not know the importance of spiritual goals, because we are immature people at that time. And, therefore, we should be guided by the scriptures which we look upon as Veda mata.

Just as a baby does not know what is good for it and what is bad, a baby surrenders to the mother, and the mother decides what is good for the child. And as long as the child goes by the mother’s decision, it is ultimately for the good of the baby only. Just as mother decides what is good and bad for us, because we are immature. Similarly, Veda is the mother, who decides what is ultimately good for us and as per Veda the ultimate goal of human life has to be spiritual alone. Therefore, the shruti says: You do not know what is good for you. I am deciding what is good for you and therefore follow what I tell you. And the Shruti replaces the materialistic value system by a spiritual value system. It tells what us what is good and it is called vidhi. Vidhi means a thing which is good for me and nishedha means that which is not good for me. vidhi means kartavyam; Nishedha means akarthavyam and the Shruti asks us to replace the raga- dvesha based life by vidhi-nisheda based life. And this transformation from the materialistic value system to spiritual value system is considered the second birth of the human being. This transformation is from the prakrta to the samskrta purusha; and it is generally symbolized by the sacred thread ceremony.

Sri Krishna says that the asura purushas are
those people who do not go through this transformation of life. Because they do
not want to follow the spiritual value system prescribed by the scriptures. And
therefore, he says people who are materialistic people, asuras, who are
governed by raga-dveshas, likes and dislikes, they do not educate themselves scripturally.
They are literate materialistically, because they may know physics or chemistry
or economics, but spiritually they are illiterate. And therefore, this
transformation does not take place.

They do not know what is to be done, for spiritual growth.

They do not have dharma adharma viveka. And,
therefore, they do what they like.

So, the vedic
scriptures give us a daily routine to be followed for spiritual growth. The scriptures
give us instructions on what we need to do from the moment we wake up every
morning till we go to bed.

So, the first advice the scriptures give is
to get up before Sunrise. Most of us don’t follow this.

So, Shastra
says wake up before sunrise so that Surya
Bhagavan can
bless us.

This is the first spiritual value or achara.

And thereafter start the day with lighting
the lamp and then doing some prayers, apply some tilakam, and this is supposed
to be the greatest protection against materialism. The onslaught of
materialism is so powerful that if you have to protect, they say put some
kumkum or chandan or vibhuthi.

The vibhathi is
prepared by chanting a lot of mantras.  Vibhathi preparation is a very elaborate
ritualistic process, and therefore, it is not an ordinary ash, it is an ash with
lot of mantra. And not only it has mantras’ spiritual values, even when a
person is applying vibhuti he is supposed to chant mantras or names of the Lord
or namas. And that is why in vaishnava
sampradhaya it is
called nama.

Vibhuthi
means Bhagavan mahima.
When you are wearing the Vibhuthi, one
has to chant the triyambaka mantra.

This mantra says that Vibhuthi means it is glory of the Lord. Since you remember
the glory of the Lord, the ash itself got the name Vibhuthi and since this tilakam
is associated with God,
it is supposed to protect us from the onslaught of materialism. Therefore, get
up early in the morning; do snanam,
light up the lamp, chant the prayers, and remember the Lord and remember the
goal of life as well. And until you complete all these things, not even a drop
of water should be drunk.

Start your day with achara. There is no sense of religious purity at all for materialistic
people; So, they walk with the night dress all over the world, with the half-cleaned
teeth, with the brush in the mouth, with toothpaste, walking all over with a
newspaper. It is certainly not a vedic lifestyle.

Even brushing the teeth is a religious rite and there is a prayer mantra addressed to vanaspathi devatha, because in the olden days, they used the twigs of the trees for cleaning the teeth and therefore prayer to the twig: Hey Vanaspathe, I am brushing my teeth to remove my danta malaha, the impurities of the teeth; along with that, Oh Devathe, cleanse my mind also”. And for what purpose? For Atma Gyanam. All these are wonderfully designed by the Veda right from the very young age to be followed; materialistic people do not believe in any one of them.

So, they do not have the religious Discipline; what about values? They do not believe in the values also; their argument is, whatever is convenient is value; I will speak truth also when it is convenient.

So, values also they do not believe in. This is the beginning of materialism. Now we can imagine the details.

Shloka 16.8:

16.8
They say that the world is unreal, it has no basis, it is without a God. It is
born of mutual union brought about by passion! What other (cause can there be)?

They are totally irreligious people. They do
not connect with religion or spirituality, which is based on the vedic
scriptures. First, they do not believe in the Vedas or believe in Asthayam. Sathyam here means
Veda pramanam, Asathyam means that they do not believe
in Veda pramanam, even
though Veda is like thousand mothers.

Shankaracharya tells us, elsewhere, that the Vedas are superior to thousand mothers and fathers; it is interested only in our wellbeing but in spite of that; they do not believe in Veda pramanam. They are utterly nastika people. And if they do not accept Veda pramanam; they also do not believe in Dharma. Pratishta means dharma; dharma means moral or ethical order of the universe. Vedas say Dharma or morality alone sustains the creation.

Dharma means that which sustains the universe. Moral order alone sustains. Once the morality goes from the society, there will be utter distress and confusion and a society cannot survive for long; And therefore, scriptures talk about Dharmas and these people do not believe in dharma because dharma is not visible to our eyes. They believe in the physical order of the universe, because it is scientifically provable. They believe in the scientific laws of the creation; like the law of gravitation; like the ecological laws, etc. but the laws of dharma they do not believe because it cannot be scientifically proved. And therefore they say there is no dharma or adharma; there is no punyam or papam and therefore, there is neither previous birth or next birth. Enjoy this life; following whatever you feel like doing.

And then who is the creator of this universe?

They do not believe in God as well.

They say creation can come by itself; the
scientists have proved that the big bang took place at such and such time,
thereafter the world has evolved by itself with the help of chemical and
physical laws; we do not see any intelligent principle behind it; and therefore
we do not require a God.

They reject everything; they believe in only money and entertainment. Therefore five days of a week, earn and two days of a week, go all out and enjoy. Continue that till death. This is the philosophy of materialistic people.

Whereas what is the belief of the traditional people? We say, God is the creator of the world; and along with the world, God has created the Vedas also. And Vedas are the manuals which are meant to guide our life; so that we can extract the best out of this human life. And the best we can extract is moksha itself.

So, do not have materialistic friends; until you clearly understand the Vedas and understand the value of dharma. Until you understand the concept of pramanam, avoid materialistic people.

These people
argue that there is no Ishvara; no Vedas and there is no dharma.

Then how did this
creation come?

We are created by
our parents because of the male-female union, which is caused by kama or
passion, we are born. And how are our parents born? because of their parents;
and how are their parents born; because of their parents. Why is God required
for this? They argue that spending money on temples is useless, rather give
money to the poor.

And when we listen to those arguments, we also start having doubts, perhaps they are correct; whereas Vedas says spending money on God or dharma or puja etc. can never be a waste; it is like pouring water at the root of the tree; when you pour water at the root of the tree; water directly goes to the root; but in an invisible manner the water goes to all the branches; I do not see it, but every cell of the tree gets the benefit.

Similarly, Bhagavan is the root of this creation;
where did we see this? In Bhagavat Gita chapter 15.

Abhisheka you do, naivaidyam you do,
nothing goes to waste, ultimately it is for the benefit of humanity. But a
materialistic person will not accept that.

Shloka 16.9:

16.9
Holding on to this view, (these people) who are of depraved character, of poor
intellect, given to fearful actions and harmful, wax strong for the ruin of the
world.

So, these Asuric people hold on to the materialistic philosophy. Their philosophy is whatever sense organs can see that alone exists. That there are things, beyond our sense organs and which can be known through other means of knowledge, they do not accept. It is like a person with four sense organs. Imagine a person has only four sense organs by birth. He does not have eyes. He has got ears, tongue, nose and skin.

And I talk about the field of colors, I say that there is a world of colors. He says, I do not believe in that; I do not accept that; because I am not able to appreciate the colors with my four sense organs. And I say no, that you cannot know that, because the available four sense organs do not have access to the colors. It has to be known through the fifth sense organs, eyes, I tell. But this person argues that I do not believe there is a fifth sense organ. I want to prove the colors with the help of the 4 sense organs I have; he wants the proof for the colors through the ears, or prove the color through the nose, through the tongue, skin, through the available four pramanas. He is not interested in the fifth sense organ which reveals a field not available for these four.

Similarly, our culture talks about a sixth
sense organ. What is the sixth sense organ?

It is called Veda. And we want to prove that with the help of
the available five sense organs, we can only say that the available sense
organs do not have access to that; you have to use the sixth. And if a person
refuses to use the eyes, which is the fifth sense organ, who is the loser? If I
will not use the eyes, I alone am going to be the loser, neither the eye nor
the world of colors. If I should benefit from the world of colors, I should be
willing accept a fifth sense organ called the eye; which sense organ can never
be proved by the other four sense organs. Veda is the sixth sense organ which can never be
proved or disproved by the available five sense organs. You use the Veda pramana and study with faith, you will be opened to
a new and wonderful field, which is not accessible to science; which is not
acceptable to the sense organs.

By rejecting the Veda, Veda is not the loser; I am going to be the loser. But materialistic people will never understand the significance of the sixth sense organ. They claim that they are rational people, they will believe in only those things which can be sensed through five sense organs. Like the fool who wants the proof for the color with the help of the other 4 sense organs; how can I prove it; it is not possible.

And therefore, the materialistic people will never understand.  They are lost souls, because they are losing a huge chunk of the creation which is accessible only through Veda pramana. The very definition of the Veda is what: Veda is a sixth sense organ as it were; which will reveal a new world which is not accessible to these regular five sense organs. How can you define the fifth sense organ the eye; eye is a fifth sense organ, which reveals the colors, which are not accessible to the other four sense organs. Similarly, Vedas reveals a completely new field. It is for you to operate or make use of the Vedas; otherwise you are going to be the loser.

So, they are lost souls. All because they do not understand the concept of pramana. What the eyes reveal, the ears can never prove; the ears can never disprove; what the eyes reveal. Suppose I say this is orange color is revealed by eyes; suppose the eyes want to verify the orange color. No, the ears are great; but the ears can never prove or disprove, because their field is different.

Similarly, Vedic field is different;
scientific field is different. Science has got access only to a particular
field; therefore, science has no right to prove or disprove the Vedic teaching.
This is the significance of pramanam.

Therefore, they try to prove the Vedas
scientifically. That is the greatest foolishness. It is like trying to prove
the colors with the help of the ears. They will never succeed; and when they do
not succeed, instead of understanding their foolishness, they reject the Vedas.

Vedas are unscientific and therefore I won’t believe. That is the greatest foolishness to have. Therefore, Sri Krishna says: idiots; they try to prove Vedas through science; They hold on to a materialistic philosophy and once artha and kama becomes dominant in life; when dharma is not valued, then compromise with values become natural. Violation of values become natural. Telling a lie will become very comfortable; first it will prick, second lie it does not matter, the third lie we are comfortable; thereafter, lying become natural, cheating becomes natural, himsa becomes natural; therefore, they will be hurting the moral order of the universe. Ugrakarmanaha means they are people of violence. Violating what? the ethical or moral order of the creation; violating dharma which is the health of the universe. It is like violating the rules of health; by following the rules of health; I keep my body fit. If I violate those rules, the body dharma is disturbed; which becomes sickness physically, similarly when dharma is violated, the society becomes sick. Adharma is the sickness of the society. A sick body cannot survive; a sick society cannot also survive.

And therefore ugrakarmanaha, they hurt dharma; and the society indirectly prabhavanthi;

And jagataha kshayaya; they become the cause of the destruction of the humanity; And the tragedy is when the scientific knowledge increases, and value for dharma decreases, the scientific knowledge also will be used for adharmic purposes. And science gives enormous power and the increased power will be used for consistent akramaha. If medical science increases and kidneys can be replaced; kidney racket comes up. Thus, Knowledge without wisdom becomes dangerous. Knowledge is material knowledge, wisdom is dharmic knowledge; When material knowledge increases, without dharmic knowledge, that society will have problems. They will then cause destruction of universe. Militants will increase; terrorists will increase, train accidents will increase; naxals will increase. They will have even atom bombs and chemicals. Science will become a curse of humanity. Science will be blessing only when it goes along with dharma.

Therefore, these people will become a curse to the society.

Therefore, they become enemies of humanity.

Thus, educated people without dharma will
become enemies.

Sakshara rakshasa bhavanti. Sakshara means
literate people, they become Rakshasa.

Take Away:

Asuras means Materialistic
people.

Shruti
asks us to replace the raga- dvesha (likes and dislikes) based life by vidhi-nisheda (good vs bad) based life.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

16.2
Non-injury, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, control of the
internal organ, absence of vilification, kindness to creatures,
non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, freedom from restlessness;

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, in the beginning of the 16th chapter, in the first three verses, Sri Krishna is giving a list of virtues which He names daivi sampath; and when a person lives a way of life; taking into account these virtues; then it will become conducive to atma Gyanam. We completed first verse in the last class and in the first verse, I had left out one word and I am happy that the students noted the omission and pointed it out to me. First, I will take up the omitted word, tapaha, in the second line.

If you split it; the word tapas or Tapaha has several meanings. Sri Krishna will talk about tapa elaborately in the 17th chapter, and He will divide tapas into three types, satvika, rajasika, and tamasika tapas. Here we will see one of the meanings of the word tapa; it is deliberately and willfully going through a painful experience for toughening one’s physical and mental personality. Voluntarily, deliberately going through some painful experience; of course, within a limit, in a controlled way; going through a painful experience, so that my body and mind will get toughened enough, immunized enough, to withstand pain or difficulty. So, immunization of the body, toughening of the body is the purpose of any form of tapas. And we have got many types of tapas, in the form of vrthams. For example, those who go Sabarimala, the Ayyappa temple in Kerala, they take a 41 day or 48 days of vow. And during these days; they willfully give up certain comforts. Certain types of physical comforts are given up, and the body is allowed to go through discomfort and similarly they walk 48 miles through thorns, stones and all those, without wearing a chappal; is a voluntary invitation of physical pain. Even though nowadays they can go through a very short route; they do that; Sometimes we can see people going to the Himalayan shrines of the Kedarnath and Badrinath, at higher altitudes, very cold; there also they go without proper cover, without chappal they go; this is a clear invitation to physical pain; but you do not call it suffering. A suffering is a suffering only when it is forced upon me by somebody else.

Whereas a suffering becomes a tapas when I myself, voluntarily, force on myself for the sake of toughening my body and mind. I have talked about this before; the difference between fasting and starving, is purely based on the attitude. When I want to eat food, and food is not available, it is starving; but food is available, but deliberately today happens to be Ekadasi and one stays away from food.

In Srirangam there are people who fast the whole day, even when food is available; I deliberately forgo and go through the pang and discomfort of hunger; and this voluntary suffering is called tapas. Shankaracharya calls it sharira pidanam; pidanam word he is using; but it is voluntary. The benefit, advantage of this tapas is the body gets a capacity to tolerate; tolerance of heat; tolerance of cold; tolerance of pain; so, increase of titiksha or tolerance is the benefit. And in Vedanta, tolerance is considered to be a very useful sadhana. It will help a person in several ways spiritually. One benefit is that if I toughen myself and develop tolerance when I have to go through choiceless pain. Everyone will have to face pain in life. Sometimes there are remedies, but there are occasions when a person is forced to go through pain and there is no cure or remedy. Like incurable disease or anything, I have got tolerance, choiceless pain in life will not disturb me too much. Thus, tolerance prepares myself to face choiceless pains in life; which is caused by prabhala prarabhada.

Durbhala prarabhda, gives me pain but I have remedy for weaker prarabhda, but there are prabhala prarabhda, which will give me pain for which I can have no remedy. How to face such choiceless pain? There is only one way; I have to raise my level of withstanding power; just as the military people develop that power; so, they have to learn to starve for days together; living with water; they have to survive with whatever they get; They have got endurance tests; thus, every human being requires increase in endurance power; And therefore, titiksha is useful to face choiceless situations.

The second benefit of tapas or increase of
tolerance is we can avoid impulsive reactions to situations. Any impulsive
reaction is because of lack of tolerance. I cannot tolerate nonsense. I cannot
tolerate adharmic action; I am extremely sensitive; many people say. When I am
sensitive and intolerant, the greatest disadvantage that I face, I impulsively
and immediately react to the situation without thinking. Any thoughtless action
is reaction; and any thoughtless reaction is improper; because we are not even
judging whether our actions are right or wrong. The only solution for impulsive
reaction is developing the tolerance power, so that even if somebody is doing
improper action, I can wait, analyze, think well and react at the proper time.
And when I react at proper time deliberately thoughtfully, it is no more a
reaction; it is an action. If I have to postpone my reaction, and deliberately
act, I require titiksha
or tolerance and that tolerance comes by practicing tapas. This is the second
benefit;

The third benefit of tolerance is this. Bhagavan has kept pain in life; not merely for hurting us. The role of pain is not merely wounding us, but Bhagavan wants to teach certain important lessons through pain also. So, sufferings also have a very important role in human life. And the important role of suffering is teaching; especially spiritual teaching; and if I should have the capacity to learn from suffering, I should enjoy an undisturbed mind. If suffering emotionally disturbs me, I will not be able to learn from suffering. I will go through sufferings but will continue to be where I am. So how can I learn from suffering? Only when my mind is calm, I can go through suffering and learn; and that is possible only when there is titiksha; there is tolerance. Therefore, the third benefit of tolerance is developing the faculty of learning from pain. Learning from suffering.

In fact, the very first chapter of the Gita is Arjuna vishada yoga. So Arjuna’s suffering taught a lot; At least he learned that he requires external help to solve the problem of raga, shoka and moha. And that is how he decided to surrender. Therefore, pain also has a role in spiritual growth; and I can make use of it only if I have tolerance. Thus, tapas plays a very important role in developing tolerance and therefore it is included in spiritual sadhana.

And now coming to the second verse, we saw the word Ahimsa, satyam, krodha and tyaga. The word tyaga, I pointed out, refers to renunciation; renunciation can be either external or internal. External renunciation is taking to a monastic life; internal renunciation is mentally dropping the ownership notion; I do not own anything. Bhagavan is the only owner; I am a trustee; I am supposed to only maintain things or maximize the use of things for the time being. This freedom from mamakara is called tyaga; mamakara tyaga.

The next value is shanti; shanti means the equanimity of mind; poise of mind; tranquility
of mind; freedom from stress and strain. Another word they use is anayasa;
inner relaxation. And this Shanti is a virtue, which we have to try to maintain
throughout the day, which Sri Krishna called samatvam yoga uchyate. The very karma yoga way of
life is to maintain this poise. And why is this shanti important? Only when the mind has shanti, intellect will be active and functional.

When the mind is disturbed, it will jam the intellect and it will not work. A Vedantic student has to do sravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasanam, all the three require an equanimous mind; therefore shanti. We can say, it is the samatvam attained through karma yoga. It is otherwise called samaha.

Then the next virtue is: Apaishunam. apaishunam means not publicizing the defects of other people. It is very enjoyable thing; it is a very juicy topic; to talk about the things happening in the neighborhood. Therefore, whatever defects are there; whatever deficiencies are there; whatever weaknesses are there, I enjoy talking about and whatever virtues are there; I carefully avoid. Shastra says it is never correct. If at all you want to talk about others, talk about their virtues.  Cover up your virtues; publicize others’ virtues.

Therefore, he says apaishunam; never talk about the other people’s
weaknesses.

Then the next virtue is Daya bhuteshu. Daya means compassion, bhuta means all living beings; human beings, animals, towards all of them, have compassion, i.e. learn to look at their suffering by standing in their shoes. Temporarily imagine what will it be if I am in their position. So, then, certainly it will be impossible for us to injure others.

Therefore, bhuteshu daya, or bhuta daya is considered to be a very important virtue.

Then the next one is aloluptvam; aloluptvam means not yielding to the temptations of sense objects. So the world is full of maya. And the world is full of temptations, my sense organs can very easily become an addict to anything. So even when such temptations are there; not yielding to them, that self-control is called aloluptvam. Previously we saw the word dama; dama is in a general sense control; aloluptvam is specific sense control; when there are temptations.

Saying No to drugs; because there are certain
temptations like drug, liquor, cigarette, etc. We have to yield only once;
first time it is a deliberate mistake, and second time, that object becomes the
master and I become a slave. First, I am master, the cigarette is slave; second
time, the cigarette become stronger; then time, it will still become stronger;
after sometime, I am utterly helpless that I cannot even imagine giving it up.

You will find that once a person becomes an
addict, it is almost impossible to get out. You have to read the book of
Alcoholic Anonymous. They say God alone can help such an addict; For that, one
has to surrender to God. even that becomes difficult. And therefore, always say
No first.

Therefore, better not to go in front of it, at
all; and therefore aloluptvam.

Then the next one is mardavam; mardavam
means gentleness, in handling people, in handling things, gentleness or
politeness in manners; Not being rude is called mardavam.

The mind of the wise people is very unique. It has got two opposite virtues. One angle it is stronger and harder than even diamond; and from another angle they are tender; more tender than even flowers; How come one mind is both hard and tender. It is said when they are receiving experiences such as people insulting, people criticizing, people misbehaving; when they are facing adverse situations, their mind takes the mode of hardness; the mind is so strong that any adverse situation cannot affect it; like the rock of Gibraltar, it will not get affected; but the very same wise people when they are handling other people, when they are talking to other people, their language and behavior is more tender than even flowers. So, as a karta they have a tender mind; as a bhokta they have a diamond like hard mind. But the problem of the ignorant person is the other way around. He also has a hard and soft mind. When he faces situation, it is too soft; that at the slightest insult he is affected; When he handles people, it is so rock like and rude, neither he is happy nor the other people around are happy. So, gentleness in handling other people.

Then hrih means modesty, and also a sense of shame; a
healthy sense of shame. There are two types of shame, one is a healthy shame. A
healthy shame is defined as that, which obstruct a person from doing wrong
actions. Sometimes we feel ashamed to do certain things in front of others,
when that shame restrains us from doing adharmic actions, that sense of shame
is a worthy sense of shame and it has to be cultivated. Shamelessness in that
respect is an evil thing.

Therefore, healthy shame is called hrih or modesty.

Then the next virtue achapalam; chapalam means restlessness expressed at the body level. Restlessness which is primarily a mental condition and when the mind is highly restless, it overflows to the body level and through the body language, the person shows he is uncomfortable. Hands and legs are moving; face is twitching. He is biting the finger; first nails then finger. They eat pencils and pens; all kinds of things happen; fidgety character is called chapalam; where the body does lot of movements purposelessly. Moving the legs purposelessly, moving the hands purposelessly. All of them are called cheshtai. When we are children, parents used to tell us sit quietly without doing any cheshtai. That indriya cheshta is called chapalam; achapalam is freedom from that; body also is relaxed.

Shloka 16.3:

16.3
Vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of
haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are (the alties) of one born
destined to have the divine nature.

Then next virtue is tejaha. teja means not being a victim of exploitation; goodness; Simplicity, it does not mean ideocracy. Being simple does not mean, being simpleton, it is not required; Be gentle; be good; be tolerant; all these virtues are very good; that does not mean that we should become door mats of other’s exploitation. If somebody is committing a mistake; if somebody is improperly behaving; it should not mean I should silently suffer and be a victim. I can certainly take appropriate action. I need not be taken for a ride in the name of being a Gita student.  Do not cheat and do not get cheated.

It does not mean I should impulsively react
and get angry. It is not necessary, we can study the situation and first, then
we can use non-violent methods of handling and later, even if we have to take
violent steps; by all means take violent steps. If that is the ultimate necessary
evil.

So not victimizing one’s self is called tejaha; because just as we should not hurt others, we should not hurt ourselves also. We have a duty to our own body; our own mind; it does not mean I should unnecessarily suffer; it does not mean I have to put up with non-sense. Need not. So, a no-nonsense attitude is tejaha.

Then the next virtue is Kshama. Kshama is otherwise called Shanti in the 13th Chapter and it is called titiksha in the 2nd chapter.

And this word Kshama has several meanings; one meaning is tolerance, which we saw before; Kshama is the benefit gained through tapas. While explaining Tapas I said, by practicing tapas, a person will get forbearance or tolerance. This is one meaning.

But, Shankaracharya gives another meaning for the word Kshama by contrasting it with the word akrodha.  Akrodha means capacity to handle anger. When the anger rises inside; before it is expressed outside, I allow that it to go through the filter of discrimination. Before expressing, if I can use my discrimination, discreet expression of anger; or discreet non-expression of anger; or discreet partial expression of anger; that is the management of anger. This was called akrodha in the second verse; Shankaracharya says kshama here means the mind becomes free from anger. Very tough; In the first stage, anger was allowed but it should be under your control; let it be but it should be within your control; but kshama means enjoying a mind in which anger does not rise at all. So non-arrival of anger is kshama; management of arrived-anger is akrodha. Is it possible for a person to avoid the rise of anger at all; looks it is almost impossible. In fact, even psychologists say anger is a healthy sign; healthy part of a regular mind; psychologists will not accept that; But Shankaracharya says it is possible. but he does not say how. We get a clue in the third chapter; we get the clue in the third chapter. There he defined anger is nothing but expectations converted to irritation; when it is obstructed; obstructed expectation gets converted to irritation. And since irritation is the converted form of expectation, if you have to handle irritation, you have to handle your expectation. Lesser the expectation, lesser the scope for anger; and even if expectations are unavoidable, try to make them into preferences.

And therefore, reduce the expectation and
whatever minimum you have, have non-binding expectation or we can call it preference.
That is the only way to avoid anger. There is no other remedy. Therefore, Kshama
is anger-lessness.

Dhrti means fortitude, perseverance, or will power
is called dhrti; the capacity to continue a sadhana in spite of obstacles, in
spite of hurdles, is called will power.

Sri Krishna will
talk about the importance of willpower in the 18th chapter; And there He will
talk about three types of willpower; satvic willpower; rajastic willpower and
tamasic willpower. I will not talk about it now; I hope you will have the
willpower to continue the classes until the 18Th. Therefore, dhrti; Dru means
holding on to. Dru, dharane; holding power; willpower.

Then the next
virtue is Shaucham. This also has come in the 13th chapter.

Shaucham is
cleanliness and orderliness. It should not stop with cleanliness only. We
should include orderliness, of the surroundings, from our street, visible from
the surroundings. We have the best teaching and least implementation; we have
got the best scriptures in the world; but we never implement. And the other countries;
they do not have such scriptures; and they seem to implement. We have the
enclosure for putting the rubbish; but it is put everywhere else, but in that particular
place. So, therefore, cleanliness of the surrounding; cleanliness of our dress;
cleanliness of the body. And above all, the toughest is the purity of the mind;

I have talked in
the 13th chapter, and therefore, I do not want to go to the details.

Then the next
virtue is Adroha; adroha is ahimsa at the mental level; not even desiring to
harm others; not even tending to harm others.  So, they will not even think himsa.

Shankaracharya says, not only you should not hit others, even raising the hand saying that I will hit, not doing that is adroha; not even intending to harm others is called adrohaha;

Then the next one
is natimanita. This is amanitvam of the 13th chapter.

Freedom from
pride, freedom from superiority complex, or positively put, humility; humbleness
is called natimanita. This is supposed to be a very important virtue for a spiritual
student. Because, a spiritual student has to do the namaskara to the guru.

If I have got
arrogance, namaskara is the most difficult thing. And that too, namaskara to another human being is very difficult; and if a person does
not have that humility; knowledge will not flow down; because if
something has to flow down; it has to be from higher level to lower level. If the
knowledge should come; I should bend humbly. And therefore, natimanita means Humility;

All these virtues will be present
in a person who has got daivi sampath; who is born with daivi sampathi. So, one
who is born with satva guna, or one who is a satvic person, he or she will have all these virtues and if these
virtues are not there from birth; we have to cultivate them. Most of us do not
have them. Therefore, in Vedanta, cultivating these virtues alone will take more time. Vedantic study really does not take
time; maximum time is in getting this daivi sampath;

Shloka 16.4:

16.4
O son of Prtha, (the attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature
are religious ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is
abhimanah, self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance.

So having talked about the daivi sampath, that is the virtues belonging to a spiritually oriented person. Now Sri Krishna wants to talk about asuri sampath; which is naturally there; in a materialistic person. As I said asuri sampath does not mean a person who has got the protruding teeth like a demon, it is means one with materialistic tendencies. And what are they? Sri Krishna is going to enumerate them in this verse, He presents them in a nutshell and later, from the seventh verse, He will elaborate the very same asuri sampath, till verse No.21.

What is materialism? We get a very beautiful
list. What are they?

Dambhaha means
pomp and show; exhibitionism of their wealth; their position; their status etc.
which is also called ostentation;

Then the next materialistic tendency is darpaha. Along with money and power, comes arrogance. Disrespecting people, disrespecting elderly people etc.,

Therefore, darpaha means arrogance.

Then abhimana; superiority complex, looking upon oneself as puja yogya. One who deserve honor, reverence etc.

The difference between darpah and abimana is; darpaha is externally expressed arrogance; manitvam is unexpressed internally thought. One is at bhavana level another is at the karma or action level;

Then krodha; krodha is
anger; because there is power; because there is position; and therefore, he
does not mind ill-treating anyone; krodha means anger; rudeness, harshness,
impoliteness; mannerlessness; all are called krodha.

Then Agyanam, means ignorance and here the
word ignorance means ignorance of Dharma Shastra.
We are not talking about spiritual ignorance; because we are not dealing with
philosophy in these two chapters. Chpaters 16 and 17 are dealing ethics and
morality; And therefore, the word ignorance here means ignorance of ethics,
ignorance of morals; dharmadharma
aviveka.

These are all naturally there in a person who
is born with rajasic and tamasic tendencies. Especially if he belongs to a rich
family, then he may not know what is humility, and that becomes a very big obstacle.

Take Away:

Anger is
nothing but expectations converted to irritation; when it is obstructed;
obstructed expectation gets converted to irritation. And since irritation is
the converted form of expectation, if you have to handle irritation, you have
to handle your expectation. Lesser the expectation, lesser the scope for anger;
and even if expectations are unavoidable, try to make them into preferences.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka # 16.1:

16.1 The Blessed Lord said Fearlessness,
purity of mind, persistence in knowledge and yoga, charity and control of the
external organs, sacrifice, (scriptural) study, austerity and rectitude;

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, as I said in the last class, Sri Krishna is dealing with the way of life that a spiritual seeker should lead, so that it is conducive to the reception of spiritual knowledge; as well as the assimilation of spiritual knowledge and this way of life, Sri Krishna calls Daiva marga. And this daiva marga, the spiritual path, the satvic path involves the observation of certain virtues in daily life, and Sri Krishna enumerates those virtues in these verses, which the Lord calls Daivi sampath. In the first three verses, we are getting the list of these virtues. We were seeing the first verse in the last class; abhayam, satvasamshuddhi, Gyanayogavyasthiti. Abhayam means spiritual courage; to cross all the hurdles which come in the way of my spiritual path; the inner courage, satvasamshuddhi is the purity of mind. Then Gyanayogavyasthiti, which means, Vedanta sravana manana nidhidhyasanam. Gyanam, means sravana, mananam, and yoga means nidhidhyasanam. So Gyana plus yoga is equal to sravana manana nidhidhyasanam, I have talked about this before, I hope you remember. And this one is the primary sadhana which should go along with the others, without Gyana yoga any amount of virtues will remain incomplete. Without morals, Gyana yoga is impossible, without Gyana yoga, a moral life is incomplete. It can never lead to liberation; therefore, they are complimentary; therefore, they should be given due importance.

Gyanayogavyasthiti; the word vyasthiti means
committed pursuit. It is nishta, it is a sincere and serious and pursuit
therefore he uses the word vyasthiti; commitment.

Danam:

Now we will go to the second line; danam or charity is another important virtue highlighted in the scriptures. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad enumerates the three virtues of Yajna, danam and tapas as the most important disciplines and Sri Krishna himself  highlights these three virtues again. So danam means charity and why do we say danam is a very important virtue and also a very difficult virtue; we can follow everything else but danam is difficult. Why do we consider this important?

Danam has significance from
different angles; the first benefit of danam is that
it serves as a remedy for a very serious mental problem called lobha. Lobha is a very serious mental problem; which is caused by
the sense of insecurity. One fundamental human problem is continuous sense of
insecurity.

This insecurity, continues all the time. And we do not know why the insecurity is caused; and the generally we have a misconception that this sense of insecurity will go away if we hold on to external possessions. We think that possessions are the only remedy for the problem of insecurity; even though there is no truth in that conclusion. Because there are people who have lot of possessions and continue to be insecure. And there are many people who do not have any possessions and they have full sense of security. From this it is very clear people with possessions continue to be insecure while people without possessions feel secure; from this it is very clear, that the possessions and the security have no connection; but even though this is the truth; we have got the strongest moha that the insecurity will go away as we increase our possession. And this sense of possession is so strong; and this alone is called lobha; and this lobha or sense of possession expresses in two-fold ways; one way is, it wants to grab more and more; get more, get more, get more.  The other expression is: whatever you get, you very carefully hold on to and never give away.

Therefore, get more and give less. This is lobha. In English we translate it as greed and
miserliness is equal to lobha and this greed miserliness problem, lobha, is because of the misconception
that the greater the possession, the greater the security.

And this lobha leads to several problems in life. The first problem is that a person wants to grab more and more; and therefore, unknowingly he begins to compromise with dharma; because beyond a limit; greed will force a person to cut corners to comprise with dharma. Thus, it will lead to adharma; it will lead to papam; it will lead to himsa; thus, lobha is a very serious mental problem. and not only this is the problem, this person with lobha begins to suspect every human being who comes near. Because we do not know whether he is coming for me for whether he is coming for my money. Whether he loves me or my money? Thus, the eye of suspicion will be there all around, even I look at my family members differently.

Thus, lobha is a serious problem and the only remedy for lobha is gradually developing the
sense of charity. Danam is the only remedy for lobha disease. And therefore, danam is important.

And the second significance is, if danam is not there in society, a person goes on amassing and accumulating without sharing, there will be a big disparity between the rich and the poor and when this gulf increases, then that society will have lot of problems like crime etc. Most of the crimes, economic crimes like kidnapping for ransom; murdering for gain, burglary, all these things will happen when there is a big gulf between the rich and the poor. And when we read such news items more and more in the newspapers, the rich person will feel, more and more insecure than secure. The irony is that he has got lot of money for security; the very same money has thus caused insecurity, because of the fear burglary, kidnapping and all those things. And therefore, a healthy social order requires people who are willing to able to share with one’s who need. Therefore, danam takes care of social order.

And the third significance of danam is that it is the only touchstone to find out whether
I have detachment or not. If I do not have detachment, danam will be the most painful affair; even though for
social purposes, I give, it will be with a lot of heart burn. If I have got
inner detachment, danam will be the happiest
discipline or sadhana that I practice. Therefore, danam becomes a test for my detachment. And therefore, danam is significant.

And fourthly, danam is considered a very important prayascitha karma. We all have acquired lot of papams; durithams; for which we have to do prayaschittams and varieties of prayaschittams are mentioned in our Shastra; and one of the prayaschittam karma is danam and that is why at the time of death; or immediately after death; varieties of danam are given. In fact, we are supposed to do that before we die; but we will not have that mind; we will rather lose our life rather than loosen the purse. So, Danam is a very important prayaschitta karma. This is the fourth significance;

And fifthly and finally, danam is a beautiful sadhana, which makes our death peaceful; because death is an
event in which everything that I have carefully earned will be taken away from
me. Whether it is house or bank balance; anything I have earned, everything
including my physical body; after death, I cannot even own my physical body;
everything I have to give back to the World, God or Lord, as you look at. This
release of all my possessions should be comfortable to me, I should have practiced
danam in my earlier days; and if I have enjoyed danam in my life; I will look upon death also as a form
of danam.

Till now, I held on to every possession and then
Yamadharmaraja snatches them away and I die painfully.

Death will be peaceful for a person who has learned to enjoy giving away.  Therefore, danam is a very, very significant spiritual sadhana. Initially at least we should give away what we do not want.

They say, among a hundred persons there will be one Suraha, courageous person; there will
be one scholar at least among one thousand people, among one lakh people, at
least you can find one good teacher. Even though they are rare, a real giver is
very difficult to find. It is difficult, but we have to practice as I said,
start giving what you do not want; and thereafter we can find whether we can
give even those things that we want. If it is useful for somebody else more.
Therefore, Sri Krishna says, danam.

Damaha:

Damaha means indriya nigrahaha or sense control. Sense control does not mean
suppression of sense organs; we never encourage suppression, because any form
of suppression is an oppression. It will lead to depression, we never encourage.
By damaha, what we mean is voluntarily directing the sense
organs which is born out of my conviction. I decide what is good for me for my
spiritual growth and I decide what is not good for me; and with conviction, I
myself turn away the sense organs. It is called mastery over the sense organs.
But when I turn the sense organs away; because of somebody else’s enforcement.
then it is called suppression.

The difference between suppression and mastery is, when I do it for another’s sake, it is suppression, when I do it out of my own conviction, it is never a suppression; It is called indriya jayaha. It is victory. Suppression will lead to mental health problems; mastery will lead to mental growth. Therefore, damaha is mastery of the sense organs.

Yagnaha:

Then the next virtue is yagnaha. Yagnaha literally means worship of the Lord. Yaj means to worship; yagnaha means the practice of worship and our scriptures talk about two forms of worship; one is the regular ceremonial worship, in the form of puja and homas or puja in the temple etc. which is the regular ceremonial ritualistic formal worship. And there is a second form of worship which is conversion of all our activities themselves into a form of worship. As the well-known saying goes; work itself is a worship and this conversion is brought about by a change of attitude which is called karma yoga attitude; I look upon every karma as an offering to the Lord and therefore I cheerfully do all the karmas; Enthusiastically wholeheartedly, sincerely, cheerfully, I do, whether it is mundane action or the most important action. And that is called Ishvara arpana bhavana and more importantly Iprepare my mind to face any consequences that will come out of my action. This is called prasadabhavana; Ishvara arpana bhavana with regard to karma; prasada bhavana with regard to karma phalam will convert every karma into a yagna.

And therefore, formal external puja is a must and in addition to that, we also require second type of puja, of converting every action into worship. Karma yoga rupa puja; and in this yagna itself, in the third chapter, I talked about pancha maha yagna.

Svadhyaya:

svadhyaya means scriptural study. So, this is waning from our society; previously these things were there; but slowly we are forgetting that; this was called in the third chapter, we named it Brahma yagna. All part of the Hindu society; it was all part of vedic karma. So therefore, scriptural study is called svadhyayaha. This study is two-fold, one is called parayarana. Parayarana means recitation, which is considered to be a beautiful kavacham against any type of evils, including materialism. In fact, whether ghosts are there or not, I consider the most powerful ghost is materialism. It is catching up fast with our society and our culture is eroding; Everybody may not or need not know sandyavandanam; some prayer chanting is a must. It is called shabda avriti. And there is another type of svadhyayaha; which is artha avriti; dwelling upon the meanings of the scriptures. So, first one is shabda pradhana, the second one is artha pradhana, the first one is simple recitation, even without knowing the meaning, the recitation will bless the home; This is svadhyaya.

Arjavam:

Then the next virtue is Arjavam. Arjavam means integrity. Uprightness, enjoying a harmonious personality; we have talked about five layers of personality in Tatva bodha; annamaya, the physical body; pranamaya, the pranic personality; manomaya, the emotional personality; vignana maya, the rational or intellectual personality; all the different layers of my personality, which is normally expressed as the thought, the word and the deed; all of them should be harmonious. So harmonization, integration, concordance of all my personality is called Arjavam; all my personalities are in one line. I do not have a crooked personality; There is no hypocrisy. A hypocritic person says one thing but does something else. They lead a very stressful life. Hence Arjvam is essential.

Shloka # 16.2:

16.2
Non-injury, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, control of the
internal organ, absence of vilification, kindness to creatures,
non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, freedom from restlessness;

Ahimsa:

The next virtue is Ahimsa. This also I have talked about elaborately in the thirteenth chapter; therefore, I do not want to go to the details and we also know its importance. ahimsa is avoidance of non-violence at the kayika, vachika and manasa level. And the simple rule is what I give to the world, that alone I will get back ultimately. So therefore, it is like throwing a ball against a wall; when I throw the ball, it hits the wall and comes back to me only. And the force of the ball will be directly proportional to the force with which I throw. And therefore, we should remember that the ultimate truth is what I get will be what I give. From the bank what I can take is what I have deposited in the bank. If I deposit violence in the bank called the world, it will come back to me alone, if not now, later. And therefore, for my own peace of mind, I have to avoid himsa. Of course, we never say that ahimsa is absolute.

There may be occasions when himsa becomes a necessary evil. And the best example is the Bhagavad Gita itself.

In several places, Sri Krishna talks of Ahimsa, then he asks Arjuna to fight as well. Is Sri Krishna contradicting himself? Here we should remember, ahimsa is a general value, but every value has an exception, including ahimsa, as there are cases when nonviolent methods miserably fail. And when non-violent methods fail, and for the protection of dharma, the only available means is himsa; then there is nothing wrong in taking. In fact, Sri Krishna goes one step further and says: This dharma yuddha will not give you papam, on the other hand, it will give you punyam. And therefore, we should not blindly talk about ahimsa.

Misplaced ahimsa will have very, very negative consequences. Imagine a doctor who does not want to treat the patient, because it is painful. A Doctor has to do that; and therefore, judicious ahimsa is a value.

Satyam:

Then the next value is Satyam. Satyam means truthfulness; or more correctly, avoidance of untruth. Because if speaking the truth is going to hurt a person; then we have to follow the value of ahimsa and avoid speaking the truth; but that does not mean that we should speak untruth; avoid speaking untruth. So therefore, Satyam is equal to asatyavarjanam.

And suppose you have to tell the truth to correct a person, and telling the truth is going to be painful; what to do? We have to tell the truth for correcting the truth; it may hurt; may be your own child, may be your own family members. And what is the method; speak some other pleasant truth; there are unpleasant truths; but there are so many pleasant truths; therefore, talk about the pleasant truth predominantly and when the person’s mind is well-cushioned, speak the unpleasant truth; do not dwell upon the unpleasant truth. Speak more of pleasant truth; dwell upon pleasant truth; Therefore Satyam.

Akrodhaha:

Then the next one is Akrodhaha; akrodhaḥ means learning to handle the problems of anger. Anger is a very powerful emotion; which can hurt the angry person, and which can hurt the people who are around the angry person. And therefore, one has to necessarily learn to handle anger. How to do that? Several methods are there; one of the methods is understanding anger as a form of emotional pain. Understanding anger as a form of expression of mental pain or emotional pain; because anger is the name of a mental condition. Anger is an emotion belonging to the mind; shouting cannot be called anger; Shouting is a consequence of anger. Hitting is not anger; it is a consequence of anger; anger has nothing to do with the body. Others know only the expressions of anger; anger is purely a mental condition; which is a form of pain. And this mental pain is very similar to physical pain. If you understand the role of physical pain, we can understand the role of mental pain or anger.

Any pain indicates that things are not functioning properly; therefore, it is red light.  And therefore, management of anger is understanding anger as an internal signal. I should intelligently use it to find out a remedy to the cause of that anger; This is called akrodha; so, management of anger.

Tyaga:

Then the next one is Tyaga that means sanyasa or renunciation. The moment we say renunciation, everybody gets jittery. So the renunciation is two-fold, one is the external renunciation; such as taking taking to a monastic lifestyle; Monasticism is one meaning of tyaga.

And there is another meaning for the word tyaga; which is not external renunciation, but inner renunciation called detachment; so vairagyam or detachment is called tyaga. And what is detachment; it is an appropriate attitude towards my possessions. A right attitude. What is the right attitude towards the possession? It is the understanding that I really do not possess anything; I really do not possess anything; everything belongs to the Lord and Lord alone; and God out of his infinite kindness, has provided me with certain possessions for my use; and growing spiritually; and I am supposed to use them and grow; and it has to go back to the Lord  alone; I can never hold on to anything; including my own body. So, everything belongs to the God; and God can choose to take back anything as he wants.

And if God chooses to take away anything
from me, I will voluntarily return it to the Lord, with a note of thanks.  This attitude is called tyaga.

So, therefore, this readiness to lose anything
is called renunciation.

Shanti:

Shanti is next virtue.; Shanti means equanimity
of mind. Freedom from violent emotional disturbances. Balance of mind is called
Shanti.

Take Away:

Ahimsa is avoidance of non-violence at the kayika, vachika and manasa level. And the simple rule is what I give to the world, that alone I will get back ultimately. So therefore, it is like throwing a ball against a wall; when I throw the ball, it hits the wall and comes back to me only. And the force of the ball will be directly proportional to the force with which I throw. And therefore, we should remember that the ultimate truth is what I get will be what I give.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

CHAPTER – 16: Yoga
of division of attributes, divine and demoniac.

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, having completed the 15th chapter, now we will enter into the 16th chapter of the Gita. The two chapters 16th and 17th have a subject matter, which is different from the main subject matter of the previous three chapters, 13th, 14th, and 15^th respectively.

There
is a shift in Sri Krishna’s teaching. And this shift in the subject matter is based
on a very important principle and that principle is that the goal of life of a
person; a person’s goal of life and a person’s way of life, both of them are
closely related. The way of life and the goal of life; when I say goal, the
primary top most goal of life, these two are closely connected; each one will
influence the other; the goal of life
will influence my way of life, and my way of life in turn will influence my
goal of life also. Therefore, these two things cannot be separated and
therefore, if a person wants to successfully accomplish his goal of life, he
has to take into account his very way of life also. One cannot ignore the way
of life, and fix the goal of life alone. One should pay attention to the way of
life, and ensure, that there is alignment between the way and the goal.

The way of life should be conducive to the accomplishment of the goal. This our scriptures consider as very important. You cannot hope to lead any way of life, and yet hope to accomplish goal of Life. Just as the environment and the type of plant, both are interconnected. You cannot grow any type of plant in any type of atmosphere. It is impossible; both are interconnected.

And therefore, the Veda purva bhaga, the beginning portion of the Vedas concentrate upon the way of life while the final portion of the Veda, the Vedanta concentrates on the goal of life. Indian culture can never be understood without keeping Vedanta in mind. And, therefore, Sri Krishna feels that he has talked about the spiritual goal of life; He has talked about the self-knowledge as the goal of life, in the 13th, 14th and 15th chapters, and now he feels that His teaching is complete only when He talks about the complimentary part; viz., the way of life, which is conducive and which will promote the goal that He has presented in the previous chapters. Therefore, previous three chapters deal with the goal, these two chapters, 16th and the 17th deal with the way of life, because they cannot be separated.

And the way of life, a person leads is heavily determined by the character that a person possesses. The way of life is heavily influenced by, determined by, controlled by, directed by, the character, the personality, the make-up of an individual.

Therefore character determines the way of life, and the way of life will determine the goal of life. Therefore all these three are inter-connected; Character, Way and Goal. And trying to tamper one alone, without taking into account the other two, will be a lopsided approach, which will not be successful. All the three, we should take into account. And based on this, our scriptures divide the character of the human being. Our scriptures have made a thorough study of the possible human characters; because character will determine life, which will in turn, determine the goal.

And this human character is divided into several types in different contexts; sometimes they classify into four types; sometimes they classify into three types; sometimes they classify into two types; different classifications are there, depending upon the context. And for our study, we will see the three-fold classification of human character. The three-fold classification of human character is:

The first classification is called dvesha pradhana svabhava, a character in which lot of dvesha or dislike is predominant. We do not know why; it may be because of purva janma; it may be because of present janma; it may be because of the childhood experiences; it may be because of the parental upbringing; it may be because of the friendship; whatever be the cause, that we do not study now, one type of character is dominantly dvesha pradhana; a character in which I dislike most of the things. I have complaint almost against everything, almost a cynical character. I have complaints against the government system; complaint against family members; complaint against television; and complaint against God as well.

And this dvesha pradhana character, as he accumulates this dvesha, because one is not able to express outside, because of suppression, parental suppression where child was asked to shut up often; the child has lot of complaints but could not express. And this accumulated dvesha leads to lot of anger suppressed inside; anger against everything. So dvesha pradhana character is generally krodha pradhana character and this leads to himsa pradhana character; a person who is highly short tempered, highly volatile. Even the smallest incidents will cause an earthquake or volcano. The shastra class it rakshasa svabhava. Why does the shastra call this rakshasa svabhava? Because when a person is so volatile and short tempered, about to explode all the time, what will be the attitude of other people? Do the other people love to come near him; or will they try to run away from him? Try to avoid him at all cost. Swamiji says that in some houses, when the father comes from office, all the children say: appa has come, let us go inside; as though volcano is coming; In some cases, it may be an amma as well. So therefore, rakshasa svabhava is that svabhava from which people want to protect themselves; hence called rakshasa. It is derived from raksha to protect; a svabhava, from which people would love to run away. This is called dvesha pradhana svabhava.

It
is generally, insensitive to others’ feelings. Generally, rude and gross minded
and generally goes on hurting people, often without awareness about it.

This
character is not conducive to spiritual growth and still worse; this character
brings a person down spiritually. It leads to spiritual regression. Not
progression.

Then comes the second character is Raga pradhana svabhava. An svabhava, which is heavily raga-oriented; attachment oriented; which leads to lot of kama; lot of desires; what type of desire? Desire for name, fame, money, possession, position, revelry and merry making. Life is meant for enjoyment and therefore, they have no goal. It is a let go philosophy. They do not harm others; but they like raga and kama and this svabhava are also supposed to be unconducive to spiritual progress, because a person does not have time or inclination to turn inwards. Raga pradhana svabhava is an extrovert; all the time bothered about these few little things like my status, etc.

And this svabhava does not lead to spiritual downfall, because this person does not harm others. But this person or character will lead to spiritual stagnation. There is no downfall; but there is no scope for spiritual growth because generally, these people do not consider religion and spirituality is relevant for life. They wonder for earning money and enjoying life why do we require God. One lady was telling that she wanted to bring her husband also to Gita classes. And that person argued it seems: Religion is meant for the weak minded and sick minded people; I am healthy and fine; I do not have any problem at all; why are you unnecessarily introducing me to all these things? Most of these people, belonging to the second variety, they are harmless, even well behaved, and good mannered but they tend to be nasthikas. They consider religion is not required; Vedanta is not required to lead a comfortable and happy life. In fact, they may even go one step further and say religion is a problem.  According to them, religion and spirituality contributes to only problems in society. In fact, they feel if they are banned or abolished; it is better. This is the second variety. They are Materialistic people, in simple language. They won’t negate God often; but they feel God is not relevant to our life. Spirituality is not relevant, scriptures are not relevant; it does not appeal to them. And in fact, most of our youngsters are tending to this alone.

There was an article, somebody gave me, in Indian Express it seems, whether it was fact or fiction, I do not know. A couple had visited a family and it is in connection with some marriage proposal and after the visit, the couple had gone, this girl says, I do not want to get married to this family at all. Why; because they are all Talibans, Afghan Muslim fundamentalists. This girl’s parents were shocked; why are you calling them Talibans? The reason is that both the parents have come with lot of religious marks on their forehead. Our children do not believe in it. They think that it is religious fanaticism. And that girl argued that because of these clear cut religious marks alone, we are dividing the society as Hindus, Christians, Muslims and it is only causing, division, disparity and quarrel, therefore why do we require it. Simple application of the vibhuthi or kumkum, the younger generation looks upon as religious fundamentalism. It may be a fiction, but what I want to say is the tendency of the next generation. This is raga pradhana svabhava and they are not bad or evil or immoral. They are wonderful children; thinking children, but they end up as materialistic people; totally away from our culture, which is a non-materialistic culture. This is the second group of people and Sri Krishna calls them asura svabhava. Asura does not mean people with tusks and horns, and all; it is derived from asusu ramante iti asuraha. asusu means the sense organs. Ramante means revellery. Asurah means a person or a society or a group, which values sensory revelry; noise making, merry making alone. So this is asura svabhava. These people will not fall down in spirituality; but there is no scope for spiritual growth. Therefore the second character leads to spiritual stagnation while first one that leads to spiritual regression or downfall.

Then
comes the third character, which is Gyana pradhana. Which considers spiritual knowledge
as the goal. That is why a child is initiated into Sandhya vandhana mantras, for
knowledge. And knowledge, especially the spiritual knowledge, is symbolized, as
lamp in our culture and therefore lighting the lamp is the first thing that we
do, whatever be the undertaking. Early morning starts with lighting the lamp.
Any function starts with lighting the lamp; even the so-called secular
functions such as Film festivals. They show all violence, but the cinema actors
come nicely dressed, showing all the 32 teeth’s and they light the lamp,
because even when India turns materialistic, spirituality cannot be taken away
from India. Therefore, Gyana pradhana, those who consider that Gyanam is the top priority and
whatever is required for that Gyanam that also is top priority. Not that they
dislike money or name or fame; it is not they are against them, but they never
think of that; at the cost of spiritual growth. Keeping in mind the spiritual
growth, whatever can be accomplished, whatever entertainment is there; or
music, dance; the whole family can watch the dance, because the theme is
Krishna, Bhagavatham, Ramayanam; and the
Jivatma, pining for Paramatma;
that is our dance theme, and the lyrics also written by saints and sages. There
is a scope for all, but it is in keeping with spirituality, similarly, in
dance. There is program called deepa pradakshinam as is Radha Kalyanam. Alternatively
Overnight pubs are also coming up.

In
our culture we have dancing and singing all centered on spirituality. It is Gyana
pradhana way of life;
that is the third svabhava;
and Sri Krishna calls them daiva svabhava.

Daiva svabhava: means it stands for knowledge, wisdom and brightness.

So, these are the three svabhavas; deva or daiva; asura; and rakshasa svabhava. All these three characters are compared to a wealth that a person possesses. All these three people possess their own wealth, in the form of these characters. And these characters are compared to wealth because with that character, they can buy; they can accomplish their goals. How? Character decides the way of life. Way of life, decides the goal; therefore character purchases your goal. And therefore it is called sampath.

Therefore in the 16th chapter, Krishna wants to talk about daivi
sampath; otherwise called daiva svabhava; which is the inner
wealth of character; which will accomplish a particular type of goal; then, asuri
sampath or asura svabhava, the 2nd type of inner wealth or character,
which will purchase another type of goal. And the third one is rakshasi
sampathi.

And having presented the three characters or inner wealths, Sri Krishna
wants to say:

O Arjuna, if your goal is spiritual knowledge, or moksha,
the only conducive way is daiva svabhava. If you do not value,
spiritual knowledge, I have nothing more to tell.

But Sri Krishna says if you value spiritual knowledge, if you value
Moksha
then the way of life, which is in alignment, which is conducive to it is daiva
svabhava. Therefore you have to take into account, your way of life,
every small or big thing that you do, right from the food that you eat, right
from the entertainment that you have, right from the type of magazine that you
read, right from the TV programs that you watch, right from the type of the
friends you move with, right from the type of the way you spend your leisure
time. Every minute thing contributes to the way of life, which is in the
long-term going to determine the goal; whether you reach it or not.

And therefore Arjuna! I have talked about the goal;

I have talked about the Veda anta bhaga;
better let Me talk about the Veda purva
bhaga
also, because Veda purva and Veda anta are inseparably
interconnected and therefore the 16th and 17th chapters deal with the way of
life conducive to this spiritual goal. And the subject matter is picked from
the Veda purva bhaga. The previous three
chapters are about Veda anta bhaga. These two chapters are
about Veda purva bhaga. With this background, we will enter into the
chapter.

Shloka
# 16.1:

16.1 The Blessed Lord said Fearlessness,
purity of mind, persistence in knowledge and yoga, charity and control of the
external organs, sacrifice, (scriptural) study, austerity and recititude;

Sri Krishna begins the teaching, even without Arjuna’s asking for
it, because he feels that this teaching is complete only when he talks about
this topic.

Atma Gyanam can work only when a particular way of life is adhered to. That is why culture becomes very important. And in the olden days, when they glorified our culture, and banned our people from mixing with other cultures, it is not because, we look down upon other cultures, every culture is beautiful, but we had values, because this culture is designed for a particular goal. Others are designed for their particular other goals. There is no inferior or superior culture; but what you want in your life, and therefore Sri Krishna feels the teaching is complete, only when the way of life is also prescribed. Therefore in these three verses, he gives a list of virtues or traits, that are conducive to Vedantic study, initially, and later conducive to Vedantic assimilation. Both are equally important; reception of knowledge is important; assimilation of knowledge is equally important, only after reception and assimilation, transformation can take place. And therefore he gives a list of virtues called daivi sampath. And they are not new; Sri Krishna has talked about them, in the thirteenth chapter; from verse No.8 to 12th.

In
the four or five verses, Sri Krishna even gave a name to those virtues, the
name of Gyanam.

So
the lists of virtues are as follows. The first virtue that Sri Krishna emphasizes
is said abhayam. Abhayam means courage. Self-confidence. Faith in myself; faith
in God is important; faith in Guru is important, faith in the scriptures is
important, but above all, faith in myself that I can follow and accomplish. This self-confidence is important because
spiritual life is an adventure. It is a greater adventure than reaching
Everest, than going to Artic circle or Antartic circle. So many adventuresare there; but this is the greatest
adventure; the most challenging adventure. Andtherefore, it requires tremendous inner courage or inner strength.
Mundaka Upanishad says:

A man who does not have the inner courage cannot succeed in spirituality, and therefore it is an adventure or challenge. And a person can continue with perseverance only when he appreciates its value, which is not that easy. Value of money you can easily appreciate. Even a child knows that. Value of position everybody knows. Value of possessions everybody knows. Value of power, everybody knows.

If
I have to perseveringly continue I should know the worth of spiritual goal. And
since this requires lot of inner maturity, it is a very rarely understood thing.
Most of the people do not know its value; therefore most of the people will not
vote for this; Sri Krishna said in the 7th chapter that we are in the minority.
Spiritual seekers all are always in minority, and therefore the spiritual
journey is often a lonely journey. Therefore it requires tremendous courage to
continue.

Therefore,
Abhayam, means self-confidence, courage to continue in spite of obstacles and
in spite of being in a minority. How to get Abhayam? One is, once I have a
value for the goal, I would not mind the obstacles. So the size of the obstacle will depend upon the value for the goal
that you have. If the value is lukewarm, the obstacles appear bigger, and if the value is intense, the obstacles
will appear smaller. Obstacles do not have a size of its own; the size and the
weight are determined by your subjective projections. There are people who go
to Everest while there are people who hesitate even to walk to the bus stand if
there is a little rain.

Therefore
one method of discovering courage is learning to appreciate the value of the
goal.

Courage
will come from somewhere. The second is of course, surrender to the Lord; seeking
strength from the Lord.

Imagine
a person who becomes a sanyasi,
without having any security around him. It is surrender to Lord that gave him
courage. And therefore through Bhakthi and Viveka one has to discover abhayam,
fearlessness.

The next virtue is satvasamshuddhi. Purity of mind, Satva here means antakaranam, samshuddhi means purity. And what do you mean by purity; these are types of thoughts that keep the mind healthy. Those which are not toxic to the mind or mental health; just as for the physical body, we have got items which are conducive to health and which are not conducive.

For the mind, the toxic ones are, certain patterns of thinking; certain types of thoughts like jealousy; hatred, fear; These are all toxic thoughts, which if they remain in the mind for longer time, they will cause erosion and make the mind weaker. And therefore satvasamshuddhi means maintenance of healthy thoughts.

Then
the next virtue is Gyanayogavyasthiti.
In and through all this way of life, you should not forget what is the goal or
purpose for which this way of life I am following that is spiritual knowledge.
And knowledge never happens naturally; knowledge never happens naturally. Many
other things happen in time, you need not work for it; wrinkles, you did not
work; just survive; wrinkles will come; grey hair; you need not work, it will
come; Tooth loss, you do not require a sadhana;
it will come. Many things will happen in time; knowledge is one thing, which can never naturally happen; any
knowledge including physics knowledge does not happen in time it is a separate
pursuit you should undertake; you require a physics guru, a physics book and
you have to study and only then physics knowledge comes.

 The word bhododayam
should not be misunderstood; Buddha got bhododayam,
Buddha got enlightenment under bodhi tree and many people sincerely believe that knowledge
happens; either a leaf might fall, or a fruit might fall, knowledge will not
fall or descend down, you have to work and work hard.

Therefore
Sri Krishna says: committed pursuit of Gyana yoga, which means sravanam, which is
consistent and systematic study of the Vedantic
scriptures for a length of time, under the guidance of a competent teacher.
Therefore, sravanam, then
mananam, reflecting over that and understanding and removing doubts and nidhidyasanam,
internalizing to such an extent that between my life and my knowledge, there is
no disparity; what I know and what I am, there is no disparity.

Vyavasthithi
means commitment to Gyana yoga.

Take Away:

The
goal of life (Vedanta) will influence my way of life (Veda purva), and my way
of life in turn will influence my goal of life also.

Abhayam:Self-confidence is important because
spiritual life is an adventure. It is a greater adventure than reaching
Everest, than going to Artic circle or Antartic circle.

Vedantic
knowledge is one thing, which can never naturally happen. One has to work at
it.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Continuing his teachings
Swamiji said, today
I will give you a summary of the fifteenth chapter of the Gita, which we completed in the last class. The 15th chapter, titled Purushottama yoga, is a very popular chapter. Many people learn it by-heart, because in
many places, people have to chant
it compulsorily to get food!! Therefore, many people learn it by-heart and some people learn it because it is one of the shortest
chapters, and therefore useful for regular parayanam and some
people learn it because it is one of the most significant and complete chapters
of the Bhagavat Gita. This contains
all the important features of the Upanishads. The essence
of Upanishads is contained in this chapter and therefore this is a very significant
chapter. And for the convenience of
our summarization, I will divide the chapter into five portions and then
summarize each portion.


The
first topic is samsara
varnanam, the
description of samsara
or transmigration.


The
second topic is moksha sadhanani, the
spiritual disciplines leading to liberation.


The
third topic is Brahman sarvamatkatvam,
Brahman being in the form of everything, Brahman as everything.


Then
the fourth topic is Brahmanaha purushottamatvam,
Brahman being purushottama,


And
then the fifth and final topic is Brahma Gyana phalam; the knowledge of such a
Brahman and the benefit of such knowledge.

These
are the five topics of this chapter. We will take one by one and summarize each.

1. Samsara varnanam.

The
first topic is samsara
varnanam, which we
get in the first 2-1/2 verses. In this, Sri Krishna compares the whole universe
to a huge Ashvatta tree, a
huge fig tree or peepal tree, because of the several common features between
the tree and the universe. And Sri Krishna himself mentions several common
features between the tree and the whole universe; but I do not want to go to into
those details. I have enumerated several common features. And among several
common features, there is one significant feature, we have to note and
remember. And Sri Krishna has not mentioned that feature in the 15th chapter
but we have to borrow that from the Upanishads, because this comparison is not Sri
Krishna’s own invention but it is borrowed from two Upanishads. One is Kathopanishad and other is
Mundako Upanishad where this comparison is elaborately given.

There
is a Kathopanishad mantra, from
which Sri Krishna has borrowed this imagery.

Also
the same comparison comes in Mundaka Upanishad as well.

In Kathopanishad, the tree is called Ashvatta vrksha, and in Mundakopanishad, it is called pippalam; Ashvatta and pippalam means the same. In the Mundakopanishad, all the living beings are compared to the birds, which are seated or perched on the samsara tree. If the whole universe is comparable to a tree, all the living beings are comparable to the birds, which are seated on different branches of the tree, higher, lower and middle branches. And not only we are the birds seated on the samsara tree, we are constantly consuming the fruits which comes in the samsara vrksha and therefore the jiva bird is eating the fruit which comes in the samsara tree. And those fruits produced by the samsara tree, are of two types, and one is called sukha phalam and another is called dukha phalam, the fruit of pleasure and the fruit of pain. One is tasty fruit; another is a bitter fruit. And therefore through this imagery, Sri Krishna points out that the universe is going to constantly give us pleasures and pain. Even as the tree produces tasty and bitter fruits, the world will constantly produce pleasures and pains and as birds, we the jivas, will also have to constantly experience pleasure and pain. Which means nobody can uniformly expect pleasures, nobody need worry about uniform pain as well; life will give you a mixture of pleasure and pain. And therefore pleasures and pains are like the two sides of one coin; you can never have one alone; just as a one-sided coin is impossible; mere pleasures also are impossible; mere pain also does not exist.

And
therefore in life, we have only two options.

Welcome the pleasures and be ready to consume the attendant pains as well, are first option.

And
the second option is to reject all the pains but along with the pains, you have
reject or forego the worldly pleasures as well. Either accept both or reject
both.

The
idea of welcoming one alone and giving up the other is simply is not
impossible.

So
accept both or reject both.

But
the problem is if we have to accept both or reject both options it requires tremendous
mental strength.

Because
when you are accepting both, you should have the mental strength to withstand
the pain. When you reject both; you should have the mental strength to give up
the worldly pleasures. Both require mental strength.

And the problem of human being is, he is weak in his mind. The problem is not with the world; the problem of the human being is, he is weak in mind and therefore neither is he able to accept both nor is he able to reject both. Sometimes he feels like accepting everything, so that he can enjoy a wonderful life; and when the pains also come, then he says, Swamiji, I want to run, leaving everything. When he runs away to a quiet place, he cannot stay there for more than a week. That then becomes a miserable life; then he feels coming to the city and living with everything is wonderful. When in Chennai, Rishikesh seems to be wonderful and while in Rishikesh, Chennai seems to be wonderful. Problem is neither with Rishikesh nor with Chennai, the problem is inside us.

And
therefore samsara is because
of the mental weakness of the human being, because of which he is neither able
to accept both pleasures and pain, nor is he able to renounce both pleasure and
pain. Neither he is able to take to grihastha ashrama nor is he able to take to sanyasa ashrama. In
Grihasthshrama, sanyasa ashrama seems better,
and in sanyasa ashrama, grihastha
ashrama seems the
best.

The problem is not with the ashrama; the problem is inside us. And therefore the solution is not changing the world, because the nature of the world is that it is a mixture of pleasure and pain. Therefore the solution is removing the weakness from the mind by gathering and collecting inner strength. Once I gather inner strength; I canchoose any of the option; I will have the strength to give up both; or I will have the strength to accept both; I will be able to remain in Grihastha ashrama or I will be able to remain in Sanyasa  ashrama; I will be able to remain in an active life or I will be able to remain in a secluded life. So secluded life is also not better; active life is also not better; problem is neither with activity nor with seclusion; the problem is with the mind; and therefore freedom from samsara is freedom from mental weakness. Therefore moksha is transformation of the mind. Mind alone is the cause of bondage; mind alone is the cause of liberation.

The weak mind
is the cause of bondage; strong mind is the cause of liberation. So this idea
is indirectly conveyed through samsara varnanam,
in the first two and half verses of this chapter.

2. Moksha sadhanani.

Then
comes the second topic from the second half of the third verse up to the 6^th
verse. Verse No.3 to verse No.6, is the next topic. How do you make the mind strong?
What is the method of strengthening the mind, so that I can be in grihastha ashrama and enjoy
the pleasures of the family members and also the problems caused by
relationship. Every relationship has two sides. Either I can give up all relationships
and take sanyasa or enjoy all
relationships. Sri Krishna prescribes four fold disciplines to strengthen the mind.
Four sadhanas are
mentioned: They are:

1.Vairagyam.

2.
Sadgunaha;

3.
Sharanaagathihi and

4.
Atma vichara or Shastra vichara

What
do you mean by vairagyam?
Vairagyam is freedom from addiction. Freedom from addiction to tamasic
and rajasic pursuits of life. What do you mean by tamasic pursuits? Any
adharmic activity, unrighteous activity, improper activity, unethical activity or
pursuit is called tamasic pursuit; I have to give up all such addictions and
pursuits of improper nature. That is de-addiction No.1.

And the second de-addiction is from rajasic pursuits. And that is dharmic materialistic activities are called rajasic pursuits. I take to dharmic activities only but they are all materialistic in nature. They are called rajasic pursuit. The tamasic addiction will lead to spiritual downfall, rajasic addiction will lead to spiritual stagnation.

And therefore
reduction of the adharmic activities and the reduction of dharmic materialistic
activities is called vairagyam.

And how do you remove those two addictions; or at least reduce those two addictions. The method is forming a new addiction. You have to remove one thorn using another thorn.

Remove
addiction with addiction. Tamasic and
rajasic tendencies are balanced, or reduced by forming satvic
addictions; like attending Gita class; I have to make sure that you keep coming. So, therefore, satvic addiction
or good addiction will reduce tamasic and rajasic addiction.

Then
you will ask Swamiji how to handle satvic addiction. Let satvic addiction come first; why are you
bothered about handling that now; we will see that when we face that problem.
We do have methods of handling satvic addictions also later and therefore, satsanga as well as Shastric study,
etc. are satvic addictions,
which will promote vairagyam.
Satsangatve, nissangatvam. This is Vairagyam.

The
second sadhana is sadgunaha. Developing vedanta friendly
virtues. Developing virtues, which are conducive to Vedanta, conducive to
spiritual growth. We have already seen a big list in the 13th chapter, from the
8th verse up to the 12th verse, Amanitvam, adambitvam,
etc. Sri Krishna reminds us of them in this chapter.

Thus
develop healthy virtues. Thus developing moral values is the second spiritual
discipline.

Then
the third one is sharanagathi. What is sharanagathi? It is a
very important spiritual discipline. It is developing a particular attitude in
life.

What
is that attitude? Whatever choiceless situations, I face in life; whatever
helpless, choiceless situations I face in life, they are all specially sent by
the Lord for me, for the sake of my spiritual refinement and growth. It is a very
difficult attitude but we have to cultivate it. It will not come easily. You
will only get angry with God whenever a choiceless situation comes, especially
unfavourable choiceless situation. When any unfavourable choiceless situation comes, I cannot change the situation.  Swamiji how to change the choiceless
situation? I have said that it is choiceless; since choiceless situations cannot be changed; work on changing your
attitude. Intelligence is working to change what can be changed.

Therefore in all choiceless and unfavourable situations, I have to work on ‘my mind’, because I can work only on my mind only. And what is the direction of the work? Changing the attitude. And what is the attitude? I require that situation for my improvement and the Lord has specially designed it and he has sent it to me. This is a very, very, difficult attitude. If you can develop that attitude, it is called sharanagathihi. This is the third sadhana.

And sharanagathi includes, seeking Lord’s help for the spiritual
growth, so that I will convert the choiceless situations into a spiritual
ladder. Seeking Lord’s help so that I
will convert choiceless situations into a spirtual ladder or stepping-stone.
This is called sharanagathi.
Vairagyam, sharanagathi and
sadguna are all over.

Then the fourth one is shastra vichara or study of Vedantic scriptures for a length of time under the guidance of a competent acharya or guru. All these four will cumulatively contribute to the reinforcement of the strengthening of the mind, which will lead to moksha. Moksha means freedom from mental weakness.

Arjuna, the bravest warrior, was tormented by mental pain when a
crisis arose. And how does this work with the four-fold sadhana’s?  That also Sri Krishna says the four-fold sadhana’s will
lead you to Brahma prapthihi. It will take you to Brahman, which is the only
source of strength in the creation. It will lead you to Brahman, which is the
only source of strength in this universe.

And of course you should make a note, when we say that it will lead you to Brahman, do not imagine, Brahman is sitting in Mumbai, Calcutta or somewhere, and the sadhana will lead you to Brahman, which is your inner higher real nature. You will fall back to yourselves. This Brahma prapthi is called moksha.

And then Sri Krishna defines that Brahman also in an important
verse #15.6.

It
is a very important definition of Brahman based on the upanishadic mantra,
occurring in Kathopanishad and Mundakopanishad. Sri Krishna
points out that Brahman is nothing but
the pure consciousness, which is a formless and all pervading entity; which objectifies
everything and which itself cannot be objectified by anyone. It is an unobjectifiable-subject.
That consciousness; that witness chaitanyam is Brahman; Satyam, Gyanam,
Anantham Brahma.

3.
Brahmana sarvatmakatvam.

Now we will go to the third topic, from verse No.7 to 15 and in this Sri Krishna points out that Brahman alone appears or manifests in the form of the world. There is no world other than Brahman. Brahman is the only substance. Consciousness is the only basic substance. There is no such thing called matter. And this Brahman, this consciousness alone with different names and forms appears as the material universe. Consciousness plus names and forms is equal to space. Consciousness plus name and form is equal to air. Consciousness plus name and form is fire, akasha, vayu, agni, apaha, prthvi and all the elemental products.

Are
you understanding? So if you think that there is a substance called ornament,
it is a delusion; there is no substance called ornament, the substance is only
gold; we are wrongly attributing substantiality to ornament. We are wrongly
attributing substantiality to the furniture. Furnitures are not there; then
what is there; wood; This, the wooden headed fellow does not understand. Clay
headed fellow does not understand that the clay is the truth. Wooden headed
does not understand that the wood is the truth. Similarly Vedanta says that
there is only one substance called Consciousness; the formless Consciousness
manifests as the formed materials of the creation. The intangible consciousness
manifests as the tangible material universe.

And
here also the whole world is nama
rupa, but in this
nama rupa also, there
are two varieties. One variety of nama rupa is that which manifests the
existence-nature of Brahman. But, that nama rupa, is not able to manifest the
chit aspect and therefore that part of the creation exists but it is only inert
in nature.

But
there is another set of nama
rupa, which is
able to manifest, not only the existence, the sat nature, but also it is able
to manifest the chit or consciousness nature as well. Like the physical body it
manifests Brahman’s existence as well as consciousness. Here Sat and Chit, both
are visible outside. Thus, when you look at this mike it’s existence you are
able to appreciate; but consciousness, it is not able to manifest.

To
give another example, let us say, you heat a piece of metal and a glass of
water. The heat principle, the fire principle will pervade the metal, the fire
principle will pervade the water as well, when it comes in contact with fire.
We know the fire has got two attributes; heat and light; it has got ushnatvam and
prakashatvam; the fire
pervades the metal also; the fire pervades the water also. But you find,
interestingly, the metal, because of the contact with fire, borrows the heat
from the fire. Therefore the metal becomes hot; if you have doubt, touch and
see. And not only the metal borrows the heat, the metal becomes bright as well,
shining, with a red-hot glow. Therefore metal manifests ushnatvam and
prakashatvam of the
fire.

Whereas
water when it comes in contact with fire, it borrows only the heat part of the fire,
water never becomes bright. It does not borrow the light. Both are materials;
but one is capable of borrowing only one feature, the other is capable of
borrowing two features.

Similarly, in the universe, some part will borrow the sat amsha while another part borrows both the sat and the chit amsha’s. Thus, wherever sat and chit are there; it is called sentient part of the universe, but wherever sat alone is manifest, it is called insentient universe. Thus Brahman is manifest in the universe in the form of sat in some portions and in the form of sat and chit in some; and when the chit is manifest in some portion, it is called the jiva. while when sat alone is manifest, it is called jagat. Thus Brahman alone is in the form of the insentient jagat; Brahman alone is also in the form of sentient jiva as well. Thus Brahman is everywhere.

And
Sri Krishna concludes that portion saying when Brahman is manifest in this
whole creation, just as gold is manifest in all ornaments, Brahman is also
manifest. If a person misses this Brahman, which is evident everywhere, that
person must be a very gross and unrefined person. Like looking at the ornaments
and missing the gold.

It is like looking at the electrical gadgets and missing the electricity. Similarly looking at all human beings, I miss the consciousness in everyone, My capacity to talk is an expression of the consciousness principle and your capacity to hear is an expression of consciousness principle; minus consciousness, I cannot talk and you cannot hear. And if a person misses this consciousness it is a problem. And for a person who has prepared the mind; Brahman is appreciated everywhere. So, this is the third topic: Brahman being chetana-achetana prapancha or sarvatmakatvam.

4.
Brahmana purushottamatvam.

Then
the 4th topic from the 16th to 18th verse is Brahmana purushottamatvam; Brahman
being purushottama. And to
convey this idea, Sri Krishna divides the whole universe into three parts;
three components.

First
part is manifest matter; the material universe which is manifest; manifest
meaning visible to the sense organs.

Second
part is unmanifest matter; that matter which is not sensorily perceptible or
tangible. You can call it energy. We will use the word unmanifest matter.

Third
part: And then beyond these two matter and energy, there is the third part,
which is the all-pervading consciousness principle, which is a distinct entity;
which alone, we called in Tatva bodha, the original consciousness or OC.

It
is not part of matter; it is not product of matter,

it
is not property of matter, but it is an independent entity. The first one is
called kshara purusha, the second
one is called akshara purusha and the third
one is called uttama purusha.

And
Sri Krishna says, of these three factors, the third one; consciousness alone is
the greatest principle. It is the highest principle. The word uttama means the
greatest.

Why
greatest? Because, matter cannot exist independent of consciousness; whereas,
consciousness can exist independent of matter. Consciousness alone lends
existence to the matter. Therefore, Kshara purusha and akshara purusha both are inferior. When I say
matter, it includes the reflected consciousness as well. Even if I do not say,
include it. RC is also included in Kshara purusha. And akshara purusha is also RC.

Just take it that, as matter is inferior, OC the original consciousness is uttamaha purusha. And this uttama purusha alone is reversed and called purushottama.

And
Sri Krishna says that uttama purusha or purushottama is My real and higher nature;
which was called in the 7th chapter, as Para prakrti. The uttama purusha of the 15th
chapter is the para prakrithi of the 7th chapter. Therefore Arjuna: real God is
formless consciousness and that God is not located in any one place. That
formless, intangible consciousness, which is the real God, is all pervading.
Thus all the forms attributed to God in the religious scriptures are
temporarily given as a stepping-stone to go to the formless god. From the form,
you go to the formless. Form is the steppingstone to the formless one.

Every
person, in the beginning, is not capable of appreciating the formless God. The attributeless
God, everybody cannot understand. For them you give a support in the Rama form,
Krishna form, and that is why we have no quarrel with any form that you choose
as a Ishta devatha; you
can choose any form, but form is only a steppingstone, the destination is not
form. Destination is the formless. And when you reach the destination,
formless-Vishnu is identical
with formless Shiva, who is identical with formless Krishna, who is identical with
formless Rama. Why do you quarrel saying that I am Shaiva; I am Vaishnava etc.
Religious quarrel is meaningless if religion is understood properly. That is
why somebody said that we have enough religion for quarrel; we do not have enough
religion to live harmoniously, because it is not understood.

Thus,
the formless purushottama
is the real Sri Krishna,

So
this is the purushottama topic. A
very important because of which the chapter is called purushottama yoga.

5.
Brahma Gyanam.

Then
the last topic ends with verses, 19 and 20 and Sri Krishna talks about Brahma
Gyanam.

O Arjuna, everyone has to attain this Brahma Gyanam to derive mental strength, so that you can live a life of a grihastha or you can live a life of sanyasi, without any burden. Therefore Gyanam is the destination of all; and the benefit of this Gyanam is that you will attain total fulfillment in life. You will feel that the life has been a meaningful one. To make the life meaningful, you have to attain this Gyanam. With this Gyanam and phalam, the fifth and final topic of the 15th chapter is over.

Thus
ends the fifteenth chapter named Purushottama Yoga in Srimad-bhagavadgita which
is the essence of the Upanishads,
which deals with Brahman-knowledge as well as the preparatory disciplines, and
which is in the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.

Take Away:

And
therefore pleasures and pains are like the two sides of one coin; you can never
have one alone; just as a one-sided coin is impossible; mere pleasures also are
impossible; mere pain also does not exist.

When
in Chennai, Rishikesh seems to be
wonderful; while in Rishikesh, Chennai
seems to be wonderful. Problem is neither with Rishikesh nor with Chennai, the problem is inside us.

And
therefore the solution is not changing the world, because the nature of the
world is that it is a mixture of pleasure and pain. Therefore the solution is
removing the weakness from the mind by gathering and collecting inner strength

So
secluded life is also not better; active life is also not better; problem is neither
with activity nor with seclusion; the problem is with the mind; and therefore
freedom from samsara
is freedom from mental weakness. Therefore moksha
is transformation of the mind. Mind alone is the cause of bondage, mind alone
is the cause of liberation.

The
weak mind is the cause of bondage; strong mind is the cause of liberation.

Reduction
of the adharmic activities and the reduction of dharmic materialistic
activities is called vairagyam.

Seeking Lord’s help so that I will convert choiceless situations
into a spiritual ladder or stepping-stone is called sharanagathi.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka
15:15:

And I am seated in the hearts of all. From Me
are memory, knowledge and their loss. I alone am the object to be known through
all the Vedas; I am also the originator of the Vedanta, and I Myself am the
knower of the Vedas.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, with this 15th shloka, which we completed in the last class, Sri Krishna completes the important topic of Brahmana sarvatmakatvam. Brahman sarvatmakatvam means Brahman alone is in the form of everything. This is the essential teaching of all the upanishads. In the Mundakopanishad we saw a shloka that says, what is in front is Brahman, what is behind is Brahman, what is on the right, on the left, above and below, everything is Brahman, just with different names and forms, which causes only a superficial difference. So the world is superficially different, but in essence the whole is Brahman; there is nothing other than Brahman. And Sri Krishna has mentioned this in the 4th chapter; shloka 4.24 also conveys the same idea. Brahman alone is everything. And this topic Sri Krishna started from the 7th verse and he concluded this in the 15th verse, and we should remember that the ultimate discovery is that Sarvatmakam Brahma is nothing but myself. It is not enough that we say Brahman is everything; then the sadhana is incomplete; I should finally say that, “ That Brahman I am”. Then the statement would bemreworded; instead of saying Brahman is everything; we say I am everything. Aham Annam, Aham Annadaha, Aham Slokakrt, Aham eva idagum sarvam. This is called sarvatmabhava and we completed that in the last class.

Now in the following three verses, 16, 17, and 18, Sri Krishna
gives the definition of the word purushottama and based on
this word alone, the very chapter is called purushottama
yoga.
What is purushottama and who is purushottama, Sri Krishna
tells us in these three verses.

Shloka
15:16:

15.16 There are these two persons in the
world-the mutable and the immutable. The mutable consists of all things; the
one existing as Maya is called the immutable.

First I will give the gist of these three verses, so that you will
get a total picture, then understanding these verses becomes easier. To reveal
Purushottama, Sri Krishna divides the whole universe into three portions
or three components or amsa trayam.

The first portion is the visible universe, which is accessible, perceptible to our sense organs. This sensorially visible, tangible universe is one component and this we can call the manifest matter. Manifest matter is this visible universe; is made up of matter, that we know of. Scientifically it has been shown that the world is made up of matter and even scripturally we know that the world is made up of pancha bhutani, akasha, vayu, apaha, prthvi, and all of them are matter, inert-matter principle. Therefore, the first component is manifest matter and Sri Krishna gives it a technical name and calls it Kshara purusha.

Normally,
matter is indicated only by the word prakrti. or referred to as prakrti tatvam,
but this is an exceptional context in which the manifest matter is called kshara purusha.

Then Sri Krishna talks about the second component. When matter is destroyed; what happens to matter? We know scientifically, logically and shastrically that matter cannot be totally destroyed due to the law of conservation of matter and therefore when matter is destroyed, it will get converted into an unmanifest form, you may call it energy form, but it goes to the invisible intangible, unmanifest form and therefore at the time of total destruction of this universe, at the time of pralaya, the matter will continue but not in the form of manifest matter, but it will survive in the form of unmanifest matter and therefore the second component of the universe is matter in unmanifest form. So unmanifest matter, which is also inert in nature, is the second component. Sri Krishna gives it the name of akshara purusha. This is also an exceptionally rare usage because normally, the word akshara purusha is used for Nirgunam Brahma or consciousness. That is the general usage; but in this exceptional context; the unmanifest matter, you may called it energy; is named akshara purusha; it is also called Maya, because in Vedanta, Maya is unmanifest universe, and that maya tatvam, the unmanifest matter principle, in this context, is called aksharam purusha. So we have manifest matter; unmanifest matter; kshara purusha and akshara purusha.

Consciousness principle, chetana tatvam, is the third component, because according to our scriptures, consciousness is distinct from matter. Remember, consciousness is not a part, product or property of matter. Consciousness is a distinct and independent entity; it is neither a part of matter; nor a property of matter, nor is it a product of matter. Material sciences think that consciousness is a product or phenomenon in matter; Vedanta strongly rejects that view and vedanta says consciousness is independent of matter and this independent consciousness is the third component or part of this universe. And this consciousness principle, Sri Krishna names it Uttama purusha.

Now, if you make a comparative study of these three components, we
will see certain important differences among them. The three are: manifest matter,
unmanifest matter and consciousness. Of these three, the first two components being
matter, both of them are achetana tatvam, inert principle, whereas the third one
being consciousness, it is chetana tatvam. The first two, are inert, the third
one is sentient. Then the first two principles being matter, or material, it is
full of varieties of properties or attributes or qualities. In Sanskrit, we
call it guna; therefore the first two components are sagunam
in nature, whereas the consciousness according to vedanta
is free from all the attributes; hence nirguna tatvam. So one is chetanam,
the other is achetanam; one is sagunam and the other is nirgunam.

Then the third difference, both manifest and unmanifest matter is
subject to modification and or violent changes. Matter can never remain the
same. It is constantly undergoing changes. In fact, manifest and unmanifest
matter themselves are inter-convertible.

Manifest matter can be converted into unmanifest matter; unmanifest matter can be converted into manifest matter. In scientific language, we say matter and energy are inter-convertible.

The whole E= mc2, the equation, is only revealing the fact of the
inter-convertibility of matter and energy. In fact, at the time of creation,
unmanifest matter is getting converted into manifest matter and at the time of
pralayam or dissolution, the manifest matter is getting converted into
unmanifest matter.

We had seen a parallel idea in the 8th chapter.

Therefore the first two are savikaram, whereas consciousness is nirvikaram. You cannot say that manifest consciousness getting converted is into unmanifest consciousness. You cannot say that because if you talk about the transformation of consciousness into manifest and unmanifest matter, consciousness also will be subject to change, but it is not so. So achetanam, chetanam, sagunam, nirgunam, savikaram, nirvikaram are the qualities.

Then the fourth difference is, the matter principle, both manifest and unmanifest are subject to divisions. They are subject to divisions; it is divisible principle. This body itself can be divided. This carpet can be divided. In fact our body gets divided; teeth is missing after some years; After some time, hair will disappear; one by one it will disappear; whereas consciousness principle is indivisible. One is savikalpam as matter, savikalpam is divisible; nirvikalpam is consciousness.

And
finally and most importantly, matter does not have an independent existence of
its own. It does not have the svatantra satta. Therefore it is called mithya
Therefore kshara purusha and akshara purusha both are mithya
whereas uttama purusha,
the consciousness principle alone has independent existence and therefore it is
called satyam and therefore uttama purusha alone lends existence to kshara and akshara purusha; Just as the
screen lends existence to the movie drama going on; similarly, the uttama purusha lends existence
to the kshara, akshara purusha drama going
on which is called creation and destruction. Matter manifests, then matter goes
into unmanifest form; and this drama, is sustained by the screen called uttama purush, the chaitanyam.

And therefore of these three components, Sri Krishna says that the third component is the supreme one. Why? Because that is sarva adharam; Vishvadharam gagana sadrsham is uttama purusha.

And having said this much, Sri Krishna adds that the uttama purusha, the consciousness alone, is my real nature; this chaitanya tatvam alone is my real nature and therefore I would like to claim myself not as kshara purusha, I won’t claim myself as the akshara purusha also, but I would like to claim myself as Uttama purusha, which is chetana nirguna, nirvikara, nirvikalpa tatvam. And since I am the uttama purusha, whole world knows me as Purushottama.

This
is the saram; the
essence. Now we will go to the verses.

In this cosmos, in this creation; firstly there are two purushas. The third one will be introduced later. First he talks about two purushas, and they are known as; kshara purusha and akshara purusha. Sri Krishna himself defines them as all the things and beings, which are visible matter, the visible material universe. The word ‘beings’ represent our physical body, and the word ‘things’ represents all the objects. Both the body as well as the objects, comes under visible matter.

Remember the body also comes under matter principle, because the
body is made up of iron, sodium, carbon, nickel, cobalt, etc. You will know it
when there is deficiency.

It is made of all those things; and therefore, sarvani bhutani, the entire visible matter is kshara purusha and kutastha, the unmanifest matter.

In this context, the word kutastha means
unmanifest matter or maya tatvam. And since this maya is relatively eternal, it
is kutastha. kutastha means relatively eternal.

Kutastha, the unmanifest matter, is also called akshara purusha. So in this shloka He says; manifest matter is kshara purusha; and unmanifest matter is akshara purusha. After that:

Shloka 15:17:

15.17 But different is the supreme Person who
is spoken of as the transcendental Self, who, permeating the three worlds, upholds
(them), and is the imperishable God.

Anyaha: means there is a different principle, a third
principle, other than kshara and akshara
purusha. Other than the manifest and unmanifest matter, there is a
principle, which is called chaitanyam. Since we used the word consciousness, we
have to supply anyaha that means the chetana tatvam.

And what is the chetana tatvam? Uttama purusha is
the third component of this creation. And what is its nature? The
uttama purusha or chaitanyam is nirgunam, nirvikaram,
nirvikalpam and satyam. That satyam must be remembered very well.

Even though we have enumerated three tatvams, kshara,
akshara
and uttama, still we say advaitam because two of them are mithya; mithya means
unreal; and therefore, those two cannot be counted. Satyam is only one. And
therefore it is uttama purusha that is the satya tatvam.

And this uttama purusha, the chaitanyam, is known as paramatmetyudartaha. In all the upanishads, this consciousness principle is called paramatma.

What is the function of this uttama purusha?
We know the functions of manifest and unmanifest matter, because all the
sciences are dealing with matter and energy. And all the advancements are in
the field of matter and energy.

Sri Krishna says: This uttama purusha is pervades
(pervades, penetrates, inheres) all the three universes; all the three worlds.
And here the word loka trayam represents kshara
and akshara purusha.

What does the uttama purusha do? Bibarthi, means sustains; supports, and lends existence; exactly like gold pervades all the ornaments and lends existence. Wood pervades all the furniture and lends existence. Water pervades all the waves and lends existence. Minus gold, no ornaments. Minus wood, no furniture; minus water, no wave; minus uttama purusha, there can be neither kshara purusha nor akshara purusha. No matter or energy is possible without consciousness principle. Consciousness is the substance behind both matter and energy. Even though the consciousness pervades the changing matter, consciousness itself does not undergo any change. In the movie, the characters may move, the vehicles may run, but the screen does not run. In fact, in the presence of the stationary screen alone, all the movements are possible. Similarly in the presence of the motionless consciousness alone, all the changes of the universe are possible. That anchor of the universe is consciousness.

Therefore
avyayaha; avyayaha
means
changeless it also means Ishvara.
Ishvara means this
consciousness, even though it pervades the changing matter, the consciousness
is not affected by, not tormented by, whatever happens in the material
universe. The body may be born; it may grow old, and it may die at the
individual level; upheavals may take place in the cosmos; there may be atomic
explosions; whatever happens to matter, consciousness is unaffected;

Therefore
it is called master; Ishvaraha means master of
matter; not the slave of matter. Consciousness is not a slave of matter; that
means whatever happens to matter, consciousness is asangaha.

All the navagrahas may affect the body; Navagrahas cannot affect the chaitanya atma tatvam. Therefore, Consciousness is the real God or Ishvaraha.

Shloka 15.18:

15.18 Since I am transcendental to the mutable
and above even the immutable, hence I am well known in the world and in the
Vedas as the supreme Person.

This third component, viz., the consciousness principle is ksharam.  Consciousness is superior to manifest matter.  Consciousness is superior to even unmanifest matter. It is superior to even all forms of energy. That is why we should remember that consciousness is not a form of energy.

Consciousness
is a principle, distinct from and superior to all forms of energy, because
energy is only unmanifest matter. Therefore Sri Krishna says
consciousness is superior to manifest matter and unmanifest matter.

And
in Sanskrit, the word uttama means
superior most.

Being
the superior most, the consciousness, is known as uttama purush, and if you
reverse it, it is Purushottama.
The consciousness is well known as Purushottamaha, both in the world of people as well as
in the scriptures.

Here
Sri Krishna does a small mischief, instead of saying Consciousness is superior,
Sri Krishna quietly identifies with that consciousness, claiming it as His real
nature. And therefore Arjuna, that consciousness is myself. Do not look at my
body. My body is kshara
purusha. I am the
consciousness principle behind the Sri Krishna shariram and therefore that is
My real nature and therefore I would say I am the Uttama purushaha. And therefore
I am called purushottamaha.

Therefore
Sri Krishna says: Aham That is myself, instead of the word chaitanyam. Sri Krishna
is purushottama.

We are referring to the nirguna Sri Krishna, who is chaitanya
svarupa. And therefore, I am Purushottama.

So with this, Sri Krishna concludes the definition of the word Purushottama. And because of this reason alone, this chapter is called Purushottama yoga and now Sri Krishna says the aim of every spiritual seeker is the knowledge of Purushottama.

Shloka 15.19:

15.19 O scion of the Bharata dynasty, he who,
being free from delusion, knows Me the supreme Person thus, he is all-knowing
and adores Me with his whole being.

So here the Lord says all the intelligent people of the world will
not go after kshara purusha; they will not go after akshara purusha, they will
go after uttama purusha; purushottama, the nirgunam brahma. Whereas
deluded people alone will be materialistic people. What do you mean by
materialistic people? The one’s going after manifest matter or unmanifest
matter; are the deluded people, whereas a viveki, a sadhana chatushtaya
sampanna will go after uttama purusha, or Purushottama, by
following karma, upasana and Gyana yoga.

Ultimately they will come to know purushottama; the nirguna,
nirvikara, nirvikalpa, chetana, brahma tatvam.  So intelligent people who know the purushottama,
they are called the omniscient ones, because by knowing Brahman, they have
known everything because Brahman alone is everything. And therefore,
knowing Brahman is knowing everything. And thereafter he will continue to
worship me, but his worship will be of a higher order. So Sri Krishna says such
a Gyani will worship me in totality; wholeheartedly and fully.

And what do you mean by wholeheartedly or fully worshipping? Shankaracharya says the worship will be in the form of the knowledge that that purushottama is none other than “I”, the atma chaitanyam. It is the all-pervading consciousness residing within my body-mind complex. And therefore, Gyani worships in the form of advaitha bhakthi. So sarva bhavena means advaitha bhavena, abheda bhavena.

And in the 7th chapter, Sri Krishna talked about four layers of
bhakthi: artha bhakthi, artharthi bhakthi, jignasu
bhakthi and Gyani bhakthi; and there Sri Krishna says Gyani bhakthi is the
highest bhakthi and that is advaitha bhakthi.

Sri Krishna now concludes:

Shloka
# 15.20:

15.20 O sinless one, this most secret
scripture has thus been uttered by Me. Understanding this, one becomes wise and
has his duties fulfilled, O scion of the Bharata dynasty.

This teaching about sarvatmakam brahma, this teaching about purushottama, both are one and same; sarvakatma brahma, or purushottama, are same. This teaching about Brahman or purushottama, is the greatest secret that is not easily available. You may go all over the world, there may be so many universities giving varieties of courses and there may be additions of newer and newer courses, but all those courses will be dealing with either kshara purusha or akshara purusha. All the researches in the world happening are dealing with kshara or akshara; all objective sciences are material sciences, all the material sciences are kshara, akshara purusha vidya, and Mundaka upanishad calls them, apara vidya, they are all inferior sciences; whereas para vidya is that which is the study of purushottama, the nirguna chaitanyam. In fact some of the scientists claim that the material sciences can never study consciousness.

Therefore, that rarely available knowledge, O Arjuna, I have told
you. And why did I choose you for the teaching? Firstly, because you asked,
that is important; and secondly you deserved the teaching as well as you are
anagha or pure minded. Agam means papam, anagha means papa rahithaha or shuddha
purusha. Since you are a pure one, I choose to give you this teaching.

May you receive this teaching and assimilate this teaching; and
how should you assimilate it, by practising that uttama purusha, I am. I am neither
the body, which is the kshara purusha, nor the mind, which is also kshara purusha,
nor even the karana shariram, which is akshara purusha. I am the Turiyam of
Mandukya Upanishad, which is the Uttama purushaha. May you become buddhiman.
May you become a wise person.

Then you will ask the fundamental question what will I get out of it? Sri Krishna says, there is a practical benefit that this knowledge alone will give fulfillment in life. Krita krithyaha bhava. Nothing else will give you fulfillment; even if it gives fulfillment, it is a fake and temporary fulfillment. Sooner or later, you are again ready for next thing.  Therefore the journey of fulfillment ends only when you get this wisdom.

Thus
ends the fifteenth chapter named purushottama yoga in Srimad-bhagavad Gita which
is the essence of the upanishads,
which deals with Brahman-knowledge as well as the preparatory disciplines, and
which is in the form of a dialogue between Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna.

Take Away:

We
should remember that consciousness is not a form of energy. Consciousness is a
principle, distinct from, and superior to, all forms of energy, because energy
is only unmanifest matter.

Brahman sarvatmakatvam
means Brahman alone is in the form of everything. This is the essential
teaching of all the
upanishads.

Mandukya
Upanishad, the last chapter, shloka # 79, says that the benefit of this
knowledge is that one will not develop Raga and Dvesha towards material world.
He will not run after material objects. (not from Gita).

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka
15:12:

15.12 That light in the sun which illumines
the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know
that light to be Mine.

Continuing his teachings
Swamiji said, after
defining Brahman in the 6th verse of this chapter, Sri Krishna establishes in the
later verses, that Brahman alone is in the form of everything. And in Sanskrit,
this is called sarvatmakatvam
and here Sri Krishna talks as one with Brahman; He says: I alone am appearing
as everything.

I
am everything. He has already talked about this in the seventh, ninth, tenth,
and eleventh chapters. In the fact the very vishvarupa darshanam
is revealing this fact that Bhagavan is everything and that sarvatmakatvam is briefly dealt with in
these verses and for this purpose, the whole universe is divided into two, the
sentient, the living beings, and the insentient objects of the creation. Sri Krishna
says that I alone appear in the form of chetana jiva, I alone appear
in the form of the achetana
jagat also. Of these we have seen the first part, from verse No.7 to verse
No.11. In the first part he says, I alone am in the form of the chetana jiva. We have
entered into the second part, from verse no.12, which I introduced in the last
class. And this part is I, the Brahman alone, am in the form of achetana jagat
also. So from the 12th verse, up to the 15^th verse, Brahman or
Bhagavan is everything.

And in this context, Sri Krishna does not give the logic behind this conclusion because the logic has already been given in the previous chapters. Why do we say that Bhagavan is everything? Bhagavan being the cause of everything, Bhagavan alone has to be everything. Remember the example, gold is the cause of all ornaments and therefore gold alone is in the form of all the ornaments. So cause of the ornaments means, it is in the form of ornaments, because there are no ornaments other than gold. Wood is the cause of the furniture, means wood alone is in the form of furniture; there is no furniture separate from wood.

Generalizing, cause alone is in the form of all the effect; extending that, Brahman or Bhagavan being the cause of everything, Brahman or Bhagavan alone is in the form of everything. In short, there is no creation different or separate from Ishvara and this is the uniqueness of the vedic teaching, because that is why, we worship the Lord in any form and every form. We worship animals as God; we worship human beings as God; we worship trees as God; we worship rivers as God; we worship even the five elements as God; the reason is these do not exist separate from Bhagavan or Brahman. And therefore Bhagavan is in the form of everything. And therefore Sri Krishna has to say, I am the table, I am the chair, I am the pen, I am the book, I am you, I am he, I am mike; if Sri Krishna has to enumerate everything in the creation, the 15th chapter will not end at all.

And therefore Sri Krishna wants to take a few important things in the creation and he points out they are my own manifestation. Just a few samples are taken to point out that Bhagavan is in the form of them and from that you can extend to everything else also. And what are those few samples Bhagavan takes? They are the fundamental natural forces that we experience all the time, which we have not created, but they are very much part of this creation. Without these natural power or forces or energy, we cannot think of the creation or its survival. What are the natural forces that Sri Krishna takes up? He takes three of them. One is surya Shakti, The solar energy. The solar power called surya Shakti and the second one is the lunar power, the chandra Shakti. Sri Krishna uses the word tejaha instead of Shakti; therefore surya teja, chandra teja, teja is Shakti, energy, power and the third one is Agni Shakti and Agni teja. The power of the fire. So these are the three natural and very important forces or energy; the more you study their glory, the more you admire. The scientists have been studying the sun for years, decades, for centuries and they are still studying; still they have not completed the glory of the Sun.

Sri Krishna enumerates them first and says I am in the form of Surya Shakti and I am in the form of chandra shakti and I am in the form of agni shakti. That is said in the 12th verse, which we read in the last class.

And
even those people who feel that all other sources of energy will be exhausted;
they think that ultimately we have to tap the solar energy only. And
especially, we the people in the tropical country, we have got solar battery,
solar cells; so many things are solar based.

Sri
Krishna says that energy belongs to me; the energy located in the sun, which illumines
the entire universe;

So
he says; akhilam
jagat
bhasayate; meaning
the energy of the sun never ends.

And
yat chandramasi; that energy, which obtains in the moon, the moonlight or the
lunar energy, of course it is borrowed from the sun.

The
original sunlight is getting reflected in the moon; that reflection itself is
so powerful that on a full paurnami day, you can even read a book.

And
what is the third one, it is
the energy which is stored in agni; agni means the fire principle, agni shakti, all these
three powers belong to me.

That
is why in the vedic discipline,
the day begins with the worship of the sun. And all the prayers are surya prayers.

So
this Sun alone sustains the living beings. Sun alone sustains the earth.

The brilliant light and energy and lot of nutrients like vitamin
D, etc are there due to the sun. Our skin requires sunlight. And even our sleep
and waking is connected to sunlight;  And
that is why they say, do not take heavy meal in the night, because, everything
slows down including digestive power. So the more you study the Sun, the more
its glory is. Therefore morning begins with the Surya Namaskara and on most
pauranami days, we have got some festival or the other; every month you see
pauranami is special for us, because we worship the moonlight. And then of
course Agni worship is fundamental to vedic religion.

Do not take powers of Surya, Chandra and Agni for granted.

In the following verses, Sri Krishna is going to talk about the
glory of each shakti. What is the contribution of sun light? What is the
contribution of moonlight? He is going to explain in the following verses. We
will read.

Shloka 15:13:

And entering the earth I sustain the beings
through (My) power; and nourish all the plants by becoming Soma [According to
S. and most other translators, Soma means the moon.-Tr.] which is of the nature
of sap.

The first line talks about the contribution of the surya
shakti,
which is a blessing from the Lord. So Sri Krishna says: regularly the solar
energy, through the rays of the Sun, penetrate or enter on to the surface of
the earth;

It pervades all the directions and blesses all the jiva rashis
with ojas or prana shakti.

Having entered the earth, the sun rays or the solar light
penetrates into every being, that is why we are asked to get up before sun rise
and we are supposed to expose ourselves to the morning sunlight and therefore
they go to the rivers for bath.

We are all exposing our body to the solar energy; which is called
pranic
energy. And that is why the pranic healers talk about drawing energy from the
Sun and handing over to our prana maya kosha.

The entire pranamaya kosha is sustained by
the Sun. And therefore, all the living beings, I sustain. Sri Krishna says: I
sustain through the solar energy, by blessing the living beings with ojas,
or prana Shakti or pranic energy or vital force.
And this is supposed to be responsible for the health of the annamaya kosha. And
it is also responsible for the health of manomaya kosha.

directly pranamaya kosha; indirectly
annamaya and manomaya; That is why, one of the
most powerful daily prayers is aditya hridayam. If you do not know it, learn
it; and daily chant it in the morning; it will take care of the annamaya kosha
health;

pranamaya
kosha health; manomaya kosha health, and vignana
maya kosha health, those who do not know
gayathri mantra, those who do not chant gayathri, they can replace their
sandhya vandhanam with Aditya Hridya, because it is invoking aditya Shakti.

Then what is the contribution of the soma Shakti? or Moon energy. He says:  I myself become the moonlight or lunar energy and what type of moonlight it is? It is a light which is full of the plant nutrient; according to shastra, the moonlight has got lot of energy or nutrition, which is directly given to the plant kingdom. So here rasa means the sap of the plants, the nutrient power for the plant is here called rasa and I become that. And through that, I nourish all the plants. So through Surya Shakti I nourish the human beings; through Chandra Shakti, I nourish the plant kingdom; i.e. why they say, some of the farmers, they expose the seeds to the moonlight; they say it is very good, to expose the seeds to the moonlight; before sowing them; it will draw energy from the moon. So I am chandra teja. Then what is left out; it is agni teja.

Shloka
15:14:

Taking the form of Vaisvanara and residing in
the bodies of creatures, I, in association with Prana and Apana, digest the
four kinds of food.

So in this verse, the agni shakti or agni tejas or power is talked about. In the shastra, agni tatvam is divided into two types; one is called bhahya agni, the external fire principle; which is the popular one; and the shastra says there is another internal fire principle; which is within our stomach, which is called anthara agni; the internal fire; this anthara agnihi, is known by different names. It is called jataragni; jataram means stomach; jataram, means within the stomach; so jataragni, the fire within the stomach; And, it is also known by another name, vaishvanara agni and this fire is called the digestive fire, which cooks the eaten food, the second time; before the body assimilates the food, the food should go through two types of cooking; one is the external cooking; another is the internal cooking; and in each cooking; the food gets transformed. Initially you gather the food in the form of vegetables; grains, cereals etc. and you do not directly eat the grains; normally we do not eat directly, and vegetables also generally we do not eat directly unless you are a naturopath and all the time living on salads only. Cooking is banned for them. Eat with the skin is their motto. Skin has got more nutrients than the original fruit. There are some who eat the skin and leave the fruit.

The
first transformation takes place in the external cooking; where the vegetables
are converted into variety of foods, so that we have the taste; we have to do
lot of ‘dressing’ so that it becomes eatable.

First conversion is make it edible, tasty for the tongue. and once you have eaten all the varieties of vegetables, it goes inside. but remember, idlis and dosas, cannot be directlly taken; a second cooking has to take place, wherein the eaten food items have to go through second transformation. And after that alone the body canabs orb; and this is done by the digestive fire; vaishvanara agni. In science they are called digestive juices, the enzymes and acids, and we have lot of acids and enzymes.

That
is why if you do not feed the body, the acid begins to eat your own stomach,
which is called ulcer.

Therefore
you have to feed the internal fire, which cooks the food a second time.

And once the second time cooking takes place, all the idlis and dosas, have been converted into carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals; all these conversion takes place and the body absorbs this converted food alone. So first conversion is called cooking outside; the second cooking or conversion is inside; first cooking is done by bahya agnihi, the second cooking is done by anathara agnihi; vaisgvanara agni.

And Sri Krishna says, that cooking power belongs to me alone, which is otherwise called samana prana; the digestive power is Bhagavan’s power and that is why, before we eat the food, we worship Bhagavan and consider the food as an offering to the Lord; the Lord who is in your stomach. And what type of Lord he is? vaishvanara agni; and that is why, that offering is also called another form of agni hotram. According to Chandogya upanishad, eating itself is a form of agni hotra ritual called pranagni hotram.

Therefore Sri Krishna says I am that power.

In Brihadarnya upanishad,
there is a special upasana upon vaishvanara
agni; you meditate upon your hunger, or digestive power as the Lord. Have you
heard of Hunger upasana anywhere? And how do you detect your
hunger. The Upanishad says, when you are hungry within the stomach, you hear of
varieties of noises; so that noise represents the digestive power, the hunger that
is asking for food, and therefore meditate upon the sound as Bhagavan.

So Sri Krishna reminds us of that; he says; I myself am in the
form of anthara agni Shakti and the bahya agni Shakti as well.

Sri Krishna does not talk about here that we can supply; here he
talks about only the internal digestive fire. And were do I reside?

I reside in the body of every pranani.

 What is my job? I cook all forms
of foods that are offered inside; in this second cooking; converting the food
into the respective nutrients called carbohydrates; fats, etc. So I, digest the
food, assimilate the food; What type of food;

There are four types of food; which a human being consumes; what
is the chaturvidham annam?

They say all the food consumed all the living beings can be
classified into four types, based on the mode of consumption; not-based on the
type of food, not like Gujarati food, Tamil food, etc. etc.;

Here we classify the food based on the type of consumption, method
that we used to eat; and accordingly we use four types; they are called bhakshyam,
bhojyam, lehyam and chokshiyam;
these are the four types of eating.What are those four:

bhakshyam means, those
types of food which are masticated, which you bite and masticate and swallow

Second
type is bhojyam; those types
of food, which you directly swallow; liquid type of food, like milk or soup or
coffee or tea, which are directly swallowed. You do not require to masticulate
them.

The
third one is called lehyam;
lehyam means that
which has to be licked and consumed; You cannot directly pour into the mouth;
like honey, honey you should not directly pour, it is viscous liquid, if you
directly take, one could even be dead; it has to be licked; or lehyam.

The
fourth one is chokshiyam, which has to
be sucked inside, like the sugar cane, etc., or modern day example is the way
you consume the soft drinks with a straw.

So
bhakshyam, bhojyam, lehyam and chokshiyam; these are the
only four types of eating; intravenous feeding, nasal feeding are all irregular
and exceptions. Sri Krishna says all these types of foods, I cook or I digest
in the form of digestive fire and naturally, the question is how the external
fire is fanned; a normal fire is kindled by fanning.

So if the external fire is kindled by fanning; the question comes
how is the digestive fire kindled; Sri Krishna says that is also done by
fanning; You require another type of fanning; prana,
apana,
breathing in, and breathing out is the fanning of the digestive fire; and
therefore, Whenever you do extra activity; breathing becomes faster, and when
breathing becomes fast internal fire is kindled and the vaishvanara
agni becomes big, when vaishvanara agni is kindled, you
feel hunger, therefore you eat more.

When the breathing slows down, hunger slows down; and breathing increases; hunger increases; from that it is clear, breathing is the fanning of the digestive fire; therefore Sri Krishna says, prana, apana, prana means breathing out, or exhalation; and apana here means breathing in, inhalation, supported by, activated by the breathing, I, in the form of vaishvanara agni, digest the food; and that is the agni shakti. And therefore, O Arjuna appreciate me in the creation; in the form of surya shakti, chandra shakti, and agni shakti. And therefore I am everything. And now Sri Krishna concludes that topic.

Shloka
15:15:

And I am seated in the hearts of all. From Me
are memory, knowledge and their loss. I alone am the object to be known through
all the Vedas; I am also the originator of the Vedanta, and I Myself am the
knower of the Vedas.

So here concludes the topic, pointing out that I am everything; I am in everything; he says, sarvasya hrdi aham sannivishtah. O Arjuna, I, the paramatma, reside in the heart of everyone. So everybody is like a temple; the heart represents the mind, the mind represents the sanctum or garbha griham; and in that mind, I, the paramatma, am present as the jivatma; witnessing every thought occurring in the mind. Therefore, Hrdi sakshi chaitanya rupena; in the form of the very consciousness, I am inevery living being; And mattaha; because of me, the consciousness alone, allthe functions of the body are going on and all the mental faculties are alive. What aresome of the faculties; Gyanam means the capacity to learn, learning faculty; is alive because of me.Then smrtir, learning should be followed by remembering; remembering faculty is because of me.

And some people may say, I do not have remembering faculty, I have
got forgetting faculty. Remember, we think forgetting is a curse, remember,
forgetfulness is also important, we go through lot of painful experiences in
life, in due course we have to forget; imagine if you remember all the painful
experiences, you will be terrible; and that is why we say time is a healer;
because in time, we forget those things. So remembering is an important
faculty. Forgetfulness is also an important faculty.

Sri Krishna says what is to be remembered and what is to be
forgotten; both faculties are a blessing; and both of them are my glory alone. And
one commentator (name not given) gives a special meaning to these words.

He says Gyanam refers to the waking state; because the in the waking
state we are gathering fresh experiences. Smrti represents the dream state;
because in dream, we do not gather anything new, only what is already
registered that is projected again; therefore smrtir indicates
svapna avastha.
And apohanam means
forgetfulness and forgetfulness represents sushipthi

Avastha, as in sleep, we forget everything. Therefore Gyanam, jagrath, smrtir, svapna, apohanam, sushupti, all these three avasthas are because of me alone. So I am in everyone, responsible for their expereinces in all the three states. And not only that; sarvai vedaiha aham eva vedhya; I am the subject matter of all the scriptures; because scriptures are dealing with the Lord alone, the veda purva bhaga is dealing with Saguna Ishvara; Veda antha bhaga is dealing with Nirguna Ishvara. In short the entire veda is dealing with Ishvara alone. Therefore, he says, through all the four vedas, I am the one to be known. And vedantakrt aham; and I am the one who is the initiator of the vedantic tradition; vedantic tradition includes the vedas and the entire vedic tradition; so, therefore, what is known through the veda, I am, and the vedas themselves are nothing but my creation; or myself

Then
what about the students of the vedic teaching; he says the students are also myself; so vedavit; the
students; the knower of veda.
So the knower I am; the known I am; the
means of knowledge, I am; pramata, pramanam, prameyam, the entire triputi I am. Therefore I am everything.

So
with this Krishna concludes the second topic that I am in the form of the
insentient world too. Previously he said I am in the form of the sentient
living beings also; therefore, chetana-achetana
prapancha aham asmi. This is called sarvatmakatvam.

Take Away:

So
the knower I am; the known I am; the means of knowledge, I am; pramata, pramanam, prameyam, the entire
triputi I am. Therefore I am everything.

 I, the paramatma,
reside in the heart of everyone. So everybody is like a temple; the heart represents

the mind, the mind represents the sanctum or garbha griham; and in
that mind, I, the paramatma, am present as the jivatma;
witnessing every thought occurring in the mind.

One of the most powerful daily prayers is aditya hridayam. If you
do not know it, learn it; and daily chant it in the morning;

Shloka # 15.8:

5.8 When the master leaves it and even when he
assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from
their receptacles.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said in the first six verses of the 15th chapter, Sri Krishna talked about samsara and also the means of crossing the ocean of samsara; otherwise called moksha and he defined moksha as merging into Brahman; that brahman which happens to be the very root and base of the creation. Brahma aikya prapthi or merger into Brahman is not a physical event, it is only dropping the notion, that I, the Jivatman, am away from the Brahman. Dropping the notion, which is purely a cognitive or intellectual event, is called moksha, that is why Vedanta Gyanam and moksha are treated synonymously, because Moksha is dropping the notion or wrong notion and any wrong notion is removed by right notion (we cannot say that) or by right knowledge. And Sri Krishna gave the definition of Brahman in the 6th important verse, which is based on the well-known upanishadic mantra: na tatra suryo bhati na chandratarakam, which essentially means that Brahman is the all-pervading consciousness.

Chaitanya
svarupam Brahman is
one which can objectify everything but which itself can never be objectified by
any means; it is the unobjectifiable subject, unobserverable observer; chaitanya
svarupam brahma.

And having defined Brahman in the sixth verse, from the seventh verse onwards, Sri Krishna introduced two important topics to show that Brahman alone appears in the form of everything. Just as God alone appears as varieties of ornaments, wood alone appears as different kinds of furniture or waker alone appears in the form of the dream universe; similarly, Brahman alone appears in the form of the universe. This is called sarvatmakatvam; Sarvatmakatvam means Brahman is everything. For the sake of convenience, the entire universe is divided into two parts; one is the chetana Jivas, the sentient living beings, and the other achetana prapancha, the insentient objects. So the creation is chetanam plus achetanam, the sentient Jiva plus the insentient jagat and in these verses Sri Krishna points out Brahman alone appears in the form of jiva also; Brahman alone appears in the form of jagat also. Jiva api brahmaiva, jagat api brahmaiva, sarvam brahma mayam jagat; which is beautifully revealed in all the upanishads, especially in the well-known Mundaka Upanishad Mantra, II.11.

Whether
you experience a sentient living and you are experiencing an insentient object,
everything is Brahman alone and of this from verse No.7 up to 11, Sri Krishna says
Brahman alone is in the form of Jiva.

This
is from verse No.7 to 11. Then from verse no.12 to 15, Sri Krishna says Brahman
alone is in the form of the inert universe also. Of this we are now seeing the
first part. Brahman alone is in the form of jeeva. And in this particular portion,
as I said in the last class, Sri Krishna is referring to himself as Brahman and
therefore the Brahman is replaced by the word I, in the first person singular; therefore
whenever we hear the word aham, or I, we should replace it by the word Brahman.
Therefore Sri Krishna said,

Shloka 15.7 &
15.8:

15.7 It is verily a part of Mine which,
becoming the eternal individual soul in the region of living beings, draws (to
itself) the organs which have the mind as their sixth, and which abide in
Nature.

15.8 When the master leaves it and even when
he assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from
their receptacles.

I, the original all-pervading Consciousness, alone am present in every living being as the reflected consciousness; the chidabhasa chaitanyam obtaining in the mind. And this chidabhasa alone makes the body sentient and alive. Just as the pervading electricity alone makes the filament bright and the brightness of the light only makes the filament bright, appreciating the light, my mind has to appreciate the invisible electricity which is expressing as the light in the bulb; as the motion in the fan, as the magnifying power in the mike, as the heat in the ironing machine. So different expressions I experience, they are blessings of the one invisible electricity. Similarly, all our physical bodies are like bulbs, very fragile; and our subtle body, the sukshma shariram is like the filament; and atma or Brahman is like the electricity; or Brahman is comparable to electricity. Bulb is visible, filament is visible, and electricity is invisible. Similarly body is visible, mind is partially visible, whereas Conciousness is invisible. But the presence of electricity can be discerned through the functions of the bulb, fan, mike, radio, television, etc. Similarly, if all of us are alive and sentient, as Taittariya upanishad says:  If our breath is going out and coming in; all these are because of the chidabhasa obtaining within and chidabhasa itself is possible because of the original chit. And therefore Sri Krishna says every function of every organ reveals the presence of Brahman. And this is said beautifully in Kenopanishad as: Prana is prana because of the presence of consciousness; Eye is an eye because of the presence of consciousness and Ear is ear because of it. And this chidabhasa alone leaves the physical body at the time of death; after which alone the body which is so sacred, which is so divine, which is very much decorated bathed and shampooed and painted and lipsticked and all those things we do because it is alive; but the moment that chidabhasa quits; chit quits (be careful) the moment reflected consciousness leaves along with the reflecting medium; the mind is the reflecting medium, the mind leaves the body, the chidabhasa leaves the body and the sacred body has become an impure corpse.

It has become asoucham and the sooner it is disposed the better it is. What makes the difference between the dead body and live body? The scientists, the doctors; can only say that the functions have stopped but they can never say what was responsible for this function and what has left the body, they do not know. They cannot understand what is life, they cannot understand what is death. All others they know. What all others? What others, when there is only two. When the chidabasa leaves, it takes the all the pancha Gyaendriyani, pancha karmendriyani, and goes to another body, and starts its new business in a small shop.

And when this Jiva leaves this body, and shariram takes another body; we make such a big fuss about this change. And the rent is karma. Punyapapam prarabhda is the rent and when that is gone; it goes to another body; how does it go; along with a huge lorry of all the things. And he gave the example, just as the invisible wind carries the fragrance from the visible flower; the invisible chidabhasa carries the fragrance of life.

What
is the fragrance of life? Not powder and snow. The fragrance of body, is the very
life in the visible body; it goes to another set up. What does it do there?

Again
start the old business of LKG, UKG, college, get married, get children, get grand
children, then what? Pop off; then what; and again go to another place, it will
go on like that.

Shloka 15.9:

15.9 This one enjoys the objects by presiding
over the ear, eyes, skin and tongue as also the nose and the mind.

So
this invisible chidabhasa,
the reflected consciousness carries the entire sukshma shariram and
sukshma shariram includes all
the organs, pancha Gyanendriyani,
pancha karmendriyani panchca prana, manah, buddhi; and
all the sense organs. Sense organs means not the eye ball. It does not carry
the eye ball; but behind the eye ball, the perceptive power is there; which is
carried with the sense organ, that is taken.

When a new body comes, and there also only if the next body is a human body, where all the five sense organs can be used, if it is a tree body, the tree does not have five sense organs; so the tree has only the skin; the other four sense organs are not utilized. So therefore this sukshma shariram of the tree has got all the sense organs but they do not have the physical medium for utilization.

Here, Sri Krishna assumes, the Jiva goes to another human body and in that human body, the chakshur indriyam is placed in the chakshur golakam; the srothram indriyam, the invisible part, is placed on the srothra golakam, which is the called the physical part; indriyam is the invisible part, golakam is the visible part.

Similarly,
the srothra, tvak, chakshu,
rasana, all of them are placed in the respective slots that is said here. srothram,
ear, chakshu, the eye,
sparshanam, the skin,
invisible organ of touch, rasanam, the invisible organ of taste, grahnam, the organ
of smell, all of them are placed in the respective golakas and also adishtyaya mana. All
the sense organs have to be backed by the mind and therefore the mind also must
be located appropriately and according to the shastra,
hrdyam is the location of the mind; not the brain. According to shastra,
hrdyam is the golakam for the indriyam called mind. Which hrdyam? The physical
heart is golakam. The physical heart is the golakam, because golakam should be
visible Golakam must be the tangible part of the body, the tangible physical
heart is the golakam; mind is the indriyam; which is located there.

Adhishtaya means resorting to all these six organs, pancha Gyanendriyani and plus one anthakaranam, resorting to all of them. What does the Jiva do; start experiencing the new environment. If the parents are wonderful parents, the child would have a gala time. If the parents are terrible, the child would have only misery; poor innocent child, has harsh experiences right from the birth itself and what determines the type of experience? It is not child’s freewill, child was not consulted as to who should the parents; spouse can be chosen by svayamvaram; parents cannot be chosen, you are already born with parents; therefore what determines the innocent child’s life? It is determined by the purva janma karma. If it is punya karma; wonderful mom, wonderful dad, wonderful siblings, wonderful neighbour, wonderful place; if karma’s are not good, we are hearing lot of child abuse and all, and child cannot even protest; Now only some methods are suggested; child has to silently suffer. All because of purva janma punya and papa.

And remember all these are possible; the experience of pleasures or pain; both are possible because of the chidabhasa alone; A dead body cannot experience pleasure; nor can it experience pain. Therefore experience reveals the presence of life, which is chidabhasa. Which reveals the presence of Brahman, which is the chit, the all-pervading consciousness.

And therefore Sri Krishna says; every moment of life reveals Brahman, for a discerning mind. Every moment of life reveals Brahman. Just as every letter you read in your book, reveals the presence of the light all over; the presence of light is not revealed at a particular moment, every letter you read is because of the presence of light. Similarly every word I speak and every word you listen is because of Brahman. And a person asks for the proof of Brahman. It is like when mother asked her son to ask neighbor’s house to see if they had power or not. And the child was an obedient child; the child enters the neighbors house and sees the fan is on; the light is there; TV is running; Yet he tells them: My mother asked me to check up with you whether there is current in your house. A child can do that but if a grown up person asks, you will laugh. Similarly an immature person can ask for a proof of God; but for a mature person, the very question is a meaningless and ridiculous question. That is stated in the next verse.

Shloka 15.10:

15.10 Persons who are diversely deluded do not
see it even when it is leaving or residing (in this body), or experiencing, or
in association with the alities. Those with the eye of knowledge see.

So
while the previous verses were preparatory verses, this is the crucial verse.
So here alone Sri Krishna says, for a discerning mind, Brahman is recognizable
in every activity of the individual, in every function of the Jiva. Just as the
invisible electricity is discerned in every function of the electrical gadgets,
in every function of the Jiva,
Brahman is discerned. Of course, directly discern the function from the
functions, we discern the chidabhasa; reflected consciousness; and from the reflected consciousness;
we discern the original Conciousness, because we know that the original
consciousness alone appears as the reflected consciousness. When you want to apply kumkumam or chandanam or vibhuthi,
you see the mirror and you see the face upon the mirror in front of you, and
when you want to apply, you see the mirror but
apply the tilakam, where; on your face, and not on the mirror, because you know
that there is no difference between that face and this face. What you see is
that face, but what you discern or recognize
is this face. And if you find a black dot on your face, but you wipe here. What
does it mean? Seeing the abhasa
mukham, you
discern the original mukham. Similarly, I experience
the abhasa chaitanyam, every moment, I understand the original consciousness
and therefore Sri Krishna says mature people appreciate God in every breadth.

Gyanachakshu means people who have the eye of discernment, because it is not the physical eye that sees the electricity. Physical eye sees only the moving fan but I have got a third eye, called Gyana chakshu that tells me that behind the visible moving fan, there is an invisible electricity blessing it; because I know a fan by itself cannot move. If a fan can move by itself the increase in electricity tariff will not affect you. Similarly, this body is like the fan; and I discern through my third eye, the invisible Consciousness, which touches the body. Gyana chakshusa means the people who have the eye of understanding.

And what is the understanding? Body is inert by itself, mind is inert by itself; but both are now as though sentient; because of an extraneous factor. That is called chakshusa atma anatma viveka. Gyana chakshusa, those people, pashyanti, they discern, not through the physical eye, but the eye of understanding. What do they discern? The chidabhasa, the Jiva, which is none other than Brahman which has descended down; Brahman’s avataram is Java; because the original face alone has descended down on the mirror; Similarly, chit alone is in the form of chidabhasa, and that Brahman they recognize; Brahman in the form of chidabhasa.

And in what all ways that cidabhasa is playing in the body? sthitam; First we will take the word sthitam, which is very much present in the body, keeping the body alive. So sthitam means residing in the body. What is the proof; that very question is possible because of the chidabhasa or Brahman is there.

Bhunjanam means this Jiva
alone, this consciousness alone, experiences everything including shabda,
sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha in the world.

I am aware of the sound; I am conscious of the So, Bhunjanam means experiencing the world. So it resides in the body, experiences the world and as even the experience comes; every experience generates a response; some of joy and some of sorrow.

Responses are broadly divided into three types: satvic
response, rajasic response and tamasic response.

Shankaracharya calls it sukha, dukha
and moha responses. And that is called here as said gunanvitham.

Thus the Jivatma is endowed with these threefold
reactions and every reaction reveals the presence of the Brahman in the body.

Therefore every response reveals the presence of the Jiva.
Therefore gunanvitham, Jivam, all these words are adjective to Jiva,
which is an image of what? Brahman. And such a Brahman, gyana chakshu
perceives or mature people recognize.

But vimudha, the immature people, the indiscriminate people, don’t see this. They think that the body has got consciousness of its own. Their philosophy is that consciousness is the property of matter, the material body. Such a philosophy is charuvaka matham, they do not believe in God. They say body has got natural life; God need not enliven the body. That is called materialistic philosophy. What do we say? Body can never have a life of its own; If body has life it is the gift of the Lord alone. Therefore vimudha do not recognize this.

Shloka
15:11:

15.11 And the yogis who are diligent see this
one as existing in themselves. The non-discriminating ones who lack
self-control do not see this one-though (they be) diligent.

So here Sri Krishna talks of the two types of people; the discerning, the vivekis and the non-discerning, aviveki. Just as I see only one fan, but I have discrimination, I know that there are two things; what I see is one; what I understand is two. These two are, the invisible electricity and visible fan. They are both intimately associated, but they are not one and same; they are separate entities.

Even after the destruction of the fan, the visible fan, the electricity continues to be there. Immediately he will recognize if one puts the hand inside. What I see is one; what I recognize is two. Similarly what I see in every living being is only one, but if I study vedanta, I know, there is a visible body and an invisible consciousness. Body will perish; consciousness will survive. And consciousness is, you have to remember, is not a part, property, or product of the body; it is an independent principle.

So Sri Krishna says yoginaha; yoginaha means the discerning people, mature people recognize this Brahman, which is present in the body as Jiva. They recognize this paramatma, present in the body-mind complex.

Present in what form? It is in the form of the reflected consciousness, RC.

 Here atma
has to be translated as body, mind complex.

Thus, body is a temple; Mind is the garbha griham, the sanctum;
and the consciousness is the deity.

Hence for moksha,
let me worship atma lingam residing in the body.

Thus sadhana chatushtaya
sampanna or qualified people, recognize this. And how do they accomplish that? Yathantaha
means putting appropriate effort. So, the discovery, this recognition is through
yathanta kurvanthaha. And what is prayathnam? All the spiritual sadhanas
are the prayathnam, which means what? One has to follow karma yoga, Upasana
yoga and Gyana yoga. In short by going through all the sadhanas,

Including attending the classes they recognize this great truth. Whereas
the other people who have not qualified, whose mind is not pure never recognize
the Lord in their hearts.

And that is why every day, before doing the puja, puja starts with atma puja, because the Lord is very much in the sanctum in the Mind and after atma puja, we invoke the Lord outside and they do bahya puja. So atma puja should be the beginning and the end as well.

Shloka
15:12:

15.12 That light in the sun which illumines
the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know
that light to be Mine.

With the previous verse, the first topic that Brahman alone is present in every body as the chidabhasa, the Jivatma is over. Paramatma alone resides in every body as Jivatma and that is why in our culture, anybody we meet we greet with namasthe; that means, tey namaha, my namaskaram to you; we know very well that person does not deserve namaskaram, but we still offer, because we know that behind this body mind, there is paramatma alone in the form of Jivatma, behind a unclean body mind; but paramatma, the Jivatma is ever shuddhaha.

Moving
to next topic, from 12th to 15^th verse, we are entering topic that
Brahman alone is in the form of the jagat; the inert universe as well.