Baghawad Gita, Class 202: Verses 9 to 14

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