Bhagavad Gita Ch14 part 01 on 15 May 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanura Mardanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarva Upanishadho Gavo Durga Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdam Geetam Ritam Mahat Mukam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langayate Girim Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramanandam Adhavam By the grace of God, we were able to complete 13 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. Now it's our privilege to enter into the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. This chapter deals very much, very practically with the three gunas. That is why it is very aptly named as Gunatraya Vibhaga Yogonama Chatur Dasho Adhyayaha. This chapter has 27 shlokas. What is the main topic? It deals with the three gunas. Three gunas means Sattva, Prajas and Tamas. A very important subject in Sankhya, Vedanta and all the religions in India and outside. Now let us just have a look at this world at this moment that's happening. It is very important to understand any scripture in the light of what is happening, what had happened and what is likely to happen in this world in future also. Everywhere we see, first of all, this terrible disease has come, which is affecting everybody irrespective of nations, religions, language, age, culture, everything. Look, what are the causes? Is it some demons, some malvalent beings? Who is the real cause of all this? If we have to trust in our scriptures, it is we ourselves have to be squarely blamed for what we had been doing, how we have been polluting the Panchabhutas, five bhutas, polluting the water, polluting the earth, polluting the forest, polluting the sky, everywhere. And look at any nation, there are conflicts within the nation, within the society and now international conflict, so much of rajas has come and the characteristics of the rajas is grab everything in an unlimited manner, insatiable thirst for acquiring, possessing even though one is not capable of enjoying whatever one gets. On the other side, there are people who are incapable of even getting a square meal. So, so much of what we call kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya and there are people who are incapable of completely defending themselves. So, there seems to be only two classes of people, the oppressors and the oppressed. So much of discrimination between those who have and those who do not have either riches, wealth, power, possessions, etc. Everywhere there is so much of conflict is going on. Do we sit back and reflect and then think over what has gone wrong? What should we do? That was the message Hare Krishna wanted to give thousands of years back when Kurukshetra war had taken place. Look at the brothers, look at the Kauravas, look at the Pandavas, look at what happened to Yadavas themselves. Wherever we see, we see so much of difference. Very little goodness seems to be there. So much of evil, wickedness seems to be there. Now, what is the cause of all these things? Is it possible that there must be a reason for it? And that is the special subject which this 14th chapter wants to deal with. What is it in short? What is the summary? Everything in this world is created as a combination of consciousness and matter. What we call in Vedantic language or Sankhya philosophy, Purusha and Prakruti, Brahman and Maya. And how does this combination? Brahman plus Maya in Advaita Vedantic language is called Ishwara. And Ishwara is supposed to be the creator of this entire universe. Since we are the products and every product is nothing but the manifestation of a cause, whatever qualities, whatever nature a cause has, same thing must be present in the effect also. Since this world and everything whether it appears to be non-living or living or microbes or bacteria or plants, birds, animals, human beings, everything is the product of Purusha and Prakruti. This is the most wonderful philosophy. And what is this combination? What is this Prakruti nature? What is that Ishwara's nature? He is consisting of three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. That means whatever we look at is a combination of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. And when we find so much of difference between any given two objects, including within ourselves what we were sometime back, what we are now, what we may be in future, everything depends upon the manifestation of these three Gunas. Let us first of all dwell upon a beautiful parable of Sri Ramakrishna himself and then we will come back so that we are in a better position to understand the 14th chapter. Sri Ramakrishna has uttered nothing but the Upanishads, the truths that the Upanishads, the Vedas have been expounding to humanity and for our own good. Every scripture teaches us what is good for us, what should be done, what should be avoided. Here goes the parable. A man wanted to go to a distant place. I am rephrasing that parable of Sri Ramakrishna in my own way. A man wanted to a faraway place and he had to go through a forest. As soon as he entered into the forest, he was caught by three robbers and they bound him and they stole, took away everything that he was carrying with him and then they firmly bounded him and then he was left. Then somebody wanted to kill him and one of them said, remember there are three robbers, one of them said let's kill him but one of them interfered and said, we have taken away whatever we wanted. What is the use of killing him? Let us bind him and leave him here and go away. And then they did that exactly. After some time, one of the robbers came back, untied him, took him very carefully to nearer to his own place from where he started, came to the edge of the forest and then he told him, there is your village, there is your house, please go away. The man was so grateful, so happy that he was not killed. Let them take away all his possessions. But here is a person who was so kind who untied him, unbound him, showed him the way back and then saved his life. Sir, please come to my home. You have saved my life. We would be most pleased if you could accept our worship as a gratefulness. But the man said, I cannot come because I am a robber. The moment I step out of the forest, police will catch me. So that is where Sri Ramakrishna ends the parable. What is the deep symbolism? He was telling the highest truth. These entire scriptures are telling us, the forest is the samsara, is the life we are leading. We are all victims, manifestations of nothing but these three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas. Every day also we sing, So the person in this parable who wanted to not only rob him, but kill him was tamas, the most terrible manifestation, the dark side, the lowest side of negativity. And the person who said, let us not kill him, let us just keep him there, bind him and go away, is rajas, much better than tamas. He had compassion. He did not want to go to the extent of killing him, but let us leave him there. But there was one robber and he was sattva guna and he came back. He unbound him and slowly led him. He was endowed with compassion even though he was a robber. But then the most important point for us, when this grateful person invited him to visit his home, he told the truth. I am also of the binding nature. I am a robber. I am a guna. Police will catch me. They will destroy me. What is the police we are talking about? Right knowledge. What is the right knowledge? I am not one of the gunas. I am gunadita. I am something which is beyond prakriti. I am completely different from prakriti. I have nothing to do with prakriti. My nature is of pure consciousness. I am eternal. I am ever free. This is the parable and this is the most wonderful parable. The whole samsara consisting of darkness, consisting of terrible amount of greed, possessions, lust, anger, greed, delusion and also that fine conscience which seeks freedom from samsara, which is filled with right discrimination, endowed with right knowledge, endowed with what we call sadhana chaturstaya sampatti, of which we are all having potentially. These three robbers, they all belong to prakriti and my nature is I am beyond prakriti. Exposition. How many gunas? What are their qualities? What happens when they are more and more manifest in a person? What happens if we slowly try to transcend, progress and progress always from tamas to rajas, from rajas to sattva, end from sattva, not to do anything within prakriti but to go beyond the prakriti, to transcend these three gunas. That is the goal. That's what Swami Vivekananda said. Each soul is potentially divine and at this moment, our divinity remains only as a potentiality and just as a seed, when right circumstances occur, manifests its own true nature, not, it doesn't want, try to become something else but it just wants to fully manifest its own nature. So we are all nothing but divinity. Why? Because we have come from God himself. So when we are looking, I mentioned at the beginning of today's talk, everywhere there seems to be terrible amount of conflict, people trying to kill each other, rob each other and possess other's possessions and insatiability. We have to understand, most of these people and a country, a state, a nation is nothing but collection of individuals. Here is a very important point, we have to understand, if any nation's leader are trying to express their opinion, that leader is nothing but a collectivity, a totality of what most people think, a mini somebody. Our Prime Minister is a mini good Indian. Anybody's, any country's president, he has been elected. Prime Ministers are elected and they are nothing but representations of the collectivity. We have to specially note this point. Take for example Duryodhana. It is not that only Duryodhana was bad. He represents but the manifestation of a collective tendency. That's why so many people had to die and most of the people who died, they all belong, is what is called mini Duryodhanas, mini Hitlers, mini Saddam Husseins, mini everything. Let us not think, one particular leader somehow dominates everybody and then rules. That cannot happen and that never happened. We have to understand, somebody is supported, there must be supporters. If somebody is elected, there must be electors. That means, we have to look at the collective whole and then say, there is something seriously wrong with all these people. Now, when we look at our own country, one thing is very clear. When Swami Vivekananda said that the whole of India was submerged in tamo guna, thinking that they are sattva gunis, that's a terrible thing. That's a very bad thing. But look at what happened. We had our independence many years back and then the nation is progressing. If it is progressing, from where? From tamas to rajo guna and that was what Swami Vivekananda wanted. That's why he even advocated, eat meat if you have to. Not that he was advocating as a religious credo that everybody has to eat meat. You are like earthworms. You eat meat and become strong, develop muscles of iron, nerves of steel and gigantic wills which nothing can resist. Iron will. If you can do that, then you will progress. You will not be repressed so much but until you grow into that rajasic state, you will be a tamasic person and if you are a tamasic person, rajasic person, rajas will always stifle you, overpower you, bind you, keep you in thralldom, keep you bound and that's not what is wanted. So Swami Vivekananda Sri Ramakrishna must have been very glad that most people in India have transcended this tamas but this terrible rajas has come and that is very very appropriate for all of us. One of our past presidents, one of the greatest thinkers and orators, Vivid Swami Ranganathanji Maharaj. This is what he says in his book commentary on Bhagavad Gita and our country is passing through a big transformation in the light of the kunas. It was mostly tamas for centuries. Now tamas has changed to rajas. That's progress but the next stage of human development in India must be sattva. From rajas to sattva through education, through ethical and moral values, the nation can capture, has to capture a bit of sattva to control and direct its rajas. That's human development in the right direction. That is the true freedom of the human spirit, true happiness and welfare of humanity. This chapter, this 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is of great interest in dealing with one's own life and in dealing with the life of the community at large. Shri Krishna continues the discourse of the 13th chapter into the 14th chapter without any question being asked by Arjuna. Till now the world was manipulating us. All sub-human species are manipulated by nature. Much of human life also is manipulated by nature. We are like a plaything in the hands of nature but we can take away our life from the hands of nature and begin to develop ourselves. To do that we need knowledge how to go beyond the three gunas and become free. That's our privilege. No animal can do it, only humans. That too sattva yukta people could become transformed. This was what? Revered, most revered Swami Ranganathanji Maharaj had to say in his introduction to this 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Now this Bhagavad Gita in this particular chapter Guna Treha Vibhaga Yoga that's the name because it deals with beautiful and elaborate discussion of these three gunas Prajoguna, Tamoguna and Sattvaguna. Since the main topic here the discrimination of the three gunas and the Self this chapter is called Guna Treha Vibhaga Yoga. Now let us look at ourselves. Whenever we look at either ourselves or others more or less we can guess which quality is dominating. If you see a person always sleeping, lethargic, non-thinking, irrational, misunderstanding and not at all active he may even may not desire many things that other people desire. Then you have to understand he is endowed with Tamoguna. But then look at some other persons extremely restless, very very active but very possessive and always running after things restlessly and his whole mind his or her whole mind is directed only towards acquiring more and more. When we see such things then we have to understand that person is possessed by Rajas but we see people very rational, very peaceful and at the same time they lead a very simple life, very contented life and they love everybody. They love to share and care for others even at the cost of their own difficulties and they are possessed of very tranquil nature. They take the events in life with equanimity. When we see though these people are few in the world not many we will find then you understand he is possessed of some particular nature which is called Sattva and from Sattva Guna just as like Tamoguna, Rajoguna spring certain spiritual qualities, noble qualities, certain ideals in life but the most important thing is that the whole world is consisting of three Gunas and evolution is nothing but moving from such seemingly inert Tamas Tamoguna to Rajoguna, Rajoguna to Sattva Guna. Even staying in the Sattva Guna as Swami Vivekananda puts it in the song of the Sanyasin even golden chains do not bind any less than iron golds. Sattva also binds but it has a special quality not like Tamas. It makes a person deeply thoughtful, very rational and very soon it makes the person understand I am not body or mind. Let us remember body-mind complex is the world the entire world and this body-mind is consisting of three Gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and as we just now discussed depending upon which quality is manifest our body-mind also has particular desires, particular Samskaras and which result in particular type of actions and which result in a particular type of experiences Karmaphala and again which will go to forge our Samskaras. This is Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga. In this chapter the Lord deals with this particular topic elaborately and shows how one can be free from these binding Gunas. Naturally the question comes should we become free? Yes, we have to become free because true freedom and it is freedom that we are always running after whether it is bodily freedom, sensual freedom, intellectual freedom, moral freedom, even moral freedom. Morality may be the highest level of spiritual consciousness so far as when we are striving to become spiritual but that is the only the background the foundation the springboard from where we have to jump and become one as it were with that which is beyond. Very beginning Shri Krishna praises self-knowledge to draw all our attention. Here of course Arjuna's attention. Self-knowledge the greatest knowledge which alone can take one to real liberation. Every other type of freedom is a temporary freedom. Somebody is hungry and given food he is temporarily free from hunger. So also thirst. So also tiredness. So also a house. Also possessions. Everything can give only temporary relief. Let us not forget this world consists of dualities. Nobody can have only heat or cold happiness or unhappiness. It consists of Sita and Vishna Jaya Apa Jaya Mana Apa Mana Lava and Nasta so one after the other in a like a cycle it moves in a cyclical way but to become free from this thrill of this attachment or identity Ahankara I am the body I am the mind. That is the final goal. For that Bhagavan Krishna first of all tells us what is this creation? It is the outcome of two things Purusha and Prakruti consciousness and matter which is called Ishwara and according to Sankhya is the Prakruti in association with Purusha. But here that Sankhya philosophy has been made into convergent without any division and pure consciousness that is the higher nature of each one of us and this Prakruti is our lower consciousness only in the realm of creation but once we go out of this creation we are nothing but what we call Brahman Shuddha Chaitanya The Lord says anything that we see in this world is nothing but a combination of Kshetra and Kshetragna that is Prakruti and Purusha nothing but these two these are the universal parents from whom all things and beings originate that means in each one of us there is that pure consciousness and there is also that matter which seemingly is inert Jada Lord Krishna then makes from the 5th to the 18th verse elaborate analysis of the three gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas What is the purpose? So that we can recognize which guna is dominant especially within us but this is also helpful when we are dealing with other things everything in this world is a manifestation I will give you a small illustration for example there is mango trees in mangoes there are three types of mango trees or three types of trees which yield three different types of mangoes one type of mango not edible at all second type of mango can be used only for certain purposes like maybe pickles maybe a little bit of side dish for some time but most juicy flavorful sweet mangoes as one example sweetest flavorful full of soft flesh is Sattvika mango that which is sour eatable but can be used only for a particular purpose that's manifestation of rages and there are certain mangoes worm eaten or bird pecked not at all useful for anything can be only used perhaps by birds or squirrels or worms etc. that is a manifestation of tamas this is an example you see a carpet as soon as you enter walk you feel very happy relaxed another type of carpet very gaudy full of flashing colors and mind becomes restless similarly there are some carpets and the moment even if it is new you step upon it you feel dull you feel like sleeping and your mind loses its power of thinking coming to a decision etc. every human being there are tamasic people ragesic people and sattvika people food three types of food and we get this elaborate illustration in the 17th and 18th chapters of this Bhagavad Gita how either it is food or dhriti or jnana or rituals or ahankara everything can be divided into sattvika ragesika and tamasika what is the use if we can understand whether it is within ourselves or within outside people events things that we have to interact with we can interact we can have better type of knowledge so that we can interact appropriately with certain type of people and also accept things you see another example came to my mind how many accidents happen while driving why does it happen perhaps either ourselves or the other party or drowsy didn't get good sleep and yet we are forced to do some things and in between I have myself seen this one driver sleeping but in dangerous curvy situations suddenly woke up and just a hair's breadth escaped accident how many accidents how many people are killed now the conflict is going on why because of ahankara what type of ahankara if only they sit down and say look I want to be happy you also want to be happy let's peacefully resolve this situation do the leaders or people do they really agree absolutely no what is the reason because of this dominance of a particular guna even though all of us have been endowed with the three gunas and these gunas differ between each one of us and especially place also is dominated by three gunas some places are extremely holy extremely sacred and the moment you behold some things you feel like sitting and praying up praying to God meditating saying japa some places you go there and you feel like drinking dancing doing things and losing common sense and some places are there there is more tamas is manifest tamas means not only laziness terrible misunderstanding and cruelty manifesting as lust as irrepressible uncontrollable anger all these things are also manifestation of tamas let us remember just if tamas is only sleeping then much of the world will be saved from so much of conflict but no terrible misunderstanding agnana wrong understanding ulta understanding is all because of the dominance of this tamo guna a rajo guna which is dominated by tamo guna the combination of these two is what makes our ahankara our egotism simply it bloats it is inflamed and then all these problems are bound to happen it is very important to understand what is the nature of any object it could be dogs it could be cows it could be tigers it could be trees forests rivers anything everything everything that is created is a mixture of these three gunas and here is another important point I talked about a place I can also talk about times every day there are times when sattva guna is more prominent and much of the time rajo guna is more manifest and sometime tamo guna is also manifest when is the tamo guna manifest? and it's very good at the time of sushupti tamo guna is most wonderful quality at the time of doing any undertaking any activity rajo guna is most wonderful at the time of studying scriptures especially swadhyaya at the time of prayer at the time of meditation japa spiritual activities then sattva guna is most important for us so early morning or at midnight we become sattva guna sampannas early morning that is called sandhya time but as the sun rises we become more rajasic and which is right but as after the sunset for some time mind becomes very quiet slowly the pressure comes down mind quietens down and then if it wants to have a peaceful slumber so that we can get completely refreshed and start our life again then we need to control we need to understand the nature of the gunas and exercise them manifest them at the right time in some way and that is possible only if we understand the nature of the gunas etc. so this is very beautifully expressed until about 18th shloka of this 14th chapter then the lord describes about when what the goal is to liberate oneself from association with the body-mind body-mind is nothing but manifestation of three gunas the self is completely different free from the gunas purusha is so how to identify ourselves with the gunas that state is called gunatita avastha that is the one which gives us liberation then Arjuna asks Krishna in the 21st shloka how do we know whether there is any gunatita any person who is still living and who has realized that he is not the body-mind in other words he is jivanmukta other words he is called a sthita prajna a great devotee and in the 13th chapter who is completely endowed with qualities like amanitvam adamvitvam etc how do we know and Bhagavan Krishna gives a brief reply to them that whatever happens in life a gunatita takes it samadrishna samadarshana everything in his stride never loses his quietness etc he doesn't seek anything and he is free from selfishness and he is a wise person and he exhibits all the qualities of a living free jivanmukta how to attain to that state of jivanmukti that's where Bhagavan Krishna tells something very important let us remember that the goal of life is to manifest our inner divinity and this inner divinity is hidden to some extent but it can be made manifest it can be made more and more unveiling tamo guna covers our real nature and makes us think we are somebody else vraja guna is much better it reveals the nature of pure knowledge consciousness much more than tamo guna but it directs us only towards selfish activities sattva guna it also inspires us to activities but unselfish activities because a sattvika person understands that the whole universe is nothing but manifestation of the same God how to attain to that state so at the end of Bhagavad Gita the Lord tells something very important sarva dharman parityajya mamekam saranam vraja aham tva sarva papebhyo I will release you maa sujaha mokshayisyami maa sujaha do not grieve Arjuna what is the Lord saying? the Lord is categorically saying that we must definitely take surrender ourselves because only one who is a gunatita one who is the master of the gunas one who is beyond the gunas only he can help us only a man who is free can help other people can unbind other people there was a beautiful story I have mentioned it earlier but it is beautiful it is very helpful in thinking I will again tell there was a king and he had a minister who was very wise and the minister used to tell that the goal of life is to become free and he used to teach the scripture to the king and the king was under the impression that the minister was a free man not understanding he was only a scholar very sincere scholar but nevertheless not a unbound not a free person a bound person like himself so one day the king ordered him you make me free otherwise I will punish you minister got worried he went home and he was refusing to take food or sleep he had a fortunately wise small but very wise daughter and she asked him what were the trouble and he explained a daughter said father eat food and sleep well tomorrow I will answer the king's questions and the minister had that confidence in his own daughter so he sleeps and next day brings and tells to the king oh king I do not know how to answer your question but my daughter will answer your question the king asked the child why is not your father freeing me from this then the daughter tells for the next few minutes you please do what I request you to and the king agreed so the girl told him you tell your servants to bind you to the pillar and same thing bind my father also to the pillar and that was done now the child tells to the king oh king you free my father from the bonds of this pillar and the king said my child how can I free I myself am bound then the daughter answered oh my king my father also is a bound person he knows the scriptures as a scholar but he is not free only one free person can help other persons to become free and a person who becomes free is none other than God that's why he is called Jeevan Mukta Brahmavith in the era of Brahman becomes Brahman himself so this person who is a gunaditha is none other than God because there are not some people that person became free this person became free the other person became free and there are so many gunadithas no so many bound persons seem to be there but a free person is only one call him by whatever name you like and we call him Brahman or God in simple language for Arjuna the only way to become a gunaditha is to take surrender yourself at the feet of God pray to him earnestly and he alone can free you how does God free us when we pray out of his mercy he sends a guru Sadguru and the Sadguru is none other than the voice of God as the Guru is only a voice the knowledge that flows through the Guru belongs to God only here also same teaching Sarva Dharma Parityaja in different words is telling that Oh Arjuna the only way for you to become free is to become a devotee and obtaining Guru obtain instructions surrender yourself to the Guru consider him as God because it is God only who is acting through the mouth of this Guru and only by his grace you can become really free so that is the introduction I have given you and I consider this chapter as a very important chapter because this deals with beautifully a psychology of every object in this world specially of human beings when in our life we confront so many people some are friendly some are non-committent some are very inimical and whatever we try to do some people they hiss what Sri Ramakrishna used to call some people are like snakes when they are going to sting you bite you so silently when you are not expecting when you are trusting these people no knowing but then when we analyze why do these people do that? It is all because is what can the poor person do? He is endowed with this particular guna and the most wonderful thing we have to understand just now we have talked about Sharanagati surrendering ourselves to God Sri Ramakrishna used to call God as my divine mother and so we are also singing every day when we are singing that hymn composed by Swami Vivekananda Om Hreem Hritham four times we are singing I know many things but I am under the control of these gunas which do not allow me to express my spirituality Vakthro Dhruthopi Hridhime Nachabhadi Kinchit Tasmatvame Vasharanam Mamadheenabandho I speak through my mouth very sincerely I know what is right what is not right and yet there is something which prevents me from doing what I know to be the right thing that four times we go on singing it is also said that Duryodhana was lying in the battlefield his thighs broken by Bhimasena and some of his intimate followers went there and it seems they asked him that you knew Duryodhana before long before the war was started this is what is going to happen to you and so I do not know where this incident is there but this is the most famous verse Janami Dharmam Nachameh Pravruthi Janami Adharmam Nachameh Nivruthi I know what is right I do not feel inclined to do it I know what is Adharma what is non-righteousness but I cannot refrain myself from doing it as if somebody is sitting in my heart catching hold of my heart making me a puppet and making me behave like that Ishwaraha Sarvabhutanaam Hridyeshe Arjuna Tishtate Brahmayan Sarvabhutani Entra Rudhani Mayaya what a marvellous thing for us to understand this 27 shlokas these shlokas especially from 5 to 18 give us crystal clear understanding of human psychology especially human psychology and if we can understand the mind and that is the purpose of psychology what is psychology? knowledge about the mind if we can understand about our own mind especially and what qualities what gunas are specially manifesting whether there is more Sattva more Rajas or more Tamas then we can make a plan and then pursue that plan so that we can slowly albeit surely rise from Tamas to Rajas and Rajas to Sattva and by the grace of God go beyond all the three gunas which is called Mukti, Moksha, Liberation Jeevan Mukti if still that person is alive etc. this is what happens and in this Bhagwan Krishna gives beautiful analysis what is the nature definition of each guna and then then what is the effect of that upon us and what type of manifestation is there how to recognize and what is the usefulness what do we get as a result of this if somebody is endowed with Sattva after death what does he attain similarly Rajoguna where does he go similarly he who is dominated by Tamoguna where does he go this beautiful very elaborate analysis of these three gunas can help us to understand especially our own nature and that is what every psychologist is trained to do albeit in a different way but here is most elaborate analysis of one's own mind of anybody's mind and the greatest example we give also from the Ramayana Vibhishana representing Sattva guna Ravanasura representing Rajoguna and Kumbhakarna representing Tamoguna and also when we are young we are dominated by Tamas eating and drinking that's very good for that stage slowly we transcend that Tamoguna we become more and more active that is called Rajoguna and it creates lot of desires etc. and then after a long experience we become Vibhishanas but it should be done consciously with full knowledge with a definite plan and we can do that if we understand our own mind and that's why I particularly like this this is a most practical way of understanding what is our psychology and which guna is dominating and how to progress from a lower guna to a higher guna it will take time many lives but we can definitely progress if we have that knowledge and one day by God's grace we can also go beyond that whether we study the scriptures whether we meditate whether we pray whether we do philanthropic activities everything is dominated the manifestation of these three gunas ultimately by God's grace we can go beyond the three gunas and that is called full manifestation of divinity that's what Swamiji says either through Karma Yoga Bhakti Yoga Raja Yoga or Jnana Yoga by one or more or a cum all of these together be free and that is the whole of religion as he said this beautiful chapter we will discuss in a little more details tomorrow night Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanura Mardanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum May Sri Ram Krishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Jai Ram