Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 09 on 15 January 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohor Moho Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsachanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishad Gavo Dobdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdam Geetam Ritam Mahat Mukam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yathkripathamam Vande Paramanandamadham We are discussing the final and 18th chapter of this Bhagavad Gita which is called Moksha Sanyasa Yogaha The chapter dealing with liberation very aptly indicating that Moksha is the final goal of every being and evolution will bring us to that state inevitably but we have to struggle if we intelligently do it then perhaps our sufferings will become a little less In our last class we have been discussing this most wonderful truth Any action requires five factors If these five factors are not present no action can ever be done This marvelous analysis we are not going to get anywhere else in this whole world as I emphasized it many times and will do it whenever occasion comes So what is the purpose of it? Purpose of life that each soul is potentially divine The goal is to attain to our true nature Self-knowledge to manifest our divinity Karma, life, efforts as an opportunity to progress towards that goal and the more attention we pay to this karma the sooner will be our spiritual progress So in that context wrapping up the whole teaching that was given in the past 16 years 16 chapters What does it mean? The first chapter is a peg to hang on the story so that there is an opportunity to expound this marvelous philosophy At 18th this particular chapter is a wrap-up, a summary and what remains in between are the 16 chapters That's why I said 16 chapters So what is the essence of sadhana? Sarva karma sanyasa That is give up depending upon any activity Give up the feeling I am the doer Give up the feeling I am the enjoyer Then who does it? Surprisingly nobody does it So sarva karma sanyasa is not just giving up some actions is not even giving up the results of everything that we do but finally it means do whatever you want and that point will come very soon and it is a marvelous point but the renunciation that I am not the doer and as soon as a person says I am not a doer then all the problems will go including who then is the doer even that question also will disappear as soon as I know that I am not the doer Why? Because very beautiful psychology if something is troubling me then I question who is responsible me or somebody else and a person who knows I am not the doer I haven't done anything I am not going to do anything I cannot really do anything such a person cannot reap the results of any action and therefore he is free from grief as well as from excitement both sukha as well as dukkha what we call dualities then when some headache is not mine such a person never bothers who is having the headache only a person who has got headache all sorts of weird theories will come who is responsible? Am I responsible? Is God responsible? Is fate responsible? Is nature responsible? We blame everybody else excepting ourselves then finally the question so ultimately it comes that God is doing everything and this Bhagavad Gita the highest Vedantic philosophy the very essence of the Upanishads categorically tells us No, the Atman doesn't do anything for the simple reason karma is done to get something karma is done to get karma phala and Atman doesn't require anything and therefore it cannot do it need not to do it will not do then who is doing? well, to think that something is being done whether I am doing it somebody else is doing it whether result is good or evil happy or unhappy this falls under the realm of Maya which comes because of avidya so to get rid of the avidya that is the teaching of the entire Bhagavad Gita and the essence of the avidya is Ahankara, I so get rid of the I and as soon as we get rid of the I then the whole problem will vanish the question is not going to be solved the question is going to be dissolved just as when we wake up from a dream we don't ask why this injustice has been done or why all those things like that this is the purpose of this teaching is that there is no karta, doer there is no karma, action and it is absolute truth but at this moment we are on the way to recognize that truth until that time first start with karma yoga obtain purity of heart progress in spiritual life surrender yourself to God and then everything is done by God in the final liberating knowledge which is I am Brahman there is no world there is no karma therefore there is no question of somebody is doing it or somebody is responsible for that if we understand that that is the real teaching of this Bhagavad Gita so the real sanyasa or monastic life is the vision of reality but karma yoga and sanyasa both are meant for this realization but according to the stage in which we are if we are not so intelligent people we are dull headed we are untrained people we have to perform karma yoga to slowly purify our heart then take to that exclusive spiritual practice whereby we attain that not only I am not the doer in fact there is no action at all no karma at all so what we discussed in our last class this is the most wonderful thing in the 13th verse for the successful accomplishment of any action whether it is mental local or external or physical five things, what are they? this is what we elaborately discussed now I want to add one more one step more to this so we are talking about this pancha koshas and along with that the fifth element is called by Bhagwan Krishna as daivam many people interpret God's will or our past janmas result whatever it is all these things are irrelevant for us but what is important is the whole universe is made up of what? our physical as well as mental personalities are made up of pancha koshas that is from the individual point of view from the universal point of view a whole universe itself is made up of these five bhutas five subtle elements or five gross elements a combination of these two is called the mind complex plus the body complex and the whole activity that is going on it is really the pancha mahabhutas that are doing pancha sokshma bhutas that are doing and the combination of the entire the universal five elements both external as well as internal universally they are called ishwara in other words God is doing his own activity for his own sake I and you or anybody do not come into the picture at all unnecessarily we poke our nose and we suffer from guilt I have done this I should not have done that I have not done that I should have done that all these will be completely irrelevant there so it is only an ignorant person who thinks I am doing it so the first stage is I am not doing it the second stage is it is Ishwara who is doing it the third stage is Brahman doesn't do anything because he doesn't require anything when there is no desire when there is no desire there is no activity there would be no desire when there is full knowledge when there is full knowledge then a person doesn't require what is it? the end result of every action is Ananda and a person knows I am Sat Chit Ananda therefore nothing remains and he knows I am unborn and therefore all the five other changes that follow birth do not affect me when a person is unborn where is the question of that person doing anything at all? it is an impossible thing and that is the truth whether we understand it at this stage or not this marvelous truth I cannot express what a tremendous truth is being presented but it should be heard and it should be digested it will take time may take many lives doesn't matter that's our goal what is the goal? I want to be Brahman I want to be birthless, deathless I want to be eternal, infinite I want to be absolute existence absolute knowledge absolute bliss why do I want? because that is me I have forgotten now I am searching for myself that's what I want to become this is what the Lord wants to tell in this 13th therefore He says the whole universe is made up of 5 cross 5 subtle elements it is they who manifest in the form of everybody's body everybody's mind and they are doing the different actions it is the Ishwara as if He divides Himself into two I am the doer and I am the witness I am the subject and the object also with which I am interacting the whole thing for this most beautiful example is dream when we are in the dream if this teaching is given in the dream this Bhagavad Gita teaching and if someone were to teach us any one of us that there is no dream world you do not exist this is all a mere imagination in your mind we are likely to put such a person in jail if not to think that he is a madcap but we ourselves as soon as we wake up then we understand who created the dream world I am the creator of the dream world how many of us? me, the only waker has created this entire dream world and what did I do? I divided myself into three categories I and the entire dream world that is the second and then the third one is I am witnessing myself unaffected by anything and as I mentioned many times it is this witness that keeps in memory because the participator can only remember whatever is happening at any given moment when the same participator moves on to the next experience next thought the previous thought is completely vanishing from his mind and therefore he cannot remember but it is the witness who remembers one identification after the other he himself is transforming and then when the person wakes up the witness the individual, the participator and the world which he is interacting with everything is but mere thought in the mind I have created it it is neither good nor evil for the simple reason it is unreal it is the real so without these five factors nothing can be done and then the lord is telling expounding the same truth in a slightly different manner first he said any action if it is to be done properly these five factors are involved Adhishtanam that means a physical body similarly the pranas the mind similarly the buddhi but the mother of all the cause of all is I want to be happy or I want to get rid of some suffering or unhappiness it is only one goal if there is unhappiness let me become happy by getting rid of it and if I am happy I want to seek some higher happiness this is ok I want higher happiness until we reach that state where I do not seek any happiness but I realize I am that happiness this quest this journey this evolution will not come to an end and it will happen to everybody because it is the Ishwara who is dreaming now the lord wants to tell so what about people every human being we are only talking about human beings every prani does any action only through the help of these five elements, both gross and subtle, there is no choice because everything in this world, including what we call the non-living, the mountains the rivers, in fact according to Vedanta the Bhutas, they are all from the scientific point of view, they are non-living from the Vedantic point of view, they are Devatas they are called Adhishtana Devata, which Bhagavan Krishna called Daivam in the 14th verse Daivam, now only when it comes to human beings activities can be judged only two judgments are there, good action evil action Dharmic action, Andharmic action that action which promotes happiness is a Dharmic action, that action which promotes unhappiness is Adharmic action and Swami Vekananda defined it so beautifully what is Dharma and what is Adharma that which takes us that action which takes us nearer to God is Dharmic action and that action which takes us far away from God, away from God, that is Adharmic action God being the nature of Sat and Chit and Ananda that action which takes us towards Sat, means both physical mental, intellectual moral, spiritual health, that is God Sat, that knowledge which is the right knowledge and right knowledge is that which never changes, wrong knowledge is always changing and Ananda I don't have Ananda, I am Ananda, anything that we have, remember one day or other it parts from us because just as light and darkness, good and evil cannot remain together, happiness and unhappiness cannot remain together anything that what is called that I have I have a house, I have a car I have a body I have a mind, this will depart from us sooner or later, but if I am happiness, that is my nature and it can never be separated because that is me, I can never be destroyed that means I am Sat I am Chit and I am happiness and that is my nature, therefore it is my unconscious seeking let me be myself that is God's spiritual quest, so the Lord is telling in this 15th verse, whether an action is Dharmic or Adharmic, good or evil, it is justice or injustice everything for doing any action and all actions are again subdivided into three mental vocal and physical, external mentally also we can think what is called pure thoughts or impure thoughts, Dharmic or Adharmic, we can utter something which is truth or which is untruth, we can do what is beneficial or what is harmful and all these are called Dharma and Adharma, whatever actions we do they have to be divided into two, good and evil, either we go towards God or we are moving away from God that is the essence of this 15th verse, we will read now so whatever action a man performs with his body, speech or mind, whether right or wrong, these five are its causes beautiful verse and the meaning is extremely clear, if we have followed our earlier explanations so let us say through this body walk, by the speech, vocal mental only three we have got three, why only three types of activities, because we have got only three instruments so human being why human being, because animals are excluded from the Dharma and Adharma they won't reap results they will go on evolving a human being can become an animal because of something wrong he has done but an animal in the natural course of its evolution is not reaping its prarabdha karma, there is no prarabdha, because for reaping the animal has to feel that I am an independent human being I am the doer even though an animal temporarily says I want to kill, I want to eat I want to sleep, I want to procreate etc but it is instinctive not thinking it is only human beings for whom the rational faculty the thinking faculty deliberative faculty enters and only when there is a deliberative faculty and man assumes responsibility, he plans, he schemes and he details how he is going to accomplish and he expects and if he doesn't get what he expects, he is disappointed, if he gets, then he is happy if he gets more then he is terribly happy, so it is only a person whose ahankara, egotism he assumes doership such a person cannot escape from reaping good or bad, therefore we have to understand only Naraha a human being and yathkarma prarabhate yathkarma, whatever action he does it, what kind of actions niyayam, that means dharmic, righteous, good beneficial, positive viparitam or its opposite, what is it evil action, adharmic action, harmful action, that which harms other people so whatever he does through these three instruments the mind, the speech and the body earlier aforesaid mentioned those five adhistanam, karta vividancha pradagvidam cheshtaha and daivam, those five factors are responsible if one factor is missing, he cannot do it, that is the most marvelous thing, one factor is missing, action is not possible, so here the beautiful meaning is given by our sages, Naraha etymologically it means na priyate, the one who doesn't die he is called Nara, what are you talking about, every human being, this man dies, that x dies y dies and z dies so every man dies, this man is mortal, that man is mortal other man is mortal every human being is mortal, this is how logic goes, what are you talking about we are not talking about the fall of this particular body, man or animal by nature he knows consciously by few unconsciously by everyone that I am deathless that is why the struggle is not to die but to become deathless so etymologically priyate means to die, nariyate means not to die, so the one who doesn't die but here is a human being and what does he do, he does karma why does he do karma because he wants to perpetuate himself let us take a small example here is a person he is hungry, he knows if he doesn't eat, he is going to die so he doesn't want to die he wants to live therefore he eats food, therefore he drinks water, therefore he breathes in, therefore he wants to expand himself by getting more and more people think the more things they have, the happier they are, the safer they are not knowing presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers ministers, anybody can get covid, nobody is immune from this disease so especially all the 6 fold changes, birth growth, old age disease, decay death, are inevitable anything that comes into being even a chair, it has a birth date, a food material a manufacturing date a shelf life and an expiry date everything is there, mountains rivers, everything has a birth everything has a death but here human being he is trying his level best an ignorant human being is trying his level best if I eat more medications I will live a long time and then now if science can discover some medication some what is called the Egyptian mummies used to be thinking that they will get up in the other world, like that if my genes can be preserved at minus 50 degree centigrade and in after 200 or 500 years they can replicate me in fact we are doing it even now how? the moment what is called a person he wants to marry why does he want to marry? the purpose is not pleasure the purpose is nature forces him to replicate himself through the children passing off his genes this propagation of genes is what is called the purpose of female and female coming together but human being is so selfish he doesn't want to do anything unless he is given some incentive so Prakruti says I will give you pleasure so you do it this is what has been highlighted by Richard Dawkins in that beautiful book The Selfish Gene so here is everything and according to the Vedas if you perform Agnihotra then you will discard this physical body and then you go to heavens and you enjoy it and here is a beautiful idea, what is this idea? that this body is born, body will die, body was unmanifest, it becomes manifest which is called birth then it will become again after some time it will become non-manifest we are not talking about the body there is some unconscious identification I am having a body but I am not the body if this body goes also I will go to some other world life continues there this is the belief of most of the people but whether a person believes or not is not important, is it a fact or is it not a fact this is what the scripture is telling man consistently is struggling either consciously or unconsciously only to perpetuate himself what about sleep is a beautiful thought what about deep sleep is not doing anything deep sleep is the preparation for perpetuating himself both in the waking state as well as in the dream state, that is the real truth whatever man is undertaking is where any type of activity whether selfish or unselfish, right or wrong, spiritual or unspiritual so all these things are nothing but pure attempts at perpetuation is it going to happen yes, that is going to happen now having said having said what Bhagwan Krishna has said that for the successful completion of any activity five elements are involved and even if one single element is absent no action can be done not only not successfully but even to do it unsuccessfully also it is not possible and in the next he said whether a human being does a righteous act or wrong action it doesn't matter but that person requires these five elements without which it is impossible and just now I mentioned which is a point we have to remember again and again that we forget we are part of the universal which is called Adhishtana Devata and collectively our individual personalities consisting of three states waking, dream and deep sleep similarly the whole universe has three states Jagrat Prapancha, Swapna Prapancha and Sushupti Karana Prapancha they are also the same individuals universal individual called Virat, universal individual called Hiranyagarbha universal individual called Ishwara comprising of all these three states both individually as well as collectively it is the Ishwara who is doing everything and that is what is meant whether you call it nature is doing Gunas are doing their own actions or the Divine Mother is getting everything is done who is the Divine Mother? Srishti, Stithi, Vinashanam Shakti, Bhute, Sanatani it is the Divine Mother in the form of these three Srishti, Stithi, Vinashanam the point is where do I come in? where is my ego? simply I am thinking I am somebody yes you are somebody but your somebody-ness is a part of that universal part, if we can remember that I am a part of the universal, I have advanced in spiritual life, quite a great this is the Bhagawan is abusing, accusing a person, only stupid fellow, a fool an ignorant person an evil minded person he alone thinks that I am somebody and I am doing something but an understanding person, a knowledgeable person, a rational person doesn't do at all, even take a simple example take a machine, a machine consists of so many parts if a single part thinks that without I am doing everything all these parts are completely nothing, then it is the height of ignorance it is a beautiful story I am reminded from the Chandogya Upanishad, once there was a quarrel between the sense organs, organs of knowledge, they all felt terribly egotistic I am the greatest, I am the greatest, how do you know then they started quarrelling then after sometime some common sense prevailed and somebody some intelligent person must have told look quarrels do not establish any fact, in fact they disturb your mind, do one thing, let us put yourselves to test what is the test let each sense organ go out of this body return after one year and let us see whether this body will be dysfunctional, dead without that organ if it is, then that organ is that organ without which life becomes impossible is the most important organ, so first the eyes went out and then after one year very proudly preening itself that it must be, it came back and it found to its shock that the life was going on as usual that is the most marvellous truth a blind man also is as happy or as unhappy don't think a deaf person, a blind person or somehow disabled person their happiness is very less happiness has nothing to do with the instruments, it is at best some inconvenience but nothing more than that so this person, what is he doing the prana came back this eyes came back and then how did you find life they said yes, we can't see but life went on quite usual, as happy as previously also a bit inconvenience we have to adopt other means etc. like a blind person then it became a little bit small his face has become small and then it quietly entered into its duties then the ears went out same thing happened, other organs went out, same thing happened one after the other, a little bit inconvenient but life went on in its full swing nothing has lessened then the root cause of all this as we talked in this previous verse, prana without prana, no sense organ will function, that is why every sense organ is called actually activity of the prana, energy without energy no machine will run, these are all nothing but mechanical parts without electricity no mechanical part will function so this prana it started going out, it has not gone out it just started to go out as soon as it started as if a huge tree is being completely uprooted from the deepest part of its roots then everybody understood, no no no please don't go because if you go, we are dead without prana we are dead, this is the story but we have to understand the import of this, here prana means Bhagawan, Paramatma Ishwara, Consciousness so without Consciousness, nothing will happen so a wise person he knows, everything is done by God, that is why Ramakrishna was so fond of singing shakali tomari ichcha everything is thy will mother and loke bole koriyami people think I am the doer, I am the experiencer who is the doer? God who is the experiencer? God, where do I come in? and that is where Ramakrishna's beautiful story of the calf, humba I am, I am and ultimately when it falls into the hands of the corder it understands its ignorance and it surrenders to God and said, naham naham, Ramakrishna was a great, what is called, similariser he uses so many similes he was a great observer so this entrails which are used in the cord it gives a peculiar sound tui, tui, tui that means tuho, tuho naham, naham tuho, tuho and then its troubles come to an end so this is what is being explained in the 16th verse the same topic we discussed just now, 16th verse that being so what being so, that all these 5 elements are Ishwara, who is doing everything in the form of this world that being so, that being the fact the man of perverted mind, that is one who is overcome with avidya or ignorance of the fact that he is the Atman but he thinks he is not the Atman not only that he thinks I am an individual and that egotism is called perverted mind who on account of impure understanding why avidya avidya makes him think I am not the Atman but I am one of the myriads of objects which is called the world, looks on the self the absolute as the agent, he sees not at all so what does he do he thinks I am the doer Atmanam means here, I am the doer very beautiful word so he who knows that Atmanam, the real self the Ishwara, the Bhagawan the Paramatma the Parabrahman, the Divine Mother she is the real Kartha she is the creator she is the sustainer and she is also the recycler he who understands his vision is correct he sees everything right therefore he enjoys it but he who thinks I, the individual ego the small ego I am the doer such a person Bhagawan Shri Krishna gives an epithet Durmatihi, Mathi means capacity to understand, mind Durmatihi means wrong understanding wrong understanding means the opposite to the right understanding so he who sees himself as the doer when it is in fact it is the Ishwara who is otherwise called Prakruti who is doing everything such a person is called Durmatihi what is the point so Durmatihi all your sufferings are due to this wrong understanding and this is the root cause so I am telling you root cause, treat the root cause the real diagnostics then only you will be able to be free from every type of this thing you will understand I am the Atman then you will enjoy what is called absolute existence no fear of death absolute knowledge, no fear of ignorance absolute Ananda that is you become the Swaroopa of the Chitthan, you are the existence, you are the knowledge and you are the bliss, that is the goal it is not to criticize anybody because Bhagavan Krishna has to criticize the entire world after all how many people of knowledge you will get in this world only 4 or 5 so let us analyze it but from Sati, this being the fact what is being the fact all the 5 elements Panchakoshas not only individually but universally in the form of the Panchabhutas a totality of these both gross and subtle universal elements is called Ishwara because he only manifesting in both these forms he is doing everything and you have nothing to do with that your ego doesn't play it doesn't create anything he who sees I am the doer if that understanding comes and that vision continues that is called Pashyati means that is his understanding, that is his way of looking at this world and the way of our understanding each of our understanding that limits the way how we look upon you understand for example here is a good person and your whole action and reaction depends upon it I remember a beautiful incident Swami Vivekananda was one day sitting probably in Boston or New York I do not remember he was quietly sitting in a park and there was a shopping mall a black woman with her child was going even in those days nobody will entrust their children to any strangers this lady she wanted to do shopping this child was probably a nuisancical child some good children are there some nuisancical children are also there so she had one look at Swamiji and she approached and said will you kindly take care of my child for a few minutes I am in a hurry I have to buy certain things and I will collect the child Swamiji said go ahead madam I will look after your child and this lady went with great joy because she is relieved and she also knows that this person is absolute trustworthy I don't know how many people will trust Sri Ram Krishna or Swami Vivekananda but that lady must have been pure lady to be able to recognize an honest man a truthful man, a gentleman what we call and she came back and thanked Swamiji collected her child and happily went back a small incident but what a marvellous incident giving us an insight into that marvellous character which is just spilling out from the personality of Swami Vivekananda of course everybody doesn't recognize it, there were so many critics so many people who hatched lot of poisonous plots to destroy even to destroy to kill him etc so this being the case that everything is done by the nature consisting of these Panchakoshas and in their both universal and individual aspect and every action is done by it guna gunesh vartante, gunaha means nature is working with its own element it is doing its own job the objects are also made up of gunas the person who is doing is also made up of gunas and both the subject and object are the creations or manifestations of the gunas or Ishwara and they are doing their job, where do you unnecessarily come in and say everything is being done by me, that kind of understanding is a wrong understanding idiotic understanding foolish understanding what is wrong with that, it creates tremendous amount of tension guilt and lot of suffering akrita buddhitva, beautiful word akrita buddhi buddhi means the capacity to understand, that instrument that has the capacity to understand is called buddhi, so that buddhi akrita means not refined not made a proper instrument, just as a rough diamond requires tremendous amount of cutting and polishing and everything, that mind which has, which believes in god in the scriptures, approaches a teacher and well instructed by the teacher, cherishes the idea that what my teacher taught me is right and then practices it for a long time, thereby its heart becomes pure and thereby the right understanding comes that purity of mind will come and that was what Patanjali Rishi is referring as that yogaha chitta vritti nirodaha is not suppression of thoughts but it is purification of the thoughts, that means everything is seen in its right light which is divine light that I am the purusha, I am not the body and mind means I am the pure atman then this buddhi which has become krita, purified by getting training through the scriptures with the interpretation of the guru it becomes krita buddhi pure buddhi so until that time this person's mind is impure and impure mind sees everything as impure impure mind's understanding is wrong understanding, then what happens such a person thinks what is the result? such a person thinks I am the doer and whoever is the doer so this what is called three states are there, I am the knower I am the doer I am the experiencer so I am the gnatha I am the kartha and I am the bhoktha these are the three modifications and one who is pure, he says god is the only knower god is the only doer god is the only experiencer such a person is sanmatihi as opposed to durmatihi so when god is doing everything or if you wish, nature is doing everything or if you wish the universal pancha bhutas are doing everything the man of perverted mind who on account of impure improper understanding looks upon himself as the agent, he doesn't see, on the contrary this word is used as durmatihi, ignorant person, a person of knowledge what he does, he says atmanam kevalantu kartaram, here atma means, first meaning of atma is my limited ego second meaning of the atma is that universal lord ishwara, bhagwan, paramatma divine mother, let thy will be done, whatever meaning we see, so this is the most wonderful thing ahankara, egotism has no place at all in anybody that is, then this atman does it really do, I mentioned earlier, this is the point we have to advance in understanding does god do anything really no, pure god, para brahman doesn't do anything does jiva atma do anything he also doesn't do anything then who does it, that is a very peculiar question so the answer given is this chidabhasa, reflection of the pure consciousness in the mind combined with the body mind complex, that is what it thinks, I am the doer and ultimately when knowledge dawns it understands I am not the doer, not only that there is no world, when the whole world doesn't exist, the question of doing something doesn't arise just as when we wake up the whole dream is a fantasy so it is only an imagination when it is imagination the question of what is right, what is wrong what is good, what is evil, what is enjoyable what is suffering all this, what is real and what is unreal, the whole thing becomes meaningful and it is thrown out of the window, that's why we don't remember millions of our dreams that we have got here Bhagavan Shankara, he tells us something, even though he sees, he doesn't see pashyannapi chana pashyati pashyannapi, that means even though his eyes are open, he is blind he doesn't see the defects of a person, of an object of the world, of himself, he sees everything as if he is seeing, but he doesn't see, means what? he doesn't see the truth, he sees only the untruth so it is, he gives an example it's like a person suffering from a cataract, who sees more than one moon even though there is only one moon so even if you see when there is a pond and there is surface wind and it is whipped into waves etc and every particular wave or droplet reflects a particular moon so it is said when a person has got a cataract, then he doesn't see correctly, sometimes he sees double vision, so Shankaracharya gives, how does he give this, that means even in his time, same conditions existing same ignorance is existing this ignorance is the root cause of the world ignorance is the perpetrator of the world and ignorance ultimately through suffering leads us out of ignorance that is our greatest mother now we will proceed as much as possible into the next shloka a most marvelous a most fantastic statement is made by Bhagwan Krishna here and it is so fantastic that it is very difficult what I call even to accept that one what does it mean he who is free from the feeling of I am the doer, I consciousness and whose understanding is undefiled that means right understanding though he slays sat, iman lokan hatva, means killing all these people all these men, how many not one, in a battlefield there will be millions if one evil dictator decides to use one nuclear bomb it will kill literally maybe definitely millions but maybe even billions and not only that, the effect is long term effect and here he says there is no limit that is the meaning we have to take any number of people not only that, you kill the entire world even if such a person with right knowledge he kills that is other people say that he is the cause of the destruction of this entire world he is not bound he is not bound at all because he is not attached to what he does, he is a pure karma yogi and he doesn't have egotism, he knows it is Ishwara who is doing and whatever he does it doesn't attach itself the result doesn't attach itself to him why? because it is our common experience, when I do something the result will not attach to you because you don't feel that Swamidaya Atmananda's action I am doing and so I reap Swamidaya Atmananda's karma phala, similarly I don't want to do it, each one of us are the greatest practitioners of karma yoga so far as the whole world is concerned excepting when it comes to my own personality I am the greatest ignorant person in this whole world now it is a horrifying thought this killing, why? Killing because the Gita teaching is being given in the battlefield, so doubts will come and is it a fact? yes it is a fact, what is a fact? that such a man a Gnani, a man of wisdom, he kills he doesn't kill anybody, there is no killing, there is no papa, there is no suffering there is no guilty conscience why is it so? there are two answers which we will of course explore in our next class, the first answer is according to Gnani the whole world is Mithya Mithya means that which is not truth untruth, that which is untruth is unreal, that means that which is continuously changing, we will explore this idea is Mithya, it is not real, if it is not real whatever you do in what is not real cannot be real therefore if something is not real then whether you kill or you do some good, it makes no difference like you are watching a cinema, a drama it is, appearance is there, but reality is not there, that is our dream is the greatest example, as I said we will explore it next class second answer from an Advaitin's point of view, what is Advaitin's point of view? that there is only one truth that is Brahman, how many Brahmans are there? only one Brahman when there is only one element where is the question of killing? who is the killer? who is the killer? here killing means action doing some action, these beautiful ideas we will explore in tomorrow's class as much as possible, but these are most marvellous ideas May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vekananda bless us all with Bhakti Ramakrishna