Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 07 on 08 January 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Muhurmuhu Om Vasudevasudham Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadogavo Dogdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdham Geetam Ritam Mahat Mukam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yath Kripathamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We are studying the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita First of all the Lord removed the doubt that was afflicting the mind of Arjuna The doubt was what is the big deal of difference between Tyaga and Sanyasa and especially this doubt is more likely to arise in India because Tyaga means just ordinary mental renunciation Sanyasa is a special lifestyle but Bhagavan Krishna said everybody with a Tyaga is a Sanyasi, a Tyagi both mean exactly the same thing in other words simple plain words is the fittest person to merge into Brahman but a few people because probably everything was settled and they would like to adopt a special way of life that is called Sanyasa and then the Lord also has said there are three types of activities which should never be given up by anybody Igna, Dhaana and Tapaha Why? Because they purify the heart, advance the student in his spiritual path and ultimately that is what brings about the ultimate disassociation from the body-mind complex These are the activities, what do they do? Gradually they clean our heart and remove all attachments, desires therefore disturbances and therefore the mind becomes calm therefore it becomes very capable of understanding what is truth and what is non-truth and naturally this is a very natural process as soon as we understand what is untruth we do not make need to make any effort automatically it will drop the moment anybody comes to know that this is filth, this is poison no need to advise him please pray to God so that you can give it up, no then ordinary intellectual understanding is there, I know this is bad but I'm still clinging that clearly shows the man's real understanding has not come information has come, not knowledge has come so this should never be given up then the Lord also is trying to tell supposing the Lord was telling that don't give up these things but here from now onwards what is He telling? even if anybody wants to give up it is not possible that was what we were discussing in our last class eleventh shloka it is not it is impossible for a person so long as there is a body there is a mind the mind will be thinking the mouth will be speaking most of the time but it is optional but the body the heart must pump and the blood must flow and every cell of the body must do their own functions and therefore it is impossible but he who becomes a karma yogi who is a karma yogi he who does only what is necessary and what is right and without any attachment without desiring any results etc such a person he will be he alone is called a tyagi so long as there is a body it is impossible for a person to give up activities at all therefore better try to become a karma yogi that is the eleventh shloka is telling so deha vrut means one who has a body but not only one who has a body but one who thinks either I am the body or I have a body and this is being so beautifully mentioned here now now in the next there is a quotation in the fifth chapter eighth and ninth I do not do anything that is what a karma yogi thinks who is doing that indriyani indriyeshu vartante the prakruti gunas are working with themselves the sense organs are working with themselves including breathing in breathing out moving hands and legs and even fluttering the eyelids seeing etc any action that is done by the body mind as well as the speech what does a karma yogi think I am not doing the lord is doing and here this is called complete sharanagati let us take the example of Sri Ramakrishna when at nightfall Sri Ramakrishna bowed down to the divine mother he used to repeat the holy names of god keeping time all the while by clapping his hands he also repeated his favorite mantrams each having some lofty unifying principle running through it such as brahma atma bhagwan then bhagavata bhakta bhagwan brahma shakti shakti brahma veda purana tantra gita gayatri sharanagata sharanagata I take refuge in you I am yours I am yours naham naham tuhu tuhu not I not I but you but you ame jantro tumi jantri I am just a machine you are the operator hey krishna mama prana oh krishna you are my life you are my heart you are my body you are my mind you are everything the whole universe is nothing but you so this is how Sri Ramakrishna used to repeat and why am I mentioning these things because it is impossible to give up any activities but a real karma yogi follows two conditions the first is he will reduce to the minimum every action that is unnecessary and which is inimical obstructive to his spiritual practices second even while performing those minimum things he says oh lord I am able to do these things only because of your grace remember at the beginning of this 18th chapter I mentioned the real name for this chapter should be given as a sadhana sharanagati yoga the ultimately the only goal of everybody and history proves it concretely it is to completely surrender ourselves at the lotus feet of the god in fact we do not exist the world doesn't exist just as a serpent doesn't exist accepting the rope this world doesn't exist accepting brahman and I and you and everybody else it is only the false jiva the false ego which claims I am a bound person and I want to be liberated and I will do it by performing sadhana this is absolute truth we briefly discussed in the 13th chapter how there are some so-called self-certifying wise people who go on saying so okay I am a jivatma I am a bound soul I will do virtuous actions I will purify my heart in course of time I will attain progress in spiritual life and attain to the highest truth that I am brahman and shankaracharya passes most marvelous remark such people's pandithya scholarship is one of the worst type of scholarships because when there is nobody who is bound who is going to be liberated if bondage is real it cannot be gotten because anything real can never be made non-real if it is false there is no need to do anything this is a one of the highest expressions of advaita vedanta but I will not dare to go to that extent but when the occasion comes I will briefly refer to it and Shri Ramakrishna he used to tell about the sharanagati what is sharanagati not doing something but to get completely convinced that I am nothing everything is you na aham na aham na aham toho toho only the thou thou not I not I for that he used to illustrate it with a beautiful story and there was a calf and it was yoked and it used to whole life rain or shine it used to be allowed and then made to work hard then when it dies probably it is sold to a butcher who will sell the meat and even then it makes noise hamba hamba means aham aham I I I at last out of the entrails of that grown-up bull or bullock some cord is made some people use it to separate old cotton and make it again fresh so only then the sound that comes from that cord it is toho toho to a peculiar sound comes Shri Ramakrishna being a pun master he created this story only then it understands its problems and suffering because of this egotism and then it learnt its lesson says toho toho tohi tohi tohi toho toho you you not me not me and then its troubles come to an end beautiful elaborate story I suggest that you go through it in the gospel of Shri Ramakrishna then the lord is proceeding now and today's class starts with this twelfth so every karma produces three types of results every karma produces must produce there is no option three types of results and depending upon how we perform whether we are attached to the completely bound enmeshed with our egotism or we are spiritual aspirants depending upon our outlook the three different results will come and Shankaracharya has given us a most beautiful commentary upon it but I will just summarize what it is so we are entering into the twelfth shloka the threefold fruits of action what are they desirable undesirable and a mixture of both desirable and undesirable accrues in this life as well as after death to those who are not karma yogins to those whom we call worldly people but all these results will not accrue to the sannyasins very beautiful shloka so what is that if a person refuses to become a karma yogi what will be the adverse consequences so that is what is going to happen here anishtam means completely undesirable what is that supposing somebody prays to god and says oh lord grant me a lot of money or other things or give me a beautiful spouse and then supposing the lord says my child has prayed for it i will give it to you and then what happens that the lord is trying to tell him along with this package these payments will come and some of these packages you will have to you will lose more than what you gain and the proportion is very disproportionate and you will get more suffering than happiness but in the what is called deluded by maya person will not listen so undesirable things results will inevitably follow if we perform what we call scripture forbidden actions even scriptures are not necessary in a way of speaking i know if i do some harm to my neighbor because he's weak and if there is another neighbor who is stronger than me the karma phala will come he will make me undergo more than i made the first fellow undergo suffering so this is the karma phala anishtam then if somebody has faith in the scriptures and takes the advice of wise people and molds his life accordingly and he tries as far as possible to perform only the righteous deeds he will get only desirable results but let us remember here even if it is completely desirable even if it is completely undesirable every experience is not a pure experience it contains both happiness contains unhappiness unhappiness contains happiness i'll give a simple example suppose you are a good person and you work hard you earn money and you buy a sweet and you eat it now is it pure happiness or is it a mixed happiness let us say since your childhood you started paying for this sweet in the form of going to school then college then university then somehow passing then with great anxiety applying for a job getting it trying to please your this one earn money bring it and then buy it after buying at least is it possible for you to be free from suffering now how much time let us stop a second ask how much time does it take for a cake to be eaten for a sweet to be eaten perhaps a few minutes if it is a somewhat bigger cake if it is rasagulla maybe a few minutes but after it goes from the tongue to down into the stomach how much time we have to waste we have to digest it or it might create diabetes who knows so many things are there but you know we are so blind blinded by mahamaya we don't think the consequences so marriage has a lot of advantages but it is also very very hard work so there are three types of results will come and there are certain types of results which is neither too desirable nor too undesirable a mixture inevitably everybody will get it now it is not only suppose a person a student worked very hard he is likely to get the results in this life itself so also a wicked person who does something at least some of his karmaphala will be fructifying in this for example if accidentally or so you happen to put your hand in fire it will burn no doubt if you are careless you slip and you suffer no doubt about it so that is how we have to understand but then this particular verse bhagavan krishna use prayatya means after death what does that mean first of all if it is undesirable result that means there is only one that means this person had done terribly evil things and he had to reap so he will go to a special place called hell and he will suffer there for some time not for proportionate to the karma and he comes back again another chance will be given another chance will be given any number of chances will be given supposing a person does extremely virtuous deeds following the injunctions of the scriptures then that person will go to heaven but remember these are all very temporary things like going to a super hotel as soon as your payment is over people will be waiting to throw us out so from heaven also he will fall but the result doesn't end there if a person has done virtuous deeds he is likely to be born in a very favorable good environment family and if it is a wicked person evil person is again to be reborn because of his samskaras he will be born in a again very most unfavorable circumstances here we have to understand a great wonderful point and that point is we have to understand clearly when a person repeats good deeds or evil deeds he is producing an impression called samskaras so when a person goes to heaven he is not exhausting the samskaras he is only exhausting the results of the deeds karma phala but the samskaras are a separate issue similarly if an evil person is doing he is also exhausting only the results of his evil deeds but so many times he repeated he practiced he habituated so that strong impression will come and to get out of these impressions evil impressions will be very hard but if a person has done good thing then it will be very easy for him to move forward in life and then this hindu's belief of karma the karma theory karma siddhanta everything that happens in any one of our lives for human beings because we believe there is no karma phala for non-human beings why because deliberately he will not a non-human thing doesn't plan doesn't scheme doesn't take credit it is just a matter of survival and whatever is necessary god has given enough intelligence for that creature to survive so it will be going on evolving more and more in course of time of course for millions of births but as soon as that creature becomes a human being this human being is endowed with a very special faculty called viveka the faculty of being able to discriminate what is right and wrong and therefore he assumes i did this and therefore i will be the experiencer aham karta i am the doer and whoever feels i am a doer there is no option but he has to do things this is a wonderful thing we have to keep in mind so either a person goes to heaven or he goes to hell but there are people whose policies live and let live they do some good and not so much of evil but they have not progressed they will be given a chance next birth also they will be born as a human being everybody will be born but if a evil person is to be born because of his evil deeds he may not be born as a human being he may be born as an animal an insect even a rock but two types of people whose karmas are mixed with somewhat right somewhat wrong but too much of wrong too much of bad but a person who did do extraordinarily great things he will go to heaven after that again he will be reborn as a in a good family so that he can further his spiritual progress this is what the Bhagawan wants to tell us remember in the 14th chapter in the 18th verse also said according to the guna a person goes either to a very higher type of life or very lower type of life or he will be just another human choice will be given for him to improve himself if they are tamasika people that means generally they are called demonic people they go down and down but according to Vedanta there is a full stop no man can go further down but he has to come up but those who are endowed with more rajas will be doing lot of things they will be reborn as human beings but if somebody is endowed with sattva guna then he will go to heaven and other places come back increase his sattva guna then becomes an inquirer and then he takes shelter with a teacher and the teacher will take him to the highest teach him how to go to the highest goal and in Taittiriya Upanishad also we have seen in the second chapter called Ananda Valli Brahma, Brahma Valli, Ananda Valli, Brahma, Ananda Valli three names are there that if a human being has got everything in this world he is young he is capable of enjoying he is righteous idealistic and very alert such a happiness is one unit of human happiness but hundred times that means many many many many times to that unit will be the happiness one obtains in the higher birth and still like that it goes on until one reaches Brahma Loka but that is the what is called leveling after Brahma Loka there is no higher Loka in this world of ignorance bondage such a person inevitably his heart will be purified and he will get another chance to come down to obtain a Guru. Guru will give him the teaching he will purify his heart becomes an Adhikari then Guru initiates him into Mahavakya thereafter he will practice Sravana Manana Nidhidhyasana thereafter slowly he will ascend to higher and higher spiritual levels until one day he comes to know Aham Brahmasmi I am Brahma that is how the progress takes place and all these what is called three types of actions who is going to reap who is going to experience not a Karma Yogi a Karma Yogi will not experience any of these three results but those who are bound to the world they are called Karma Bhogis they are enjoyers of Karma and Karma Phala only for them the aforementioned three results will be accruing that is it so the idea is become a Karma Yogi then only it is possible for that person to progress because supposing there is a person he is an evil person let us imagine and we can see also suppose you meet such a person and you ask him that what do you wish to achieve by killing others by robbing others by troubling other people he will say oh I will get lot of money I will acquire things belonging to him etc etc and what will that make you that I hope to become more happy by acquiring these things but he doesn't understand the law of cause and effect if you have produced a cause the effect must come so it is counterproductive actually do you want happiness of course everybody will say yes then don't do evil things you do what the scripture what your teacher what wise people advise you to do because that is the surest shortest way to untrammeled happiness the highest happiness is not to acquire happiness not to enjoy happiness but to be happiness why because to be means that is our nature we will be always happy but if a thing gives me happiness when separation occurs between that thing and myself or if circumstances changes then it will not only produce the desired result it will most likely give us the counter result this is what we have to understand so having explained this marvelous psychology that you better become a karma yogi why then you will know that I am happiness after that there will be no birth there is no death there will be no changes and forever for eternity you will be the most happy person on earth because you are the only one it is advaita sthiti and it is shashrata for eternity and it is for infinity that is what we have to understand now the lord is now entering into a slightly different subject and that subject is that this person he feels that I am the doer and the lord says gives a beautiful explanation that you don't enter at all you are not there at all but falsely because of delusion you are entering into this state called I am for the performance of any action five things are necessary five things and this kind of analysis we will perhaps not get in any scripture in this world excepting in the vedanta scripture so this is what he is telling so he says mahabahu this is the 13th verse bhagwan krishna is addressing arjuna and what is he telling mahabahu means a very strong person a heroic person and who can become a karma yogi only heroic person can become a karma yogi so he says me from me nivodha land land what karanani five causes how many pancha etani karanani these five causes what for to perform any activity these five causes are necessary and then of course if somebody challenges is it on on whose authority you are talking about this then it is a sankhye kritante proktani that is in the scriptures sankhya means scriptures kritante those who know everything about the nature of the action and there this particular teaching is there to all of us so for the performance of any activity five things are necessary if any one of them even one of them is absent then it will not be possible for that person to perform any action in fact the person also will not be there at all om vasudeva sutam devam kamsa chanuram arthanam devaki paramanandam krishnam vande jagad gurum may sri ramakrishna holy mother and swami vekananda bless us all with bhakti