Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 33 on 09 April 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devem, Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum, Pada Padme Tayo Sridhva, Pranamami Mohur Mohur Om Vasudevasudham Devam, Kamsa Chanura Mardanam, Devaki Parama Anandam, Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Sarvopanishadogahu, Dogdha Gopalanandana, Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta, Dugdham Geetam Ritam Mahat, Mokam Karoti Vachalam, Pangum Langhayate Girim, Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramanandamadham. In our last class we were studying the 57th verse Chetasah Sarvakarmani Mayi Sanyasya Matparaha Udhiyokam Upashritya Machittaha Satatam Bhava Surrendering in thought all actions to me Regarding me as the supreme goal And practicing steadiness of mind Fixing your heart upon me alone O Arjuna, constantly dwell on me Sarvakarmani Mayi Sanyasya Perform, perform what? All your duties, every person's duty is very specific Individual depending upon his past samskaras His or her past samskaras And the circumstances because of his past karma Under which he has been specifically given A particular body, a particular mind, a particular circumstance Under those conditions whatever is ordained upon this person Let this person, let you, Arjuna means each one of us Let us perform But surrendering that my body is given to me by you My mind belongs to you The whole world is your creation I have nothing to call my own So everything I am going to surrender myself to you That is the particular bhavana In most thoughts a person must cherish towards the divine lord Everything is you Who is doing? You are doing And who am I? I belong to you Who is making me do? Your prakriti is making me do That means indirectly you are only doing everything This idea that everything is God Everything is going on because of God And everything is enjoyed by the lord alone We have discussed in vivid details in our past classes That should be the bhavana Spiritual attitude But outside we have to do with sincerity With devotion With concentration With intelligence With rationality These are not forbidden Oh it is God who is doing Let him do it in whatever way he likes Then we are committing a grave mistake That's why Who can do that? Only a person to whom this entire universe is nothing but the divine lord For whom the highest goal is the divine lord I am the supreme goal I am the supreme reality I am the only reality in fact Buddhi yoga means As mentioned earlier With that special attitude Which is called karma yoga Karma yoga consists of particular attitude towards the lord Whatever I am doing I am doing to please the divine lord And whatever is the consequence That is the prasada The divine grace that comes to me When, where, how, how much, in what form it comes I will not even think Just as a child Many times I mention this Example A baby does not even think Let us be like that babies That's what Christ said Unless a man dies And is reborn He cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven Then Always try to remember me That is the most important thing And now how to do that And what is the result of doing Obeying the commandment of the lord Now what we notice For the last few verses Is that the lord is Slowly trying to tell us O man You are very little And that little also belongs to me You cannot progress In any way Your body will not exist Your mind will not function Your buddhi will not be able to think Everything is my grace Therefore there is only one way Surrender yourself totally to me When a follower of Jnana Yoga Completely surrenders his Aham And says I do not exist Only Brahman exists That is called complete surrender According to the Jnana Marga A Yogi says I am pure consciousness Prakruti cannot do anything That is complete surrender According to Yoga Marga A Karma Yogi says O lord everything belongs to you Let me be an instrument Let me live with the idea That I am an instrument That is the surrender of the Karma Yogi Of course the Bhakta Yogi The devotee He says My body, my mind, my wealth Tano, mana, dhana Everything belongs to you This is what the lord is Slowly leading us O man Whatever you do Even the desire for me Even the effort Whatever little you are putting Is all because of my grace And that is what happens When you realize Everything is me And everything is my grace Then by my grace You are going to attain everything What does the lord mean? Everything Everything means infinity Infinity means That everything is Brahman I am Brahman That knowledge The lord is going to give But out of his infinite grace That is the essence Which we are going to see Practically Until the end of this Bhagavad Gita I think that is why So many schools of philosophy Consider this last verse Charama Shloka What is it? The very central teaching The last teaching The highest teaching The only teaching Of not only Hinduism Of every scripture In whatever words we may express it Surrender is the ultimate result of all sadhana With this background We will enter into the 58th verse Fixing your heart on me You will overcome Every difficulty by my grace But if from self conceit You do not listen to me You shall perish utterly If you could keep chittaha Means all the thoughts All the emotions All the imaginations All the memories Everything Only one goal Remember God Think of God Imagine God Feel whether you want to be happy Unhappy Only with the subject of God What happens? You will attain my grace That means It is like this You go to an ocean With empty hands And you want to bring water You have taken any utensil Any container Whereby you can carry The ocean is never telling That I will not give you Ocean will give Some people are there It's a beautiful analogy They say I don't believe in the ocean Some people say We believe in the ocean It doesn't matter Whether you believe or you don't believe The ocean doesn't think anything like that Do you want something from me? If you want Have you brought something To take away from me? How much can I give? It is not how much I can give How much can you take? So all spiritual efforts Are only for the sake of Making ourselves pure What is the highest? Highest is A person who doesn't believe Is compared by Ram Krishna to a stone doll Once three dolls Went to measure the depth of the ocean So a stone doll It sank to the It did not Absorb any water There was a cloth doll It went, it absorbed Some amount of water But it retained separation There went A salt doll And the moment it touched the ocean It simply became Melted Merged with the ocean Now who is going to come and tell us What is the depth of the ocean Most marvellous analogy Every spiritual sadhaka Whatever religion Whatever clime Whatever time Whatever path is taking Ultimately we have to merge ourselves With the infinite Paths are different Infinite are the paths And infinite are the ways To realise But not infinite Goals, goal is only One and that is the Divine Lord So you obtain When your whole Mind, body Imagination, thoughts Are directed towards me Then you will be ready To receive my grace Mat Prasadat And what does The Divine Lord say Sarva Durgani Tarishyasi You will destroy You will overcome Every sort of Obstacle, it could be Environmental It could be social It could be according to the Age, it could be Health, bodily Health, it could be Some Lacunae, in the Indriyas, it could be The thought processes It doesn't matter, whatever it is Every type of Obstacle That stands between you and me When the sun rises Just as it destroys Completely, every Shade of darkness The grace of Divine Lord Is going to destroy He doesn't say, even He doesn't say, this person Has done only little This person, he has done A little more, this person Has done a lot, so I will bestow my grace accordingly Divine grace Knows no such bounds Especially if we can call upon Him with helpless Cry of a baby Jesus Christ Tells a beautiful story How many people really Understood, fathomed And accepted That teaching of Christ I do not know The parable was like that There was a Vineyard master, he needed Work to be done Early morning after sunrise He stood on the way And workers will be available, walking So he saw some workers And he made a contract If you work from now Until sunset, I will pay you One rupee And then After three hours Another, he thought He required more number of people So he went, made some contract He said, I will give you Twelve annas, after three hours He said, I will give you Eight annas, but you have to work Until sunset And just before A few hours before sunset He heard, some more people I will pay you only Four rupees, and they all Agreed, worked So some people worked, sunrise To sunset, other people From the time they were employed They worked, they fulfilled their part The time has come for the wages To be given, and then They all stood, and this Owner, he gave one rupee To every one of them So all the others That is, who were Employed from sunrise They started protesting Those who were employed three hours later They started protesting Those who were employed three hours later They started protesting That our contract was One rupee This person has come only two, three hours So he should get very less Then the owner replied To him, this is a marvelous reply Look here, what was our contract I will pay you one rupee Did I pay you or not? Yes Did I pay twelve annas To you or not? Yes Did I pay eight annas Or not? Yes Then, where is the cause For complaint? That was our contract That I gave You gave these people also One rupee, that's none of your business My contract was To pay them certain amount But, I have free will I can do Whatever I like This is the most Marvelous parable we have to understand A person's mind May be ten percent concentrated Another person May be even much better A person's devotion is very less Faith is very less Another person's is very great But this is our calculation And it is very Unintelligent calculation We do not take into consideration The grace of God And that is what Sri Ramakrishna Wants to tell The grace of God is infinite And we have seen this one earlier That let a person Be a Shudra, a Vaishya, a Kshatriya Or a Brahmana A Brahmachari A Grihasta, a Vanaprasthi Or a Sanyasi, it doesn't matter Yes, there is a Process of progressing Which is fine from our viewpoint From the viewpoint of God If my grace Falls upon anybody It doesn't say simply I will destroy only little Just now a small example came I hope that will be Adequate to illustrate it It is up to you How you receive it Supposing there are four rooms And four rooms Are filled with Different degrees of Darkness One is only 1 4th darkness Another half darkness Another 3 4th Another complete Now when the sun enters into all the Four rooms Will it discriminate and say This full darkness I have no contract, I will only remove The moment light comes These calculations Full or half 1 4th or very little Everything will fly away Complete darkness Is totally destroyed This is the faith with which Every devotee has to Oh Lord, I am small There are great people They were able to do a lot of more Austerities and spiritual disciplines I could only do The only requirement The only requirement God requires of us That wholeheartedly Sincerely Pray to the Divine Lord Oh Lord, I am not Outside your world Please bestow your grace upon me I depend totally upon your grace I know Perhaps better than you All the defects that I have But in your eyes You are like the sunlight All the darkness will vanish Please take into consideration No Fault of mine And then you bestow your grace This is what the Lord Wants to tell If you can think about me Sincerely What about people who cannot Concentrate? Fine But are you sincere? Sincerity is one thing And because of Past samskaras We may not be able to think Everything as we like to do So we will have to Take it into consideration This is what the Lord is telling If we grasp what I Just now explained In my own way Then very easy for us to understand The essence, the real meaning Of this 58th Verse So Machittaha Place your heart upon me Here is a funny thing also I want to think of God But I am not able to do that Why? Because the explanation is I have done so many wrong things in my life And the samskaras Deep impressions Are preventing me from thinking of you My mind is going again and again To those worldly Unreliable Temporary objects I know that But are you repentant? If you are sincere about it Then the Lord will brush aside Everything and will take you Into his lap So if you can You try your best But with this faith Oh Lord, you know what I am But out of your Boundless grace Very interesting thought Who is God? Infinite What is the relationship between God and Grace? It is not that God's grace He is a rich man He has some money, some wealth He can give a little bit A little more, something more Much more He has no relationship With his wealth Except in saying it is mine But we should not understand the grace of God Like that That is very important point We have to keep in mind The heating power of the fire Or the light of the sun So when we say sunlight Sun's light Light of the sun It is not like the wealth Of a rich man Or the beauty of a person These are all things which change Even though the person doesn't change Here The sun and light are Exactly the same The heat and the fire are exactly the same Ramakrishna Clarifies With this beautiful idea So when God's grace comes First of all Can he divide Is there somebody apart from him So that he can say I will divide my grace I see two people One person has come with A bigger vessel, utensil And another person Wears only a spoon A flat spoon So he cannot receive much In the eyes of God Such a thing is impossible for him If there is something impossible for him It is to find Anybody who is defective Because In the eyes of God Everybody is God And when his grace comes When the sunlight comes He doesn't say I will only give a little So many examples have been given How a place is covered up So the light cannot enter These examples are fine But they have their own Very high limitations Are there In the case of God Those limitations should never be thought about I belong to you, you belong to me So you bestow your grace or not You will have to bestow your grace And that sincerity Is called faith by Ramakrishna He gives many examples There was a Boy of a Brahmana A Brahmana used to worship Narayana Everyday he used to offer food He used to, after offering A plate full of food He used to think the Lord has accepted it He was eating, so he will give a normal Sometime for a human being How much time it takes to eat The food etc. After half an hour he will come out with the prasada One day he had to go out So he called his Six years old son Who used to see his father doing puja And he said Tomorrow onwards until I return You offer the puja for Narayana See that he eats The idea is See that you offer something Eatable for him as prasada The boy used to think Really Narayana comes down And eats the food And makes it prasada He never thought if Narayana comes And swahas everything What remains So this father Commanded his son And went away The son entered And of course the family had prepared A plate full of food And it was kept And there after some preliminary Acts of ritual They said Narayana Now it's time, please accept this food And he was praying Only thinking Narayana will come down That was what his father Used to see But God was not coming down So the boy started weeping Lord What does my father think about me He thinks I have not offered food for you If you don't come down Then I will be Proved a liar And then the God could not Contain any longer He came down smiling At the front of the plate Ate the whole lot and then disappeared The boy was very happy He thought that was a normal thing He came out With empty plate And the family members asked What about the prasada He said I invited God He came and ate everything Everybody was astounded Because they knew the boy To be absolutely truthful And they know that he will never do Not that he could eat Even if he could eat It is impossible to eat so much For such a small boy And then they went and saw inside There was not one grain Even falling on the ground Ram Krishna used to give This story And many stories like that What is called faith And somehow do we have that kind of faith No we don't have that kind of faith But let us pray Lord you know that I do not have that much faith But be gracious But sincerity must be there And that is a marvellous thing And that is what Ram Krishna is trying to Illustrate to us Through this And that is what Bhagwan Krishna is telling So mat prasadat Through my grace Sarva durgani rishasi Sarva durgani means Obstacles Sarva means all the obstacles What obstacles are we talking In simple words Whatever obstacle is there That keeps me and you apart That obstacle Shankaracharya's commentary will be On spiritual qualities Like karma, lust Anger, greed Jealousy, arrogance Etc The six well known Hindu enemies External enemies Everything will be totally destroyed Having said this This is the result If you can surrender yourself to me But Athachetam But if you Ahankarat Out of your own egotism Nashrosyasi If you do not listen to my advice That means if you do not practice What I have been teaching you Vinanshyasi You will go to destruction Of course Hindu is Vedanta It is famous It will never utter a single negative word What do you mean by Vinanshyasi The whole world is nothing but God God cannot be destroyed You, me Out of Maya, out of Leela We think we are individuals But This individuality Cannot be maintained Without the universality Just as a plant You pluck it Out of the Uproot it out of the soil Immediately it will dry You may be putting water You may be fertilizing it Everything Because that contact is necessary We are alive because of God's existence We have intelligence Because of God's consciousness We Are happy only because of God's Ananda There is nothing we are not borrowing From without God We cannot live at all Everything is coming In fact there is nothing called me or you It is nothing but God But this is a play That is going on We have the idea I am a particular individual But I want to come to you I am like your child I am praying to you I am very sincere about it And definitely God will come To our rescue So having resigned All his actions to God In the manner suggested above And constantly fixing His mind on him Arjuna would be required to do Nothing more And by the Lord's grace All his sorrows in the world As well as in the next If at all there is a next birth Would be completely destroyed Such a devotee Remember Arjuna is only a representative Of each one of us Sincerely striving To move forward Such a devotee would be exempted forever From the great ordeal In the shape of birth and death That means he will become liberated He will attain Moksha All his enemies Anger and envy Greed, envy Even disbelief Even insincerity Even ego Everything will be destroyed By the grace of the Lord Now we have to Understand the story of Totapuri Maharas In this Light Now I will tell you very briefly Because many, many times I have mentioned this story Totapuri Maharas came He was the Vedanta Guru of Sri Ramakrishna. He thought he came all by himself, by his own desire. He worked very hard, superhuman austerities for 40 years and he obtained Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Now sometimes we wonder, a person who has got Nirvikalpa Samadhi, he should have been wiser than what we see in his life. After coming out of that Samadhi, by the will of God, he is called Jivanmukta and he started staying and talking, conversing, but he could not understand what his disciple was doing. Even you have to remember what he took 40 years to achieve. Ramakrishna achieved instantaneously. The moment Totapuri initiated, he really became completely free. Now Totapuri was surprised, shocked. What Divine Maya, what took me 40 years, this child has achieved instantaneously. He uttered, okay, that is Divine Maya. This is Bhagawan's Vidya Maya. Absolutely fine. But he did not pay attention to it. In course of time, what happened, you know. Sri Ramakrishna's Ishta Devata, chosen ideal, his mother Kali, without her permission, constantly talking with her, he will not do anything unless she tells him to do it directly, you do this. Totapuri could never understand, could never see the Divine Mother, but sometimes he used to ridicule at dawn and dusk. Sri Ramakrishna used to clap his hands and then Totapuri once ridiculed him, Are you fashioning some chapatis, making some bread? Sri Ramakrishna got angry and said, I am taking my mother's name. And Totapuri understood that there is some meaning, but he could not fathom it. Time passed and then his health deteriorated. He had a terrible stomach pain. A man who could enter at will into Nirvikalpa Samadhi could not meditate for a few seconds. He thought the body was the trouble, stomach ache was the trouble, body was the trouble. If he gives up the body, he said, I know I am Brahman, so there is nothing wrong. Suicide is permitted for such people and he went into the Ganga and he could not get. Now he walked barefoot practically to the other side of the Ganga, in which huge ships can sink any moment, not only then, not only now, but at every time. Such a Ganga, there was not enough water to drown him. Then out of her infinite mercy, like Yaksha, Uma, Haimavati, the Divine Mother, appeared to the Gods, Indra, Agni, Vayu, whose story we get in the Kena Upanishad. And He said, your victory over the demons is not your victory. Because of My grace, you could win. And they became humble and they became enlightened by Your grace. This is whether it is Upanishads, Puranas, Tantras, grace, grace, grace of the Divine Mother. So Tathapuri understood, came back the same way. And psychosomatic effect, his entire pain vanished just by walking across the Ganga. And the next morning, he narrated everything to Sri Ramakrishna. Until that time, he refused to enter into the temple of the Divine Mother, thinking that Sri Ramakrishna used to wander. Okay, before Sannyasa, before I brainwashed him, well, he was ignorant, he was thinking of the Saguna Brahma. But even after attaining Nirvikalpa Samadhi, he could do so, it was a wonder of wonders for Tathapuri. But then he understood, it is all the grace of the Divine Mother. And Saradanandaji gives a beautiful explanation. From behind, a child wants to run with his faltering steps. And the path is full of obstacles, stones, thorns, many things. The Divine Mother from behind, before the child could take one step, she swept everything in front of him. And the child, without any problem, he started running. And then he turned towards the Mother, See Ma, I could run all by myself. And the Mother smiled, hugged him and said, Yes, my child, you are really great, I am so happy for you. Only when the child grows up, he will understand hopefully, that it was Mother's grace that made it possible for him to walk unobstructed. Why? Because one simple, a little anger, a little lust, a little greed, a little jealousy is enough to throw us into the most violent spasms of evil activity and as a result into hell. It is all Divine Mother's support. And that is what the idea is being echoed here. Because every scripture, whether it is Bible, whether it is Koran, the grace, grace, grace, nothing but grace. In whatever term, we read. So that is the Tattvapari story. What does it mean? It means that without Divine Mother's grace, we cannot progress. But what happens when there is grace, there is sincerity, there is complete faith, complete energy in the body and mind, and we know what is right, what should be done, what should not be done. With tremendous joy and enthusiasm and energy, we go on doing it, but all with what we call rationality, not otherwise. Now, I remember a beautiful story, Footprints in the Sand. It is a very beautiful spiritual story, that is to say, God is always with us. It is not only at some times, not only in some places, but from birth to death, life after life, God is with us, guiding us. This tremendous truth was expressed by Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj once. He said, you may not understand me, you may not believe me now, but when you grow up, you will understand. God is guiding every single being to God only, but He is taking them, some through difficult paths, some through very easy paths. God alone knows, even the murderers, that murdering is also the grace of God, God's will. Maybe you may be surprised, what is this Swami talking about, rambling about? How can murder be there? Because if you believe in the law of Karma, if somebody is destined to be murdered, he is going to be murdered. The only activity which Hinduism accepts as self-willed is suicide, and that should not be done. That is the greatest sin, but if somebody is destined to die, he is going to die. If we do not say it is murder, but every war is a murder, look at what is going on in Ukraine, how mercilessly people are being killed. Do you think the person who is killing is thinking, this person is also like me, a human being? No, then why does it happen? Everybody is not killed, only some people are killed. Maybe if it is one or two, we do not take into consideration. When we see so many people, then we suddenly come out awake. So we have to understand it is God who created, it is God who is created, it is God who is thinking He is a Jeeva, it is God who is again retracing His steps towards Him, and He has to go as if so much of effort is needed. This whole thing is Leela from the view of God, but from our viewpoint, we have to accept this is where I am, this is my understanding, so I have to exert to the best of my ability. I have many faults, the finite can never reach the infinite, whatever it does, however many steps, however many lives it wants to go through, but with sincerity, oh Lord, if I do a little, then You will come and do everything else. So the story of footprints in the sand, a slight difference is there. There was a devotee and he used to always talk with God, and he saw that God was always walking with him. How did he know? Because whenever he was walking on some wet clay or sand, he used to see two pairs of footsteps, one his own, by his side, of course he was talking with God, so he knew that it belongs to God. Once he had to pass through a very dangerous forest, the moment the devotee entered, then what happened? He saw only one pair of footsteps. The devotee thought, now when there was no danger, God was speaking with me, now as soon as danger came, He deserted me. With this bitter thought, the devotee crossed. As soon as he crossed the danger, again another pair of footsteps appeared. Then the devotee sarcastically said, what a nice Lord you are, when there was no danger, you were speaking so lovingly, nicely, enchantingly, mesmerizingly, the moment danger came, you disappeared. God smiled and said, my child, look back at those footsteps in the forest. And then the devotee looked back. He could immediately understand, his footsteps were small, God's footsteps were larger. And he looked back and said, yes, his footsteps disappeared, not God's footsteps. Only God's footsteps were visible. Then God explained, because we are stupid, God has to explain so much. When you are in danger, I took you in my arms, and when you are out of danger, I sat you down, because you also have an ego and you want to feel, I also can walk, always you don't need to carry me, like small children. And God doesn't quarrel with us. This is a beautiful story. We have to remember this all the time. So God is always with us. It is only that at some point of time, we fail to recognize His presence, especially when we are suffering, we fail to recognize this one. So this story, the footprints in the forest or in the sand, is a beautiful story. We don't need to go into it at all. But, oh Arjuna, if you are but sincere, do your level best, whatever little you do. I don't see you are doing little, I don't see somebody else is doing more. I only see with what sincerity and to the best of your ability, you are doing. You are not trying to cheat yourself and say, I am capable of much more, but I will do only this much. This again is illustrated by a side story, a tale created after Ramayana. It is not actually in the Ramayana. So Rama was trying to build the bridge and everybody was busy. They were carrying huge stones, writing the name of Rama and throwing them. They started flowing. Of course, to bind the stones, they took some wet sand and they were carrying it. Now there was a squirrel, who was a great devotee of Rama. It thought, I have to do, I must contribute what best I can. So what did it do? It used to go into the sea and wet itself and roll on the sand, run to the bridge and shake itself so that all the sand that stuck to its body will be there and then again it will jump into the water and Rama immediately noticed it and took it into His sweet hands and passed His hands over its back. That is why they say many Indian squirrels have that beautiful white and black marks. So that white mark is the fingers of Rama that passed on it. What is the story? The story is that what Hanuman was doing, capable of carrying mountains and throwing, and what the squirrel was doing. Hanuman was doing His level best. The squirrel did its very best. God does not see, Oh, where is the comparison between the squirrel and the Hanuman? The point is He sees whether we are doing our best sincerely and that is what pleases the Lord. That's what Sri Ramakrishna says. A small baby, He cannot utter the word Father, says Pa or Ba, but God will, immediate Father will never take offence. On the other hand, He will take the child in His hands whenever He has to or the family has to go because He knows the baby cannot really walk. Now, I cannot resist myself recollecting a story from the Puranas. And in the seashore, there was a small tree and there was a pair of pigeons. They laid egg, only one egg, and one day when they went out for gathering food, the sea wave came and toppled the whole nest and along with that the egg also disappeared. When the parents returned, they were heartbroken. They decided we must recover our child, our egg. Then every day they will go into the sea, dip their wings, come to the shore and let the water fall. And again they go. And then everybody asked, what are you doing? Oh, the sea has swallowed our son, so we are trying to dry it up so that when it dries, then we can recover our egg. Everybody laughed, everybody discouraged. You think that even if infinite number of times you are born, you are going to dry up the sea, the ocean. The parents said, we cannot live without our child. Either we recover or we will also perish in the process. We are not going to give up our effort. Now many days passed. One day the king of the birds, Garuda, he was passing and he noticed immediately and he was astonished. And then he came and enquired and he was told the story and he was mightily pleased. One, what is called fanning with his huge wings, immediately the sea had receded nearly two miles inland. And then the parents saw that the nest was there underneath on the sand. Immediately they recovered the egg and came back. It's a beautiful, marvellous story that it is not how much effort we are able to put, whether we are able to put all the best we can. Sincerely, if we do that, the grace of God in this story, in the form of Garuda the king, the grace of God will come down. That is the most important thing. So the Lord is telling that if you obtain my grace in the way I have mentioned to you, then you will attain me because I will destroy all the coverings, all the obstructions, the curtain of maya that is hiding you from me or hiding me from you. But, अधचेत अधचेत अहंकारात नसरोष्यसी इनंख्षसी But if you think that I am with your egotism, that you don't listen to me, I know better than God, I have much better understanding and I will follow my own counsel and I do not need to listen to anything, then विनंख्षसी means what? You will be destroyed. According to Hindu Vedanta, there is no destruction. That means it will be delayed until the egotism is completely removed. It is not possible at all. So should Arjuna prove or should any aspirant prove self-conceited as to disobey Him, Him means the teachings of Gita, the teachings of the scriptures, whether it is Bible or Koran, such a spiritual aspirant would no longer be contended as a devotee of God, a person who has got egotism, he can never be a devotee of God. But even if he has got egotism, striving to lessen it, that is called spiritual effort, such a person is called a devotee of God and in that eventuality it will be delayed, but nobody will be denied. Ramakrishna used to say in the court of Mother Annapurna, everybody in Varanasi, everybody will get food because Mother Annapurna is the reigning queen. Only some people will get morning, some people at noon, some people at evening, some people at midnight, but before the next day, everybody will get. If somebody is so lazy enough, Mother will herself carry the food and if they don't eat also, she will thrust the food inside because these people may be not caring, but the Mother knows, these are my children, I love them and I will have to keep them alive. So, yath ahankaram ashritya, that resorting to your egotism, if you do not listen to me, your spiritual progress will take a longer time. Entering into the 59th, yath ahankaram ashritya, na yoch chayati manyase, mithyayesha vyavasaya deh prakrutisvam niyokshati and here is something very very important. Supposing somebody has got egotism and he says, I will not do this. The Lord is telling, My dear Arjuna, even if you have egotism, even if your thinking is faulty, irrational, you take a wrong decision and you say, I will not do it. I will not. What happens? Your very nature will not allow you to keep quiet. You will be forced to do it. The choice is, do you want to do it with devotion and positively and with enthusiasm, with full consciousness or do you want your head, your throat will be squeezed and all the money that you have. Otherwise, I am going to finish you off. So this blackmailing will be done. By whom? Not by the Lord, but by the one's own nature and what is the nature of Arjuna in this case? At that time, remember, this following the battle is only an incidental duty. When he was young, it was his duty to learn. When he was married, it was his duty to look after his wife and behave like a good husband. When there was no war, he will have to protect the people. That was his duty. And when he had time, he had to study the scriptures. That was his duty. But this is only for 18 days. You must remember, Kurukshetra war had not gone more than that time. So in the 59th verse, यत अहंकारमाशृत्या नयोच्छे इतिमन्यसे मिठ्या एशवियवसायह तेहे प्रकृतिस्त्वाम्नियोख्षति If taking your stand on egotism, you think, I am not going to fight. I will not fight. I have taken the decision. That is final. Vain is this resolve of yours. Why? Because your very nature will drive you to that very act which I am only telling you in mild words. यदि If अहंकारमाशृत्या Because egotism is ruling you. Instead of you ruling your body-mind, your egotism, I am somebody. I am intelligent. I can think. I know what is good for me. I don't need the Divine Lord to tell me. अहंकारमाशृत्या Completely under the sway of the egotism. नयोचयितिमन्यसे If you think, I have decided. I am not going to fight. Remember, this is what he did in the second chapter beginning. He said, नयोचयिति गोविन्दा मुक्त्वातोष्णिं बभूवः He simply sat down and said, I am not going to fight. Because he was under the spell of delusion. If you think like that, येशते व्यवसायः व्यवसायः means this firm determination of yours, मिठ्या It is completely useless. Why? प्रकृति Your very nature, not me, not anybody else's nature, your very nature, that you have acquired, that you have been storing from life after life, त्वाम्नियोक्षति It will force you to do. If taking your stand on egotism, you think, I will not fight. When is this resolve of yours? Nature itself will drive you to this act. I remember a beautiful incident. Sri Ramakrishna went to the Saptarsha Loka and brought one of the Rishis and the Rishi consented. And that Rishi later on came to be known as first Narendranath, then Swami Vivekananda. And Sri Ramakrishna recognized him at the very first meeting. And accordingly, he was training him. And then Sri Ramakrishna used to say, Narendra is a born teacher. He will teach. And at that time, when Ramakrishna uttered these words, Narendranath was in a peculiar state of vairagya. He said, No, I am not going to teach. Sri Ramakrishna was on his deathbed practically. So he could not even utter the words. Then Sri Ramakrishna took a piece of paper with charcoal and said, Your very bones will teach. And Narendranath, of course, I don't think he accepted that one. He thought he had a choice. And then later on, he started telling to people that I thought I will not teach. Towards the very end, in a regretful way, he uttered this marvellous statement, Sri Ramakrishna made me a monkey, tied my neck with a rope and he offered me to what he used to call Kali. And Narendranath knew Mother Kali and Sri Ramakrishna are not separate beings. So he said, He made me go around the whole world and made me dance like a monkey. And he never allowed me to do what I want to do. Always I have to do what he wishes to do. This is one statement. Another is a similar statement. What Sri Ramakrishna used to call Kali, he offered me to her. Ever since, she is sitting on my head and never allowing me to do what I want to do. I have to do only her bidding. Alas, I wish to be free from this. And then a very funny thing happened. Sri Ramakrishna predicted about Narendranath. The moment he comes to know who he is, he will refuse to stay here even for one second. And then what happened? Swami Vivekananda, a few days before, Sister Nivejita came to meet him. And then he heard Sri Ramakrishna's prophecy from others. Because Narendra himself did not tell. And then one day, she asked casually, Swamiji, do you know who you are? What came the reply? Yes, now I know who I am. And Nivejita writes, Now I know that he is not destined to be on this earth for no more than a very short time. And within a few days, he decided to give up his body. And then what happened? He was the person who sent Swami Ramakrishnananda to go and start his centre in what you call Madras, now what is called Chennai. And then Swami Ramakrishnananda, the next morning, he was meditating. Or I don't remember, maybe the same night he was meditating. And then he heard a voice, Shashi, Shashi, I spat out the body. And Shashi Maharaj understood, this must be my beloved Naren's. Next morning, telegram had come, because remember there were no telephones at that time. Telegram had come, Swamiji had given up his body in good health that day, the last day, most marvellous incident. One or two things perhaps I will expound upon it in the next class tomorrow.