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Video Information: 25.05.2023, Gita Samagam, Greater Noida

Context:
What is the Arjun's dilemma?
What makes Arjun the ideal recipient of the Gita?
How is the Bhagvad Gita relevant to everyone?


न हि प्रपश्यामि ममापनुद्या द्यच्छोकमुच्छोषणमिन्द्रियाणाम् ।
अवाप्य भूमावसपत्नमृद्धम् राज्यं सुराणामपि चाधिपत्यम् ॥
~ Bhagavad Gita - 2.8

Arjuna said: I do not understand whether there is anything that can remove this sorrow that overpowers my senses (my mind) even if the war were to give me unrivaled and ever increasing control over the entire Earth and even lordship over the Gods.


Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00:00Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 8.
00:00:16So, Arjun, quite melancholy yet, to his credit,
00:00:36quite honestly, is continuing with a narration of his inner state.
00:00:51He is open, he is candid, he isn't hiding.
00:01:21That which is afflicting him at this moment is just no different from what afflicts any other usual mortal.
00:01:42Arjun is just so very normal, yet this honesty, this nakedness,
00:01:55this preparedness to be exposed fully is what separates him from the millions and billions
00:02:18who miss out on a Krishna, on a Gita.
00:02:35This is something to be repeated till it is understood.
00:02:51The uniqueness, the distinction of Arjun lies in his childlike nakedness.
00:03:06His utter simplicity in front of Krishna.
00:03:15There are no games being played here.
00:03:20No tricks, no tactics.
00:03:27No ambiguity.
00:03:31No equivocality.
00:03:35Just a plain, bland expression of feelings, experience, state as it is to Arjun.
00:03:57Arjun does not mind how it looks and sounds.
00:04:09Arjun knows very well the heights that Krishna occupies.
00:04:22The dimensions atop which Krishna chooses to perch.
00:04:37It would have been very normal of him to feel awkward, rather ashamed,
00:04:55of describing his usual mortal emotions,
00:05:17feelings, attachments, tendencies to Krishna when he too, being a learned man,
00:05:38knows very well how theory and philosophy and scriptures look down upon,
00:05:59even condemn these emotions etc.
00:06:09He knows that.
00:06:14He is neither uneducated nor unintelligent.
00:06:24He knows that if he says that he is gripped with fear or stung by moh,
00:06:44or overpowered by asakti,
00:06:49then it is not something that the scholars would praise him for.
00:07:00He knows very well that these are exactly the mental states
00:07:15that have normally been berated and slighted in the holy books.
00:07:35It would have been very easy for him to just pretend that all is well with him.
00:07:45If he does not want to fight, it is because of some lofty reason.
00:07:52He could have said that he has lately been instructed by some scholar
00:07:59in the pious doctrine of non-violence, ahimsa.
00:08:05And therefore, he has chosen not to pick weapons and not to ever fight any war.
00:08:22He could have easily pretended and tried to mislead Krishna.
00:08:27That's what most people do.
00:08:30Most people simply do not have the honesty and more so the guts
00:08:44to reveal their interiors, especially to someone
00:08:50who can see through your pretence,
00:09:06call a spade a spade and not commiserate with you.
00:09:15Most people give a lofty veneer to their usual mortal human feelings,
00:09:36intents and tendencies. Don't they?
00:09:46Hardly exists a human being who first of all knows his real intent
00:09:54and secondly, if he knows it, prefers to and dares to disclose it in front of a wise man.
00:10:10We hide.
00:10:15And hiding is something we cannot very often be accused of
00:10:23because to hide something, first of all you must know that you have it.
00:10:28We don't even hide.
00:10:31First of all, we lose it.
00:10:34There is a difference between not having something because you have hidden it
00:10:38and not having something because you have forgotten it, lost it, dropped it.
00:10:45Most people have very little self-knowledge.
00:10:49They do not even know where their feelings and words and desires are coming from
00:10:58and if at all they do get an inkling, they get so ashamed morally of their situation
00:11:10that they prefer to be hypocritical about it.
00:11:15Simply put, they lie.
00:11:18For example, if I am driven by attachment and fear and greed, let's say,
00:11:28chances are I will not even know what my real drivers are.
00:11:33I will not know that I am acting in such and such ways
00:11:36and moving in such and such direction simply because I am greedy.
00:11:43Avarice and attachment are ruling me.
00:11:48I will not know.
00:11:51I would rather think to myself, well, I am going to that direction because I want to help others.
00:12:00Because I do not want confrontation.
00:12:06Because I am peace loving.
00:12:09Or because I want to explore the world.
00:12:13Or because I want to enhance my wisdom.
00:12:18When the fact usually would be as it is.
00:12:24With most of the people most of the times.
00:12:29That one would be driven by one of those very basal emotions.
00:12:38Fear, greed, lust, anger, envy.
00:12:43That's all.
00:12:45There is nothing more to human drive, human ambition, human desire.
00:12:49There is just nothing more than that.
00:12:51It's just that we give fantastic names to those old primitive tendencies.
00:13:00Fantastic, glossy and very deceptive names.
00:13:08Arjun could have very easily done the same, right?
00:13:14Krishna, I will not fight because I am a Hinsak.
00:13:18Krishna, I have lately subscribed to the highest philosophy of non-violence.
00:13:31And therefore, I have given up arms.
00:13:36I am not fighting. Arjun could have done that, right?
00:13:41Most people do that, don't they?
00:13:44If you don't have the guts to fight, you will say I am not fighting because I am peace loving.
00:13:50Or if you are too eager to fight, you will say I am fighting because I love freedom.
00:13:59Whereas the fact is that you are fighting only because you are angry and greedy and jealous and revengeful.
00:14:06That's what is powering your urge to fight.
00:14:10Does that not happen in most cases?
00:14:11If people fight, why do they fight?
00:14:15Do they fight for freedom?
00:14:18If you find somebody fighting, struggling, what is it that is likely to be driving him or her?
00:14:28Revenge or anger or greed or lust or something of that kind, right?
00:14:35But what would he declare to himself and the world?
00:14:39I am fighting because I do not want to be oppressed.
00:14:44I am fighting against domination and I am fighting for freedom.
00:14:49That's what is most likely to be heard from him as a declaration of his intent.
00:14:58And it's all so false and hypocritical, no?
00:15:02And when he is not fighting, what's likely to be the actual reason?
00:15:05If somebody is not fighting where there is a choice to fight and not to fight,
00:15:14what's likely the reason behind his choice?
00:15:18He is simply scared, afraid or he does not see much benefit from fighting.
00:15:25He says, you know, if I fight and succeed, the maximum that I will get is 10,000 rupees.
00:15:31Let's put it numerically for argument's sake.
00:15:33So he says, I will not fight because at stake are only rupees 10,000.
00:15:40You just increase the stakes, make it 10 lakh and he will get ready to fight.
00:15:47But he will not admit that.
00:15:50He will simply say, no, you know, there is this reason, that reason.
00:15:55I am not fighting because who wants bloodshed?
00:15:59The world is already such a violent and bloody place.
00:16:01Why add to the conflict?
00:16:05And you know, I have been reading great books recently and listening to the songs of saints
00:16:12and my heart has grown so soft.
00:16:20Therefore, I choose not to fight.
00:16:23Arjun could have done all this and more.
00:16:26Arjun chooses to do none of that.
00:16:28What does he instead do?
00:16:31He, I said, comes out naked like a child and that's what distinguishes him
00:16:41for all those who could never get close to a Gita.
00:16:50Arjun is as naked as a child is in front of daddy.
00:17:02And he is not ashamed.
00:17:05He is not ashamed.
00:17:10You have got to be not just a kid but actually a kid so small that
00:17:17you are with no sense of shame at all.
00:17:22Because grown up kids, they do not come out naked in front of mummy or papa. Do they?
00:17:29You know the story of Duryodhan.
00:17:32It's a story. You could even call it a myth.
00:17:37But it's a very instructive myth.
00:17:41It carries lots of lessons.
00:17:44It carries lots of lessons.
00:17:48So, it is said that Gandhari
00:17:57had developed a great inner power because of her sati.
00:18:02That's how the story goes.
00:18:06She got married to Dhritarashtra and Dhritarashtra was blind.
00:18:11Absolutely blind since birth.
00:18:16So, she said what's the point in enjoying sight just for yourself alone.
00:18:29So, she said if the husband cannot see, I will partner him to the fullest.
00:18:36If he cannot see, I too choose to close my eyes.
00:18:39So, what did she do?
00:18:43She blindfolded herself.
00:18:49And so goes the narrative that because she had not opened her eyes since long
00:18:55and because she had chosen to voluntarily surrender her sight for a very high ideal,
00:19:04so she had been blessed with great power in her sight.
00:19:10And the gods had said that if ever you choose now to open your eyes,
00:19:18that which you will look at will become unbreakable.
00:19:27Because you have chosen to voluntarily surrender your eyesight,
00:19:32so you are being given a gift which is that now if you ever choose to look at something,
00:19:39that thing will develop a quality beyond that of this world.
00:19:46In this world, everything is breakable.
00:19:49So, Gandhari had that gift, that boon.
00:19:53So, she knew that Duryodhana ultimately will have to fight Bheem.
00:20:06And the omens were not good at all.
00:20:11She was seeing Krishna is on this side, the other side that is.
00:20:15And she was seeing how the forces were arranged.
00:20:19She was seeing how the forces were arranged.
00:20:23So, one day she called Duryodhana and she said,
00:20:29why don't you just get naked in front of me?
00:20:38Duryodhana did not know what it was all about.
00:20:41But because the mother had called and the mother had ordered,
00:20:45so he complied.
00:20:48But Duryodhana being a big baby could not give up on cultivated shame.
00:20:57So, he took off all his clothes.
00:21:01But he covered his genitals, his crotch and the other parts
00:21:13with little piece of cloth or leaves or something.
00:21:19That much of shame he maintained even in front of the mother.
00:21:28So, he goes to the mother and stands and the mother is still blindfolded
00:21:32and the mother asks Gandhari, son have you ensured that you have no clothes on you?
00:21:40And Duryodhana says, yes mama, I have taken off everything.
00:21:47She says fine and then she removes the clothes and she looks at Duryodhana.
00:21:56One hand she feels a certain happiness and charm.
00:22:04It is said Duryodhana was very strongly built and fabulously good looking.
00:22:12So, that gave a lot of happiness to her being a mother.
00:22:18What a tall son and strongly built and nice looking.
00:22:23And she also became angry and disappointed. Why?
00:22:27She said, what have you done?
00:22:32Now one part of your body remains vulnerable.
00:22:37What have you done?
00:22:41He said, but mama, I am a grown up man. How can I come naked in front of you?
00:22:48I am your mother and I have ordered you something. You fool.
00:22:52Have you not learnt discipline, obedience, anything?
00:22:57Duryodhana being Duryodhana, something, he would have muttered.
00:23:03And she said, I cannot repeat this incidence.
00:23:08The boon that I have is that this power remains valid only once.
00:23:22It is something that can be redeemed only once.
00:23:25There is no second chance.
00:23:27So anyway, now your body has been given an extra coat of armour by my sight.
00:23:36You are already quite strong. I can see that.
00:23:38But now your body will become very unbreakable, invincible
00:23:45except for the part that you have chosen to cover.
00:23:49Now contrast this with the relationship between Arjuna and Krishna.
00:23:55Now here obviously, in case of Duryodhana, physical nakedness is involved.
00:24:01Physical nakedness.
00:24:04And Duryodhana could not become naked even in the physical, the gross sense.
00:24:13Whereas physical nakedness is far easier than psychic nakedness.
00:24:20It is far far easier to get naked physically in front of someone
00:24:26than to get naked mentally, inwardly.
00:24:29There are so many people who get naked in front of each other.
00:24:36By the time you are 12 or 14, the sexual urge starts overpowering you.
00:24:44And teenagers and pre-teens start getting naked in front of each other.
00:24:50And there is nothing much in that.
00:24:54That's an event of zero significance.
00:24:57Like kids playing with each other, each other's genitals.
00:25:02That is nothing in that.
00:25:04An event that has zero significance, zero importance means nothing.
00:25:13Stripping yourself of clothes is just something so easy, so cheap, so commonplace.
00:25:30And therefore it is not called love.
00:25:33Just because you can get naked in front of someone, that's not love.
00:25:36Love is when you can get inwardly naked in front of someone.
00:25:43And that is very difficult.
00:25:45Very difficult.
00:25:50Two persons can breed six kids without ever having gotten naked in front of each other.
00:26:01If you know what I mean.
00:26:03If you know what I mean.
00:26:05There can be a man, there can be a woman and they can have six babies without ever having seen each other naked.
00:26:16It is very much possible.
00:26:18Not because they were having sex in the dark.
00:26:20But because nakedness is much more than taking off your clothes.
00:26:34It is much more than that.
00:26:38Vedanta has the concept of existence as the truth covered by sheets.
00:26:59Have you heard of that?
00:27:03Kosh.
00:27:05The pancha kosh.
00:27:09Have you heard of that?
00:27:11So there is the truth.
00:27:13And the truth is wearing five layers of clothing.
00:27:16The truth is wearing five layers of clothing.
00:27:22We too wear many.
00:27:25Even in India.
00:27:27If you think of winters, often it does happen that you have five layers of clothing.
00:27:36Starting from your undergarments, there would be five.
00:27:39It is possible.
00:27:41So that is the concept Vedanta came up with.
00:27:43There is the truth and the truth is wearing five layers.
00:27:47They are called five kosh.
00:27:49Pancha kosh.
00:27:51So there is the outermost and this, this, this.
00:27:52To be naked is to remove your clothes layer after layer till all that remains is the truth.
00:28:03That's nakedness.
00:28:08Forget about revealing atma, the truth itself to the mother.
00:28:14He could not go beyond even the skin.
00:28:23Rather he could not come even to the skin.
00:28:27He could not reveal even the skin properly and fully to the mother.
00:28:31Instead he revealed at some place in the body.
00:28:36Instead of skin, a piece of cloth or leaves or something.
00:28:41Paper.
00:28:42He revealed on what he got.
00:28:47Are you getting it?
00:28:49So difficult it is to be open and exposed and vulnerable.
00:28:54So difficult.
00:29:00And it is just an indicator of our huge body centricity that we start calling someone naked
00:29:10if he or she is wearing no clothes.
00:29:13If you are wearing no clothes, that's not at all an indicator of your nakedness.
00:29:18No. That simply means you are unclothed.
00:29:21That does not mean you are naked.
00:29:27Nakedness is something that you require to earn.
00:29:31Nakedness is not something that you achieve just by undressing.
00:29:41Among Jains, you have heard of Digambars.
00:29:51I would say it is a mistake to think that you can become a Digambar just by giving up clothes.
00:29:59Dig is the sky.
00:30:01The sky.
00:30:05The sky.
00:30:09When you are nothing except the sky,
00:30:18when there is nothing sheeting or covering your inner sky,
00:30:24only then you are a Digambar.
00:30:28Otherwise you are not.
00:30:31I repeat, being naked is no child's play.
00:30:44It requires a lot of seriousness, a lot of sadhana to get naked.
00:30:51Even the child is not naked.
00:30:53It requires one to achieve the consciousness of a Krishna, a Buddha, a Mahavir to really get naked.
00:31:07Nakedness is not the body of a Mahavir.
00:31:11Nakedness is the consciousness of a Mahavir.
00:31:14But because we are body-centric people, we look at his body and we think,
00:31:18oh, because the man is sitting without clothes, hence he is naked.
00:31:21Yes, obviously he is naked, but not because he is without clothes.
00:31:25He is naked because he is without maya.
00:31:31Maya is your avarana.
00:31:34Maya is your kosh.
00:31:37Maya is what shrouds and sheaths you.
00:31:43Maya is your blanket.
00:31:48Are you getting it?
00:31:49Are you getting it?
00:31:51Maya is your cage.
00:31:55To be naked is to be out of the cage.
00:32:05Are we together on this?
00:32:07So, it's an injustice to the word naked to just call a sparsely clothed or unclothed person as naked.
00:32:28Equally, it's an injustice to the word revealing.
00:32:36If you start calling someone as wearing revealing clothing just because his or her body parts are visible.
00:32:53Revelation is divine.
00:32:59Just because you are showing a bit of your thigh or hips or cleavage,
00:33:08that does not mean you have revealed anything.
00:33:13You have revealed nothing.
00:33:16You have revealed nothing.
00:33:21Revelation is when an ashtavakra opens up the world to a janak.
00:33:35Revelation is when a Krishna causes a Gita to descend on an Arjuna.
00:33:44That's revelation.
00:33:49So, what's beautiful here in these verses including verse 8 is Arjuna's childlike nakedness.
00:34:04Arjuna is not afraid of being called emotional or attached or deluded or afraid.
00:34:22He says it doesn't matter.
00:34:27I am a kid and here is the daddy.
00:34:30And there is no shame in exposing oneself fully to the father.
00:34:39Contrast that with what Duryodhana did with his mortal mother.
00:34:47And you know probably that's why.
00:34:50Probably that's why.
00:34:52When it comes to a mortal being, it becomes very difficult to expose yourself.
00:35:00Probably that's the reason.
00:35:03We said, husbands and wives and lovers are rarely able to be naked in front of each other
00:35:11because when the other one is just a body and is looking at you just as a body,
00:35:20how do you expose yourself without the body to that person?
00:35:26Are you getting it?
00:35:29He is a body.
00:35:31I am a body.
00:35:34To the two of us, we are bodies.
00:35:40I am a body to him. He is a body to himself.
00:35:43He is a body to me. I am a body to myself.
00:35:46Body to body. That's the game.
00:35:49Now, how do I expose myself, sense the body to him?
00:35:54Therefore, it becomes very difficult.
00:35:56You see, Duryodhana and Gandhari is a mother-son relationship.
00:36:00There we find real nakedness became difficult.
00:36:05It actually didn't happen.
00:36:08And we said it does not also happen between lovers and husbands and wives.
00:36:14But between Krishna and Arjuna, it's happening because it's not a body to body relationship.
00:36:21That's what is needed in a real relationship.
00:36:24Pure nakedness.
00:36:27A nakedness beyond disrobing.
00:36:35A nakedness beyond taking off your clothes.
00:36:43Now, that does not mean that couples don't have to take off their clothes.
00:36:48You may decide to take off clothes. You may not decide to take off clothes.
00:36:52All that we said is pretty insignificant.
00:36:57What really matters is atmic nakedness.
00:37:00Are you really exposed?
00:37:05And why does it matter to be exposed?
00:37:08Because that which makes a relationship worthwhile
00:37:13is that which you need to expose
00:37:20Without exposure, the relationship will not carry any substance, any weight.
00:37:32What is it that remains hidden?
00:37:36That's what is called Atma.
00:37:39There are the five sheaths and beneath these five sheaths is the Atma, the Self, the Truth.
00:37:46And that's what needs to be exposed.
00:37:49And then the relationship is Atmic.
00:37:56The relationship is truthful.
00:38:01Are you getting it?
00:38:05So, Arjuna, to his credit,
00:38:11is peeling off his layers as much as possible.
00:38:16As much as possible.
00:38:29Later on, much later on,
00:38:36a religious fellow from the West
00:38:43wrote a book called Confessions.
00:38:47But if you look at the Bhagavad Gita,
00:39:01what Arjuna is coming up with
00:39:08are really instances of very courageous confessions.
00:39:16One cannot confess so candidly, so honestly
00:39:35if one's ego is still competing
00:39:40with the one to whom the confessions are being made.
00:39:46If the ego is still comparing itself and competing with the one in front of itself,
00:40:01then it will find it very difficult to confess.
00:40:05Do you see the reason?
00:40:08How can I confess in front of him?
00:40:11Because if I confess, then my stature would be diminished.
00:40:17That can happen only when there is competitiveness.
00:40:22That can happen only when the ego has no realistic sense of its real size
00:40:32with respect to the size of a Krishna.
00:40:36That Arjuna is prepared to peel his layers off
00:40:45and expose himself fully to Krishna
00:40:49shows that in some sense he is already very internally, spiritually advanced.
00:40:59He says, what's the point in hiding from him?
00:41:06What's the point in competing with him?
00:41:08He is just too big and too far and too very beyond.
00:41:18In fact, my best hope lies in just standing naked in front of him.
00:41:30He is not concerned. What if Krishna makes fun of me?
00:41:34What will happen to the image of this greatest archer
00:41:42and the fiercest warrior on the face of earth?
00:41:48What if Krishna goes around telling everybody how Arjuna was scared?
00:41:54He is not entraining all these thoughts.
00:41:58He could have done that, right?
00:41:59I am making a confession.
00:42:07I am making myself very vulnerable.
00:42:14What if he misuses this information?
00:42:22What if he starts tom-tomming all that he has just heard from me?
00:42:26What will happen to my brand value?
00:42:31Not even the best PR agency will be then able to revive my brand.
00:42:40Because Arjuna, think of Arjuna who is the mightiest warrior
00:42:46and he is very plainly
00:42:51plainly admitting to Krishna.
00:43:00My skin is burning. My legs are shivering.
00:43:05My arms are torn of all power.
00:43:12I cannot even lift the Gandiva.
00:43:17I am collapsing.
00:43:18All this is so unseemly.
00:43:23Arjuna could have said, let me pretend.
00:43:28Let me simply say, you know, I got COVID or something.
00:43:32So, can't fight.
00:43:35That would have been an easy way out, no?
00:43:39And Krishna, you too must go away, otherwise you will catch it.
00:43:49It's so easy to lie to save yourself, no?
00:43:53So easy.
00:43:59It's so easy to come up with manufactured arguments
00:44:04and apparently they work.
00:44:06If Arjuna simply says, I got diarrhea, Krishna is not going to pull him to a path lab or something.
00:44:27He will leave him at that. Fine, you got diarrhea, what do I do?
00:44:37That happened.
00:44:39We were playing badminton. Raghav was partnering me in doubles.
00:44:48And I was probably getting a bit too much for him.
00:44:52I want my partners to put in as much as I do.
00:44:57They are 200%.
00:45:00But that was long back.
00:45:02There is no shame in that.
00:45:03That was long back.
00:45:05There is no shame in that.
00:45:07Don't hang your head.
00:45:09You have come a long way since then.
00:45:12And I am proud of that.
00:45:19So we were in a winning position but he was doing what he used to do then, not today.
00:45:29And it got a bit to my head.
00:45:33I have said something to him.
00:45:36And he just ran away in the middle.
00:45:38He said, you know, I have to go to the loop.
00:45:42Imagine, in the middle of a double game, the fellow has absconded.
00:45:47But there is nothing to laugh about it now.
00:45:54To his great credit, he has stayed put.
00:45:57And just a few days back I was watching him play Sanjay.
00:46:00And he was playing beautifully.
00:46:03In fact, I am looking forward to playing with him one of these days.
00:46:09The point here is, it is very easy to run away.
00:46:15It is very easy to come up with false excuses.
00:46:18Very easy.
00:46:19Very easy.
00:46:29And it is very difficult to reveal what they mystically call as your soul,
00:46:38even to your father.
00:46:42Very difficult.
00:46:44And that's where even a Krishna cannot help you.
00:46:53Even a Krishna waits for your choice to occur.
00:47:01The moment when you prefer to drop your clothes, he will wait.
00:47:07If you don't drop your clothes and instead he shreds them,
00:47:15that would be some kind of rape.
00:47:17No?
00:47:19So he waits for your consent.
00:47:23He waits for you to get naked on your own.
00:47:31Otherwise the Bhagavad Gita is not needed.
00:47:34The 700 verses.
00:47:36Krishna, as it is said, is omnipotent.
00:47:42He could have simply forced or charmed Arjun to fight.
00:47:47Why does he need to convince Arjun so laboriously?
00:47:52Krishna is omnipotent.
00:47:54He could have simply ordered or charmed or did something to that effect.
00:47:59What was even the need to have a war?
00:48:09He could have simply decimated the Kauravas on his own.
00:48:13And he didn't need to decimate all the warriors on the Kaurava side.
00:48:19Just eliminating one or two key ones would have sufficed.
00:48:24Krishna could have easily done that and avoided all the bloodshed and all the drama.
00:48:29No.
00:48:32You have to choose to get naked.
00:48:36It's a very voluntary thing.
00:48:43Very voluntary thing.
00:48:47And that's the difference between Vedanta and a lot of other philosophies.
00:48:58The almighty power in Vedanta is not an autocrat.
00:49:11The almighty power in Vedanta is not a despot sitting on the skies.
00:49:21The almighty power in Vedanta does not rule.
00:49:28Does not command.
00:49:40Does not bless or curse.
00:49:49And most of all does not fulfill your desires.
00:49:54Which almighty power am I talking of?
00:49:57Atma.
00:49:59Atma.
00:50:01The truth.
00:50:03Atma is not God.
00:50:07Atma is not God.
00:50:09Self is not God.
00:50:12Truth is not God.
00:50:24Are you getting it?
00:50:30Atma is neither the doer nor the creator.
00:50:35God is supposed to be both the doer and the creator.
00:50:38Atma is witness.
00:50:40What does witness mean?
00:50:42It does nothing.
00:50:43Both the creation and the experiencer of the creation are two sides of Maya.
00:51:01So what does Atma have to do with creation?
00:51:06Atma is not the creator.
00:51:14So there is a lot of difference between Atma and God.
00:51:24Truth and God.
00:51:26In Vedanta there is nothing called as God.
00:51:32Vedanta simply means utmost dedication to the truth.
00:51:37And that's Brahm.
00:51:39Atma. Satya.
00:51:44Atma.
00:51:47Had Krishna been God, he could have simply forced matters.
00:51:57He could have simply pushed his way through Arjuna's resistance.
00:52:02Arjuna is resisting and he could have commanded,
00:52:05Arjuna, here comes a commandment.
00:52:09Thou shalt fight.
00:52:13No commandments.
00:52:15A lot of counselling however.
00:52:20You see, when liberation is the goal,
00:52:24the method has to be very liberal at least.
00:52:28So there will be counselling, not commanding.
00:52:33There would be explanations, not orders.
00:52:44At most it is said that sometimes the truth seduces.
00:52:53But nobody can say the truth traps.
00:52:57So that's Vedanta for you.
00:53:00Atma can at most seduce you with its beauty.
00:53:07Utter beauty.
00:53:09It's beautiful.
00:53:11It seduces you, it calls you, it beckons.
00:53:13But you can never say it traps you, ensnares you.
00:53:21It does nothing.
00:53:24It does not even provide you the fruits of your actions.
00:53:31When it comes to God, we often say,
00:53:34if you do something bad, then God will give you bad results.
00:53:44Vedanta says, karma and karma phal do not require any mediating agency.
00:53:52If there is karma, there is karma phal.
00:53:55You do not require a God in between.
00:53:57It does not matter whether you are astik or nastik.
00:54:01If you throw up a stone, the stone will come back to the earth.
00:54:05Or are you saying that if you are an astik,
00:54:08then the stone will be thrown back to the earth by God
00:54:12and if you are an astik, then karma phal will not be obtained.
00:54:15Karma and karma phal are automatic.
00:54:19They do not require the presence of any mediating agency called God in between.
00:54:23God gives you no karma phal.
00:54:27But that is how it is often understood in many religious streams.
00:54:31God will punish you or God will reward you.
00:54:35That is how they say.
00:54:37If something bad happens to you, the punishment has come down from the heavens.
00:54:42If you get a baby, they say it is God's gift.
00:54:45What has God done in that?
00:54:50Vedanta is more mature.
00:54:53Vedanta is not two years of age.
00:54:57Vedanta says karma and karma phal are two sides of the same coin.
00:55:16The doer is the experiencer.
00:55:20The doer of the act is the experiencer of the fruit of the act.
00:55:26Full stop.
00:55:30No God etc. is needed in between to do anything.
00:55:39Two people do something equally stupid, they will get the same output
00:55:45irrespective of what their religious beliefs are like.
00:55:49Similarly, if you do something stupid, no God can save you.
00:55:58If you decide to jump down from the 12th floor of a building,
00:56:04no hand of God is going to come and save you.
00:56:10Not even some kind of a Spiderman.
00:56:20A Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist and an Atheist.
00:56:27The five of them decide to jump together.
00:56:34All five will meet the same fate.
00:56:50What is truth then?
00:56:55The fact that no karma phal,
00:57:00no fruit of any action that the actor, the doer does is ever going to fulfil you.
00:57:11So when you give up your identity as a doer, as an actor,
00:57:18what is left is the truth. That's Vedanta.
00:57:23Vedanta is not about serving a God who will give you nice fruits of prescribed actions.
00:57:35Vedanta is about moving beyond the need to have any nice fruits.
00:57:43It's another dimension.
00:57:48It's another league of maturity.
00:57:56Do you see how God and desire are intertwined?
00:58:00If there is no desire, do you need God?
00:58:04Whenever you have thought of God, it's always with respect to a desire.
00:58:09Vedanta is about transcending the desire itself.
00:58:14Therefore, Vedanta transcends God.
00:58:18Vedanta transcends God.
00:58:21Because Vedanta transcends desire. Vedanta transcends doer.
00:58:25Vedanta transcends the need to have great results.
00:58:30That's Vedanta.
00:58:33Are you getting it?
00:58:39Arjun stands naked.
00:58:52And that's what tells Krishna
00:58:58that this fellow is now available.
00:59:03This fellow is now offering me his consent.
00:59:14I can now give him something that he will accept with love.
00:59:21Because what Krishna is going to say,
00:59:25and mind you, the point where we are
00:59:34in chapter 2, verse 8 or 9,
00:59:41Krishna has yet not really started speaking.
00:59:47So far, it's been Arjun all the way.
00:59:53And it's these words of Arjun that are telling Krishna
01:00:00this fellow can be spoken to.
01:00:05He deserves what I am now going to give him.
01:00:13He has exposed himself in love.
01:00:19And therefore, I can now offer him the gift of love called Gita.
01:00:24Mind you, the Gita is not available to be just intellectually comprehended.
01:00:35If you are resistant in exposing yourself,
01:00:40you will never be able to comprehend the Gita.
01:00:48The Gita is only for those who stand in front of Krishna.
01:00:53As naked babies do in front of their mothers.
01:01:01Nothing to hide.
01:01:04I am not even exposing anything to you mother.
01:01:09All that is there here is something that has come from nobody but you.
01:01:16So even to say I am exposing would be some kind of an exaggeration.
01:01:23And a falsehood.
01:01:27To reveal something, first of all there must be something of my own to reveal.
01:01:33But there is nothing of my own. All this is just yours.
01:01:36So here I am.
01:01:40And probably these are the signals that Krishna waits for.
01:01:46Otherwise, Arjun has been ranting since long.
01:01:54And Krishna said nothing.
01:02:04Now he says, fine.
01:02:11The situation is ripe.
01:02:14The earth has been worked upon.
01:02:18Now if I put a seed here,
01:02:23probably it will take lives.
01:02:27Arjun has done a lot of home work, rather earth work.
01:02:32He has tilled the inner land.
01:02:35He has exposed the soil.
01:02:39Now I can say these things. These are seeds.
01:02:44The verses, the shlokas, they are just seeds.
01:02:48And if your inner soil is not yet ready,
01:02:52these seeds never germinate.
01:02:55And that's what has happened to millions of people who have been listening to the Gita.
01:03:03The Gita is a very potent seed.
01:03:06Nothing wrong with the verses.
01:03:09But if your insides are all just sandy and arid,
01:03:15and unprepared, and unwatered,
01:03:24how will the seed ever sprout?
01:03:31So people have gone on listening to the Gita since centuries.
01:03:36And very very few, very very few,
01:03:39have been able to get, really understand,
01:03:44what Krishna is actually trying to communicate.
01:03:52They mug up the verses.
01:03:55And even today you will have thousands of people.
01:03:59You just tell them, chapter 8, verse 5.
01:04:01That's so much like Googling or Alexa.
01:04:10You just say chapter 8, verse 5 and off they go.
01:04:16And that they consider as their proficiency in Gita.
01:04:26They say, see how scholarly we are.
01:04:29We can recite the verses.
01:04:40And there is then so much hype and hoopla.
01:04:44All over the media the report is,
01:04:474 year old kid is able to recite 700 verses of Gita.
01:04:52It's such a stupid thing to do.
01:04:55Why are you molesting the kid?
01:05:02What does he know of the Gita at 4 years of age?
01:05:07You have simply crammed the thing in.
01:05:11That's what you have done, right?
01:05:13And that's a disservice to the kid and the Gita, both.
01:05:25Is that not so?
01:05:29The Gita cannot come to you by way of memory,
01:05:34by way of intellectual comprehension.
01:05:37It comes when like an Arjun,
01:05:42and I am repeating this for the nth time in the last one hour,
01:05:46when like an Arjun, you just get naked.
01:05:51That nakedness is of supreme value.
01:05:54And a Krishan by definition is wise.
01:06:08He will not throw seeds where they cannot germinate.
01:06:16What's the point?
01:06:24Would a Krishan throw seeds on some metallic turf?
01:06:33Or on dry rocks?
01:06:36He won't.
01:06:43He says the seeds have to be thrown
01:06:46where there is at least some probability
01:06:49of them receiving love, care, nourishment.
01:06:54The verses have to be received in great love,
01:06:58in great empathy.
01:07:00Otherwise you can militate against the verses.
01:07:04And a lot of people do that, don't they?
01:07:07You can pick up any verse and come up with a meaning of your own.
01:07:13That's very stupid but also very hard to argue against.
01:07:22That's the irony.
01:07:28You can have a very stupid position
01:07:32that you can argue very strongly in favour of.
01:07:39And your argument can be well-meaning.
01:07:44Well-meaning, invincible.
01:07:57And the other person would know in his heart
01:08:01that what you are speaking is crap.
01:08:05Yet he would not know how to defeat your argument.
01:08:14And that's the way you can keep yourself
01:08:23safely protected against the Gita.
01:08:28Pick up a verse.
01:08:32Come up with some loveless
01:08:40but intelligent meaning
01:08:48and declare the Gita to be useless for you.
01:08:55The Gita is not useless.
01:08:58You are loveless.
01:09:03To a fellow like you,
01:09:05Krishna would not have uttered a single word.
01:09:10That's the touchstone.
01:09:14If ever you find yourself
01:09:20strongly disagreeing with the Gita,
01:09:24just ask yourself,
01:09:26would Krishna ever have spoken these words to me?
01:09:30The answer would be a resounding no.
01:09:32No.
01:09:34Never.
01:09:37And then it becomes obvious why you can't comprehend the Gita.
01:09:41Because the Gita is anyway not for you.
01:09:45The original one,
01:09:48the author,
01:09:53would not have agreed
01:09:56to let these verses come to your ears.
01:10:01And that's why even today when these verses are coming to you,
01:10:05you are unable to receive them with love.
01:10:15But why is Krishna withholding his consent?
01:10:19Because you are withholding your consent.
01:10:22Krishna has no consent of his own.
01:10:25He just waits. He waits for your love.
01:10:28The moment you give your love, he gives his consent.
01:10:38And how do you give your love?
01:10:41By giving up on your resistance,
01:10:44which I am today calling as your clothing.
01:10:49When you give up your resistance,
01:10:52which is your clothes, your sheets,
01:10:54your avaran, your kosh,
01:10:59that's when you find
01:11:02that the author's love
01:11:05is forthcoming and boundless.
01:11:15Are you getting it?
01:11:18Hmm?
01:11:37I do not understand whether there is anything
01:11:42that can remove this sorrow that overpowers
01:11:46my senses,
01:11:49my mind basically.
01:11:50That's the sense being talked of.
01:11:52That overpowers my mind.
01:11:56Even if
01:11:59this war
01:12:02were to give me
01:12:06aspatnam, unrivaled
01:12:10and ever increasing
01:12:16control over
01:12:19the entire earth
01:12:22and even lordship
01:12:26over the gods.
01:12:30Arjun is saying
01:12:33my current emotion
01:12:36is overpowering
01:12:39all the other desires that a normal human being can have.
01:12:44What are the desires that a normal human being can have?
01:12:50Lot of money,
01:12:52power, authority,
01:12:54swarg, heavens,
01:12:56the riches of the heavens.
01:13:03No rivals inside, therefore complete security.
01:13:08That's what the normal mind asks for.
01:13:10That's what the normal mind asks for.
01:13:16Arjun says
01:13:18even the lure of those desires
01:13:21at this moment
01:13:23is insufficient to pull me out of my sorrow.
01:13:30This sorrow
01:13:32has become bigger for my mind than anything else.
01:13:37It's just grown on me.
01:13:40And become bigger than anything else.
01:13:47Come on.
01:13:49Name the temptation that you can offer.
01:13:53And any temptation that you can offer
01:13:56or any fear,
01:13:58any other kind of arousal or provocation or temptation.
01:14:03That to me at this moment is smaller
01:14:07than the sorrow that has controlled me.
01:14:11That's the thing.
01:14:14You know.
01:14:16With all emotions and desires,
01:14:21there is nothing special about Arjun's state.
01:14:25Think of
01:14:27any emotional state.
01:14:30In that state
01:14:32aren't the other things
01:14:35that you usually
01:14:37desire or pine for
01:14:43don't they become a little inconsequential?
01:14:49That's the thing with desire.
01:14:53It's a
01:14:57thousand headed
01:15:00monster.
01:15:01It's an octopus
01:15:03with thousand arms.
01:15:15And when it
01:15:23catches you with any one particular arm
01:15:27catches you with any one particular arm
01:15:35that one arm gains the
01:15:38cumulative power of
01:15:40all the thousand.
01:15:45Are you getting it?
01:15:49Try to understand what I am saying.
01:15:53We don't have a single desire. We have
01:15:56multiple desires. We have a thousand desires.
01:15:59But at a given moment there is only
01:16:02one desire.
01:16:05That one desire could be an amalgamation of five desires.
01:16:08That is possible.
01:16:10For example,
01:16:11the desire could be
01:16:14to please your wife and your boss.
01:16:17So there is one desire
01:16:19to please your family
01:16:21and there is another desire to please your boss.
01:16:24And you want both these together.
01:16:25So the name of this unified desire is
01:16:28I want to please my family and my boss.
01:16:31That's one desire.
01:16:33So at any given moment you have only one desire.
01:16:35Even if that desire itself
01:16:40has seeds of conflict within itself.
01:16:42That's okay.
01:16:43But the desire is one.
01:16:47And when you have that one desire
01:16:49it sucks in the power of all other desires.
01:16:55So let's say one unit of power
01:16:58is normally allotted to all the thousand arms of the octopus.
01:17:05But when the octopus grips you
01:17:08with any one arm
01:17:11then what's the power that one arm has?
01:17:14Thousand units.
01:17:16And all the other arms at that moment
01:17:19are devoid of any power.
01:17:22And that's what Arjun is narrating here.
01:17:24Arjun is saying
01:17:25all the other temptations and desires and things
01:17:28have become so irrelevant and inconsequential to me.
01:17:32All the other arms of desire have lost all their power.
01:17:36And all the power has come to just one desire
01:17:39and that desire right now
01:17:41is to run away.
01:17:43I want to run away.
01:17:52With a thousand watt desire.
01:17:59The next day Arjun would have some other desire.
01:18:02How much power would that desire have?
01:18:05Again thousand watts.
01:18:11A week later there would be another desire.
01:18:13How much power would that have?
01:18:15And that's how desire makes an utter fool of each of us.
01:18:19Does it not?
01:18:22The particular desire that you have in the moment
01:18:25becomes everything for you.
01:18:28It becomes your universe.
01:18:31Everything else is lost upon you.
01:18:36Nothing remains except that which you want at that moment.
01:18:46The combined might of the remaining 999
01:18:49proves insufficient
01:18:51to lure you away from that one almighty desire
01:18:54of that moment.
01:18:58Does it not?
01:19:00What to do then?
01:19:03The answer would come from Krishna.
01:19:07Here is an early trailer.
01:19:13No desire can be a cure
01:19:18to another one.
01:19:22You cannot deter a man
01:19:34from stealing some jewellery
01:19:41by offering him respectability.
01:19:46Even if the deterrence
01:19:51is experienced,
01:19:55it would be very short lived.
01:19:59There is a desire
01:20:01to steal jewellery
01:20:03and there is also a desire to remain respectable.
01:20:07Now you find somebody stealing
01:20:09and you tell him,
01:20:11you don't steal.
01:20:13You don't steal
01:20:15and I will tell nobody that you were caught stealing.
01:20:18Instead I will say that you are
01:20:20a very charitable person
01:20:22and a great donor and such things
01:20:24and we will felicitate you.
01:20:26We will have a civilian gathering
01:20:29and garland you
01:20:31atop some podium.
01:20:34So that's like trying to
01:20:39vanquish one desire
01:20:41with the help of
01:20:43another. Right?
01:20:49That works but only
01:20:51very superficially
01:20:53and very temporarily.
01:20:58For a short while you can
01:21:01lure away that man.
01:21:04Not for too long.
01:21:06What then is the way of the Gita?
01:21:09The way of the Gita
01:21:14is the way within.
01:21:19Atma Gyan, self-knowledge.
01:21:21Not substituting one desire with the other
01:21:26but directly knowing
01:21:28who the desirous one is
01:21:30and what he really
01:21:32wants.
01:21:33That's the way of the Gita.
01:21:35I want
01:21:40one more chocolate.
01:21:44If you
01:21:48do not take
01:21:50that chocolate
01:21:55I will buy you one more
01:21:57small car
01:21:59and the child
01:22:01gives up on the chocolate.
01:22:05It seems to work. Does it not?
01:22:09Nothing has worked.
01:22:12You have
01:22:14just allowed
01:22:16the multi-headed
01:22:18and the multi-armed
01:22:20rather octopus
01:22:25to catch you with
01:22:28another arm.
01:22:30Please tell me how has it helped you?
01:22:41How has it helped you?
01:22:47I have a
01:22:49double barrel gun.
01:22:55Double barrel gun. Right?
01:22:57How would you like to be killed?
01:23:01Through the left barrel or the right one?
01:23:07The way of the Gita is the way of
01:23:09immortality. I do not want
01:23:11to be killed.
01:23:13I refuse this choice.
01:23:17And the way of the world is
01:23:19when you are about to be killed
01:23:21by the left barrel
01:23:23you opt for the
01:23:25right one. And when the right one
01:23:27is about to kill you, you opt for the
01:23:29that's duality.
01:23:34The shuttlecock.
01:23:37If you are here,
01:23:39you will be killed here. Therefore, you go there.
01:23:41But if you stay there, you will be killed there.
01:23:43So, you rush back this side.
01:23:47That's duality.
01:23:49Gita says, this is no good.
01:23:51You are not born for this.
01:23:55You have to understand who you are
01:23:57and what is it that threatens
01:23:59to kill you.
01:24:03Understand. No.
01:24:06Realize.
01:24:13This is the situation
01:24:15of every human being.
01:24:17Arjun we are saying is special
01:24:19because
01:24:21he is unabashedly
01:24:23without any qualms,
01:24:29without any pretense,
01:24:32just exposing himself fully.
01:24:36He does not care for respect
01:24:38or self-respect
01:24:42or anything.
01:24:46And that's the reason why
01:24:49very soon now
01:24:53he would be gifted the Gita.
01:24:58And in response to this
01:25:00kind of sorrow,
01:25:02the very first thing that Krishna
01:25:04would say to him
01:25:06is in itself sufficient
01:25:08to constitute an entire
01:25:10scripture. That one verse.
01:25:14Soon after this, what is it
01:25:16that Krishna is going to tell Arjun?
01:25:18Dude,
01:25:20you are grieving for
01:25:22those who do not deserve
01:25:24to be grieved for.
01:25:26Full stop.
01:25:30Full stop.
01:25:34And that's just half a verse by the way.
01:25:38Full stop.
01:25:42And if one has sufficient love,
01:25:46this half a verse is sufficient.
01:25:48It depends on how much
01:25:50love you have.
01:26:00And then the
01:26:02next one is not very
01:26:04significant.
01:26:10The significant one comes
01:26:12two verses later.
01:26:14I don't suppose
01:26:16we'll reach there today.
01:26:20But anyway, the ninth one says
01:26:33And Arjun says,
01:26:35Sir, this is my inner condition.
01:26:38And in this inner condition,
01:26:42I cannot fight.
01:26:44I cannot fight and he becomes silent
01:26:46and that's
01:26:48that surrender
01:26:50and that's a signal
01:26:52to Krishna to now
01:26:54say whatever he has to.
01:26:56Sir, I have narrated to you
01:26:58my inner condition
01:27:00and this inner condition.
01:27:02There is no way I can fight.
01:27:04I have hidden nothing from you.
01:27:06I am your child.
01:27:08I am exposed.
01:27:10I stand naked.
01:27:12At the same time,
01:27:14being a child,
01:27:16I can do no more.
01:27:18This is the maximum.
01:27:20Over to you.
01:27:22From my side, over and out.
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01:27:34without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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