Video Information: 28.09.2024, Gita Samagam English, Greater Noida
Description:
Acharya Prashant elaborated on a key turning point in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna changes his approach with Arjuna. Having failed to awaken Arjuna through direct self-knowledge, Krishna now preempts Arjuna’s resistance and outlines the factors that block true understanding. He highlights how intellect, when controlled by ego, becomes a hindrance rather than a tool for liberation.
Krishna warns that even the most profound teachings are ineffective without a receptive and prepared mind. Acharya Prashant explained that intellect is a resource easily exploited by ego, and true intelligence lies in using intellect for liberation, not self-preservation.
The session underscored the importance of self-awareness, decision-making, and removing inner resistance to understand the teacher’s message. This approach mirrors the tradition of neti-neti (negation), urging one to discard barriers before wisdom can take root.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Description:
Acharya Prashant elaborated on a key turning point in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna changes his approach with Arjuna. Having failed to awaken Arjuna through direct self-knowledge, Krishna now preempts Arjuna’s resistance and outlines the factors that block true understanding. He highlights how intellect, when controlled by ego, becomes a hindrance rather than a tool for liberation.
Krishna warns that even the most profound teachings are ineffective without a receptive and prepared mind. Acharya Prashant explained that intellect is a resource easily exploited by ego, and true intelligence lies in using intellect for liberation, not self-preservation.
The session underscored the importance of self-awareness, decision-making, and removing inner resistance to understand the teacher’s message. This approach mirrors the tradition of neti-neti (negation), urging one to discard barriers before wisdom can take root.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00It's a war between Krishna and Arjuna in the first place.
00:00:04The other war that the Mahabharata stands for, that is secondary.
00:00:08The primary war is between Krishna and Arjuna.
00:00:11And Arjuna makes all the attempts to resist Krishna as much as he can.
00:00:16And Krishna is intimidating him in advance.
00:00:18Your resistance is your choice.
00:00:20By the virtue of being a human being, you enjoy that choice.
00:00:23That choice is not optional.
00:00:25That choice is your defining characteristic as a human being.
00:00:29As long as you are alive, you will have that choice.
00:00:31I am helpless in that matter.
00:00:33If you choose not to understand what I am saying,
00:00:36then even the best of my discourses will fall flat.
00:00:40Nothing is going to happen, Arjuna.
00:00:43The direct path having failed on Arjuna,
00:00:58Shri Krishna is being extra cautious now.
00:01:02It is notable that the kind of warning or caution
00:01:19that was never sounded out to Arjuna in the beginning
00:01:33or after the first chapter or at the beginning of the second
00:01:41is being delivered now right in the middle of the Gyan-centered discourse in chapter 2.
00:02:06The reason is simple, obvious.
00:02:12The best, simplest, most direct, most obvious treatment has failed.
00:02:30Krishna tried to take Arjuna directly to the center of all being and doing
00:02:37with being coming prior to doing.
00:02:43And that didn't succeed on Arjuna.
00:02:51So Krishna is doling out precautionary advice in advance now.
00:03:02Anticipating a similar kind of resistance as Arjuna displayed
00:03:21when Krishna was talking self-knowledge to him.
00:03:27So now Krishna is about to tell Arjuna the possible reasons why he is likely to fail.
00:03:41Why he is likely to not get Krishna.
00:03:48Why is he likely to miss out on the obvious message.
00:03:54And what applies to Arjuna applies to everybody.
00:03:59If you find that the Gita is not succeeding on you.
00:04:05If you find yourself disinterested or sleepy.
00:04:11If you find that something within you continuously conspires to keep you away.
00:04:19To keep you busy, enclosed, secured in your cave, on your bed, with your meals,
00:04:37in your patterns, in your hum-dumbed life.
00:04:44Then these are the reasons.
00:04:50Rarely do we find in the Bhagavad Gita reasons for failure
00:05:02so descriptively elaborated as in these verses.
00:05:14This is anticipatory.
00:05:18Krishna is saying even if I deliver the best that a teacher can to a taught,
00:05:32yet what I will give you will not stay with you.
00:05:38These are his exact words.
00:05:41What I will give you will not stay with you.
00:05:54And who are the kind of people and what characteristics do they display?
00:06:11What is it that keeps them away from the Gita in spite of
00:06:23an able teacher like Krishna
00:06:29delivering it in the most profound manner possible?
00:06:35The reasons are being elaborated here.
00:06:39These are six, seven or eight points.
00:06:43And as we said, they apply not only to Arjun but to each of us.
00:06:49If you sometimes wonder,
00:06:53why,
00:06:57why
00:07:04do you just forget everything in spite of receiving it,
00:07:08then here are the reasons.
00:07:11This is right in the tradition of negation, neti neti.
00:07:16Krishna is telling Arjun, yes, I will start speaking to you in another way.
00:07:25I will start instructing to you through another route.
00:07:32But it will fail again.
00:07:36But it will fail again if you do not take care of these things.
00:07:42So first of all, these reasons, these factors need to be removed.
00:07:49Negation.
00:07:53Remove these things and only then what I say will stay with you.
00:08:00Krishna is not saying that the words, the message, the import is not reaching Arjun.
00:08:08He is saying it is reaching but not staying there.
00:08:13It is not being received.
00:08:16Something can come to your doorsteps, right?
00:08:19A parcel, a courier,
00:08:23somebody has sent something.
00:08:24It has reached but it also needs to be delivered.
00:08:29But it also needs to be received.
00:08:32Reaching is not sufficient.
00:08:38The receiver has to be ready.
00:08:42Krishna is telling us the characteristics of the unready receiver.
00:08:52Who is the one who is not yet ripe?
00:08:58Not yet willing.
00:09:02Not yet choosing Krishna.
00:09:11Krishna might be right there on the chariot.
00:09:16Standing, sitting right in front of you.
00:09:19Still, to get him, you have to choose him.
00:09:24How do we know the person who will not choose Krishna?
00:09:34Here we go.
00:09:38One, those whose intellect follows the ego.
00:09:54Alp buddhi.
00:09:59We touched on it last time as well.
00:10:05Alp buddhi does not mean low intellect.
00:10:13It means an absence of intelligence.
00:10:18Intellect and intelligence are dimensionally different.
00:10:32You can have a deep intellect and yet you might not be very intelligent.
00:10:48Intelligence is freedom from ego.
00:10:54The intellect has no such choice.
00:11:02The intellect is an instrument of the ego.
00:11:10The intellect is a resource.
00:11:14Intelligence is a quality.
00:11:22Intellect is a resource that can very easily become subservient to the ego.
00:11:36The ego uses everything, does it not?
00:11:48Anything that it can put its hands on, anything it can lay claim over.
00:11:56The intellect is one such thing, one such resource.
00:12:00The ego uses the body, does it not?
00:12:03The ego uses the senses, does it not?
00:12:06The ego uses the memory, does it not?
00:12:09And if the ego has some control over the world,
00:12:17the ego definitely uses the world to satiate itself, does it not?
00:12:26Similarly, the ego uses the intellect.
00:12:30You will find egoistic persons coming up with great arguments,
00:12:40great excuses, great theories just to defend the ego.
00:12:49Intellect, sharp intellect in the service of ego becomes very lethal.
00:13:00And mind you, there is no freedom that intellect possesses on its own.
00:13:17Intelligence sanctifies the intellect.
00:13:22Otherwise, the intellect has no freedom of its own.
00:13:26There can be vast intellect and yet no freedom to the intellect.
00:13:40A lot of intellect is just brain, body, physicality, grey matter, biological.
00:13:53And just as people are prepared to sell their body for let's say money,
00:14:04don't we do that? Think of labour, physical labour.
00:14:11One is selling his arms, his legs, his muscles so that he may earn some money, right?
00:14:19He says, my limbs will do what my master orders.
00:14:27Who is the master? Who pays you?
00:14:30My limbs will follow the commands of my master so that I get paid.
00:14:38Similarly, the brain is the body.
00:14:41Somebody could say, my brain will follow the dictates of my master so that I get paid.
00:14:50And one could have an IQ of 170.
00:14:56And one could be selling it for very petty gains.
00:15:04The intellect is very sellable. It has no freedom of its own.
00:15:11That is one reason why the world is in such a poor condition today.
00:15:20People with very sharp intellects, they all stand sold to very despicable kind of masters.
00:15:34Just because those masters are good pay masters.
00:15:41Think of a college campus.
00:15:48A college you gain admission to after passing through the most rigorous kind of entrance test.
00:15:56Obviously, the students there will be high on intellect, right?
00:16:02The average IQ of that campus will probably be 20, 30, 40% higher than the average IQ of general population.
00:16:18And let's see who comes there to hire, to recruit.
00:16:25Some company selling fizzy drinks.
00:16:32The fellow has an IQ of 160 and he is extremely happy getting a job offer from an organization that sells sports shoes.
00:16:52He says, you know, this is the gift that I got from Prakriti.
00:16:59What is the gift? The brain.
00:17:02And what am I going to use this brain for?
00:17:06To sell shoes.
00:17:11Or sell sweetened water.
00:17:14Sell fizzy drinks.
00:17:16Or sell sweetened water.
00:17:19Sell fizzy drinks.
00:17:21They pay you really well. They are big MNCs.
00:17:29So that's the intellect for you. Slave of the ego.
00:17:32Slave of the ego.
00:17:36One of the problems with our culture, the global culture, is that it respects the intellect too much.
00:17:53Somebody can come up with great arguments, thoughts, theories.
00:17:58We say, wow, he is so intelligent. No, he is not intelligent.
00:18:03Intelligence is freedom whereas the intellect has no freedom.
00:18:11We give undue reverence to intellect.
00:18:19Also to knowledge, also to memory.
00:18:24Somebody is knowledgeable.
00:18:28We stand in awe of him. Don't we?
00:18:31Oh, he knows so much. What's the point?
00:18:34Just like intellect, knowledge too is a vessel to the ego.
00:18:47And are these not woven together?
00:18:56Intellect, knowledge and memory.
00:18:59Can there be one without the other?
00:19:05These really have very little importance of their own.
00:19:11Because they are just resources.
00:19:14Stuff to be used.
00:19:17Stuff to be used by the ego.
00:19:20The ego could use the stuff for its preservation or for its liberation.
00:19:24Chances are it will use everything for self-preservation.
00:19:29And that's what intellect is misused for.
00:19:34Self-preservation.
00:19:37In that sense, having a sharp intellect is a bit of a misfortune.
00:19:46The sharper you are, it is possible, the more difficult it is for you to be free of yourself.
00:19:57You will use your own sharpness against yourself.
00:20:00The ego will use the intellect to remain in bondage.
00:20:19If this were not true, we would have found that things are very linear,
00:20:27very arithmetical, very straightforward.
00:20:34We know what the average IQ of the population is, right?
00:20:38Around 100.
00:20:41So, those with IQs in excess of 125,
00:20:47the probability of spiritual liberation would have been higher and progressively higher.
00:20:55125, now this fellow has a good chance of being liberated.
00:21:00135, the chance increases, the probability is progressive.
00:21:06It goes on increasing with IQ.
00:21:08Does that happen? That does not happen.
00:21:13We do not find any positive correlation there.
00:21:18So, there is a great chance that this phrase here can be misinterpreted.
00:21:28Alp buddhi. Alp buddhi does not mean low IQ.
00:21:32If Krishna is saying that those with low intellect cannot get the Gita,
00:21:39then the corollary is that those with high intellect will get the Gita, right?
00:21:44We have no evidence of that.
00:21:47There is no evidence at all that those with high IQ are more suited to the path of wisdom.
00:21:58There is no evidence to the contrary either.
00:22:02We are not saying that those with low IQ are more suited to the path of wisdom.
00:22:07Else all the S's would have been liberated by now.
00:22:11If you are born dumb, then there would have been great celebrations.
00:22:20The fellow has no brains at all. He is automatically liberated.
00:22:26So, high IQ, no guarantee of liberation.
00:22:30No IQ, again low guarantee.
00:22:35Because intellect does not matter really in that sense.
00:22:40What matters is what you do with your intellect.
00:22:44And that is not decided by the intellect.
00:22:53Making the right decision with respect to your resources, that is intelligence.
00:22:59And that decision as to what to do with the intellect cannot come from the intellect.
00:23:11The TV cannot decide what you are going to watch.
00:23:15Can the TV? The TV cannot decide the channel you are going to watch.
00:23:20The intellect is like the TV. The remote is with you.
00:23:24Intelligence is to use the remote properly.
00:23:33Intellect is when you have a wide range of channels available to watch.
00:23:37402 channels. That is intellect. So much is there.
00:23:43Great knowledge, great diversity. Whatever you want to see is available. That is intellect.
00:23:48I know so much and I can calculate and I can argue.
00:23:54All that is intellect.
00:23:58But no television can decide on its own what you must watch for your welfare.
00:24:04Even if you program the TV in a way that it will display something to you,
00:24:09that is just programming. There can be no wisdom in programming.
00:24:13There can be no freedom in programming.
00:24:16Programming by definition is anti-freedom.
00:24:22Are you getting it?
00:24:25So what does Alpbuddhi mean?
00:24:28And that is just the first point Krishna is going to enumerate.
00:24:37What does Alpbuddhi mean?
00:24:43The one whose intellect is tethered to, submitted to the ego.
00:24:53What is Alp? The ego is Alp.
00:24:57Nalpe Sukham, the Upanishad says.
00:25:04We have very clear verification from Shruti itself.
00:25:13Yove Bhooma Tat Sukham Nalpe Sukham
00:25:18The grand is the truth, the Atman.
00:25:22And Alp, limited, is the ego.
00:25:27That's the fundamental quality of the ego. I am limited.
00:25:32And that's why I am restless.
00:25:37First is this. Arjun, if you have decided
00:25:45to use your past, your powers, your relationships, your memory, your intellect
00:25:53to not to listen to me,
00:25:57then just as my words hitherto did not succeed on you,
00:26:04whatever I am going to say next, that too will fall flat.
00:26:16The warning has been sounded out.
00:26:23I cannot penetrate your defences, Arjun.
00:26:33And everything can be used by the ego in its defence.
00:26:39Most importantly, the buddhi.
00:26:43What is buddhi?
00:26:46How do we define buddhi, intellect?
00:26:49How do we define it?
00:26:53But how do we define it? When do we say somebody has intellect?
00:27:04It is the ability to make sense of prakriti.
00:27:15It is the ability to make sense of prakriti.
00:27:23So why do we say that a madman or a kid or animals,
00:27:33their intellect is not as deep or wide or sharp as that of a normal human being?
00:27:44Why do we say that? Because we can see patterns.
00:27:48If we want to reach somewhere, we can figure out a way.
00:28:00But the intellect cannot tell you where to reach.
00:28:08If you are given a puzzle, intellect will help you crack the puzzle.
00:28:15But the intellect cannot tell you which puzzles to choose and which to ignore.
00:28:26If you give a sudoku thing to a chimpanzee, it is very unlikely to succeed.
00:28:34A human being probably will. That's intellect.
00:28:38That's intellect.
00:28:43You get it?
00:28:46So all these are products of your intellect.
00:28:50The gadgets that you see around you, all the stuff, all that comes from there.
00:28:56But intellect itself has no freedom. It cannot tell you what to do with those things.
00:29:00So Arjun, understanding is first of all a decision.
00:29:13The decision has to be very clear.
00:29:21The decision is to understand. I want to understand.
00:29:24You cannot stand before the teacher with a wall of resistance and then say,
00:29:35Oh, but I don't understand. You don't understand because you don't want to.
00:29:44You don't have to be positively inclined towards understanding.
00:29:49No, that is not needed. You just have to remove the barriers against understanding.
00:29:54That is not much needed.
00:29:57You don't have to say, Oh, I am so eager and available. I want to understand.
00:30:01I have opened my heart for you, dear master. All that is not needed.
00:30:07In fact, it's likely that all that might be another form of resistance.
00:30:17But you certainly have to look at yourself and ask,
00:30:22Am I sitting here to learn or to resist?
00:30:33What am I here for?
00:30:35To look at myself with the courage and intention to clear away the internal nonsense?
00:30:56Or am I here to secure myself and silently fight the teacher?
00:31:06I often say it's a war between Krishna and Arjuna in the first place.
00:31:14The other war that the Mahabharata stands for, that's secondary.
00:31:22The primary war is between Krishna and Arjuna.
00:31:28And Arjuna makes all the attempts to resist Krishna as much as he can.
00:31:35And Krishna is intimidating him in advance.
00:31:41Your resistance is your choice.
00:31:44By the virtue of being a human being, you enjoy that choice.
00:31:54That choice is not optional.
00:31:58That choice is your defining characteristic as a human being.
00:32:05As long as you are alive, you will have that choice.
00:32:08And I am helpless in that matter.
00:32:12If you choose not to understand what I am saying, then even the best of my discourses will fall flat.
00:32:23Nothing is going to happen, Arjuna.
00:32:26And Krishna has solid reasons to suspect that nothing is going to happen because the best, the deepest, the purest lesson has already been delivered by him and it hasn't worked.
00:32:44It has already been delivered by him and it hasn't worked.
00:32:51Krishna is doubly cautious now.
00:32:57When we are enumerating the points, point one is do not use your internal resources to defend the ego.
00:33:11And defending the ego and resisting the teacher are the same thing.
00:33:20We are smart people. We won't open our mouth.
00:33:24But internally, we are arguing. Are we not?
00:33:35Internally, we are quarreling. Are we not?
00:33:38Externally, we are such nice, peaceful, silent people sitting almost in submission.
00:33:48You see?
00:33:52But that's just the facade.
00:33:55Internally, you are quarreling. You are wrestling.
00:33:59Krishna is saying, I will never win that wrestling bout.
00:34:09Not because you are stronger but because you are the referee.
00:34:19You are fighting me and you will decide the winner.
00:34:25I will never win, Arjuna.
00:34:30When you are arguing against someone, who decides whether your argument has merit?
00:34:38You do.
00:34:40Therefore, you always win.
00:34:43You always win.
00:34:45You always have an argument and in your eyes, the argument always has merit.
00:34:52Whatsoever you want to do, you have an argument in favor of it.
00:34:58How do you know that the argument has any worth at all?
00:35:02Because you are the tester of the argument.
00:35:09You certify.
00:35:12You pass.
00:35:15You allow. You judge.
00:35:22I am the player. I am the competitor.
00:35:29And I am the referee. I am the judge.
00:35:32Obviously, you are never going to lose.
00:35:35And if the ego doesn't lose, the teacher cannot win.
00:35:43Point number one.
00:35:45Next point.
00:35:46Those who are enamored with the desire-centric deeds mentioned in the Vedas.
00:36:17The Vedas have two parts.
00:36:25The first part deals with gaining satisfaction through fulfillment of desire.
00:36:41Fulfillment of desire.
00:36:45That is the Karmakand part.
00:36:49Gaining satisfaction by fulfillment of desire.
00:36:55The second part is about gaining fulfillment by understanding desire.
00:37:11Understanding desire.
00:37:19The first part includes actions towards getting what you want.
00:37:35And how do you get what you want?
00:37:38By praising the world from where you want so much.
00:37:50I want a lot from you. You are the world.
00:37:56What is the most effective, the least expensive way of getting stuff from you?
00:38:02If I am smart, how do I get things from you?
00:38:13By just praising you.
00:38:15Please understand how it starts.
00:38:18First of all, I have desire.
00:38:22That is the defining thing of the ego.
00:38:25And I have desire towards the world.
00:38:28World.
00:38:30How do I get stuff from the world in the least expensive, least effortful way possible?
00:38:42By praising the world.
00:38:45So that's the way of the initial part of the Vedic literature.
00:38:54Praise the forces of nature and praise them no end.
00:38:58And say, I am praising you so much.
00:39:01Now kindly give me some milk and honey.
00:39:06I am praising you so much.
00:39:08Kindly ensure that there is better yield in my fields.
00:39:14I am praising you so much.
00:39:17Kindly ensure that I get more fertile wives.
00:39:23Who can beget me more sons.
00:39:26I am praising you so much.
00:39:28Kindly destroy all my enemies.
00:39:31May there be a great fire or a great flood.
00:39:37And they may be annihilated.
00:39:41That's broadly the tone and tenor of Karmakand.
00:39:48Karmakand.
00:39:51That part too has certain jewels.
00:40:02Containing deep insights.
00:40:05But they are few and far between.
00:40:09Mostly it is about praising prakritic deities to fulfil your desires.
00:40:17And then the Vedas just graduate.
00:40:23There is a quantum jump.
00:40:25The very orbit changes.
00:40:27The very dimension changes suddenly.
00:40:33From the Mantra Sanghita and the Brahman part,
00:40:37you come to the Upanishads.
00:40:39And this part is unrecognisable from the previous one.
00:40:50As if there is no similarity at all.
00:40:55As if a great U-turn has occurred.
00:41:03The Upanishads undo everything that has been done till now.
00:41:09They say, no, no, no, fulfilment of the ego,
00:41:15appeasement of the ego is not the goal at all.
00:41:19The goal is dissolution of the ego.
00:41:22The very discourse changes.
00:41:24The very objective changes.
00:41:28The Vedas assume a great height.
00:41:31Instead of praising the forces of prakriti, nature,
00:41:38the Upanishads are now saying,
00:41:41you don't have anything to do with prakriti.
00:41:45All the Vedic gods are forgotten in the Upanishads.
00:41:50No Indra, no Varun, no Surya, no Agni.
00:41:53No Indra, no Varun, no Surya, no Agni.
00:41:58The Upanishads don't talk of them.
00:42:00Even if they do, it's very sporadic.
00:42:02Here, there, somewhere, you might have some odd mention.
00:42:07But that is not central at all.
00:42:11The Upanishads are saying, I don't have anything to do with prakriti.
00:42:15And I don't have anything to do with my desires.
00:42:18And these two go hand in hand.
00:42:21The more you are full of desires,
00:42:23the more you will have engagement with the world.
00:42:29The Upanishads are saying, no, no, no.
00:42:33It's not about fulfilling my desires.
00:42:36And it's not about engaging with the world for my benefit, my profit.
00:42:44The deities, the gods are gone.
00:42:47And instead, we have Brahm.
00:42:49The absolute truth.
00:42:55Nobody is being praised at all.
00:42:57Instead of praise and such things, there is inquiry, investigation.
00:43:01The very game changes.
00:43:04Everything is different now.
00:43:08Are you getting it?
00:43:09So different are the Upanishads from the previous part of the Vedas.
00:43:18And the Gita belongs to the category of Upanishads.
00:43:23The Gita is Vedanta.
00:43:25Pure Vedanta.
00:43:28So Krishna is saying here something very beautiful, very drastic, very bold,
00:43:35and also quite offensive
00:43:39to those who want to hold on to their desires.
00:43:43Shri Krishna is saying,
00:43:45if you are attached to the deeds and desires part of the Vedas,
00:43:57Arjun, you will never understand what I am saying.
00:44:04And it's not without reason that Shri Krishna is delivering this warning.
00:44:12In Chapter 1, Arjun has given him sufficient reasons
00:44:21to see that Arjun is quite in awe of,
00:44:37quite besotted with
00:44:44the whole game of personal and social desire.
00:44:57Krishna is saying no.
00:45:00If that part of the Vedas is what you really respect and value,
00:45:10then you will not value the Upanishads.
00:45:16You will have to drop all that.
00:45:21Worshipping forces of nature, asking for favors,
00:45:26psychophancy in the name of prayers,
00:45:37with your own desires being projected as the deity,
00:45:49all that takes you nowhere.
00:45:56Drop that if you are to understand what I am going to say next.
00:46:05Because my job is not to fulfill your desires.
00:46:12And what I am going to say will strike at the very root of your desires.
00:46:25You must also see that your desires do not help you.
00:46:33It is not just unfulfilled desires that are a problem.
00:46:38Even fulfilled desires do not help you.
00:46:42The desirous one remains desirous even after fulfillment of the desire.
00:46:49Desire.
00:46:54Hence, I am going to strike at the very root of the desire.
00:46:58The very root of desire is called the ego.
00:47:05For most people, religion is about desire fulfillment. Is it not?
00:47:12If you have desire, go towards religion.
00:47:14Go to a temple.
00:47:16Go to a Baba, to a Guru, to a holy place.
00:47:28We don't go there to be liberated. We go there to be ingratiated.
00:47:37I wanted something, so I have come to this holy place or this holy man.
00:47:42Surely, he will give me what I want. This is religion. Is it not?
00:47:47This is what goes by the name of religion.
00:47:51Commonly. Lok Dharam. This is what it is.
00:47:54Nothing more than that. No complications.
00:47:57I want something, so I will visit that particular temple or mosque or church or whatever.
00:48:04Synagogue.
00:48:05And if I want a more human kind of blessing, then Guruji is there.
00:48:23When I ask for something in a temple,
00:48:26there is no assurance because there is nobody there to give a response.
00:48:37But Babaji is far more reassuring.
00:48:40You ask him something and he says, obviously you are going to get it.
00:48:45Not only that, if he is an astrologer,
00:48:50he will also predict the time and place where you will get what you want.
00:48:55Many times questions relating to astrology come to me and I would have said something.
00:49:03I don't remember that in the last few months I have spoken on that topic.
00:49:14But kudos to our publishing team.
00:49:17The most controversial kind of material keeps getting published and republished in the form of short videos.
00:49:31And that keeps pinching and offending people again and again.
00:49:36Republishing means re-offending.
00:49:38So there was this short video on astrology that these people have or might have, I am guessing, recently published.
00:49:53So one fellow comes there and says, you know, how can you say that all that is a sham?
00:50:02I work in the Gulf and I am childless.
00:50:08Me and my wife.
00:50:13So my wife went and consulted a Babaji.
00:50:21And I work in the Gulf.
00:50:27And you know, the power of astrology.
00:50:31Babaji predicted the exact date when she will get a kid.
00:50:39And she got that and I am in the Gulf.
00:50:46And this foolish Acharya, he is saying astrology and all is just a sham.
00:50:57It's not that.
00:51:00It doesn't work. You need to have the right Babaji.
00:51:03Babaji.
00:51:07And anything can be made to work.
00:51:18Getting it?
00:51:25That's religion for you.
00:51:29That's wisdom for you.
00:51:30Shri Krishna is saying, if that is your definition of wisdom, Arjun,
00:51:40my words will fall on deaf ears.
00:51:49I'll keep trying. My efforts will go in vain.
00:51:52Second point.
00:51:59Do you want to fulfil desire or do you want to fulfil the desire as one?
00:52:05Choose.
00:52:10Getting it?
00:52:16Third point.
00:52:23We are enumerating the candidates who will never understand the Gita.
00:52:32We are listing their characteristics.
00:52:35The third characteristic is those who think that wisdom or religion or spirituality
00:52:46are about securing a great afterlife.
00:52:51They will never understand the Gita.
00:52:54Essentially, those who believe in the concepts of heaven and hell
00:53:02and personal soul and reincarnation, they will never understand the Gita.
00:53:09Krishna is saying, those who have a mind that there is nothing higher
00:53:19than the deeds, the religious Karmakand that leads to heaven,
00:53:27they will not get me. They will not understand my words.
00:53:34This is related to desire. You see that?
00:53:37Heaven is a desire.
00:53:40You are saying, I am doing the right things so that I can get a favourable result tomorrow.
00:53:46The most favourable result is heaven.
00:53:52If religion or wisdom to you is these things,
00:53:58result, fulfilment of desire, transmigration of soul, reincarnation,
00:54:09the ultimate resting place full of goodies and pleasures called heaven,
00:54:19if this is what religion means to you, then the Gita will be lost on you.
00:54:23Anybody who has this kind of concept of religion is definitely going to miss the Gita.
00:54:31Either miss Gita or misinterpret Gita.
00:54:37People don't usually miss Gita because that's a taboo.
00:54:42Especially if you are a Hindu, you cannot say, I don't know Gita.
00:54:46What is the Gita?
00:54:48So ostensibly nobody misses the Gita.
00:54:52But we miss Gita by misinterpreting it.
00:55:00So that's a clear characteristic of those who are going to miss the Gita.
00:55:05They will have some concept of afterlife.
00:55:09Life after death.
00:55:11And something that remains after the death of the human being.
00:55:14Because you cannot have heaven without the soul.
00:55:19If there is no soul, who is going to reach the heaven?
00:55:23So if Krishna is dismissing heaven, He is also dismissing soul.
00:55:29Obvious.
00:55:32If Shri Krishna is dismissing heaven, He is also dismissing desire.
00:55:36He is also dismissing desire.
00:55:43He is also dismissing what you call as the personal reincarnation.
00:55:50Transmigration.
00:55:53Today here I am and based on my deeds, I become something.
00:56:00Right?
00:56:05So people are afraid.
00:56:07I will become an ugly dog or something.
00:56:15I was just reading a book by the noted Hindi satirist Harishankar Parsai.
00:56:26This evening itself.
00:56:30And I would recommend that book.
00:56:34It's in Hindi.
00:56:36Vaishnav Ki Fislan.
00:56:42So it's a satire on religion.
00:56:45But religion in India is mostly Vaishnav religion.
00:56:49So that entire book is devoted to assaulting bhakts.
00:56:56Every chapter there is one new variety of bhakts.
00:57:01And Parsai Ji kills him.
00:57:05Grip him and rip him.
00:57:07That's his way.
00:57:11So he talks of, we are talking of swarga here.
00:57:17So he talks of one man who is extremely benevolent.
00:57:20In the sense that he doesn't care for you as long as you are alive.
00:57:26In fact, when you are alive, he almost plans to get you killed.
00:57:32But the moment you are dead, he is the first one to reach your place
00:57:38and do the maut mitti rituals.
00:57:41The karmakand that's associated with the last rites.
00:57:46Maut mitti.
00:57:49So he will prepare the earthy and do all those things.
00:57:52And also he will carry the earthy.
00:57:55You understand the earthy?
00:57:57What is the earthy?
00:58:01So he will carry it and he will also shed tears and do all those things.
00:58:06Now this is very intriguing.
00:58:10He in fact mentions a case where the story, the incident belongs to the 60s
00:58:19when telephones were not so common.
00:58:22So a boy comes running to this man's place and says,
00:58:26I need to call the doctor. You have the telephone.
00:58:29The father is, Chaubey ji is seriously ill.
00:58:33Can I use the phone? He says, no, the phone is dead.
00:58:37And Prasai ji says, I very well know that the phone is not dead.
00:58:41Why is he not allowing that kid to use the phone to call the doctor
00:58:46to take care of Chaubey ji?
00:58:48He says, I don't understand what is going on.
00:58:52And obviously Chaubey ji dies.
00:58:55And when Chaubey ji dies, this man is the first to beat his chest
00:59:02and reach his house and participate in the rituals.
00:59:10So one day Prasai ji grabs him.
00:59:17His way is to grip him and rip him.
00:59:19He says, you tell me what is going on.
00:59:22And then in the flow of the conversation,
00:59:28he unwittingly divulges that one Pandit has told him
00:59:35that if you assist the final rituals of 100 men,
00:59:42then you are guaranteed heaven.
00:59:49And Prasai ji says, whenever I would look at this man, I was actually afraid.
00:59:55Because he would be seen only when there is death around.
01:00:01So he would say, I would look at him and feel as if I am going to die.
01:00:05Otherwise, why would he come to me?
01:00:08He goes only to those who have either died or are close to dying.
01:00:13And if they are close to dying, this man ensures that they die.
01:00:16So having known that, he asks him how many so far.
01:00:24He says 99.
01:00:27Prasai ji says, fine.
01:00:30And then one day Prasai ji hears that he got his 100th.
01:00:35And then he says, now the fear has gone out of my chest.
01:00:40Because this man does not care for anybody's death now.
01:00:43He has done his 100.
01:00:46His seat in heaven is now guaranteed.
01:00:49The Pandit told him, if you do 100, you reach heaven straight away.
01:00:57So that's the kind of...
01:01:00When you have such a great relationship with heaven,
01:01:04then you have no relationship with this world.
01:01:06Right?
01:01:09All your energy, all your respect, all your engagement,
01:01:14everything flows just towards heaven.
01:01:18And then you become very cruel towards this world.
01:01:24You are so much in devotion to something of the beyond
01:01:29that you are left with no compassion for what is around you.
01:01:37And the Gita is about fighting a war here, not in the heaven.
01:01:43And if you are thinking all the time of heaven, if religion to you
01:01:46means attaining some heaven, some desire, some result, some pleasure,
01:01:50then how will you understand, Arjun, what I am going to say to you?
01:01:55You have to be dismissive of any talk of afterlife.
01:01:59Only then the Gita will make sense to you.
01:02:02Those who have a battle at hand,
01:02:07those who are living in matters of the moment,
01:02:13those who are engaging deeply with the world as it is,
01:02:18right now, present to them,
01:02:21they are the ones who will find the Gita useful.
01:02:25Indispensable rather.
01:02:28But those who are wallowing in thoughts of this and that,
01:02:32you know, in my internal universe, I am doing this, I am doing that.
01:02:38If I do this, I will attain great results.
01:02:42I don't have to do anything
01:02:49proper in the world.
01:02:52I don't have to struggle with the challenges as they are present.
01:02:55I simply have to go and sit at the feet of the deity
01:02:59and I will be delivered.
01:03:02Is that not what popular religion is about?
01:03:05Simply go and sit at the feet of the deity
01:03:08and you will be delivered.
01:03:11Let your neighbor cry and die.
01:03:14All your feeling is reserved for only your deity.
01:03:18No feeling for the world.
01:03:26If that's your concept of religion, Arjun,
01:03:30then you will not get what I am going to say.
01:03:33Right?
01:03:35As we said, there are six or seven characteristics
01:03:39that Shri Krishna is going to enumerate.
01:03:42We have reached on little three now
01:03:45and we'll take the rest in the next session.
01:03:56Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
01:03:59No part of this recording may be reproduced
01:04:02without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.