(Gita-16) Eternal Truths and Temporal Illusions || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2024)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00051  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00051  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00051  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: 31.08.2024, Vedant: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida   Context: Bhagavad Gita - 3.39  एषा तेऽभिहिता साङ्ख्ये बुद्धिर् योगे त्व् इमां शृणु।  बुद्ध्या युक्तो यया पार्थ कर्म-बन्धं प्रहास्यसि ॥   O Parth! Till now I have preached you self-knowledge, now I will preach you about Karmayog. Listen, after acquiring this knowledge you will be freed from the bondage of karma in the form of dharma and adharma.  Bhagavad Gita - 2.31 स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि ।  धम्र्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत् क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते ॥   Looking at thine own Dharma, also, thououghtest not to waver,  for there is nothing higher for a Ksatriya than a righteous war.  Bhagavad Gita - 2.32 O Partha! Only the fortunate Kshatriyas get to fight this battle which is like the gates of heaven which are automatically obtained and open.   Bhagavad Gita - 2.33 And if you retreat from this dharmic battle, you will lose dharma, you will lose fame and you will commit sin.   व्यावहारिक - The level of facts  प्रातिभासिक - The level of thoughts and imaginations   Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  #AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita

Transcript

00:00We have seen that the highest is being offered to Arjun.

00:27And that too right in the beginning of the discourse.

00:52This part of chapter 2 is less about the dissolution of the disciple's ego and more

01:19about the dissolution of the master's love.

01:31Shri Krishna begins by telling of the highest to Arjun in the hope that the highest, being

01:42the highest, would suffice.

01:47He tells him of the absolute reality, the only truth, and how that in the truth nothing

02:02ends because nothing ever begins.

02:07But that seems too much for Arjun to grasp, rather accept.

02:24Shri Krishna then tries to instruct Arjun via worldly knowledge that the world all

02:38around you Arjun, every moment there are millions of beginnings and millions of ends.

02:50All beginnings are essentially similar to each other and so are all ends.

02:57How can you grieve over a particular end when there is no particularity at all?

03:09The same thing that is ending right now can rightfully be said to be beginning this very

03:19moment or any other moment.

03:26Yes there are beginnings and ends but nothing in particular that begins or ends.

03:36The one thing that begins and ends is essentially not separable from any other thing that begins

03:44and ends.

03:47And what ends finds its beginning in some other way, in some other form, in the plane

03:58of the material.

04:00Nothing mystical about it.

04:08So again there is no way you can grieve over a particular being because there are no particular

04:21beings.

04:28All beings are like waves in the ocean, they rise from the ocean, they fall into the ocean,

04:37they are inseparable from the ocean.

04:40Even when they are rising from the ocean there is actually just a change in form otherwise

04:46they are still the ocean.

04:51Even when they disappear the ocean remains as it was and they don't disappear in the

05:01form of a loss, they disappear in the sense of a union, only to rise again, only to appear

05:11again.

05:16If there is some entity in particular it is the ocean.

05:25The particular diversities are not particular at all, they are just names and forms of the

05:38one fundamental entity, the ocean that waves.

05:54Arjun is unprepared to come to terms with even this factual enunciation.

06:08It is interesting because this is something that no one can sensibly dispute.

06:17What Shri Krishna is saying is no deep hidden knowledge, it is a matter of practical observation.

06:31It is something that Arjun or anybody else can see as much as Krishna does.

06:43So there should be no gap here, there should be no incoherence in understanding.

07:01A rather smooth alignment looks sensible to happen but that alignment just doesn't happen.

07:14What Shri Krishna is offering to Arjun is there for everybody to see.

07:22He is telling him facts regarding the material world.

07:26Anybody can look at those facts.

07:30The tree is the fact, the ocean is the fact, all living beings are facts, births and deaths

07:39are facts and they can be seen and Shri Krishna is telling something about them but even that

07:45is something Arjun seems reluctant to accept.

07:51That's the right word, accept.

07:55It's not as if it is too difficult to understand.

08:00It is just that it is dangerous to accept.

08:04The problem does not lie at the level of understanding.

08:12The gap lies at the level of acceptance.

08:24So the first level of absolute reality was the level of truth, the parmarthic level.

08:36The second level was the level of facts, the bhavaharic level.

08:42And then as we said, as a testimony to the resolution of the master's love, Krishna descends

08:58to the lowest level of being to help Arjun, the prasbhasic level, the level of mental

09:08constructs, the level of thoughts and imaginations, thoughts and imaginations that do not necessarily

09:16correspond to facts.

09:19So what we are seeing in these verses right till verse 38 of the current chapter is an

09:32attempt by Shri Krishna to meet Arjun where Arjun stands.

09:47There possibly is no other way to meet the student.

09:53Arjun is too afraid, too unwilling and probably also too loveless to rise to Krishna's level.

10:09But to be a Krishna is to be love personified.

10:16Arjun says if you won't rise, I will descend.

10:30If you don't come up, I will stoop.

10:37So Krishna addresses Arjun in a language that Arjun is more willing to comprehend.

10:48You see, where is Arjun standing and what kind of language would he readily understand

10:55or accept?

11:00Arjun is standing at the level of imagination, concepts.

11:08This is a concept, that person is my great-grandfather and therefore I must not attack him.

11:15Now that's not a fact, that's a concept.

11:23That's not a fact.

11:24That's not a fact in Prakriti.

11:27That's not a fact in the material universe, that if there is an elder belonging to a family,

11:36you ought not attack him.

11:38That's not a fact but that's a concept, it's a social thing.

11:43So Arjun is standing at the level of concepts.

11:48It's a particular social conditioning that is driving Arjun and has become Arjun's center.

11:55Arjun is saying, I'll not fight.

11:57I'll not fight because there, the leader of the army is Bhishma, Pitamah.

12:12And I cannot fight or kill my Pitamah or that teacher who gave me the bow and arrow.

12:26Again these are, these are concepts.

12:30These are concepts.

12:33There is nothing in Prakriti that says that you cannot do this.

12:36There is nothing factual about these things.

12:44Prakriti is amoral.

12:46Prakriti is value independent.

12:51No facts correspond to morals.

12:55Morals are human constructs.

13:00Since morals are human constructs, they keep varying from time to time and place to place.

13:08Arjun is standing at the level of human imagination.

13:15The same social conditioning we said that tells him that you should not fight this,

13:20you should not do this, you should do that has become his very center.

13:28Look at what he is averting and arguing in favor of in chapter 1.

13:41He is talking about safeguarding the chastity of Kshatriya women.

13:52He says Kshatriya honor has to be guarded.

13:57He is talking of all the superstitious rituals that might have been in vogue at that time.

14:11So all those things have become his center.

14:15Ritual customs, religious superstitions, honor of the varna, family traditions.

14:29That is the point where Arjun is operating from.

14:34I am a Kshatriya and there is the Kshatriya code of honor.

14:41One has to live and die by that code.

14:44So Krishna says fine.

14:46If you are talking from the Kshatriya center, let me talk to the Kshatriya.

14:53If it is from the Kshatriya center that you are talking and therefore refusing to fight,

14:59I will talk to the Kshatriya.

15:02You say you are a Kshatriya and therefore you will not fight.

15:06That is your position Arjun.

15:09You say you are Kshatriya and therefore you will not fight because as a Kshatriya if you

15:13fight, then what happens to your women?

15:18That is your position.

15:21You say being born in an honorable family, you have been taught to not to attack and

15:31kill your teachers and seniors, your elders.

15:40All this in the name of tradition, custom, honor, varna.

15:46So I will catch you where you are.

15:50Let me meet you at the point where you stand.

15:55So now I am talking to the Kshatriya because that is what you are pretending to be right

16:00now.

16:01That is the identity you are talking from.

16:10I will meet you there.

16:17So till verse 38, Shri Krishna is now talking to the Kshatriya.

16:23It would not have been pleasant.

16:28Certainly not.

16:30Because the aspiration of the teacher, the love of the teacher is to raise the student

16:38to the highest point possible.

16:43It is always a setback to see that the student is not prepared to rise.

16:52Of course, out of love the teacher will then climb down to the student's level and try

17:01to goad him, coerce him, push him, tempt him, even sometimes threaten him to climb up.

17:17The teacher will do all this out of love, but it's not going to be pleasant because

17:23that's not the best case scenario.

17:26That's not what the teacher ever wishes for.

17:33If someone falls sick in your family, of course you tend to him, don't you?

17:40But that's not something that you had ever aspired to do, right?

17:45Someone asks you, where do you see yourself in relation to that person?

17:51I don't think you are ever going to say, I see myself as that person's caretaker.

17:59You will never want that to happen.

18:01Though if that person actually does fall sick, out of love you will take care.

18:08So here Shri Krishna is taking care of the sick one.

18:16In the duty of love, but it's heart-wrenching.

18:26It's heart-wrenching for the teacher to see that despite his best efforts, the student

18:33is so loveless and faithless and so unwilling.

18:45You know something, something very striking happens right after verse 38.

18:56Shri Krishna, we saw in the last session, has already started addressing Arjuna's Kshatriya

19:04identity.

19:05That's some kind of a surrender.

19:11Shri Krishna is saying, you will not listen to me if I talk to you from the higher reaches

19:23of Parmartha and Vyavahar.

19:26You will not listen to me if I talk to you of the highest truth and the direct fact.

19:37You will not listen to me.

19:40So I'm talking to you, accepting that you will remain at your level.

20:00So he has already started addressing him as a Kshatriya and saying that being a Kshatriya,

20:05it is your duty to fight.

20:06So fight.

20:07But is there a level lower than even the Pratibhastic level?

20:15There is no level now left to climb down to.

20:25So Shri Krishna tries, we would be beginning with verse 32 today and going right till verse

20:3138.

20:32They are all one.

20:34That's why we'll be taking them up in a bunch.

20:37And then he says, all right Arjuna, the path of self-knowledge is not for you because self-knowledge

20:47is about the doer.

20:51We will now move to the path of the deed.

21:01I'll now instruct you in Karma.

21:06Till now I was instructing you in the Karta, the doer.

21:15That's what Atma Jnana is all about, right?

21:18Knowing the doer, self-knowledge.

21:24Self-knowledge is not for you.

21:30Verse 39, is just so poignant.

21:50I see Krishna kneeling down in love.

21:55Oh Parth, till now I have preached you self-knowledge, now I'll preach you about Karmayog.

22:06I surrender Parth.

22:08You'll not listen Parth.

22:11You'll not mend your ways.

22:16So I'm ready to follow your ways.

22:24The instruction at the highest level bore no fruit.

22:32The instruction at the middle level remained ineffective.

22:40The instruction even at the lowest level returned empty handed.

22:50And then Krishna says, fine, I'm not giving up.

22:54We'll now start talking in terms of what is the right action and how does the right action

23:03liberate one from grief and fear and bondage.

23:09Because action is sthool, gross, easier to appreciate, easier to come to terms with.

23:28It's visible.

23:31And when you are not prepared to look at yourself, which is the signic you are known of, self-knowledge.

23:39Then probably what you want is that some external agency instructs you in do's and don'ts.

23:55You are saying that you submit, that you have no inclination to honestly look at yourself.

24:05Therefore, you want to be dependent on somebody else to supply you with do's and don'ts.

24:17And if you want that, then fine, let's play that game.

24:26So that starts happening verse 39 onwards.

24:32So when it comes to the self, there are these three levels.

24:42And when even the bottom most level in self-knowledge proves ineffective, then do you see what the

25:01teacher is doing?

25:03He is saying, alright, if not the knowledge of the doer, let's proceed to the field of

25:15the deed.

25:17Maybe that's where we will get some results.

25:26I assure you, no teacher likes to do that.

25:32But I also tell you that it is a mark of teacher's love how much he is prepared to fall for the

25:46sake of the disciple.

25:54Whenever you see a so-called fallen teacher, always ask, who is it that he has fallen for?

26:07Because if he's really a teacher, it's unlikely that he would have just fallen.

26:21If you find a teacher smeared in mud and filth of all kind, before you decry him, just remember

26:40to once ask, for whose sake did he accept all this muck on his face?

26:57Because it is very unlikely that he would have just heedlessly brought himself to this

27:14condition.

27:21Maybe there is a reason, a reason beyond the picture, a reason beyond what the eyes can

27:32easily see.

27:40Maybe it was necessary to accept the mud, maybe it was necessary to expose oneself

27:59to mud slinging, so that a student sinking in some muddy quagmire could be rescued.

28:26Maybe it was the teacher's desperate attempt to rescue somebody.

28:38And when you lend your hand, your being, your effort to someone in a quicksand, there

28:56is no way you will not get mud on your face and your body.

29:19Because he is constantly telling Arjun of his Kshatriya dharma.

29:26So people have used these verses to say that Shri Krishna is himself promoting the varna

29:33distinctions.

29:35See the Bhagavad Gita is the origin from where the entire caste system gets its legitimacy.

29:46People have said this and the verses at hand today have proven to be good cannon fodder.

29:58Very handy verses these because Shri Krishna is constantly, it seems, stimulating the Kshatriya

30:06center in Arjun.

30:07Arjun, you are a Kshatriya, for your honor, for your name, for your reputation, fight.

30:13So people have used these verses and said, see Shri Krishna is himself some kind of casteist.

30:25Though varna, jati and caste are not exactly the same thing, but being discriminatory,

30:37they belong to some kind of same class.

30:42These three words.

30:47So this has been held against Krishna.

30:53This has been held against Krishna and if you read these verses, there is nothing much

30:58in these verses.

30:59If you read these verses, this is very ordinary stuff.

31:04You would wonder how somebody like Krishna could bring himself to utter these words.

31:11How is it possible?

31:15Look at your Kshatriya dharma Arjun.

31:18You should not waver, for there is nothing higher for a Kshatriya than the right war.

31:26O Parth, only fortunate Kshatriyas get to fight this battle, which is like gates of

31:34heaven, which are automatically obtained and opened for the one who fights these great

31:42wars.

31:44And Arjun, if you shy away and retreat from this battle, you will lose dharma, you will

31:50lose fame and you will commit sin.

31:52This is not Krishna.

31:53This is not his language.

32:01Same teacher who was at the beginning of the same chapter talking of the absolute truth,

32:07how can he now talk of the varna and swarga and fame and sin?

32:16How can this transition happen?

32:18One has to marvel at Krishna's love.

32:22Look Arjun, everybody will criticize you for a long time and since you are a respectable

32:29warrior, criticism, calumny, ninda is more painful than death for you.

32:41Is this Krishna?

32:43Is this Vedanta?

32:44Is this the Bhagavad Gita?

32:49For a noble warrior, death is better than loss of fame.

33:01Not only will the common man criticize you, even these Kauravas will get the right to

33:09say that you ran away from battle because you were afraid.

33:20And so now, all the people who respect you will become disrespectful towards you.

33:28When the Kauravas will declare to the entire world that Arjun ran away in fear, then even

33:34those who respect you today will lose the respect.

33:40This is how Arjun is being motivated.

33:44Cringe.

33:47But Krishna is bearing it.

33:49Krishna says fine, if this is what you want me to do, I am game.

33:56I will do this.

34:00Now you could either say a Krishna has fallen or you could say this is the peak of his love.

34:14You could see this as a fall or you could see this as a great rise.

34:21And you must be mature enough to see that it's only when you have risen greatly that

34:43you are no more afraid to fall.

34:50But the fall is apparent.

34:52The fall is visible.

34:55The rise is inner, therefore invisible.

35:01So when the fall is seen, what is seen is the fall and nothing more.

35:07So you say, oh see how the teacher has fallen.

35:16And Krishna has been greatly, variously and severely criticized for these words.

35:25Not only for these words.

35:26There are other instances in the Bhagavad Gita that are cherry picked to calumnize Krishna.

35:35But these have been some of the favorite verses of the detractors.

35:42This is see.

35:47Such blatant casteism.

35:51The question is how else to get Arjun to do the right thing.

35:54Please tell me.

35:56This is a practical situation.

35:59The fellow is not willing to listen to anything.

36:01The highest has already been told to him.

36:05And so, you see it's ironical.

36:08Krishna is telling Arjun to defend his reputation while not caring about his own.

36:20Krishna is telling Arjun, Arjun guard your reputation.

36:23The fact is here Krishna is putting his own reputation at stake.

36:30Krishna is saying, you know, I know once this word goes out, it will be ammunition

36:40in the hands of all those who have an axe to grind against me.

36:46He knew all that.

36:47This is common sense.

36:48You and I can see that.

36:50Krishna obviously could see that.

36:53Krishna says two hoots to my personal honor.

37:07I have a duty to perform and I love to defend.

37:12Nothing is higher than that.

37:16If I am to be seen till eternity as someone who spoke in lower terms, so be it.

37:39But just so that my own name remains unblemished, my own reputation remains untouched, my own

37:56story remains free of controversy.

38:04I'm not going to retreat from my love.

38:10Are you getting it?

38:15There is no way in the student-teacher relationship that the teacher can actually perform his

38:24duty of love without stooping to the level of the student and when the teacher will stoop,

38:31it would always seem a bit ugly.

38:35But what option does the teacher have?

38:37Even Krishna did not have an option.

38:41Even Krishna did not have an option.

38:43Whenever the teacher would bend, it would always look like, I said, a fall.

38:51Always ask, always ask, for whom is the fall?

38:56Because if the teacher is falling, the fall would not be for himself.

39:03For whom is the fall?

39:06If you see a picture in which a teacher looks fallen, always ask, who else is in the picture?

39:13There would be surely someone else for whom the teacher has fallen.

39:25Are you getting it?

39:32See Arjuna, when your enemies will badmouth your bravery and valor and will say disgusting

39:46and insulting things, won't it be painful?

39:52And who knows very well that there is nothing in these hollow words, respect, insult?

39:59Who knows that better than Krishna?

40:03Krishna knows that.

40:04Arjuna does not.

40:05So, Krishna has to meet Arjuna at the point of Arjuna's knowledge.

40:16And from there, an attempt has to be made to help Arjuna climb or rise.

40:27Even before you can really pull someone up, is it not important that you come close to

40:34him to hold his hand?

40:37If you don't even hold his hand, how will you pull him up?

40:40And to hold his hand, it is impractical to demand that he rises to give his hand to you.

40:52Could he rise on his own?

40:53Why would he need your hand at all?

40:57He cannot rise on his own, so you have to come down.

41:02You have to come down from your top shelves, from your respectable peaks and you will have

41:11to run the risk of insult, humiliation, the risk of being misunderstood, the risk of being

41:27criticized.

41:28O Kaunteya, if you are killed in the war, you will attain heaven.

41:42This is not Krishna's philosophy.

41:46This is Arjuna's philosophy.

41:49Krishna is using Arjuna's philosophy to stimulate Arjuna.

41:54O Kaunteya, if you are killed in the war, you will attain heaven.

41:57And if you are victorious, you will enjoy the kingdom of the earth.

42:03So, fight.

42:06This is not Krishna's philosophy.

42:09This is not Sankhya Yoga.

42:12This is not self-knowledge.

42:14This is Loka Dharma.

42:16This is Loka Sanskrit.

42:17This is Loka Dharana.

42:19This is the social and cultural conditioning that has penetrated Arjuna.

42:28Shri Krishna is now talking to Arjuna in Arjuna's language.

42:34Shri Krishna is now dealing with Arjuna in Arjuna's currency.

42:38Despite Arjuna, again some, probably, in spite of trying to bend as low as possible,

42:58still, his own subhava catches up with him.

43:06And Krishna finds that inadvertently, he has again said something sublime.

43:12Even though now he wants to utter only such words that belong to the plane of Arjuna.

43:21Yet, Krishna being Krishna, intermittently and inadvertently, he says something that is a bit sublime.

43:32So, this is one such verse.

43:34You should fight considering happiness and sorrow, profit and loss, victory and defeat as equal.

43:39By performing your duties in this way, sin will not touch you.

43:44And having come so far, Krishna looks at Arjuna's face and finds him still unresponsive.

43:59Oh, this fellow is still, still deadpan.

44:07Like a doctor trying the best of treatments and still finding that the patient is not responding at all.

44:19Can you see Arjuna's face?

44:24Have a mirror. Hold it.

44:30The teacher is trying his best and seeing, seeing nothing coming from the student.

44:38He says, fine.

44:45I am giving up.

44:50Giving up not in the absolute sense.

44:53Giving up in the sense of change of track.

44:56So, verse 39 he says, path till now I have preached you self-knowledge.

45:01Now I will teach you Karma Yoga.

45:05Self-knowledge has failed on you.

45:08It is just the beginning of a string of failures.

45:17Shri Krishna would discover that he is going to fail 17 times.

45:31And after the war he would discover that he actually failed 18 times.

45:38Are you getting it?

45:50Now think what can happen if someone quotes one of these verses and says, you know, this is what Krishna preaches in the Gita.

46:0072 verses I suppose in chapter 2.

46:08And one can very mysteriously and very comfortably pick up one particular verse and prove that Krishna is a casteist.

46:22Almost like taking a one minute clip out of a 72 minute video.

46:29And prove anything.

46:32No?

46:39Even one minute is too long.

46:43How about a snapshot?

46:46How about a picture or a screenshot?

46:50Pick it without knowing the context.

46:53Without seeing what the whole story is about.

46:57And then happily rush to a conclusion.

47:01Even great scholars have been unkind on Krishna when it comes to these verses.

47:11Respected leaders, very popular personalities, when they have used these verses to attack Krishna or belittle the Bhagavad Gita.

47:24That kind of attempt can be made only by a person who himself has never known what it means to be a teacher.

47:33Or who has never had the good fortune of being touched by a teacher.

47:41When you know what the student-teacher relationship is like, then you know that the teacher assumes all kinds of forms and displays all kinds of faces.

48:00To beat the student in his own game.

48:03Because the student is one mischievous little crackpot.

48:09Like a rat who won't be easily caught.

48:15Did that rhyme?

48:18The student is one mischievous little crackpot.

48:27Like a rat who won't be easily caught.

48:31The rat is so small.

48:35But the rat won't respond to the verses of a sage.

48:44Would he?

48:53And if the rat is to be caught, then the sage himself needs to become somewhat of a rat.

49:04Or at least a cat.

49:07Did that rhyme?

49:11If the sage remains a sage, how would the rat ever be caught?

49:18So the sage decides to become a cat.

49:23And then you say, look at him. He is actually a cat.

49:26He was pretending to be a sage.

49:28No.

49:31He has become a cat because damn you, you are a rat.

49:39And it's only because he is a sage that he has become a cat.

49:49You'd never say if he is a cat, surely around somewhere there is a rat.

49:58That's the complete picture. That's what you should always ask.

50:02If he is looking in these verses or in this picture or in this incidence like a cat, for sure nearby we have a rat.

50:21Else why would the sage become a cat?

50:24And practically, please tell me, how does one speak to a rat in the language of self-knowledge?

50:55If through knowledge he cannot be caught, then he has to bear the shot.

51:10Did that rhyme?

51:15The first attempt is to catch him through knowledge.

51:19But he declines to become anything other than a rat.

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