Hari OM
From Monday April 8th to Friday
April 12th 2019, Pujya Swami Swaroopananda-ji presented evening discourses to
the public at the Merrylands Civic Centre, NSW Australia. The focus of his
talks this year was Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, and more specifically,
shlokas 1-32. Some of the learning and insights will be shared over a number of
posts.
Yesterday we found Arjuna in a funk about the fact things had gotten
so bad in life he was now faced with a war against family.
Think. If not in your immediate family, is it not the case that you
know of some other part of your own family or at least another family close to
you, which has had a severe falling out. The purpose of these great scriptural
stories is not to tell us that we are getting it all wrong, but rather, to show
that being in human form comes with all sorts of challenges and pitfalls and
that things will, indeed, go wrong. What they will do then is show how to make
things right. Additionally, particularly in this section called the Bhagavad
Gita, we are given a full explanation of what it is to be human, why we fall
into so many traps, how we are deluded from The Truth of our Being and what
that Beingness actually looks like.
Here in chapter 2, after the initial admonishment by Krishna for his
friend to stand up and stop making a spectacle of himself, then further
prevarication by Arjuna, we find the conversation takes a turn as Arjuna bows
to the Charioteer and places his entire trust upon the guidance He can provide.
After the narrator tells the blind king DhRtaraashtra that silence
fell, in shloka ten he says "O King, Lord Krishna, as if smiling, Spoke these words to the
despondent Arjuna In the midst of the two armies."
Why did Krishna smile? He clearly saw the honest sublimation of the ego from
Arjuna, the sincere desire to gain a better understanding. Nothing pleases a parent
more than for their child to humbly ask their opinion and advice, is it not? Or
a boss to have an employee properly approach with a problem and seeking counsel
on how best to proceed.
All too
often our ego-selves cannot submit sufficiently to ask for help properly, or
accept that such help might actually be forthcoming. Surrender is not something
we do particularly well as a species. Yet, in those times when we can let go of
the ego-catch, is it not true that we move forward as from darkness into light…
or at least sufficiently to know that the light switch can be reached?!
What
advice, then, does the Lord give the devotee? In shlokas 11-13, nothing short
of the Ultimate Knowledge! One of the best ways to catch someone's attention is
to start at the end. We are nothing but One Pure Soul. That Aatmaa,
individualised in these bodies, knows that there is no place for sorrow or
indeed joy, likes or dislikes. It knows the body to be impermanent and that
another will come along in due course.
Then, quickly, reassure the devotee (shlokas 14-15) with how to deal
with this individualised self, riding a flesh and bone chariot; learn that the
senses are just methods of communicating with the world and are fleeting in
nature. They provide information, but are not the Aatmaa and never can be. Develop the intellect to discern what is
worth reacting to and what is not; be calm and collected at all times, minimise
likes and dislikes, reactions to heat and cold and so forth. If there is
something that can be done to allay these (wear a coat, or remove it as
required for example) then simply do it and move along. Constancy of nature and
personality is what is required for an easier journey of the Aatmaa through
this life.
In shlokas
16-17, Krishna states, unequivocally, that there is One Truth Alone, which is
itself beyond the understanding of truth or non-truth (sat and asat), but the
truly aware can come to realise this. This Singularity is untouchable,
imperishable, infinite. Moving into shloka 18, Arjuna, and thus we, are told
that these bodies, these individualities which carry the Aatmaa, which is
nothing but That Singularity may be perishable and destructible, but the Aatmaa
remains, so why stop living (get up and fight!)?
Too
readily we let the events of life build up and become mountains which we think
we cannot surmount. Conversely, we may avoid lots of little things, thinking
they do not matter (skipping a class, then another, then another… oh that
committee meeting? Oh dear never mind, next time… oops slept in, no time to
meditate or do saadhana - tomorrow…) then find the anchor of our life has
eroded. Pay attention to everything, but know it to be nothing other than the
flicker of the lamp.
Krishna said:
You grieve for those who are not worthy of grief,
And yet speak the words of wisdom.
The wise grieve neither
For the living nor for the dead.
There was never a time when I, you,
Or these kings did not exist;
Nor shall we ever cease to exist in the future.
Just as the Aatmaa acquires a childhood body,
A youth body, and an old age body during this life,
Similarly, Aatmaa acquires another body after death.
The wise are not deluded by this.
The contacts of the senses with the sense objects
Give rise to the feelings of heat and cold,
And pain and pleasure.
They are transitory and impermanent.
Therefore, endure them, O Arjuna.
Because the calm person,
Who is not afflicted by these feelings
And is steady in pain and pleasure,
Becomes fit for immortality, O Arjuna.
There is no nonexistence of the Sat
And no existence of the Asat.
The reality of these two
Is indeed certainly seen by the seers of truth.
Know That, by which all this is pervaded,
To be indestructible.
No one can destroy the indestructible.
Bodies of the eternal, imperishable,
And incomprehensible soul
Are said to be perishable.
Therefore, fight, O Arjuna.
