Bhagavad Gita : Chapter Two : Slokas 39 to 46 : Look beyond the knowledge of the Manifest Universe : Audio (Sloka, split sandhis and prose order))

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Bhagavad Gita Bhagavad Gita Chapter Two Slokas 39 to 53 : Look beyond the knowledge of the Manifest Universe with split sandhis and prose order

 http://ancientindians.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/gitatwo39to53.mp3

Since this is a large section, I will explain it in two posts.

Bhagwan said,

“O pArtha, Now that your mind has been instructed in sAnkhya yOga, listen to this teaching, engaged with which, you can break the bonds of karma.”

So far Arjuna has been taught that the dEhinah (embodied ones) are eternal and undamagable and that the dEhI can neither kill or be killed. But it does appear to do stuff and accumulate a host of consequences good and bad, which tie it up – and imprison it in karmabandha. Krishna is now about to teach Arjuna, how to break those bonds of karma and become free.

“In this (following) technique, there is no ‘destruction of of abhikrama’ (unsuccessful efforts) and there are no reversals. Even a little bit of this dharma will protect one from great fear”.

“Oh son of kurus, in this method, the buddhi is engaged singly (focused), those who are not thus engaged have their buddhis endlessly and multiply branched.”

A child who is playing in the sand pit is singly focused, but one who is made to worry about his success or failure has many things on his mind, besides the main activity. This is true of adults also, who are under pressurised to succeed while also under of fear of failure (stress), and cannot focus all their energies on a creative task. (Carrot-and-stick management leads to frustration and dissipated functioning in many individuals. Contrast this with google’s work-is-play environment, that attempts to free the mind.)

“Those who do not see (the truth) speak this flowery speech. They are those engaged in Vedic debates, who are interested in svarga, who are desirous, and who say there is nothing else. They talk of many kinds of special kriyAs (procedures) which are for bhOga and ais’warya (enjoyment and lordship) but they give you the janma-karma-phala – the karma-phala (consequence of karma) of another birth.”

When all of us try to do puNyakAryAs (good deeds) for good results – we forget that what we are signing up for is another birth.

“Those who are interested in enjoyment and lordship, and whose cEtas (consciousness) is stolen away by that and engaged in that, their buddhi cannot be held in samAdhi.”

Fun and power look like good things to have but will carry your consciousness away and you won’t be able to steady your mind in that peaceful state of samAdhi.

“vEdAs, books of knowledge deal with the matter of the three guNAs (attributes/ropes/ sat, rajas, tamas).. (physics), O Arjuna, be without those three ropes. Be without the duality (pleasure and pain), unconcerned about your own welfare and yOga, be eternally in  ’sattva’, be an AtmavAn (one with a Self).”

Vedas teach us how to live happily with all the things we need to be healthy and prosperous. They deal with scientific matters that deals with the physics of the universe as we see it. We are bound to this universe with the three ropes of goodness, passion/brilliance and inertia. To be free of the bonds of karma we need to be beyond the three guNAs. We should be always in the state of reality – sattva and not too bothered with the pleasure – pain motivators that nature has built into us to ensure that we all behave predictably.  My guruji said that her gurji said that being always in sat is equivalent to being beyond the three guNAs. 

I think that sat as in reality is different from sat as in ‘goodness’ as defined by humans. Being attached to good is also an attachment – a bond – a karma bandha. nitya sattvastha therefore to me means being always in the state of the real state that is beyond the three guNAs.

“There is just as much use of the vEdAs to a brAhmaNa, who ‘knows’ as there is of small pools of water, when there is water everywhere.”

The wish granting, world-explaining books of knowledge, the Vedas (and now Science Textbooks), which help you live life well are only useful up to the point when you experience the knowledge-of-all, at which time the happiness they give is as a drop compared to the happiness you get from knowing -the all, the brahman. 

This brings us upto the 46th sloka.

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