Class Summary for Sep 23, 2018 - Chapter-2: 30 to 32

Summarized by Shivkumar Natarajan:

We started the class with pranayama and meditation. We then picked up from the last session where each of the groups had done a recap of the following:

·         Key terminology revisited from self-unfoldment

·         Chapter 1 summary

·         What Bhagwad Gita means to us

·         Relative reality vs ultimate reality.

We started with the last team elaborating on the 4^th point.

Arjuna’s continued agony and final surrender for Lord Krishna’s teaching and guidance. Lord Krishna starts with the ultimate truth regarding the true self in you (Arjuna) and that it can never be destroyed. He explains in great detail regarding the Aatma. He then shifts teaching to the relative reality and explains that the body like everything is not permanent.

We then discussed the difference between Attainment vs Realization

Attainment is a journey  whereas Realization is being aware of something that is already present

We then discussed the importance of Mananam with couple of examples

The class debated on ultimate reality not being sufficient (telling person whose close one passed away about aatma moving on ) and need to excel in relative reality. We summarized the point that the ultimate reality helps accept and move on . How it helps one be balanced in dealing with situation at work (example of colleague who came dressed not as per dress code)

A unique view of chapter 2 was presented: The treatment of a patient (Arjuna) by Lord Krishna.

·         Shlokas 1-10 Arjuna surrendering to the Lord

·         Shlokas 11-46 Sankhya/Bhrama Gnyana (Surgery)

This could further be split as

(a. 11-38 : Cosmic vision b. 30-46:Dharmic or Loukika dhristi)

·         Shlokas 47-60 Karma Yoga (Secondary medicine)

·         Shlokas 71-72 : Bhakti Yoga  (Supplemental medicine)

·         Shlokas 71-72 Renunciation/ Sanyasa Yoga or Jeevan Mukti Purusha (Cured person)

Then, we discussed that If there are many routes why did God start with the toughest part first instead of something Arjuna would easily understand? 

Typically,  given a lower goal mankind settles for the same. God wanted the standard to be set at the highest so that there was a clear goal to go towards as we evolve in the easier paths.

It was also mentioned that there is a school of thought that the Gita ended with chapter 2 and the remaining chapters are added by Vyasa muni (or his disciples) to elaborate on the topics that were described by the Lord in a concise manner.

At final part of the class we read through verse 30-32.

Verse 30 is the Lords conclusion to the topic of Absolute Truth (Lord Reiterates the same).

There are 2 types of Swadharma

·         Para Dharma: Spiritual ( to love, serve and realize God)

·         Apar Dharma : Materialistic (as per ashram and guna )

Few points we discussed on :

·         Many times our likes and dislikes stop us from doing our swadharma.

·         Fighting for a noble cause is considered punya/merit

·         Sin can occur through commission or omission

We then concluded the class with prayers .. 

Class Summary for June 3, 2018 - Mid year Summary

Summarized by Neelima Turaga:

The class started with the opening prayers and meditation.

We discussed the famous statement of motivational speaker Jim Rohn, “ We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with”. The people you spend time with, and the activities chosen to spend time on can have a great influence on a person. With the summer coming up and hopefully with some extra time on our hands, it’s time for us to ponder on this statement, and choose wisely the company we keep and activities we engage in.

We discussed the subjective analysis of shlokas 26-29. In an emotional condition, we are in an illusionary state. When we are free of emotions, we are in a relative reality state. Rarely, when we clear all our emotions, in a meditative state, we can be in absolute reality.

As an example, if a friend calls in the morning and tells you that he met an enemy of yours yesterday, and would give more details in the evening. You would be thinking about it all day and keep imagining all sorts of things and different unpleasant scenarios. This is unreal. When the friend meets you in the evening, and starts talking about several different topics, except for the enemy, you start thinking that maybe it wasn’t that bad after all. May be the enemy did not really say anything bad. This is relative reality. But suppose the friend tells you that in fact your enemy was all praise for you, and fondly remembered the time spent with you, which is the absolute reality.

Tip – Daily when you wake up, spend a few moments to thank the Supreme power for everything, and recall the true “you” and remind yourself that everything else is unreal or relatively real and impermanent.

Scientific studies have proven that people practicing meditation for a long time have more gamma waves, indicating high performance of the brain. They also have alpha waves when necessary, meaning they can be in an alert state whenever necessary.

One of the techniques of meditation, involves “japa”, taking the Lord’s name and pause a few times in between to experience total silence and continue with the japa.  With practice, the periods of silence would become longer and easier to achieve.

There was a story about a monk who lived in India. He had renounced all the worldly possessions, and all he had was a begging bowl. The people nearby had great respect for him, and treated him like God. The  queen of that kingdom heard about the monk and came to see him. She saw that he had nothing in his possession, but a begging bowl. Assuming that all his power and divinity came from that bowl, she asked him to give to her. She said that he could have a golden bowl studded with diamonds, in return. The monk was ready to give her what she wished for, without anything in return. He accepted the golden bowl on her insistence. A thief was watching all this from a distance. He felt that the monk would have no use for the golden bowl, and decided to steal it from him. As he approached the monk’s hermitage, he saw the monk throw the very bowl at him from the window. He picked it up. He could have quietly walked away, getting what he wanted, but his curiosity did not let him leave. He wondered why the monk threw the bowl out, and was determined to find out. He went in and asked the monk, why he threw away such a precious bowl. He wanted to know how that was possible, and if he could become his disciple.  He said that he was a thief, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not give up. That was the only thing he knew. The monk said he had no problem if he was a thief and gave him a month’s time and told him that whenever he went to steal something, stop for few moments to focus on his breathing.  And after a month, he can come back to be his disciple. A month passed by and the thief returned, very weak and frail. He told the monk that he could not steal at all in the past month, and every time he started focusing on his breathing, he somehow just walked away without stealing. He completely got rid of that habit and became the disciple of the monk.

This story tells us that however ignorant one may be, a time may come when a single moment can transform him by kindling the urge to know and acquire knowledge.

Since this was the last class for the year 2017-18, everyone was asked their feedback about the study group format and content. Study group plans for the year 2018-19 were discussed.

We ended the class with closing prayers.

Class Summary for May 27, 2018 - Chapter-2: 26 too 29

Summarized by Deepa Kumar:

Krishna explains to Arjuna the concept of absolute reality in shloka 11-25 and from shloka 26 onwards he talks about relative reality.

When an object like a bullet or sword tries to cut the flow of water, it does not happen. Water just flows around it and the flow never gets affected. Similarly, Atma can never get affected by any action; hence it is AKARTHA and ABOKTHA. Atma is hence subtler than the subtler. We do have free will to continue our action in the journey of life.

Example from Upanishad: When a guru tried to drown his own student and held him under water, the student was surprised with the guru’s action and was constantly struggling to come out and breathe. When the guru let him out after sometime, he asked his student what was he thinking when he was drowning.  The student stated he was thinking about nothing other than resurfacing to breathe. The guru told the student that thinking about the lord in difficult times or in every action is required and this can only be practiced by doing more Shravanam and Mananam regularly. The urge to acquire is knowledge or attain this realization, should be just like the desire the student had to come out of water and breath. 

There are many beliefs that the Atma itself is being born again and again, or everything is limited to body, which is easier for everyone to understand. In Buddhism they believe that the Atma is born again and again. While in Christianity, they believe in body (or rather, what they see), and believe in going to heaven or hell after death. In either case, death is the final truth!

Benjamin Franklin said this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. He firmly believed that death is certain and inevitable.

We talked about the story in Mahabharata about the Yaksha Prashna. When the Pandvas where in exile and went to the river bank out of thirst, Yama himself appeared as Yaksha, and asked them questions before they could drink water.  Yudhisthira had patience to answer his questions, while others died without answering. One among the many questions where “What is most surprising?” for which Yudhisthira replies “ Day after day countless creatures are going to the abode of Yama, yet those that remain behind believe themselves to be immortal. What can be more surprising than this?”

In the materialistic realm each individual comprises of 3 types of body –Gross, Subtle and Casual.

The soul manifest with the gross body

Example 1: Kids manifest different characters in video games to accomplish their task in the virtual world, and un-manifest once completed

Example 2 : Sun’s reflection in the bucket of water

Example 3 : Dust visible when a ray of light falls on an object

Atma cannot be searched, it has to be realized.

Example 1 : Once a sanyasi was travelling, carrying his wealth to give to needy. Along with him travelled a thief who was waiting to take away his wealth, so the sanyasi was very cautious while he was awake. During the night fall, the sanyasi slept so peacefully while the thief was searching through all his possession. But the thief was disappointed every night as he couldn’t find anything. The last day of travel the thief asked the sanyasi where he hid his wealth while he slept every night, and sanyasi replied that he had it under the thief’s pillow, since he knew that he would not check there.

Example 2: Mother asked her kid to search for her lost ring near the front door. The kid searched near the neighbor’s front door since it was brightly lit as opposed to his own front door. Mother explained to the kid that he would never find the ring, since he is searching in the wrong place.

Class Summary for May 13, 2018 - Chapter-2: 23 to 25

Summarized by Sridhar V:

The class observed Pranayama followed by the recap of the last workshop session.(05/06)

Chapter 2- Verses 23/24 and 25 were discussed and explained to the class.

Analysis:

• Lord Krishna advises Arjuna that "Wepaons cannot shred the soul" nor "Fire can burn it". 

• The immutable "SELF" or JEEVA is being described by the Lord in terms of mutable and ever changing world which is familiar to Arjuna and all the normal human beings. In the world of change,objects come to their end either through death associating themselves with Fire/Water or Air.

• The soul cannot be made wet with water nor can the wind dry it.The soul is unbreakable and incombustible and it neither be destroyed or dampened. It is everlasting.

• We discussed the example of a "glass coffin" where in a study was conducted by a group of indiviuals who wanted to capture the process of death and observe anything that goes away from the human body when the event of death occurs. Despite employing all the possible scientific ways to capture the same they were not able to visually spot anything leaving the body during death .

• Lord Krishna further clarifies to Arjuna that everything in this world can be related to "MANIFESTATION" and "UNMANIFESTATION". The Lord explains that a thing is called manifested when we can perceive through one or other of our sense organs. That which is beyond all the five sense organs is called unmanifested that which cant be seen,heard,smelt,felt or tasted.

• Lord Krishna thus advises Arjuna to end his grief by re-iterating the fact that he who understands the eternal nature of the SELF can have neither the occassion to see himself as the slayer nor recognise others as the slain.

Related discussions and activities:

• Maniji recited a story about Ramdas mentioning to the class the choice between returning back to mankind to serve or being one with Bramhan.

• We also discussed that there is nothing in this universe called as "Creation" and its a fallacy of various theories. The real truth is "Manifestation" and " Unmanifestation".

• Mani-ji mentioned the story of Barbarika alias Shyam ,the grandson of Bhima (second of the Pandava brothers), and the son of Ghatotkacha. It was metioned that from his childhood, Barbarika was a very brave warrior and that he learnt the art of warfare from his mother. Krishna offered him Moksha in return for Barbarika being able to witness the entire Mahabharata from a global level(from the top of a mountain).  Once Barbarika was released from the vicious cycle of birth & death all he could envision was Lord Krishna everywhere/all across the battle field.(as he became one with Bramhan).

• 2 videos of Gurudev were played where in the concept of birth/rebirth  was explained in simple terms and Gurudev also emphasised that the soul(Jeevatma) has to acquire a gross body to exhaust all the impressions acquired from the previous birth(Prarabdham)

Class Summary for May 06, 2018 - Chapter-2: 19 to 22

Summarized by Shilpa Sail:

In this weeks class, we discussed chapter-2 verse 19 to 22.

Verse 19-22

Arjuna is pained by the thought that he will be held responsible for the killing of his elders, Bhishma and others.  Shri Krishna explains that the Atma/soul does not die. The body in which the soul dwells separates from the body, but the soul exists. The soul is eternal, ageless, omnipresent.

Shri Krishna further explains that the Atma/soul is not born nor does it die. It is ever existing. It is ageless.  

Shri Krishna explains to Arjuna that concept of rebirth by providing the analogy of clothes. When a garment becomes old and useless, we scrap the old ones and buy new ones, but when this activity is being done we don't change ourselves. Likewise, the soul changes the body, it discards the old body and starts dwelling in a new body when it takes birth. The soul is the same it does not change.

Atma/Soul is`----

* Akartha, it cannot do anything by itself. 

* Abhokta, it cannot experience any results of any action. 

* Nirvikara, it is free from change.

Other topics discussed in our session.

⦁ Prarthana said she attended a medical session which focussed on Yoga, Om, and Meditation.

Western culture is looking towards the east for ways to relieve chronic pain. They believe for chronic pain yoga and meditation are providing significant benefits. Scientific study has proven that people exposed to yoga or meditation are responding better to these treatments rather than medication.

The group had a discussion on how the western group is influencing Vedanta and spiritual study in India / amongst Indians.

Mani Sir was confident that our culture is so vast and that it will stay for years to come.

⦁ Thirteen days ritual after death in a family.

In most of the Hindu families, there is a twelve day morning period. It gives the grieving family time to accept the reality and give the Atma a force for transitioning into the next birth.

⦁ Can the jeevatma who has become one with the Paramatma ever get detached. 

The answer is yes if the jeevatma get distracted from its service to the Parmatma. Even an iota of separation comes at a virtual level also then the jeevatma separates from the Paramatma.

From a Advaita perspective, once the Jeevatma becomes one with Paramatma it does not come back or get separated. In special cases it can re-manifest itself during avataar of Paramatma etc., 

⦁ Why in some temples the prasad is not given in hand but appears that it is thrown.

It is not because of the untouchable practice that was followed. The people who are in the temple have strong magnetic/ energy if they touch you, may be the energy will transverse between you and the temple priest which some people might now be able to with-stand.

⦁ Prasad narrated a story about two monks.

One day they were two monks walking towards the monastery. They saw a beautiful lady hurt on the side of the road. The first monk went towards her and picked her.

 The second monk tried to explain to the first monk that we as monks should not touch any female. I will complain about you to the Head Monk. The first monk did not pay any heed to the second monk but went ahead in his duty to help the Lady and returned to the monastery. At the monastery, the second monk told the head what had happened. The first monk said I did not carry that in my mind it is you who have carried it.

⦁ Mani Sir told a story on similar lines about muni Vyasa and his son Shuka.

One day Vyasa was following his son to a lake. Some ladies were bathing in there. Shuka was in front of Vyasa the ladies did not bother to cover themselves when they saw him. Then, they saw Vyasa they hurried to cover themselves. Vyasa was puzzled. After returning to the ashram he asked his son why the ladies tried to cover them after seeing Vyvas but not Shuka. The reason is due to Shuka's complete lack of self-consciousness the ladies did not consider him to be any distraction.