Class Summary for Mar 29, 2020 - Chapter-12 Slokas 6-8

Summarized by : Neelima Turaga 

We started the class with opening prayers, pranayam and meditation. 

During this ongoing crisis of the Covid 19, it is very easy for us to get overwhelmed and anxious. We briefly discussed ways to keep ourselves calm and peaceful as much as possible.  It is very important to keep up our everyday Sadhana, and if possible enhance it further. It also helps to see and appreciate even small things in our day to day life and being grateful for all that we have. We should try to see the goodness in people, no matter the situation or the equation we have with them. Seeing the goodness in everyone and everything is easier said than done. However, it can be started slow, and with conscious effort and practice, this can be achieved. It again depends on the sadhana package we are  following. Sadhana helps develop vairagya or detachment. We then reach a point when we are able to reset our perceptions about the people we are interacting with. We need to do this reset everyday !

We discussed some examples for this. One was about a small businessman in India, who purchased books, shirts etc from Chinmaya ashram very frequently. He ran a business with all handicapped staff. Curious as to why he bought so many things so often, someone asked him. His answer was that he bought them to gift them to certain people who he had business interactions with and who expected bribes from him. Gifting these items was his way to touch the good side of them and influence them in a positive way, which might reduce their desire to take the bribes in future. He chose to see the goodness in people. 

Another example was the story in which Lord Krishna was asked to manage the footwear of people. He did even that job with utmost love and commitment. It shows that whatever be the work, whoever be the persons we are interacting with, we can give our best and also see goodness or Brahman in everyone. 

We watched Gurudev's videos for Shlokas 6, 7 and 8. A brief summary is as follows :

There are two pre requisites for successful spiritual seeking. Firstly, all the actions should be surrendered to the Lord, for He is the highest goal to be reached. Every action should be guided by the aspiration to achieve the goal. The mind cannot be allowed to dissipate into other things that can deviate us from the goal.

Secondly, for sometime everyday, bring all mental attention to the Lord EXCLUSIVELY.

A person can choose either a path of devotion or a path of contemplation. When all actions, physical, mental or intellectual are oriented in the Lord, all the emotions and thoughts become one with him. With steady contemplation, the vasanas are exhausted. As the vasanas are getting exhausted, the mind and and intellect become more steady. Steadier the mind, greater the contemplation. Greater contempletion in turn reduces the vasanas. After these cycles of vasana exhaustion, a time will come when one is uplifted from the shore less ocean of death and plurality. How long this takes, depends on the amount of vasanas each person has.

Class Summary for Mar 22, 2020 - Chapter-12 Slokas 6-8

Summarized by :  Sridhar.V

The class started off with our Omkar routine followed up by Pranayama and prayers.

We did a recap from our last class 03.08.2020 where in verses 1-5 from Chapter 12 were discussed.

In the recap we discussed using various examples of the meaning of “ABSTRACT” and in particular the one of Prism and Light where in both the singularity and plurality exists.

As the white light passes through a prism, it is bent or refracted by the angles of the prism and each wavelength of light is refracted by a slightly different amount of color . As a result, all of the colors in the white light of the sun separate into the individual bands of color characteristic of a rainbow.

We also discussed upon the following in terms of the meaning rendered from verses 1 -5.

1.Saguna includes single form or multiple form.

2,Nirguna is formless – beyond sense or attributes.

3.Saguna Bhakti is the way to Nirguna Bhakti and for Nirguna Bhakti we need the achieve the 4 D’s.

4. Dispassion / Desirelessness / Discipline  and Detachment.

5. The qualifications of the above are : Senses focused inward,equanimity and commitment to welfare of all living beings and universal love..

6. To perform all transactions with love.

7.Transact in duality and maintain/recognize singularity.

Excerpts of verses 6,7 and 8:

Translation of verses 6 & 7 :

But those who dedicate all their actions to Me, regarding Me as the Supreme goal, worshiping Me and meditating on Me with exclusive devotion, O Parth, I swiftly deliver them from the ocean of birth and death, for their consciousness is united with Me.

Commentary/Meaning :

Shree Krishna reiterates that His devotees reach Him quickly.  Firstly, with the personal form of God as the object of their devotion, they easily focus their mind and senses upon Him. In this way, they quickly unite their consciousness with God.

Secondly, since such devotees continuously offer their hearts in interrupted bhakti, God quickly bestows His grace upon them and removes the obstacles on their path

In this way, God Himself becomes the Savior of His devotees and frees them from the cycle of life and death.

Translation of verse no 8:

 Fix your mind on Me alone and surrender your intellect to Me. There upon, you will always live in Me. Of this, there is no doubt

Commentary / Meaning :

Having explained that worship of the personal form is better, Shree Krishna now begins to explain how to worship Him.  He asks Arjun to do two things—fix the mind on God and also surrender the intellect to Him.  The function of the mind is to create desires, attractions, and aversions.

Mere physical devotion is not sufficient; we must absorb the mind in thinking of God.

For eg : we hear a sermon with our ears, but if the mind wanders off, we will not know what was said.  The words will fall on the ears but they will not register.  This shows that without engaging the mind the work of the senses does not count. 

 On the other hand, the mind is such an instrument that in it all the senses reside in the subtle form.  Thus, even without the actual sensory activity the mind experiences the perceptions of sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound

Another example that we can cite is : We visit a doctor when we are sick.  We have no knowledge of medical science ourselves, and so we follow the advice of a qualified medical doctor.  The doctor checks our symptoms, looks at our medical reports, makes a diagnosis, and then prescribes the medicines.  

Similarly our intellect is habituated to defective thinking from the collections of innumerable previous lifetimes.  If we run our lives in accordance with the directions of our intellect, we will definitely not make much progress on the divine path. 

Thus, if we wish to achieve spiritual success by attaching the mind to God, we must surrender our intellect to Him and follow His directions.

Theme of verses 6,7 & 8 :

If formless meditation is not possible then meditate on the creation or multiple forms(Vishwaroopam).

Love all of his creations.

Have an empathetic attitude towards life.

Transact in this world with all actions dedicated to the SUPREME LORD  and he /she is always with YOU.

We will continue with verses 9,10,11 and 12 in our next class. 

Class Summary for Mar 08, 2020 - Chapter-12 Slokas 1-5

Summarized by :  Prarthana Gururaj

During the class we reviewed our discussions on verses 1-5. We watched Gurudev’s videos of the
shlokas.

1. The path to bhakti begins with taking the mind towards God and surrendering the mind to God.
2. There is a difference between faith and belief. Belief is lost in the face of adversity. Faith is
immovable despite adversity
3. A firm faith of the understanding that the world is a manifestation of the unmanifest God is
important. An example / comparative was that our dreams are a manifestation rising from the
body of our knowledge
4. The path of faith or devotion can be pursued in two ways – focusing on the manifested God in
his various forms like Krishna, Shiva etc( Saguna) or focusing on the unmanifest God (Nirguna)
5. The path of devotion to Nirguna Brahma is considered the most difficult.
6. The understanding of the concept of Nirguna Brahma can be pursued by using the pointers that
indicate the qualities of the unmanifested God. However caution should be taken to ensure that
the indicators are not considered the description of the unmanifest. Some of the indicators are
that the Lord are
- imperishable, indefinable, omnipresent, unthinkable, unchangeable, eternal, immovable
7. Gurudev’s summary

- At the physical level - understand that the world is a physical manifestation of the
Lord and serve mankind with devotion.
- At the mental level – surrender the mind and bring the mind towards the Lord
- At the intellectual level – attempt to understand the Lord through the information
in the scriptures.

Class Summary for Mar 01, 2020 - Chapter-12 Slokas 1-4

Summarized by :  Shivkumar Natarajan

The current conversation is a continuation from chapter 7 where the Lord states that I am the unmanifest one and chapter 11 where Krishna reveals his Vishwaroopam ( that he is everything). So Arjuna wants to know from the Lord which of the 2 states of the Lord should he pursue. His Saguna form or his Nirguna form. To understand abstract start with the concrete. Krishna starts with the highest.

Lots of attributes given attribute less. Space is the subtlest of 5 elements (Panchabootham). Movement is only possible for limited. Change is possible when there is changeless substratum. Hammer and anvil have to be changeless substratum to allow shaping of metal by smithy. 

That which allows you to think is the substratum. If you think you are the body (Dehaabhiman)then you can meditate on objects. However if you are thinking beyond form then you can meditate on abstract. 

Meditating on the Self is the difficult part.

Staircase to Bhramhan

                                                          Gnyan Yoga

                                              Upasana Yoga

                                       Nishkama Karma

Karma Yoga.  Kamiya Karma 

Theme

1. Saguna includes single form or multiple form

2. Nirguna is formless -> beyond senses, attributes etc

3. Saguna Bhakti is means to Nirguna Bhakti. So question is wrong !!

4. For Nirguna path we need 4 D's namely Dispassion, Discipline, Detatchment and Desirelessness.

5. Qualification : Senses focused inward , equanimity and commitment to self and all of the living beings ( Universal love)

6.Transact in duality but recognise singularity

6. Perform all transactions with love

Bhrahman when seen through prism of BMI results in plurality.

Class Summary for Feb 09, 2020 - Chapter-12 Introduction

Summarized by :  Bala Dhandapani

Introduction to Chapter 12- Bhakti Yoga –– Yoga of Devotion

High level summary of Chapter 1 (Arjuna’s grief), Chapter 2 (Ideal State  Sankya Yoga) and Chapter 3 (karma Yoga – attitude that we need when doing karma) was rdone as a recap.

Four paths to Brahman was discussed

• Jnana Yoga – Intellectual (Meditation)

• Bhakthi Yoga – Emotional (Devotion)

• Karma Yoga – Applies to both Intellect & Emotions

• Hatha Yoga – Applies neither to Intellect nor Emotion

With Jnana Yoga – acquire the knowledge and then meditate.

Shravanam is listening, Mananam is understanding and digesting the informatio.  Mananam is also removal of doubts, more questions may come up in the beginning of mananam, later – the questions will fade away and setle down.

The above 4 paths are not mutually exclusive and are not independent.

Shravanam, Mananam and Nidhitasyanam was discussed.

Jnana yoga appelas to Intellectuals, Bhakthi yoga to emotional, Karma yoga to both intellectual and emotional.  Hatha yoga is a path to discipline the body, it is a physical activity to prepare your body.  Body has to be fit to do anything.  Also, body should not be distracted to other things.  

Inter-dependancy of Bhakthi yoga with other yogas to attain Brahman was described through example of a staircase.  Consider that the staircase leads to Brahman with 5 steps and Bhakthi Yoga as the stair railings.

Step 1: Karma

Step 2: Karma Yoga

Step 3: Upasana Yoga  - meditation on single God (Ista devata)

Step 4: Upasana Yoga – meditation on all forms of Gods (Vishva roopa)

Step 5: Jnana Yoga – meditation on Nirguna Brahman, final step before merging with Brahman. Shravanam, Manama & Nidithyasanam.

Consider steps 1-4 as a pole valut, 5^th step prior to jumping.

Another definition of Bhakthi – Faith.  Meera Bhai used Bhakthi to reach Moksha.   Intense Bhakthi  is to completely surrender. Faith in yourself and completely surrender.

Bhakthi Yoga consists of 3 sadhanas – Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga and Jnana Yoga  (Nirguna – meditate on space, no smell, no shape).