Summarized by: Sree Sekhar Palaparthy
We started the class with our Prayers, Meditation, Pranayama. Did a recap of our previous class which
gave the summary of the first 6 verses of chapter 4.
We went through Verses: 7-12
Theme: The struggle against religion of ir-religion/adharma
- We saw the definition of “Religion” from Self-unfoldment, which is mentioned as a form of self-
discipline. The moment “self” is taken away from it and applied to others, it starts causing
problems.
- Ir-religion/adharma can be defined as anything which is against the nature
- Lord SriKrishna is mentioning that, when dharma is forgotten and adharma reaches to its peak,
He would come down as an Avtar and perform 3 things
- Punish adharmis i.e, one who do not follow their swadharma
- Protect dharmis
- Re-establish dharma
- When Swadharma is not followed, it leads to adharma.
Ex: If farmers stop doing what they are supposed to do (farming) i.e not following
swadharma, it could lead to production of artificial food, thus causing imbalance in the
nature.
- Yuga ends/Mahapralya occurs, when the gross baggage (karmic bondage) of everyone in the
universe becomes extremely negative. When yuga ends, along with the vedas, sages and prominent dharma followers will be preserved to continue the yugas
- In the context of ending of Yugas, a question was discussed: Why would Lord even allow
adharma to increase to an extent to end the Yuga?
- God originally created everyone with free will to perform Yagna karmas, with the goal of
attaining him. However, due to the misuse of free will, humans start acquiring karmic
bondage, thus eventually performing adharmas
- What God has given us is under his control, but due to free will, what we do with what
we got from Him is purushartha (Ex: Sishu paal’s story about how he committed 100 sins
due to his free will)
- Religion vs Spirituality: Religion gives discipline (dos and don’ts) whereas Spirituality is seeking
one’s own self; Recognizing the drstha (SEER) in us and not the kartha (DOER)
- One needs to give up the fear, anger and attachment to be able to fully emerge in Lord. In this
context, one has to be really thirsty to acquire the ultimate knowledge
- Example: A boy selling water at train station and how one of the passengers first
enquires about the price of the water bottle before purchasing unlike others, which
indicates that he isn’t as thirsty as others for water. This example was given in the
context to emphasize the fact that, one really needs to be thirsty of attaining the
knowledge.
- Another example was given in this same context; as one desperately holds onto a stick
while drowning in a river
- The Supreme Lord reciprocates to all paths of seeking him (Bhatki, Gyana or Karma)
- Before punishing the bad, the Lord first tries to teach, negotiate and then oppose before finally punishing (Bhishma/Drona/Karna accept the punishment after recognizing that Krishna tried allthe other 3 methods)
- Sloka 12’s summary: a lot of people perform rituals to get materialistic benefits, but Lord
explains that this shouldn’t be the ultimate goal, but one should strive to acquire the knowledge
to grow beyond actions.
- Lord affirms that, even if a worst sinner can have HOPE to be liberated.
- A story was narrated about a King with 2 sons and how the younger son follows a wrong path, but later on comes back to his family and the King celebrates his comeback, to lead the right path again.
Subjective Analysis: Develop FAITH as opposed to BELIEF
