Class Summary for Dec 17, 2023 - Bhagavad Gita Chapter-8 ver 1-6 and 7-9

 Summarized by Rajesh:

 Breath exercises - recommended 21 cycles by some:

• Inhale
• Hold
• Exhale
• Hold

Takers	Givers		Takers	Givers
World created for our pleasure	World meant for all		Always dissatisfied	Content
Derivation hence grab	Abundance hence share		Profoundly lonely	Blend & harmonies
Wanton destruction	All thrive.  Plenty for everyone		Insecure	Secure
Believe they are right	Open to correction		Desires increase	Desires reduce

Theme:

• You are what you think - so THINK of the HIGHER, and act as per your DHARMA
• How?  Abhyasa yoga - Practice of Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga and Giana yoga along with Meditation
• Death is the cross-over from the 3 states to the 4th plane
• Who is this BRAHMAN?

Kavim - pure consciousness 

Puranam - ancient

Anushasitaram - law of causation

Anoraniyamsam - subtlest of all

Sarvasya Dhataram - supporter

Achintya Rupam - formless

Adityavarnam - self-effulgent

Tamatha Parastat- beyond ignorance

Videos:

Chapter 8, v9:  Continuously contemplate on him.  God supports all.  Support doesn’t mean as if by weight.  Support in the sense of being the ‘very material cause’ of your gross material body and your subtle thoughts.  Examples - cotton in cloth, gold in ornaments, sea in the waves, etc.

Chapter 8, v10:  He is the ruler of everything.  Beyond the intellect.  Search and seek for what is illumining the intellect.  He is pure knowledge.  He is beyond all darkness (and light).

Chapter 8, v11:  Concentrating Prana.  With mind unwavering

5 Pranas are the expressions of life in you.  [Didn’t capture the 5 pranas]

Prana, Alana, - these are used in puja.

Chapter 8 - Meditation - verb or noun?

Meditation is a state of mind that you arrive at with contemplation and effort.

• It is hard to do this at the end of our lives.  We need to imbed this into our daily routine.  Even something as simple as substituting a little bit of contemplation during a break rather than checking social media, listening to the radio, etc.
• If we can invest and ‘program’ ourselves with the right type of spiritual practice, the preparation will ease our acceptance of our eventual death.  And hopefully we can burn our Vaasa as 

VEDANTA CHANGES EMOTION:

• Selfish -> unselfish 
• earnest -> strength
• Liability -> asset

We get confused between Love and Attachment:

LOVE	ATTACH
Gain	Lose
Bring out best	Bring out worst
Happy	Unhappy
Build teams	Distrust teams

• Break free of the chains - attachment creates chains.
• This is hardest for us with our children.

As given in Chapter 18 - 3 things that you shouldn’t leave:

• Yagna (rituals)
• Tapas (contemplation)
• Danam (as you give, you will decrease your load)

We have to do Karma, Bhakti and Gnana yogas hand-in-hand

Class Summary for Dec 10, 2023 - Bhagavad Gita Chapter-8 ver 1-6

 Summarized by Sree Sekhar Palaparthy:

We started the class with prayer and pranayama. We discussed the 2 questions which were given as exercise in our

last class

1) Why is Warren Buffett’s focus is still to make money

2) Identify 1-3 people who does not feel insecure at all. 

Why is Warren Buffett’s focus is still to make money

 He makes more money so that he can give back more to the community

 His earning is not entire egoless but he wants to show how good/smart he is

 His lifestyle reflects western lifestyle i.e searching for meaning for oneself

 To keep himself busy; What else would he be doing , if he didn’t continue to do what he is good at

 In other terms, if you are enjoying what you are doing and not doing a job, that’s when you can consider

that one has retired. So, in a way, we can interpret that Warren.B has retired 30/35 years back, as he isn’t

just doing a job

 His primary focus to earn money is to serve others/for charity.

o He couldn’t find a single place where he could find the impact of money spent for charity, except

Bill  & Mellinda foundation, hence he donates to their organization

 Is he following Swadharma?

 Maybe he found that investing is his Swadharma and he is continuing to do what he is good at without any expectation/but one cannot tell for sure and only he would know

Identify 1-3 people who does not feel insecure at all

 We discussed how difficult /impossible it is to find a single person whom we know personally, who is

completely secure

 Someone who comes somewhat closer to being completely secured, would be the health workers during

Covid time.

o We discussed about a specific example of a health worker who was serving patients by putting

herself into risk of dying, but never felt that she was insecure. At that point, she wasn’t doing her

work as an obligation

o However, even such a person could be still insecure in other spheres of her life

 How does a Gyani be secure at all time?

o Though they show sympathy and empathize with others as needed, within, they are always

secured, knowing the real truth of existence

We then watched Gurudev’s videos on Verse 9, 10, 11

Verse 9:

o Unknown can’t be defined with another unknown, but has to be defined with reference to a

known

o If we know the distance between point A and B is 5 m, we can’t discover any information about

point C

o In same way, all that we know is about BMI

o The Unknow or HIM, cannot be defined with the known BMI, but HE can only be indicated (give a

direction)

o Definition of God or truth us a direction towards HIM; Kirtan is to turn towards HIM and search

for HIM

Verse 10:

o From this verse onwards, God talks about 8 such terms which determines the direction of mental

attention/spirit of searching and discovering HIM

o Kavim – Omniscient - One who knows everything

o What we all know is very insignificant

Verse 11:

o Purana – Most ancient ; HE is father of time; From HIM, the concept of time even emerged

o Anushasitaram - HE is the ruler of the world

We concluded the class with prayer and will continue to watch other videos in the next class

Class Summary for Nov 19, 2023 - Bhagavad Gita Chapter-8 ver 1-6

 Summarized by Angila Singh:

We continued our discussion on Chapter 8, verse 1 to 6-

1.       We talked about meditation and brain waves-

Meditation can increase the production of the following brain wave frequencies: 

• Alpha waves: Associated with relaxation, wakeful relaxation, and creativity.
• Theta waves: Associated with enhanced learning abilities and overall mental well-being.
• Gamma waves: Used to study the process of learning, as well as cognitive processing.

Meditation can also reduce beta waves, which are associated with active thought and learning.

2.       Arjuna’s question – How do I get to know you at the time of death?

Lord Krishna’s answer alludes to the following-

Practice to have a resultant(final) desire to think of the Lord ~ Higher Focus.

3.       We cannot multi-task however we can switch between tasks.

4.       Bhakti Yog is embedded in the path towards Moksha/liberation starting from Saguna upasana.

5.       When Lord says think of me, it can be understood as think of Saguna aspect of Lord or it can also be understood as think of Brahman (Nirguna)

6.       Liberation can be sequential which is remembering the Lord ( Saguna Brahman) leading to Brahm loka, where Lord Brahma gives ultimate gyan for Moksha.

 

7.       What governs our thoughts~  vasanas+free will. To a major extent we can purify thoughts by changing/controlling vasanas.

Vedantic perspective

 

Watch your Vasanas,

they become your thoughts

Watch your thoughts,

they become your words;

watch your words,

they become your actions;

watch your actions,

they become your habits;

watch your habits,

they become your character;

watch your character,

it becomes your destiny

 

8.       We talked about this story.

Arjuna after receiving this great knowledge from Lord Krishna goes on to fight the battle.

He is attacked by Narayan Astra immediately he is worried, does not know what to do, seeks Lord’s help. The Lord asks him to surrender, the point is we can still forget this great knowledge when the moment comes so it’s important to practice.

 

 

 

9.       Differences between Takes Givers

Takers	Givers
World created for our pleasure- deprivation hence grab	World meant for All- All thrive plenty for all
Believe they are right	Open to correction
Always dissatisfied	Content
Lonely	Blend and harmonious
Insecure	Secure
Dissatisfaction increases	Dissatisfaction is reduced

 

 

10.   Homework questions-

1.       Why is Warren Buffet still focused on making money? He is 93 years of age, what could be his drive?

2.       The second question is about security and insecurity. Identify 1 to 3 people around you whom you think are secure in their demeanor and ask them why they don’t feel insecure.

11.   We chanted shlokas 7 to 10.

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 Summarized by Bala Dhandapani:

After pranayama and meditation,  salient points from previous class was summarized.  In addition, the following points were discussed as the Subjective Analysis of Sloka versus 1-6:

-Meditation is being in a meditative state, it is not a verb.

-Practice constantly to have a higher focus/desire, think of the Lord

-Bhakti yoga is explained in verse 1-6

-Saguna Upasana vs. Nirguna Upasana was discussed.  Start with Saguna upasana and move to Nirguna Upasana. 

-Krishna tells Arjuna, think of ME in your dying moment, and starts to explain as to how this is possible. 

-Chapter 8 discusses about krama mukti (time based) and not immediate mukti

-Only one active thought is possible at any given moment in our mind, what governs our thoughts ?

- we should change our vasanas so that we can think of the Lord.  As you think, so you become

-Thinking of Krishna (saguna form) at Prayana Kaale takes us to Brahma loga.  Brahma will impart the knowledge /gyana to get the Moksha. 

-All thoughts are driven by 2 factors – vasanas and free will.  Folks who are young (strong) can exercise free will more than an aged person.  Exercise of Free will goes down with time since faculties slow down. 

-Free will is the active thought, where as vasanas are the passive thoughts. 

-watch your thoughts they become your words, words becomes actions, actions becomes habits,  habits become character and character becomes destiny. 

-the starting point of your thoughts is your Vasana,  watch your vasanas and beware of the same. 

-differences in the traits of a person who takes vs gives was presented, some of the differences are profoundly lonely vs Blend and harmonize.  Insecure vs Secure etc.

 

Verses 7-10 were chanted

Summary of the slokas

7- At all times/always think of me and do your duty, if you fix your mind and intellect on the lord, one would certainly reach the lord.

8- With constant practice, when one constantly engage their mind (meditate) in reaching the supreme being, will attain the lord.

9- 10 God who is omniscient, who is subtler than the subtle, creator of all  who is shining (like a sun) and beyond darkness can be reached when mediated between the eyebrows  

 

Points to discuss for next class

-Why is Warren Buffett’s focus is still to make money

-Identify 1-3 people who does not feel insecure at all.   

Class Summary for October 29, 2023 - Bhagavad Gita Chapter-8 ver 1-6

Summarized by Prasanna Kumar:

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

We did a recap from our last class

We looked at the meaning of Aadhibhuta -Adhidaiva - Adhiyajna The best of the embodied beings, the physical nature, which is constantly changing, is called adhibhuta [the material manifestation]. The universal form of the Lord, which includes all the demigods, like those of the sun and moon, is called adhidaiva. And Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord, represented as the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied being,is called adhiyajna [the Lord of sacrifice].

The final thought is important
Whatever one remembers while leaving the body, that is what he or she becomes in the next birth. King Bharatha a noble king was getting old ,  he therefore divided his ancestral kingdom proportionally between his sons. Then he abandoned his home, an abode of immense wealth and prosperity, and set out for the jungles to spend his last days in the worship of the Supreme Lord. In doing so, he was only following the glorious precedent set by his ancestors since time immemorial. King Bharatha who at this time was a hermit got attached to a baby deer  he saved in the forest one day.  His heart was bound so much in affection to the deer that whatever he be doing, sitting, sleeping, wandering, standing, eating or performing any task, king Bharata would always be thinking about the young one. As time passed, the aging king came close to death, and when the inevitable end came, Bharata left this world with his mind fixed on the baby deer.
Thus it was inevitable that in his next birth king Bharata was born as a deer.  A sensible individual won’t wait for the last moment  to decide on his last thought. Ideally we want to think about Lord and recite his name in the final moments if we can. But as we never know when the last moment is and don’t know if our faculties will function appropriately to think of Brahman at that time, it is important to keep God in our daily thoughts and thus have a better chance of having the right thought at the last moment. 

Another way to approavh this subject is through the practice of detachment or Vairagya. Vairagya is the opposite of Raga (attachment). Vairagya is dispassion. This does not mean we have to walk away from everything and practice vana prastha. Each of us can practise Vairagya while continuing our Grihastha life.

A person practising Vairagya has no attraction for the material world. So Vairagya is a supreme, inexhaustible wealth for spiritual aspirants. Vairagya aids concentration of mind (Samadhana) and generates burning Mumukshutwa, or strong yearning for Liberation. 

Spiritual Education or Brahma Vidya is essentially an education that transports us from the present state (whatever it is) to the ONLY state that we need to be in (The Reality). And this process of Education involves basically three steps viz., Shravanam (Listening that is to hear with attention), Mananam (Continuous Reflection) and Nidhidhyasanam (Deeper Contemplation or Meditation)that should ultimately lead to Brahman (Realising or Actualizing the Truth). 

In the spiritual journey it is believed if we take one step towards God , God takes ten steps towards us. All we need to ensure is the direction we are marching and hope that is towards this goal. Just like a bullet that leaves the gun and move towards the target as long as our pursuit is right and intentions are pure we will attain moksha either in this Janma or in the Janma s to come.

We ended the session listening to Swamijis videos