Class Summary for Oct 7, 2018 - Chapter-2: 38 to 40

Summarized by :  Jeetendra Chandwadkar

Chapter 2 (Slokas 38 - 40).​

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These are a transition from Saankhya wisdom to Karma yoga.​

Discussion started with few points such as "Ultimate v/s Relative Reality", Action in Dharma and doing ones Duty.​

Duty was broken down as - Doing our duty without being attach of likes/dislikes and Fear of result (or more precisely "Attachment to a Specific Result").​

Then the concept such as Preparation for Action v/s Action itself(doing) was elaborated by moderators. In it Nitya Sadhana which helps Intellect controlling the mind during the action and attitude such as Why me v/s why not me should be cultivated.​

Example of doing a Child Project with or without a specific Target (School exhibition) was talked about. What was our mental attitude while doing that project, either attachment to the Grade or doing just for Fun part without any attachment to end result.​

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An issue was raised regarding Gita teachings just enhancing us Intellectually but very hard to use at Practical purposes. A need for moderators giving  personal day to day real life examples will be useful and benificial to all.​

One talk about was, Patient at doctors office and Doctors not being emotionally supportive and insensitive. As part of medical profession is the duty of doctor is "Patient caring" or "Problem fixing without caring" and move on to next Pateint in line.  Hiding behind emotions or doing right things. ​

Another example of IVY League or College Pressure on High performance students and their stress factors .​

The next example was Job related pressure and performance issue leading to suicidal tendencies. and one of the area overlook was EQ (Emotional intelligence) which is different than having a high  IQ and landing a good Job.​

Ability to maintain the Balance in every situations;​

All of these is Self journey and self effort, no quick fixes, practice Gita preaching's.​

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Then Swamiji videos for Chapter 2 verses 38 -39 was played, which reiterated the same point discussed and in a better way pointing to few examples.​

 Like: accepting result with attitude such as "Better luck next time, be a sportsman,​

 Don't get disappointed, situation are there, you play the game (win or loose is just an outcome),​ Success and failure are 2 sides of coins.​

Play with the nature of the waves (aka Situations etc), enter in their rhythm and always do the best without attachments.​

Then Gurudev also explain the concept of ACT v/s ACTION - In Human Intelligent Action is work;​

whereas in plant and animals, they are set of response with instincts and impulses.​

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At the end the subjective analysis of slokas 38 - 40 was summarize:​

Karma yoga - Purifies the mind;​

Bhakti yoga - Focus the mind (example of computer disk defragmentation process); and​

Gyana yoga - Realization (Physical, mental and phycological Freedom from Attachment).​

An example of Farmer cultivating the crop with Vyasarika buddhi was discussed, whereas he takes Step by step process and performs his work and duty, knowingly that there are lots of factors effecting the end result (i.e.: the final Crop produced)

Class Summary for Sep 30, 2018 - Chapter-2: 34 to 37

Summarized by :  Ram Sudheendra

We started the class with Pranayaama and Meditation and moved on to the summary of previous session’s chapters 30 to 33.  The summary got escalated to more debates and discussions on Dharma. Some of the questions raised during discussions are...

What is your Dharma?

Who defines one’s Dharma?

Swardharma: How it differs for every individual?

What is expected and What are you capable of?

Some of the examples discussed are:

·        A rich man who has the capability to sponsor food for the poor,  but he is bad at cooking should not try to exhaust his desire by cooking

·        Doctors duty towards his patients

·        A person in distress

We also discussed the importance of chanting the slokas and proper pronunciation of letters and words that can sharpen the intellect and increase one’s attention.

Class further discussed on Preyas and Shreyas and how man’s transactions and achievements revolve around these two paths of convenience and righteousness respectively. Humans can decide to take short term pleasures that lead to downfall or take the path that is difficult in the beginning, leading to long term good benefits of self and the people around.

Sheyas discussion then lead to the importance of one’s duties. All individuals have duties to perform for societies greater good. Communities are messed up when individuals do not perform their duties in the righteous way.

Class chanted slokas 34 to 37:

Krishna continue his teachings to Arjuna who is hesitating to fight in the war. Krishna says that people around Arjuna will talk about this dishonor and all his honor that he has earned and famous for, will disappear instantly. People will never forget if Arjuna continues this path that makes the dishonor worse than a death. The great commanders in the army who looked up to Arjuna as their hero will doubt his skills and conclude that he withdrew from this battle because of fear.  Arjuna’s enemies will disgrace his valor with foul language, point their finger at him and laugh at him as a hero who ran away from the battlefield. This will bring great suffering to Arjuna rest of his life and history will remember this forever. It does not matter Arjuna loses or wins this battle, it will always bring positive gain either way and for doing his duty by fighting this battle for noble cause of Dharma. Doing so, if he wins, Arjuna will rule his kingdom and enjoy the earth and attain Veera-swarga or if he looses and dies in the battlefield, he will still obtain a heroes’ heaven.

Class chanted slokas 38 to 40:

Krishna reminds Arjuna the importance of doing his duties will not acquire any sin. Even though there is pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engaging himself in the battle and performing his duty as Kshatriya, treating all of these pairs of opposite the same, will remove all sins. It does not matter if he kills many of his enemies in the battle field, which he is destined to do.

Krishna says all these teaching to Arjuna are belonging to Saankhya philosophy to achieve absolute reality that can end all sorrows caused from various attachments. Going forward Krishna will teach Arjuna how to attain wisdom by performing Yoga which will end the cycle of birth and death. Here Yoga means Karma-Yoga, the way of life and action taken daily be an individual and its consequences. Krishna says that this Karma-Yoga protects everyone from fear. Krishna brings this topic since Arjuna is still looking for more answers and justification from Krishna to overcome his fear of killing his own people.

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.