Bhagavad Geeta - Chinmaya Mission

Without steadiness in knowledge, the weakness of just one sense organ can cause one’s downfall. Despite hearing the Geeta, we often are unsteady in the conviction of Krishna’s words and allow the mind to get carried away by sense objects, disobeying the intellect’s guidance! Swamiji beautifully illustrates this through the significance of the Satyanarayana Katha.

Without clear understanding that all that we seek outside is not going to bring us the peace we seek, the mind will always be restless. Swamiji delves deep into our mind’s flawed logic and tendency to dwell on the objects we desire. He also clearly illustrates the journey from agitation to quietness in the mind that we repeatedly go on when pursuing our desires.

It is not that every object attracts us, but depending on our likes and dislikes that the mind develops a desire for certain objects. Taking our mind through the shopping malls of the world around us, Swamiji clearly illustrates how in the peaceful mind of one who has given up strong likes and dislikes, the seeds of their vasanas get completely roasted!

Obsessive desire for anything constitutes lust. Lust when obstructed leads to anger, and this anger deludes us, causing us to lose our ability to discriminate between what is real and unreal. Swamiji illustrates this through an anecdote in the Ramayana, driving home the clear ways in which our desire for the world outside carries us swiftly down the ladder of fall!

The mind is easily coloured by sense pleasures and the intellect often justifies indulgence, but Krishna explains how an intellect dedicated to a higher goal can lovingly inspire the mind to master, and not just suppress, the senses. Swamiji also introduces Krishna’s famous ‘ladder of fall’ to help us understand how the uncontrolled mind leads us further away from our ultimate goal!

How much can one abstain from all the temptations of the world?

When we stay away from the temptations, they eventually turn away from us too. However, Krishna reminds us that the memory of the pleasures continues to tempt even the most intelligent of us! Having withdrawn the senses, the mind must be alert, vigilant and directed into deeper contemplation of the Truth.

Krishna paints this delicate word-picture of a person of perfection on the canvas of Arjuna’s mind. He even anticipates Arjuna’s queries and begins to eliminate them! How can one so easily withdraw from the world? In today’s episode, Swamiji eloquently explains Krishna’s beautiful metaphor comparing the tortoise and the sthitaprajna!

Swamiji clearly points out how our raga (attachment), leads to bhaya (fear) and krodha (anger), and the stithaprajna is free from them. Their mind is not dependent on any outer object, hence the level of detachment which they operate from.

The person of perfection also sees beyond ‘good’ and ‘bad’, neither complains nor praises, and is ever fixed in knowledge of Brahman in all as all.

With a variety of tales, Swamiji explains the self-satisfied nature of one who is equanimous.

We hear of the sthithaprajna’s unshakeable mental attitude towards joys and sorrows, who accepts all that falls in their lap as the Lord’s grace, and has no fear, attachment or anger towards the world and people around them.

Having heard of this state of ease, Arjuna is curious to understand such a person of perfection. To the untrained ear, his questions may seem childish, but Krishna understands these prattling questions from His student and begins by speaking of the knowledge the sthitaprajna is rooted in.

Moksha is not freedom from action but freedom in action. When we intelligently let go of attachment to the results of actions, we gain freedom from bondage of birth and de ath. Swamiji breaks down the psychology of our attachment to the fruits of our efforts despite the suffering that we inflict on ourselves by that very attachment, and how we can reach our original state of ease.

The benefit of the Geeta is to be experienced here and now. With amusing anecdotes, Swamiji clarifies how we can act in love and dedication. Applying the practice of karma yoga in whatever we do, enriches our work with efficiency and brings us peace and equanimity, regardless of the results that follow.

A restless mind leads to an inefficient intellect, leading to nothing but more suffering! Doing our best and accepting the fruits of our action as the just results, regardless of whether it is what we desire or not, ensures a balanced mind. Swamiji elaborately explains the benefits of performing our duties with this attitude (and the downside of not!)

Swamiji distils the knowledge of Karma Yoga to explain how we can come to liberate ourselves. He shares the approach we should take to doing our duties such that we can remain steadfast in yoga - ever peaceful and balanced with an equanimous mind.

Krishna urges the seeker to go beyond the three modes of nature (gunas). By staying centred in the Self, we can remain free from the pairs of opposites that are part of life and instead come to experience completeness.

Krishna advises the seeker to not get carried away with elaborate actions. We cannot fulfil ourselves by pursuing actions that can only give us finite results. Swamiji shares how we should work towards a higher goal, free of desire, so as to be able to reach the highest state of peace and happiness.

As we gain spiritual knowledge, many paths and many goals appear to be taught over the ages. How to know which will lead us to our goal? Swamiji explains how the flowery words of various ‘religious’ practices promise only temporary pleasures, not allowing the mind to become peaceful, perpetually distracting the mind!

In Karma Kand, if we don’t complete actions in the proper order, despite our efforts, we may not benefit from it and even gain the opposite of our desired outcome! Krishna, the expert salesman, shows us how Buddhi Yoga solves this problem of Karma Kand. Not only that, the efforts we put in will always lead us closer to our goal, when there is love in action.

Working with the right attitude, the right Buddhi, can help us gain knowledge of the Truth.

By acting without the input of our own likes and dislikes, the mind becomes calm and unites us with the Buddhi, the means to gain knowledge. Gradually, we begin to work with our intelligence in tune with our higher Ideals, purifying us with each action we undertake!

Swamiji elaborates on Krishna’s advice to ‘work for the sake of working’ to prevent creating newer vasanas, and shares the importance of knowledge of the Self through an amusing story from Swamiji’s time in Hong Kong!

He also introduces the upcoming concept of Buddhi Yoga that Shri Krishna shares with Arjuna.

Using a charming anecdote with Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, Swamiji illustrates our folly in understanding what Paapa or Sin is. Anything that creates agitation in the mind is considered sin and Swamiji goes on to clarify what it truly means in the context of our scriptures and in how we behave in our daily life!

Arjuna running away would not only bring him infamy, but it would allow anyone and everyone to criticise his power. Krishna further explains that regardless of whether he slays or is slain in battle, Arjuna only stands to gain by fighting, as is his duty! Swamiji also gives us a great tool with which we can apply Krishna’s words to our own conflicts in life.

Geeta Chapter 2 Verse 34 - An Honourable Death over an Infamous Life

Infamy to a respectable person is worse than death, says Krishna. With Arjuna, the scandal of his escapism would live forever! Swamiji drives this point home with a host of examples from the war by which Arjuna and those whom he killed attained fame, because of their steadfastness in their duties.

Arjuna is stuck viewing the war from his emotional lens, thinking what would happen to his reputation if he won against his family. Krishna comes down to his level and reminds him that with fame, responsibility to maintain the capability that brought fame arises!

Swamiji explains that when we don’t live up to the fame gained from performing our duty, we incur sin by moving away from our swadharma.

Swamiji illustrates how one’s swadharma expresses itself no matter what with a humorous anecdote with Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda. If we don’t express our own swadharma, we cannot work with efficiency and a sense of fulfilment. When life gives us opportunities to live out our swadharma, we must seize them, for they will open many doors for us!

Our karma (work) is an expression of our swadharma (personality). Arjuna’s duty is to fight and protect his country and Krishna reminds him of this. Swamiji teaches us to look at our swadharma and what work we inherently want to engage in, by which we can exhaust our vasanas and purify our mind!

We all have physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual personalities with different needs and desires, curating our swadharma, our individual duty. The same situation outside is also processed by them differently. Arjuna, like us all, sees the battle only physically and emotionally. Krishna now begins to guide us through these four levels to help resolve our own internal conflicts.

Swamiji illustrates that the texture of the water will determine the quality of the reflection of the Sun reflected in it. Similarly, as our mind and vasanas, so our expression of the Divinity within us. When we decide to clear the water, we add a purifier to it, and when we aim to purify our mind, we must add inspiration from the Higher into our minds.

The Atma in discussion remains a wonder to all, be one a scholar or a dullard. Even more wonderful is the Master who can explain to us what words fall short of describing! With His characteristic examples, Swamiji explains how the subtleness of the Atma and Jiva can be understood.

Continuing these important verses of the Geeta, Krishna reiterates to Arjuna that there is no need to grieve. Birth and death is inevitable to the body but O Arjuna, realise that the relatives you grieve for are not the body but the eternal, unchangeable, imperishable Atma (Self).

In this very important verse from the Bhagavad Geeta, Krishna shares a powerful analogy of how the jiva (soul) casts off the body and takes a new one just like how one would shed off old garments and wear new ones. Swamiji delves into the law of action and reaction as he sheds more light into this nuanced topic.

We live in the delusion that we are this body. Swami Swaroopananda guides us to recognise the perishable and changing nature of this body. He urges us to instead identify with the Atma - the Self; that is unborn, undying and cannot be destroyed by anyone or anything.

Krishna shares pivotal verses that will support a spiritual seeker in their meditation. He reiterates the nature of one’s Self as that which is changeless and the eternal Truth that pervades everything. Krishna urges Arjuna to get up and recognise that which is imperishable.

Krishna continues to help Arjuna cultivate a higher viewpoint from which he can see how small his problems truly are, giving him the strength and wisdom to be able to solve them, rather than run away. Swamiji breaks down Krishna’s words about this new vision and guides us on how we can cultivate it ourselves.

All our experiences, happy or sad, have a beginning and an end. But the more we complain about what we cannot change, the more the sorrow and pain magnify!

When the mind is disturbed by sorrow, we brood over the change and become more easily influenced by future fluctuations. In forbearing the changes in the world outside, we can gradually come to identify with the changeless within us.

We experience the world around us as pairs of opposites, giving us joy or sorrow, based on our likes and dislikes. When our sense organs come into contact with the sense objects, then only do we experience these dualities, just as when we touch electricity, we get the shock! In this episode, Swamiji teaches us the secret to overcoming these ‘shocks’ around us!

To comfort Arjuna’s grief, Krishna reveals the truth of how there never was a time when any of us did not exist. The ‘I’ Krishna speaks of is the Self of everybody, not the individual ego-centric identity we associate with. Understanding the permanence of the one true Self is a hallmark of the wise student of the Bhagavad Geeta!

The cause of our sorrow is our false expectations born of misunderstanding one thing to be something else. Identifying with the individual ego, we grieve for the natural phenomenon of death, and lose sight of our Dharma. Knowledge of what Dharma is lifts us out of sorrow, and here Krishna, the Jagad-Guru, establishes Dharma by taking Arjuna as His disciple.

Through his signature storytelling, Swamiji illustrates the paths of Shreyas and Preyas - goodness and pleasure. Arjuna’s humility helps him open up to Krishna’s guidance, demonstrating an ideal disciple’s character and surrender. Krishna begins His song with a gentle scolding of Arjuna’s misery and Swamiji gives us a short, but powerful lesson from Krishna’s first words of the Geeta.

Swamiji explains that the notions of “I” and “mine” arise when we don’t know who we truly are, leading us to misidentify our swadharma. Arjuna's response to Krishna reveals this, when he seeks to abandon his duty as a warrior to live a renunciate’s life to avoid the war. Arjuna’s outburst peaks when he surrenders to Krishna and enquires into what will lead him to the greatest good.

Grief like Arjuna’s leads one to enquire into what is the cause of one’s sorrow. How can we find permanent solutions to our problems and gain shreyas - the supreme good?

Swami Swaaroopananda explains how Krishna begins by calling out Arjuna’s despondency as ignoble and un-Aryan, in an attempt to prod at his pride and shake him out of self-pity.