What is the Gita’s etiology?

From Peter

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Peter. What is the Gita’s etiology? Answer, etiology refers to the study of causation.
How do things happen? What causes those things to happen, various things to happen? So, as far as the Gita is concerned, there are three agencies. There is Jagdish, there is the Supreme Lord, who is almighty, and there is the Jiva, the soul, and there is Jagat. Three Js can be used.
Bhagavad Gita doesn’t necessarily use these words, but these are often used in philosophical parlance in traditional circles. So, there is the soul, there is the supreme soul, supreme being, and there is Jagat. Jagat is the universe, that is matter.
So, how do these three interact? Matter is unconscious, but matter is governed by a being, that is material energy, who is actually conscious, who is the energy of the Supreme Lord. And matter, although it’s not conscious in and of itself, but it is programmed to respond to our choices. That means, just as a computer, once we repeatedly choose a particular option in the computer, the computer makes that as a default option.
So, the way we act repeatedly, that becomes the default mode in which we are prompted to act, and over a period of time, we start acting that way itself. So, the interaction of matter and consciousness, that is soul and material things, that is governed by subtle psychological forces called the modes. And these modes are the way by which this default conditioning happens.
So, people who focus very much on materialistic things like sex or money, then they get conditioned by the mode of passion. And that’s the default thought that they have, they can’t think about anything else much. So, that way, as far as causation is concerned, the Supreme Lord is the supreme controller of everything.
And without His sanction, nothing happens. The Bhagavad Gita says in 13.23, the Supreme Lord is the overseer, He is the sanctioner. And without His sanction, nothing happens.
9.10 also repeats, and after that, the Bhagavad Gita further says that the soul and matter interact. So, as I said, matter compels the soul to act in a particular way. It impels, but it does not compel.
Although the soul feels as if I am being compelled. Arjuna mentions in 3.36 in the Bhagavad Gita, I feel as if I am forced to act. But Krishna clarifies that actually we are not forced, we can choose to act in different ways.
And he says that by using our intelligence and by connecting to spiritual reality in 3.43, we can choose to act differently. So, specifically with respect to etiology, the Bhagavad Gita explains that there is the super soul, we are the, we are responsible because it is we who desire. So, actions begin with our desiring.
After we desire, then the super soul sanctions or doesn’t sanction depending on our desire. And our desert, desert means our karma, whether we are supposed to get that thing or not get that thing. I may want to fly, but I don’t have wings, so I can’t fly.
So, I may want to sing very sweetly. I may not be able to do it right now, but if I keep trying, by practice, I may be able to do it. I’m able to improve it or I may not be able to improve it.
What determines this? This, as I explained, is determined by our past karma, which is stored and is known to the Supreme Lord and he sanctions or doesn’t sanction. So, the Bhagavad Gita also talks about five factors of action in the 18th chapter. That’s an elaborate analysis, which I’ll not go into here, because even though various five factors are there in the 18th chapter, they can be divided into ultimately these three factors, the matter, soul and consciousness.
So, matter, soul and God. So, the soul desires, then God sanctions and when God sanctions, then then material nature executes and that’s how things happen. For example, I’m speaking right now.
Actually, if I start studying scientifically, how speed generation happens, there are vocal chords and how those vocal chords move and how the sounds come out. It’s very complex. We have musical devices, which can, if we have some sound producing devices, if you want them to speak, we have computer speed generation.
It is very difficult to bring in the kind of modulation that living, feeling human beings bring about and the variation of the speech, which conveys emotions. Normally, speed generation software is read out in a flat tone with very little variation and even that requires huge amount of efforts. So, all the complicated mechanism that is there, by which my intentions and emotions get translated into speech, I don’t know how it happens.
I just desire to speak and convey something, some meaning and some feeling through speech and that comes out. So, how all this is happening? It is happening through material nature and super soul is supervising that. So, we are not considered the executors because we don’t know how things are executed.
That’s why 3.27 in the Bhagavad Gita says, that actually, one who thinks that I am the doer is foolish because material nature is actually doing it. And therefore, the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes that we don’t identify ourselves too much with material nature. Now, of course, we are also the doers.
Baladevidya Bhushan, who is a great Acharya, who comments on the Bhagavad Gita, he explains with the example that, who is the ultimate doer when I want to cut? Is it the axe that cuts or the woodcutter that cuts? You could say woodcutter cuts, but the woodcutter can’t cut without the axe and the axe won’t cut without the woodcutter. So, like that in the material world, the soul is like the woodcutter and the axe is like the, and material nature is like the axe. So, I may want to speak, but if my throat is not in good function, in order, then I can’t speak.
So, both are required. But the throat itself may be there, but if the soul, person is not there, soul is not there, the person has died, say, then the throat may be there, but it can’t function. Even throat is there, if I have no desire to speak, no sound will come.
So, both are there, but a governing above all of them is the Supreme Lord. So, actions, what is the cause of action? It is our desire. After our desire, there is sanction.
I may want to sing, but if I don’t have a good voice, if I don’t have the karma by which I would have a good voice, I will not be able to sing. So, we desire, then super soul sanctions, and then material nature executes. And the way things are executed, they create certain patterns, which prompt us towards similar actions again in the future.
So, how do we break free from those patterns? By surrendering to the Lord and doing His will. In 18.59, 61, 62, Krishna says that we will be forced to act by material nature, based on the kind of programming that we have fed it in the past. We are forced to act.
But over a period of time, if we surrender to the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Lord is the controller of everything. He says in 18.61, Ishvara Sarvabhutanaam. He is the Ishvara, Supreme Lord.
And Tam eva sharanam lakshmi. If we surrender to Him, He says in 18.62, then we can attain the supreme destination, which is free from the control of matter. And there, the causality will be based on pure love.
We love the Lord, and out of the desire to serve Him, we act for His pleasure. And He loves us, and He acts to reciprocate love with us. And that existence is the supreme perfection of life.
Thank you.