What is the flow of the from Gita 6.20 to 6.23?
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Transcript
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so this verse this is chalati comes twice we don’t move from the truth and then later he says because of again chala comes we are not disturbed by the so my understanding is that the first gives the principle that from the truth we will not depart and then it gives two possible reasons why we may depart from the truth Krishna says later in 18.54 brahma bhuta prasannatma na shochati na kankshati so usually whatever situation we are in we go away from that situation because we either feel that some other situation is better or this situation is too troublesome so Krishna is talking about those two possibilities in the next verse the first possibility is that yam labdha cha param lavam manyati na adhikam tatha I don’t feel that anything is better so I will go away from it and then yasmin sitona dukhe na guru na api vichaya aliyate so even if there is great misery one feels that no I will not move from here so basically that principle of non-movement from the truth that is pointed out in the first verse and the two normal factors which cause us to move away from a particular situation they are analysed in the next verse that’s my understanding isn’t it? anything else on these verses about the flow yeah I did not go too much into technicality that when the previous verse says that yatra uparamate chittam nirintam yoga sevaya yatra chaiva atmanatmanam vasyanatmanitushyati so I always had this question that this chitta this consciousness what is it actually so in the govinda bhashya there is a slight differentiation between chitta and chitta chitta is a feature of the soul the soul is sat chitananda eternal conscious and blissful whereas chitta is the embodied consciousness of the soul now the words have different meanings but this is one frame of analysis by which I tried to make sense of these verses so chitta is embodied consciousness whereas chitta is original consciousness so one way to substantiate this is that later in the 13th chapter when Krishna talks about sankhya there he says so there he is talking about chetana consciousness as a kshetravika as a transformation of matter now consciousness is not a product of matter so how can it be a transformation of matter so that chetana Krishna is talking about is a conditioned consciousness that is so all the emotions, the desires the happiness that we experience in the conditioned stage that is a result of kshetravika so Prabhupada gives the example that say humans are repelled by their own waste products but a hog is attracted to the waste product so why is there attraction in one species and repulsion in another species that is kshetravika, the body is functioning the body is designed in a particular way so there is original consciousness and there is embodied consciousness so now an example which can be given for this is say a person is sitting in a comfortable room but that person is watching a horror movie and by watching the horror movie he is getting scared hair is rising and they are trembling and they are screaming also actually maybe if a child is watching a horror movie a child may be in the home and a mother is also nearby but a child is scared so what has happened? the consciousness of the child is caught in the TV so the original consciousness of the soul of the child is like the chit whereas the consciousness that is caught in the TV that is the chit so as long as the consciousness is caught in the TV the child experiences all varieties of emotions which actually have no basis in the reality of the situation of the child so with the practice of yoga the consciousness that is invested in matter the child is watching the TV child stops watching the TV child realizes, oh actually I am safe I am here itself, there is no danger so like that when our consciousness stops getting caught in matter then we become free from this this happens by the practice of yoga so by the self one sees the self, that’s what literally the verse means and by seeing thus one actually becomes joyful one becomes satisfied so now this chitta is actually chitta is we could say that it functions at multiple ways, so at one level the chitta can function as a window, like say I am looking at you, so my consciousness is focusing on you, at another level the chitta can function as a TV screen so although I am here and you are here, I will be thinking oh I have to go back to my room and I have to do this, I have to do that so I am not really conscious of this thing so the chitta can sometimes perform as a window when it makes us aware of the reality around us or it can act as a TV screen when it takes us away to somewhere else only but when we are purified the chitta becomes like a mirror that is so when there is a mirror I can see myself so when the consciousness becomes like a mirror then the self perceives the self and then one becomes satisfied, oh I am eternal I am a part of Krishna I am a soul just that makes us satisfied and this is the ultimate happiness so this is beyond the senses and it is interesting it is said that this happiness is appreciated through buddhi so here it is if we see Krishna also said in the Bhagavad Gita earlier in 3.43 that we need to situate ourselves on the spiritual platform with buddhi that with our intelligence we understand spiritual reality so Jiva Goswami says in the Sandarbhas that when one is siddha, when one is perfected spiritually at that time it is priti that keeps us on the spiritual platform we love Krishna that is why we are spiritual but in the sadhaka stage it is the buddhi that keeps us on the spiritual platform we need our intelligence to stay spiritual so here by the intelligence one appreciates spiritual reality it is not appreciated with the senses the intelligence is directed towards spiritual reality and then one relishes that spiritual reality and then that I explained that one becomes situated in this reality once one with one’s intelligence not only understands but experiences oneself in spiritual then one does not crave for anything else and depart from that and when we are situated that way then so Arjuna knew this this means that state when one has become supremely satisfied and does not give up anything else one does not give it up for either pleasure or because of pain that is the state of liberation that is the state of disconnection from the connection with misery that is basically the state of disconnection from matter so that is the state of liberation and that Krishna is calling as Yogasangita so in that sense Krishna is talking from the cessation of the material movement of consciousness that is the 20th verse to the absorption of consciousness in spiritual reality and that process that ultimately frees one from misery that’s my understanding thank you any other questions or comments