Gita 18.63 The call to the heart complements the call to the head

Transcript

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Hare Krishna 18.63 Bhagavad Gita Krishna is speaking here he is more or less coming to the conclusion of the Gita Arjuna deliberate deeply and then do as you desire this implies that Krishna is not dogmatically imposing his authority on Arjuna saying that I am God the words I say are scripture and you have to follow them he is telling Arjuna you deliberate and decide what you want to do so in today’s world there is often a fear of cults wherein some people become ultra insular in their outlooks they have a super rigid defining line between an insider and outsider and everybody insider is considered to be a saint and everybody outsider is considered to be a demon and the primary defining parameter for being an insider is absolute subordination to authority the authority is often a person who indoctrinates indoctrinates and makes people into slaves who do whatever is ordered the word cult is usually associated with religious cults but cults can be of any kind and for example there are personality cults wherein one person is made into a hero almost into a god Krishna throughout the Bhagavad Gita he refers to Arjuna very respectfully by various epithets O son of Kunti, O best among the descendants of Bharat O Lord amongst men and these forms of address respectful forms of address they reflect a world view that is also full of respect respectful forms of address such as Narapunga best among the human beings or Purusha Vyagra tiger among men these all reflect a world view that is full of respect and that world view is reflected in 18.63 here towards the conclusion in Krishna tells Arjuna that you use your intelligence to deliberate and then you decide what you are going to do so here we see a vision of a god who respects human intelligence and human independence we are all souls who are free and we are meant to do what we are we can use our free will whichever way we want and consequences will come of course based on how we use the free will but Krishna doesn’t impose his will on us he asks us to choose and he presents the whole Bhagavad Gita as an appeal to the intelligence even later when he gives a specific call just surrender to me this is a revetting call to the heart do not fear you are most dear to me you are very dear to me the Gita compliments a call to the head, a call to the intelligence with a call to the heart so both of them are there and the call to the heart Krishna is speaking he is not speaking that in the mood of domination you do this or I will send you to hell forever that is not the mood at all the mood is that Krishna recognises that we all are not just creatures of the head we are also creatures of the heart so the exhortative nature of these verses is 18th May 65 and 66 is meant to compliment by activating the emotions of the heart the call that is meant to the head which is the centre of the Bhagavad Gita the call to the head in 18.63 is complimented by the call to the heart in 18.65 and 66 in fact the whole Bhagavad Gita is a call to the head and 64 to 66 or we could say 64 to 73 72 comprise a call to the heart so when we are empowered in our thinking ability by our spirituality that means our spiritual wisdom the philosophy that we learn when it helps us to think deeper, when it helps us to probe more into the subtler aspects of our life when it helps us to see deeper and further further is in terms of distance, deeper is in terms of penetration and then we can actually come closer to seeing things as they are and it is this seeing things as they are that is a defining characteristic of a seer on the truth tatvadarshi tatvadarshi is a seer Krishna has said in 4.34 that how the thoughts conduct themselves and what is their practice so by seeing the two as complementary contradictory appealing to the heart is different from emotional manipulation and appealing to the head is different from intellectual indoctrination appealing to the heart becomes emotional manipulation when only one side of reality is shown and everything the emotions are triggered only with that side of reality and emotions with respect to other side are deadened appeal to the head can become intellectual indoctrination when only one side of the picture is shown and the other side of the picture is not only not shown but it is demonized so much that one doesn’t care to see from that perspective Krishna is respectful to Arjuna Krishna is respectful to all living beings declaring them to be his children father to all living beings and his goal here is to inspire all of us to become purified, to become devoted to become liberated liberated from illusion so that the pure head and the pure heart can be unified not fragmented they can both be united in relishing the intellectually and emotionally fulfilling ecstasy of love for Krishna pure love for Krishna Krishna is the ultimate substantive principle so loving him is intellectually intellectually fulfilling loving Krishna is intellectually fulfilling because he is the ultimate substantive principle we peel away all the layers of reality like you peel away onion what will remain at the core is Krishna intellectual depth means to penetrate beyond appearances so Krishna is the ultimate substantive principle so loving him is intellectually fulfilling because we keep going deeper and deeper till we reach him and then we go deep into him to fathom the depth of his immeasurable qualities in love and loving Krishna is emotionally fulfilling because he is the all attractive supreme person he embodies everything lovable in everyone and he can offer us all the love that everyone has ever offered us thus devotion to Krishna manifests the pinnacle of the achievement of the head and the heart combined