Gita 16.01 Godliness is both a decision and a disposition

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 16.1 अभयं सत्वसं शुद्धिर् ज्ञान योग विवस्तितिः तानं दनश्च यद्गिष्च स्वाध्यायस्तपार्जवं 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called as Divine and Demonic Nature. The first three verses describe the divine nature and the remaining chapter largely describes the demoniac nature. Now, the connection between this and the previous chapter is based on the metaphor of the banyan tree that was talked about in the previous chapter.
So, this banyan tree has the upper part and the lower part. So, the living beings who exist in the upper part of this tree and those who exist in the lower part is referred to extremes. So, these three categories, the divine and the demoniac, those who reject God, reject scripture, they are the demoniac.
शुद्धिर् ज्ञान योग विवस्तितितिः तानं दनश्च यद्गिष्च स्वाध्यायस्तपार्जवं Those who accept God and His guidelines, they are the godly. Among these two categories of people, the key and common factor is the understanding that there is no soul who is either entirely pure or entirely impure. We all have varying degrees of white and black with lots of shades of grey in between and we all are meant in our own way to process our situations and move onwards on our spiritual evolution.
We are born with some qualities and we move forward with those qualities either increasing some or decreasing some based on the choices that we make. So here divine and demoniac nature refers not to the soul’s nature but to the body’s nature or the body-mind’s nature and by acknowledging the nature we can appropriately choose to act. Even the godly can demoniac by misusing their free will and the demoniac can become godly by properly using their free will.
But we do have certain starting points which we need to acknowledge. अभयम् सत्वसंशुद्धि ज्ञानयोग विवस्तिति Here, Krishna talks about the virtues of people according to their varna. अभयम् Fearlessness At one level all these virtues are present in all godly people but some people are especially to be defined by certain virtues.
So अभयम् Fearlessness is a defining characteristic of especially those who are in the renounced order. We all get some security in our possessions and to not want the security of possession is to be fearless. So it’s not that they have no fears but rather they have got a vision and a purpose of life which takes them beyond fear.
They understand themselves to be souls and they understand themselves to be under Krishna’s care and guidance and thus they determinately march onwards with their life through life’s ups and downs trying to progress towards Krishna not seeking shelter or security in possessions, seeking security only in Krishna and ultimately as they become more and more absorbed in Krishna they experience supreme security. सत्वसंशुद्धि Satvasamshuddhi Purification of one’s existence. Desire and fear go together.
If you want fearlessness, we need to cultivate desirelessness. Not in the sense of becoming stone-like but not desiring anything external. So purification of desire leads to the fearlessness and the various process of yoga.
Bhakti yoga is especially potent. ग्यावन योगविवस्तिति ही Gyaavana yogavivasthiti hi That we are all meant to cultivate knowledge and to come to the level of fearlessness, to come to have a reason for giving up contaminations. We need to have proper knowledge.
If I think I am a product of matter then I will have no reason to reject matter. Only when we understand ourselves as spiritual that we will get the impetus to look for something beyond matter. दानं दमश्च यगश्च Dānam damascha yagascha Now, cultivation of knowledge and the purification of existence, you could say those are activities more for those who are focusing on transcendence, the retired or the renounced orders, Vānaprastha sannyās.
दानं दमश्च यगश्च Dānam damascha yagascha These are more for grahasthas. Charity is meant to be not just an activity but a mentality that enables us to progress towards Krishna through freeing us from the factors that keep us trapped. Damascha, there is some amount of self-control required if we want to pursue anything higher.
To the extent we are caught in worldly pleasures, to that extent we become possessive and we cannot pursue anything beyond the world. Sense control enables us to gain some control and seek greater sense, seek some higher sensible things in our life. यग्यश्च Yagyashcha Yagya is fire sacrifice.
This is an important duty of those who are living in a kṣetra, say in a house, to do some kind of sacrifice by which they purify themselves and their environment. स्वाध्यायस् तपार्जवं Swādhyāyas tapārjavam Swādhyāya is study. It is especially for brahmachārīs.
ज्ञान योग विवस्तिति और स्वाध्याय The difference is that Swādhyāya is more of scripture-based study. ज्ञान योग विवस्तिति is more of practice of the process by which knowledge is internalized and we become situated in knowledge. We don’t just want acquisition of knowledge, we want situation in knowledge.
ज्ञान योग स्वाध्यायस् तपार्जवं Gnyāna yoga swādhyāyas tapārjavam There are different kinds of austerities which are recommended for those on the spiritual path and to the extent these austerities are performed, to that extent our consciousness stays free from captivation by worldly desires and thus we have the opportunity to rise to higher spiritual consciousness. तपार्जवं Gnyāna yoga swādhyāyas tapārjavam Straightforwardness means we need to be straightforward in our day-to-day lives. Not necessarily being naive, but not being unduly, not being duplicitous.
We just move forward in our life being aware of what is happening and not having any vested interests. Krishna is giving us a list of virtues over here which at one level we can say are present in the godly and another level it can also be said that by cultivating these virtues we all can become more godly. So godliness is both a disposition and a decision.
That we are born with a particular disposition. We live life with a particular disposition that we have. At the same time, we can also move forward from there making a particular decision of what is to be done and how it is to be done.
So by keeping our situation fixed and focused on Krishna, we all can cultivate a more divine disposition for our day-to-day dealings and thus we can move forward towards the supreme. Thank you.