Gita 16.17 Self-complacence and impudence perpetuate ignorance

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you Krishna is continuing here to describe the characteristics of the ungodly of the demoniac and he states that self-complacent and impudent so the ungodly are convinced the demoniac is convinced that they are right they are so self-complacent refers to the idea that they are right and this tabdha, impudent refers to the idea that they don’t have respect for others they think that others are wrong so this is we could say arrogance arrogance is not just the conviction that I am right it is also the conviction that others are wrong this is what blinds us for functioning in life we all need to have the confidence some level of confidence in ourselves even when we take a spiritual guide we need some confidence in our ability to evaluate who is the right spiritual guide so some amount of self-confidence is healthy but when one becomes so over confident that I am right that one just becomes dismissive of everything else then it becomes a problem because then one cannot learn about one’s own inadequacies and one can’t really improve so durodhana is a example of this that he was not at all interested in taking any kind of advice from anyone who did not simply confirm his own idea so he was convinced that he deserved the kingdom and that he had a right to get the kingdom by hook or by crook and now nobody was opposed to his having a kingdom he had been given half of the kingdom and it had been the prosperous half but the pandavas had made their half, khandava, even more prosperous so the whole idea had been that he felt there had to be some kind of equitable distribution but he was convinced that the whole kingdom belonged to him and the pandavas were meant to have nothing and even when others gave him good advice whether it be his own family elders like Bhishma and Vidura or sages like Narada and Vyasa or even warrior sages warrior brahmins like Parashurama and even the supreme lord himself still he remained unheedful so this combination of thinking that I am right and thinking that just being completely arrogantly convinced about the rightness of one’s idea and being dismissive of others’ ideas that is destructive for one’s growth of understanding and why does this come? dhanamana madana mitaha such people, they are intoxicated for them material success is the proof of their rightness that means that they think that the fact that they have been successful proves that they are right so if somebody has gained wealth the gaining of wealth means that their plan must have been right if they have gained prestige in society that means their gaining of prestige demonstrates that whatever they had planned was right so in this way dhanamana madana mitaha they become intoxicated by the craving for by the craving for worldly things and then the acquisition of those worldly things convinces them of the rightness of their schemes and their ideas now religion is also a part of a good life or at least it has traditionally been a part of a good life a good person is meant to be religious and the demoniac don’t want to become good but they want to have a facade of goodness because they wanted they wanted to add to their prestige they want religion to add to their prestige and thus what do they do? they do some yajna they do yajna not so much for satisfying the lord but only in name they don’t do yajna to please the to actually purify themselves they don’t do yajna of naama they do yajna for naama they don’t chant the holy names as a sacrifice rather they do sacrifice in name only as a show and their whole purpose is show dambha dambha means that even when one does not have a good quality one wants to put on a facade of having good qualities and thus one wishes to let oneself be consumed by one’s desires when we become consumed like this by our desires there is very little scope for us to actually elevate ourselves because we are simply caught by by our own ideas so scripture gives us some vidhi gives some process of how to act of what to follow but these people don’t follow scripture because for them scripture is simply a tool for getting prestige and if doing something in a different way gives them more prestige attracts more following then they will do that so many times religious practices are adjusted to increase their popular appeal thus in programs meant to worship the devta worship god there are mundane songs which are put because that’s what people are attracted to and thus people are subjected to greater and greater illusion and then actually for them to come out of illusion becomes next to impossible because they have just totally convinced themselves of the certainty and the correctness of what they are doing and thus their illusion includes religion so religion and religious practices are meant to bring us out of illusion but was told in the previous one they are completely covered by the net of illusion that complete covering means that even their religious conceptions and religious actions are covered by illusion thus religion becomes not a way to liberate them from illusion but religion becomes a way to perpetuate and aggravate their illusion they want to acquire prestige and power in this world and look good in this world and for them even if they distort religious practices for this purpose but if it looks good in people in the world’s eyes then they will do it because for them looking good is the most important thing nothing else counts thus they go and get incriminated more and more into illusion and the way out is close to them because they are not open to learning from anyone thus they are doomed and how their unfortunate destination will be that will be described in future verses