Gita 18.12 Intelligence sees consequence and fosters detachment

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
18.12 Krishna is speaking here about how one can act in a mood of detachment and there in he says that action can have three fruits there can be auspicious results Ishtam there can be inauspicious results Anishtam and there can be a combination of auspicious and inauspicious that is Mishram a sign of intelligence is to look for the consequence by nature or by impulse we could say we all tend to be short-sighted we all get captivated by quick pleasures and often we overlook the long term consequences of those pleasures and this makes us vulnerable to entrapment through enticement we go to entanglement or entrapment just like mice are trapped by a little cheese similarly the soul who is eternal and is capable of realizing one’s eternity and relishing eternal life thereof that soul gets caught in temporary things and thus can’t move forward in realizing one’s spiritual potential to the extent we train our intelligence to see the consequence to that extent we tap our intelligence thus for example a young person who just learned driving may get a great thrill in driving super fast they may think that this is what life is meant for I want to drive as speedily as possible and enjoy life thereof but what may well happen is that in seeking such enjoyment they may become speed demons they drive at such dangerous speeds that they end up hurting themselves or hurting others and if they are not to hurt themselves then they have to be very very careful about how they act suppose if they see a car wreck if they see somebody who is victimized traumatized or even killed in an accident they see the ghastly grisly state into which the body is reduced when one is killed that might sober them that will help them to check their impulses to act short sightedly so this requires training training means normally one may not see this but when a person is getting license they need to be educated to recognize the consequences of driving and thus they will be able to resist whatever they may be vulnerable to so for us as spiritual beings if we wish to recognize that we are meant to grow spiritually and each one of our actions has consequences in terms of uncovering our spiritual potential or burning our spiritual potential so here materialistic impressions they can either bury our consciousness more and more or those materialistic impressions can be countered by spiritual impressions and then we can come out of our entrapment so if we are to come out of our entrapment we need to be steady and systematic and focus on purity we need to focus on recognizing our spiritual identity and thereby internalizing the virtue of farsightedness or deep sightedness based on our spirituality actually normally if you consider somebody is somebody has deep insight and somebody is farsighted deep means they see below the surface they actually analyze subjects much more deeply than what most people would do and for that purpose they need to at any rate focus on purging themselves of the negativity that is there within them if that negativity is to be purged they have to so they have to what is the negativity? the negativity is materialism which keeps their vision both superficial and short sighted superficial means we can’t see things deeply and short sighted means we can’t see the long term nature of consequences Krishna is telling here that these different results of one’s actions even if it happens that somebody feels I am not getting any consequences of my actions I am immune but actions do have consequences and they will come sooner or later one who is not renounced they will get pritya, if not in this life in next life, after death one who is a renouncer will not get such reactions and that is what we are all meant to learn that is what we are all meant to internalize that is what we are all meant to take in by studying the Gita, by growing spiritually as long as we are infatuated with immediate pleasures the consequences won’t register in our consciousness yes, that can happen but it won’t happen to me yes, speeding can cause accidents but it won’t happen to me so if you have to avoid that mentality, the more we become spiritual the more our vision moves from the section of material reality which is giving us pleasure so that we can take in the full reality so attachment revets our vision to the pleasure and blinds us to the trouble that comes after the pleasure but detachment helps us to see the full picture and then we see that the pleasure is so tiny the pleasure is so tiny and the trouble is far greater it’s just not worth troubling oneself and this understanding inspires one to inspire us to change inspires us to focus, refocus on what we are doing and how we are doing it this way this way every one of us can revisit what is the best for us and we can revise our understanding so when we see the consequence of material indulgence then naturally detachment comes and here Krishna is assuring us that if we work with spiritual consciousness then we won’t get any material results at all we will stay free from the bondage of this world