Gita 18.37 Spiritual knowledge gives us the purpose to persevere through the poison till the nectar

Transcript

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thank you in these three verses 37 38 and 39 Krishna will speak about happiness in the three modes in this verse he is speaking about happiness and goodness Krishna is in this whole section starting from 18.20 onwards he is speaking about analyzing action in terms of the three modes he is explaining how we perform different actions and what are the various components of actions and ultimately all action has a purpose and that purpose is to gain happiness so the last component that he will analyze in terms of the three modes is happiness we all pursue various courses of action in our life some of us become engineers some of us become sports players some of us become home makers now whichever specific course of action we pursue we pursue it all so that ultimately we can gain happiness so happiness itself can be of different kinds and to understand these different kinds of happiness so that we can choose the healthy kind of happiness choose the elevating, uplifting liberating kind of happiness that is the ultimate way in which we can elevate our actions towards the higher modes and ultimately towards liberation if we understand the different kinds of happiness their natures then we will be able to understand or perceive in the kind of happiness that will elevate and liberate us so that kind of happiness is the happiness of goodness this kind of happiness tastes like nectar in the beginning it tastes like nectar in the end and if we can persevere through the initial poison till we get to the nectar then we are fortunate so by understanding this nature we get to persevere suppose we are going through a dark dark tunnel dark dangerous tunnel dungeon in fact if we are there now if there is light at the end of the tunnel then we will keep moving onwards if we feel there is no light then we will become disheartened thinking why should we keep moving on similarly for us to persevere on any path there has to be some purpose that is to be sought and none of us like trouble none of us like eating that which is bitter tasting or poison here refers to that which is very unpleasant unpleasant and unpalatable if you understand that poison is the price for nectar only when we go through this process of tolerating that which is difficult then we can get to the stage where we can get something better so for example if a sports player wants to have if a cricketer wants to have very good fitness they can run very fast while batting in between the wickets run fast while fielding play very well they have to go through the discipline of working out they have to be determinately disciplined and only by the determined discipline they will be able to perform so discipline is the price for excellence and normally when someone is working out that is not always a very pleasant experience of course if somebody develops a habit of working out and then by the repeated experience they know initially I don’t feel like doing it initially I feel tired initially I feel exhausted I feel it unpleasant but if I persevere then I penetrate through that and then after that I feel good I feel healthy, I feel strong so when that experience is repeated more and more then they get greater and greater conviction that at the other end of the poison is the nectar so then if we know that on the path which is there is a dark tunnel but there is light at the end of the tunnel we will persevere so in the mode of goodness if we want to get some happiness this is usually uplifting happiness so we have to go through the poison phase and Krishna is talking about that happiness which is not just poison in the beginning and nectar at the end but also atma buddhi prasadacham atma buddhi it helps our spiritual intelligence to become activated it helps us to come closer to ourselves, it helps our intelligence perceive our essence when we persevere in something which is important then not only do we go closer to our destination, we also go closer to ourselves if we travel on a difficult journey then we get to a destination get closer and closer to the destination when we pursue happiness in the mode of goodness, that is also a journey and this journey actually brings us closer to ourselves closer to who we really are now all of us have a lower side and a higher side that lower side is our conditioned side, our mind, our senses, our impulses our higher side is the soul is a part of the whole part of Krishna and the soul has been given a particular kind of body-mind vehicle and to understand that also brings with it the capacity to harmonize with one’s own psychophysical nature and that also brings some satisfaction so therefore the idea is that when we want satisfaction we need to if we pursue it in the mode of goodness not only do we get satisfaction but we also get self-realization they both come in a wonderful package and atma-buddhi, if we consider our body to be the self, the word atma can mean different things in different contexts so then atma-buddhi-prasad-jam that means the fruit is that our intelligence understands our body better what kind of food works for us what kind of schedule works for us if we consider the atma to be the mind then understanding our mind is also important what things agitate us, what things exhaust us what things stimulate us what things elevate us all this is at the mental level so if we understand that then we can use our mental tool also better the mind is a tool for the soul ultimately atma-buddhi-prasad-jam means we understand ourselves as the atma so happiness and goodness provides both satisfaction and self-realization provided we penetrate through the initial layer of poison