Gita 18.40 To attain harmony with our spiritual nature, we need engagement that is in harmony with our psychophysical nature

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 18.40 Krishna has talked about three modes of material nature and especially the various components of action in terms of the three modes of material nature now he will take this analysis further and talk about how the social structure of Varanashram or the division of society into various people into various human types can be done based on their natures and how different people can cultivate their qualities so before doing that in this verse Krishna analyses 18.39 marks the end of a section that began from 18.18 onwards which talked about analysis of the various factors of action gyanat, karma, karta, buddhi, dhruti and sukha in terms of the three modes and then here he says the modes are pervasive there is no one on the earth or for that matter even among the gods even the heavenly planets sattvam prakriti jayid muktam revi cha tribhir gunai tribhir gunai that these three modes from these three modes there is no one who is actually free anywhere sattva earlier has been used for referring to the mode of goodness sattva also refers to it also refers to existence so here sattva refers to sattvam tatasthi pratyavyama divideveshu apuna sattvam prakriti jayid muktam revi cha tribhir gunai so from these three modes it is said that nobody’s existence anywhere in the material world is free if we consider the modes to be like infections then or different degrees of infections then it is said that nobody here is entirely free from the infection of the modes there is some degree goodness is a relatively lesser infection where the possibility of cure and even the probability of cure is much higher so the infection is mild in passion the infection is medium to severe in ignorance the infection is almost lethal lethal so everybody is infected by the modes it’s interesting that this verse which comes in the Bhagavad Gita it’s purpose is if we look forward next section it is to emphasize that everyone will have a particular nature according to the way the modes have affected them and then according to their swabhava one’s own nature then there will be a swakarma there is prescribed duty or a duty that is very natural to us or we could say swadharma the duty that is born from one’s own nature so the stress of this verse is to understand ourselves so that we can understand how best we can engage ourselves and how best we can elevate ourselves if we want to elevate ourselves to spiritual consciousness intellectually, philosophically it is important to understand that we are not the body but that understanding alone is not enough beyond that we have to act in a way by which we can rise to the spiritual level by which we can realize our spiritual identity and that requires us to become deeply absorbed in Krishna that requires us to ultimately connect with Krishna in a way that we can sustain so our body has a particular way of functioning our mind has a particular way of functioning unless we learn to use this body-mind mechanism for functioning properly we cannot even grow spiritually properly if there is too much physical or psychological incompatibility in what we are trying to do then we will not be able to sustain ourselves if we use a Rolls Royce or very posh expensive car as a tractor for plowing a field it’s not going to work a tractor is required and tractor is an important device for those who are trying to farm but the point here is that we need to use everything for its particular purpose so to understand what a particular thing’s nature is we will determine what its purpose is our ultimate purpose as souls is to serve Krishna to love Krishna, to attain Krishna at the same time the activities which we will do so that we can attain Krishna will vary from person to person not the activities of sadhana bhakti which to some extent are standard but apart from those standardized activities of sadhana bhakti the seva that we do and the profession that we do which also helps in moving forward helps us in moving forward towards contributing socially at the same time growing spiritually that has to be in harmony with our nature so the point that everybody is infected by the modes means that everybody needs a treatment an appropriate treatment and that appropriate treatment will be the treatment of bhakti as harmonized or as customized according to one’s nature that is the purpose and Krishna in the future verses from 41 onwards will talk about the four varanas and how within each of these varanas people can act cultivating the appropriate qualities that will be conducive to their spiritual elevation so there are certain virtues which are universal but there are also certain virtues which are contextual to a particular profession and to the extent we choose a growth pathway according to our particular situation we will be able to grow just as somebody is in an ocean or somebody is in a swamp now if they are near the edge of the swamp somebody might just wade in, give them a hand and pull them out somebody is much deeper in the swamp they might need some more help in coming out of the swamp and somebody is very deeply into the swamp they might need still more time and more support to come out of the swamp so that way every one of us if we consider that we are all spiritual beings we are all meant for the service of Krishna but we all have to follow our particular customized process, customized set of duties for rising towards Krishna then by harmonizing with our psychophysical nature we can progress steadily towards harmonizing with our spiritual nature Thank you