Bhakti Shastri (141) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Text 22 to 28

Podcast

Welcome back to our Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course. We are now in the heart of the 18th chapter. We are discussing Jnana, Karma and Karta within the three modes.
So in verses 21 and 22 of the 18th chapter, we have discussed Jnana in goodness and Jnana in passion. We discussed in 20 and 21. So let us move forward to 22, where is knowledge and ignorance.
This seems to be a paradox of content. Knowledge and ignorance are considered opposite. So let us see what is this knowledge and ignorance.
If ekasmin, there is only one thing that is a reality. So to consider one part of reality to be the totality of reality, that is knowledge in the mode of ignorance. So Krishnavid means everything.
So to think of ekasmin, ekasmin is one thing. To think of one thing to be everything, that is the tamasamudharitam. So that is first thing.
One thing is everything. What are the other characters? Karyasaktam ahaitukam. That means to become attached to one activity as if it is a totality, as if it is everything.
Ahaitukam. The word ahaitukam is normally used in a positive sense to refer to ahaituki bhakti. That is how we use it.
But here ahaitukam refers to causeless in the sense of being logicless, senseless. So it’s not in the sense of being transcendental or unmotivated or pure. It is in the sense of having no rational basis, having no intelligent basis to things.
So that which does not have any tattvartha, that which does not have any true meaning to it, tattvartha, true meaning, true value to it, alpamcha, and that deals with only a part of reality. It only looks, it is meagre knowledge, it is not complete knowledge. So tattamasamudharitam, that is knowledge in the mode of ignorance.
Let’s try to understand this further. So Krishna is not calling specific things as ignorance, knowledge in the mode of ignorance, but he is giving the generic characteristics. And depending on time, place, circumstance, depending on the various different schools of thought that are present at different times, some of them can be classified in goodness, some in passion, and some in ignorance.
Now here, Krishna, first of Krishna’s explanation is in terms of knowledge, which makes one attached to one fragment of reality. Ekasmin karyesaktam, that one becomes too attached to one fragment of reality as if it is the complete reality. Yathukusnavad ekasmin.
Ekasmin, one thing is of one thing to be complete. Karyesaktam ahaitukam. And one is too attached to things, not understanding their completeness, not understanding their reality, totality.
So for example, we have materialism today. Materialism is widespread school of thought, and materialism is often considered to be progressive. People think that when we are becoming materialistic, they think that we are giving up the old-fashioned, pre-scientific, mythology-based ideas of different religious dogmas.
But what does materialism actually have as its end result? Materialism essentially leads to assuming a part of reality, that is matter, to be the totality of reality. And it’s obviously an incomplete part of reality. You know, we are not matter-based creatures.
We are spirit-based creatures. Matter is something which is our outer covering. It is not our inner substance.
So when we mistake the outer covering to be both, not just outer but also inner, to be everything, then that leads to, that leads to knowledge in the mode of ignorance. So what is this knowledge in the mode of ignorance? So it’s knowledge, means, now if you look at, there are many materialistic thinkers, and in their own way they are, they have their own logic, they have their own intellectual brilliance. And by that they try to explain things.
But the problem is, their vision is unidimensional. They have reduced a poly-dimensional reality, that which is poly-dimensional. Poly-dimensional means, there are many aspects to reality.
There is matter, there is spirit, and there is the Supreme Lord who is the source of matter and spirit. So there are multiple aspects to reality. They’ve just taken one aspect of it and assumed it to be the totality of reality.
And then based on this misconception, they try to analyse and explain how everything has come about. So therefore, when a mother feels love for a child, they try to explain or, you know, how it is nothing but some secretion of chemicals in the brain. And just because certain biochemicals are secreted in the brain, that’s how they try to explain emotions.
And that’s how these reductionistic materialists, they try to explain everything in terms of matter. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur talks about such knowledge, that jeeva ke kara hai gadha. So he says that such knowledge, what does it do? There is knowledge, but it makes a person know better than an animal like a donkey.
So people work very hard, and working hard itself is not bad. But working hard for a meaningful purpose is desired, not for a valueless purpose, not for something which is not actually valuable. So yathu krishnavad ekasmin.
Ekasmin. One takes only one aspect of reality and assumes it to be the complete reality. Karyesaktam ahaitukam.
Karyesaktam. When one is attached, and one becomes without a logical basis, and nobody has demonstrated how say matter has led to the emergence of consciousness, nor has it been explained theoretically to any reasonable degree of satisfaction. And yet, that is assumed to be the default way of looking at things today.
So going back to Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s Vidya Ravelase song, so he says that, Jada vidyayata maya ravai bhava, tomara bhajane badha. Jada vidyayata, jada vidyayata. Jada refers to matter, which is unconscious, which lacks in consciousness.
It’s called jada. Jada vidyayata maya ravai bhava. This is actually the opulence in illusion.
It is no actual opulence. It is false opulence. Jada vidyayata maya ravai bhava.
So maya ravai bhava means, suppose a person becomes a billionaire in a dream. No, the person is a billionaire, but it’s in a dream. How long is it going to last? It’s a maya ravai bhava.
But then, jada vidyayata maya ravai bhava. Jivake karaye gatha, tomara bhajane badha. So he describes, there are two consequences of it.
What is it? Jivake karaye gatha. It makes a person live like a, the word is very strong, donkey. It’s a very strong word, but it’s used to indicate how the person’s functional as well as intellectual faculties are not used at a level much higher than animals.
And such kind of knowledge is tomara bhajane badha. It is a badha, it’s an obstacle in worshipping Krishna, in devoting oneself to Krishna. Because when one is not worshipping Krishna like this, or when one is obsessed with material knowledge, and one thinks that material knowledge contains the solution to all problems, then one doesn’t feel the need for God.
And that’s why it becomes a tomara bhajane badha. And you see, in the history of modern, say, modern intellectual history, which is largely Western history nowadays, because Western, the European and the subsequent American, the European thinkers, Europe civilisation spread all over the world over a period of time. So the European thinkers, their thoughts spread all over the world also over a period of time.
So jivake karaye gatha, tomara bhajane badha. So what happened is, in the perceived conflict between science and religion, it was thought that science won, starting from the point when Galileo Copernicus, they won the conflict against the church about the nature of the universe, whether it’s heliocentric or geocentric. If you look at the history from that point of view, what happened is, most people thought that science has all the answers.
And science does not need God. And because of this twin conception that science has the answers and science does not need God, the result was that many people became enamoured by science and that enamourment with material knowledge, which infatuation with material knowledge led to people giving up God. So tomara bhajane badha.
And same way what will happen is, the more people turn away from, get intoxicated with material knowledge, the more they will feel the lack of necessity for God. But if people keep acquiring material knowledge without getting infatuated by it, then as several thinkers like Pascal said, a little of God, a little of science takes a person away from God, but immersion in science brings one back to God. So there are quotes like this by various scientists also and various thinkers.
So let’s move forward. So this is knowledge in the mode of ignorance, where one assumes a fragment of reality to be the totality of reality. So basically when Krishna is analysing this way, the thrust of his argument is, don’t live in ignorance, try to live in goodness.
So let’s look at the next verse. So this is 18.23 So what is he talking about? Sattvika karma. So karma and sattvika comes in the last two lines.
So he’s talking now about gyanam karma chakartacha. That’s what was mentioned in the 19th verse. Three things Krishna will be talking about.
So 19.22. So 20.21.22 talking about jnana. Now 23.25 we’ll talk about karma. So this verse talks about karma in goodness.
So niyatam sangrahitam. Niyatam means that which is prescribed by scripture. Sangrahitam.
Sangrahitam means that which is done without any attachment. When one does not have attachment and one does not have aversion. means without the motivation of the fruit of the result.
So we will see this is a consistent theme in the Gita that as long as we are attached to the fruit of work to the extent we cannot think about the transcendental reality which exists beyond the realm of action and its fruit. So that’s why Krishna wants us to raise our consciousness to spiritual reality and that’s why he repeatedly urges us to not be attached to material fruits because material fruits will bind us in material existence. without any attachment or aversion.
Now in 18.24 Krishna will talk about action in the mode of passion. So rajasamudaratam that is in the mode of passion. What is it? The work which is done with the desire with worldly desires.
So one has kama for the fruits of the work. means arrogance. Thinking that I am the doer.
A few verses earlier Krishna has talked about in 18.16-17 that one who does not have any ahankara that person will not be bound but now he is talking about when a person has ahankara. means after great trouble that is involving severe labour. So this is referring to ugra karma.
So ugra karma can be in passion. Ugra karma can also be in ignorance. It depends on the specific activity and the consciousness in which that activity is done.
So actually the work which is in the passion and which is in ignorance it’s not the same but many times that which is in passion goes down into ignorance after some time. In the Amrit Manthan Leela which is described in the 8th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam the demons and the demigods both make a truce so that they will churn the milk ocean. So when they are about to churn the milk ocean at that time they find that each of them they both of them want to hold on to the head and not the tail because the idea is they think the head is a more honourable part of the snake Vasuki and the tail is an honourable part.
So they both want to hold on to the head and not the tail and the lord sees the obstinacy the stubbornness of the asuras and agrees to let them hold the head and they first rebel against the lords allocating them the tail and the lord allows them to hold the head and then what happens when Vasuki is being pulled as a used as a rope to churn the milk ocean at that time from his mouth poisonous flames start coming out and those flames scorch and torment the demon. So the demons work hard Prabhupada writes in the purports over there demons work very hard without profit even to themselves without profit even to themselves that means they work without gaining anything at all either for themselves or of course for others they didn’t benefit the devtas and they didn’t benefit themselves so they had to trouble themselves so kriyate bhavulayasam so often work in the mode of passion one feels dragged to do more and more and more and one never feels satisfied no matter how much one does no matter how much one does one feels oh i’m not satisfied i’m not satisfied i want something more i want something more and one never gets satisfied that way so kriyate bhavulayasam tad raja samudaritam now after describing this kriyate bhavulayasam krishna moves forward and then anubandham kshayam himsaam anapeksha chapaurusham mohala rabhyate karma yathatthamasam uchchate so anubandham kshayam himsaam anubandham kshayam himsaam that that kind of krishna is talking about work in the mode of ignorance here anubandham that which causes bondage now all work causes bondage but more in ignorance it is especially and excruciatingly binding of it just like there are addictions and addictions they are like vicious bindings which people just find it very difficult to break through kshayam himsaam kshaya is violence destruction or kshaya is the opposite that is not destructible so when people for example terrorism vandalism all these are actions in the mode of ignorance kshaya kshaya is destruction himsa is violence so now we wonder what is the difference between kshaya and himsa both seem to be similar so generally speaking kshaya refers to things and himsa refers to people we talk about ahimsa ahimsa means non-violence so non-violence generally we talk about against people when somebody hits people others somebody attacks others brutalises others that is considered a violent person and destructive is often with respect to things somebody gets angry and you know punches a fist on the table and cracks the table or hurls things and breaks them so anubandham kshayam himsaam so in mode of passion mode of ignorance either one is violent against people or while destructive towards things so this is a very self-defeating kind of action anupeksha chapa urusham so anupeksha now we will see that words can have different meanings depending on their context so the words may sound similar but they may have no similarity in their meaning actually so in the qualities of a devotee which I mentioned in the 12th chapter of the Gita anupeksha is referred to as a devotee who does not have who does not have expectations from other things but whereas here the word anupeksha that is used is it’s not in terms of expectation but it’s in terms of consideration one is so reckless one is so foolhardy that one doesn’t think about consequences one acts recklessly self-destructively so anupeksha chapa urusham paurusham paurusham so paurusham here refers to harshness harshness means in terms of speech the person is not sensitive the person is monstrously insensitive and speaks bad words uses foul language and also speak and things that to speak insultingly is as if it is it is something very intelligent a sign of cleverness sometimes people make a parody of things parody means they make a caricature they they imitate in a mocking way and by that they try to prove how actually whatever is being told is not correct and but they rather than doing constructive criticism they do destructive criticism and destructive criticism means their goal is not to improve upon what another person has suggested their goal is to destroy the person’s idea and destroy the person’s morale also so that is paurusham and this is often this is often seen as unfortunately some circles it’s seen as a sign of cleverness the more more stingingly a person can taunt somebody else the cleverer that person is concerned oh what a taunt you made what is what a comment you made actually this is not a sign of cleverness of course it may require cleverness to come up with taunts but the point is that when one speaks in a way that hurts others and one delights in the hurt that one is causing then that is dharmasik actually the pure devotee is ready to take up suffering so that others can become free from suffering para dukkha dukhi pure devotees are they consider the they become unhappy when they see others unhappy and they want to relieve others in happiness and for that purpose they are ready to take up anxiety upon themselves as contrasted in very tragically perverted ways that those who consider that by causing pain to others i’ll get pleasure so this is mohadarabhite karma mohadarabhite so paurusham can mean harshness prabhupada translates it over here also as self-sanctioned the word paurusham can also there is a similar word in the while describing the qualities of the demoniac in 16.4 so here prabhupada refers to paurusham so again it’s a similar sounding word translates the self-sanctioned self-sanctioned means you know one imagines that one can do it because one is one is clever enough whatever i feel like doing i will do it because ultimately it’s my life i can choose whatever i want to do so paurusham and mohadarabhite we have discussed earlier the word moha is very common with when describing the mode of ignorance even when describing renunciation in the three modes in this in the start of this chapter itself krishna talks about that when one does because of moha that is considered to be in the mode of ignorance that is in the mode of ignorance then krishna moves forward to the next verse krishna let’s discuss what krishna is talking about now so now he’s talking about karta the three types of karta in the next three verses 26 27 28 mukta sangho anaham vadhi so here there is mukta sangha one is not attached to one’s one’s own activities one is not attached to the fruits of the activity one liberated from that attachment to the fruits and anaham vadhi one doesn’t imagine oneself to be the doer one understand that whatever success comes about there are multiple factors involved in that success and i am alone not the doer tritya utsaha samanvitaha tritya utsaha so there is samanvitaha means imbued with permeated with come filled with is qualified with tritya utsaha determination and enthusiasm so we have discussed this earlier when we discuss utsaha nishaya dhairyat in our discussion the updesha amrit when we are talking about the factors that are favourable and the factors that are unfavourable so tritya utsaha samanvitaha so actually when there is enthusiasm without patience actually but what a person needs to make long-term progress is enthusiasm and determination it’s like if a person has to go on a long one has to go cross-country say one has to go from by car from here to calcutta maybe it’s a 50 hour journey or a 4 30 hour journey whatever long journey it is then one has to go on a long journey one has to have determination but along with that one has to have enthusiasm also one doesn’t have enthusiasm then one will not embark on journey only and even if one has enthusiasm one will not be able to sustain that enthusiasm if one doesn’t have determination so in goodness one has enthusiasm and determination so sometimes people think of goodness as a very life in goodness is very boring life um i think of life in goodness as a life in slow motion life in slow motion means the thing that okay because i’m in goodness i have to do everything slowly i should not speak fast i should not run fast i should not do activities fast slow slow slow well slowness is not necessarily a defining characteristic of the mode of goodness in the mode of goodness the defining characteristic is there is contemplation before action there is contemplation before action that means one thinks one reasons and then one decides what one is going to do that is action in the mode of goodness and in contrast to that in the mode of passion actually there is action and after that there is thinking oh why did i do that why did i do that then there is lamentation also which comes up that kind of action first and think thought later that often leads to regrets regretful actions so now if a person has is well organised as well thought out has clear principles then the person’s contemplation will be quick quick and clear and then the action will follow so a person can work fast also it’s not that a person in the goodness has to necessarily work slowly a person goodness can work fast the only difference is that the goodness who is working fast the person in passion who is working fast the externally both may be fast but a person passion is actually in bondage is an illusion is not contemplating properly is not weighing the consequences of one’s actions so as a person goodness is weighing the consequences of actions that’s why it’s called as enthusiasm and there’s determination both are there and by this the person can move on steadily and krishna described further vikara means change nirvikara means no change so in such a person whether the person gets success or failure there is no change nirvikara means there is no change things remain the same and the person moves forward karta sattvika uchyate is the person is sattvika karta is karta in the mode of goodness and after that krishna will move forward and describe action in the mode of passion so ragi means very much attached one who is filled with raga like kami means a person who is filled with kama so ragi is a person who is filled with attachment ragi karma phala prepsur such a person is very attached to karma phala one of the fruits of one’s work very quickly is greedy is always envious so the word atmako can be related with the word atma so himsa atmako means actually such a person himsa is the essence the person doesn’t person thinks that action means there has to be violence otherwise what’s the fun on one does violence himsa atmako shuchihe and then harsha shokanvitha karta so let’s we can compare this was there in the for the karta in the goodness and here it harsha shokanvitha what is the difference harsha and shoka are the results of action when one does action and when one gets the result the result is positive then if the result is desired one gets jubilation and shoka if one doesn’t get the result then there is dejection so what is happening is when for a person in the mode of passion um the focus is not on the action but on its consequence so this sort of short-sighted attitude or imbalanced attitude lopsided attitude where one doesn’t focus on the process only on the product that leads to um underperformance and uh and entanglement further why underperformance because if one is if one wants to do well then one has to concentrate on what one is doing right now if while giving a class i’m constantly thinking okay will people like my class will people appreciate it how many people will praise it who will praise me what this is all stupidity when i am supposed to give a class and just i have to zoom in and focus only on the class and nothing else and that is the only way i will be able to be productive so similarly if i want to be productive then i have to focus on the action so that focus on the action comes by dhruti utsaha samanvitha which is talked about in the 26th verse dhruti utsaha dhruti it is determination utsaha is enthusiasm but instead of that here there is harsha shoka samanvitha so we have to learn to focus on harsha not on harsha shoka on not let get carried away by the results whether they be positive or they be negative but rather focus on the commitment to the process in terms of determination and enthusiasm so in passion one’s focus is very much on externals you know people when they say there is a weight lifting competition and there is a weight lift there is a huge quantity of weight maybe whatever the record that quantity of weight the person lifts when the person lifts that quantity of it people are saying okay how much weight the person lift okay this person was maybe 50 pounds maybe five pounds more than the earlier record or 10 pounds more than the earlier record seven pounds more than the earlier record and earlier record was this much so what people what the records focus on is the results okay this much weight was lifted but how was that person able to lift that much weight if it’s a truly a champion weight lifter then before that the person has exercised and the person has built muscles on a long-term basis through rigorous unflinching training and only then has come to the result so if one is too captivated by the result and doesn’t and doesn’t focus on the process then the person will not get the will not work and even if one works one is just like students if they only think of the marks the marks the marks that come in the exam and then when they get the marks they’ll be jubilant and if they don’t get the marks there will be morals but then or the unidimensional focus on marks doesn’t allow them to study properly some students may have the skill how they just memorise the necessary information just before the exams and then regurgitate it just vomit it out during the exams and get good marks but that doesn’t lead them to mastery of the subject nor does it lead to the development of their intellectual capacity their capacity to learn the development of their mind so it doesn’t lead to that therefore what is important is that one focus in the process and the focus on the process happens in goodness but it is difficult to have it does rarely happens in passion because in passion everything is focused on externals not on internals so what one sees is the okay how much marks the person got not how much one has studied okay how much weight is the person lifted not how much exercise the person has done so such an action such a person is in the mode of doer is in the mode of passion now what essentially is the difference between karma and karta karma refers to the specific activities that are being done whereas karta refers to the person who’s doing the activities or sometimes the person may be in goodness but the person may have to do passionate activity on the other hand the person may be in passion and the person may have to do goodness activity so that can vary depending on time place or circumstance for example teaching we could call it broadly a activity in goodness why is teaching an activity in goodness because teaching essentially involves the principle of its focus on subtle things okay there is knowledge which is subtle concept we understand it we internalise it and we share it to others and when you see others are learning that gives a sense of fulfilment so that is positive but at the same time if somebody is teaching just for the sake of prestige you know the person is not really concerned whether i have knowledge or not the person is not concerned whether others are learning or not the person is simply concerned with displaying how much i know i know so much so there are some different kinds of teachers some teachers they delight in showing how students how foolish their students are that means they speak things in such confusing and complex ways i don’t understand anything and when that happens the person’s ego may be teacher’s ego may be very tickled say these people they thought they’re so clever now i have shown how foolish they are but then has that led to the increase of learning has that led to the increase in the desire to learn among the students if it has not then what is the use so this is undesirable there are other kinds of teachers who just focus on analysing the subject without considering the audience that means that they just go deep into the subject and they think i have to do justice to the subject but what about doing justice to the audience they speak in such a lofty way it’s not that they want to necessarily impress others but it’s just that they’re not concerned about the others so there are some people who are just some people who just want to impress the audience some people are indifferent to the audience and some people want to educate the audience actually help so there is the best teachers they understand okay this is the level of the audience and if i start from this level then i can move upwards and the teacher students can learn so that is the best way so here why was i giving the example of say of different motives for teaching because teaching in itself can be broadly said to be an activity in the mode of goodness but then if one is doing teaching with if one is doing teaching with the with arrogance thinking that oh i am so great i’m going to teach this this this i’m going to exhibit my knowledge my learning then that is not a very elevated stage that will lead to oh that will lead to the karma may be in goodness but the karta is in passion so krishna is giving us both so that over a period of time we can choose karma in goodness as much as possible and also we can become a karta who is in goodness so prabhupada explains and the purport that so prabhupada says that here such a person is envious of others and prepared to do anything wrong for sense gratification so here the word was so himsa atma ko actually it can refer to violence and it can also refer to envy why because you know generally we do violence towards others when we have envy for them when we see somebody is at a better better situated than us and we feel oh why should that person be better student than me now i want to in that person somebody is wealthier than us then we decide that okay i want to bring down that person so himsa atma ko shuchi so in this way such a person is in the mode of ignorance sorry is in the mode of passion so let’s move forward to the next verse so this is very graphic description by krishna over here so yukta means well situated well connected that here refers to according to scripture ayukta means that which is not according to scripture prakrita means materialistic so prakriti is generally used to refer to material nature so prakriti is materialistic so now there is a word prakrit sahajiya that is also often used within the vedic tradition to refer to people who are who are quite materialistic although they may seem to be devotees so prakrit sahajiyas so they take devotion very cheaply sahajiya a prakrit means actually they’re materialistic they’re based in material nature their conceptions and their even aspirations they’re all within the realm of matter only but they they have a religious garb to them so prakrita refers to material ayukta prakrita stabdha stabdha means important insolent as in the prabhupada translates as obstinate that means these people once they decide to do something then even if it is wrong they just don’t give it up now actually obstinacy and determination seem to be similar but they are not determination is a positive describer somebody’s determined to do something that means this is good and even if i don’t get success i’ll continue to do it so that is determination obstinacy on the other hand is something is undesirable and one should give it up but still one doesn’t give it up although one one gets experience oneself one learns from others but still one doesn’t give it up so there’s this termination which is positive and the obstinacy which is negative so for example when dhruv maharaj goes into the forest it requires a huge amount of determination even narada discourages him but narada discourages him now is dhruv maharaj being at that time he’s not maharaj he’s just dhruv the child dhruva five-year-old child dhruva so is he being obstinate at that time no we don’t call him obstinate we call him determined on the other hand we see the same narada muni also appears in the mahabharata and he discourages durodhana durodhana is being told that don’t wage war against the kauravas you will be destroyed there is no chance that you can survive or succeed don’t try it but what does he do he just goes on in a suicidal course now do we say that durodhana was determined no we say durodhana was obstinate why what is the difference in both cases somebody else is giving counsel and one and one is going on in a particular course of action irrespective of the contrary counsel that is given so why so why is one considered determined positive and another negative that’s because in general determination is for good things so especially if something is according to scripture or is overall in harmony with the principle of principles given in scripture and that which is desirable if one sticks to it even amidst obstacles that is determination but when one goes against when one goes against scriptures and seeks one’s own selfish enjoy gratification without considering what is going to be the consequence for others and without considering the long-term consequence even for oneself that means when something as one is doing something undesirable non anti-scriptural and one rejects good advice one rejects scriptural counsel which is urging one to stop at that time it is considered obstinacy so here what is thabda is obstinate so for example durodhana is thabda ravana is thabda and the ravana is advised by so many people don’t go against lord ram right from his military general akampana to maricha to vidhishan to even kumbhakarna at one particular point of time and of course lord ram sent messengers hanuman went angada went and like that the different people we all tried to warn ravana but ravana was never ready to listen shatoh nishkritiko lesaha shatoh shatoh means deceitful shatoh shatoh means person is very treacherous that means to do one get one’s own end the person will act in such diabolical ways that the person just doesn’t care for others and one uses others for one’s own purpose so shatoh that is shatoh deceitful one uses oneself one uses others for one’s own good without caring for the moral principles involved for example now nowadays there is the whole idea of copywriting things of having trademarks and having one’s own brand fine sort of trademarks that others don’t take it so there are some people who try to get copyrights for things which have an existing nature for example there are some yoga teachers who try to copyright yoga they say that nobody in the world can do this particular yoga asana you know it’s my hand i can move my hand whichever way i want i can move my legs whichever way i want somebody says no this yoga is my copyright so nobody can do this yoga asana without paying me money this thing’s outrageous similarly there are some natural herbs you know which have been growing for generations for millennia in various parts of the world especially the world parts of the world which focus more on agriculture and suddenly some big companies come up and the farmers who are growing it they don’t even know anything about trademarks and copyrights and suddenly some company comes up and tells that if you grow this crop up anymore then you will be penalised you may even be arrested it’s so horrible but what has happened deceitfulness deceitfulness means one just is concerned only about one’s own good without considering the good of others so now for example there is something called as tween advertising tween advertising means so there are teenagers generally from the age of 13 12 13 14 when puberty starts coming up that’s tomorrow’s teen is starting but there are tweens tween comes from the word between so those are between the teen and the childhood so for example 8 9 10 11 so there is advertising targeted just for these children and when this advertisement target to these children the children don’t have the capacity to discriminate their intelligence is not yet developed and they may like some character they may like harry potter or they may like whatever characters they are watching in the cartoons in the movies and in the popular video games and within that there are advertisements so particular characters will have particular brands which they want to purchase and what happens is these children they like those characters and along with liking those characters they also like the they also start liking those particular brands and those brands may be selling products which are very expensive but the children think oh because i like this character i have to take this brand and that’s how they become trapped so this is shato naiskriti naiskriti translates as expert at insulting others it’s a very nice we were putting a proverb putting expert at insulting others so that earlier we discussed this also so naiskriti ko i said sarcasm if it is meant to convey truth in a way that is that is meant to illuminate another person then that is good but sometimes naiskriti ko people just delight in hurting others and that is very unfortunate very undesirable naiskriti ko lasaha means lazy so lazy means one doesn’t do anything and you’ll come later procrastinating delaying so purpose is what can be done in one hour they will perform they will delay for one year not do it only so sometimes many times people have to do follow-up after we say a tells b please do it and then he has to call b dozen times have you done it have you done it have you done it have you done it now we see ishwara prabhupad and bhakti sanskrit akhu just gave one instruction one instruction only once practically speaking why don’t you’re educated young man why don’t you preach the message of lord chaitanya all over the world and and then second time was when prabhupad sent a letter when bhakti sanskrit akhu just before departing from the world and then his last correspondence with ishwara prabhupad he sent a letter he say i am confident that you can turn yourself into a very good preacher in the english language now what what follow-up did bhakti sanskrit akhu do no follow-up at all prabhupad was in one sense self-motivated of course the the inspiration came from the spiritual master but his motivation was himself individual self-motivated and to be moved forward self-motivated so vishadi dhirga sutri cha dhirga sutri means exactly opposite one has to be prodded and pushed and reminded and still the person is not ready to do anything and after great difficulty the person does something so that is dhirga sutri dhirga sutri means postponing things a lot vishadi vishadi means one who is always morose you know there is morose means the person just thinks is so self-centred that now generally we think of selfishness as something i want more i want more generally we think of selfishness in terms of wanting more and more possessions let’s say children are playing if there are two brothers who are playing and then there are two toys and one of the boy the bigger brother says i want both the toys he said don’t be selfish share isn’t it so generally we think of selfishness in terms of things that you know i mean i want all the things for myself that is selfishness but selfishness can be at the level of thoughts also what do you mean by selfishness at the level of thoughts that means one wants everyone’s attention upon oneself so that can be positive when it can be positive in the sense that uh when i achieve something so wonderful i achieve something i am so great i am so powerful i am this i am that and in that way one gains honour one gains respect that’s one way of doing things and the other is that one thinks that i am so i am so miserable everything has gone so wrong for me oh life is so bad and this and that and by that again what is one doing one is actually wallowing in a pity pot pity pot means pity pity for oneself and that way also what is one doing one is simply attracting attention to oneself so in a perverse there are there are people who are called as hypochondriacs hypochondriacs are people who pretend to be sick so that other will give attention to them now somebody will come and ask how are you is your health okay can i do anything for you so people are so desperate for attention that they pretend to be sick so that is physical sickness they may pretend to have some people can become mentally sick mentally sick means they always think keep thinking of themselves in a negative way and this sort of self-pity is not humility it’s very important to understand self-pity is not humility self-pity is very self-centred self-centred means when i think i i i one doesn’t think about others at all or not my man thinks of others only to the extent that others are ready to give attention to me so when we want to attract others attention to us either it can be in the sense where i do such wonderful things that by which i attract attention from others and other alternatively it is that i do such i i act as such dreadful things have happened to me everything is so miserable that what can i do my life is terrible terrible terrible and then one also one starts going into a mode of self-pity so in this way both can be very undesirable so moroseness in the moroseness i always feel sorry for oneself oh the world is so bad and nothing is going to work out nice for me everything is going to be bad now humility i said self-pity is not humility humility is never self-centred humility is centred we feel small because we understand the greatness of krishna now we understand okay i may be great in terms of other people uh you know i may be cleverer than others i may be wealthier than others i may be i may be more good looking than others whatever that may be true and that can make me proud but when i come when i have krishna as the focus of my consciousness then no matter how great i am as compared to krishna i always remain small and by remaining small in comparison to krishna i stay humble otherwise i become proud and in this way one can move up or one can move down in one’s spiritual life so we can move up in our spiritual life by keeping our consciousness fixed on krishna this is a very graphic description where krishna gives um six where gives seven different characteristics of the karapa in the mode of ignorance actually there are eight characters so to the extent we can individually combat these tendencies the tendency is to be lethargic the tendency is to be procrastinating tendency to procrastinating the tendency to be to wallow in self-pity the word wallow means like a pig sometimes pig goes into dirty water and bathes in dirty water now actually that is called wallowing now nothing is going to happen by that it’s going to only become more dirty in many ways but it’s like that we wallow in self-pity so that is unfortunate and that is characteristic the mode of ignorance and to the extent we can give it up to that extent we can become happy and become productive so you’ll see a lot of psychological problems people go to psychiatrist to such a large extent and many times that’s because their whole life is in the mode of ignorance because their life is in the mode of ignorance so therefore when they act also in ignorant ways and to the extent they act in ignorant ways to the extent they have to bear the consequences of those ignorant actions and one consequence of ignorant action is mental dejection mental depression and all sorts of mental problems so some mental problems may also of course be because of brain defunctioning damage and things like that but in many ways if people can choose to stop living in ignorance and try to change their living to goodness then they will find that a large number of mental problems will decrease and one will be able to live much more peacefully and productively so in a so we have a complete discussion of jnana and then we discuss of discuss karma and karta in the three modes now in the future in the next class we will be discussing about dhruti buddhi and sukha thank you very much