Gita 02.52 – Shastra without guru can be a deluding forest for the intelligence

Motivation and with the reward of a higher destination. Thank you. Here, Krishna is giving a metaphor to help Arjuna to go beyond Karmakand to Karma Yoga, to Yoga in general in a decisive way.

And the metaphor is of a Kallilam, a forest. When a person is lost in a forest, at that time, it is quite difficult to find a way out because the forest by definition itself is not a place where people have gone and there are not usually pathways marked very clearly. So, it is very difficult to find a way out.

But if one finds a way out of the forest properly, then one arrives at a destination. And when one arrives at a destination, then one is not undecided. Or should I be going this way or that way? Because, you know, there is a way and I follow this way and I will reach the destination.

So, Krishna is saying Moha Kallilam, the forest of delusion. And who is the traveller through the forest? He is saying it is Buddhi. When you have Buddhi, when your intelligence has come out of the forest of delusion.

So, it is interesting that it is the intelligence, not the mind. And before we discuss that more, what exactly the forest that Krishna is talking about over here, Moha Kallilam? Actually, he is talking about the Vedic scriptures themselves. The Vedic scriptures are filled with, they are a vast body of literature.

And some of it is, some small part of it is available now, vast part of it is lost. And even if the texts are available, the intellectual capacity and a subtle mental capacity to grasp and apply those techniques is also lost. So, but still when the Vedic canon, when the canon was available, the Vedas were available, they are vast.

And the Moha Kallilam is not just due to their vastness, but also due to their multilevel approach. So, for the transcendentalist, anything lesser than eternity is an illusion. Because although it may be very celebrated, but still it is temporary.

And because it is temporary, it will keep us in entanglement. And the way out of that entanglement is by remembering that it is temporary and remembering that we have to seek the eternal. So, the Shruti, the Vedic scriptures talk about Karmakanda are filled with so many captivating promises of heavenly pleasures that a person can get distracted very easily from the spiritual path by one's inability to stay fixed, by one's distracted, by one's capacity to get distracted.

So, to stay fixed on the spiritual path, on the path to eternity, one needs to, with one's intelligence, get the conviction that the eternal is of an entirely different, a far greater category than the temporary. And I want to pursue the eternal, I don't want to chase after the temporary. Only when with this understanding, we start pursuing the eternal, then can we achieve and then can we relish.

So, what is important for us is to remember the difference between the temporary and the eternal. Here he is saying, when you go beyond the Mohakalilam, so even the Vedic scriptures themselves can become a Mohakalila, because they have so many promises for so many different kinds of pleasures, pleasures that actually we can't achieve very easily. Sorry, pleasures that don't last, no matter how captivating they seem.

So, once one's buddhi goes beyond that, actually the word buddhi we use is significant, because the mind is not the reservoir of intelligence. The mind is just actuated by feelings. So, if we leave ourselves just to the mind, then we will get caught in sensual pleasures, often grossly sinful sensual pleasures.

And that is what is happening in today's mainstream culture. But even when we rise from the level of the mind to the intelligence, if the intelligence is not guided by Guru towards the conclusion of Shastra, then even the intelligence can get caught in the intermediate or the initial levels of Shastra, which are just meant to make people at least enter into the house of Dharma, even if they are not ready to go to the innermost treasure that Dharma offers. That means at least give up sinful activity and start being religious, even if you're not ready to practice pure selfless religion of spiritual love.

So, the buddhi can get caught confusing the initial to be the final or confusing the intermediate to be the ultimate. And in this way, the buddhi rather than going to the destination can become caught in the moha kalilam. So, Kulasekhar Maharaj in one of his prayers talks about how he says that without remembrance of Krishna, even study of scripture is like Aranyarditam.

It is like crying in the forest. Why crying in the forest? Because the child cries in the forest, there is no one to hear and no one to come to the rescue. So, like that, when we study scripture without guidance from Guru, without understanding the multi-level nature of scripture, then we feel helpless like crying in the wilderness.

The child is in the wilderness always seem equally good or always seem equally bad. So, one just doesn't know where to go. Similarly, in scripture, you will find that there are so many things which are taught.

Bahushastra, Bahuvakya, Chitta, Brahma, Sadhana, Sadhya, Srishta, Naha, Nishchaya. So, Bahushastra, there are so many scriptures and Bahuvakya. They have many statements and their statements also have many meanings.

So, many scriptures, many statements, many meanings. Chitta Brahma hai, one becomes deluded. That is same as Mohakalilam, a traditional Subhashita.

Also, it is a Shabd Jala Maharanyam. The jugglery of words can become a Maharanyam. It can become a terrible forest, a gigantic forest.

And na bhukta ye, na mukta ye, where there is no enjoyment also. Because the nature of material enjoyment, even if it is heavenly, is that it doesn't satisfy us. It keeps us wanting something more, something more.

It just triggers more craving within us. Na bhukta ye, na mukta ye. And one doesn't get liberated also.

In this way, one stays entangled. And the way out of such entanglement is to understand, to learn from Guru, the ultimate goal of scripture and to stay fixed in that. And Krishna says that, if you go beyond this Mohakalilam, Arjuna, I am acting like your Guru and I am taking you beyond.

I have said, Nishtri Gunya Vishaya Veda, Nishtri Gunya Bhava Arjuna. In 2.45 it has been said. So, now he says, when your buddhi becomes Adhitarishyati, at that time, you will become what? Nirvedam, indifferent, callous, unaffected.

What you have heard in the past and what you will hear in the future. So, that means, you may have heard of, actually, when we get a taste for Krishna, when our intelligence becomes convinced that, actually, there is nothing higher than pure love for Krishna, then whatever we may have heard in the past, oh, there is this, there is enjoyable, there is that, that is enjoyable, that will lose those charms. I have been there, I have done that.

Even if we have not gone to heaven, or we don't remember whether we have gone to heaven or not in the past, still, we understand, ultimately, even in heaven, what is going to be there? It is ultimately going to be eating, sleeping, mating, defending only, and there is nothing exciting about that. So, Shlottavis Shuddhas, whichever, whatever we may have heard or whatever we may hear, none of them excites us. And we stay fixed in Krishna.

So, Krishna is telling Arjuna that, in the previous verse, we talked about eternal destination, and that eternal destination which is forever free from misery, to attain that eternal destination, Arjuna, you have to stay fixed. And if you become philosophically convinced, if you become A.K. Hakur Nandana, as was mentioned in 2.41, then, whatever other promises may come, you will not let yourself get allured by those promises. Rather, you will stay fixed, in marching onwards, towards attaining me, and by attaining me, you will gain the supreme happiness, which will make all other things irresistible, inconsequential, and ultimately.