Gita 02.63 – Irritation, delusion, oblivion, stupefaction, destruction – Last 5 of 8 stages to falldown

Bhagavad Gita 2.63 So, here Krishna is continuing description of how one may fall if one doesn't have a positive focus for one's consciousness. This is the last verse in the answer to the question kim asita? Arjuna had asked, how does a sense-controlled person control one's senses? So, Krishna has answered that question from 58 till here 63.

And the key was yukta asita matparaha that control the senses by fixing the consciousness on me. And now in this last two verses is telling what will happen if one does not control the senses or rather if one does not fix the consciousness on Krishna. So, the previous verse had said and talked about an eight-stage sequence.

The first four stages is a contemplation, then there is attraction and there is obsession and then there is irritation. So, dhyavato, sanga, kama and krodha. Now, what happens after krodha is described in this verse.

So, from krodha comes delusion. Moha is illusion. Sammoha is a pervasive illusion.

Sammohat smriti vibhrama. Sammohat from the moha comes smriti vibhrama. So, one's memory smriti is vibhrama.

One becomes confused. Now, it is interesting. We will discuss about the difference between sammoha and vibhrama.

What exactly is the difference? We will come to that when we discuss again. Let us look at the Sanskrit meaning first. That basically memory is lost.

When the memory is lost, the intelligence is lost by that. Buddhinashat pranashyati. Buddhinashat pranashyati means that an intelligence is destroyed, one falls down.

So, one relapses again into sensual indulgence, the kind of indulgence that one had wanted to give up and one was endeavouring to give up. So, now krodhaad bhavati sammoha. Anger causes delusion.

Now, we see this happening in our day to day life also that when we get very angry, we speak things which we don't even mean them and sometimes we don't even remember that I spoke such things. If we get into a wild temper and we speak certain things and I say, nowadays people have cell phones with audio recorder, video recorder, somebody just did a recording and they show it to us, this is what you spoke. How could I have spoken such a thing? My God.

So, basically, just anger makes us like mad. In the Roman tradition, they had a saying that whom the gods want to destroy, they make him angry. Because when the person becomes angry then the person himself does things by which he will destroy himself.

He will shout at friends, he will accuse friends, he will create terrible misunderstanding, he will insult people, he will break the hearts of people and then as a consequence of that the reactions will come and the person will be destroyed. So, krodhaad bhavati sammoha. Here specifically Krishna is talking with respect to temptation.

So, let's move to that point. I just gave all this analysis as an example of how anger makes us deluded. Anger makes us completely lose our senses.

Lose our senses, here by senses I don't refer to the gross sensory organs but to the awareness of what we are doing. So, delusion means we are not aware of what we are doing. So, then here the sequence is that there is contemplation, hey look at that.

Then there is attraction, hey that looks good. Then there is in fact there is sangha, then there is kama, there is obsession, I want it. Then there is krodha, who can stop it from me, who can stop me from taking it.

And then there is delusion, no one can stop me, I can do whatever I want. I am my own boss. So, this is delusion.

We don't understand that actually we have been caught shackled by the invisible ropes of our attachments and those ropes are pulling us as someone might pull a dummy. And we are actually getting entangled. Not realizing all this we let ourselves be dragged.

So, krodha bhavati sammoha, we become deluded and now this delusion refers to the present decision making. Sammoha smruti vibhrama. Now in the past we have had experiences of how certain things don't lead to satisfaction.

We try to do certain things and they don't give us satisfaction. That's why we get frustrated and we try for some other things or rather at least we give up trying to do those same things because we know this will not lead to satisfaction. But here we try it once again smruti brahmashad.

So, sammoha smruti vibhrama. So, our past experiences and our recollections of our past experiences or recollections of what we have heard from scripture about other's experiences. They are also reference points for us for making decisions.

But our smruti brahmashad, our memory becomes deluded. We may have observed that our memory has a peculiar quirk which would be humorous if it were not so dangerous. What is that quirk? When we engage in some gratification, there is a little pleasure that is there.

But before that there is so much agony of craving and after that there is so much agony of letdown or guilt or frustration. Letdown because we had expected so much pleasure but what we got was so little. Guilt because if we had done something wrong, something sinful, naturally our conscience chastises us or frustration because we did not get what we wanted.

So, now that means if we look back at the whole experience of self-gratification, there was misery in the beginning, there was misery in the end and there is a little bit the misery of craving in the beginning and the misery of disappointment at the end and there is a little pleasure. But when there is smruti vibhrama, then we remember only the tiny little bit of pleasure in the middle and we forget all the associated misery that was there with it. So, sammoha refers to the delusion about what to do right now.

Smruti vibhrama refers to the delusion of the past where we just do not remember things properly. And actually this selective recollection is receptive recollection. It's often the selective recollection is remembering only the tiny part of the experience where we had pleasure and forgetting the huge part where we had craving and frustration and in this way we get deluded.

So, that is smruti vibhrama. Smruti vibhrama also refers to the fact that you know we have heard from guru sadhu shastra especially from smruti. Smruti refers not just to the Puranas, smruti refers to basically the words of the sages which have been codified as the Puranas but the words of the sages come to us even today also.

So, smruti brahmashad. So, from the sammoha smruti vibhrama. That means we don't remember our own experience properly and we don't remember the instructions of the sages.

That means then the intelligence is destroyed. To a large extent our intelligence is based on our remembrance. Now this is not just at a level of facts and figures where in today's education system we have the many countries still the education system is such that it just it tests a memory.

Okay, do you remember this figure? Do you remember this fact? How well do you recollect? You know that sort of thing is not so is not what is being talked about. Now that sort of just remembrance of that sort of remembrance of facts for regurgitation in examination that is not what Krishna is talking about here. Here he is talking about the remembrance of the instructions of guru sadhu shastra.

The remembrance of the realizations that we had got from our own experiences. The remembrance of the insights that we had acquired through our contemplation and our hearing. So, all learning is basically a linking of experience with insight.

Especially when you talk about learning with respect to real life. You know all learning is a linking of experience with insight. We get insight from scripture and we learn it when we are able to link it with our actual life.

When we link the two together then we realize oh this is like this and this is how I am meant to live. But unfortunately we don't realize this. When our memory is lost then the intelligence which is based on the memory is also lost.

And then when the buddhi is destroyed at our stage we don't have regular taste in bhakti. We don't have a taste for spirituality in general even if somebody is not practicing bhakti. Here Krishna is talking about yoga in general, karma yoga especially.

But we don't have any higher taste right now on a regular basis. So that's why we need to have our intelligence by us because the intelligence tells us what is right and what is wrong, what to do and what to desist from. But when the intelligence is destroyed then naturally we fall.

So in this way Krishna is describing a sequence wherein there is contemplation, attraction, obsession, irritation, delusion. Then there is oblivion, oblivion is forgetfulness, sphuti brahmashad. Then there is stupefaction, there is buddhi nashad.

And then there is destruction, self-destruction, pranashyati. And all this can be avoided if we can do yukta asita matparaha. If instead of contemplating on the same subjects we contemplate on Krishna.

Thank you.