Gita 02.69 – Be special above the ordinary, not among the ordinary

Deeply fulfilling. Thank you. So here Krishna is speaking about the general principle of the difference in values between the self-realized people and the general mass of people.

This verse is largely metaphorical although a literal meaning can be taken. The literal meaning is that that which is night for all living beings the wise people stay awake at that time and the time when wise people are awake the remaining people stay asleep at that time. Now what does this actually mean? It's a natural question that a thoughtful person will get.

At one level we could say literally serious spiritualists wake up early in the morning three o'clock four o'clock so that they can tap the spiritual potency of the early morning hours whereas materialist people they want to stay awake late at night and a party and have their idea of what is fun and then they sleep by three o'clock four o'clock. This is the time of sleeping for common people the time of awakening for the self-realized. And the time of a sleeping is the time of awakening for the for the materialistic time of sleeping for self-realized.

So the self-realized people will sleep by when the nine o'clock ten o'clock actually when nature sleeps humans should sleep when nature wakes humans should wake that is the biological cycle that is the to which the human inner clock is best tuned. But those who consider night life to be the real life they actually gain they think that the day begins at night because that's when they have all the fun. So at one at a literal level we could say this verse means that but then there is also a bigger question of what the verse means in case of those materialistic people or general people who do not have that kind of schedule who do not really have a aggressive nightlife and things like that.

So actually night refers to the time of inactivity and day refers to the time of activity or in general the night represents inactivity and day represents activity. So what is the arena of inactivity for the general people? That is the arena of activity for the self-realized and what is the arena of activity for the common people that is the arena of inactivity for the self-realized. What this essentially means is that the arena of activity for the self-realized is is or for the sanyami for the restrained who are on the path of self-realization the arena of activity for them is self-realization.

They want to move onwards in their journey towards realizing the absolute truth. So they contemplate on spiritual truth, they study scripture, they meditate and in this culture of inner growth and inner realization, spiritual realization they delight that is the arena that they look for that is their activity but materialistic people think what is all this what are you doing just wasting your time sitting and thinking do something practical have a life enjoy so they just can't comprehend it for them from them the whole idea of self-realization is just a waste of time. In contrast for them what is the arena of inactivity for the self-realized that is the arena of hyper activity for the common people that is sense gratification.

The materialistic people think that sense gratification is the very essence and purpose of life that's what they live for that's what they look forward to that's now on the other hand self the self-realized or the self-controlled who are moving towards self-realizing realize that sense gratification is a path to bondage and so they try to minimize sense gratification. They try to have nothing to do with sense gratification or very little to do as less to do as possible. So again the point here is that actually there is very little that is in that sense common between the values of the self-realized and the general people are the materialists and the spiritualists if you just want to put it in simple terms.

Now the context for this discussion is that this kind of sense control where one gives up everything one rigorously controls all the senses that is incomprehensible for the materialistic people and they will say this is repressive you're having no you're giving up all enjoyment what is there in your life to live for so so when there is a huge contrast in the values of the self of the materialistic and the spiritualist people Krishna is telling to recognize that this is this contrast in values is just a fact of life that one just has to accept it and live with it there's nothing that one can do about it so actually both these classes of people are always going to be there and it's unchangeable so the only thing that we can do as thoughtful people is make a wise choice whose ranks would we like to be a part of the materialist all the spiritualist and the rank that we choose will determine where which way we move forward in our life whether we move towards Krishna or we move towards Maya whether we move upwards in our spiritual and our consciousness towards spiritual truth or downwards towards more and more materialistic consciousness so now the mainstream culture may be more and more materialistic but that doesn't matter for a serious spiritualist because the serious spiritualist understand that the truth is not determined by vox populi it is not determined by popular opinion the truth is the truth and the truth is that at the level of the body the pleasure that anyone can get is limited real pleasure is available only at the level of the soul and to get pleasure at the level of the soul we need to work on making the right choice so because the pleasure is so limited and the bondage is so great because for for that limited pleasure a wise person desists from that pleasure and contrast the wise person focuses on cultivating spiritual knowledge so now Krishna says that there's two kinds of people interestingly we are usually caught up in between these two kinds of people sometimes we feel and act like materialists and sometimes we feel and act like spiritualists so how do we develop some consistency in the way we act that actually requires an awareness of our consciousness which is much more dynamic and flexible wherein actually we understand that ultimately spiritual life is a matter of sincerity of intent of the seeker and that sincerity is expressed through right choices so although due to our moods sometimes self-realization may seem to appear dark may not seem to me seeming to make any progress seeming to have any taste you do not seem to find anything in spiritual life interesting it may seem dark like the night on the other hand says everything everything may seem clear oh there's a handsome object and this is how i can get in touch with it and this is how i can enjoy why give it up but if you understand that what seems to be clear like light is actually entangling and darkening it darkens our soul it darkens our spiritual prospects because we get more attached and more entangled in matter by indulgences and gratification on the other hand sense control although it may appear to be miserable but sense control purifies us it liberates us it elevates us and it ultimately takes us to krishna where there is supreme light there is supreme love there is supreme happiness so we need to perceive the path of light then give up the path of darkness and need to understand what is light and what is darkness not just based on our free our ever-changing perceptions based on the flickering and fickle moods of our mind but based on the sound unchanging scriptural truth when we have that truth in mind and then accordingly we make choices then we move forward steadily in our spiritual life and ultimately we attain krishna so that's the important thing to know in our life is that we are we have to stand different often people want to be special but in the material life speciality means uh actually we don't do anything special we just try to do the ordinary in a special way you know everybody's pursuing eating sleeping meeting defending everybody's pursuing sense gratification and people think that if i can just pursue sense gratification in a better way you know i can have a bigger car than someone i can have the most good looking spouse then i can have a most good looking spouse better than uh my those of my friends and others then i am better off but instead of trying to be special among the ordinary we should try to do something special above the ordinary that means actually the special among the ordinary is still ordinary only ultimately it doesn't matter uh even if one does a special kind of sense gratification or the ordinary kind of sense gratification it's all sense gratification it's all insignificant pleasure it's all the cause of bondage ultimately but special above the ordinary means that we choose higher spiritual happiness and that actually makes us special because that gives us special spiritual happiness that lasts forever unlike the other pleasure no matter sense gratified pleasure no matter how pleasure it special it seems it ultimately turns out to be.