Gita 06.38 – The problems we perceive reflect our level of consciousness

Bhagavad Gita 6.38 Arjuna is continuing The verbalization Of his apprehension About the destination Of those Who succumb to deviation On the path Of yoga In the previous text he has asked That what happens to those Who practice yoga but then because Of worldly mindedness They desist from that practice So here He Illustrates Their plight And their fate With an example drawn from nature Is it not that From both they are deviated Means separated Even Ashwati So the cloud is destroyed So Clouds Are usually Seen in the sky in clusters And As clusters They move In the direction In which the wind is moving And in the atmosphere There are different currents of air Moving in different directions So say some Clouds Are moving from east to west And some are moving from the west to the east And Say A cloud which is moving From The east to the west Decides to Join the Set of The cloud cluster Moving in the opposite direction So it leaves its cloud cluster And starts moving But then suddenly some gust of wind comes along And blows the cloud away So that cloud Neither is left As neither a part of the East to west cluster Nor is it a part of the west to east cluster So it is lost on its own Becoming insignificant And then eventually destroyed By the motion of the wind And by the Deterioration that characterizes Everything Eventually, everything material Just as a cloud is destroyed Similarly Without any shelter Without any resting place Without any foundation So It's interesting that The same word Is used by both the conversationists To refer to each other Same address It's two verses before Two, three verses before Six point Thirty five Asamshayam Mahabahom Manodurnigraham Chalam Abhyasen Abhyasen Responding to Arjuna's question About How the mind is very difficult to control Krishna uses the word Mahabahu To refer to Arjuna In six point thirty five And then Here in six point thirty eight Arjuna uses the same word Same name to refer to, sorry Krishna uses the same, there Krishna uses Mahabahu to refer to Arjuna in 35 and here in 38 Arjuna uses Mahabahu to refer to Krishna, so how is it that the same name is used to refer to both because this name is a generic address for Kshatriyas in general, it is not a specific name like Yadunandana or Kurnandana which refer to the specific dynastic connections of the two conversationalists and these two dynastic connections are different, so Arjuna cannot be referred to as Yadunandana but Mahabahu is a generic name which applies to all Kshatriyas, all warriors who are well built, who have powerful arms, they are martial guardians of society and they have strong arms to protect in the fight, so Arjuna hints over here that actually in Krishna you are Mahabahu, so you can with great strength remove my doubts, one who is deluded, one who is distracted from the path of yoga, if that person stays on the platform of bhakti, so here it is being asked by Arjuna whether a person who gives up the path of karma kanda for the sake of pursuing the path of jnana kanda and is not succeeding either, what is the destination of such a person and here in Krishna answers, Krishna will answer later that how such a person will go to heaven and will actually get the results of both karma kanda as well as jnana kanda but essentially for us at this point what we can focus on is that the kind of problem that one perceives also reflects the level of consciousness of a person, some people may think oh this is just too much hard work that's why I don't want to do it, some people may consider okay there's a hard work but what is the fruit that's going to come, what is the probability of the result, what is the probability of the success in the success, or what is the importance of the success, so the point is that say a person is an uninformed person is driving a vehicle that person will primarily think of say how long is the drive going to take, will I get bored during the drive, I don't like to drive for so long but an informed person will think okay I'm driving how much fuel do we have, are there places along the way for putting back the fuel or or is the vehicle in a good enough condition to go for such a ride, so the level of problems that we perceive also are determined by the level of our consciousness, the level of our consciousness means in this case with respect to the driver how much the driver aware of the actual nature of driving and the challenges involved in driving so Arjuna reveals himself already as a quite a evolved person because he's aware of subtleties, he's not asking his doubt is not that oh does God exist, who has seen God, who has seen God, is this whole spiritual stuff like a pie in the sky where who knows whether something exists out there or not after doing all this will we get some result or not nobody knows all this stuff so his question is not uninformed like that his question is much more serious and well informed that there are there are pathways for attaining a material materially auspicious destination of swarga and there are pathways for attaining a spiritually glorious destination of moksha and both he accepts as valid so in today's culture people will mostly now most people may not accept swarga as or moksha both they think this life and this world is all that there is to it but Arjuna is not like that Arjuna accepts the existence of both but he is asking a question that if somebody does not somebody gives the path to swarga and then is unable to attain succeed on the path to moksha then what happens such a person will this person be lost both ways and that question will be answered by Krishna in due course from text 41 to 45. Thank you.