Gita 11.51 Right emotion results from right perception
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mind Bhagavad-Gita 11.51 Arjuna Vacha Dhrishtvedam Manushyam Rupam Tavasavamyam Janardana Idanim Asmisam Vrittaha Sachetaha Prakritingataha so here Dhrishtvedam Manushyam Rupam Dhrishtvedam I am seeing you Lord Manushyam Rupam your human-like form Tavasavamyam Janardana Saumya that was the word which was used earlier by Sanjay to describe the form that is being revealed and that same word is being used over here Tavasavamyam Janardana Arjuna is now after seeing your Saumya Rupa Idanim Asmisam Vrittaha Now I am settled I am calmed down Sachetaha Prakritingataha and I have returned to my nature my consciousness has calmed down so Krishna's purpose is accomplished Ashwasayamasachamhitamenam Tvapunasaumyavapuramahatma 11.50 it was previous text it was stated that Ashwasayamas Arjuna was fearful and to reassure him Krishna did this Krishna manifested his Saumya Rupa and Arjuna is immediately saying that yes yes it's true that seeing the Saumya Rupa has calmed me down Sachetaha Prakritingataha so now Prakritingataha is an interesting phrase over here it can be understood in multiple ways one is that Prakriti is Sabhava from the material perspective Arjuna is a Kshatriya and Kshatriyas practically never become fearful even when they face death even when they face ghastly warfare even they face terrible bloodshed even at that time Kshatriyas do not become fearful they still stay gallant and fight on fearlessly that is the normal nature of Kshatriya but even those who are trained for war those who are trained to be fearless even they can at times be overwhelmed by negativity by fear by exceptional situations this has happened and that is in one sense unnatural so Prakritingataha Arjuna has returned to his natural condition of calmness of fearlessness and thus he can now do his constitutional duty that is fight which is what he will be doing after the 18 chapter of the Bhagavad Gita gets over but at this stage you know there is emotion and there is vision or perception now perception shapes our emotion normally based on what we see we feel something suppose somebody sees a very poor child with a bulging belly and with matchstick like arms which indicates a state of malnutrition then that vision causes pity causes compassion causes grief within us so there is a correlation between vision and emotion and here it is said vishtvedam so for Arjuna also what happened was Arjuna saw a particular form and based on seeing that form tava saunyam jana ardhanam he saw this form which was gentle our externals do affect our internals there is no denying the correlation between the two when we see certain things that does affect our that does affect our perception sorry our perception does affect our emotion and that is what happened to Arjuna here that earlier when he saw the saw the Virat Rupa he was first outstruck to see the how gargantuan it was how all pervasive it was so first we saw the mahat huge form was astonished vismita but then afterwards there was agitation of the mind so there was that vision that perception of that universal form and that perception caused certain emotion the astonishment and then fear and later when now the Saumya Rupa is being shown so that perception is causing another emotion that is relief calmness return to one's nature so all of us we need a certain emotional situation for functioning effectively and we need to do what it takes to place ourselves in a comfortable or compatible emotional situation otherwise we cannot function for very long that means that Brahmanas if they are to work at that time they just need to they need to have some calmness they want to study deep Shastra and for studying Shastra deeply a certain level of calmness is absolutely essential without that calmness I just cannot persevere in the study of Shastra so Brahmanas do various things to achieve that calmness first is they learn the value of simplicity and austerity so normally when we want more and more material things when we have those strong desires to get more and more material things then if we don't get a particular thing we feel agitated but if we have been able to cultivate some level of satisfaction and we are not craving for more and more things then we don't get agitated then that source of agitation is removed to a large extent and similarly Brahmanas need some kind of stability they don't need much financially but whatever they need materially that has to be provided and to the extent it is provided to that extent they can think about higher things in life so simple living and high thinking now if someone is not living simply then most of their thinking is about living that means they are thinking about they are thinking about this and that now they're thinking about how will I get this how will I get that and how will I be able to move on in my life by getting this or that and because of such thoughts they are able to they are not able to think about any higher things in life because Brahmanas Brahma jana titi brahmana it is said Brahmanas are meant to pursue the higher truths of life so therefore they need to in order to focus on those higher truths they cultivate simple living so so whatever is our service and whatever emotional disposition is required for doing that service most effectively we need to do what it takes to cultivate that emotional disposition for example if somebody is working as a counselor then as a counselor one has to be gentle caring soft sensitive and if one is not those things then one can actually rather than doing the service well one can again hurt others terribly others may feel neglected rejected scorned so one needs to take efforts to cultivate the emotional disposition necessary for one's service and similarly Kshatriyas have to cultivate fearlessness especially Kshatriya commanders other they have to see that they actually rather on seeing their fearlessness other warriors other soldiers they will also get the courage to fight so the Kshatriya commanders need to have the requisite level of fearlessness and they need to do what it takes to cultivate that requisite level of fearlessness so here it is stated that इदानिवस्मिसम्रुत्तः सचेतः प्रकृतिन्गतः चेतः and प्रकृति, प्रकृति is nature चेतः is चेतना so his consciousness became harmonized with his nature when he was able to see the साऊम्यरूप and thus he came to emotional situation where he could do the service of fighting the war as was expected for him Bhagavad Gita 11.52.