Gita 13.34 Consciousness can be the channel to illumination – and to illusion too

Transcript

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thank you Bhagavad Gita 13.34 so this is another metaphor by which Krishna is describing the relationship of the soul with the material body just as the sun as the sun illumines the universe similarly Kshetra Kshetri so Kshetri is the possessor of the body the word Kshetra is used right at the start of this chapter similarly it is the soul present within the body which is the Kshetra the soul illumines the body now in the previous verse Krishna said how the soul and the body are different and the soul does not get entangled the soul is distant this is ether enters into all of ether of space sky, whatever you want to use the word rough English translation it exists everywhere but is not affected now if it is not affected then how does it affect the example is given of a sun whatever if there is a storm in the sun if there is a hurricane these do not affect the sun the sun is so far away it is so much greater than the earth but at the same time the sun is affected by whatever happens here undoubtedly the sun we cannot say is not affected because sorry we cannot say because of the sun the earth is not affected because say when the sun rises all sorts of movements start happening when the sun rises all sorts of actions start happening when the sun rises all sorts of negativities start happening so actually not negativities, positivities start happening in terms of, basically all action happens, some people may act negatively some people may act positively but the important thing is that the when the sun rises nature wakes up practically the birds start chirping, many flowers start blossoming and so the sun does affect the earth now how does it affect the earth? because it radiates solar energy from there to the earth that solar energy affects the earth similarly the soul radiates consciousness into the body and through the presence of consciousness the soul affects the body as long as the consciousness is present in the body the soul, the heart beats the blood circulates the lungs breathe the brain thinks, people speak and act, they do various things now there is a difference between the light of the sun and the light of consciousness the light of the sun it simply illuminates now we can say literally speaking the light from the sun which comes all the way through space to the earth it will also get reflected back from the earth but because the sun is so much greater it will not be affected in the case of consciousness there is a two way traffic that means our consciousness flows outwards to the world and then from the world consciousness flows back inwards so whereas the sun is not affected by the earth the soul can get affected because of this two way flow, because of this nature of consciousness to flow both ways so when consciousness flows both ways then at a particular time the consciousness can seek information in the material world but when it sees information that is disturbing then the soul can get disturbed say for example we look outside our house to see how the condition is and if we see there is a huge tree fallen down what happened? we get concerned we may even get alarmed was there a storm last night? or is the storm still continuing? what exactly is happening? so to the extent we see and then we are affected by what we see to that extent consciousness is the agent of action in the material world and consciousness is also the recipient of action that means or recipient of perception which causes some action within consciousness now to the extent the soul’s consciousness is fixed in Krishna to the extent the soul’s consciousness has arisen beyond this material world with its inevitable dualities to the extent the soul’s consciousness pursues Krishna but doesn’t pursues the world but is not limited to the world pursues the world in relationship with Krishna to the extent Krishna is the foremost presence in the consciousness to the extent Krishna is the purpose of the search of the consciousness to that extent the consciousness will not be affected by the worldly ups and downs so what we do understand is that life needs to be lived in such a way that our consciousness will get elevated towards Krishna if our consciousness does not get elevated towards Krishna then we will find that our consciousness will get degraded towards the sense objects there is a gravity pull within the world and that gravity pull causes things to move up and down so not so much up as down it basically causes things to move down and the gravity pull is the gravity pull of our material attachments so because of that our consciousness is going to be pulled down so the consciousness is the source of illumination but it is also the agent to illusion because say if we were not watching a horror movie we would not go into illusion when we open our eyes and with that and with those eyes we can look around and we can observe the world and we can become well informed by observing the world about our situation if we are near a beautiful natural scenery say at the foothill of a beautiful mountain with some streams flowing down we can be enriched by the sight of that beauty but instead if we are addicted to some worldly pleasures and we start thinking of those worldly pleasures then we will become degraded by the thoughts of those pleasures by attachment to those pleasures and thus we will be dragged down so therefore what we do need is to raise our consciousness upwards towards Krishna and by raising our consciousness thus to actually be able to combat the life’s ups and downs so for us as souls so the soul the same energy that can be that can lead us to illumination can also lead us to illusion it is by our consciousness that we can actually perceive Krishna and relish his all attractiveness and it is by that same Krishna’s grace that we can it is by that same consciousness which can lead us to illumination by Krishna’s grace that can also lead us to illusion if we are not cautious if we perceive sense objects if we let ourselves get captivated by sense objects if we let ourselves get degraded by sense objects then we end up going down because of our consciousness so just as any other energy nuclear energy can be used it can be misused the internet can be used it can be misused similarly a consciousness can be used and it can be misused so so actually we are we need to be extremely careful that we learn to use our consciousness responsibly and we need to become more conscious of our consciousness that what is it that I am conscious of and is this what I want to be conscious of or is there something better I can be conscious of to the extent we can recognize we can become conscious of our consciousness and then we have some orienting wisdom about what is worth being conscious of and not what is unworthy of being conscious of then we can select we can conscientiously invest our consciousness properly we can invest it in Krishna and we can avoid investing it in worldly objects so the important thing is always to keep progressing steadily in our life towards Krishna to the extent we keep progressing to that extent we will attain Krishna and to that extent we will actually progress towards elevation and liberation and thus it is that this is the soul this is the sun illuminates the universe similarly the consciousness illuminates the body and through the body if the consciousness is directed positively then it can lead to the illumination that leads to the revelation that helps us relish the revelation of Krishna’s all attractiveness and thus this illumination leads to supreme liberation by which we attain Krishna’s eternal abode