Gita 16.15 The ungodly want to look good not become good

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 16.15 Krishna is continuing the description of the ungodly, the demoniac and he states that I am powerful, I am aristocratic and I am surrounded by aristocratic people who is there like me I will perform yajna, I will give in charity in this way I will delight this is how the demoniac are deluded by ignorance Krishna at the end of the Bhagavad Gita in the last verse that he speaks in 18.72 asked kachid agyana sammoham pranashtas te dhananjaya has the illusion created by rising from ignorance being destroyed agyana sammoham so in a sense although Arjuna is definitely not demoniac he is godly, Krishna has categorically told that so Arjuna you are born of a godly family 16.5 he has stated that but still even the godly can sometimes be overcome by ungodly forces and the Bhagavad Gita gives us the resources by which we can beat back the ungodly forces that are coming within us so itti agyana vimohitaha but for the godly illusion is occasional normally we live a virtuous life but in between there are phases of illusion when we may succumb to wrongdoing or at least start contemplating undesirable activities so itti agyana vimohitaha means that for the demoniac actually that is not just a occasional illusion it is a perpetual illusion and they live with it they live for it they grow it they may not think that they are going deeper and deeper into illusion but they want to make their own world view their own conception stronger and stronger till that becomes the driving, defining force of their lives so itti agyana vimohitaha and so the illusion is born out of ignorance and Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita to help Arjuna come out, through Arjuna all of us to come out of illusion so if we hear scripture we can come out of illusion but unfortunately the demoniac rejects scripture or they hear scripture extremely selectively just to justify whatever they are doing or to over quote what they are doing with a facade of piety yakshe dasyami here it is described that people perform yajnas and give in charity all so that they can look good in others eyes yakshe means to do yajna now in different societies depending on the contemporary culture different things are considered prestigious so there are some things which are common like say having a big house a big vehicle for motion for travelling that is considered universally prestigious but say in today’s culture if a wealthy person buys a cricket team or a sports team in general then news worthy it gives good press so in the past when yajna was a prominent feature of people’s existence then at that time they had to work towards taking things forward in a very if they wanted to appear respectful they had to perform yajnas so here the people the ungodly people wanting to put on a facade of goodness are saying that they perform yajnas and in that way they try to look good in the world’s eyes so for the ungodly they are so bad internally that they don’t even feel any moral compunction while killing in fact they delight in killing thinking that now I have eliminated this enemy I will eliminate that enemy so they delight in killing that is how bad they are internally but they are expert at looking good externally looking good externally means that they just clearly and carefully want to ensure that the world thinks of them as good people as great people in fact so in fact they think not only that I am a great person, I am the greatest person who is there as good as me who in the world is anywhere near to what I am that understanding is what is vital for people’s elevation without that understanding they just can’t move onwards towards any kind of satisfaction of course the ungodly mentality is such that they will never be satisfied but at least the illusion that they have that I will get satisfaction when I do this that illusion is oh if I just become powerful enough if I just become the number one then I will be satisfied but even when they become number one still they don’t because the number one position is also being sought by many other people so they don’t have that peace they may have that sense of illusion at having come to the top soon they are dragged down and the way for reformation for them is through the submission to scripture but that is what Krishna will recommend at the end of this chapter but unfortunately they are thinking that they don’t need guidance from God because they think they are God some people may openly claim their divinity this especially happens in the Hindu tradition as compared to other traditions because the descent of the divine is considered such a celebrated at the same time not a very uncommon occurrence that any godly person is considered any person especially powerful gets celebrated by God so the mentality that there is no one like me that is actually a mentality which stems from one’s illusions that one is God megalomania at its maximum becomes the imagination that you could say theomania not just madness for God but the madness that I am the madness of the imagination that I am God in fact one of the names of the absolute is Asamoordhva that there is no one equal to him or to speak of anyone greater than him and that designation is what the ungodly crave for under the influence of the illusions that beset them and the way out of those illusions is what they arrogantly reject by thinking that they are above the law the consequence of such godless arrogance will be described in the future verses