Gita 16.18 When bad situations make us take shelter of our bad side we become bad people

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you Krishna is speaking here and he is saying that all of us are bound by our particular nature which we are born with whether we be divine or demoniac and this section of the Bhagavad Gita is describing how the demoniac are bound and in that connection he states that the demoniac take shelter of their lower nature that means ahankara means arrogance presumption that I am right and everyone else is wrong balam doing atrocious show of strength darpa seeking prestige and power and honour even when one has not done anything honourable kamam extremely sensual desire krodham is anger fury samshitaha one takes shelter of all these things in this way me who is present in their hearts pradvishanto as well as in the hearts of others pradvishanto one becomes envious of them those people who are of that mentality of that mindset they become envious of others so what is important for us is to organise that everyone of us has to go through life’s ups and downs and it is not easy to face these ups and downs and we face life’s ups and downs in various ways depending on our particular situations we may take shelter of various things some people take shelter of alcohol some people take shelter of sleep some people take shelter of say just TV and try to forget their problems so here Krishna is telling that ahankaram balam darpam kamam krodham samshitaha what all what all needs to be done is is that we all have to recognise that we have to take things forward in our life through the growth of bhakti we have to take shelter of Krishna ultimately but instead we end up taking shelter of worldly things so now Krishna has in the bhagavad gita earlier 16.10 Krishna has talked about kamam ashritya dushpuram dhanamanam dhanmita mohad gruhi tvasad grahan pravartante ashrita so taking shelter of kama is what Krishna has mentioned but here Krishna talks about how these the demoniac don’t just have these qualities they are arrogant they are short tempered they are lusty but rather they take shelter of these things taking shelter of means that they delight in these things that they don’t they think that getting into these things enjoying these things and bragging about these things that is what gives them power, that is what protects them so and in this way so how does one take shelter of anger that means that whenever there is a problem one just bangs into anger becomes furious towards others and starts slamming them and thus one delights in anger and one thinks that by this I am being this is my power, this is how I show the world who I am this is how I get the world to do my will so so like this if one thinks that I can dazzle others by like some people are a lot of bluff and bluster and actually they may not have any substance but they just act as if they are very big and that is all a cause of problems so similarly in this material world when people are caught with worldly things then that becomes a problem for them that the nature of illusion is such that people just can’t resist whatever it is that they are going through right now and they end up indulging in those things again and again and delighting in those things just like some people pretend to be far more wealthy than they are and when they can pull off that hoax of being wealthier then they think just see how clever I am like that there are different people with different dispositions and everyone has to deal with the situation that life has handed out to them and when we face difficulties in the situation in which life has placed us we are meant to take shelter of Krishna and thereby face that difficulty but instead some people instead of turning towards Krishna turn towards their own lower desires and thus they end up deluded so to prevent this from happening to prevent their lower desires from overpowering them they need to take shelter of something higher but instead of fighting the lower when they take shelter of the lower then they get conquered by the lower so if we become lover of the lower that means we have a lower side but if we become a lover of our lower side then we become enslaved by that lower side we sink to our lowest nadir the worst within us comes out and thus we become deluded thus we become incapable of much positive things in life we become unable to encounter life’s toughness without resorting to worse and worse things thus people become egomaniacs and people become heartless people become monstrous some people become sociopaths and psychopaths and this kind of things are the result of one’s perversion of one’s situation one’s situation may be bad but when one takes shelter of one’s lower nature the bad situation makes us bad when we take shelter of the bad side within us so Krishna says that ultimately such people are envious of me Krishna is present in everyone’s hearts and he is there as the well-wisher of everyone but instead of taking shelter of that Lord by taking shelter of other things they become overwhelmed by the lower, the negative within us and thus they end up teaching themselves they end up envious of others cheat themselves means they cheat themselves of their own spiritual glory their own spiritual sanctity they are eternal parts of Krishna and are meant to be meant to love and serve Him they are meant to grow in their relationship with Him but not understanding this not understanding that they are meant to be parts of Krishna not understanding that they have an opportunity to move closer and closer to Krishna they end up becoming envious of Him thinking that what do we do when we are envious we hurt the person whom we are envious of similarly here the demoniacs become hurtful towards Krishna and those who are to Krishna through being envious of and hurtful towards those who are His eternal part in whose hearts He is present this is the first personal reference to Krishna the word mam comes for the first time here in the Bhagavad Gita and here Krishna is telling that those who act hurtfully towards others are actually acting hurtfully towards Him also cause ultimately when they are seeking power and prestige especially when they are seeking power and prestige in a destructive way then they are trying to be God and they are trying to be God by destroying the creatures of God the children of God, the parts of God and thus what they are doing is seen as being envious of Krishna the destination of such envious people will be talked about in the next verse