Gita 18.17 When we act without false ego, we stay free of reactions

Transcript

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thank you Bhagavad Gita 18.17 Krishna speaks over here and he focuses on the theme of how one can stay freed from bondage even while functioning in the world and what he focuses on here is the idea that bondage is caused not so much by what we do but with what consciousness we do so if somebody has no ego about what they are doing they are not thinking of themselves as independent doers and their intelligence is not entangled they can engage in actions as extreme as even killing they are actually not killing and they are not getting bound some people take this worse as a warrant, as a license as the Bhagavad Gita’s license for indiscriminate killing that you are killing but you are not killing but the Bhagavad Gita 8.2 its overall thrust is on transcendental action it is not on martial action and for most people in most situations transcendence is furthered by the practice of bhakti yoga bhakti yoga by the determined diligent attempts to grow spiritually through practice of yoga and ultimately through the practice of bhakti yoga which harmonizes human will with divine will that is what we all are required to do but additionally the Bhagavad Gita is also quite clear that if we work for going towards the supreme then sometimes we may have to do actions that may seem to be objectionable for some people but those actions can be done without reservation that is you have to understand the difference between indiscriminate action and unreserved action indiscriminate means one doesn’t think at all but after one has thought one has deliberated and decided then there is no reservation in doing that action indiscriminate means what one gets into one doesn’t discriminate about one doesn’t think about that carefully whereas unreserved means after one has got into something one is wholehearted about it so in this context the Bhagavad Gita is telling us that what will bind us is the way in which we act if we act in a way that is incriminating then we cannot rise and what will incriminate us is the desire for enjoyment if we do not act with that desire we will be steadily and determinately elevated by our practice of bhakti that is what our purpose should be when we strive to move towards Krishna to get connected with him and to stay connected with him no matter what ups and downs life sends our way ahankara is ego or arrogance that makes us think that we are the soul doers one who sees themselves to be the soul doer that person is an illusion but one who does not have the ego to think that I am the soul doer they won’t get bound so false ego means to think that we alone are the soul doers and therefore we alone deserve the credit for whatever we do but true ego means to understand that factors beyond us also shape what happens and thus we don’t have to get caught in doing things which are unhealthy which are unwanted which are counterproductive but we can focus on doing the things which are conducive for our holistic growth and what is most conducive is the action that connects us with our source, our lord, Krishna when we act on his behalf trying to serve him then he takes the responsibility similarly in karma yoga if we act for Krishna’s pleasure we get the yoga and Krishna takes the karma that means that means we connect with Krishna and Krishna takes away the karmic reaction from us and thus we ultimately become elevated and ultimately disentangled liberated and if you see the overall Bhagavad Gita there is hardly any what might be called hate speech in the Gita overall the Gita’s message is a message of devotion it’s a message of overall harmonization of the human will with divine will it talks even about qualities like forgiveness and tolerance, shama, shanti and if you look at this context there is no hate speech either before or after it it’s a very profound philosophical discussion going on so to pluck a verse out of context and to say that the Bhagavad Gita licenses indiscriminate violence and violence to the Gita the Bhagavad Gita does not talk about does not shy away from the necessity of force sometimes while living in this messy world but at the same time it does not warrant the use of indiscriminate force it simply states that after due deliberation use do the right action and then do it unhesitatingly do it wholeheartedly so how is he doing the action Arjuna we will see after the Bhagavad Gita is spoken in the Kurukshetra War starts off Arjuna fights wholeheartedly there is no reservation within him about how he should fight and how he should not fight he gets into the war so Krishna tells over here that Ahamkara is what causes bandhanam the conception that I am the soul doer therefore I should be the soul enjoyer of the results that leads to leading the soul soul soul undergoers of the suffering also and overall we stay in bondage but if you understand that Krishna is the lord and we are his servants and in his service we act just as a soldier may act in an army fighting against the enemy soldier doesn’t get implicated similarly we too don’t get implicated thank you