Gita 18.25 To see our actions disconnected from the past and the future is to see in illusion

Transcript

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and absorption in krishna anupandham that which will cause bondage this is bhagavad gita 16.25 kshayam violence or distress destruction himsam is violence or aggression towards others which will cause them distress anapiksha without considering all this japaurusham one who is too dependent on oneself one who is self-sanctioned mohad arabhyate karma the action that one starts off in this way in illusion yatha tamasam uchyate so krishna is speaking here about action in the three modes and he asserts that actually the three modes are intrinsically here that they shape everything they shape our actions also the defining characteristic of the mode of ignorance is moha illusion mohad arabhyate karma so we start certain actions under the influence of the mode of ignorance and that is characterized by illusion illusion means that inability to understand what is involved in doing things what will require how much effort for example when we try to lift weights if we don’t consider our capacity at all and suddenly try to lift a huge weight we are going to get ourselves into trouble we may injure ourselves we may get a slip disc we may end up getting ourselves into big trouble and the way to avoid this trouble is by focusing on cleansing our consciousness of the illusion induced by ignorance so anubandham kshayam himsaam for example when an alcoholic is captivated by an urge to drink then anubandham is so bound can’t think about one doesn’t consider all this that this is we need to know that every action that we do is not just an action in isolation oh yesterday i drank demo yesterday i drank every action is a commitment to the repetition of that action in the future that’s just the way actions work and to the extent we open our eyes to see this reality then we’ll understand that let’s say taking an alcohol is actually like putting out our hands so that some slave driver can enslave us it is like ourselves opening the gate of the prison and walking into that and knowing not realizing that inside that prison not only we’ll be restricted but also we’ll be tormented we’ll be tortured to see actions in isolation is illusion to see actions in connection with the past and the future that i am being impelled to do this action because of what i have done in the past and this action will impel me to act similarly in future that is properly to see in knowledge we do have free will node output but our free will is limited by the way we have acted in the past the more we act out of force out of the force of illusion the more we become bound so when some people do violence they destroy things say for example somebody gets an anger attack at that time that anger attack makes them blind to everything else just can’t perceive that they may be doing things which will destroy valuable things sometimes say people are watching a cricket match and their favorite team loses and they may well end up smashing their TV in anger and then afterwards they regret and it’s not just regret, it’s HINSA HINSA means that they may even cause violence may hurt others sometimes when people get hooked to alcohol in order to get the alcohol or to get drugs especially if they are attached to drugs they ask someone for money and if those people don’t give them money then they may even attack them they may even injure or kill them they may be harmless people normally but the shrinking of vision that happens because of illusion, because of obsession, because of attachment means that they just can’t perceive things with a holistic perspective and thus they end up doing reproachable and reprehensible things there is no proper consideration of what is to be done and what is not to be done MOHAD ARABHYATE this is the karma that is started in MOHAD PAURUSHYA means in this context what refers to the ego or the arrogance by which one thinks that if I have decided to do something then I have full right to do it and no one can stop me from doing it one doesn’t think that one needs any sanction outside of oneself for doing things today we live in what could be called as the cult of the self the cult of the self refers to the idea that each one of us is a person who is independent of the universe in the sense that we are not part of a interconnected web, be it a social web be it a natural web be it a cosmological web we think that the way I feel like acting is the way I will act and such self-sanctioned action is the cause of is due to the mode of ignorance because we are ignoring everything except the reality of our feelings our feelings are real but the world out there also is real and our actions will have real consequences in the world and the world’s situations will bring about real reactions to us if I feel driving on the wrong side of the road and that amazes me that I start driving the result is going to be that I am going to injure myself and not just casually but grievously injure myself similarly if we don’t understand that we are souls who are parts of the whole and our actions are meant to be in connection with the whole in a mode of service to the whole they are meant to be done in a way that enables us to grow in our spirituality towards Krishna if we don’t understand all this then we are acting in ignorance and such actions will further aggravate our ignorance Thank you