Gita 18.35 – Use in meditation the capacity to separate contemplation from situation seen in worry

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you here Krishna is talking about determination in the mode of ignorance 18.35 and he states that determination that determination the last line says this is determination in the mode of ignorance that itself seems to be like an oxymoron somebody is in ignorance we generally would think that that person is completely controlled by the modes and so that person has no determination at all however the fact is that the modes are competing in the hearts of all of us whoever we may be and whichever mode we may be prominently influenced by at a particular time so even to stay in ignorance requires determination although of a perverse kind positive determination is used in a positive sense usually and when somebody is rigidly fixed on something that is undesirable then it is often referred to as obstinacy, stubbornness, mullishness recalcitrance so these are all negative words and so then determination in ignorance is that kind of obstinacy, stubbornness, mullishness recalcitrance wherein one actually holds on to the undesirable and Krishna is giving a list of things that are undesirable Swapna is just dreaming now this can refer to daydreaming when people just waste their time in idle things or it can be oversleeping Bhayam here refers to worrying oh maybe this will go wrong, that will go wrong worry wastes so much of our time and strangles so much of our energy and initiative and enthusiasm so now if we see in doing any of these things we actually require determination because worry in one sense is so impractical that actually practically we are not doing anything when we are worrying we are just sitting and letting our mind take us on a nightmarish ride in contrast if we say meditation is actually far more practical because whereas in worry the mind takes control of us whereas in meditation we take control of the mind and only when we take control of the mind can we act constructively, act determinately act positively similarly Shokam is lamentation about moroseness and grief about what has already happened Vishadham Madamevacha Vishadha and Madha intoxication if we see causes intoxication causes so much trouble and yet people keep getting intoxicated although they throw up in the next morning they act like fools when they are intoxicated they lose so much money they are censured by their loved ones they cause so much harm to their loved ones others may ridicule them and still they continue doing it so actually so Krishna is saying where is the determination in this whereas we may say that actually there is complete lack of determination that a person is continuing to do something like this don’t you have any determination at all, can’t you just give up drinking can’t you just give up Vishadham so lamentation is more like occasional so actually there are two words here Shokam and Vishadham so in general Bhaya is about the future Shoka is about the past Bhaya is about what may happen and Shoka is about why did that happen whereas Vishadham is actually a habitually depressed attitude it’s not just about the past or the future but even the present always sees negatively and feels depressed and dejected and doesn’t do anything at all such a person is Vishadhi now in all these stages we are actually causing suffering upon ourselves so we are not doing anything constructive to deal with any problem and often when we are worrying or when we are sulking or when we are depressed we are actually hurting ourselves and no sane person will hurt oneself but we somehow get some the mode of ignorance makes us imagine this is the only thing I can do and we get some perverse pleasure or we imagine that we are getting some perverse pleasure and meditating on our miseries but basically we become paralyzed mentally that doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything mental paralysis means that our thoughts stay stuck in one avenue and we just keep going along the same track again and again that will happen, that will happen and we stay stuck in one problem and the problem keeps going bigger and bigger and that way we become we feel weaker and weaker and weaker till we get overwhelmed and collapse so there is determination and the mode of ignorance is perverseness and it’s perverse determination it is obstinacy but we can think if my mind can so forcefully take me away from my circumstances and make me think about things which make me miserable that essentially means that I have the power to separate my contemplations from my situations so of course now this separation is making things worse for me because I am contemplating on things which make me miserable, which are bigger problems which may not even occur often when we are worrying most of the times our worries may not even materialize but the point is that even this perverse determination in the mode of ignorance can communicate to us the living reality that we can separate our contemplation from our situation whatever be our physical circumstance our mind can get fixed and lost in something else entirely and this principle of having the capacity to separate our contemplation we can use that to absorb ourselves in Krishna whenever we do our meditation so rather than feeling disheartened by the strength of our conditionings which drag our mind away we can see the very strength of those conditionings as evidence of the reality of the possibility of separating our contemplation from our situation that means this is really possible and it is actually something which even I do and then we can redirect that possibility same principle towards Krishna so if I can be thinking about a cricket match that India lost 6 years ago, a close match and that causes me irritation even today then surely I can think about Krishna who is always with me and who has always been with me and who permeates all of existence and who transcends it all to stay in his abode and who manifests as the ever available holy name so no matter my chair may not be very comfortable, I may be sitting on the floor or I may be feeling sleepy and so I may be walking but still I can separate my contemplation from my situation and thus by taking inspiration from the principle of determination as is manifested perversely in the mode of ignorance, we can use that inspiration to direct the determination towards Krishna and thus become absorbed in him during our meditations