Gita 18.51 Use intelligence to counter the mind’s centrifugal force

Transcript

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18.51 18.51 18.51 18.51 18.51 18.51 18.51 Krishna is now going to here describe in the set of four verses 51, 52, 53 and then 54 also the process of progressing towards perfection through renunciation through adopting Jnana Yoga so from Karma Yoga to Jnana Yoga to Bhakti Yoga will be the hierarchy that Krishna will talk about over here so here he says Buddhya Vishuddhaya Yukto Buddhya Vishuddhaya with intelligence that is purified its interesting Krishna has used the word intelligence before also Asakta Buddhi Sarvatra so the intelligence plays a vital role in the purification of on the path of Jnana Yoga intelligence is of course required on all paths without intelligence we will not be able to even get material pleasure especially to achieve something material pleasure is intelligence and planning are required but to see through the falsity of the promises of material nature and to seek spiritual pleasure to seek something higher that requires even greater intelligence and on the path where we seek spiritual pleasure in the process of Bhakti also intelligence is required but in Bhakti Buddhi is used in the service of Bhakti so Bhakti involving a connection with Krishna also gives us higher taste and that higher taste makes it easier to break free from the lower taste unless we can break free from this lower taste we will not be able to progress in our life so it’s vital for us to have intelligence on any path especially transcendental path but in the path of Jnana the whole process is the process of analysis, intellection and renunciation through intellection intellection means using the intellect to think systematically so the intelligence can also be impure and Krishna says the intelligence needs to be pure earlier in the third chapter Krishna has stated how Indriyanimano Buddhir Asyadishta Namuchyate the senses, the mind and intelligence all three can become the hiding places or the places where illusion resides not hiding places but reigning places practically we could say so the intelligence that is impure schemes for sensual pleasure worldly pleasures and rationalizes and covers up those indulgences but when the intelligence is pure Buddhya Vishuddhaya Yukto then one understands intelligence can discern properly how worldly pleasure leads to distress yehi samsparshuja bhoga dukkha yonaya evate and once we understand that worldly pleasure leads to distress then we can progress towards pursuing some higher pleasure so for each one of us the pursuit of we are pleasure seeking creatures inherently and we have to seek pleasure somewhere if we don’t seek it in something higher then we will seek it in something lower and that will cause us bondage and distress Buddhya Vishuddhaya Yukto with the purified intelligence Dhrityatmanam niyamya cha rti Krishna has said determination, that which sustains us in a particular path Atmanam niyamya cha we control ourselves, we control our mind, we control ourselves shabda din, vishayam, sthyatva so now what does control of the mind essentially mean it means that we recognize the mind’s tendency to go outwards to go towards worldly pleasures and we determinately counter that tendency we with great and systematic determination we work to resist the mind’s centrifugal tendency the mind’s tendency to push our consciousness outwards broadly speaking the soul is at the core of our being, the soul is who we are and from the souls level we are all meant to actually release spiritual happiness because that is who we are so our consciousness should move towards the core of our being that is the centripetal force the force that takes us towards our soul and ultimately towards the soul of the soul bhutatma bhutatma the soul of the soul is the super soul, Krishna but instead the conditioned mind moves outwards and it moves outwards, sense objects so sabda, di, vishayam sthyatva so various sense objects beginning with sound our imagination is fueled by what we see and also by what we hear suppose we go to watch a movie now in the movie there are primarily two things there is sight and there is sound even if we don’t experience fragrance, even if we don’t experience touch, there are of course virtual reality settings where we might experience these also but even if we don’t experience those the sight and sound are two senses which are enough to propel us totally into illusion while watching a movie through these two senses we may go deep deep deep into illusion with practically no scope of coming out sometimes people who get on youtube and start watching movies, they may watch the movies for hours and hours together so it’s important that we recognize the limitations that beset all of us in our sensory faculties one limitation is that we give a lot of credence to our senses and especially our eyes and our ears so sometimes the eyes are talked about as primary sometimes the ears and the sense object connected to the ears is sound that is talked about as primary so shabda deen vishayam sthyatva so the primary sense object is represented here by shabda so the attractive sounds captivating sounds which we may get externally we resist those sounds tattva raga dvesha vidashyacham and raga and dvesha which we have some natural attachment towards something and natural aversion from somethings we learn to determinately regulate that vidashyacham so how do we do this regulation it is through purification it is through purification the regulation will happen naturally but before that we need intellectual conviction so if you see this whole process which is being described in the process of jnana there may not be a very clear perception of spiritual reality so it is primarily based on understanding of the danger of material entanglement based on understanding that the material world is a place of serious distress with that understanding we determinately try to break free from our conditionings and we move steadily towards Krishna that is our hope that is our aspiration and that is the principles of regulating ourselves can be applied by all transcendentalists although Krishna talks about them specifically for those practicing jnana yoga but all seekers can apply these principles so we all can purify our intelligence we can regulate the minds outward towards the sense objects especially sound and sight and we can reign in our default attachment and aversion and thus we can direct our consciousness spiritually