Gita 18.63 Knowledge guides our free will by showing us the consequences of our actions

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 18.63 In this way I have described the Vakyatam Knowledge that is more confidential than earlier knowledge Knowledge of Atma is confidential Knowledge of the gradual elevation and liberation of the Atma through the various processes of Yoga as I have described here from Karma Yoga to Gyan Yoga to Bhakti Yoga that is even more confidential I have described very very confidential knowledge to you deliberate as long as it is required unhesitatingly then as you desire so you do so it is interesting this Yatha Ikshasi is significant at one level it signifies that God acknowledges our independence and appeals to our intelligence Krishna though being God is not dominating Arjuna by telling him you have to do this and this is the only way you can function Krishna is giving Arjuna the option do as you desire but before doing as you desire deliberate ultimately you can’t control anyone because everyone has free will but what we can do is help others to use their free will properly and Krishna helps Arjuna to use his free will properly by giving him the resource of intelligence by which the consequence of our choice can become visible knowledge expands our vision in various ways for example knowledge expands our vision into the future we might see the road up to a particular distance ahead of us but if we see a speed bump sign on the side of the road and if we know what that sign means then that knowledge expands our vision that we can see that there is going to be a speed bump although we ourselves have not seen the speed bump similarly if we have medical knowledge then we can know that a person who takes too much sugar may soon get diabetes or the person who takes sugar and has diabetes already is soon going to get a health issue an ordinary person may feel a chest pain and a doctor may medically trained person may feel a chest pain for both of them at one level the sensation of the pain is the same but the content of the experience alone is not enough the context is also important that context helps us shape understanding of the pain properly this is not just some ordinary pain this pain indicates a heart attack let me rush to a doctor let me call 911 so that way we can understand and act wisely based on a holistic picture which we get through knowledge so similarly the Bhagavad Gita extends our vision to the future by telling us mat chitta sarva durgaani mat prasadat tarishyasi atha chet tomahankaraan ashoshyasi vinanshyasi it helps us to see into the future to understand that our actions will have consequences that if we act indiscreetly if we act without being conscious of Krishna we will be bound to act according to our material nature and thus we will be deluded but if we act in accordance with Krishna’s plan for us then we can be protected and elevated we will cross over all obstacles by his grace so here Krishna is extending our vision by telling us about the consequence of our action in nature there is a cause effect correlation which is understood by science through the laws of physics and similarly in the world there is cause effect correlation in the realm of human effect human actions of consciousness in terms of choice and consequence if we come to a an intersection we make a particular choice and that choice will take us to a particular destination not to another destination so similarly if we consider that everyone of us is making choices constantly some choices are major some are minor but choices are being made constantly and these choices help us to move towards Krishna if they are taken in the light of spiritual knowledge and they take us away from Krishna keep us away from Krishna if they are taken in ignorance so Krishna is equipping us with a expanded vision with farsightedness by which we can take more informed decisions another point here is that Krishna has earlier said in his 18.59 that was 59 and 60 was but by the material nature we are all bound and we have to act the way our material nature impels us to we are bound to act according to the way our nature impels if you think that you will not act you think if you think that is your desire that is illusion so our desires are not necessarily our desires all the time when we are conditioned most of our desires are products of our conditionings and thus our desires often are the programmed impulses that arise from the past programming that we have done by our past actions and they impel us towards certain course of action so the word comes both places there Krishna has said against your desire you will be forced to act in particular ways and now Krishna says please now do as you desire in fact Arjuna has also earlier talked about how we feel sometimes as if we are acting against our desires when he said in 3.43 that that although I don’t feel although I desire not to do something still I am impelled to do it so that means Krishna is acknowledging that we have free will and by our free will we can desire certain things at the same time there is also something within us which sabotages our free will which fills us with desires contrary to our desires so for example if we are in the ocean and we are swimming in a particular direction towards the land now where we are swimming is the ocean the waves in the ocean and suddenly a very powerful wave comes in the opposite direction then we will be swept in that direction although our desire and our intention was to swim in the opposite direction so like that our conditions arise and they forcefully push us in particular directions and if you are not to be pushed in such directions then it is vital that we be aware of what kind of storms can come and we have some anchor that we can hold on to when such stormy waves come so during the phases when the stormy waves are not there that is the phase when our desire or intention is actually ours and there is nothing actively working against it to sabotage it we all have such phases although they may not last for long and how long they last will vary depending on the strength of the conditioning an alcoholic may get the desire to drink every week or if he is a much stronger addict every day or maybe every few hours a day but in between those phases when the desire becomes very strong, the alcoholic does have free will and using that free will the alcoholic decides I am going to place myself in a de-addiction center where I will have no access to alcohol then even when the urge comes at that time it’s like the wave coming in the ocean but holding on to the anchor will protect so similarly whereas putting ourselves in a de-addiction center is just a material measure putting ourselves in Krishna’s shelter is the supreme spiritual measure Krishna says that supreme being and you surrender to him you will be elevated and liberated so that is the rule of this verse just surrender to Krishna and you will be saved but Arjuna has to surrender voluntarily and that voluntary surrender that voluntariness of the surrender is being signified by this verse which comes immediately after the verse that talked about surrender so previous verse Krishna has exhorted Arjuna to surrender but immediately in this verse Krishna acknowledges his free will Arjuna’s free will and then asks him to decide based on his intelligence how he wants to act thank you