Gita Overview Mumbai 16.21-17.2 – Scripture takes us beyond nature nurture and culture

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So we come to the last part of the 16th chapter now. Trividham Narakasyedam Trividham, Trividha is three types, three parts. Dwaram, Dwaram is doors of Naraka and Nashanamatmanaha They are the destroyers of the soul.
What are these three? Kama, Krodhas, Tathalobhas Lust, Anger and Greed and therefore One should Smadhetatrayamtajet One should give these up. Now Here, we see Krishna uses Metaphorical language twice. Generally speaking Remember we have discussed earlier about Gauna Vripti and Mukhya Vripti So normally Our Swami Vishwaprabhupada would not talk about the Gauna Vripti so much because it would make people rationalise away many of the implications of Bhagavad Gita For example, saying that there was no violence But Vishwaprabhupada, it’s not that the Gauna Vripti is wrong It just has to be used properly And Krishna himself uses it Because where else Gauna Vripti has been used in the Bhagavad Gita? One verse which cannot make sense only without Gauna Vripti Dharayatmanatmanam Well, Dharayatmanatmanam is not exactly Gauna Vripti That is, the Atma is not a metaphor for something else Gauna Vripti means symbolic meaning It basically is that the word Atma has to have different meanings over there It’s not that one place its mind is a metaphor and other place its soul The verse which cannot be made sense is Yansha Sarvabhootaanam Prasyam Jagad Srimi 2.69 They absolutely need metaphorical representation for that So, now we are discussing 16.21 Dual metaphors in this So, first is the whole concept of Dwara Now, generally we would talk about Dwara as a physical door Okay, this is the door for going from this floor to the lower floor Now, when we talk about lust, anger, greed are the doors It’s not that, first of all, lust, anger, greed are not physical entities So, they are not physical doors And it is not that, we know that this is the earthly planetary system This is the heavenly planetary system and this is the lower planetary system, this is hell It is not that there is a door from earth which directly leads on to hell And that is called as lust It is not physically like that Here, the word Dwara is used as a metaphor to refer to a particular kind of mentality Those who have this kind of mentality will eventually go to hell So, Dwara is the door which leads, Dwara basically is a door Something which leads from one place to another So, lust, anger, greed So, these three cause the soul to lag behind in material existence So, the soul cannot go forward towards Krishna Lust, anger, greed, they are basically the mentality that takes a person to hell So, now we could say that, actually, lust, anger, greed are, in a sense, present everywhere in society today Every hoarding, every movie advertisement, every obscene picture, they are all like doorways to hell In fact, we can say there are so many doorways to hell that instead of people going to hell, hell has come here And people are just filled with so much lust, anger, greed And they are suffering Now, another metaphor that Krishna uses is Nashanam Atmanah Nashanam Atmanah means that the destroyer of the soul Now, Krishna has said very clearly in 2.17 that the Atma is Avinashi Avinashi tad viddhi ye na sarvam idam tatam Again, Avinasham avyasyasa na kashchit kartum ahare So, the Atma cannot be destroyed So, here, Nash represents the destruction of the spiritual inclination of the soul Remember, another place where this concept of Nash for the Atma is used? Atma, correct, very good That comes in Isha Upanishad and Bhagavatam Bhagavatam verse is also there nadehamadhyam silabham sudurlabham svaklabham sukalpam guru karanadharam kumandhvabhim na tare ca atmaham So, Atma is the killer of the soul So, now if you look at these two metaphors What exactly is Krishna saying in this verse? That these three passions, lust, anger and greed They create a mentality which will take a person to hell And tasmad etat trayam tejet So, even trayam, you cannot give up a door A door is a door, how can you give up a door? Isn’t it? So, a door is actually referring to a mentality So, here give up the mentality, tasmad etat Therefore, give up the mentality Now, what is the connection between this and the previous verse? In the previous verse, Krishna was talking about How the demoniac people are envious of him And when they are envious, they are cast into hell Yesterday when I was explaining I was saying that Prabhupada, I didn’t, I mentioned but I didn’t explain That actually Prabhupada translates Kururan as mischievous So, why do we use the word mischievous? Because from Krishna’s point of view All living beings are his children And a child, whatever the child is From the father’s point of view, it is mischief So, even when Krishna is angry That anger is never a malevolent anger Krishna never wants harm to any of his children So, for example, if a father may tell a Son, if you do this I will throw you out of my house And I will never accept you back in my house If the father says like that The emphasis is not that the father wants to throw you out of the house The emphasis is what? Don’t do this Isn’t it? That is the emphasis of the father Similarly, when Krishna is saying Ajasram, Ashubhan, Loka, Nachuri, Swayamuni, Onishu Forever I will cast them into hell So, it’s not that It’s Krishna who wants to cast them out Krishna’s idea is immediately what is following is Tasmadetatrayam tejet That’s why we have to see the flow that is going on over here So, just like If you do this, I will throw you out of the house Therefore, don’t do this So, same way Krishna is saying, don’t do this So, here Prabhupada doesn’t just give us a Arthanuvad, Prabhupada gives us a Bhavanuvad Let’s explain this point Slightly we are going back now, but it’s important 16.19, isn’t it? The word is Anandashita, Krooran So, Krooran Prabhupada translates as mischievous So, this is There are two kinds of forms Prabhupada used There is Arthanuvad And there is Bhavanuvad, not Arthanuvad Bhavanuvad means essential emotion And intention is translated Emotion and intention are conveyed Whereas here Semantic accuracy is preserved Semantic accuracy is literally in terms of meaning So, semantic accuracy is not always Able to convey exactly what it is Meaning Sometimes, this is a whole Semantics is a whole branch of language as well as philosophy The idea is Sometimes we see a dictionary, this word has this meaning So, in philosophy this question is there Jeev Goswami analyses elaborate in Sandarbhas Actually Actually Where is meaning stored? Sometimes we have the conception of language As if language is like a pipeline You know, for example If I want to sprinkle water over there On the trees, I have a pipe I press water into this I put this end of the pipe to the tap And through the tap The water goes over there And water falls over there So, we may have this conception of language That means I am here Language which comprises of sentence and word Is like a pipeline And I put meaning in it So, language is like a pipeline to convey meaning And I inject meaning into the language And then it comes to you So, this is one way of understanding meanings But actually speaking Things are not as simple as that Because every word Has certain associations with it For example, if I ask all of you If I just give you some name If I just say I just give you some name, say Anubhav Some word Anubhav Now, what are the images that come in your mind? Now, the images that come in your mind For every one of you to be different Isn’t it? So, every word has an emotional connotation It arouses certain emotions And that varies very much Depending on the individual And that’s why sometimes People who don’t converse in English Whose only experience of English Is reading English stuff And then they try to speak in English They often make a mess of their English Because they have no sense Of how the language is spoken And the language becomes very stilted Very artificial But the point which I am making is That a language Is not just based on semantics I can just use a dictionary And try to convey the meaning But it doesn’t work out like that You just don’t get the meaning When they started Google Translate had a programme I think I have a What is the article now? Is it? I think this is the one So, Google has got a Translate facility So here Now any word that you give Immediately it can be a translated word But if you try to Get full sentences to become translated So, brute force The key to illusion Yeah, this is one of the articles I am writing for one of my new books Yeah There is a famous statement in the Bible The spirit is willing But the flesh is weak So, they translated into Russian Using a computer The translation was The vodka is strong But the meat is rotten So, the spirit is willing But the flesh is weak What does it mean? Actually it means that When a spiritual seeker The seeker is trying to serve God And he wants to serve God So, the functions of the body Are dragging a person down So, what happened is He just translated it What does spirit mean? You translate spirit into Russian It is vodka Spirit is alcohol So, alcohol is vodka And then, willing They translate it as strong So, the vodka is strong Now the flesh you translate it as meat And weak you got translated as rotten So, the full meaning can get distorted What does this word mean? So, Just by By just going for semantics Without going for meanings Without going for feelings In communication There are two aspects There are meanings and there are feelings So, meanings is about semantics Feelings is about aesthetics Krishnavijay was telling about this There is tattva and there is rasa So, in understanding philosophy In understanding any tradition We have to have a combination of Semantics and aesthetics Otherwise Semantics and aesthetics need to be combined So, you cannot say that In the name of bhavanuvat There is no question of arthauni This is the bhava and I think this is the bhava You can have endless subjectivity by that That is not the basis Because if you look at the overall flow Then the logic of the Kururan becomes clear Because Krishna is immediately there To gain a proper understanding So, when we see those two verses in their context Then we understand that What Srila Prabhupada is giving is precise It is from a son who just wants to do something foolish And leave And the father tells him don’t do it From the father’s perspective That whatever he is doing is mischievous So, don’t do it like that Any questions about this? So, let’s move forward Give up these three What will happen when one gives up these three? Krishna will explain in the next verse So, etairvimukta If one becomes mukta from these three Tamodwarai So, Krishna is very clear Earlier narakadwara, now is tamodwara So, tamo is ignorance or mode of ignorance or darkness So, these are the doors to darkness or ignorance Tribhirnarai Then achirati When one is free from this One can behave in what way? Achirati atmanahashreyas One can act for that way And then kato yati Eventually by acting in this way One will attain the supreme destination So, in a sense Krishna has given us two paths One path will go take to hell The other is saying if you become free from this Then you will go up Actually lust, anger, greed creates sufferings Even in this world Not just in the next world And not just for others Even for that same person If you see today in the world The three biggest problems are Sexual assaults, corruption And physical violence Murders and wars and conflicts So, they are all caused by lust, greed and anger So, if lust, anger and greed were decreased This world would also become a much more Congenial place to live in And to the extent they are increased To that extent Life becomes intolerable even in this world So, if people are The more people become tempered The more people become Relationships become uncontrollable It becomes Anger is Among all these three lust, anger, greed What can be most easily understood as harmful is anger We all see that how people in the fits of anger Do such terrible things Which they themselves bitterly regret afterwards Several years ago There was an India-Pakistan cricket match And India was sort of Winning And the family members had a bet Who will win And suddenly India was winning And India started losing So, this was a Sikh family He just got so angry He was actually a soldier in the Indian army They had a small baby in the house He just took that baby And in a fit of anger He just Flung that baby on the wall only And practically the head cracked apart Everybody was aghast And then all the other families Just gathered the baby And rushed him to the hospital And he was so badly hit That that child died And this uncle who was He felt so guilty That the same wall that he had hit the baby He hit his head against it And hit it so badly that He died himself So, the baby also died He also died It’s a real life incident You know, is it really Is a cricket match worth so much That it’s worth losing Two precious human lives These are extreme incidents But they illustrate What can happen because of anger So, anger is something That you can easily perceive As terrible But greed is also equally terrible And lust is also Because all these three They basically Make us Focused on Just a narrow vision of things This is what I want I don’t care for anything else Lust may be sex I want Greed means Lust relates with greed Sorry, lust relates with sex Greed relates with possession And anger relates with control So, all these three They are related psychologically But essentially They make a person Insensitive Blind to everything Apart from that So So, actually Shreya, long term benefit Comes when we come Comes by freedom from If not freedom from At least Regulation of Lust, anger and greed So, lust relates with One becomes blind to everything Except These make one blind Everything except The object of desire Which in the case of lust is sex In the case of greed is Possession or wealth And the case of anger is Control So, in this way They cause a person to suffer And they cause other people To suffer because of that Now, anger is so terrible But Nowhere in the world Is there any medicine for Curing anger No doctor can give us Some injection, ok You take this injection Your anger will go away Can’t do that They can give some injection Which will put a person to sleep But that’s not the same as Removing anger That’s why these are Things which actually have to be One needs some higher Spiritual experience, higher education Which gives inner control And then one can become free Otherwise one cannot become free So, now Krishna has said In the previous in this verse That one should become free from this It’s not just by will power Krishna says one needs Scriptural guidance That’s how he brings it to the next verse So, यह शास्त्र विदिं उच्छुरुज्य वर्तते कामकारतः नसिद्धिमावापनोति नसुखं नपरांगति नसुखं नपरांगति So, यह शास्त्र विदिं उच्छुरुज्य One who gives up Shastra And वर्तते कामकारतः So, if one gives up Shastra Then one has to act in some way So, if one is not acting according to Dharma One is acting according to Kama Then what will happen to the person नसिद्धिम नसुखं नपरांगति नपरांगति means Contrast of the previous verse ततो याते परांगति नपरांगति Not only will one not get the eternal destination But also One will not get happiness in this life Nor will one get success in this life So, these are three different aspects Which Krishna is talking about What all happens when there is Defiance of Shastra So, when there is defiance of Shastra There is नपरांगति No eternal gain Then नसिद्धिम No material perfection Actually, even to gain something material One has to be able to regulate this to some extent Otherwise, one cannot get anything materially also People just become too lusty or too greedy Then that just takes position of their mind so much That people can’t function materially also So, students get into In colleges, they go on the internet And they start surfing some pornographic sites And that can just devour all their time so much They can’t even do anything materially It just ruins their capacity So, even for material achievement Some amount of self-control is required And then, नसुखम No satisfaction So, Krishna has talked earlier that Actually, happiness comes not by indulgence But by transcendence What happens by indulgence? It just becomes worse and worse भायस्पर्शेष्वसक्तात्मा विन्दत्यात्मनियत्सुखम् सब्रह्मयोवयुक्तात्मा सुखमक्षेमश्नुते So, he has said that actually By giving up external pleasures And focussing on inner Cultivation of inner happiness One will get unlimited happiness This is 5.21 And he contrasts that with 5.22 यही समस्पसिजाव होगा And in 5.23, he says, therefore शक्नोतिहै वयसुरु Therefore, tolerate it So, this नसुखम There is no satisfaction also This is elaborated in 5.21 to 5.23 So, सुखम Comes not by indulgence But by tolerance and transcendence When one indulges Fire just keeps blazing more and more And one is never satisfied नसुखम And As the desires become worse The person suffers more and more Actually, सुखम will come only by tolerance And transcendence So, once one tolerates Then the desire goes down And as one transcends One starts connecting with The inner happiness of Krishna consciousness And then one becomes happy So, If one is not disciplined Then one loses One doesn’t gain anything in the next world Or in this world also So, therefore, this verse is talking about Krishna Repeatedly Follows this pattern Of Instructing by contrasting To give Two verses One is this The other verse is the opposite Instructing by contrasting So, This has been done in 3.31-32 Where Krishna talks about शद्धा Then again this has been done in 4.39-40 Again that is also about शद्धा Sorry This is अग्यंश्च्या शद्धाणश्च्य Then again Krishna has done this in 12.5 And 6-7 Where is impersonalism Versus personalism 12.5 says that क्लेशो धिक्तरस्तेशाम It’s very troublesome And 12.6 and 7 say भवामि नचिरात पार्था तेशाम अहम् समुद्धर्था 12.5 says that Oh, if you follow impersonalism Progress will be very troublesome for you You are a devotee You will quickly come to me And I will personally uplift you So this is Instructing by contrasting Any other examples of Instructing by contrasting The classic example is जान्ति देव वर्ता देव Isn’t it By this, this By this, by this You choose accordingly That is 9.25 Various destinations Krishna has done this many times And the most direct will be Will come in 18.58 Where this is the verse You directly केसी or not केसी मच्चित्दा सर्वदुर्गानी मत्प्रसादातरिश्यसी अथचेत्तमहंकारा नश्रोष्यसी विनंक्षिसी If you become conscious of me You will pass over all obstacles By my grace If you don’t Then You will be lost So instructing by contrasting Has the advantage that The instruction becomes Self-evident So as I mentioned earlier Gita Is Not so much A book of commandments As it is a book of Choices Book of choices And consequences Krishna tells you Choose this, this will happen Choose this, now you decide What you want to do So this mood of the Gita Will be very much evident in 18.63 Where Krishna will tell As you desire So you may do So he is basically giving a choice But then he will tell These choices will have These consequences So Krishna may also give some tell Do this, don’t do this But the emphasis is not on Directly Thou shall not kill Thou shall not It’s not like that Krishna is telling You do this, this will happen You do this, this will happen Now you decide what you want to do So instructing by contrasting So let us see how Krishna contrasts In this particular verse So Therefore Pramana means The authority By the pramana of Shastra What should you decide What I should do What I should not do And By studying Shastra Once you understand Then you can act Ultimately All of us We need Some kind of Guidance for Choosing Every day When we wake up If every day was Every day we had to make Every single choice We would go crazy For example Now if I am typing on the computer Every time I have to type a word If I have to decide the font If I have to decide the font size If I have to decide the line spacing If I have to decide the Resolution between The various Colours and gradients And If it would not Allow me to type a single word Without that For every single letter Every single word I would go crazy So What is there There are certain default patterns Default templates These default choices When they are set Then They enable us to focus on The more important issues of life Ok I would like to have Particular layout Particular setting But that is not more important Most important thing is What do I want to do So if the default settings Itself take too much of my time If there are no default settings And every day I have to Start with new settings Then I will go crazy In just making trivial Choices So what happens in Society is If people don’t have any Guidelines Then everything Single thing Takes so much time Every single thing It makes Life very complex So if I wake up in the morning If I don’t have any regulation Some You know Actually one of the big advantages Of say Having a regulated life is Ok this time I have to get up Otherwise if you remember The pre devotional life Sometimes When you wake up You spend May be half an hour One hour deciding only Whether I should get up Or not get up Isn’t it? So much time gets wasted When we are Not decided Should I get up Or not get up Then we don’t get proper rest also And after getting up We beat ourselves Why did I waste so much time So just have a regulation It makes Ok that time You may not feel like getting up But get up Take bath And start working And feel quite Life goes on So Or if you don’t have time For eating Then what happens Should I eat now? Ok I ate at that time Now I am feeling hungry again Should I eat now? Actually The more There is no standard Pattern for our life The more It creates anxiety Because every small thing For example Now if we have We just have A standard dress Hoti kurta It makes things simple Otherwise Ok should I wear This shirt And this pant Do this shirt And this pant match But if this shirt And pant match Then do I have A belt I can wear I have a belt But I don’t have a tie According to that I have a tie But my shoes Don’t look like that And you know But I wear this colour This friend doesn’t like That colour So many things Become complicated Because There are no Default patterns So essentially People decide Their choices Based on Four more actions Moods Customs Traditions Mood Logic Custom Tradition And scripture So Ok Why did you eat that I feel like doing that I felt like that I feel like doing that Logic means It makes sense Custom means Everyone is doing it Or you could Instead of custom You can use The word Fashion Tradition is We have always done it And scripture is Because God wants us to do it So You know Among these Four things Mood Logic Fashion And tradition All these Are Moveable lighthouses A lighthouse Is Meant to guide a ship If you come here There are rocks If you come here There are no rocks So come on this side Don’t come on this side But imagine The lighthouse itself moves And Because of the lighthouse The ship goes into the rocks So that will be disastrous Lighthouse has to be fixed So If our decisions Are made on First four are Moveable lighthouses If we make our Decisions based on Mood, logic or fashion Fashion or tradition All these will keep changing What seems fashionable today Will be Unfashionable tomorrow And That cannot be a parameter Of guidance It’s changing Only The last is a Immovable lighthouse That’s why Scripture Is our basis Scripture is our Foundation For action Now that doesn’t mean That mood, logic Fashion, tradition Have to be neglected They have to be Subordinated They have to be subordinated That means Say for example When Srila Prabhupada Was doing Buddhist Devotees were doing Buddhist They said Can we wear the Civil dress at that time Yes Prabhupada said okay So sometimes We may take into Cognisance also The current fashion There’s nothing wrong in that But that is not The final Deciding factor The For us The first And the last Deciding factor is Scripture In between Other factors can also Be incorporated So therefore Make scripture The first And the last Deciding factor First means Okay this is what Scripture says Fine I’ll do it this way But then Other people What they’ll think about it Will it help me In my service Will it create some Think about all those things Look at mood, logic Fashion, tradition And then finally Is it in agreement With scripture Yes Or is it adjustable According to scriptural Tradition Yes it is Then I’ll adjust So otherwise Indecision Takes so much Mental energy Of people Because every single Small thing When it is up For choice It makes life The Unlimited possibilities Can become paralysing Generally people want More possibilities Expand your possibilities But when the Possibilities are expanded That also creates Anxiety What if I make A wrong choice So sometimes people Become paralysed By possibilities So the scripture Makes things easier For them I’ll give a simple example For explaining this In America And in Europe And to some extent Now it’s happening in India Not so much in India till now Often you can Sue doctors very easily If some medical Treatment goes wrong And the patient suffers In some way The patient can Sue the doctors So The doctors In order to play safe When a patient Comes with a disease The doctor will say Okay these are the symptoms So when these Five symptoms are there This indicates that This disease is present But you also have This symptom Now when this symptom Is present You might have this disease So the doctor says Okay based on these symptoms You might have This disease Or this disease Or this disease And if you have This disease You can have Treatment by Say surgery Or you can have Treatment by Simple medicine Or you can have Treatment by Injection Or you can do this And for this disease You can have These treatments For this disease You can have These treatments Now tell me What do you want to do? The patient will Go crazy The doctor will Tell me what to do How can the patient Decide that? It becomes so difficult So Actually Ultimately Even in material life We have to put trust And we have to The authority Has to be trustworthy Here The In a sense By expanding The possibilities For the patient What are we doing? We are increasing The anxiety And we are paralysing The patient So When people Reject scripture So Just remove The Instead of The doctor As the authority Yes scripture Is the authority You remove scripture And then Everything is up for grabs How you dress What you eat With whom you interact And everything Becomes up for grabs Everything becomes Free for choosing Then the sense of Responsibility that is there That becomes crushing That becomes crushing That’s why Shastra Pramana Makes life Much much simpler And Otherwise life becomes Extremely complicated So what is this? Defiance of Shastra Yeah So here What happens is Paralysed by Possibilities Can you give some example? I’ll write this down Then we can Paralyse the possibility So example Patient being told To choose among Various treatments The patient will go crazy Similarly People Or other individuals One one person Being chose Told to choose About everything in life Without any I’ll just put it here Without any guidance from scripture So it’s true that In a normal medical treatment When the patient has to consent And the patient needs to be informed That this is what the disease is This is what treatment we are going to take Similarly We have to study scripture And understand what the scripture Is telling certain things And When we understand that And then practise it Then things become More easy But ultimately There has to be some standards There has to be some defaults Otherwise The anxiety will just Ruin us It will paralyse us Any questions about this? Okay So we’ll go to the next chapter We’ll just discuss one or two verses From there Just quick overview Of the 16th chapter here Remember Yeah So what we discussed is Divine and demoniac qualities That’s the first Nine verses Then The activities of the demoniac Extend to 18 And the 18th verse concludes With how they are envious And the consequences Of their action Are described in 19-20 And 21-22 describes The cause in terms of Lust, anger, greed And the solution is That either follow Shastra or Defy Shastra So first Krishna tells If you defy Shastra What happens And then he concludes Please follow scripture Now the 17th chapter If you remember I am describing How things are moving forward 13.22 is the beeju From that the tree has come Now What causes the tree to grow Is described in 14th chapter 15th chapter Describes the tree itself And how the soul Wanders within the tree How Krishna maintains us From there And how Krishna liberates us From there Then after the 16th chapter Describes the two extremities Of the tree The upper and the lower The divine and the demoniac 17th chapter will now Describe the intermediate Aspects of the tree So Krishna is telling That Krishna you told Arjuna is telling over here Krishna you said that Those who follow Shastra And give up Kama They will be elevated Those who Defy Shastra And follow Kama Sorry Those who follow Shastra And reject Kama They will get elevated Those who reject Shastra And follow Kama They will get degraded But what about some people Who Do not just succumb Directly to Kama They have some Shraddha But that Shraddha Is not in Shastra What happens to those people Krishna What kind of faith is there Now Krishna Sorry Arjuna has Adopted Krishna’s Frame of analysis What is the frame of analysis It is in terms of three modes Because Krishna has Arjuna has heard Krishna Speak a full chapter On three modes And he says okay These people Who are in between Who don’t have faith In scripture What is the nature Of their faith What is the nature Of their faith So we will answer now Is it Sattvic Rajasic or Tamasic Shri Bhagavan Vacham Trividha Bhavati Shraddha Dehinam Saasvabhavajam Sattvic Rajasic Chaiva Tamasic Chetitam Shruno Hamsic Chetitam Shruno So Trividha Bhavati Shraddhak So Krishna doesn’t answer The question directly In fact You will have to search Throughout the chapter To answer What is the specific Answer to Krishna To find out What is the specific Answer to Arjuna’s question We will see How we will discover it But he says Okay what is the Faith of those people Who have Where is the faith Of those people Who don’t follow Shastra But have some kind Of faith So Krishna So is there faith In goodness Passion Ignorance Krishna answers Actually faith Is in these three modes Trividha Bhavati Shruno Shraddhak And what is So in a sense What is Krishna adding Arjuna has asked What is the question Is there faith in goodness Passion Ignorance And Krishna says Faith is in three types Goodness Passion Ignorance So you wonder What is the information It is just restating The question No it is not Restating the question It is Dehinamsa Swabhavaja Swabhavaja Swabhavaja means This will be their faith According to their Swabhav According to their nature So What Krishna is telling is Whatever we have Our behaviour Is You remember I discussed long ago Factors that shape our behaviour Do you remember What are the four factors That shape our behaviour In general I will come to this A little later Let’s do this overview Chapter 17 Krishna says first Krishna says recognise the faith level from the modes.
So observe the modes of a person then you can observe the faith level and then Krishna does a sort of backflash to the previous chapter and gives two verses which talk about the austerity of the demoniac. Then he talks about to analyse the modes, to analyse the level of faith of a person we can’t look in the heart of people. So we have to look at their actions and from their actions we have to infer what is there in their heart.
So what is the level of what is the mode of their faith to understand that we have to evaluate the mode of the actions that express their faith and here there are four actions what is the food that they eat, what are the sacrifices that they perform and what are the austerities or charities that they do and then this is okay wherever we are we don’t have to be stuck at that level. We can rise from that level higher. So what sacrifices we are doing we can make them transcendental by uttering Om Tatsa.
Now it’s not that Om Tatsa just utterance is there, there is an attitude that is transformational underlying it but that’s the principle. So this is the overview of the chapter. So Arjuna’s question is answered by Krishna saying faith is understood by looking at the modes.
Modes are understood by looking at actions and whatever be the mode can move up from that mode by spiritualising the activities. So specific words and we’ll stop. So nature, nurture, culture and choice.
These are the four factors. The fifth factor is grace. So nature, nurture, culture.
These are three primary factors that affect our behaviour. Some people are short-tempered, some people are very introvert. Why are they like that? There is a nature.
That is the way they are born. So nature. Apart from nature, what affects our behaviour also our nurture, the way we were brought up.
So if some people’s parents were very religious, children have a natural religious inclination. Nurture is there. Then there is culture.
Culture in a sense refers to the where we are living. It could we could say this association. What is our present situation? The culture also affects us.
Sometimes when people go to America and come back, then their English becomes sort of westernised. They start speaking. It’s not the natural way they speak but they sort of become enculturated with that kind of speech.
So that culture also affects us. Now, according to reductionistic science or according to materialism, these are the only three factors that determine our behaviour. There is nothing beyond this.
All of us are products of either nature, nurture or culture. But this is incorrect. Because the standard example is there were two twins who had the same nature because genetically they are born from the same genetic pool.
Then they had the same parents. Their nurture was also same. They may have gone to the same schools also.
So the culture is also same. But still, one twin may be very kind and considerate and the other may be cruel and insensitive. Why the difference? That indicates that there is something individual beyond nature, nurture and culture.
And that comes from the Atma. The Atma can make choices. And those choices can be, the capacity to make choices can be enhanced or diminished by the way we live.
The more we situate ourselves in a higher mode, our capacity to make right choices increases. A person in goodness, if a person is offered a drink, no, I will not take it. He has that freedom to choose.
And the other person in ignorance, if he is offered a drink, his only choice is should I take beer or whisky? He doesn’t have the capacity to choose, no, I will not drink. He has to drink. So what has happened? The lower the mode, the lesser is our capacity to choose.
The higher the mode, the greater is our capacity to choose. The lower the mode, the lesser our capacity to choose. And similarly, the greater the grace, the greater is our capacity to choose.
That’s why among these three, this is the most important choice. So now Krishna, what is he telling in this particular verse? He is saying that our shraddha is sabhavaja. That means it is born by nature, but then it can further be assessed and changed.
That we will discuss in the evening class. Any question about this quickly? Thank you very much.