Study the Gita for understanding it not undermining it

Transcript

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Study the Gita for understanding it, not undermining it the approach with which we study a subject determines what we see in it what we learn from it and how much we benefit from it suppose a person goes to a doctor not for taking a medicine but for evaluating whether the doctor is giving the proper medicine or not now if this person is an authorized inspector and there is reasonable reason to doubt this particular doctor’s competence or character then that critical approach in evaluating the doctor’s diagnosis and prescription is valid but if a person is sick and when they go to the doctor if their purpose is to prove how the doctor is wrong then even if they succeed proving the doctor wrong doesn’t help them become better doesn’t help them heal so of course even when they are sick they need to have an adequate level of intelligent discerning capacity to be able to evaluate the doctor’s statements and then decide whether to take the treatment the doctor is prescribing or not having said that it’s still important to know that the critical approach can help us know what is wrong it won’t help us to get right ourselves so the same principle applies when we use a critical or ultra-critical approach when studying the Bhagavad Gita the Bhagavad Gita actually invites intellectual scrutiny it invites serious contemplation on its message 18.63 deliberate deeply and then decide what you want to do so in principle the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t hide itself behind a wall of faith and reverence and demand that because this is the word of God and because you are meant to worship God and obey God therefore you must obey what is given in the Gita not at all the Gita’s mood is one of inviting open-minded enquiries reasonable enquiries and this principle extends not just to the Gita wherein at many points Krishna’s speech is interrupted by Arjuna wherein Arjuna asks serious questions so when we study the Gita we seek understanding our goal is not undermining it undermining it means finding something false this doesn’t make sense, that’s illogical this is unscientific, that is self-contradictory these kind of statements more than revealing our intelligence they actually expose our disposition now these questions can be valid and these questions deserve to be answered if somebody has those questions at the same time the basic approach has to be positive Krishna talks about approaching a Gita teacher one who has seen the truth Krishna gives the approach, gives the attitude with which the principles to keep in mind while approaching advidhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya apatikshanti te jnanam jnanina sthapva-darshinah so it’s advidhi pranipatena and for this purpose bow down, pranipat, humility pariprashnena, ask, it’s not just bow down and accept whatever is being said but ask questions sevaya, render service because ultimately the conclusion of philosophy is the rendering of service the more we exhibit this disposition of service the more we will find ourselves being protected and elevated above the vagaries of the mind the Bhagavad Gita helps us identify our inner world it helps us catch when the inner world starts working against our interests when there start emerging ideas images, intentions to do certain impulsive things at that time the ethos wisdom pops up in our mind and gives us the reason, the rationale the intellectually satisfying level to resist the conditionings of the mind to resist the suggestions that the mind is coming up with which of course it is coming up because of its conditionings so we all have our conditionings particularly but the conditioning to be doubtlessly doubtful that means to have no doubts about the approach of having doubts that approach will prevent us from deepening our understanding instead if we move progressively towards cultivating, seeking open minded understanding and we will find that all of our senses in our mind will be illumined by knowledge and the more it is illumined by knowledge the more we will savour higher then we can move towards having the proper process by which we can get proper understanding a few years ago I was invited to the UNESCO