When Achievements Feel Pointless – Gita Verses 15 Gita 2.8 – 2.10

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
delighted to be here now today and in the previous text we had discussed about how Arjuna said that I just need to know what is the right thing to do now when we ask questions there are different kinds of questions we may ask I was once in a plane I was driving and I was doing my mantra meditation and somebody asked I have a question for you I said can you wait for a few minutes, I am just completing my meditation he said ok, and I finished about 15 minutes later he said ok what’s your question, oh I forgot the question so sometimes people just have a casual question but some people have very serious questions so Arjuna is driving home the gravity of his question over here by the statement that comes so he says so here Arjuna is very forcefully making a key point in general life is such that we all have some setbacks or others so if we are going in the path of life and there is some destination some goal some prize which is there at the end and while going on this path sometimes there are difficulties, say there is a down then there is a up, there is a down we seem to be, so all these dualities are there on the path but quite often these downs these places where we are tough so we say that sometimes it’s worth it, it was worth it, at the end when we achieve something, all the trouble was worth this so here in general if you consider this is the prize and the downs which you have to face is the prize, what we have to pay so generally speaking for us the prize has to be more than the prize that what I am going to achieve is more than what I am going to give so for Arjuna as a warrior he is meant to fight and in fighting victory is glorious so he is saying that even if I attain the greatest success in the path, now those success can be in two forms, one is kingdom on the earth if he wins the war he will attain an unrivaled kingdom on the earth and we will talk about second trajectory a little later but if he dies a heroic death as a warrior, he will attain heaven so we will talk about the world view what is the place of heaven is but he says both of them are considered great successes for a warrior but Arjuna is saying over here that neither of these are worth it so he is saying right now the emptiness that I am experiencing, he says the the he says there is a grief there is agony the angst that is drying up my senses it is making my very existence meaningless so he said that this meaninglessness that is conveying very poetically very articulately, very eloquently this meaninglessness this emptiness is not going to be filled it is not going to be filled by gaining some possessions so quite often we tell people when somebody is having a tough phase come on, push through it, you will achieve this but if the goal itself becomes uninspiring the goal itself is not going to what is the point of it all when we start thinking like that then we just can’t move forward so as for all of us the way we are born, often our life path is set out for us okay, now you get a good education, you get a good job then you get married, you have a good family and you do this, this, this so we all have to some extent a life path set for us by society but there are times when this life path just doesn’t seem to make any sense, the various goals even the most cherished goals that we may have, they just don’t make any sense for us so this is the time when through this Arjuna is indicating the question he is having is not a casual question it is an existential question it is a question about casual about the very meaning and purpose and value of existence it’s a very very consequential question for him casual question is okay, if I get the answer good, if I don’t get the answer, there is not a big difference, but Arjuna’s question is in this category so that is the broad implication of this particular text why is this existential? is that for him existence basically means some kind of movement we always see ourselves as going somewhere in life I am here, this is where I would like to go but where we are going if that itself does not have any meaning then what is the point of existence itself so I am saying existential question means that he is saying my very life has no meaning when this grief is drying up my senses, that grief is leaving me feeling empty and hollow within myself so that is what saying it the grief is just sapping out the juice of existence whatever gives us the flavor the life, the joy the juice of existence, whatever it is is being sapped away by it so in that sense, Arjuna is not asking for a palliative some pain medication oh I am feeling bad, how can I stop feeling bad ok just have a drink watch a nice movie, you will feel better he is saying no this is much deeper no palliative no pain killer is going to work over here so in one sense you could say that very good point here Arjuna is taking the issue deeper initially what we saw was Arjuna was in emotional angst he couldn’t hold his bow he was he was horripilating his mouth throat was choking all the indications of emotional angst but he said I am not merely overcome by emotions there is an ethical crisis, there is an ethical dilemma below this so sometimes emotions, ok you feel bad but it’s much deeper, I just don’t know what is the right thing to do and then if you go below the ethical there is existential search itself this is where Krishna will go in answering this question so Arjuna himself goes deeper over here it’s not just I am feeling weak I am feeling bad so this emotional to existential ethical Arjuna has talked about this especially in his 2.4 to 2.5 Krishna has said don’t give in to this weakness it is unbecoming of you I am not being weak, I am not being cowardly I am very deeply concerned how can I kill my relatives how can I kill my guru and teacher it’s an ethical dilemma but now he is saying I just don’t know what is the right thing to do if I fight and win if I lose neither of them seems to be good and even the best result that I might get out of this that is I just get an unrivaled kingdom even that it doesn’t seem to be worth it so especially this 2.7 to 8 it is indicating this way that he is going deeper from the ethical domain to the existential domain so you could say emotional angst means this doesn’t feel good or I don’t feel good and I don’t know what is good, I am using good in a more of an ethical sense over here and then after that he is saying here especially you know what is really good what really counts what matters in life if the attainment of heaven the attainment of unrivaled kingdom if that doesn’t count then what really counts that’s how he is asking and he is going deeper and deeper now the Bhagavad Gita once the camera goes back the camera is focused on Krishna and Arjuna from there it is going back now to Sanjay and Dhritarashtra so Sanjay Vacha eva muktva rishi kesham udakesha parantapa nayot seti govindam muktva tu shvim babhu aham in one sense Arjuna has in this particular text giving a categorical decision I shall not fight nayot seti govindam but in addition to that he is he is falling silent over here there is speech I won’t fight after that there is silence so the point is when he is saying here I won’t fight nayot seti I won’t fight I can’t fight whichever way you want to look at it he is indicating here this is a slightly different decision I won’t fight but the mood over here is I need to know the answer so earlier so this in earlier also Krishna Arjuna had indicated I won’t fight when he had put aside his bow that was in 146 when he had said that he had cast aside his bow in grief that also was the same statement I won’t fight in one sense but there it was more like a decision I won’t fight here here it was more of a resolution to wait for the answer it’s suppose somebody is sick somebody is sick with a possibly terribly sick with possibly terminal disease and they have almost lost hope and maybe they have to take some very difficult treatment like chemo and all its nausea and all the reactions are there so I won’t take any treatment but then somebody tells them maybe there is some treatment available so but no I am not just going to tell it because you recommended to me I need to understand how this is different how this is different so one is just no treatment at all so that was Arjuna in 146 but here it is no treatment till I understand till I understand how this is going to work what is this going to do so Arjuna is glorified over here by using two epithets epithets are glorificatory names used to refer to him so it is said that here the two names used for him are first Gudakesha he is the conqueror of sleep now sleep or dream it all indicates ignorance so he is saying that he is not a person he is a person who has conquered ignorance in the past he was such a tireless warrior when he would practice archery all day he would learn from his teacher and all night practically he would practice archery so this indicates that he is going to conquer the current ignorance that is there he is not an ordinary person he is a special person and then another word is he is a chastiser of enemies so here an enemy of confusion, enemy of doubt that has come over him so he will be overcoming that and in this way the Gita while Sanjay is speaking he is using specific names which also are allusions, pointers so that there is going to be illumination coming for Arjuna so both of these are talking about Arjuna’s potential for enlightenment in the future he is basically ready to hear, I am ready to wait, I am ready to hear and in that sense he is showing his preparedness for receiving the answer reacting to the particular action of the other person, particular condition of the other person but that’s not Krishna is not reacting like that to that Krishna is in one sense seeing the bigger picture the bigger picture is what? that Arjuna was a friend, Arjuna was the warrior and that friend has now become a student it’s a dramatic unexpected change it is that a battlefield has now become a classroom so sometimes life just throws such dramatic twists at one level we could be just shocked and aghast what’s happening but the very fact that something so dramatic has happened and Krishna is especially smiling because now he has the opportunity to speak spiritual wisdom the opportunity to speak wisdom for Arjuna’s benefit and for the benefit of the whole world so in one sense the setting where Arjuna and Krishna are in the middle of the battlefield in the middle of the battlefield that indicates that this discussion happened in a public setting that this discussion was not meant to be private just among the two people it was meant for the two of them but it was also meant to be universal so the wisdom in the Gita is both specific for Arjuna and it is universal for all living beings so Krishna will be speaking that wisdom and that dramatic change is what Krishna is smiling and appreciating that’s what he is smiling at in the big picture that is indicated in Sanskrit also that he appeared as if smiling he smiled and then he restrained himself this is a serious situation he adopted the appropriate gravitas immediately there was a smile moment really sometimes when we are talking with someone why are you smiling? no I am not smiling there may be some thought in their mind but maybe that’s not appropriate to talk at that time they just restrain the smile and move forward so when Krishna starts speaking in the next verse there will be a significant gravitas in what he will speak we just discussed three points today based on each of the vertex 2.8 I discussed how outer gain it cannot compensate for inner pain especially inner emptiness and that’s what Arjuna is categorically declaring so what is really meaningful for him he wants to know that and this is where we spend a lot of time the question has gone down from simply emotional certainly not emotional not just ethical it has gone down to an existential level what makes existence meaningful what is the point of living and then 2.9 discussed about how Arjuna there is foreshadowing Arjuna’s intention is that Arjuna’s determination to learn that is shown when he is saying I won’t fight that means I am going to wait till I know and the epithets indicate Arjuna’s names foreshadowing that his wait is not going to be futile he is going to gain the wisdom because he is a conqueror of sleep and he is a conqueror of enemies and then 2.10 we discussed how Krishna’s mood it is initially as if smiling because a dramatic turn of events and he is appreciating that and then he will be eager to share wisdom for the world’s edification Thank you.
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