(Gita 2) Our strong tendency to resist the Truth || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 25.02.23, Vedant Mahotsav Rishikesh  Context:  ~ How to know what to choose? ~ What should one learn from Arjun?  ~ What makes Arjun worthy?  ~ How to attain perfection? ~ Why is there so much difference in what we say and what we do? ~ Is visiting temples makes one religious?  ~ What is the real meaning of Dharma?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00:00 Shreemad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 1, Verse 21.

00:00:19 We have seen so far the predicament of the one who finds himself hopelessly caged against

00:00:40 the truth.

00:00:45 We have seen the anxiety and the nervousness of Duryodhana in the first half of the first

00:00:56 chapter.

00:01:01 In spite of having a larger army and more experienced fighters, Duryodhana still is

00:01:19 in an internal turmoil.

00:01:26 Numbers suggest to him that all is well with his side.

00:01:41 Yet those numbers he can sense are just a loose mass.

00:01:50 There is no center to keep those numbers together and that's what is making him almost delirious.

00:02:10 He approaches Drona and it is very strange, starts counting to him the names of the warriors

00:02:27 on the Pandava side, as if Drona does not know.

00:02:35 And having told Drona of the warriors and the strength on the Pandava side, he tells

00:02:47 him the Pandavas are well-need sufficient in terms of strength.

00:02:59 Their force is sufficient.

00:03:05 And my side, in spite of having fighters like you and the Hundred Brothers and the invincible

00:03:21 Bhishma, we are still insufficient.

00:03:29 It's as if in a moment of epiphany, reality has struck Duryodhana.

00:03:35 He sees that he has lost out on the one central thing that enables you to fight any war in

00:03:42 life.

00:03:45 He has missed out on Krishna even though he always had the opportunity to have him.

00:03:55 In terms of relationship, formal relationship, Krishna and Duryodhana are almost as near

00:04:10 as are Krishna and Arjuna, almost.

00:04:16 In terms of access to, Duryodhana was never unfortunate or deprived.

00:04:33 But he never realized that one central thing that's important in life.

00:04:43 Therefore he never knew what to choose.

00:04:49 Therefore he was rather elated when he got Krishna's army rather than Krishna himself.

00:05:02 And even more so when he learned that Krishna is not going to pick up weapons during the

00:05:09 war.

00:05:12 He didn't realize the value of consciousness compared to the value of material.

00:05:26 When it came to choosing between the material that could be had from Krishna and the guidance

00:05:33 that could be had from Krishna, he opted for the material.

00:05:44 And that's the central mistake each of us makes.

00:05:50 Krishna says elsewhere in the Gita, you can have either me or my Maya.

00:06:00 These are the only two options that you have.

00:06:06 There is no third thing to have.

00:06:08 In fact there is not even a second thing to have because even the Maya that you rush after

00:06:15 is mine.

00:06:19 And the more you will get entangled, embroiled there, the more you will be forced to remember

00:06:29 me.

00:06:30 After all it's my Maya.

00:06:37 But nevertheless still most people opt for Maya, so did Duryodhana.

00:06:45 And just before the war is to begin, Duryodhana seems to have realized that he has made an

00:06:54 irreversible blunder.

00:06:59 So we see all kinds of scattered and loose statements from him, all denoting a realization

00:07:07 of weakness.

00:07:16 Then we come to Arjuna.

00:07:19 Another case study.

00:07:23 What does Duryodhana stand for?

00:07:26 Duryodhana stands for someone who has made repeatedly such bad judgments in life that

00:07:41 now it has become practically impossible for him to be redeemed.

00:07:48 That's who Duryodhana stands for.

00:07:50 That's one extreme of consciousness, a type of consciousness that continuously denies

00:08:01 and defies truth all its life and find itself finally cornered into a spot from where it

00:08:14 cannot recover, even if it has just seen the truth.

00:08:20 In a moment, even if it has just realized that it has been making blunders.

00:08:25 Yet the weight of all the misjudgments in the past is so heavy that it is now just impossible

00:08:37 or too late to recover or make amends.

00:08:42 That's who Duryodhana stands for.

00:08:45 And it's a very tragic situation, you know.

00:08:51 Just when you are at the end of your life and if Duryodhana can see this much that his

00:08:56 forces are insufficient, he can also probably see that all those including him who are arranged

00:09:08 against Krishna's side are very near their end, right?

00:09:16 If Duryodhana can see that in spite of having an army that's almost 50% larger than the

00:09:24 army of the Pandavas, he is still insufficient and incapable, if he can see that.

00:09:33 Probably he can see the clear conclusion as well and the conclusion is that all of you

00:09:40 are going to be finished.

00:09:45 How will it feel to us when we have lived through several precious decades of life to

00:09:57 realize that it's too late?

00:10:01 That realization will be so painful.

00:10:03 Let's wish that we never realize at all then.

00:10:08 Let's wish that we die in our ignorance without ever having had the realization that Duryodhana

00:10:14 is having in the first chapter.

00:10:19 You have invested all your time, energy, money, everything in your existence into a particular

00:10:26 center, into a particular kind of life and then in the evening of life you realize that

00:10:36 you have just wasted it all.

00:10:41 Please experience it today before that experience comes too late.

00:10:49 If you experience that when you are 60 or 70 or 80, won't it be too late?

00:10:56 So let's pre-live that experience.

00:11:00 Let's put imagination to some useful service.

00:11:08 Imagine how would it feel?

00:11:11 You are 70 and then you realize that you have totally wasted life.

00:11:16 How would it be?

00:11:20 Very tragic, no?

00:11:25 A chill runs down the spine, almost as if you have seen a ghost, that kind of scare

00:11:39 and that's what Duryodhana is going through.

00:11:42 Even before the war has begun, he has seen that he has lost not only the war but his

00:11:50 entire life.

00:11:52 In a sense he has seen that he is already dead.

00:11:54 Worse than that he has seen that he never lived at all.

00:12:01 That's the nature of reality.

00:12:04 Often it shows up in very unexpected moments.

00:12:10 Moments of significance, moments of great pressure and challenge have this characteristic.

00:12:21 What you have been trying to hide to yourself just gets revealed in that moment because

00:12:27 that moment is extremely significant because the pressure of that moment just shatters

00:12:36 your pretense.

00:12:41 The fact of that moment, the heaviness of that fact, your pretense gets collapsed under

00:12:50 it.

00:12:51 It breaks down and then you have no option but to confront the reality as it is and for

00:12:57 Duryodhana the reality is quite gory.

00:13:05 Then we come to Arjuna.

00:13:06 Let's see how Arjuna is feeling and Arjuna is the other end of consciousness.

00:13:12 Where does Arjuna stand?

00:13:17 Duryodhana stands in an almost hopeless state.

00:13:23 The state is of near hopelessness.

00:13:28 We cannot say perfect hopelessness.

00:13:32 Why not perfect hopelessness?

00:13:34 Because the war has yet not begun.

00:13:36 Duryodhana can still choose to rush to Krishna's side and say I can see that I have been erring.

00:13:45 I admit my mistakes.

00:13:49 I realize I have been operating from just the wrong center of greed, covetousness, envy.

00:13:59 I see that and I surrender.

00:14:02 Duryodhana can say that but Duryodhana won't say that.

00:14:04 So I am saying Duryodhana is in a state of near helplessness.

00:14:08 The option to correct yourself is always available and that's the beauty about life.

00:14:16 It involves choice.

00:14:20 You always have the choice to begin anew irrespective of how badly mistaken you have been in your

00:14:29 past, irrespective of how misplaced and blunderous your choices in the past have been.

00:14:41 You can still choose to disown your previous self and start afresh.

00:14:48 That's the beauty about life.

00:14:50 That's the thing with consciousness.

00:14:53 Consciousness is simply choice but Duryodhana won't exercise the right choice though the

00:15:01 option is there.

00:15:02 So we said he is in a near ended state.

00:15:06 He is finished off nearly.

00:15:11 That one percent choice is still available though he won't use it.

00:15:15 Then you come to Arjuna.

00:15:18 And Arjuna is close to perfection.

00:15:25 Perfection in the form of Krishna but nearly.

00:15:33 But nearly.

00:15:34 He is still maintaining a distance.

00:15:40 Krishna is nearly finished and Arjuna is nearly saved.

00:15:48 Yet even when it comes to Arjuna, a distance remains from perfection.

00:15:55 A gap remains.

00:15:56 Arjuna is not yet fully surrendered.

00:16:01 Arjuna is maintaining his personal self that comes from both biology and society.

00:16:11 And here on we'll hear arguments coming from those centers, from Arjuna, from the social

00:16:19 center and from the biological center.

00:16:25 The biological center will obviously talk of feelings of attachment, relationships of

00:16:34 blood and the social center will talk of all the prevalent social customs and beliefs that

00:16:49 Arjuna is not feeling courageous enough or clear enough to violate.

00:16:59 So let's just listen to what Arjuna says and does.

00:17:10 Arjuna says, "Krishna, please take my chariot to a place between the two armies so that

00:17:26 I may see those who stand here for war.

00:17:33 Take me to a place between the two armies.

00:17:36 I want to see everybody who is assembled here for war.

00:17:41 I must know the ones I am going to fight."

00:17:46 So that reflects Arjuna's condition.

00:17:53 On one hand he is with Krishna.

00:17:55 He does not say, "I'll go there on my own, Krishna.

00:17:58 You stay here."

00:18:01 So he wants to maintain his company with Krishna.

00:18:04 He says, "You remain here, but remaining with you I also want to see the ones I am

00:18:13 going to fight.

00:18:17 Obviously I have a deep relationship with you.

00:18:19 I am not abandoning you, but I also don't want to immediately give up on the ones who

00:18:24 have come here to fight.

00:18:28 I want to have a look at them as well."

00:18:31 So Arjuna is with Krishna, but not perfectly with Krishna.

00:18:39 He still has other interests and those other interests show up in the very first utterance

00:18:47 of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

00:18:50 He says, "Take me to a place between the two armies.

00:18:52 I want to see what is going on."

00:18:57 But then is that really something to Arjuna's discredit?

00:19:02 Not really.

00:19:05 Because the others are all welded to their positions.

00:19:13 Nobody else is saying, "I want to observe both the armies."

00:19:15 Arjuna alone says, "I want to observe both the armies."

00:19:19 The others are all welded to their positions and their positions do not include Krishna.

00:19:29 Arjuna is the only one who is with Krishna, but also says, "I want to see the other

00:19:34 world.

00:19:35 My eyes are still on the world.

00:19:37 My eyes are not perfectly with Krishna."

00:19:42 That's Arjuna's situation.

00:19:45 Krishna is with Arjuna and yet Arjuna's mind is feeling pulled towards his worldly

00:19:55 affiliations.

00:19:59 What do we credit him for?

00:20:02 We credit him for being with Krishna and not abandoning Krishna.

00:20:06 And in this we get a clue as to how to operate when the world starts meaning too much to

00:20:20 you.

00:20:21 Go wherever you want to because that has become your situation.

00:20:28 You find yourself unable to resist the pull of the world.

00:20:32 Just as Arjuna is saying, "Please take me near to the opposing army.

00:20:37 Please take me to the center so that I can watch both the armies."

00:20:40 You too are feeling a very strong pull to go near to the world.

00:20:46 Fine, go.

00:20:49 But the trick is to take Krishna along.

00:20:54 Arjuna would have totally lost it.

00:20:56 The Gita would have never happened had Arjuna said, "Krishna, would you mind waiting here

00:21:01 for a while?

00:21:04 I have some sightseeing to do.

00:21:10 After all they are my relatives.

00:21:14 I want to have a quick word with them before I kill them down.

00:21:18 You please wait here."

00:21:19 Arjuna might have as well said that, right?

00:21:22 Even if you find that you have to proceed towards something quite ignoble, take Krishna

00:21:36 with yourself wherever you are going.

00:21:42 And you will find a Gita coming your way to save you.

00:21:46 Because if you are already in a great position, you do not need the Gita.

00:21:51 Gita is needed when you are in trouble.

00:21:54 It's another matter that we are always in trouble.

00:21:56 So we always need the Gita.

00:22:01 But don't make the mistake of abandoning Krishna when you are entering a place that is likely

00:22:10 to swallow you up.

00:22:13 Don't do that.

00:22:16 On the other hand, our Karmakand runs totally the opposite way.

00:22:24 Suppose you keep a small picture of your favourite deity in your pocket in general.

00:22:35 You will find that when you are going to enter some kind of mischief, you will keep that

00:22:43 picture aside.

00:22:44 You will say, "You keep it here.

00:22:47 Because right now I know I am going to do something quite mean.

00:22:51 So I cannot keep this picture and do that kind of thing.

00:22:54 So I am keeping this here.

00:22:58 And then I will proceed and do all that."

00:23:01 No.

00:23:02 The approach has to be opposite.

00:23:05 If you find yourself incapable of stopping in the matter of mischief, do whatever you

00:23:14 feel like.

00:23:15 But take Krishna along with you.

00:23:26 Do not keep the idols and the pictures only in some specified prayer room.

00:23:49 Keep them where you are most likely to be your beastly self.

00:23:57 That's where they should be.

00:24:01 Because that's where, that's when you need support.

00:24:05 That's when you need a Krishna to remind you of the truth.

00:24:13 Instead we confine godliness to some god forsaken sacred spot.

00:24:24 So that godliness does not come to trouble or obstruct when we are pursuing our daily

00:24:33 fallen kind of agendas.

00:24:37 We do that or not?

00:24:49 So fine, Arjuna says, "I want to look at both the armies.

00:24:52 You take me there, Krishna.

00:24:54 You take me there.

00:24:57 Even if I am going to a place that's likely to consume me, I'll ask Krishna to take

00:25:06 me there.

00:25:08 You take me there.

00:25:11 I might be committing a mistake, but if I am asking you to take me there, I am sure

00:25:15 you will save me as well.

00:25:18 I might have made a great mistake, but I have not made the final mistake.

00:25:24 The final mistake is the one that Duryodhana has made.

00:25:30 And that final mistake is to abandon Krishna.

00:25:37 Arjuna is probably making a mistake in being attached, in being oblivious of dharma.

00:25:44 But that one mistake that will totally devastate you, he is not prepared to make that one.

00:25:52 So fine, take me there.

00:25:57 He says, "I wish to observe those who are assembled here for the war, those who want

00:26:09 to please the evil Duryodhana by taking his side.

00:26:13 Who are they?"

00:26:23 So having been requested this way by Arjuna, Rishikesh Krishna drove the chariot to a place

00:26:35 between the two armies, facing Bhishma, Drona and all the other mighty warriors and said,

00:26:41 "Behold, look Arjuna, here are all the Kurus gathered."

00:26:51 And then what does Arjuna see?

00:26:55 Parth sees there stationed the armies, the two armies, the grandfathers, the fathers-in-law,

00:27:05 uncles, brothers, cousins, his own sons, the sons of the Kurus, also the grandsons, the

00:27:15 various friends, teachers and other associates.

00:27:20 All he sees is relationships, relationships, past, affiliations, associations, attachments.

00:27:30 They are already there in a subtle form within him before he says that he wants to be driven

00:27:36 to the center.

00:27:37 Else why would he first of all want to come to the center?

00:27:40 Arjuna is no-wise.

00:27:42 He has fought so many wars and it is uncharacteristic of a fighter to say that he wants to go to

00:27:50 the center just when the fight is to begin.

00:27:53 Arjuna has never done that before.

00:27:55 If Arjuna is found doing that here, the reason is obvious.

00:28:00 The attachment is already there in him even before the war begins, even before he sees

00:28:10 them physically, even before he looks at their forms and is reminded of the memories, even

00:28:18 before the visible nostalgia captures him.

00:28:24 The subtle attachment is still there and it is that subtle thing that has first of all

00:28:29 forced him to come to the center.

00:28:35 Then Arjuna, the son of Kunti, looking at all his kinsmen, spoke full of sorrow.

00:29:05 Krishna seeing these my relatives gathered here eager to fight, my body is failing me.

00:29:21 My limbs shiver and my mouth gets parched.

00:29:30 My hair stands on end.

00:29:34 My limbs are failing me.

00:29:35 My mouth is parched.

00:29:38 My body is shivering and my hair stands on end.

00:29:44 Even this Gandiva that I am so proud of that never fails me, seems to be slipping from

00:29:51 my hand.

00:29:54 Further my skin is burning.

00:29:57 The symptoms that Arjuna narrates here are all physical, gross.

00:30:04 What is it that is actually shivering and burning?

00:30:10 The mind is actually shivering and burning.

00:30:15 The mind is shivering, burning.

00:30:18 One reason we can immediately see.

00:30:22 The reason is physical, the reason of blood and the body.

00:30:30 As is narrated, grandfather, uncles, sons, sons of sons, all other kind of relatives

00:30:46 and any number of friends and associates, people he has known in the past, there is

00:30:52 hardly a face on either side that Arjuna does not already know of and that's turning him

00:31:02 quite uncertain, feeling very weak within.

00:31:14 What's this going to happen?

00:31:15 This one is unlike any war I have fought in the past.

00:31:21 First of all I never have had to face my relatives and even on the few occasions when I indeed

00:31:26 had to face Duryodhana etc.

00:31:29 The war was never supposed to be final.

00:31:32 I could defeat them and let them go.

00:31:35 But here, first of all, entire range of relationships has converged.

00:31:45 There is hardly a kingdom in entire Bharatvarsh that is not represented here on this battlefield.

00:31:52 So first of all practically the entire community has assembled here.

00:31:58 The war is going to be till the end.

00:32:07 We are not going to take any prisoners here.

00:32:12 People are going to be fatally defeated.

00:32:19 The defeat is going to be final, mortal, not just mental.

00:32:26 Nobody is going to be defeated and get out of here alive.

00:32:31 To be defeated is to be killed.

00:32:39 So the same description continues.

00:32:47 "Keshav, I cannot even stand upright.

00:32:53 The mind is quivering so much.

00:32:56 I feel I'll fall.

00:33:00 My mind is in a whirl and I see adverse omens."

00:33:11 Just as you were talking of negative energy and negative vibrations.

00:33:17 Arjun says I am seeing negative omens.

00:33:21 Are the negative omens outside of Arjun?

00:33:24 It's all in his?

00:33:26 And when it's in your mind, then you start seeing it all over the place.

00:33:34 Getting it?

00:33:36 This description of Arjun's condition, does it sound totally alien, totally inexperienced

00:33:45 or have you been through this?

00:33:50 Not always, not daily, but don't we know what it means to be in such a condition?

00:33:57 It's a condition of tear.

00:34:01 One is being pulled apart by opposing forces.

00:34:05 So one is torn.

00:34:08 And when you are in that condition, you find yourself energy-less, indecisive.

00:34:16 As if you'll be no more.

00:34:19 You just want to avoid that situation.

00:34:22 Usually when there is a situation of such deep tension, we escape away or we want to

00:34:28 fall asleep, right?

00:34:30 When inner stress is so much, we want to somehow escape that.

00:34:37 And we'll come to Arjun's plea for escape very soon.

00:34:47 So neither can I stand up nor do I want to fight.

00:34:52 Also I see bad omens and I do not see any good in killing these my own people in battle.

00:35:01 I do not desire anything.

00:35:03 I do not want victory or empire or pleasure.

00:35:09 I don't want any of these.

00:35:13 What is it?

00:35:14 Depression showing up?

00:35:18 Detachment showing up?

00:35:26 This is not detachment or dispassion.

00:35:30 This is not even indecisiveness.

00:35:35 Arjun is making a very clear decision and the clear decision is in the favor of the

00:35:45 body.

00:35:46 Though he says that he is feeling indecisive.

00:35:54 He is saying he feels weak but he is taking a very strong decision.

00:36:01 He says that he is shivering but he is quite firmly making up his mind to not to fight,

00:36:14 to run away.

00:36:17 Do you see this discrepancy between what Arjun is saying and what he is about to do?

00:36:23 He is saying I am feeling uncertain but inwardly he is becoming more and more certain that

00:36:32 I don't have to be here.

00:36:33 I am going and this certainty that is arising within him is the certainty from his body.

00:36:43 The body out of a long process of evolution is designed to not to kill its skin.

00:36:53 That's why most species don't eat their own.

00:36:57 Have you seen that?

00:37:01 And even among members of those species, you won't often find blood relations assaulting

00:37:16 each other.

00:37:19 The reason is simple, the body wants to propagate the DNA.

00:37:26 So if it has to kill, it chooses to kill a distant DNA.

00:37:34 If you kill your brother, you are in terms of DNA killing almost yourself.

00:37:42 You and your brother share same DNA.

00:37:45 So if you kill your brother, it's your own DNA that will have a lower chance of proliferation.

00:37:55 You get this?

00:37:57 So biologically we are designed, programmed to be predisposed towards our family members.

00:38:12 That's the reason parents care so much for their offspring because the offspring is carrying

00:38:20 their.

00:38:22 That's the reason when someone who does not want to produce a kid tells of her decision

00:38:31 to her parents, they say, but you know, your baby is after all your own.

00:38:38 If you adopt a baby, it won't be the same thing.

00:38:43 And if you question the parents, why is an adopted baby not the same as my own baby,

00:38:53 they will not know the answer.

00:38:56 They will not know the answer because they have not studied evolutionary biology.

00:39:02 The answer is simple.

00:39:04 Your baby does not carry your and the entire thing about reproduction is the furtherance

00:39:11 of your own DNA.

00:39:13 That's what the animal inside us wants.

00:39:16 My DNA should continue.

00:39:17 My DNA should continue.

00:39:19 So now you know why when you propose adoption as a substitute to reproduction, people don't

00:39:28 find that very appealing.

00:39:32 And they will not know.

00:39:33 You will ask them for some logic, some argument, they will not know.

00:39:36 You say you adopt a little baby, is it not the same as having your own?

00:39:40 They will not know.

00:39:41 They will not know because the animal inside lives in darkness about itself.

00:39:51 It lives in a very dark cave within where it cannot see even its own face.

00:39:58 So it does not know itself.

00:40:01 That is the reason we have feelings.

00:40:02 But we do not know where those feelings come from.

00:40:07 You want to have a baby.

00:40:09 Somebody asks you, why do you want to have a baby?

00:40:11 You will not know because the animal has no self-knowledge.

00:40:16 The animal is not designed to know itself.

00:40:20 The animal can act but never know why it is acting.

00:40:25 The animal can feel but it will never know why it feels this way.

00:40:33 Same thing is happening here.

00:40:35 Blood relationships.

00:40:40 The body is militating against dharma.

00:40:45 The body says I am bigger than dharma.

00:40:47 I am higher than dharma.

00:40:54 And after the body there is a lot more.

00:40:57 We are coming to that.

00:40:58 So we are coming to that.

00:41:22 Of what use is kingdom to us?

00:41:33 Of what avail are pleasures and even life if these, these the ones who are standing

00:41:44 to fight, if these for whose sake we desire that empire or pleasure or enjoyment.

00:41:57 For ourselves as they stand here in battle having renounced life and wealth, all the

00:42:09 ones that I see, teachers, uncles, sons and also grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law,

00:42:15 grandsons, brothers-in-law, besides other kinsmen.

00:42:24 Of what use is kingdom or pleasures or wealth if it comes at the cost of those for whom

00:42:37 we desire these things.

00:42:39 So the argument is when you want happiness, you want happiness for those who are your

00:42:47 relatives and your kinsmen.

00:42:49 So of what use is happiness if it is going to come by slaughtering your kinsmen.

00:42:58 This again is a body-centric argument.

00:43:03 Arjun is placing pleasure as the highest thing one strives for and he says one strives for

00:43:14 pleasure so that one can share pleasure with his relatives.

00:43:19 Now this is a very lowly definition of pleasure.

00:43:24 But Arjun is presenting it as the highest goal of life.

00:43:27 Arjun says one wants riches, wealth, joyous power for whose sake?

00:43:36 For the sake of the family.

00:43:38 When I say I want to become somebody, why do I want to become somebody?

00:43:44 So that I can please those around me.

00:43:49 I go to the office and I earn money.

00:43:53 Why?

00:43:54 So that I may provide a better future to my kids.

00:44:00 The little bird goes and picks up edible stuff from here and there.

00:44:06 Why?

00:44:07 So that it can bring that stuff, those grains etc. to its nest and feed the babies.

00:44:15 So Arjun is basically drawing an analogy from the animal kingdom.

00:44:25 He says whatever we do, we do it for the sake of the relatives.

00:44:28 So of what use is the doing if the doing happens by killing the relatives?

00:44:35 The argument is fundamentally flawed.

00:44:38 The highest pleasure is not biological.

00:44:44 Joy is not about bringing happiness to your relatives.

00:44:48 Joy is about bringing liberation to yourself.

00:44:53 And that is something that Krishna would be teaching very laboriously in the course of

00:44:59 the Gita.

00:45:00 But right now Arjun is presenting his own personal philosophy and it is good that he

00:45:07 is exposing himself clearly to Krishna.

00:45:10 That will enable Krishna to come up with a suitable response.

00:45:15 You get the argument that Arjun is presenting?

00:45:17 Arjun is saying when I want pleasure, I want pleasure so that I share it with my friends,

00:45:24 relatives etc.

00:45:26 So of what use will be pleasure if it comes by killing these same people?

00:45:30 So I don't want that.

00:45:31 It is such a convincing argument you see.

00:45:34 And any lesser mind than Krishna would have found it difficult to counter this argument.

00:45:47 When I earn good things in life, I want to share them with my, I do it for their sake.

00:45:54 So what use is any endeavor in life if it comes at the cost of the family and the relatives?

00:46:03 Krishna obviously has heard it all so many times and he knows how it happens.

00:46:09 He also knows how to end it.

00:46:12 So he will do that when it comes to that.

00:46:17 Even though these were to kill me, O Madhusudana, I do not want to kill them.

00:46:24 Not for the sake of the kingdom, not for the sake of sovereignty over several worlds, all

00:46:32 worlds possible.

00:46:33 Here he says three worlds and how can it be for the sake of just this earth.

00:46:40 Even if the kingdom of all three lokas, all the universes possible were to be given to

00:46:47 me I would still not kill these people.

00:46:51 Of what value is the kingship of this earth alone?

00:46:57 I am not going to fight them.

00:46:59 There is no way.

00:47:00 Arjuna is representing here the common body identified individual and it is because Arjuna

00:47:08 is so relatable that the Bhagavad Gita is so precious.

00:47:15 How many of you today or at some point in life have found that it is your body and your

00:47:25 blood, by blood I mean your blood relations, that it is your body and your blood that stands

00:47:33 between you and your endeavor for the truth.

00:47:39 How many of you have found it at some point or the other?

00:47:44 That's the reason I say that you have to see that Arjuna is a great exemplification of

00:47:52 the situation of the common man and that's the reason why the Bhagavad Gita could become

00:47:58 so commonly acceptable because Arjuna is each of us.

00:48:08 Since Arjuna represents each of us, therefore the Bhagavad Gita is useful to each of us.

00:48:16 Do you see this?

00:48:21 So that's one thing that we learn about Arjuna.

00:48:28 He is very body identified and very attached to his family and relationships and that's

00:48:34 what makes him very similar to us.

00:48:38 In Arjuna we will now find many other things that are very similar to us.

00:48:45 He has already spoken of how we share our bodily concerns with him and now we will come

00:48:52 to the conditioning of his mind and see how several of the prejudices of this age, this

00:49:04 time that we live in are present in Arjuna as well.

00:49:09 So that makes Arjuna in some sense our very identical kind of twin.

00:49:20 Bodily we are same as Arjuna and now soon we are going to see that even mentally we

00:49:29 are same as Arjuna in the sense that Arjuna carries many of the same thoughts and beliefs

00:49:39 and conditionings that we all do.

00:49:46 It's as if we are looking in the mirror and finding Arjuna equal to us in body and equal

00:50:01 to us in mind.

00:50:07 So the body-centric argument continues still.

00:50:11 What pleasure indeed could be ours, O Janardhan Krishna, from killing these sons of Dhritarashtra?

00:50:21 We'll only earn sin if we slay them.

00:50:37 In the language of the flesh, it is sin to kill your own blood.

00:50:48 And in the language of consciousness, what is sin?

00:50:58 It is sin to identify yourself with the flesh and it is sin to look at the other as flesh,

00:51:07 not as consciousness.

00:51:12 Arjuna is speaking the language of flesh and in that language your own flesh is the biggest

00:51:21 value possible.

00:51:23 When you are centered in the flesh, the highest value obviously will be to the flesh.

00:51:30 Arjuna is speaking that language.

00:51:32 But when you are centered in consciousness, then it is not flesh you value but consciousness.

00:51:39 Then you will say, "Oh, it is a great sin to let Duryodhana win."

00:51:47 Why?

00:51:48 Because he will totally corrupt the consciousness of the entire nation.

00:51:53 If somebody like Duryodhana ascends to the throne, it's not a small number of people

00:52:00 who will be corrupted.

00:52:01 He will corrupt the minds of the entire country.

00:52:08 Therefore it is a sin not to fight.

00:52:11 It will be a great sin to give Duryodhana a walkover.

00:52:19 Do you see how your language changes when your center changes?

00:52:26 When you speak as the body, then all arguments fly one way and when you speak as the consciousness,

00:52:34 then you find that the old arguments all appear so childish and invalid.

00:52:42 Are we together till here?

00:52:49 So Arjuna, as if he has already made a point, as if he has already proven something, says,

00:53:01 "Therefore, Krishna," in a manner of conclusion, it's a one-sided argument and from his own

00:53:14 place he feels that he has made a point and the issue is done and dusted.

00:53:23 Matter is sealed, closed.

00:53:26 Within brackets, it stands decided, Krishna, that we must not kill all these people who

00:53:35 stand here.

00:53:37 See I have given you brilliant arguments and hence I think we can agree that the war is futile.

00:53:51 We have seen the needlessness of this war as a matter of principle.

00:54:00 Also I am telling you that I need some kind of sick leave.

00:54:06 So both principally and physically we must now withdraw.

00:54:13 Hence proved.

00:54:15 And Krishna has not even started speaking.

00:54:17 He is just watching.

00:54:22 And Arjuna will keep talking for the entire first chapter and also for the first ten verses

00:54:26 of the second chapter.

00:54:29 And then Krishna will say what he has to and he will find that he needs to say a lot.

00:54:34 Arjuna is a tough nut to crack.

00:54:42 So we can justifiably conclude, Krishna, that we will not kill the sons of Dhritarashtra.

00:54:51 How can anybody gain happiness by slaying his own relatives?

00:54:59 And then I will take the next two verses together.

00:55:04 Though these with their understanding totally clouded by greed, they see no evil in killing

00:55:16 their families.

00:55:18 They see no sin in being hostile to their friends.

00:55:24 But aren't we superior, Krishna?

00:55:26 Why should we act like Duryodhana?

00:55:29 Duryodhana sees no sin in killing his family members, the Pandavas.

00:55:34 Duryodhana sees no sin in attacking his friends.

00:55:38 But aren't we better people, Krishna?

00:55:41 Aren't you better than Duryodhana, Krishna?

00:55:45 So we should not emulate Duryodhana.

00:55:47 Let him do what he does.

00:55:49 Let's not fall to his level.

00:55:52 Let's leave him alone.

00:55:53 Let him become the king.

00:55:54 It's a small thing.

00:55:55 He is a baby.

00:55:56 We are grown up fellows.

00:55:58 If he wants to have the kingdom of entire India, let him have that.

00:56:00 It's such a small thing.

00:56:03 We can just abstain from these things and walk away on Rebli.

00:56:10 So Janardhan, we are the ones who clearly see the evil due to the decay of families.

00:56:16 We should turn away from this sin.

00:56:19 We should not partake in whatever is bound to happen.

00:56:22 Now that he has talked of family, something else comes up.

00:56:29 Now we see the social side of Arjuna coming up and this is very important.

00:56:33 So far we had seen the physical, the biological side of Arjuna.

00:56:40 Now we see what kind of a social mind Arjuna is.

00:56:45 Listen what he says.

00:56:48 He says, if all these people here are killed, we have come to the 40th verse, if all the

00:56:57 people here who are all males, if they are killed, then the family decays and if the

00:57:06 family decays, then all the religious rites of that family, they too will die out and

00:57:17 if that happens, then dharma is no more because there is nobody conducting the religious rites

00:57:25 and when dharma is no more, then adharma will overpower the entire family.

00:57:33 So you get here an idea of the social and religious orientation of Arjuna here and that's

00:57:47 not merely Arjuna's.

00:57:49 That represents the prevailing social and religious dogmas of that time.

00:57:57 Not only that time, it is quite interesting how what Arjuna is saying is applicable squarely

00:58:08 to our times as well because Arjuna's religious beliefs are exactly the beliefs of our age,

00:58:17 our times.

00:58:21 What is Arjuna saying?

00:58:22 Arjuna is saying that dharma equals ceremonies.

00:58:30 If the families decay, then there will be nobody conducting the ceremonies and if the

00:58:36 ceremonies are not there, then dharma is not there.

00:58:39 So dharma equals ceremonies.

00:58:41 Is that also not the view that the biggest part of population holds today as well?

00:58:48 That dharma means ceremonies.

00:58:53 Do this, do this and you are dharmic.

00:59:02 On that particular day, do not cross that line, close that room, paint the wall, wear

00:59:10 some mark on your forehead.

00:59:13 In a particular month, go and visit that particular shrine and if you do these things, do, do,

00:59:22 if you do these pre-scripted things, then you are religious.

00:59:29 So dharma is about doing certain prescribed things.

00:59:35 It is a particular set of pre-appointed actions that constitute dharma.

00:59:45 That is the notion Arjuna is coming from and is that also not a prevalent notion today?

00:59:53 Please tell me.

00:59:54 Is that also not the prevalent notion today?

00:59:57 It is.

00:59:59 We are Arjuna.

01:00:01 We are Arjuna, both physically and mentally or socially.

01:00:12 Look at the argument.

01:00:14 So many people will die.

01:00:15 Who will perform the rites and the ceremonies?

01:00:18 And if there are no ceremonies, a dharma will loom large over the entire country.

01:00:27 And so Krishna, you see, you are such a dharmic person.

01:00:32 You should not be telling me to fight.

01:00:33 Because if I fight, that will mean the victory of a dharma.

01:00:41 Do you see how ego acts?

01:00:43 It acts as the teacher of the teacher.

01:00:48 Here Arjuna does not even know that he is trying to teach Krishna.

01:00:55 Arjuna is telling Krishna, if you are telling me to fight, then you are telling me to promote

01:01:01 a dharma.

01:01:05 And if you tell Arjuna in his face that you are trying to usurp Krishna's position, you

01:01:11 are actually trying to become a teacher to Krishna.

01:01:13 Arjuna will say, I cannot even think of that.

01:01:16 I respect Krishna so much.

01:01:18 Will I ever try to teach Krishna?

01:01:21 But that's what exactly you are doing here, sir.

01:01:27 That's exactly what you are doing.

01:01:29 The ego takes itself to be the truth.

01:01:36 Right?

01:01:37 Nobody considers himself as a mere fallacy, a shadow, an apparition.

01:01:46 Do we do that?

01:01:49 We take ourselves as real, don't we?

01:01:53 So the ego thinks of itself as the truth.

01:01:56 And if the ego is the truth, why will the truth accept any teacher?

01:02:01 The ego really cannot accept any teacher.

01:02:05 In some sense, the teacher has to fool the ego to get himself to be heard.

01:02:16 The central belief of the ego is I am the truth.

01:02:21 Through various means and tricks and methods, the teacher needs to display to the ego that

01:02:31 it is not the truth.

01:02:33 Whereas the ego has a deep and unquestionable belief, I am the truth.

01:02:45 I am the truth.

01:02:46 Though it will pretend to be humble on the surface, right?

01:02:50 You ask the ego, you think you are the truth, right?

01:02:54 And there can be no two truths.

01:02:57 Therefore Krishna is not the truth.

01:03:00 You are the truth standing in front of Krishna and you cannot have two truths.

01:03:03 Therefore Krishna is not the truth.

01:03:04 And the ego will say, God forbid, I am such a humble ego.

01:03:10 How can I pretend to be bigger than Krishna?

01:03:12 No, no, no, no, I am not saying Krishna is not the truth.

01:03:15 But sir, that's exactly reflecting in your thoughts and words and deeds.

01:03:21 Look at what you are saying and doing.

01:03:23 It is very clear that you are taking yourself to be the truth.

01:03:31 So Arjun is presenting his case this way to Krishna.

01:03:44 What do you think of Arjun?

01:03:45 Is he a character coming from the 10th or 15th century BC or is he someone sitting in

01:04:00 the middle of us?

01:04:03 Is there anything that Arjun has said that has become outdated?

01:04:12 Any argument that Arjun is making is very topical, very relevant.

01:04:25 If you are not told that the text is in Sanskrit and you are not told that the setting is in

01:04:32 an ancient battlefield, you will immediately say, oh, this is happening right in the middle

01:04:38 of us.

01:04:42 That's the reason Gita is so important.

01:04:45 That's where its sacredness comes from.

01:04:48 That also gives us a definition of sacredness.

01:04:52 The sacred is not necessarily that which has been told of as sacred.

01:05:01 The sacred is not necessarily that which has been thought of as sacred.

01:05:07 The sacred is only that which liberates you in this moment.

01:05:14 That's the definition of sacredness.

01:05:17 That which liberates you today is sacred and only that is sacred.

01:05:22 If an ancient text is sacred, then it must liberate you today.

01:05:29 And that's what the Gita does.

01:05:31 Therefore Gita passes the test of sacredness.

01:05:34 Not all the books that you call as Shastra pass the test of sacredness.

01:05:39 They do nothing to liberate you today.

01:05:41 They should not even be called as Shastras.

01:05:46 Only a very small number of books today deserve to be called as scriptures.

01:05:52 And those scriptures must be respected unconditionally.

01:06:00 But only those scriptures.

01:06:02 And every old book in Sanskrit can be held as respectable just because it is old and

01:06:13 it is in Sanskrit and it talks of religious matters.

01:06:21 No.

01:06:26 Now look at Arjuna's mental disposition.

01:06:35 And when adharma rules, prevails, impetuous rules, the women of the family become corrupt,

01:06:47 Krishna.

01:06:50 Male attitude towards females.

01:06:54 Is that a thing of the Mahabharata era or do you find that today as well?

01:07:00 The women will become corrupt and what is meant by women becoming corrupt?

01:07:05 You know they will start having sex here and there.

01:07:08 So corruption is to be measured on the yardstick of sex.

01:07:15 Arjuna does not say women become corrupt when they do not know the truth or women become

01:07:24 corrupt when they cannot see through maya or women become corrupt when they become greedy

01:07:34 and envious.

01:07:37 He does not say any of these things.

01:07:39 He says women become corrupt when they start having sex with someone other than their husband.

01:07:47 So what is the very definition of corruption?

01:07:49 Not just biological but sexual.

01:07:55 Not just bodily but confined to the sexual parts in the body.

01:08:03 That's the prevailing social morality and is that a morality that you find only then

01:08:10 or is that something you find today as well?

01:08:14 Very interestingly, it's Kurukshetra where these words are being uttered and it is in

01:08:21 that region of the country even today that we find the greatest kind of misogyny.

01:08:28 Where is Kurukshetra?

01:08:34 That's also where such attitudes prevail even today.

01:08:38 Women have to be kept pure.

01:08:41 What is purity about?

01:08:42 The purity is not about the mind.

01:08:48 Purity is about the genitals.

01:08:50 The genitals have to be kept pure.

01:08:53 So the biggest allegation you can levy on someone is not that he is mad or insane or

01:09:03 totally badly conditioned.

01:09:06 The biggest allegation is that you know he had sex somewhere.

01:09:11 Does that happen not today?

01:09:16 Does that happen or not?

01:09:17 If you want to destroy someone, you need not prove that the fellow is unwise.

01:09:25 If you prove someone to be unwise, people say fine, unwise is okay.

01:09:31 But if you can prove that the fellow has been sleeping somewhere, then you have destroyed

01:09:37 him.

01:09:38 And if the fellow happens to be a woman, then you have completely destroyed her by proving

01:09:44 that she has slept with five or six men.

01:09:51 Times have changed.

01:09:53 Minds have not changed.

01:09:55 And that's the reason Gita is so useful.

01:09:58 Because Gita represents the contemporary mind.

01:10:07 Look at the impunity, the unabashedness with which Arjun is uttering these words to Krishna.

01:10:19 To someone no lesser than Krishna, look at Arjun's conviction.

01:10:23 He is saying the women will be all corrupted.

01:10:27 To Krishna he is saying this.

01:10:29 Think of how strong the social conditioning is.

01:10:34 He is uttering these words as if these are the truth.

01:10:37 As if Krishna cannot object to these words.

01:10:40 Now you also know who Krishna is.

01:10:42 Krishna is the destroyer of prevalent social conditioning.

01:10:48 Arjun represents himself as the one who has a certain attitude towards women.

01:10:54 And Krishna comes as the one who destroys all kinds of feeble attitudes towards women.

01:11:05 Are you getting this?

01:11:09 What is the function of Krishna in today's society?

01:11:14 To liberate it of all kinds of nonsensical attitudes that we have towards women.

01:11:20 Krishna was doing that then and Krishna will have to do that today as well.

01:11:25 The menfolk, all the men were having very poor attitudes towards women back in those

01:11:32 times.

01:11:33 They continue to have equally bad attitudes towards women even today.

01:11:39 These words are so contemporary.

01:11:44 Even today you can hear these things being said almost everywhere.

01:11:53 The women of the family become corrupt.

01:11:58 And then see how the argument proceeds.

01:12:00 And once the women are corrupted, you know there is intermingling of castes.

01:12:09 So one kind of attitude towards women very quickly followed by an attitude towards castes.

01:12:19 And these two things go really intermeshed.

01:12:24 Purity of women and purity of caste.

01:12:27 There can be no caste system without keeping the women pure.

01:12:33 If there is intermarriage therefore among the castes, the caste system is gone.

01:12:40 To survive the caste system you have to keep the women pure.

01:12:45 Especially the women of the so-called higher castes.

01:12:50 The caste system or the Varna Vyavastha as it was prevalent then and more or less it

01:12:58 is prevalent in the same way today as well.

01:13:03 End of sanctions, the men from higher castes to have sex or marriage with women from so-called

01:13:10 lower castes.

01:13:13 But what is absolutely forbidden is women from higher castes mingling with men from

01:13:18 lower castes.

01:13:19 No, no, no, no, that's a nightmare that the higher caste men cannot allow.

01:13:24 My woman has gone to a Shudra.

01:13:31 What hell?

01:13:33 And that's what also Arjun's problem he is saying.

01:13:36 All the Kshatriyas will be gone.

01:13:39 So our women, our property will be then going to all these ordinary people and having sex

01:13:49 and then kids will be born and those kids will be no good.

01:13:54 They will be called Varnasankars.

01:13:57 Now this is the problem that Krishna is facing.

01:14:01 Chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita enunciates the problem statement.

01:14:07 The rest of the chapters solve that problem.

01:14:11 We keep quoting from all the chapters of the Gita without knowing why those solutions were

01:14:20 offered in the first place.

01:14:23 17 chapters of the solution and one chapter of the solution.

01:14:29 Do we first of all understand what the problem is?

01:14:33 The problem is that Arjun is first of all body centered and second he has very regressive

01:14:44 kind of social attitudes and the attitudes that he has show up towards two categories

01:14:51 of population.

01:14:53 A) Women B)

01:14:54 Lower castes.

01:14:55 So who is Krishna then?

01:14:58 Define Krishna.

01:14:59 Someone who comes to liberate women and someone who comes to help the so called lower castes.

01:15:07 Someone who will tolerate neither misogyny nor casteism.

01:15:12 That's who Krishna is and that's what true spirituality is about.

01:15:17 Where did we find misogyny and casteism prevailing in the name of religion?

01:15:25 Look at the inversion, the complete inversion.

01:15:28 Today if you have bad attitudes towards women and today if you have gross casteism, all

01:15:35 that is in the name of religion.

01:15:38 But here we have true religion in which Krishna is saying all this is nonsense Arjun.

01:15:45 What are these attitudes you have towards women?

01:15:47 Come on grow up.

01:15:49 So true spirituality destroys misogyny.

01:15:57 True spirituality does not admit casteism and that's the reason why religious people

01:16:06 will be bloodthirsty against spiritual people and that's the reason why when the true spirit

01:16:21 of the Gita will be revealed, the revealer will have to face a lot of attacks.

01:16:33 Do you understand what the Gita is about?

01:16:36 Arjun has a certain problem and Krishna is solving that problem.

01:16:41 That problem is at two levels, biological and social.

01:16:57 I put it this way, the problem is at two levels, vritti and sanskriti.

01:17:05 The vritti is flawed because the vritti is sharirik, bodily and the sanskriti is a big

01:17:12 problem.

01:17:13 Unfortunately, that same sanskriti continues today as well and we are out to glorify that

01:17:20 sanskriti.

01:17:21 Are we not?

01:17:22 More and more we are hearing of culture, culture, culture as if culture is religion,

01:17:27 as if culture is spirituality.

01:17:30 Krishna here is a destroyer of sanskriti.

01:17:33 Do you see this?

01:17:35 Krishna is destroying not just vritti but also the prevailing sanskriti of those times.

01:17:43 Do you see this?

01:17:44 Never again must you allow someone to talk sanskriti to you.

01:17:48 Arjun is trying to talk sanskriti to Krishna and Krishna is totally refusing.

01:17:55 Never again say that the Gita comes from sanskriti.

01:17:58 No, Gita has nothing to do with sanskriti.

01:18:00 In fact, sanskriti is totally opposed to Gita.

01:18:07 Who is representing sanskriti here, Arjun or Krishna?

01:18:10 Arjun is representing sanskriti and Krishna is telling him your sanskriti is of no value.

01:18:15 Keep it aside.

01:18:21 Do you see this?

01:18:25 Is it too difficult to swallow?

01:18:29 I am not adding anything on my own.

01:18:31 These are the verses.

01:18:40 Now the diatribe continues and this mixing of

01:18:53 castes indeed puts the family to hell.

01:19:03 So that's how a social mind thinks.

01:19:06 The definition of hell according to a social mind, when you mix with someone from another

01:19:13 caste then this is hell.

01:19:16 And when you go to spirituality, I never get tired of quoting this one.

01:19:21 What do the Upanishads name as hell?

01:19:28 Arjun is saying mixing with person of another caste is hell.

01:19:35 When you go to Nirala Mukhanishad, what does that one say about hell?

01:19:41 That says mixing with a person of poor consciousness is hell.

01:19:46 That is the difference between sanskriti and spirituality.

01:19:50 That is the difference between culture and true spirituality.

01:19:56 Arjun represents culture here.

01:19:58 Arjun is saying mixing with some other caste is hell, especially when a man mixes with

01:20:04 a woman.

01:20:05 That is hell.

01:20:08 And when you go to the sage in Nirala Mukhanishad, he says mixing with a person of poor consciousness

01:20:14 that is hell.

01:20:23 Great difference.

01:20:24 Great, great, great difference.

01:20:27 Do you understand this?

01:20:29 The person might belong to your caste, you might have had a well arranged marriage with

01:20:35 all the ceremonies as most of us do, but still the person is of poor consciousness as are

01:20:42 most people.

01:20:44 And that exactly is what is called hell.

01:20:48 It is not the other caste that is hell.

01:20:51 It is the level of consciousness that decides hell or heaven.

01:20:57 Similarly the Upanishad says heaven is the company of people with great consciousness.

01:21:04 That alone is heaven.

01:21:05 Caste etc or creed, they do not matter.

01:21:14 You get this?

01:21:22 Another level of social conditioning.

01:21:24 So we have seen attitude towards women, attitude towards castes, now the third thing is coming

01:21:30 through.

01:21:31 And you will be astounded how this third thing again is a replica of our times.

01:21:38 So when these castes mix, then the family goes to hell, the family is destroyed, also

01:21:51 the souls and the spirits of the ancestors, they fall because they are deprived of the

01:21:59 offerings of rice ball and water.

01:22:04 You understand that ceremony?

01:22:06 Offering rice ball and water to the pretaatma of jivatma or whatever, of the ones who have

01:22:14 died.

01:22:15 The third level is of superstition, physical, social and superstition.

01:22:23 Arjun cannot be someone from the previous centuries.

01:22:27 Arjun has to be someone sitting right in the middle of us.

01:22:31 Maybe he is sitting right in the middle of our mind.

01:22:37 Possible?

01:22:39 Casteist, misogynist and now superstitious as well.

01:22:47 Who is Krishna?

01:22:48 Someone who fights superstitions.

01:22:52 The arguments in favor of Krishna, in favor of superstition are coming from the culturally

01:22:59 conditioned Arjun and Krishna is now someone who will fight all these arguments.

01:23:04 What nonsense is this?

01:23:07 Ancestors are flying and the ancestors are hungry and thirsty.

01:23:11 So every few months you offer them rice and water and then they eat the rice and drink

01:23:15 the water and the ancestors are then quenched.

01:23:18 What nonsense is this Arjun?

01:23:20 What is going on?

01:23:21 But Arjun is coming up with these arguments and he is taking these as very solid, very

01:23:26 indisputable.

01:23:27 Great arguments.

01:23:29 What will happen to the souls of the ancestors?

01:23:33 If our great high caste women go and procreate with the lower caste men and our ancestors

01:23:44 too, mind you, are very caste conscious.

01:23:47 They will not accept rice and water from the wrong kinds of kids.

01:23:59 The progeny has to be perfect.

01:24:06 All the flying souls are very choosy.

01:24:14 They will prefer to remain hungry and thirsty rather than accept rice and water from the

01:24:26 progeny of a lower caste father.

01:24:29 That is the argument that Arjun is making.

01:24:34 That is the problem that Krishna will be solving in the entire Bhagavad Gita.

01:24:41 Did we know that this is the problem that Krishna is solving?

01:24:44 No.

01:24:45 We used to think that Krishna is talking of some great principles, you know, nishkamkaram,

01:24:50 this, that, all that has to be talked of to solve just this little problem.

01:24:56 All those 17 chapters exist just to solve this problem.

01:25:01 This is Arjun's problem.

01:25:03 Attachment, women, caste, superstition.

01:25:07 This is the problem.

01:25:13 I am asking you the nth time.

01:25:14 Is this an ancient or outdated problem?

01:25:18 It is very much a problem of the current time.

01:25:23 Is it or is it not?

01:25:27 That is why those who know realize that in this document lies the solution to a lot of

01:25:35 problems of today, probably to all the fundamental problems of today.

01:25:52 You know to top it, because I am speaking more and more on the Gita now, initially it

01:26:01 was only in Hindi, now in English as well, people come and say that you see the caste

01:26:09 system has to be valid.

01:26:10 Why?

01:26:11 Because it is mentioned in the Gita as well.

01:26:15 I mentioned by whom?

01:26:16 Krishna or Arjun?

01:26:19 But that is the argument that they present.

01:26:22 And all these bogus ceremonies, when I speak on them, they say you are violating the Gita.

01:26:29 Why?

01:26:30 Because even in the Gita it is said that these ceremonies are there.

01:26:34 It is mentioned in the Gita, mentioned alright, but mentioned in what sense?

01:26:39 It is mentioned in the sense of foolishness, not in the sense of prescription.

01:26:50 Gita in that sense is an extremely liberal and modern book.

01:27:00 Gita is not orthodox, Gita is not conservative.

01:27:03 Now this is one epithet that we don't usually associate with the Gita, right?

01:27:11 Liberal.

01:27:12 Gita is as liberal as a book can be.

01:27:18 You have to be liberal if you are talking of liberation, no?

01:27:22 How can there be liberation without liberty?

01:27:25 So the Gita is liberal, not orthodox.

01:27:30 In the whole tradition of Hinduism, Vedanta represents the liberal side.

01:27:46 Vedanta is the side that says caste is bogus, men and women, the bodies don't matter,

01:27:57 it is the consciousness that matters.

01:27:59 Come on, don't talk of heaven and hell or souls and spirits.

01:28:03 Vedanta dismisses all these things.

01:28:06 Vedanta represents the leading liberal side of Hinduism.

01:28:14 And then there is the Puranic side and the Smritis and all that.

01:28:18 They mostly represent the orthodox conservative side.

01:28:24 So all the problems that you find today with Hinduism are mostly because Vedanta, which

01:28:31 is Upanishads, Gita, Brahmasutra, they have not become mainstream.

01:28:37 When they become mainstream, Hinduism becomes very very liberal.

01:28:42 And what you find mainstream is stuff like Garuda Puran.

01:28:47 All the Puranic things have become mainstream.

01:28:53 And Garuda Puran and books like that are continuously saying exactly what Arjun is saying here.

01:29:00 They talk of the spirits and how the spirits move and what you have to give to the spirits

01:29:05 to please them.

01:29:06 That's exactly what Arjun is saying here.

01:29:08 Actually Arjun has come here after a reading of the Garuda Puran.

01:29:13 And you see what Krishna does in the Gita.

01:29:15 He dismisses all that Puranic stuff.

01:29:19 So never talk of Ved and Puran in the same breath.

01:29:24 I hate to say this, but they are poles apart.

01:29:28 They are two different categories of literature.

01:29:31 But because we have read neither the Veda nor the Puran, so we speak as if the Ved and

01:29:37 Puran are the same thing.

01:29:39 They are not.

01:29:43 Most of the Puranic literature is incompatible with Vedanta.

01:29:47 Both cannot be true together.

01:29:49 If Vedanta is true, then most of the Puranic stuff has to be dismissed.

01:29:53 Either dismissed or interpreted in the light of Vedanta.

01:29:58 In the Puranic compilation, there are indeed some beautiful stories at a symbolic level.

01:30:07 But even that symbolism can be revealed only in the light of Vedanta.

01:30:16 If you want to liberate Hinduism of its evils, you will have to come to Vedanta.

01:30:25 In fact if you want to help the entire world, you will have to come to Vedanta.

01:30:35 Remember the definition of scripture.

01:30:40 Folklore does not constitute scripture.

01:30:43 Tradition does not constitute scripture.

01:30:47 Stories from here and there and genealogy, that does not constitute scripture.

01:30:57 Scripture is only when you are talking of your identity and its liberation.

01:31:04 That is why the Bhagavad Gita qualifies to be called a scripture.

01:31:08 And most other books that are called as scriptures are not scriptures.

01:31:11 They are just old books.

01:31:13 Just old books.

01:31:14 Not scriptures.

01:31:16 Not Shastra.

01:31:17 Yes.

01:31:18 Good evening sir.

01:31:19 Can you hear me?

01:31:20 Sir, why is religion so obsessed with sex?

01:31:28 In the sense that the normal kind of religious people who are socially respectable, all that

01:31:34 they have in their mind regarding religion contains a lot of sexual connotations.

01:31:40 So for example, they'll keep saying that abstain from the other gender and practice celibacy.

01:31:48 Instead of talking about core scriptures, I find them talking of women.

01:31:53 Don't do this to women.

01:31:55 Don't look at women.

01:31:56 Don't talk to women.

01:31:57 Don't have relationship with women.

01:32:01 Now I am not saying that men should have a lot of sexual relationships.

01:32:05 No, that is not what I am saying.

01:32:07 What I am saying is that instead of focusing on scriptures and knowledge and the removal

01:32:13 of one's own inner ignorance, why are the social and moral and religious people talking

01:32:19 so much of sex and women?

01:32:22 Thank you.

01:32:23 See, what has happened is, Rajdeep, social morality in some way has become conflated

01:32:32 with religiosity.

01:32:36 If you ask a normal man, he will be unable to tell the difference between social morality

01:32:41 and religiosity.

01:32:46 And what you call as social morality has so much to do with sex.

01:32:53 Everything to do with sex.

01:32:55 It is as if sexuality becomes the touchstone of morality.

01:33:07 Not consciousness, not knowledge, not realization, but sexuality.

01:33:14 So it becomes a very probable kind of thing for a religious person to start thinking of

01:33:26 sexuality as very important.

01:33:29 And then it starts hovering in your mind.

01:33:36 What does true spirituality have to say about sex?

01:33:42 The answer might surprise you.

01:33:45 It has not much to say about sex.

01:33:49 It is popular culture and morality etc that wax eloquent on sex.

01:33:54 Sex, sex, sex.

01:33:55 He is a good man, why?

01:33:56 Because he doesn't have sex.

01:33:58 What kind of definition is this of a good man?

01:34:01 Somebody is a bad man, why?

01:34:05 You know there are some.

01:34:08 What kind of definition is this?

01:34:11 Arjun is talking in a body centric way.

01:34:19 He says the war is not to be fought for the sake of keeping the women chaste.

01:34:26 And women, first of all, the women come in from nowhere.

01:34:31 So just as women circle in your mind, you have someone else who faces the same situation.

01:34:39 Think of Arjun, in the middle of the war, only men are assembled there and animals and

01:34:46 weapons.

01:34:47 Arjun is suddenly thinking of the women.

01:34:52 What will happen to the women?

01:34:54 Obviously it's not that he is thinking of the women, he is thinking of himself with

01:34:59 respect to the women.

01:35:00 If I am not there, what will my women do?

01:35:04 Do you see the orientation?

01:35:05 The orientation is sexual.

01:35:07 And that's what happens to most religious people, their orientation becomes sexual.

01:35:12 A normal man does not think of sex so much.

01:35:16 But a so called religious mind just keeps thinking of sex all the time.

01:35:23 And not his fault, because he has been told that religiosity and sex are very intertwined.

01:35:29 So he is thinking of sex, sex, sex.

01:35:32 And when he is thinking of sex, he has to suppress sex a lot.

01:35:40 Take lesson from this.

01:35:43 Sex has to become something small, something not very important.

01:35:52 Not a great monster that you are fighting all the time.

01:36:00 Just as you do not remember what you took for breakfast yesterday.

01:36:03 Sex is something you should not even remember.

01:36:08 If it is instead present in the mind all the time, what to do?

01:36:17 So sometimes it happens that, specially while reading scriptures, I think that, so normal

01:36:23 times I am thinking about sex and women and then I think that, ok let me start studying

01:36:28 scriptures in this way, the thoughts about women and sex will go away.

01:36:32 But while studying scripture I continuously keep a look whether the thoughts about women

01:36:37 and sex have gone away or not.

01:36:39 But by continuously looking at those things, I end up…

01:36:41 No, no, this will not succeed Rajat.

01:36:44 Very traditional route you are taking, it's doomed to fail.

01:36:48 See when we began today in the afternoon, we said prakriti ensnares you, traps you only

01:37:00 because you do not understand.

01:37:02 Realize it.

01:37:03 You don't know it.

01:37:06 What you do not understand, you fall for.

01:37:12 In some way the un-understood will torment you.

01:37:21 It will remain a bit of a knot, unresolved.

01:37:28 Because you are body identified, therefore you remain distant from women, right?

01:37:34 As a man you have to be separated from women, that's an identity you have accorded yourself,

01:37:40 I am a man, that puts you at a distance from women.

01:37:44 And that which you are distanced from, you will never understand.

01:37:49 To know something, you have to go close to it.

01:37:53 But what does sex mean or a sexual orientation mean?

01:37:56 It means you will be most of the times away from the object of your desire and even if

01:38:06 you go close to it, you will go close only with the purpose of exploitation and consumption.

01:38:14 You will never go close with a view to understand.

01:38:21 So common morality means that men will never understand women and women will never understand

01:38:25 men because common morality keeps men away from women and women away from men, right?

01:38:32 In common morality if you find men and women mingling too much, you say, oh loose character,

01:38:36 cheap fellow, all the time he is hanging around with women.

01:38:40 Are you getting this?

01:38:43 The problem, do you understand?

01:38:46 If you are so separated from women, how will you ever understand women?

01:38:50 And we said that in prakriti, which you do not understand, you will never be liberated

01:38:56 from.

01:39:00 Once I had said that you are attracted to so many women because you have never understood

01:39:06 even one woman.

01:39:08 If you can understand even one woman, you will be liberated from all women.

01:39:15 The un-understood remains unresolved.

01:39:20 The further you keep yourself from something, the more that thing remains an attractive

01:39:27 enigma to you.

01:39:30 Have you not heard men saying this way?

01:39:33 Nobody can understand the mind of a woman.

01:39:36 How can you ever understand her?

01:39:38 You never really went close to her.

01:39:40 Whenever you went close, your only purpose was sex.

01:39:43 Otherwise you never tried to enter her mind because you never tried to enter your own

01:39:46 mind either.

01:39:49 You understand neither yourself nor the woman.

01:39:52 So you feel a very animalistic compulsion towards her and nothing more.

01:40:01 Just as you want to know of everything in the universe, you must also know women.

01:40:10 And women must also know men.

01:40:13 And that cannot happen if your mediocre kind of morality keeps you at a distance from the

01:40:20 other gender.

01:40:23 If you cannot sit across the table and talk to the other as a person, as a being of consciousness,

01:40:29 how will you ever understand the other person?

01:40:34 But our sex-laden society amplifies the sexual component in the personality so much that

01:40:44 when someone from the other gender comes to you, all you see is a huge genital.

01:40:50 You do not realize that sex is only a small part of the entire personality.

01:40:56 Why can't you talk politics?

01:40:58 Why can't you talk sociology?

01:40:59 Why can't you talk economics or science or spirituality or sports or whatever?

01:41:04 We live in a distorted culture.

01:41:10 It does not allow us to remain at ease with the other gender.

01:41:16 Sahaj.

01:41:17 That's a word that you do not have when it comes to women.

01:41:20 Neither do women have it when it comes to men.

01:41:22 Don't you experience a certain unease?

01:41:28 Recently there was this news item, a very tragic one.

01:41:31 But look at this.

01:41:32 One fellow was to write his board exams and he was sent to an examination center where

01:41:39 there were 500 girls and he got a heart attack and actually died.

01:41:47 That kind of unease.

01:41:51 Think of it.

01:41:52 He was thinking of women all the time.

01:41:55 And so when he found so many of them around himself, he just couldn't take it.

01:42:00 It's tragic obviously, but look at the lesson.

01:42:08 Just print it.

01:42:09 There is a coincidence.

01:42:10 I mean, you won't believe regarding this only.

01:42:20 So one of my friends actually sent that news to me and said that, look, this is your younger

01:42:28 self.

01:42:29 I mean, I don't know how even my college friends come to know about this problem.

01:42:46 I mean, that day I started thinking that have I even progressed an inch in spirituality.

01:42:51 I mean, that day, that was a serious day for me when I received that message.

01:43:00 You know, my teacher, he told me, "Sadho sahaj samadhi bhali".

01:43:10 No pretense, no convoluted methods, no mumbo jumbo, just being the essential self is sufficient.

01:43:27 Sahaj, not excited, not distracted, not attracted, not repulsed.

01:43:41 A person has come in front of me, I acknowledge the person is from another gender.

01:43:45 That's all, I acknowledge and I can talk now.

01:43:49 That's fine.

01:43:50 Half the population is women.

01:43:54 How can you avoid them or remain in confusion about them?

01:44:01 At some point in your time, you will enter a relationship.

01:44:06 What will become the quality of your life if you do not understand women?

01:44:11 The relationship will eat you up and unfortunately the other person also.

01:44:19 Have easy relationships with both the genders.

01:44:28 Do not make sex such a big thing.

01:44:32 If sex comes as an output of an easy relationship, it is ok.

01:44:41 If it does not come your entire life, that too is ok.

01:44:47 It is not a big thing.

01:44:49 You know what the big is.

01:44:50 The ease is the big thing.

01:44:52 The sahajita is the big thing.

01:44:55 If it just happens, happens.

01:44:56 If it doesn't happen, don't force it.

01:45:04 I have other questions to ask but I won't ask because I am sweating right now.

01:45:07 I need to take rest.

01:45:10 I mean my earphones are sliding off.

01:45:13 Thank you.

01:45:21 Thank you so much.

01:45:33 My first question is that it has been asked by few of my friends that Srimad Bhagavad

01:45:39 Gita, Sri Krishna declared himself the God.

01:45:43 Then what is the need to read other scriptures like Upanishads and Brahma Sutra which has

01:45:48 come from humans like Rishis and all.

01:45:52 So this is my first question.

01:45:54 And second question is related to this is like when we read Srimad Bhagavad Gita or

01:45:59 any scripture, our families and all, they oppose a lot and they say that this will not

01:46:05 lead you anywhere and it is just a subjective thing.

01:46:08 I mean you can just read for your knowledge but it will not give you any solution in the

01:46:13 worldly matters.

01:46:15 And then if we oppose it, they just say that you need to perform the ceremony and rituals

01:46:19 only then you can please God.

01:46:22 And like Sri Krishna, if you decorate him and give him good, like as a bhog, you offer

01:46:30 him good fruits and food and all, only then he will be pleased.

01:46:34 So how to deal with such kind of a mindset with very close people like even my spouse

01:46:39 or my in-laws with whom we live every day.

01:46:43 And then if we just oppose them, they just term me as I'm mannerless or I'm emotionless

01:46:48 or I'm very straightforward or listening to you has corrupted my mind and I mean it is

01:46:54 ruining my life and everybody around me.

01:46:56 So just don't get the answer to deal with such kind of a people.

01:47:02 Long winded.

01:47:04 What was the first part?

01:47:08 First part is that…

01:47:09 Sri Krishna himself has declared.

01:47:10 First of all, first of all, there is no concept of God in Vedanta.

01:47:21 Vedanta is existentialism.

01:47:27 Vedanta goes into who you are and the highest for Vedanta is not God or something.

01:47:34 The highest is truth.

01:47:37 God and truth are not the same thing.

01:47:41 God is someone you take as the creator of this universe.

01:47:49 When you talk of God, you talk of this universe as real.

01:47:53 Whereas in truth, the universe dissolves.

01:47:58 All the gods dissolve in truth.

01:48:03 Getting it?

01:48:05 And even if one to pursue the argument that Krishna declares himself as the highest in

01:48:13 Bhagavad Gita, the same can be said about the Vedas as well.

01:48:19 They are called Aparushay that they are not coming from any human source.

01:48:25 So even they are coming from a so called God.

01:48:28 Equal, equal.

01:48:30 No issues.

01:48:33 If Gita is coming from a supernatural source, the same thing can be said about the Vedas

01:48:38 also.

01:48:39 That they too are coming from a supernatural source.

01:48:41 Does somebody tell you who wrote the Vedas?

01:48:44 It is said that they came from the mouth of Brahma.

01:48:47 So even they are coming from God.

01:48:49 Fine, equal.

01:48:51 So just as you can read the Gita, you can also read Vedas and Upanishads are part of

01:48:55 Vedas.

01:48:56 Fine.

01:48:57 What was the second part?

01:49:00 The second part is like when we talk to them.

01:49:11 Truth is something one has to go to at all costs in whichever way possible.

01:49:16 It is the highest value.

01:49:18 Since it is the highest value, it does not matter what route you take to reach it.

01:49:24 Are you getting it?

01:49:27 Not even the scripture is the highest.

01:49:29 That's the great and beautiful thing about Vedanta.

01:49:33 It is not even the scripture that is the highest.

01:49:35 It is the truth that is at the highest.

01:49:41 That is why it says Ekam Satya or Vipra Bahuda Padanti.

01:49:47 Doesn't matter in what way you talk of it.

01:49:51 It is the one truth that matters.

01:49:56 And value a scripture by its power to take you to that truth.

01:50:03 Instead of taking you to the truth, if it is taking you to the labyrinth of mentation

01:50:09 and ideas and concepts, then that scripture is not very useful.

01:50:16 But this is a new one that since Gita is coming from Krishna, why do you need to read even

01:50:22 the Vedas?

01:50:24 And probably the dislike is mutual because you find that Shri Krishna is someone who

01:50:34 has been repeatedly destroying Vedic Karmakand in the Gita.

01:50:41 So it does not quite surprise me that people see a dissonance there.

01:50:52 The second part?

01:50:55 Second part, when we talk of the scriptures with our close family members, they say that

01:51:00 it is not the scriptures which will help you.

01:51:03 It is just a subjective matter.

01:51:05 You can just gain knowledge, but it will be of no use in today's world.

01:51:09 And then it is like only the ceremonies or the rituals are more important.

01:51:14 How to deal with such kind of people?

01:51:18 If you can answer one question that I have, probably your question will be answered.

01:51:26 So when I was at IIT and we were studying advanced thermodynamics, there used to be

01:51:36 one peon in the mess who would tell me what is the point in reading thermodynamics?

01:51:50 You come and help me with the dishes and the vegetables.

01:51:54 That is what will take you through in life.

01:51:57 How do I respond to that peon?

01:52:04 How do I respond to that peon?

01:52:07 And you know there actually was one.

01:52:14 He used to taunt all of us.

01:52:16 He would say you are going and attending all these things.

01:52:19 They will not be useful in life.

01:52:23 And I am the one who will tell you what to do with life.

01:52:26 Look at my advanced condition.

01:52:29 Look at all that I have achieved in life.

01:52:31 He used to present himself as a role model.

01:52:34 How do I respond to him?

01:52:38 That fellow is passing a verdict on advanced thermodynamics and all the thermal experience

01:52:46 that he has had is on the gas stove.

01:52:52 And yet he feels he is empowered and qualified to comment on advanced thermodynamics.

01:53:01 Do you get your answer?

01:53:05 Who are these fellows who are talking of what is spirituality and to what extent it is useful?

01:53:13 What do you know of spirituality?

01:53:16 Who are you to talk to me about it?

01:53:18 What is your qualification?

01:53:22 They are associated with very, I mean I don't want to name the organization, but it's a

01:53:27 very reputed organization and they call themselves very religious and they say that they have

01:53:34 dedicated their life to God, Yagya and all those things.

01:53:37 That pune too was a member.

01:53:42 Not just a member, he was the president of the delirious physicists association of India.

01:53:52 You can form any organization, become its member or even its president.

01:53:56 So what?

01:54:03 And in general when you are delirious, your tendency to seek security in an organization

01:54:09 is higher.

01:54:15 See, the problem is not that you do not know the response to give.

01:54:33 The problem is that you do not know yourself.

01:54:38 The problem is that you know what is right, but you are just too body identified to speak

01:54:45 the truth to your relationships.

01:54:47 That's the real problem.

01:54:48 The real problem is that somewhere your interests and swarth is tied to these people around

01:54:56 you.

01:54:57 That's why you cannot loudly speak the truth to them.

01:55:02 Otherwise if someone is talking stupidity, try to help them.

01:55:12 If they are amenable to listening or if they are shouting too much, shut them down.

01:55:20 And if they are getting uncontrollable, just walk away.

01:55:25 It's as simple as that.

01:55:28 Help them, shut them down or ignore and walk away.

01:55:36 What else?

01:55:39 But you can exercise neither of these options.

01:55:44 If something worldly is at stake, comforts, pleasures or money or reputation, if something

01:55:54 is at stake, then you can neither shut them down nor walk away, not even help them.

01:56:02 Then you are left just to tolerate whatever nonsense is going on.

01:56:06 Sir, if I shut them down, they term me as very emotionless or maybe mannerless, very

01:56:20 straightforward and do not know how to respect the elders.

01:56:23 The right that they have, they can exercise that right.

01:56:25 They can say whatever they want to.

01:56:28 Against me people keep saying whatever they want to, what do I do?

01:56:32 Nothing.

01:56:33 That's the right to expression that everyone has and they can exercise their right.

01:56:42 The problem is not that they have said what they have.

01:56:45 The problem is that you have given importance to what they have said.

01:56:49 If you know something is coming from a stupid source, how much importance can you give to

01:56:53 it?

01:56:54 Sir, if you don't give importance, they say you are very arrogant because you are

01:57:04 working.

01:57:05 You are going in circles.

01:57:06 If you stop working.

01:57:07 You are again saying they are saying.

01:57:10 I have already answered this, they are saying thing.

01:57:20 See where you are drawing benefits from them.

01:57:27 Stop taking stuff from them.

01:57:29 Stop being dependent and then you will not face this problem.

01:57:35 Yes.

01:57:38 Hello sir.

01:57:49 So my question is the Pandavas had this something that was unifying them like a dharma which

01:57:57 was keeping them together and then I see that at many moments in life, even though we know

01:58:06 that our karma is like it's a very direct path to the truth, but a lot of times the

01:58:12 path gets very convoluted.

01:58:15 Like it gets like it's a labyrinth in those states.

01:58:21 How do you keep yourself aligned to that dharma because you also have to protect yourself

01:58:27 and you have to.

01:58:30 So how do you maintain that balance or how do you keep yourself aligned?

01:58:35 Is it annoying?

01:58:36 Is it really emotional?

01:58:37 It has to be a non-negotiable love.

01:58:43 Essentially what you are asking is in one sentence.

01:58:48 How to remain with Krishna even in times of difficulty.

01:58:51 Correct.

01:58:52 The thing is the times keep changing.

01:59:01 The situations rise and fall but within I have to live with myself.

01:59:11 Living with myself would require the presence of a sacred center.

01:59:17 How do I live without that?

01:59:22 One can live with bad air.

01:59:27 One cannot live without lungs.

01:59:32 You can live without great air.

01:59:36 Can you live without lungs?

01:59:40 That's what.

01:59:41 Sometimes the air is good, sometimes it is bad, irrespective of how stuff is outside

01:59:47 of you.

01:59:49 Inside of you there needs to be health.

01:59:52 Krishna is the name of that health and it has to be non-negotiable.

01:59:56 And it's a choice.

01:59:57 You see you have to make that commitment to yourself.

02:00:00 Come what may, certain things I cannot compromise on.

02:00:05 And the list of those things cannot be too long.

02:00:08 Ideally that list should stop at one.

02:00:12 If it can't stop at one, let it be three or four things that you say that are very

02:00:16 dear to you and you won't give up on them.

02:00:20 It's a choice.

02:00:21 It's not a method that I can provide you.

02:00:24 It's a choice.

02:00:26 One cannot give someone a method to fall in love.

02:00:32 Can there be a method to love someone?

02:00:34 No.

02:00:35 It's a choice that you make.

02:00:36 You allow yourself to be captivated.

02:00:39 You say I have something in front of me that's indeed very, very appealing.

02:00:45 It's worth dying for.

02:00:49 So I make a decision.

02:00:50 I make a very, very conscious decision that this is something I'll never part ways with.

02:00:59 Why?

02:01:01 Because, because it's beautiful and I love it.

02:01:07 Full stop.

02:01:08 No other reason.

02:01:16 So actively making choices at every step of the way.

02:01:19 Actively, consciously and remembering your choice.

02:01:21 Revealing in your choice.

02:01:25 Celebrating your choice.

02:01:26 Even when the conditions go bad, there must still be an inner celebration that I'm a winner.

02:01:32 The conditions were so bad I could have capitulated.

02:01:35 I didn't.

02:01:37 So I celebrate within.

02:01:39 And why only within?

02:01:40 Throw a party if you can.

02:01:43 Thank you, sir.

02:01:53 So sometimes what happens is like when the pioneers of the field are asked, how did they

02:01:58 do this?

02:01:59 Okay.

02:02:00 They are not able to explain it.

02:02:01 So for example, when the Fermat's last theorem was proved, Andrew Wiles was like asked, how

02:02:07 did you get to this proof?

02:02:09 And he was not able to explain.

02:02:11 So like some people say that this thing is divine.

02:02:15 Okay.

02:02:16 This thing is not something human.

02:02:18 Okay.

02:02:19 So I want to know what is this?

02:02:20 Like if you like ask a sports person, how was he able to deliver this performance?

02:02:27 So what is this divine thing?

02:02:28 Is it like, it is just a shutting down of the mental confusion.

02:02:33 It is just shutting down of the noise within.

02:02:37 That's all.

02:02:39 So when you know what you are doing is important and you decide to not to care for anything

02:02:45 else, that's when your performance reaches a maxima.

02:02:49 That's all that is there to it.

02:02:51 Nothing more.

02:02:52 There is no divinity or magic in this.

02:02:55 When I'm speaking to you, for example, I just don't remember any thought coming to me for

02:03:03 hours.

02:03:05 Must have been five hours by now.

02:03:11 No way anything from anywhere has been able to enter me.

02:03:16 It's as simple as that.

02:03:18 I know what I'm doing is sacred.

02:03:20 How can I allow myself to be distracted by other things?

02:03:23 It's as simple as that.

02:03:24 So do we call it love?

02:03:26 You can call it love.

02:03:27 In fact, you must call it love only.

02:03:30 It is love.

02:03:31 Beautiful.

02:03:32 Thank you.

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