00:00Therefore, do thou arise and acquire fame, Conquer the enemies and enjoy the unrivaled
00:18dominion, Verily by myself have they been already slain,
00:24Be thou merely an apparent cause, O Save Sachi Arjun.
00:29The question reads, what does it mean to be an apparent cause, nimitta matra?
00:36Who becomes nimitta matra?
00:38Is it the body-mind complex that we think we are?
00:43Why should we become nimitta matra?
00:46How can we move towards becoming nimitta matra?
00:49In the previous session, you had mentioned that notions like I am the body, I am the
00:53doer keep us away from Krishna.
00:56How can the notion, I am the body, be eliminated?
01:02Nimitta matra merely means that your center of operation is no more the personal ego.
01:11You are allowing your personal system to be governed by an impersonal power.
01:22Usually our personal system is run by, commanded by the personal center.
01:31And these two go nicely together.
01:34The personal system, the body-mind complex being commanded by the personal center which
01:41is called the ego.
01:45Being just an apparent cause in the scheme of things means that the personal complex,
01:54the personal system, the personal machinery is now not being driven by something within
02:02itself.
02:04It is now being driven by something far beyond itself.
02:11So your body is now not being run by the little insecure I.
02:23What is the problem when the little internal insecure I runs the body?
02:31The problem is that I is anyway identified with the body, therefore it cannot be a good
02:38driver of the body.
02:43If you are the body, then how will you push and drive the body?
02:48Think of it.
02:49When you say I am the body, then obviously you are referring to the current state of
02:55your body, right?
02:56And you are that.
02:58Now really what incentive do you have now to push the body and make the body do things
03:05that the body may not like?
03:08After all you are the body.
03:10And that's the thing with the personal self.
03:12It is already the body and already the mind.
03:15So why will it want to go against the body and against the mind?
03:20The moment the body will be pushed, the internal self will start rebelling and putting excuses
03:24and giving some lame argument.
03:26Oh, no, no, my body is weak because you see I got some disease five years back and all
03:31those all kinds of lame nonsense.
03:37Therefore, even the body mind thing suffers when it is commanded by the wrong master.
03:49The ego is a very improper master, very inappropriate master.
03:58Remember, you can never teach, educate or correct someone you are dependent on.
04:13The ego is dependent on the body.
04:16The ego is dependent on the mind.
04:18How will then ego make the body do things that the body does not like?
04:30How will then the ego make the mind climb to great heights?
04:38Are you getting it?
04:43When the body will start feeling broken, it is the ego that will feel broken because
04:50the ego is dependent on the body.
04:54So you push your body a little and any great endeavor will require you to push your body.
04:59You push your body a little and the ego will start beating its chest and crying and clamoring.
05:07And immediately your efforts to push the body will come to a halt or they will go to
05:19some extent, cover some distance and then they will stop.
05:27The ego can at most tolerate beautifying the body, bettering the body.
05:39The ego will be prepared to tolerate the pain that you get when you wax your skin.
05:48The ego will be able to tolerate, prepared to tolerate the pain that you get when you
05:54hit the gym.
05:58But the ego will never be prepared to tolerate submitting the body to a purpose that is not
06:09at all bodily.
06:11The ego will never tolerate surrendering the body to a great mission that does not care
06:20for the body.
06:22Are you getting it?
06:29What does then it mean to be a nimit matra, just a servant, just a means, just a medium?
06:46It means that you are relinquishing a post that you actually anyway never deserved.
06:56You are stepping down from a position that actually should have never been yours in the
07:02first place.
07:06You are saying let the rightful one come and occupy the center of my life.
07:16Who am I to act big and smart?
07:22Who am I to think for myself and decide for myself?
07:27If there is one choice that I can rightfully make, it is to give up my right to choose.
07:39Obviously, it's a tough ask.
07:47And that's when you are just a means.
07:54Some great thing is happening through you.
07:58Some great power is commanding you.
08:03And you are now being operated by a will beyond the personal.
08:13It is only now that you get the right to say that you are a puppet in the hands of
08:20the ultimate.
08:22It is only now that you get the right to say that you are like the flute or a piece of
08:35hollow bamboo.
08:38The wind just flows through you.
08:43You do not obstruct it.
08:46Outside you have a body.
08:50Internally you are free of all resistance.
08:55You are just letting the divine operate through you now.
09:00Actually it is not a positive or affirmative statement to say that you are letting the
09:08divine operate through you.
09:11Practically all that it means is that you are now no more insistent that your life be
09:20run by your personal will.
09:26You have given up the seat.
09:29Who is occupying that seat?
09:30You are no more bothered.
09:32Your duty, your dharma was to not to occupy a place you do not deserve.
09:41You gave up the undeserving place.
09:51Now whatsoever happens is wonderful.
09:58It's a great thing.
10:02And it's a very mysterious thing that when you are not confined by personal goals and
10:12desires then you become available to a great work, a wonderful mission.
10:24That's what Shri Krishna is trying to enroll Arjuna in.
10:30In the event of the Gita, that great mission is the war of Mahabharata.
10:41Arjuna is being confined by his personal self.
10:45Oh, he is my personal relation.
10:47Oh, he is this.
10:48Oh, my personal memories.
10:49Oh, my personal entanglements.
10:51Oh, my personal thoughts and concepts.
10:56Oh, my personal taboos.
11:01And because of this personal stuff, he is not able to make himself available to Krishna's
11:12grand mission.
11:13Krishna is saying we have a great mission at hand.
11:17We have to fight that evil army.
11:21But Arjuna is not available to that mission.
11:23Arjuna is available to his own personal stories.
11:27Oh, once Bhishma used to probably rock my cradle and Duryodhana ultimately is my brother
11:40and I remember how we used to play together when we were young.
11:46And what will I do with all the property and the power I get by killing my own kin?
11:55What will the world say?
11:58And haven't I been taught all this in my moral science class?
12:04That emotions are higher than material.
12:17So that personal knowledge is not allowing me to fight the Kauravas.
12:27This is Arjuna's limited world.
12:31The entire exercise of Gita is to rid Arjuna of his personal center.
12:40Can somehow Arjuna totally lose his personal self?
12:48It is kind of death.
12:50You could even say that Krishna is trying to help Arjuna die to his personal and previous
13:01self.
13:04And that happens.
13:07A point comes when Arjuna is available.
13:15His interiority is gone.
13:20And that interiority is nothing sacred anyway.
13:23That interiority, that which we call as the inner self is just the ego.
13:29It is now gone.
13:33And now Arjuna is available to fully participate in the war, in the mission.
13:42Now Arjuna will fight.
14:03The question, how can the notion that I am the body be eliminated?
14:08By being a little more sincere.
14:12I have answered this question no more than half, no less than half a dozen times.
14:21And at least a couple of times in this course itself.
14:30How will you get rid of body identification if you are not prepared to put in even a little
14:35bit of hard work?
14:37If this is the level of your sincerity, how really do you expect liberation?
14:48You all keep throwing these questions at me without even bothering to first search whether
14:55I have already answered them.
14:58Not that I cannot answer them again.
15:00It's a delight for me to speak.
15:02I can speak.
15:03But you will not benefit.
15:05You will not benefit because you have not paid the price.
15:13Participating in the course does not merely mean that you will shoot a question and expect
15:21an answer.
15:23At least do the basic background research here itself.
15:33And I remember the name of the questioner also when the same thing in exactly the same
15:38words had been asked to me.
15:48So go back, spend a little more time, figure out the answers that have already been provided.
16:02And then if need be, come back to me.
16:06You will now come to me with at least a deeper and an enhanced question.
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