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00:00:00It's a war between Krishna and Arjuna in the first place.
00:00:04The other war that the Mahabharata stands for, that's secondary.
00:00:08The primary war is between Krishna and Arjuna.
00:00:11And Arjuna makes all the attempts to resist Krishna as much as he can.
00:00:16Krishna is intimidating him in advance.
00:00:18Your resistance is your choice.
00:00:19By the virtue of being a human being, you enjoy that choice.
00:00:23That choice is not optional.
00:00:25That choice is your defining characteristic as a human being.
00:00:28As long as you are alive, you will have that choice.
00:00:31I am helpless in that matter.
00:00:32If you choose to not to understand what I am saying,
00:00:35then even the best of my discourses will fall flat.
00:00:39Nothing is going to happen, Arjuna.
00:00:43The direct path having failed on Arjuna,
00:00:58Shri Krishna is being extra cautious now.
00:01:01It is notable that the kind of warning or caution
00:01:18that was never sounded out to Arjuna in the beginning
00:01:32or after the first chapter or at the beginning of the second.
00:01:40is being delivered now, right in the middle of the Jnana-centered discourse in chapter 2.
00:01:59The reason is simple, obvious.
00:02:08The best, simplest, most direct, most obvious treatment has failed.
00:02:25Krishna tried to take Arjuna directly to the center of all being and doing,
00:02:36with being coming prior to doing.
00:02:41And that didn't succeed on Arjuna.
00:02:46Krishna is doling out precautionary advice in advance now, anticipating a similar kind of resistance
00:03:13as Arjuna displayed when Krishna was talking self-knowledge to him.
00:03:28So now Krishna is about to tell Arjuna
00:03:31the possible reasons why he is likely to fail,
00:03:42why he is likely to not get Krishna,
00:03:49why is he likely to miss out on the obvious message.
00:03:54And what applies to Arjuna applies to everybody.
00:03:59If you find that the Gita is not succeeding on you,
00:04:05if you find yourself disinterested or sleepy,
00:04:11if you find that something within you continuously conspires to keep you away,
00:04:19to keep you busy,
00:04:26enclosed, secured,
00:04:30in your cave,
00:04:33on your bed, with your meals,
00:04:37in your patterns,
00:04:41in your humdrum life,
00:04:46then these are the reasons.
00:04:49Rarely do we find in the Bhagavad Gita
00:04:55reasons for failure
00:05:00so descriptively elaborated
00:05:06as in these verses.
00:05:09this is anticipatory.
00:05:16Krishna is saying,
00:05:19even if
00:05:20I deliver
00:05:23the best
00:05:26that a teacher
00:05:28can
00:05:30to a tot,
00:05:31yet
00:05:33what I will give you
00:05:36will not stay with you.
00:05:38These are his exact words.
00:05:41What I will give you
00:05:43will not stay with you.
00:05:45And who are the
00:05:59kind of people
00:06:01and
00:06:03what
00:06:04characteristics
00:06:05do they display?
00:06:07What is it that keeps them
00:06:12away from the Gita in spite of
00:06:15an able teacher like Krishna,
00:06:26delivering it in the most profound manner possible?
00:06:32The reasons are being elaborated here.
00:06:37these are six, seven or eight points.
00:06:43And as we said,
00:06:44they apply not only to origin but to each of us.
00:06:49If you sometimes wonder,
00:06:53why?
00:06:57Why?
00:06:58do you just forget everything
00:07:06in spite of receiving it?
00:07:08Then here are the reasons.
00:07:16This is right in the tradition of negation,
00:07:19neti neti.
00:07:20Krishna is telling Arjuna,
00:07:22yes,
00:07:23yes,
00:07:24I will
00:07:25start speaking to you
00:07:26in another way.
00:07:30I will start instructing to you
00:07:32through another route.
00:07:37But
00:07:38it will fail again
00:07:40if you do not take care of these things.
00:07:43So first of all,
00:07:44these reasons,
00:07:45these factors
00:07:47need to be removed.
00:07:49Negation.
00:07:50remove these things
00:07:54and
00:07:55only then
00:07:57what
00:07:58I say
00:07:59will stay with you.
00:08:03Krishna is not saying that
00:08:05the words,
00:08:06the message,
00:08:07the import
00:08:08is not reaching Arjuna.
00:08:11He is saying it is reaching
00:08:13but
00:08:15not staying there.
00:08:16It is not being received.
00:08:17something can come to your doorsteps,
00:08:20right?
00:08:22A parcel,
00:08:23a courier,
00:08:25somebody has sent something.
00:08:26It has reached
00:08:28but
00:08:29it also needs to be received.
00:08:32Reaching
00:08:34is not sufficient.
00:08:37The receiver
00:08:38has to be ready.
00:08:42Krishna is telling us
00:08:44the characteristics
00:08:47of the
00:08:48unready receiver.
00:08:50Who is the one who is
00:08:54not yet ripe,
00:08:58not yet willing,
00:09:02not yet
00:09:06choosing Krishna.
00:09:07Krishna.
00:09:11Krishna might be
00:09:12right there
00:09:13on the chariot
00:09:16standing,
00:09:17sitting,
00:09:18right in front of you.
00:09:20Still,
00:09:21to get him,
00:09:22you have to choose him.
00:09:26How do we
00:09:28know the person
00:09:29who will not choose Krishna?
00:09:31here we go.
00:09:34Here we go.
00:09:38One.
00:09:42Those
00:09:44whose
00:09:46intellect
00:09:49follows the
00:09:50ego.
00:09:54Alpabuddhi.
00:09:56We touched on it
00:10:01the last time as well.
00:10:05Alpabuddhi does not mean
00:10:08low intellect.
00:10:13It means an absence of
00:10:16intelligence.
00:10:19Intellect and intelligence
00:10:21are dimensionally different.
00:10:23you can have
00:10:33a deep intellect
00:10:38and yet
00:10:41you might not be very intelligent.
00:10:49Intelligence
00:10:50is freedom from ego.
00:10:54The intellect
00:10:57has no such choice.
00:11:03The intellect is an instrument
00:11:04of the ego.
00:11:10The intellect is a resource.
00:11:15Intelligence is a quality.
00:11:17Intellect is a resource that can
00:11:25very easily
00:11:30become subservient
00:11:35to the ego.
00:11:36the ego.
00:11:37The ego uses everything, does it not?
00:11:47Anything that it can put its hands on, anything it can lay claim over.
00:11:53The intellect is one such thing, one such resource.
00:11:59The ego uses the body, does it not?
00:12:01The ego uses the senses, does it not?
00:12:03The ego uses the senses, does it not?
00:12:06The ego uses the memory, does it not?
00:12:09And if the ego
00:12:11has some control
00:12:14over the world,
00:12:17the ego definitely
00:12:19uses the world
00:12:21to satiate itself, does it not?
00:12:24Similarly, the ego uses the intellect.
00:12:25The ego uses the intellect.
00:12:29You will find egoistic persons coming up with great arguments, great excuses, great theories, just to defend the ego.
00:12:45Defend the ego.
00:12:50Intellect,
00:12:52sharp intellect
00:12:54in the service of ego
00:12:56becomes very lethal.
00:13:03And mind you,
00:13:05there is
00:13:06no freedom
00:13:07no freedom that intellect possesses on its own.
00:13:17Intelligence sanctifies the intellect.
00:13:23Otherwise, the intellect has no freedom of its own.
00:13:27There can be vast intellect
00:13:30and yet no freedom to the intellect.
00:13:32a lot of intellect is just brain,
00:13:47body, physicality, grey matter,
00:13:51biological.
00:13:54And just as
00:13:56people are prepared to
00:13:59sell their body
00:14:01for let's say money,
00:14:04don't we do that?
00:14:05Think of labour,
00:14:06physical labour.
00:14:11One is selling his arms, his legs,
00:14:13his muscles
00:14:15so that he may earn some money.
00:14:18Right?
00:14:20He says,
00:14:21my limbs will do
00:14:23what
00:14:25my master orders.
00:14:27Who is the master who pays you?
00:14:28My limbs will follow the commands of my master so that
00:14:33I get paid.
00:14:35Similarly, the brain is the body.
00:14:39Somebody could say, you know, my brain will follow
00:14:45the dictates of my master so that I get paid.
00:14:48And one could have an IQ of 170.
00:14:56And one could be
00:14:59selling it for very petty gains.
00:15:04The intellect is very sellable.
00:15:06It has no freedom of its own.
00:15:07That is one reason why the world is in such a poor condition today.
00:15:17People with very sharp intellects,
00:15:23they all stand sold
00:15:27to very despicable kind of masters.
00:15:34Just because those masters are good pay masters.
00:15:38Think of a college campus.
00:15:43A college you gain admission to after passing through the most rigorous kind of entrance test.
00:15:55Obviously, the students there will be high on intellect.
00:16:00Right?
00:16:01The average IQ of that campus will probably be 20, 30, 40% higher than the average IQ of general population.
00:16:14And yet see who comes there to hire, to recruit.
00:16:25Some companies selling fizzy drinks.
00:16:35The fellow has an IQ of 160.
00:16:39And he is extremely happy
00:16:40getting
00:16:45a job offer
00:16:47from an organization
00:16:49that sells sports shoes.
00:16:58He says, you know, this is
00:17:00the gift that I got
00:17:02from Prakriti.
00:17:04What is the gift? The brain.
00:17:06And what am I going to use this brain for?
00:17:11To sell shoes.
00:17:16Or sell sweetened water.
00:17:18Sell fizzy drinks.
00:17:20Oh, they pay you really well.
00:17:22They are big M&Cs.
00:17:29That's the intellect for you.
00:17:31Slave of the ego.
00:17:32One of the problems with our culture, the global culture, is that it respects the intellect too much.
00:17:45Somebody can come up with great arguments, thoughts, theories.
00:17:57We say, wow!
00:17:59He is so intelligent.
00:18:00No, he is not intelligent.
00:18:02Intelligence is freedom, whereas the intellect has no freedom.
00:18:05No freedom.
00:18:06We give undue reverence to intellect.
00:18:15Also to knowledge, also to memory.
00:18:20Also to memory.
00:18:24Somebody is knowledgeable.
00:18:28We stand in awe of him.
00:18:30Don't we?
00:18:31Oh, he knows so much.
00:18:32What's the point?
00:18:34Just like intellect, knowledge too is a vassal to the ego.
00:18:51And are these not woven together, intellect, knowledge and memory?
00:18:57Can there be one without the other?
00:19:04These really have very little importance of their own.
00:19:11Because they are just resources.
00:19:14Stuff to be used.
00:19:16Stuff to be used by the ego.
00:19:19The ego could use the stuff for its preservation or for its liberation.
00:19:23Chances are, it will use everything for self-preservation.
00:19:28And that's what intellect is used, rather misused for.
00:19:34Self-preservation.
00:19:37In that sense, having a sharp intellect is a bit of a misfortune.
00:19:46The sharper you are, it is possible.
00:19:49The more difficult it is for you to be free of yourself.
00:19:57You will use your own sharpness against yourself.
00:20:03The ego will use the intellect to remain in bondage.
00:20:14Right?
00:20:19If this were not true,
00:20:22we would have found that things are very linear, very arithmetical, very straight forward.
00:20:34We know what the average IQ of the population is, right?
00:20:37Around 100.
00:20:38So, those with IQs in excess of 125, the probability of spiritual liberation would have been higher.
00:20:53And progressively higher.
00:20:55125, oh now this fellow has a good chance of being liberated.
00:21:00135, the chance increases.
00:21:03The probability is progressive.
00:21:06Goes on increasing with IQ.
00:21:08Does that happen?
00:21:09That does not happen.
00:21:10Nope.
00:21:13We do not find any positive correlation there.
00:21:18So, there is a great chance that this phrase here can be misinterpreted.
00:21:27Alpabuddhi.
00:21:28Alpabuddhi does not mean low IQ.
00:21:33If Krishna is saying that those with low intellect cannot get the Gita,
00:21:39then the corollary is that those with high intellect will get the Gita, right?
00:21:44We have no evidence of that.
00:21:46There is no evidence at all that those with IQ
00:21:52are more suited to the path of wisdom.
00:21:54No.
00:21:58There is no evidence.
00:22:00To the contrary either.
00:22:02We are not saying that those with low IQ are more suited to the path of wisdom.
00:22:06No, no.
00:22:08Else all the asses would have been liberated by now.
00:22:11And if you are born dumb,
00:22:15then there would have been great celebrations.
00:22:19The fellow has no brains at all.
00:22:21He is automatically liberated.
00:22:26So, high IQ, no guarantee of liberation.
00:22:30No IQ, again low guarantee.
00:22:35Because intellect does not matter really in that sense.
00:22:40What matters is what you do with your intellect.
00:22:43And that is not decided by the intellect.
00:22:53Making the right decision with respect to your resources, that is intelligence.
00:22:59And that decision as to what to do with the intellect cannot come from the intellect.
00:23:05The TV cannot decide what you are going to watch.
00:23:14Can the TV?
00:23:16The TV cannot decide the channel you are going to watch.
00:23:19The intellect is like the TV.
00:23:22The remote is with you.
00:23:24Intelligence is to use the remote properly.
00:23:28Intellect is when you have a wide range of channels available to watch.
00:23:37Four hundred and two channels.
00:23:40That is intellect.
00:23:41So much is there.
00:23:43Great knowledge, great diversity, whatever you want to see is available.
00:23:47That is intellect.
00:23:48I know so much.
00:23:50And I can calculate.
00:23:52And I can argue.
00:23:54All that is?
00:23:56Intellect.
00:23:58But no television can decide on its own what you must watch for your welfare.
00:24:04Even if you program the TV in a way that it will display something to you.
00:24:09That is just programming.
00:24:11There can be no wisdom in programming.
00:24:13There can be no freedom in programming.
00:24:17Programming by definition is anti-freedom.
00:24:19So what does Alp-Buddhi mean?
00:24:20And that is just the first point Krishna is going to enumerate.
00:24:34Hmm?
00:24:36What does Alp-Buddhi mean?
00:24:38The one whose intellect is tethered to, submitted to the ego.
00:24:53What is Alp?
00:24:55The ego is Alp.
00:24:57Naalpe Sukham.
00:24:58The Grand is the Truth, the Atman.
00:24:59And Alp, limited, is the Ego.
00:25:00God says, we have very clear verification from Shruti itself.
00:25:13Yove Bhuma Tat Sukham Nalpe Sukham
00:25:18The grand is the truth, the Atman, and alp, limited, is the ego.
00:25:27That's the fundamental quality of the ego. I am limited and that's why I am restless.
00:25:36First is this.
00:25:39Arjun, if you have decided to use your past, your powers, your relationships, your memory, your intellect,
00:25:54to not to listen to me, then just as my words hitherto did not succeed on you,
00:26:04whatever I am going to say next, that too will fall flat.
00:26:11The warning has been sounded out.
00:26:26I cannot penetrate your defences, Arjun.
00:26:32And everything can be used by the ego in its defence.
00:26:38Most importantly, the buddhi.
00:26:43What is buddhi?
00:26:45How do we define buddhi? Intellect.
00:26:49How do we define it?
00:26:53Yeah, but how do we define it?
00:26:55When do we say somebody has intellect?
00:27:02It is the ability to make sense of prakrati.
00:27:15It is the ability to make sense of prakrati.
00:27:21Right?
00:27:23So why do we say that a madman or a kid or animals, their intellect is not as deep or wide or sharp as that of a normal human being?
00:27:43Why do we say that?
00:27:45Because we can see patterns.
00:27:50If we want to reach somewhere, we can figure out a way.
00:28:00But the intellect cannot tell you where to reach.
00:28:06Right?
00:28:08If you are given a puzzle, intellect will help you crack the puzzle.
00:28:14But the intellect cannot tell you which puzzles to choose and which to ignore.
00:28:27If you give a Sudoku thing to a chimpanzee, it's very unlikely to succeed.
00:28:34A human being probably will.
00:28:37That's intellect.
00:28:39You get it?
00:28:40So all these are products of your intellect.
00:28:49The gadgets that you see around you, all the stuff, all that comes from there.
00:28:54But the intellect itself has no freedom.
00:28:56It cannot tell you what to do with those things.
00:29:07Surgeon, understanding is first of all a decision.
00:29:13The decision has to be very clear.
00:29:20The decision is to understand.
00:29:22I want to understand.
00:29:27You cannot stand before the teacher with a wall of resistance and then say,
00:29:35Oh, but I don't understand.
00:29:38You don't understand because you don't want to.
00:29:43You don't have to be positively inclined towards understanding.
00:29:48No, that is not needed.
00:29:50You just have to remove the barriers against understanding.
00:29:53Yes, that is very much needed.
00:29:55You don't have to say, Oh, I am so eager and available.
00:29:58I want to understand.
00:29:59I have opened my heart for you, dear Master.
00:30:02All that is not needed.
00:30:04In fact, it's likely that all that might be another form of resistance.
00:30:17But you certainly have to look at yourself and ask,
00:30:22Am I sitting here to learn or to resist?
00:30:33What am I here for?
00:30:42To look at myself with the courage and intention to clear away the internal nonsense?
00:30:56What am I here to secure myself and silently fight the teacher?
00:31:03I often say, it's a war between Krishna and Arjuna in the first place.
00:31:14The other war that the Mahabharat stands for, that secondary, the primary war is between Krishna and Arjuna.
00:31:28And Arjuna makes all the attempts to resist Krishna as much as he can.
00:31:35And Krishna is intimating him in advance.
00:31:41Your resistance is your choice.
00:31:43That choice is your choice.
00:31:44By the virtue of being a human being, you enjoy that choice.
00:31:54That choice is not optional.
00:32:00That choice is your defining characteristic as a human being.
00:32:05As long as you are alive, you will have that choice.
00:32:08And I am helpless in that matter.
00:32:11If you choose not to understand what I am saying, then even the best of my discourses will fall flat.
00:32:22Nothing is going to happen Arjuna.
00:32:29And Krishna has solid reasons to suspect that nothing is going to happen because the best, the deepest, the purest lesson has already been delivered by him and it hasn't worked.
00:32:47So, Krishna is doubly cautious now.
00:32:54No?
00:32:55So, when we are enumerating the points, point one is, do not use your internal resources to defend the ego.
00:33:10And defending the ego and resisting the teacher are the same thing.
00:33:17We are smart people, we won't open our mouth.
00:33:23But internally, we are arguing.
00:33:29Are we not?
00:33:31Externally we are such nice, peaceful, silent people sitting almost in submission.
00:33:47You see?
00:33:51But that's just the facade.
00:33:55Internally you are quarrelling, you are wrestling.
00:33:58Krishna is saying, I will never win that wrestling bout.
00:34:09Not because you are stronger, but because you are the referee.
00:34:15You are fighting me and you will decide the winner.
00:34:24I will never win Arjuna.
00:34:29When you are arguing against someone, who decides whether your argument has merit?
00:34:37You do.
00:34:39Therefore, you always win.
00:34:42You always win.
00:34:44You always have an argument and in your eyes, the argument always has merit.
00:34:50No?
00:34:51Whatsoever you want to do, you have an argument in favour of it.
00:34:57How do you know that the argument has any worth at all?
00:35:01Because you are the tester of the argument.
00:35:09You certify.
00:35:12You pass.
00:35:15You don't allow.
00:35:16You judge.
00:35:17I am the player.
00:35:18I am the competitor.
00:35:19And I am the referee.
00:35:20I am the judge.
00:35:21Obviously you are never going to lose.
00:35:22And if the ego doesn't lose, the teacher cannot win.
00:35:40You find it.
00:35:41That's the point.
00:35:43Point number one.
00:35:45Next point.
00:35:50Those who are enamoured with the desire-centric deeds mentioned in the Vedas.
00:36:07mentioned in the Vedas. The Vedas have two parts. The first part deals with gaining satisfaction
00:36:37through fulfilment of desire. That is the Karmakand part. Gaining satisfaction by fulfilment
00:36:54of desire. The second part is about gaining fulfilment by understanding desire. The first
00:37:19part includes actions towards getting what you want. And how do you get what you want?
00:37:39By praising the world from where you want so much. I want a lot from you. You are the
00:37:52world. What is the most effective, the least expensive way of getting stuff from you? If
00:38:05I am smart, how do I get things from you? By just praising you. Please understand how
00:38:16it starts. First of all, I have desire. That is the defining thing of the ego. And I have
00:38:25desire towards the world. How do I get stuff from the world in the least expensive, least
00:38:38effortful way possible? By praising the world. So that's the way of the initial part of the
00:38:52Vedic literature. Praise the forces of nature and praise them no end. And say, I am praising
00:38:59you so much. Now kindly give me some milk and honey. I am praising you so much. Kindly ensure
00:39:11that I get more fertile wives. Who can beget me more sons. I am praising you so much. Kindly destroy
00:39:18all my enemies. May there be a great fire or a great flood. And they may be annihilated. And they may be
00:39:38annihilated. That's broadly the tone and tenor of Karma Kanda. That part too has certain javals containing
00:40:02deep insights. But they are few and far between. Mostly it is about praising prakratik deities to fulfill your
00:40:14desires. And then the Vedas just graduate. There is a quantum jump. The very orbit changes. The very dimension changes. Suddenly,
00:40:32from the Mantra Sanghita and the Brahman part, you come to the Upanishads. And this part is unrecognisable
00:40:44from the previous one. As if there is no similarity at all. As if a great U-turn has occurred.
00:41:02The Upanishads undo everything that has been done till now. They say, no, no, no. Fulfillment of the ego,
00:41:14appeasement of the ego is not the goal at all. The goal is dissolution of the ego. The very discourse changes,
00:41:23the very objective changes. The very objective changes. The Vedas assume a great height. Instead of
00:41:35praising the forces of prakrati, nature, the Upanishads are now saying, you don't have anything to do with
00:41:45prakrati. All the Vedic Gods are forgotten in the Upanishads. No Indra, no Varun, no Surya, no Agni.
00:41:57The Upanishads don't talk of them. Even if they do, it's very sporadic. Here, there, somewhere, you might have
00:42:04some odd mention. But that is not central at all. The Upanishads are saying, I don't have anything to do with
00:42:13prakrati. And I don't have anything to do with my desires. And these two go hand in hand, no?
00:42:19The more you are full of desires, the more you will have engagement with the world.
00:42:28The Upanishads are saying, no, no, no. It's not about fulfilling my desires. And it's not about
00:42:36engaging with the world for my benefit, my profit. No. The Deities, the Gods are gone. And instead, we have Brahm.
00:42:48The Absolute Truth. Nobody is being praised at all. Instead of praise and such things, there is inquiry,
00:42:59investigation. The very game changes. Everything is different now. Are you getting it?
00:43:08So different are the Upanishads from the previous part of the Vedas. And the Gita belongs to the category
00:43:20of Upanishads. The Gita is Vedanta, pure Vedanta. So Krishna is saying here something very beautiful,
00:43:30very drastic, very bold and also quite offensive to those who want to hold on to their desires.
00:43:43Shri Krishna is saying, if you are attached to the deeds and desires part of the Vedas, Arjun,
00:43:57you will never understand what I am saying. And it's not without reason that Shri Krishna is delivering
00:44:09this warning. In Chapter 1, Arjun has given him sufficient reasons to see that Arjun is quite
00:44:34in awe of, quite besotted with the whole game of personal and social desire.
00:44:49Krishna is saying no. If that part of the Vedas is what you really respect and value, then you will
00:45:10not value the Upanishads. You will have to drop all that. Worshipping forces of nature, asking for favours,
00:45:25psychophancy in the name of prayers, with your own desires being projected as the deity. All that takes you nowhere.
00:45:55drop that if you are to understand what I am going to say next. Because my job is not to fulfil your desires.
00:46:11And what I am going to say will strike at the very root of your desires.
00:46:22You must also see that your desires do not help you. It is not just unfulfilled desires that are a problem.
00:46:37Even fulfilled desires do not help you. The desirous one remains desirous even after fulfilment of the desire.
00:46:52Hence, I am going to strike at the very root of the desire. The very root of desire is called the ego.
00:46:59For most people, religion is about desire fulfilment, is it not? If you have desire, go towards religion.
00:47:13Go to a temple, go to a Baba, to a Guru, to a holy place. We don't go there to be liberated, we go there to be ingratiated.
00:47:32I wanted something, so I have come to this holy place or this holy man. Surely he will give me what I want. This is religion. Is it not?
00:47:45This is what goes by the name of religion. Commonly. Right? Lok dharma. This is what it is. Nothing more than that. No complications.
00:47:56I want something. So I will visit that particular temple or mosque or church or whatever, synagogue.
00:48:06And if I want a more human kind of blessing, then Guruji is there.
00:48:22When I ask for something in a temple, there is no assurance because there is nobody there to give a response.
00:48:35But Babaji is far more reassuring. You ask him something and he says, obviously you are going to get it.
00:48:44Not only that, if he is an astrologer, he will also predict the time and place where you will get what you want.
00:48:54Many a times, questions relating to astrology come to me and I would have said something.
00:49:02I don't remember that in the last few months, I have spoken on that topic.
00:49:09But kudos to our publishing team. The most controversial kind of material keeps getting published and republished in the form of short videos.
00:49:29And that keeps pinching and offending people again and again. Republishing means re-offending.
00:49:42There was this short video on astrology that these people have or might have, I am guessing, recently published.
00:49:52One fellow comes there and says, you know, how can you say that all that is a sham?
00:49:59I work in the gulf and I am childless, me and my wife. So, my wife went and consulted a Babaji. And I work in the gulf.
00:50:22And you know, the power of astrology. Babaji predicted the exact date when she will get a kid. And she got that. And I am in the gulf.
00:50:41And this foolish Acharya, he is saying astrology and all is just a sham. It's not that. It doesn't work. You need to have the right Babaji. And anything can be made to work.
00:51:08That's religion for you. That's wisdom for you. Shri Krishna is saying, if that is your definition of wisdom, Arjuna,
00:51:38I will keep trying. My words will fall on deaf ears. I will keep trying. My efforts will go in vain.
00:51:53Do you want to fulfil desire or do you want to fulfil the desire as one? Choose.
00:52:14Third point. We are enumerating the candidates who will never understand the Gita. Right? We are listing their characteristics.
00:52:33The third characteristic is those who think that wisdom or religion or spirituality are about securing a great afterlife.
00:52:49They will never understand the Gita. Essentially, those who believe in the concepts of heaven and hell and personal soul and reincarnation,
00:53:05they will never understand the Gita. They will never understand the Gita.
00:53:10Krishna is saying, those who have a mind that there is nothing higher than the deeds, the religious karma kant that leads to heaven.
00:53:25They will not get me. They will not understand my words. This is related to desire. You see that? Heaven is a desire.
00:53:37You are saying, I am doing the right things so that I can get a favourable result tomorrow. The most favourable result is heaven.
00:53:48If religion or wisdom to you is these things, result, fulfilment of desire, transmigration of soul, reincarnation, the ultimate resting place full of goodies and pleasures called heaven.
00:54:17If this is what religion means to you, then the Gita will be lost on you.
00:54:24Anybody who has this kind of concept of religion is definitely going to miss the Gita. Either miss Gita or misinterpret Gita.
00:54:37People don't usually miss Gita because that's a taboo. Especially if you are a Hindu, you cannot say, you know, I don't know Gita. What is the Gita?
00:54:46So ostensibly nobody misses the Gita, but we miss Gita by misinterpreting it.
00:54:53So that's a clear characteristic of those who are going to miss the Gita. They will have some concept of afterlife. Life after death.
00:55:09And something that remains after the death of the human being. Because you cannot have heaven without the soul. Right?
00:55:20If there is no soul, who is going to reach the heaven? So if Krishna is dismissing heaven, He is also dismissing soul. Obvious.
00:55:32If Shri Krishna is dismissing heaven, He is also dismissing desire.
00:55:41He is also dismissing what you call as the personal reincarnation. Trans migration.
00:55:51Today, here I am and based on my deeds, I become something. Right?
00:56:00So people are afraid, you know, I will become an ugly dog or something.
00:56:10I was just reading a book by the noted Hindi satirist, Hari Shankar Parsai, this evening itself.
00:56:25And I would recommend that book. It's in Hindi. Vaishnav ki Fislan.
00:56:40So it's a satire on religion, but religion in India is mostly Vaishnav religion.
00:56:48So that entire book is devoted to assaulting Bhakts.
00:56:55Every chapter there is one new variety of Bhakt.
00:57:00And Parsai Ji kills him.
00:57:03Hmm? Grip him and rip him. That's his way.
00:57:10So he talks of, we are talking of Svarga here.
00:57:15So he talks of one man who is extremely benevolent.
00:57:19In the sense that, he doesn't care for you as long as you are alive.
00:57:23In fact, when you are alive, he almost plans to get you killed.
00:57:30But the moment you are dead, he is the first one to reach your place
00:57:35and do the Moth Mitti rituals.
00:57:40The Karmakan that's associated with the last rites.
00:57:45Moth Mitti.
00:57:48So he will prepare the Arthi and do all those things.
00:57:51And also he will carry the Arthi and...
00:57:54You understand the Arthi? What is the Arthi?
00:57:57Right.
00:57:58So he will carry it and he will also shed tears and do all those things.
00:58:04Now this is very intriguing.
00:58:07He in fact mentions a case where...
00:58:12the story, the incident belongs to the sixties when telephones were not so common.
00:58:19So a boy comes running to this man's place and says,
00:58:24I need to call the doctor. You have the telephone.
00:58:27The father is Chaubeji, is seriously ill.
00:58:31Can I use the phone? He says, no, the phone is dead.
00:58:34Hmm? And Parsaiji says, I very well know that the phone is not dead.
00:58:39Why is he not allowing that kid to use the phone to call the doctor
00:58:45to take care of Chaubeji?
00:58:47He says, I don't understand what is going on.
00:58:50And obviously Chaubeji dies.
00:58:54And when Chaubeji dies, this man is the first
00:58:59to beat his chest and reach his house and
00:59:03participate in the rituals.
00:59:09So one day Parsaiji
00:59:14grabs him.
00:59:16His way is grip him and rip him.
00:59:19He says, you tell me what is going on.
00:59:22And then
00:59:24in the flow of the conversation
00:59:28he unwittingly divulges
00:59:31that one Pandit has told him
00:59:34that if you assist
00:59:37the final rituals of hundred men,
00:59:41then
00:59:43you are guaranteed heaven.
00:59:46And Parsaiji says,
00:59:49whenever I would look at this man I was actually afraid.
00:59:53Because he would be seen only when
00:59:56there is death around.
00:59:59So he would say, I would look at him and feel as if I am going to die.
01:00:04Otherwise why would he come to me?
01:00:07He goes only to those who have either died
01:00:10or are close to dying.
01:00:12And if they are close to dying, this man ensures that they die.
01:00:14So having known that, he asks him how many so far?
01:00:23He says 99.
01:00:26Parsaiji says fine.
01:00:28And then one day Parsaiji hears
01:00:31that he got his hundredth.
01:00:33And then he says, now the fear has gone out of my chest.
01:00:39Because this man does not care for anybody's death now.
01:00:42He has done his hundred.
01:00:44His seat in heaven is now guaranteed.
01:00:48The Pandit told him, if you do hundred,
01:00:50you reach heaven straight away.
01:00:52So that's the kind of,
01:00:58you know,
01:00:59when you have such a great relationship with heaven,
01:01:02then you have no relationship with this world.
01:01:05Right?
01:01:07Right?
01:01:08All your energy, all your respect,
01:01:11all your engagement,
01:01:13everything flows just towards heaven.
01:01:17And then you become very cruel towards this world.
01:01:23You are so much in devotion to something of the beyond
01:01:27that you are left with no compassion for what is around you.
01:01:31And the Gita is about fighting a war,
01:01:39here, not in the heaven.
01:01:42And if you are thinking all the time of heaven,
01:01:43if religion to you means attaining some heaven,
01:01:46some desire, some result, some pleasure,
01:01:49then how will you understand, Arjun, what I am going to say to you?
01:01:51You have to be dismissive of any talk of afterlife.
01:01:58Only then the Gita will make sense to you.
01:02:00Those who have a battle at hand,
01:02:07those who are living in matters of the moment,
01:02:12those who are engaging deeply with the world as it is,
01:02:19right now, present to them,
01:02:21they are the ones who will find the Gita useful.
01:02:25Indispensable rather.
01:02:28But those who are wallowing in thoughts of this and that,
01:02:32you know, my internal universe, I am doing this, I am doing that.
01:02:36If I do this, I will attain great results.
01:02:41I don't have to do anything proper in the world.
01:02:52I don't have to struggle with the challenges as they are present.
01:02:57I simply have to go and sit at the feet of the deity.
01:03:00And I will be delivered.
01:03:03Is that not what popular religion is about?
01:03:05Simply go and sit at the feet of the deity.
01:03:08And you will be delivered.
01:03:11Let your neighbour cry and die.
01:03:15All your feeling is reserved for?
01:03:17Only your deity.
01:03:19No feeling for?
01:03:21For the world.
01:03:30If that's your concept of religion Arjun,
01:03:33then you will not get what I am going to say.
01:03:36Right?
01:03:38As we said, there are six or seven characteristics that Shri Krishna is going to enumerate.
01:03:44We have reached only till three now.
01:03:47And we will take the rest in the next session.
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