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00:00:00 The first chapter closes with Arjun overwhelmed with emotion, indecisiveness and a lot of
00:00:29 mental clutter, in part arising from the body and in part accumulated from social conditioning.
00:00:50 Arjun keeps his arms aside and declares, "I won't fight."
00:01:05 Thus opens the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.
00:01:15 Sanjay says, so, addressing Dhritarashtra, "Madhusudana Krishna spoke these words to
00:01:35 Arjun who was overwhelmed with pity and sorrow and whose eyes were obfuscated with tears."
00:01:57 That's the condition of the one Sri Krishna is now going to address.
00:02:12 A mighty warrior overtaken by grief and whose eyes, eyes denoting wisdom, are dimmed by
00:02:31 tears, tears denoting emotion.
00:02:37 So wisdom is now cloaking, wisdom is now being cloaked by, shrouded by emotion.
00:02:54 That is Arjun's condition.
00:03:02 And these are the first words.
00:03:08 Arjun says, "In this moment of crisis, in this visham moment and situation, from where
00:03:34 have you allowed this unmanly, ignoble, anarya weakness to come upon you?"
00:04:02 And "Oh Arjun, this sorrow is so unlike what befits a true Aryan."
00:04:19 Aryan means a superior person.
00:04:26 It need not necessarily be taken in racial or ethnic terms.
00:04:34 Arya denotes someone worthy of respect.
00:04:40 So from where and how come you have allowed this anarya weakness to possess you, which
00:04:55 is disgraceful and also an impediment in obtaining heaven?
00:05:20 So first thing as is evident, Shri Krishna is appealing to Arjun right at the point he
00:05:31 is standing.
00:05:36 He sees that Arjun is in strong grip of emotionality that's causing him to decide in a particular
00:06:00 way at this moment and is thinking a lot about the future.
00:06:08 Do you remember all that Arjun had said in defense of his position?
00:06:19 If we all fall, if all the Kshatriyas are gone, what will happen in the future?
00:06:31 And endlessly he had gone on to project the future.
00:06:35 Do you remember?
00:06:38 So that's where Arjun's mind is currently situated, in the future.
00:06:47 As Arjun is presently, he is in the grip of emotion, that has to be addressed and continuously
00:07:00 he is thinking of the future, so that has to be addressed.
00:07:03 So Krishna's opening remarks come addressing both of these points.
00:07:14 Because Arjun is displaying emotional weakness, so Krishna tells him this is very Anaryan,
00:07:21 this is not how a strong, superior, brave, capable, worthy man behaves.
00:07:32 And because Arjun is thinking of what will happen as a consequence of the war, all the
00:07:39 men will die, all the women will go corrupt, and then illegitimate offsprings will be born.
00:07:52 And then, further into the future, the departed souls of the ancestors will not gain peace
00:08:01 because the tributes offered by illegitimate sons are not accepted as per the law and the
00:08:18 rituals.
00:08:22 So more and more, further and further, deeper and deeper into the future is Arjun wandering.
00:08:32 And he is going to the other worlds, he is talking of the departed souls and how they
00:08:42 would suffer, how they would continue to roam thirsty and hungry because the food and water,
00:08:52 that is ritually offered to them, there is the Shad ritual, will become unacceptable.
00:09:05 So Arjun is wondering not only about the future in this world but also about the future of
00:09:11 the ancestors in the other world.
00:09:16 And that's one characteristic of the delirious mind.
00:09:27 It starts projecting too much, it starts imagining too much.
00:09:34 And it starts taking its imaginations as reality.
00:09:40 Not only does it take its imaginations as reality, it reacts to them as if they were
00:09:53 real.
00:09:55 Think of someone who imagines a tiger standing in front of him and reacts with panic.
00:10:06 That's what happens with people who do not know the nature of the projector and the projected
00:10:16 experience.
00:10:20 That is why a serious study of non-duality is so important.
00:10:29 Otherwise one starts taking the world too seriously.
00:10:36 This world and the imagined world.
00:10:38 This world that we call as the world of objects, things, facts.
00:10:47 One starts taking this one too seriously and worse still, one starts taking the imagined
00:10:54 world very seriously.
00:11:00 Arjun as you see is guilty on both accounts.
00:11:07 He is taking all these people standing in front of him very seriously and that's the
00:11:13 reason why Krishna immediately after this one will say that Arjun you are mourning for
00:11:21 those who deserve no sympathy.
00:11:25 You are giving them far more consideration than what they are worthy of.
00:11:35 And Arjun is giving his own imaginations a lot of importance.
00:11:41 So Krishna counters imagination with imagination.
00:11:47 He says the behavior that you are displaying will disqualify you from heaven.
00:11:55 You are talking of what will happen to the souls of the ancestors roaming about in the
00:12:01 other worlds.
00:12:02 You think what will happen to you because you too have to go to the other world.
00:12:07 You keep displaying such weakness, such un-Aryan behavior.
00:12:16 And soon you will be declared ineligible for swarg.
00:12:23 Now Krishna very well knows there is nothing in this swargnarak thing.
00:12:33 But that's the beauty of the Gita.
00:12:38 The teacher not announcing the highest truths from the skies but very practically, very
00:12:45 compassionately coming down to where the student is.
00:12:53 And the student right now is dwelling in abysses and dark caves and all kinds of places of
00:13:13 ignorance and sorrow.
00:13:16 Places where there is no light.
00:13:19 Places that are so deeply, so primitively hidden from the truth that no light can directly
00:13:41 reach them.
00:13:44 Even if the sun shines brightly, strongly overhead, how will its light reach an underground
00:13:56 cave?
00:14:02 So even if Krishna shines the highest kind of knowledge on Arjuna at this moment, it
00:14:11 won't be beneficial.
00:14:13 Because Arjuna is right now located in some deep dark cave of the unconscious.
00:14:27 Krishna can shine as brightly as possible, it won't help Arjuna.
00:14:38 So Krishna says fine, no more of the sun business.
00:14:46 I have to descend and that's the whole meaning of avatar, is it not?
00:14:55 No point the Brahm thing, whatever it is, remaining inaccessible, unspeakable, unthinkable,
00:15:07 untouchable, unimaginable, inconceivable.
00:15:14 No point.
00:15:17 No point for the one who lives only in imaginations, thoughts, conceptions, names, forms.
00:15:30 And up there, up above and beyond lies the transcendental truth, transcending all the
00:15:39 mortals who need it the most.
00:15:43 What is the point?
00:15:47 I am the one suffering in falseness, right?
00:15:51 I am the one who desperately needs the truth and the truth transcends me.
00:15:59 And I'm told the truth is beyond me.
00:16:02 And I'm told my hands, my arms are just too small to reach out and touch, let alone grip
00:16:09 it.
00:16:12 I'm told my little eyes are just too feeble and my mind too weak.
00:16:26 From some vantage point, that's like telling the patient the medicine is too big and too
00:16:36 much and too costly and too unaffordable and unimaginable for you.
00:16:44 Glory is to the medicine.
00:16:46 It is transcendental.
00:16:48 Yes, the medicine is indeed great then, but the patient will die.
00:16:55 Glory is to the medicine.
00:16:59 The medicine that the patient cannot even think of, dream of, touch of, forget about
00:17:08 affording the medicine.
00:17:11 The patient cannot even talk of it, that kind of transcendental medicine.
00:17:19 So the patient will say the medicine is great.
00:17:22 I bow down.
00:17:26 I salute the medicine, but please give me something that is a little less of the skies.
00:17:36 That is a little less transcendental.
00:17:38 Give me something that can be touched and used and ingested and metabolized.
00:17:49 Something that matches the level of my absorption.
00:17:58 Are you getting it?
00:18:00 Time and again in the Bhagavad Gita you will find Shri Krishna's compassion in full display.
00:18:19 If you are careful you will note how he is a very attentive listener.
00:18:29 He is looking at Arjun.
00:18:31 He is very mindfully listening to each word Arjun is uttering and from that attention
00:18:45 which cannot come without compassion arise all of Krishna's responses.
00:18:54 This one as well.
00:18:56 The verse that we have, "Tant".
00:18:59 Are you getting it?
00:19:04 So Arjun you will miss out on heaven.
00:19:08 What are you doing?
00:19:11 If heaven is something you take to be real, then why should you miss out on the real heaven?
00:19:21 Fantastic, is it not?
00:19:26 Heaven is something you take to be real.
00:19:29 You take heaven and hell and the various worlds, the thousand lokas to be so real that you
00:19:42 are coating the roaming souls of all the ancestors as a valid reason not to fight.
00:19:58 If you have such great belief in the afterlife, then please do take care of your own afterlife
00:20:06 first.
00:20:12 And ancestors will be mighty displeased if the greatest in their pedigree fails to ascend
00:20:20 to heaven.
00:20:26 Arjun is the best in the line, right?
00:20:35 And if he misses out on heaven, the ancestors will be very unhappy.
00:20:46 Probably more unhappy than if they were to accept water from a Varna Sankar.
00:21:03 Arjun think of it.
00:21:05 What would displease them more?
00:21:08 A Varna Sankar in their lineage?
00:21:14 Appreciate the Varna Sankar as someone unworthy.
00:21:17 An unworthy one in their lineage?
00:21:20 Is that the most displeasing news?
00:21:26 Or the worthiest one in their lineage disqualified from heaven?
00:21:36 Now that creates a doubt and that is meant to create a doubt in Arjun's mind.
00:21:42 First thing is, dislodge the student from his point of falseness.
00:21:53 Confuse him.
00:21:56 What does confusion mean?
00:21:58 The student stands self-assured, confident at the chosen point of his ego.
00:22:08 He says this is my home, this is where I rest.
00:22:14 This is the point I am very strongly tethered to.
00:22:19 This is my position.
00:22:22 He cannot be immediately picked up and kept at the point of truth.
00:22:29 The student is not an inanimate object.
00:22:33 The student unfortunately has some free will.
00:22:39 You cannot just pick up the student and place him at the truth.
00:22:44 Not possible.
00:22:48 You have to coax the student.
00:22:50 You have to gently coerce him, educate him.
00:23:00 Sometimes you have to confuse him.
00:23:03 Sometimes you even have to seduce him.
00:23:07 All is okay.
00:23:12 What is not okay is means that do not work.
00:23:18 What is not okay is knowledge that is ineffective.
00:23:23 And that's what Jnani Yog has been accused of since centuries.
00:23:30 It is great but it does not work.
00:23:36 And that will happen if the Jnani is a hollow Jnani.
00:23:41 If the Jnani does not operate from compassion, love.
00:23:45 That's why I continuously say the paths of knowledge and love are one.
00:23:54 The path of knowledge devoid of love just gets lost in some arid desert.
00:24:09 No softness, no moisture, no quenching of the inner thirst.
00:24:18 Just dryness.
00:24:22 And a lot of Jnani's are actually like that.
00:24:26 And the path of love without knowledge remains nothing more than animalistic emotionality.
00:24:40 Emotionality that you call as love.
00:24:43 Love without knowledge is blind.
00:24:49 Knowledge without love is dry and dead.
00:25:00 And neither of them is real without the other.
00:25:06 So a Jnani, a loveless Jnani is no Jnani at all.
00:25:17 And a Premi or Bhakt having no understanding, no realization, no attention is no Premi at
00:25:27 all.
00:25:30 These two paths have to see their underlying unity.
00:25:38 Since long we have been saying that these paths converge but that is not sufficient.
00:25:43 We say that ultimately all paths converge in as they say God.
00:25:48 Right?
00:25:49 Or you could say Mukti, realization, whatever.
00:25:53 Truth.
00:25:55 That's been the traditional line.
00:25:57 The paths are different but they end at the same place.
00:26:00 So they converge at the same point.
00:26:03 Right?
00:26:04 That's the conventional thing.
00:26:06 No, no, no, no, no.
00:26:08 That won't work.
00:26:11 You have to see that not only is the end point common, even the underlying foundation is
00:26:24 just the same.
00:26:29 All paths have an underlying oneness.
00:26:33 They are fundamentally the same.
00:26:36 You must be able to see that there are no two paths.
00:26:46 And then there is freedom.
00:26:47 Then there is freedom along the path.
00:26:49 And if there is no freedom along the path, how can there be freedom at the end?
00:26:56 Why should a Jnani be prevented from overflowing with tears just like a Bhakt?
00:27:14 Why are you taking away that freedom?
00:27:20 What if a Bhakt wants to just silently observe and read and understand like a Jnani?
00:27:26 Why are you robbing him of this freedom?
00:27:32 Why must there be almost a sectarian code of conduct for the various paths?
00:27:48 The Jnani has to look like this and behave like this and the Bhakt has to look like that
00:27:52 and behave like that and operate in another way.
00:27:55 Why do you necessarily need these distinctions?
00:27:58 Or do you?
00:27:59 You are a seeker and that's all.
00:28:03 I have to reach.
00:28:05 I have to know.
00:28:13 I'll take all paths possible.
00:28:15 Correct?
00:28:16 Why must I be rigid?
00:28:20 Why must I be exclusive?
00:28:25 You look at Krishna here.
00:28:27 An amalgamation of everything.
00:28:37 He does impart wisdom to Parth.
00:28:42 But he's coming from compassion, mind you.
00:28:46 Now tell me, is he a Jnani or a Premi?
00:28:51 I don't know.
00:28:54 And if I manage to put my finger on one of these two, that would be injustice to Krishna
00:29:05 and ignorance on my part.
00:29:13 He's coming from compassion and is imparting.
00:29:20 What do I call him now?
00:29:25 If there is no compassion, would there ever be a Gita?
00:29:30 Why does Krishna need to meddle in others' business?
00:29:37 He has already done enough, right?
00:29:39 Even for the Pandavas.
00:29:41 Now this chap is saying I don't want to fight Arjun.
00:29:44 Krishna should counsel him up to a point and then let him do his own thing.
00:29:53 As they say, you must not interfere in others' affairs beyond a point.
00:29:58 Look at Krishna.
00:30:00 Even before the war begins, Krishna has already fought the war.
00:30:06 I have been saying since long that the real battle has been between Krishna and Arjun.
00:30:16 Why would one fight such a tedious war but for compassion?
00:30:27 And that's the relationship, mind you, between love and knowledge.
00:30:39 You have love for liberation.
00:30:45 That's why you want to know your bondages.
00:30:50 Let there be no misunderstanding in this, please.
00:30:57 So these two are inseparable.
00:31:01 And out of these two, what comes first?
00:31:04 What comes first?
00:31:06 Come on.
00:31:08 Love always comes first.
00:31:12 Always always.
00:31:17 If you have no love for liberation, and I keep telling you this is the nature of your
00:31:23 bondages.
00:31:24 This is prakriti.
00:31:25 This is maya.
00:31:26 This is this.
00:31:27 Will that knowledge steer you into action?
00:31:32 Will that knowledge steer you into action?
00:31:34 So what comes first?
00:31:35 Love always comes first.
00:31:36 Let's know this.
00:31:39 Even as we are recipients of great wisdom, mind you, wisdom is toothless, useless, rather
00:31:48 lifeless without love.
00:31:54 And those who know, know the very, very primality of love.
00:32:02 And that would be surely reminding you of what Ramana Maharishi used to say, right?
00:32:08 Now you know why mata, because before comes the son has to be the mother.
00:32:17 Now without love, there can be no understanding because you will not want to understand.
00:32:22 Remember, one does not understand the truth ever.
00:32:26 What is it that you ever understand?
00:32:29 You understand yourself, that self-knowledge, right?
00:32:32 You understand the nature of your bondages.
00:32:35 I'm again asking you, if you do not want to be liberated at all, would you have any incentive
00:32:42 to learn of your bondages?
00:32:46 That's why love comes first.
00:32:49 But that love has to be the love for liberation, not love for imagination.
00:32:57 And that's where bhakti often goes wrong.
00:32:59 They start loving their own imagination.
00:33:02 So you are supposed to love liberation, not your own creation.
00:33:11 You start dreaming of something and start worshipping it.
00:33:14 Is that bhakti?
00:33:15 No, that is not bhakti.
00:33:19 That is asakti.
00:33:20 Are you getting it?
00:33:29 Love comes first, but love means love for liberation, not emotional attraction.
00:33:37 I create an object in front of me, sensually very attractive.
00:33:45 And then I start worshipping it.
00:33:47 I fall at its feet.
00:33:48 Will that help?
00:33:50 And man has done that since millennia.
00:33:57 We started thinking in a systematic and organized way, they say around 70,000 years back.
00:34:11 That's also when we started developing language in a rudimentary way.
00:34:17 Because what is language?
00:34:18 It's related to organized thought.
00:34:22 And it's not since millions of years that we have been thinking.
00:34:31 And it's so instructive that as soon as man started thinking, he also started worshipping.
00:34:43 You find figures in caves, either drawn or etched.
00:34:53 But what is it that man was worshipping?
00:35:00 His own thought.
00:35:02 As soon as thought came, came worship, mind you.
00:35:08 As soon as man started thinking, he also started worshipping.
00:35:13 It's obvious what man was worshipping.
00:35:15 He was worshipping his thought, which is all right.
00:35:18 Which is all right to begin with.
00:35:22 To begin with.
00:35:23 Because when you worship, you at least acknowledge that there is something bigger than you.
00:35:28 That acknowledgement is there.
00:35:31 Let credit be given where it is true.
00:35:34 Irrespective of what you worship, there is at least an intent to fall at something's
00:35:40 feet.
00:35:41 You're prostrating.
00:35:43 Right?
00:35:44 The head is now bowed.
00:35:46 You're saying something is bigger than me.
00:35:48 The only problem is when the worship is very primary, very rudimentary, very beginner
00:35:57 like, then you do not realize that the right one to be worshipped is not your imagination,
00:36:07 but the one beyond your imagination, because you worship only because you are in sorrow.
00:36:16 And the one who is in sorrow is projecting itself as the object of worship.
00:36:27 In all your imaginations is the shadow of the ego or is it not?
00:36:34 That's why different people imagine differently.
00:36:37 Correct?
00:36:39 Is that not true?
00:36:41 If I ask you to narrate a story, there is nobody here who would not.
00:36:47 All of you can come up with stories and the stories would differ.
00:36:50 I give you a topic, the same topic, your stories would differ.
00:36:54 Correct?
00:36:55 How would the stories differ?
00:36:56 Please tell me.
00:36:58 Because you are different.
00:37:00 My topic is a great day.
00:37:04 And I give the same topic to the grass and to the buffalo, to the lion and to the deer.
00:37:12 What is the topic?
00:37:14 A great day or a great treat.
00:37:19 A sumptuous feast.
00:37:20 That's the topic.
00:37:22 The same topic is given to the grass, to the deer and to the lion.
00:37:28 You know the stories would be very different.
00:37:33 So when we are worshipping a story, we are actually worshipping the storyteller.
00:37:43 When you are worshipping something arising for imagination, you are actually worshipping
00:37:48 just your own ego.
00:37:52 So love has to be pure.
00:37:55 That's the problem.
00:37:58 The object of your love cannot be something arising out of your own mind.
00:38:06 The moment you start worshipping something that is a product of your own thought, that
00:38:13 does not liberate you, that simply inflates you.
00:38:22 Most people are content with inflation rather than liberation.
00:38:29 I'm a great bhakta.
00:38:30 I'm a lover.
00:38:31 See how much I love.
00:38:34 Look at the depth of my devotion.
00:38:37 So devotion is wonderful, but you are not a devotee.
00:38:39 That's the problem.
00:38:40 The problem does not lie with the path of devotion.
00:38:43 That's a wonderful path.
00:38:45 The problem lies with the fact that you are not a devotee at all.
00:38:50 But this you will not understand.
00:38:52 You will never acknowledge because according to you, the path of devotion is totally different
00:39:00 from the path of understanding.
00:39:02 So how will you understand what I'm saying?
00:39:07 If your devotion involves no understanding, how will you ever understand what I'm saying?
00:39:14 And you will keep worshipping your own stories and your own figures and forms and names and
00:39:18 all the charming things.
00:39:20 You'll just keep worshipping them.
00:39:22 Doesn't make sense.
00:39:24 Are you getting it?
00:39:28 So yes, love.
00:39:30 Love for liberation.
00:39:32 When you love, you have to be very, very careful.
00:39:38 What is it I'm falling for?
00:39:41 What is it I'm being compelled towards?
00:39:48 Because love is a charm.
00:39:52 It's magnetic.
00:39:54 Right?
00:39:56 After a point, it leaves you helpless.
00:40:00 You allow yourself to be pulled.
00:40:06 You simply lose it after a point.
00:40:08 That's the very definition and the very success of love.
00:40:12 It makes you lose yourself.
00:40:15 But before you lose yourself, shouldn't you inquire what you are losing yourself to?
00:40:21 Please.
00:40:23 If you lose yourself to the very devil, convince me how is it good for you?
00:40:35 And what do you mean by the devil?
00:40:37 Who is the devil?
00:40:39 Your own self is the devil.
00:40:40 Who else is the devil in this world?
00:40:43 There are no devils outside of you, right?
00:40:49 If you lose yourself to your own stories and concepts and greed and whatever is there inside,
00:40:57 what have you attained?
00:41:00 What have you attained?
00:41:01 Please tell me.
00:41:08 Now look at Krishna here.
00:41:13 He displays how love comes first.
00:41:17 First thing is Arjun has to be helped.
00:41:21 Love is so primary that hold your breath.
00:41:29 Even truth can wait.
00:41:38 But were you not saying that first of all, love has to be for the truth for liberation.
00:41:43 And how can love be so primary that even truth can wait?
00:41:50 Remember, the one being addressed is not yet ready for the truth.
00:42:00 Truth to him is a distant thing.
00:42:04 Correct?
00:42:06 And you are located at that distant thing as a teacher.
00:42:10 Where are you?
00:42:13 The student is crawling on the earth.
00:42:20 And if you are a real teacher, if you are a Krishna, where are you situated?
00:42:27 Just by way of an analogy, please don't stretch the example too far.
00:42:31 Where are you situated?
00:42:35 In the skies, uppermost skies.
00:42:39 So truth can wait.
00:42:41 The skies can wait, you come down.
00:42:44 You come down.
00:42:45 Love is so important that you should be able to even keep the truth aside for a while.
00:42:55 That's a tightrope walk.
00:42:58 That's a very dangerous thing I've just uttered.
00:43:01 Because that's also what you do in the crudest kind of emotionality.
00:43:08 My mother does not want to hear the truth.
00:43:12 So I let her live in lies because love comes first and truth can wait.
00:43:16 Acharya ji told us.
00:43:19 No, no, no, no.
00:43:22 There is a difference, big difference here.
00:43:25 The difference is of intent.
00:43:27 The intent here is I will go down to Arjun, hold him by his arm and pull him up.
00:43:36 When Krishna displays it can be done.
00:43:40 Krishna is not saying I am quitting my own residence forever.
00:43:43 He is saying no, I am on a mission.
00:43:46 I am leaving my home just as you leave your home when you proceed on a mission.
00:43:51 I am leaving my home to go to the place where Arjun is.
00:43:55 I will go there, I will pick him up and I will bring him to where I am.
00:44:01 Whereas when we compromise on truth, we say you were anyway never at truth.
00:44:09 Now I agree to join you.
00:44:15 Krishna is not agreeing to join Arjun.
00:44:20 He is going to haul him up and load him on his chariot, whose chariot, not Arjun's chariot,
00:44:28 Krishna's chariot.
00:44:29 Load him on his chariot and bring him to his own place, Krishna loka, the place of truth.
00:44:39 Whereas when we compromise, we do the exact opposite.
00:44:44 Correct?
00:44:46 Oh, you will be hurt if I utter the truth to you.
00:44:54 So what do I do?
00:44:56 I decide to myself forget the truth.
00:44:59 So that the two of us can be united.
00:45:00 Else the two of us were living in distinct separate worlds.
00:45:06 We could not feel one.
00:45:09 So I said fine.
00:45:12 I am giving up on my passport.
00:45:13 I will change my nationality.
00:45:16 I will now become a citizen of falseness.
00:45:23 Maya loka.
00:45:26 You cannot come to Krishna loka.
00:45:28 No, not cannot.
00:45:30 You will not.
00:45:31 It's a matter of choice.
00:45:34 You will never come to this place.
00:45:36 So I decide to join you where you are.
00:45:40 Apparently Krishna is doing much the same thing with Arjun.
00:45:44 But there is a great difference.
00:45:46 Never miss that difference.
00:45:50 Krishna is a fighter.
00:45:53 So he had vowed not to pick up arms.
00:45:56 But he broke his vow.
00:46:00 He is supposed to be the mischievous one, right?
00:46:02 He never keeps his word.
00:46:04 Truth is beyond all words.
00:46:08 We think he never picked up weapons on that battlefield.
00:46:13 The fact is before anybody else could pick up any weapons, Krishna did.
00:46:19 What else is the Gita?
00:46:23 Here is Arjun giving up on the Gandhi.
00:46:27 And what you do not see is that Krishna has already picked up weapons.
00:46:31 And he is fighting Arjun all the time.
00:46:33 He is a fighter.
00:46:35 He is saying I will not let you stay who you are and where you are.
00:46:42 You are in the very grip, very throes of Maya.
00:46:49 And I love you.
00:46:51 Because I love you, I will snatch you from her.
00:47:00 It's a street fight.
00:47:02 Please appreciate.
00:47:10 It's neither the soft ambience of love, mushy, cuddly, emotional, nor is it the dignified
00:47:30 environment of Gyan.
00:47:34 This is street fight.
00:47:45 People like to ask, is Gita about Samarpana or is it about Sangharsh?
00:47:57 Because when you talk of the path of knowledge, then there is a resistance, right?
00:48:04 So they put it in this kind of a binary.
00:48:07 They say, is it about the kind of resistance that you witness in scholarly debates, right?
00:48:24 Or is it about the kind of emotion that you witness among the traditional kind of devotees?
00:48:37 The Gita is beyond these two.
00:48:46 There was a day, if we are to believe the stories, when Krishna helped Arjun kidnap
00:49:00 his own sister.
00:49:06 And the legend says that Balram got quite angry.
00:49:12 Little did Arjun know at that time that there would be a day when Krishna would kidnap him
00:49:17 as well.
00:49:23 That's what is happening here.
00:49:25 Arjun is not prepared to leave his place.
00:49:30 Krishna is almost forcibly taking him away.
00:49:38 That's why he is called Hari.
00:49:43 Har, what does Har mean?
00:49:47 To take away.
00:49:49 Haran.
00:49:51 He is taking away Arjun.
00:49:55 And he has come to Arjun's place.
00:49:58 You do not kidnap someone by inviting them to your own place.
00:50:04 It would be a very unprofessional kidnapper.
00:50:11 Krishna is going to where Arjun is.
00:50:15 And this involves a lot of steel, a bit of deceit.
00:50:21 So Krishna tells Arjun, "See, you would miss out on heaven.
00:50:25 Heaven is real, right?
00:50:26 Yes, Arjun, remember chapter 1?
00:50:30 What did you just say in the previous act?
00:50:34 Heaven is real.
00:50:35 You would miss out on heaven.
00:50:38 Because a warrior who refuses to fight loses his entry to the higher portals.
00:50:47 Do you see how this is being played?
00:51:00 It's like playing a game of chess with your beloved.
00:51:09 The one in front of you is someone you deeply love.
00:51:13 At the same time, you have to apply all your thought and mind, all your attention to winning
00:51:19 the game.
00:51:21 It's important you win this game for him, for his own sake.
00:51:26 So the intent is of love.
00:51:31 But the game must be played in wisdom.
00:51:36 That is the unity of Jnana and Prem.
00:51:40 The intent is of love.
00:51:42 But the game must be played in wisdom.
00:51:46 Getting it?
00:51:52 Yield not to unmanliness.
00:52:22 Verse number 3.
00:52:28 Do not display this unmanly behavior.
00:52:36 Why is he being told not to display unmanly behavior?
00:52:44 Is that an integral part of Krishna's teaching?
00:52:53 Is that what Vedanta teaches you at the core?
00:52:59 That you should behave in a manly way?
00:53:03 Are the teachings of Vedanta different for men and women?
00:53:07 And then why is Krishna uttering such words?
00:53:17 It's his manly identity that's being addressed.
00:53:21 Man, from where does this man come?
00:53:25 How do we know that there is a strong man, a masculine center within Arjuna that needs
00:53:32 to be addressed?
00:53:33 How do we know?
00:53:34 Yes, because Krishna was listening.
00:53:42 There's a mark of the great teacher, the great helper.
00:53:45 First of all, he listens.
00:53:47 He knows where you are located.
00:53:54 How do we know Arjuna has a strong masculine identity?
00:54:01 How do we know?
00:54:03 He talked of women.
00:54:05 And Krishna was listening.
00:54:08 Did he utter a word in chapter 1?
00:54:10 What was he doing?
00:54:12 He was sharpening his weapons.
00:54:19 He was taking Arjuna in the crosshairs.
00:54:26 You know, often when armies face each other and one side does not know the exact location
00:54:46 of the other side.
00:54:51 The other side might be behind a hillock or some other obstacle that makes it difficult
00:55:00 to pinpoint their exact location.
00:55:04 One of the tactics used is that you let the enemy fire at you.
00:55:13 You let them fire at you.
00:55:19 Not only with small guns but with big guns, 165 mm guns.
00:55:27 You let them fire at you for some time so that by looking at the trajectory of the ammunition,
00:55:42 you can kind of estimate where the enemy is located.
00:55:53 The shells are following the standard path of the projectile.
00:56:02 So by looking at the shells and by having sufficient data, you can kind of know where
00:56:08 the enemy is located.
00:56:10 You don't fire in the beginning.
00:56:12 You let the enemy do the talking.
00:56:16 That's what.
00:56:19 Now you know why Krishna was so silent in chapter 1.
00:56:24 He was pinpointing the location, the inner location of Arjuna.
00:56:32 You are seeing where Arjuna is coming from.
00:56:34 Just as a good army wants to know where the shells are coming from, where exactly have
00:56:43 they placed their guns.
00:56:45 I must know.
00:56:46 And once I know where their guns are, I can calibrate my own guns and destroy them in
00:56:53 one fire.
00:56:57 So Krishna had listened.
00:57:02 So concerned about what will happen to the women.
00:57:04 No, no, no, it's not a concern for the women.
00:57:06 It's a concern for the man inside you.
00:57:10 The man inside you who wants to own, possess in the name of care and such things.
00:57:17 What will happen to the women?
00:57:18 No, no, no, you're not that concerned about what will happen to the women.
00:57:22 You're concerned about what will happen to your ownership of the women.
00:57:27 What will happen to your ownership of the women?
00:57:33 Fine, so you're a man.
00:57:35 I'll hit you there.
00:57:36 I'll hit you there.
00:57:37 Are you getting it?
00:57:45 Everything that Arjuna had talked of in chapter 1 will be used by Krishna and Krishna will
00:57:56 attack every bit of Arjuna's argument.
00:58:02 Nothing will be left unaddressed, which is unattacked.
00:58:10 So from where have you gained such unmanliness Arjuna?
00:58:16 You are a huge superman.
00:58:19 See how concerned you are about the women, all the women, not just your own woman.
00:58:25 You are thinking about all the women of Hastinapur.
00:58:28 They'll be widowed, bereaved.
00:58:33 What will happen to them?
00:58:37 Krishna does not think so much about women.
00:58:42 Krishna is hard-hearted.
00:58:47 I am Arjuna, the guardian of all the women in the country.
00:58:56 Krishna is partial, probably too rooted in his masculine identity.
00:59:11 He has made all the men stand on the two sides and he's making them fight each other.
00:59:15 He's not thinking of the women, but I am Arjuna.
00:59:22 I have concern for all human beings, men and women.
00:59:30 So Krishna says fine.
00:59:34 Now that you have displayed so much of concern, let me address your concerns.
00:59:44 From where have you gathered this unmanliness?
00:59:52 No, no, no, don't succumb to it Arjuna.
01:00:01 It does not befit you.
01:00:05 It does not befit you, this kind of unmanliness.
01:00:09 Cast off this weakness of mind and arise, O Parantap.
01:00:21 What does Parantap mean?
01:00:24 The one who scorches the enemies.
01:00:34 Any Vedantic truths here?
01:00:46 Aham Brahmasmi or any other transcendental sutra?
01:00:56 Anything you can take away from here as timeless?
01:01:01 Anything?
01:01:03 No, mind you, timelessness comes after love.
01:01:14 What you are seeing here is not falseness, but love.
01:01:19 It's very, very important to distinguish between the two.
01:01:24 When you are apparently not at a point of truth, it is not necessarily your surrender
01:01:34 to the false.
01:01:37 It also could be your devotion to the truth.
01:01:44 You love the truth so much that you are prepared to distance yourself from it temporarily for
01:01:52 its own sake.
01:01:56 It's a queer thing.
01:01:59 It contains contradiction within itself.
01:02:03 So be very mindful.
01:02:09 If you are really at truth, that is a point of liberation, freedom, right?
01:02:16 From all falseness and bondage.
01:02:18 And when you are free, the one thing you are necessarily free from is yourself.
01:02:27 Right?
01:02:29 That's the most central freedom, correct?
01:02:31 When you are free from yourself, how can you say freedom must be only for me?
01:02:40 So one thing that will necessarily happen with the free one is that he will want freedom
01:02:45 for all.
01:02:48 Personal freedom to him means nothing because he is now free from the personal.
01:02:55 So how can personal freedom mean a thing to him?
01:02:58 Are you getting it?
01:03:01 When you really are at the truth, the one thing you cannot bear is being alone at the
01:03:07 truth.
01:03:10 The funny thing is at the truth, you know that there is just aloneness and there is
01:03:17 no truth bigger than aloneness.
01:03:21 But you also know that there are others who do not know.
01:03:25 You very well know that the others who do not know are just figments of myths.
01:03:35 But you also know that to them, their experience of sorrow is real.
01:03:42 At this point, you have to take a decision.
01:03:46 You could either say their suffering is just to themselves and they are unreal so their
01:03:54 suffering is unreal.
01:03:58 So I simply turn my back to them.
01:04:00 I close my eyes.
01:04:03 I discard them as mere imaginations.
01:04:07 And if you do that, you are not wrong.
01:04:10 And many people do that.
01:04:12 It is said, especially in India, when people get realized, they walk away from the society.
01:04:20 More often they walk away from the society to get realized.
01:04:26 There has been a long tradition of realized ones not partaking in the society.
01:04:32 Why?
01:04:34 Because now they know because they are realized that the society, which is people, is in itself
01:04:40 a myth.
01:04:42 And the entire world is a myth.
01:04:44 How can these people be real?
01:04:46 So what's the point in working for them?
01:04:48 They are bubbles.
01:04:52 You do not work to liberate a bubble.
01:04:54 They are characters in dreams.
01:04:58 You do not want to help people in dreams.
01:05:00 Or do you?
01:05:03 So there has been this long tradition.
01:05:05 Now that I am realized, I discard the entire world as a dream, as a fancy.
01:05:13 No point in trying to help anybody.
01:05:15 And if you do that, you are justified.
01:05:19 Who can say that you are irresponsible or unloving?
01:05:25 It is okay if you do that.
01:05:26 And people have done that and they have been respected.
01:05:33 If you go to the Himalayas and if you find some old practitioner of yoga residing anonymously
01:05:43 in some god forsaken cave, you will not start accusing him of forsaking his social responsibility.
01:05:52 Would you?
01:05:53 In fact, you would fall at his feet.
01:05:54 That's what generally has been happening traditionally.
01:05:57 When you find somebody who is a bit of a recluse from the society, spiritually, not like a
01:06:07 thief or something, you respect him all the more.
01:06:11 He has been living anonymously.
01:06:13 He has no social identity or obligations.
01:06:18 And that makes him worthy of respect.
01:06:20 So that is one path and if you take that path, that is very much okay.
01:06:25 But there is another path.
01:06:31 The path of Krishna, the path of the avatar, the path of the teacher, the path of the bodhisattva.
01:06:44 And those who have taken that path have not just been respected.
01:06:49 They have been loved.
01:06:55 The ascetic who has given up on the world and is residing peacefully in some cave in
01:07:08 the Himalayas deserves a lot of respect, no doubt.
01:07:14 But the one who comes down from the Himalayas, despite knowing very well that the world is
01:07:19 just an illusion, is worthy of both respect and love.
01:07:26 That's what a Buddha did.
01:07:28 That's what an avatar does.
01:07:31 The Buddha had no need to return to the villages and the cities and the society from the jungle.
01:07:38 There was just no need.
01:07:43 And he had spent more than 10 years in his aloofness.
01:07:54 He had practically given up on the world.
01:07:57 He had been living an isolated life, just meeting some teachers sometimes, some other
01:08:01 people just for the sake of knowledge.
01:08:05 Otherwise, all his social imprints had been truly lost.
01:08:14 He returns.
01:08:17 Such a surprising thing.
01:08:18 Why does he return to the same place he ran away from?
01:08:24 Think of it.
01:08:30 That's the bodhisattva ideal.
01:08:33 I know that you are suffering just in your stupidity.
01:08:37 I also know that you are not really suffering.
01:08:41 For the sake of sustenance of your ego, you create your own sufferings.
01:08:48 Only in your sufferings do you internally survive as the ego.
01:08:53 I know all this.
01:08:56 That's been the product of my austerity, my meditation, my realization.
01:09:02 I know all this now.
01:09:07 But there still is something which draws me to you.
01:09:13 I fully well know who you are.
01:09:16 Still there is something that does not allow me to give up on you.
01:09:23 I'm not in dark about your reality.
01:09:28 I harbor no illusions.
01:09:30 I know the very nature of your mind, your existence.
01:09:40 The very fabric of your intent lies threadbare in front of me.
01:09:49 Every bit of you I am very familiar with.
01:09:54 I know you more deeply than you do.
01:10:04 I do not just look at what you show to me.
01:10:10 I penetrate right into your core.
01:10:15 I see your inners.
01:10:19 And what I see is not very likable, not very pleasant.
01:10:25 I know everything, yet I cannot give up on you.
01:10:34 So I return to you.
01:10:37 For no reason really.
01:10:41 Is there a reason why Krishna must teach all this to Arjuna?
01:10:45 There is no reason.
01:10:52 If you go by reasons, there were so many other options available to all those who took the
01:11:04 path of love or liberation.
01:11:08 And those other options were very reasonable ones.
01:11:14 But they refused those reasonable options.
01:11:19 The reason was love.
01:11:23 Love in the form of compassion.
01:11:27 Love that exists to give.
01:11:31 That is compassion.
01:11:33 Love that gives even to the undeserving one, that is compassion.
01:11:38 Love that gives without bothering for merit, that is compassion.
01:11:45 When you look at the merit of the other one, before giving to him, then that is not love.
01:11:55 That is just the principle of karma.
01:12:05 That is just action in the fruit of action.
01:12:14 You gave me four apples.
01:12:17 I give you 100 rupees.
01:12:21 I have given you what you deserve.
01:12:24 There's no love in this.
01:12:31 You are wonderful.
01:12:33 So I come close to you.
01:12:35 Again, what love is there in this?
01:12:38 I'm just giving to you what you deserve.
01:12:47 Compassion is when you give without looking at the merit of the one who is to receive.
01:13:00 Then why is it so that Krishna is giving only to Arjuna?
01:13:05 If merit is not to be seen, then Duryodhana tops the list of the undeserving ones.
01:13:16 Why should the Gita not be gifted to him?
01:13:23 You don't deserve it, but you at least want it.
01:13:27 Even if you don't want it, at least you don't resist it.
01:13:35 Just this much is needed, not much beyond that.
01:13:42 You don't deserve it, that is okay.
01:13:45 But if you start resisting the knowledge, what can a Krishna do?
01:13:49 What can even a Krishna do?
01:13:53 Visualize, what happens?
01:13:58 Duryodhana comes running.
01:14:01 Across the divide between the two armies, you find Duryodhana running.
01:14:07 And he comes to Krishna and says, this is my epiphanic moment.
01:14:13 I know what you are delivering to Arjuna.
01:14:17 Kindly let me sit at your feet.
01:14:23 May I?
01:14:24 Would Krishna refuse?
01:14:25 He won't.
01:14:28 But Krishna cannot chase Duryodhana endlessly.
01:14:32 He has already given him enough opportunities.
01:14:36 And the opportunity is open to Duryodhana.
01:14:39 Come on.
01:14:41 Even at this moment, Krishna would not refuse Duryodhana if he comes to him even at this
01:14:46 moment.
01:14:50 And it's being done, apparently, in full public view.
01:14:56 What prevents Duryodhana from coming?
01:14:57 Not even Yudhishthira is coming.
01:15:01 Nobody is coming.
01:15:04 And if there is any element of factuality in the Bhagavad Gita of Ved Vyas, then we
01:15:14 know that this was an important conversation.
01:15:22 And this conversation was, as we said, in full public sight.
01:15:28 Correct?
01:15:32 Nobody came.
01:15:36 Nobody came.
01:15:37 Even Arjuna was prepared to run away.
01:15:44 Are you getting it?
01:15:49 So from compassion comes real wisdom.
01:15:58 Compassion is not about giving, the other is due.
01:16:02 Because nothing is due to the other.
01:16:08 The other is patently demeritorious.
01:16:11 Deserves nothing really.
01:16:16 Would have been so easy for Krishna to give up at any point in the process.
01:16:25 After one verse, 47 could have been the last verse in the Bhagavad Gita.
01:16:30 Or you name any other verse, it could have been the last one.
01:16:32 Kudos to his patience.
01:16:34 He stays put.
01:16:43 Nothing is contingent upon the merit of the student.
01:16:48 What is being given is so tremendously valuable that it would be an offense to say that the
01:17:00 student deserves it due to his merit.
01:17:07 The student is not to display his merit.
01:17:10 The student just has to display his inclination.
01:17:17 So you could say if you want to that the inclination is the merit.
01:17:23 Just don't run away, that is sufficient.
01:17:26 Just don't kill me, that is sufficient.
01:17:32 Don't be a Duryodhana, that is sufficient.
01:17:40 What was Duryodhana doing when Krishna went as the peace ambassador?
01:17:47 He tried to arrest him.
01:17:53 Just don't do that and that is sufficient.
01:17:58 Are you getting it?
01:18:03 So it is not as if nothing is required from the side of the recipient of the wisdom.
01:18:09 But not much is required.
01:18:14 If the recipient, we are repeating, is very deserving, then there is no need for compassion.
01:18:26 Now you also know why the Bhagavad Gita touched so many hearts.
01:18:33 It tugged at so many heart strings and not the Ribhu Gita or Ashtavakra Gita because
01:18:44 there not so much of compassion is needed.
01:18:50 Janak is deserving, therefore Ashtavakra Gita is not so famous.
01:18:59 When you are imparting to a deserving student, then there is no need for that greatest thing
01:19:15 called love.
01:19:27 The glory is when you give it to someone who does not deserve it and probably does
01:19:33 not even want it.
01:19:37 Just like Arjun.
01:19:50 If Krishna were to take on a bigger challenge and Krishna keeps coming every time, every
01:19:59 age, all places.
01:20:03 Krishna himself has said I have been coming repeatedly since centuries.
01:20:08 So obviously the one we find in Mahabharata is not the last Krishna.
01:20:12 So if Krishna were to come again and accept a bigger challenge, you know what would that
01:20:18 be in this age?
01:20:19 It would be to disseminate the Gita to Duryodhana.
01:20:26 You would say Arjun was alright.
01:20:30 Arjun was alright.
01:20:31 At least he was willing to listen.
01:20:34 So that was a soft challenge.
01:20:36 Now let me take up the harder one.
01:20:40 How about bringing the Gita to the hundred Kauravas who are not only unwilling but also
01:20:49 actively resistant.
01:20:56 And that would be a totally different quality of a discourse.
01:21:06 It would be difficult to find Vedantic truths there superficially, verbally.
01:21:22 You need to have great insight to see what is really going on.
01:21:28 Are you getting it?
01:21:36 It is all quite confusing, is it not?
01:21:51 A lot of times we have talked about the eligibility of the student.
01:21:57 We have talked about sadhan chatushtay.
01:22:00 Even Krishna says at the fag end, do not reveal the Gita to the faithless ones, O Arjun.
01:22:11 And here we are saying that the job of love is to bring it to even those who not only
01:22:21 don't deserve it but also don't want it.
01:22:30 That's the thing.
01:22:35 Love defies all the criteria set by wisdom.
01:22:38 So Acharya Shankar in his wisdom told us the marks of the deserving student.
01:22:51 But then when you are overwhelmed by love, you say, come on, it's okay, come, come,
01:23:02 come.
01:23:04 That's an old story, probably a Sufi one, if I recall correctly.
01:23:10 There was this Sufi ascetic, mystic, a very renowned scholar in his town and he was known
01:23:21 for being very strict in terms of admission criteria.
01:23:28 He would not accept students easily.
01:23:33 Probably it is said that he never accepted any student all his life.
01:23:41 The terms that he would put would be so off-putting that the students would run away.
01:23:51 The eligibility criteria were very, very narrow, very strict.
01:23:57 So nobody was allowed to be a student.
01:24:02 And then when he was to die, I don't quite remember, not that sharp with memory, it is
01:24:13 said that he had this tubelike movement, epiphanic movement.
01:24:24 And he said, fine, come, come as you are.
01:24:31 That's the title of the story, come as you are.
01:24:34 He said, come as you are.
01:24:41 And it is probably that he went running to the town square.
01:24:49 And generally people of merit are not found roaming at town squares.
01:24:55 They are busy with their work, professions, occupations and other things.
01:25:01 So one drunkard was roaming and he said, you come, I will initiate you into wisdom.
01:25:10 And probably it was late in the night, so one thief was running away from the police
01:25:16 and he said, you come, you too will be initiated.
01:25:22 So all kinds of wretched fellows he gathered and he said, you come, come as you are.
01:25:31 Could somebody find out that story?
01:25:34 It's an Idris Shah story.
01:25:42 So that's what happens.
01:25:53 Wisdom loses its stiffness as it ripens.
01:26:02 It becomes soft.
01:26:05 It starts gaining the marks of love.
01:26:09 It starts relaxing its criteria.
01:26:13 Come as you are.
01:26:28 Come come, yet again come.
01:26:32 Even if you are a sinner, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times, come come,
01:26:36 yet again come.
01:26:38 That was his declaration.
01:26:39 Doesn't matter who you are, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times, come.
01:26:46 That's the mark of the ripening of the teacher.
01:26:53 Teacher is now prepared to admit everybody.
01:27:00 Even if you have broken your vows a thousand times, search by this.
01:27:17 Come as you are.
01:27:18 Come come, wherever you are, bachelor, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn't matter, art is
01:27:36 not a caravan of despair.
01:27:37 Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
01:27:38 Where is Rumi?
01:27:39 That one is Rumi.
01:27:40 No, no, that one was not Rumi.
01:27:41 That was some other Sufi saint.
01:27:42 Anyway, it would be a good exercise to find that one out and read.
01:28:02 It's a very, very, for want of a better word, sweet story.
01:28:24 understanding is linked with what we are discussing right now, touched my heart. He says those
01:28:29 who are hardest to love needed the most.
01:28:54 You know the kind of disciples Socrates was gathering were probably not the wisest minds
01:29:18 in Greece. De facto they got him killed. They indulged in all kinds of stupidities and childish
01:29:31 behavior and got the authorities so very angry against Socrates that he had to pay the ultimate
01:29:43 price. So probably he lived what he preached.