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~~~~~
Video Information: 11.05.24, Vedanta Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ How to know what to choose?
~ What should one learn from Arjun?
~ What makes Arjun worthy?
~ How to attain perfection?
~ Why is there so much difference in what we say and what we do?
~ Is visiting temples makes one religious?
~ What is the real meaning of Dharma?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
~~~~~
Video Information: 11.05.24, Vedanta Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ How to know what to choose?
~ What should one learn from Arjun?
~ What makes Arjun worthy?
~ How to attain perfection?
~ Why is there so much difference in what we say and what we do?
~ Is visiting temples makes one religious?
~ What is the real meaning of Dharma?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 The verses we take up today have been considerably quoted in popular culture
00:29 and equally misinterpreted and misrepresented.
00:35 Bhagavad Gita chapter 2 verse 22 says, "Even as a man casts off worn out clothes and puts
01:02 on others that are new, so the embodied one casts off worn out bodies and enters into
01:13 others that are new."
01:19 Now the confusion stems from not correctly seeing who is this embodied one.
01:35 Who is this embodied one?
01:42 The analogy goes this way, just as a man casts off his old torn or soiled clothes and puts
01:53 on new ones, similarly the embodied one keeps on taking various bodily forms.
02:06 Who is this embodied one?
02:10 In Vedanta, the self, truth, Atma does nothing as is evident in the previous few verses and
02:36 in the ensuing ones.
02:39 It neither does anything nor can anything be done to it.
02:45 The reason is simple.
02:50 The entire field of subject and objects and all relationships between them, all actions
03:00 of the subject, all perceptions, all actions of the objects, all perceptions of the subjects,
03:11 action reaction pairs, the entire flow of time, all this belongs to the field of Prakriti
03:26 and Atma, self, truth.
03:32 If the one that is not contained in the field of Prakriti, neither as object nor as subject,
03:55 it neither moves nor sees any movement.
04:06 It neither acts nor reacts and that is the reason why Shri Krishna has been emphasizing
04:22 in this series of verses that Atma neither kills nor is killed.
04:32 In verse 23 he says and it's a very famous verse that the truth, the self cannot be cut
04:46 by weapons, burned by fire, wetted by water or dried by wind.
04:58 No object can act on it nor is the self the actor.
05:13 All kinds of pairs of dualities and all triads belong to Prakriti.
05:33 If you see the mover, if you see the moved one and if you see movement, all three are
05:41 contained in Prakriti.
05:49 If there is the knower, if there is the known one and if there is knowledge, all this is
05:55 within Prakriti.
06:00 The killer, the killed one and the killing, all this is within Prakriti.
06:13 And what is within Prakriti with respect to you, the ego, is just your bondage.
06:29 To whom are these words being spoken?
06:33 To the one in bondage, to Arjun, to the one who is suffering in want of liberation.
06:44 What exactly is the bondage of the ego?
06:51 Everything in Prakriti.
06:55 You have to get the logic very neatly else you too might fall prey to the same kind of
07:05 misinterpretations that have been going round and round.
07:21 To the ego, Prakriti is bondage.
07:28 If Prakriti is taken as an end, taken as a medium to attain liberation, Prakriti is very
07:41 much alright.
07:45 But to think of Prakriti as an end in itself, as the destination, as a finality, as an absolute,
07:56 is a huge mistake that we are prone to make.
07:59 This mistake is called avidya.
08:05 This ego starts taking stuff in Prakriti as its destination.
08:15 If I can get that, whatsoever is out there or in here, doesn't matter, in, out, everything
08:21 is Prakriti.
08:24 Right, left, everything is Prakriti.
08:28 If I can get something from here or something from there or everything out there, then I
08:34 will be at peace or I will be joyful.
08:39 This is a cardinal mistake called avidya.
08:43 Also, to the ego, Prakriti represents bondage.
08:48 That does not mean that Vedanta repudiates Prakriti or relegates it to an inferior position
09:06 or talks of it in pejorative terms.
09:17 It just says that Prakriti cannot be the goal of your life.
09:22 That's all.
09:27 It does not say Prakriti is something worthless or that Prakriti being the bondage is an enemy.
09:35 No, no, not at all.
09:39 Prakriti is neither worthless nor an enemy.
09:52 It is rather the only means available to you to achieve your destination.
10:00 And since it is the only means possible to you, therefore, you have to respect it.
10:05 Therefore, in Vedanta, Prakriti has a very special place.
10:10 On one hand, it is called maya, that which limits you and confounds you, troubles you.
10:28 On the other hand, it being the only means for your salvation, it is also worshipped.
10:39 So if you take Prakriti as your destination, then you have been charmed by maya, trapped,
10:53 ensnared.
10:55 On the other hand, if you are respectful towards Prakriti, if you can just watch Prakriti and
11:04 her ways without interference, without the intention to exploit, having the most respectful
11:17 attitude, then Prakriti is a great help and therefore, it is worshipped.
11:25 It is worshipped as Devi, Shakti.
11:30 That does not mean that Prakriti has two faces.
11:34 It only means that you can have two possible attitudes.
11:40 If your attitude is stupid, then Prakriti to you is the greatest trap possible.
11:51 Then to you, Prakriti will be called as maya.
11:57 But if you have some restraint and respect, then to you, Prakriti is a blessing, a great
12:07 help, an uplifting hand, a beneficial resource.
12:19 Resource is too little a word to be used.
12:23 Hence we said blessing.
12:31 Prakriti to you then is Devi Shakti.
12:36 So let's be very clear, Vedanta does not condemn Prakriti.
12:40 Vedanta is not disrespectful towards Prakriti.
12:46 In fact, Vedanta is concerned with the liberation of the ego.
12:55 Therefore whatever is to be said is said to the ego.
13:00 There is nothing in Prakriti as such that can be even addressed.
13:04 So no point being respectful or disrespectful.
13:10 It is the ego that is being taught to look at things rightly and things denote Prakriti.
13:19 Are you getting it?
13:22 So to the common man, to the ego, Prakriti is a charm, a trap, a snare, a noose.
13:44 And what is the characteristic of Prakriti?
13:48 Anything that ever took birth, took shape, took form is Prakriti.
13:58 Anything that is perceptible through senses is Prakriti.
14:07 And even the senses are Prakriti.
14:10 So we said all subject-object pairs are Prakriti.
14:21 Having seen that, you are said that now you must realize that your bondage is improper
14:31 association with Prakriti.
14:34 Prakriti is not the bondage.
14:41 The cause of bondage is your own false perception, your own clouded vision.
14:52 You could not see what the world inside and outside is all about and therefore you got
14:58 into false relationships, improper association.
15:03 That is at the heart of all your troubles.
15:10 Improper association.
15:12 That object in itself is neither good nor bad.
15:18 It is the nature of relationship that you have with that object that renders that object
15:24 either useful or harmful to you.
15:30 In itself, the object means nothing.
15:33 There has to be somebody to whom the meaning holds good.
15:38 Otherwise the object cannot have any meaning.
15:40 The moment you say that object has a meaning, good, bad, pretty, ugly, the Vedanti will
15:48 ask to whom?
15:50 To whom?
15:52 Useful, useless?
15:57 So objects do not carry meanings.
15:59 It is the ego that is vested with the responsibility to find the right meanings in objects and
16:09 we fail to do that.
16:12 We fail to do that.
16:17 We load objects with meanings that they cannot carry.
16:23 All objects are finite.
16:27 No object is capable of carrying the burden of infinite meaning on itself.
16:39 But we look at an object, are charmed by it and start projecting the infinite on it, the
16:54 object would crumble.
16:56 The object cannot stand infinite load.
17:01 When the object crumbles, the ego blames the object.
17:06 Are you getting it?
17:11 Therefore, it is very important to see things as they are which basically means that when
17:25 something starts appearing, very important, you must make sure to know its exact location.
17:39 It is appearing, so important.
17:42 Is it really the sky or is this something in the field of the earth?
17:49 Where is it really located?
17:56 If you can see something in its right location, you will cease to be enamoured.
18:09 It is only when you forget the right address of something, do you start thinking of it
18:16 as something from the skies.
18:20 Shri Krishna is telling Arjun the right address of things.
18:25 Arjun, all these that you are looking at, they are just the ego and its objects.
18:39 None of them is the truth, none of them is the self, the Atma and if they are the ego
18:46 and its objects, they belong to Prakriti.
18:49 How have you forgotten that the Prakriti is your bondage?
18:54 You are giving so much consideration to your bondage.
18:57 Are you such a fool?
19:04 What is the body?
19:14 An object to the ego.
19:15 The ego is the subject, the body is the object.
19:17 Just as everything else is an object to the ego, the body too is an object to the ego.
19:24 There is nothing, neither in the body nor in the ego, that is to be valued so much.
19:33 But sir, what is to be valued then?
19:36 To you, only your liberation is valuable.
19:40 But instead of your liberation, you are taking all these people standing in front of you
19:48 as holding infinite value.
19:53 Great value, infinite value belongs only to your own liberation.
19:57 It does not belong to those bodies out there.
20:01 If those bodies have value, then even the clothes that you are wearing, Arjun, they
20:09 have great value.
20:13 Those bodies are objects to the ego in just the same way as your clothes are objects to
20:20 you.
20:25 How much importance do you want to give to your clothes?
20:33 But you are treating these clothes as the absolute and hence you are forgetting your
20:41 duty towards the absolute.
20:46 You are mislocating the absolute.
20:52 You are seeing the absolute where it is not.
20:56 You are seeing the absolute in the bodies of those who stand out there to fight you.
21:05 The absolute does not belong there and of value is only the absolute.
21:10 Therefore, you should not hesitate in fighting them.
21:15 There is no value, not in their body, not in your body.
21:21 Not in the preservation of their ego, not in the preservation of your ego.
21:26 The value lies only in liberation.
21:29 Do what is needed for your liberation.
21:40 The self is too big to wear any clothes, let alone cast them aside and put on new ones.
21:49 So let nobody say that the verse talks of the Atma taking on bodies and then discarding
22:01 them in due course and then entering new bodies.
22:04 How can the infinite enter a finite body?
22:12 If the great self is infinite, how will it enter a puny body?
22:19 But that's the way the verse has been interpreted.
22:22 The great self lives inside the body and then it keeps on changing bodies.
22:27 The body is a thing in Prakriti and the great self by definition has nothing to do with
22:34 Prakriti.
22:35 How will it ever enter an object in Prakriti?
22:38 This body is Panchabhoot, just material, physical elements.
22:45 How can the infinite, the untouchable, the unthinkable, the unimaginable enter water,
22:58 fire, sand, such things?
23:09 So there is no way that Atma, which is the highest truth in Vedanta, takes on bodies
23:23 or discards them.
23:24 No, that's not the meaning here.
23:29 Subject-object pairs are all located within Prakriti.
23:34 Who is the eternal subject?
23:37 The ego.
23:40 The ego tendency is the eternal subject and on coming in touch with different objects,
23:52 it takes different names, different forms.
24:00 Whosoever you call as sentient is nothing but a form taken on by the ego tendency and
24:12 depending on the form, the sentient being thinks of an identity for itself.
24:23 So the goat will say, I am a goat.
24:26 The tiger will say, I am a tiger.
24:28 The man will say, I am a man.
24:31 I am a woman.
24:32 I am old.
24:33 I am sick.
24:34 I am hungry.
24:35 I am rich.
24:36 What is common in all these?
24:38 I am.
24:39 This I am is the eternal ego tendency.
24:43 It is the eternal subject in Prakriti.
24:47 The eternal subject in Prakriti, not to the Prakriti, within Prakriti is the ego tendency
24:53 I am.
24:59 It is the eternal subject so it relates to different objects.
25:05 When it relates to different objects, it attaches a predicate to I am.
25:12 So I am goat.
25:16 I am sand.
25:18 In its own way, the sand particle is conscious.
25:21 I am sand.
25:24 I am the tiger.
25:25 I am the bacteria.
25:27 I am the insect.
25:34 What does Prakriti comprise of?
25:37 The eternal ego tendency and an eternal infinite number of objects.
25:49 That's Prakriti, dualistic, subject and object.
25:55 That ego tendency in combination with different objects takes on different names.
26:06 All the objects are in the field of, in the sway of time.
26:13 Therefore, they rise in time and they fall in time.
26:19 This in common parlance is called birth and death.
26:24 Irrespective of the object that the ego tendency has attached itself to, there would be a dissociation
26:35 in time.
26:37 And then there is some other object that the tendency attaches itself to.
26:42 The process is obviously not linear.
26:45 At any given moment, the tendency is attaching itself to billions of objects and at the same
26:52 time there are billions and trillions of dissociations called deaths.
26:58 It's all happening concurrently.
27:00 It's not as if it's one thing that is sequentially attaching and detaching itself to a chain
27:08 of objects.
27:10 Are you getting it?
27:17 So Shri Krishna is saying all this is in the purview of Prakriti and Prakriti is not your
27:24 destination Arjun.
27:27 Your destination is up there.
27:30 Why are you so besotted with something that is happening down here?
27:35 And Arjun would say, "But Sir, I too am down here.
27:39 So why should I not be concerned with what is happening here?"
27:43 Krishna would say, "You are here, but you are not to remain here.
27:49 Therefore, you should relate with this dimension in a way that liberates you from this dimension".
27:59 It's a beautiful thing that he is saying.
28:03 He is saying, "Relate to be liberated".
28:09 Or relate to liberate.
28:15 Or put completely, "Relate to liberate and be liberated".
28:24 Are you getting it?
28:40 What is to be done with this universe around us?
28:44 Despise it, loathe it, condemn it, spit at it and say, "Oh, this is such a despicable
28:51 thing.
28:55 It has put me in chains and enslaved me".
28:58 Do this.
29:00 Wallow in it, chew it, munch it, embrace it.
29:15 Be all over it.
29:18 Let it be all within you.
29:20 What?
29:21 Neither of these.
29:24 Know that you are stuck here at the same time.
29:29 Only this will take you out.
29:33 You are stuck here.
29:34 You are stuck within it.
29:37 But the way out is through the maze.
29:44 Like being lost in a jungle.
29:48 You are lost in the jungle.
29:50 But the way out is through the jungle.
29:57 Nobody is going to airlift you.
30:02 You have to befriend the jungle, the woods, the animals, the birds, the grass, the terrain,
30:14 the winds.
30:18 You must befriend all of them and when you befriend them, they show you the way out.
30:28 Equally you must neither resign to your fate and say, "Now that I am inexorably trapped,
30:37 let me just build a little hut here".
30:43 Getting out is out of question.
30:46 "Therefore, just let me settle down peacefully".
30:50 No.
30:51 Nor are you to get angry at the jungle and burn it down or hack it down.
31:02 You are not to be enchanted.
31:08 You are not to settle down.
31:11 You are also not to burn it down.
31:14 You are to befriend it.
31:19 You have to ask the leaves and the twigs, the rabbits and the wolves, "What is the secret?
31:37 Where does all this come from and how does one get out of here?"
31:45 That's the way of Vedanta.
31:48 That's what Shri Krishna is trying to teach Arjun in his own way.
31:56 Arjun is bewitched.
32:06 Arjun is under a spell.
32:12 The spell comes from the body, the experiences, the society, the whole game of upbringing,
32:25 the panorama of experiences, relationships, Shri Krishna saying, "All of that is within
32:41 the jungle and your home is in the sky".
32:49 Where you stand, Arjun, at this moment in time, this battle is your only way to meet
33:03 the sky.
33:14 Providence has brought you to a point where if you now refuse to fight, you are refusing
33:23 to be liberated.
33:34 The importance that you are giving to your relatives and to your relationships is misplaced.
33:42 That importance duly belongs to right action, not deep emotion.
34:11 You are bemoaning death as a great tragedy.
34:18 No, death is not a great tragedy, Arjun.
34:22 The great tragedy is life in bondage.
34:29 But you are acting as if these bodies falling would be the greatest sorrow possible.
34:46 The greatest sorrow is when the body keeps upright and acting and walking in chains.
35:09 In the effort to be free, if the body falls, that can hardly be called as a tragedy.
35:24 Tragedy is when the fettered body makes peace with the chains and makes no attempt to be
35:47 free in the fear that an attempt to be free might bring about pain or destruction to the
36:01 body.
36:03 You are making a very fundamental mistake, Arjun.
36:08 You are treating the field of Prakriti as more important than the truth, the sky, the
36:22 joy of liberation.
36:27 Your emotions are Prakriti, their bodies are Prakriti, your memories are Prakriti, your
36:33 relationships are Prakriti.
36:35 You cannot care for them beyond a point, you cannot think of them as the maximum.
36:48 The maximum is none of these.
36:58 But look at the fantastic irony.
37:13 The verse that was meant to emphasise to Arjun that the Atma, the truth is beyond everything
37:27 material, including the material body, the same verse has been repeatedly used to prove
37:36 that the Atma wears the body.
37:46 And irony gets more delicious than this.
37:57 Since centuries and today, everywhere this verse is quoted to prove that the Atma is
38:05 eternal and it keeps taking on and discarding bodies.
38:13 When one body is done, the Atma enters some other body.
38:17 That is the way this verse has been used.
38:19 Whereas this verse is intended to show exactly the opposite.
38:25 That the Atma will remain always untouched by bodies.
38:29 The entity that is in play with bodies is the Jeevatma, the ego, the embodied one.
38:39 Shri Krishna uses the word Dehi.
38:44 Dehi, even etymologically means limitation and the great self is unlimited.
38:55 How can Dehi be used to mean Atma?
39:03 There is no way.
39:05 But that's the way of popular culture.
39:08 It appropriates even the highest of texts to uphold its own assumptions, beliefs, traditions,
39:20 biases.
39:25 I have a bias.
39:26 Therefore, I look at a sacred text and deliberately misinterpret it in a way that upholds my bias.
39:38 Is this text really sacred?
39:41 No.
39:42 The fact is my bias is sacred to me.
39:44 That is the way of the ego.
39:46 For the ego, nothing is more important or sacred than itself.
39:59 So, the bodies are burnt.
40:14 The truth is not.
40:16 That's the next verse.
40:19 You can neither dismember the truth nor burn it, wet it or dry it.
40:26 All these things happen to objects in Prakriti.
40:31 So, if something can be killed, it is anyway not the truth.
40:43 If something can be done to something, that something is anyway not the absolute.
40:52 The absolute is absolutely impregnable.
40:58 Nothing in Prakriti has any command over the absolute.
41:04 These arrows are not even pinpricks to the Atma.
41:14 And you are so mournful that with these arrows you will be able to cut a great thing apart.
41:24 No.
41:25 The thing that will be cut apart by your arrows is anyway just some material object in the
41:35 Prakritic field, not worth grieving for.
41:48 The real is not vulnerable to your arrows, Arjun.
41:59 When you say, "Oh, I don't want to kill", you are pretending as if you can kill.
42:05 The thing is, you cannot kill.
42:08 That which you are calling as killing is nothing but a child's play happening since aeons in
42:20 the Prakritic field.
42:25 Shri Krishna is not saying kill.
42:28 On the contrary, he is telling Arjun, you cannot kill.
42:32 Therefore shoot the arrow.
42:35 Anyway nobody is going to be killed.
42:39 Those who will be killed are unreal and the real cannot be killed.
42:45 Therefore why do you blame yourself?
42:48 Why do you grieve and repent and hesitate?
42:52 Just shoot the arrow.
42:54 No killing is possible at all.
43:09 Do it because it is needed, Arjun.
43:12 Do it selflessly, Arjun.
43:15 Do it as the highest service.
43:24 Do it as an absolute joy.
43:27 Come on, do it for fun, Arjun.
43:37 You are not playing.
43:40 You are playing.
43:43 Not playing is the mistake that you are making.
43:54 Right now you are suffering, Arjun, and the reason is not that you are committing a sin.
44:03 The reason is that you are taking this little sport, this momentary drama too seriously.
44:15 That is the reason you are suffering.
44:26 Your understanding of your suffering is flawed.
44:31 You are thinking that it is the horrible load of the moment that is crushing you down.
44:43 No.
44:45 There is nothing momentous happening right now.
44:49 What is happening right now has been happening since eternity and even at this moment it
44:54 is happening everywhere.
44:56 Things are rising, things are falling.
44:59 Nothing unique, nothing special is happening on this battlefield.
45:03 But you are suffering and the reason is incorrect interpretation.
45:09 You are assuming something extremely significant is happening here.
45:14 Nothing of any significance is happening here.
45:16 Just play.
45:18 You are not supposed to fight.
45:24 Just play.
45:27 The real is anyway beyond your comprehension, beyond your reach and beyond your arrows.
45:35 So then what are you to do?
45:38 Just play with these little toys that you have.
45:41 Come on.
45:44 And you are suffering just as a kid suffers when he doesn't get to play.
45:57 You are being too serious a kid, Arjun.
46:03 Are you getting it?
46:14 Irrespective of how important something appears, its importance is always limited.
46:22 Of unlimited importance is only that, the one, the destination.
46:30 Therefore never hesitate.
46:34 Never hesitate.
46:41 Even the object that carries the greatest importance in this entire universe has the
46:50 value of a particle of sand in front of the infinite.
47:11 When you understand, then you don't dimmer.
47:23 What is the value of the highest number in front of infinity?
47:32 A upon B. B is infinity.
47:36 A is open to your imagination.
47:40 Give the highest number possible to A. What's the value of this fraction?
47:48 Zero.
47:50 Always zero.
47:54 Irrespective of how big your A is, A by B is always zero.
48:05 There are only two kinds of people.
48:07 Remember, those who look at A and those whose vision is a little broader, they look at A
48:16 upon B. Whenever A starts appearing too big, open your eyes a little wider and look at
48:32 A upon B. You will be saved.
48:35 Else the moment will eat you up.
48:40 In any moment, when any object in the entire universe starts appearing too big, its importance
48:51 starts growing on you.
48:57 Then just ask, what's the value of A by B?
49:03 The answer will save you.
49:10 Otherwise A can take colossal proportions.
49:20 A trillion.
49:21 A trillion.
49:22 That's too much.
49:31 It grows big on you.
49:33 A trillion.
49:35 Now just divide that trillion by infinity.
49:42 The resultant, we said, will save you.
49:50 Otherwise there is so much in this universe that is so capable of swelling you alive.
50:06 You'll be gone in a blink.
50:12 Don't you see how we refer to the universe?
50:16 Oh, the eternal universe.
50:20 How do you feel when confronted with a number like 10 to the power 44?
50:24 I say, you know, this is the size of the universe in meters.
50:34 And you are not even 2 meters.
50:38 10 to the power 44.
50:42 Or that famous Avogadro thing, 10 to the power 23.
50:46 How do you feel?
50:49 You have to count the zeros twice to be accurate.
50:54 You feel so little, so small in front of so much in the universe.
51:03 What will come to save you then?
51:05 B.
51:06 Now A is something you cannot escape or avoid.
51:11 A comes to you via all your senses.
51:15 All your senses are bringing A to you all the time.
51:19 They are not.
51:24 B is something that you have to effortfully, with great love, remember.
51:32 And that is what is called as constant remembrance.
51:37 A need not be remembered.
51:42 A is indispensable irrespective of where you go, whether you close your eyes, open your
51:49 eyes, you look this way, you look that way.
51:52 A will keep pouring in.
51:55 That's the function of the senses.
51:58 And if all the senses are closed, the mind will generate colossal A's through memory.
52:10 So A is a given.
52:11 It will always be there.
52:14 In the field of consciousness, A is always present as an object.
52:20 B is not.
52:24 B is not.
52:25 So we said there are only two kinds of people.
52:31 Both the kinds have A, but only one of them have B.
52:35 A is a compulsion.
52:44 B is a choice.
52:47 As long as the body is there, multiple A's will be there every moment.
52:57 B is not compulsory.
53:04 B is not automatic.
53:08 B is a matter of love.
53:14 B is a matter of paying the price.
53:19 B is a matter of remembering that which you can so easily forget.
53:27 B is a matter of not yielding to the fear or temptation of A's.
53:43 B is the antidote to all kinds of A's.
53:51 If you don't have B in your life, we said A's will swallow you alive.
54:03 Right now, Arjun is in the process of being gobbled up by memories, emotions, social conditioning,
54:17 fear.
54:20 All these are swallowing him.
54:26 And this is when he has someone standing right next to him who is the very incarnation of
54:36 B, who is so much capable of bringing B to Arjun.
54:42 And still you see, this is Maya, still you see Arjun is being forgetful.
54:49 Arjun cannot look at the complete picture.
54:51 He is looking at just the numerator.
55:19 Verse 24 says, "The self cannot be cut, burnt, wetted or dried.
55:24 It is changeless, all-pervading, unmoving, immovable and eternal."
55:29 How to read it?
55:30 Arjun, all that you are seeing in front of you, is there anything in it that cannot be
55:37 cut, cannot be burnt, cannot be wetted, cannot be dried?
55:41 Is there anything out there?
55:43 No, nothing.
55:44 Therefore, none of that is the self.
55:49 The self cannot be cut, but whatsoever you are seeing Arjun in front of you, that can
55:53 be cut.
55:54 Therefore, it is not the self.
55:56 Hence it is not to be taken seriously.
56:01 Come on kid, pick up your toys and play.
56:05 What are you being so serious about?
56:11 See, the truth is attributeless, nirguna.
56:23 But it becomes very useful when you say that all the attributes belong to the false.
56:32 If you say the self cannot be cut, to you it does not hold any meaning because you have
56:37 never seen anything that cannot be cut.
56:40 Have you ever seen anything that cannot be cut?
56:42 No.
56:43 So if you say the self cannot be cut, it is a beautiful statement, but to the ego it is
56:48 relatively less useful.
56:51 It becomes far more useful when you just invert the whole thing and you say, "This means that
56:59 everything that can be cut is just an object to the ego.
57:03 Now I am liberated.
57:05 I look at stuff that can be wetted or dried or created or destroyed and I will say, "I
57:11 am not going to take you seriously, dude, because you are not the self."
57:16 Had you been the self, you could not have been cut or dried or picked or dropped or
57:31 made or unmade.
57:35 Sometimes you can be made and unmade, remembered and forgotten.
57:40 Therefore you are not the self.
57:43 Hence I am not going to give you the maximum place possible.
57:48 I will give you the right place, but the highest chair is reserved for somebody else.
57:55 Not that I am going to throw my boot at you.
58:01 Not that I am going to kick you away from my presence, but I am not going to give you
58:07 the highest chair.
58:12 I will befriend you.
58:15 I will help you or I will seek help from you.
58:20 That is the only light relationship possible between the two of us.
58:24 Let me be of use in the process of your liberation and let you teach me something with respect
58:32 to liberation.
58:34 That is the only right relationship.
58:37 So that relationship the two of us can have.
58:41 But I will not accord you the highest chair that belongs to somebody else.
58:52 That is the way to read the Gita or the Upanishads or anything in the corpus of Vedanta or anything
59:08 in the corpus of any philosophy that aims at liberation, which effectively means much
59:17 of the Shaddha Darshan, the six classical philosophies.
59:25 Even Buddhism, even Jainism, because they too aim at Mukti or liberation.
59:29 That is the way you read the verses, the Sutras.
59:34 God Bless!