Chapter 2 so far.........

Hari OM Yuva Kendra,

All of chapter 1 lord Krishna does not say a word other that "Behold the Kaurava Army".  Arjuna rants all through the chapter justifying and giving the most intelligent and erudite arguments as to why it would not be good to fight the war and why it would be better to retire to the Himalayas than fight.  By the end of the chapter he is completely delusional and shows all the signs of a complete mental breakdown.  All through Krishna does not say any thing just keeps listening with empathy. 

Chapter 2 starts with lord Krishna berating Arjuna and telling him that what he is doing does not befit a warrior of his caliber. Arjuna goes into a  complete surrender, he says that he is confused and wants Krishna to show him the path.

Lord Krishna immediately goes after the idea of "Killing".  Lord Krishna expounds the theory of reincarnation and says that just as we go from one set of clothes to another we go from one body to another.  Just as we go from childhood to youth to middle age we also go from one birth to another.  Everything that is born must die only to reborn.  So what is destroyed is only the body and that neither does one kill not get killed.   So Krishna dispels one major objection that Arjuna has and that is about Killing and tells Arjuna that he should not grieve because neither he is doing any killing nor is any one getting killed.

When one ponders on this, the question that comes to ones mind is  if no one is killing or no one is being killed then "Who am I because I am definitely not the body ?".  To understand this let us consider the BMI chart.  It is quite clear that we have a Body that Feels Objects around us, We also have a Mind that Feels Emotions and we have Intellect that Thinks Thoughts.  Mind and Intellect are both composed of thoughts, Mind is composed of thoughts that are not under our control they come and go, fears, inhibitions, emotions.  They are like waves that rise and subside but really do not get anywhere.  Where as the Intellect is composed of rational problem solving, decision making type thoughts.

So Am I the body ? obviously not if the theory of reincarnation is right..  so does that mean that I am the mind and / or the intellect ?.  TO Answer this question let us consider deep sleep.  When we are in deep sleep (no dreams what so ever) the Body Mind and Intellect are all completely inert. They are not present to experience any thing.  However when we get up after deep sleep we have the experience of feeling refreshed.  The question that must come to our mind as to Who or What is doing this experiencing? The Body Mind Intellect were all absent and it is logical that only some thing that is present can experience. Only I can remember my experience nobody else can. Also absence of an experience cannot create an experience.  It is like if I am in silent room I experience silence and not "lack of sound".  Which means that there has to be  some thing or some one present which is other than my Body, Mind or Intellect that  enlivens my capability to feel refreshed. This is "Consciousness".   

To understand Consciousness let us take the example of Electricity. Electricity that flows through a fan, a heater and a lamp is exactly the same however the Fan, heater and lamp have very different functions and these functions are determined by the nature of the way these are designed.  So too the Consciousness that enlivens all of us is the same but we still think and behave differently.  This difference is  based in our biases or  tendencies to think and behave in a particular manner.  These tendencies are a product of what is popularly called Nurture and Nature.  Nurture means the way we are brought up, our education, all our experiences growing up and later and Nature are those tendencies that we are born with.  The Nature aspect reinforces the theory of reincarnation.  These nature +nurture tendencies are called Vasanas and Conciousness is OM.

Which means that we as individuals are "conditioned Consciousness" that is Consciousness conditioned by our Vasanas.

The next question that should come is "where does Consciousness come from" for this we should consider the 3 laws of causality.

1.  Every effect must have a cause

2.  Effects are nothing but cause itself in different forms

3.  Remove the cause and all effects disappear.

These laws apply to everything, ornaments and gold or clothes and cotton.  If we apply these laws to Consciousness we realize that Consciousness is the ultimate cause.  Everything in creation is an effect of consciousness.   These effects are all conditioned consciousness  that is consciousness itself in different forms.  If consciousness is removed that there is no creation.  Even when there is no creation Consciousness is still present. 

Next class we will go into the attributes of Consciousness and also understand as to how this connects back to Arjuna's problem.

Maneesha Aunty and Vikram Uncle.

 Hari Om!

Today we began by focusing as well as referring to the following topics, which relate to Arjuna's grief:

1) Barriers of success may lead to:

 -mental breakdown

 -our attachment to end result

ex: Taking an exam worrying about everything else but the question itself may cause this.

2) Happiness ends in sadness

ex: -self esteem

      -wants/desires

      -food, which keeps us happy only until it is finished

      -love, which is not always everlasting

~All of the above are temporary because they end at some point

3) Arjuna's grief

-This is caused by attachment to love and affection of family, learning, goodness, mental capability

-He does not want to sin, but he is a learned person 

-Caused by identification of himself and sense of righteousness

Now what is personality?

~It is the outcome of habits- the ways you think to the ways you act

ex: -If there is a tiger in the room- what do you do?

Key points in summary:

      a) success is not guaranteed

      b) cycle: chain reaction to events such as failing a test-->lowering gpa-->not getting into a college, etc.

      c) Bhagvat Geeta does not educate! It builds a conviction- you decide what to do 

      d) fear of outcome

            -ex: plank of wood on floor vs between 2 skyscrapers

                   ~'what if I fall'

Chapter 2- Yoga of Knowledge

(A summary of Bhagvat Geeta)

-So far Krishna has been empathically listening to Arjuna’s rants, but in Chapter 2 he verbally slaps him across the face.

-Krishna wants to get to the root of the problem and this can only be achieved by waking the person up instead of telling them ‘’oh it’s going to be okay’’

-Arjuna opens up and says he is confused and asks for instruction from Krishna which is an element of surrender

1) Symbolism:

~his surrender signifies our mind and sense of ‘’I’’- ness

~the chariot signifies the body

~the reigns signify our senses and signal that push the horses

~Krishna signifies intellect

2) B M I

-Body: physical

-Mind: subjective, ego, senses

-Intellect: objective, knowledge, evaluates thoughts

ex: taking an AP/Honors course

            -mind will say ‘’My friends are taking it so I should take it’’ or ‘’colleges will like to see me taking the course

            -intellect will say ‘’not enough challenge in regular so I’ll take it’’ or ‘’not interested’’

3) What do YOU think about?

-repentance of the past

-future results

~process is where we get lost

4) What about the present?

-roller coaster

-video game

~both are examples of exhilaration

~ ‘’The wise do not grieve for the living nor the dead’’

5) theory of incarnation:

ex: Mr.Gupta’s body dying vs him dying

~you’re the soul not the body

6) what doubts it?

-no remembrance

-no proof

-no window

ex: prodigies, twins with same DNA but different lives…KARMA of past life

~Arjuna was attached to his body

         

 by Saloni Sawant