The actual teaching of Bhagavad Gita starts at Chapter 2 verse 11 and continues through Chapter 18 verse 66.

Verses 1 to 10:  Arjuna’s saranakathi (surrender):  Attachment leads to sorrow.  When I am attached to something, I never want to lose it.  Samsara leads to raga (attachment), soga (sorrow) and mogaha (inability to decide between right and wrong – human conflict)

Verses 11 to 38:  Jñāna yoga:  Discovery of essential nature of every individual – consciousness.

• Consciousness is not part, product or property of body.
• Consciousness is an independent entity that pervades and enlivens every body.
• Consciousness is not limited to the boundaries of a body.
• Consciousness continues to survive even after the fall of body.

Features of Atma (Consciousness):

1. Atma is eternal.
2. Atma is the reality existing independently.
3. Atma is all pervading.
4. Atma is the ever experiencer and never the experienced.
5. Atma is akartha (not a doer) or aboktha (reaps the benefits).
6. Atma is free from modifications.

These features of one’s essential nature and atma are the fundamental basis for Vedantic Teachings and are elaborated in many texts and scriptures (including Tatva Bodha)

Verses 39 to 53:  Karma Yoga: Proper action with proper attitude is karma yoga.

1. Satvika karma is an action in which beneficiaries are  more in number; selfless action; uthhama karma.
2. Rajesic karma is selfish action; madhyama karma.
3. Tamasic karma: action harming others for my benefit.

Proper attitude is enjoying what I do.  Karma yoga is not meant for moksha but it is the preparation for Jñāna yoga.

Verses 54 to 72:  Sthitapragya:  Assimilate the knowledge that I am not the body but Atma and convert this knowledge into emotional strength to face life.

A guru can teach an agyani to pragyaha, but can’t give their prgaya.  That effort is for the student.

• Master your senses because a distracted mind can’t assimilate Vedanta.
• Control thoughts.  Certain thoughts will come, but you decide their effect.
• Nidhidhyasanam:  Dwelling on this teaching.

Benefits of sthitapragyaha is the freedom from binding desires, freedom from fear, anger, jealousy and constant tranquility. This Sthitapragya is a free bird.  Both jivan mukthi and vidheha mukthi.

Factors for healthy life

1. Objective Factors: Hygienic surrounding.
2. Subjective Factors: My body should be strong enough to withstand challenges; extend this to mental health as well
   1. If any mind is sufficiently strong psychological disturbances like anger, jealousy etc.  will occur less.
   2. Intensity will also be less
   3. The duration will also be less
   4. After effects will also be less

Bhagavad Gita’s subject matter will increase the strength and resistance at inner level.

First chapter is where Arjuna discovers that he has inner weakness.

1.  Verses 1 to 20:  Context:  Mahabharata battlefield.
2. Verses 21 to 25:  Arjuna wants to see who is fighting.
3. Verses 26 to 28:  Arjuna’s discovery of his weakness of Raga (attachment) and consequences.
4. Verses 29 to 35:  Consequences of Raga (soga, dwesham).
5. Verses 36 to 47:  Mohaga – confusion, delusion, indecision, raga, soga, delusion; all of them put together is samsara.

Chapter 1 deals primarily with Arjuna’s sorrow and confusion. Lord Krishna does not speak in Chapter 1.

In these sections, I am reproducing my notes from classes that were given by Swami Paramarthananda as stand alone summary of Bhagavad Gita at Sanskrit College. These are the same classes that the students of Vedantic Study Group, Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago listened to online, starting in 2021.

Please note that these notes are summarized versions based on my reception and recollections. They are not word by word reproduction of the classes. Other students may have different recollections and interpretations. Also, note that Swamiji has not seen, reviewed or blessed these notes

While this summary of Bhagavad Gita gives a good starting point, one should study Bhagavad Gita in detail. Swamiji recommends listening to his classes on Bhagavad Gita. While it requires significant investment of time, I found it to clarify many concepts and lay a strong foundation for spiritual growth.

Class 81

Summary

Alathi Prakarana is the fourth and final chapter of Mandukya.  In the first three chapter the teachings given out in Mandukya upanishad were discussed.  In first chapter called agama prakaranam, the mandukya verses were briefly analyzed.  In vaithathya prakaranam and advaida prakaranm, the focussed was on aham sathyam and jagat mithyam.  I the observer is the absolute reality and whatever I observe have a lower reality.  We do not say they dont’t have reality, just lower reality.  This is the main teaching of mandukya and all other upanishads.

The jagat mithyatvam was highlighted in second chapter.  Vaithathyam means mithyatvam or enjoying a lower order of reality.  In the third chapter advaida prakranam, atma sathyatvam was highlighted.  I am the absolute and ultimate and only reality.  Everything is unreal.  The meaning of I is not the physical body, mind or thought but pure consciousness which is different from them.  Anything observed is mithya.  Is God sathyam or mithya?  The counter question is what is the definition of god?  Is that an observed object or the observer the consciousness principle.  If god is an observer object, then that god also come under mithya within time and space subject to arrival and departure.  If god is chaithanya tatvam, the pure consciousness, then that god is sathyam.  Aham sathyam.  This second feature of atma sathyam is highlighted in the third chapter.  Two main corollaries:

1. We should not count mithya along with the sathyam.  We can count two sathyam or two mithya; we cannot count one sathya and one mithya together.  We can’t add waking earning and dream earning together.  The observed world can’t be counted.  The only thing I can count is I the observer.  I the observer not only the reality but also I am nondual without a second.
2. Sathyam can’t be affected by mithya.  A less real thing can’t pollute the absolute reality.  e.g. cinema screen, which is not affected by the images projected.  Whatever happens in the observed world can not affect me.  The observed universe can’t affect the observer.  Can the world affect me?  Counter question should be what is the meaning of word “me”.  If it refers physical body, then the world and the physical body both come under observed objects.  Then the world will affect me.  If I refers to the thuriyum, then I the pure consciousness can’t be affected by the world.  This is called ahangatvam.  This knowledge liberates me because I need not be concerned about the events in the universe.  I can’t control the universe, so If I become obsessed with it, then I will be affected by it.  I should know I am unaffected by them.  This knowledge gives me freedom and that freedom is called jivan mukthi.  From the standpoint of body, I continue to do what I need to do.  But I always remember that the total events are beyond the control of individual body. I have the sakshi bava which helps me in controlling overwhelming emotional reaction.

The essence of the teaching of the first three chapters is aham sathyam jagat mithyam.

The fourth chapter alathi shanthi prakaranm consisting of 100 verses and primary purpose is to negate other systems of philosophies and establish that anything other than advaidam will not solve the problem.  Any solution will be temporary.  In dwaida there is no permanent solution.

The second purpose of the fourth chapter, is to re-enforcement of advaidam.  The chapter is divided in five topics:

1. Verse 1 to 10 is introduction:
   1. First Gowdapadha offers prayer to the lord and this teaching.  Lord is seen as aadhi guru.  The special title given to the teaching is asparsa yogaha.  The teaching in which I recognize myself as one who is not affected by anything in the world.
   2. Glory of this teaching:  Beyond all the debates; All the systems primarily argue about the origination of the world.  If Bagawan is omniscient. omnipotent and compassionate why should he create evil, suffering etc.  We are here and that creates suffering; suffering creates samsara; samsara requires liberation; liberation requires sadhana.   The creation is the starting point, and everyone had different theories and they all quarrel with each other.  If advaida enters into this creation, then we will get into problem of getting closer to one system becoming enemy of other systems.  If we invent a new theory which is different from all other theory, then you will be criticized by all other theory, Advaidam has no theory of creation.  How do you explain the creation?  In advaida, there is no creation at all.  I have to give a theory of creation only when there is creation.  Creation is world’s confusion, which is ignorance.  Therefore, beyond argument or avivaygaha.
2. Verses 11 to 27 negation of other dualistic systems:  All other theories of creation will have logical problem because there is no creation; we have committed a fundamental mistake; he takes a sample of theories:
   1. Sankya dharshanam:  Beginningless prakrithi (basic matter) has produced the creation; From scrip ritual, (Sruthi), logical (yukthi) and experience (anubava).
      1. Vedas clearly says Brahman is the karanam.
      2. From our experience we know any cause is endowed with a beginning and so any cause is an effect.  Tree has borne out seed; seed has a beginning.  child and parent are all have a beginning.   There is no cause in creation which is beginningless.  Therefore, prakrithi as a beginning less cause is against experience.
      3. Logic shows any cause is subject to modification to produce effect; anything subject to modification is endowed with beginning and end.  Therefore, prakrithi as a beginning-less cause is illogical.
   2. Dwaida dharshanam:  Karma is the cause of creation.  If you take karma and sareeram, which one is the first?  Then you can’t say one is the cause of the other; you can’t say it is a chain, because then what is the beginning of the chain?  Ultimately you have to say that it is a beginning-less chain.  Whatever doesn’t have a beginning will not have an end also and therefore moksha will not be possible.
   3. Bowdha dharsham:  Buddhist philosophy:  Very close to advaidam; jagat is mithya consciousness is sathyam.  Consciousness is only momentary, and this momentary consciousness flow is sathyam.  The observer is not eternal consciousness but a flow of consciousness.   If there is a flow, then is who is witnessing the flow?  All the consciousness in this theory exist only for a moment.  To talk about a momentary consciousness, you need a permanent consciousness.
3. Verse 28 to 54 vedanta sara:  Aham sathyam jagan mithya; The world consists of three pairs:
   1. Viswa and sthula prabanja
   2. Taijasa and sukshma prabanja
   3. Pragya and karana prabanja
   4. I the thiryum is the only sathyam.  We can say that the world is unreal only from the standpoint of thuriyum.  From the standpoint of body, the world should be treated as very real.  Treat the body properly by treating for illness etc.  You can boldly say the world is unreal if you look from thuriya dhrishti.  With the help of swapna dhrishti example he proves this.  He also gives aladha dhrishantha or fire brand.  This is to show karanam akam; the fire brand is only one but when you move is the shapes are many.  The pattern does not have reality and do not exist separate from fire brand.  That single tip of the fire brand, is bright and effulgent.  Karana ekatmvam, sathyatvam and swayam prakasam.  Similarly, consciousness is ekatvam and the entire world is anekatvam.  Consciousness alone is real the various patterns of the world you experience does not exist separate from the observer and therefore are all mithya.  The consciousness is self-revealing and need not work to know or experience this consciousness.
4. Verse 55 to 90 Vedanta Sadhanani:  The primary and only sadhana is discovering my thuriya swaroopam.  If I discover the thuriya swaroopam, then I am beyond time and space; if I come down to body level and function as viswa and taijasa, I have come down to desa and kala – time and space.  I will have the problems created by time space:  old age, disease, death: insecurity.   Other than thuriyum, wherever you go there will be insecurity.  For gaining this knowledge, you acquire sadhana, sadhusta sambandhti; gain the knowledge that I am beyond  time and space; that alone  will create freedom.
5. Verse 91 to 100 Conclusion:  When you discover thuriyum, whatever you are looking for, security, poornative, peace, ananda:   all the fundamental wants you will not get outside; they are all your own nature; you claim your higher nature to get those;  claim it and be free.

The nasamakra is in the form of knowledge.

Class 80

Verse 96

The spiritual seeker starts the journey as a prmadha associated with the body mind complex, he discovers himself as seeker who has not attained the qualification gyana yogyadha pramdha.  He then practices sadhana sadhustha sambandhi and become gyana yogahda pramadha, a knower with qualifications.  Then he practices sravanam and manam and gains knowledge which also belongs to mind, he becomes gyani pramadha.  Then he should keep a balanced mind in day to day life, but he gets agitated and gets angry.  At this point, he refers himself to pramadha and not sakshi.  If you want to get out this disturbance, he should practice nidhithyasanam for a long time become gyana nishtaha which indicates that the mind is undisturbed all the time.  The gyana nishta also belongs to mind and still as a prmadha. Once he stays as a gyana nishta for some time, I should not claim as gyana nishta I identify with my mind.  Only when gyana nishta is strengthened the gyana nishta pramdha falls and thereafter I don’t claim also.  Gyana nisha, gyana agyogta etc. are attributes of pramdha ahangara.  I am the saksthi the witness of mind.  These qualifications of mind belong to pramadha and not sakshi.  As sakshi is always liberated.  The spiritual journey is also from the standpoint of pramdah.  After gyana nishta I claim I am sakshi and disown gyana nisha also. Once I have claimed I am sakshi, really speaking I am not sakshi also.  To claim I am sakshi is to claim I am illuminator and indirectly indicating a second thing.  Once I know I am illumined by mithya, my illuminator status also becomes mithya.  the consciousness does not illumine any object.  Because there is no second object all, as the second object is mithya.  Consciousness does not contact matter because there is no matter that is separate from consciousness.  Clay can’t contact pot because there is no pot other than clay to contact.  Sathyam can’t contact mithya.  Therefore, I the thuriyum I am relations less consciousness.  I don’t have contact with anything.  Only if I have contact, I can be called illuminator.  In advaidam where is the question of sakshi?  I am asanga chaithanyam.

Verse 97

The assimilation of Mandukya involves assimilation of the knowledge that I am advaida chaithanyam or non-dual conscsiouenss.  Only when I am advaidam, I will be muktha.   Duality, time, space, mortality, insecurity, fear samsara will all come one by one once I get duality.  You can perceive a thing as a mithya but not as sathya.  Even thought of anatma vasthu arrives as a real entity for an indiscriminate person. Asangatvam is gone and a relationship will come either in the form of raga or dwesha and relations less status will go away.  Every time I get angry, the problem is with me and I have become a viswa or taijasa.  Once a person gets attached to external object, that person will be kept busy.  Every relationship will create duty after duty, giving no time for vedanta.  How are they going to gain knowledge and drop ignorance?  How is the destruction of ignorance will take place?

Verse 98

The avaranam covering the thuriya swaroopm is not removed by agyanis.  This may raise the doubt that there are two things – thuriyum and avaranm or agyanam or maya.  We do accept anadhi agyanam but that agyanam is not as real as thuiryum.  They do not enjoy the same order of duality.  If thuriyum and agyanam are equally real they both can either be destroyed or can be not destructible.  If agyanam can’t be destroyed, then there will be no knowledge of thuriyum.  Therefore, one must be sathyam and the other one is mithya.  Thuiryum is paramarthika sathyam and agyanam is mithya or vyavakirka sathyam.   Thuriyum is not contaminated by gyanam or agynam or maya because from thuiryum standpoint, Maya is as good as nonexistent.  From all jivas standpoint, thuriyum is swaya prakasa because the covering is seeming covering and removal is also seeming removal.   From the paramrthika dhrishti, everyone is born free.  Everything – atma gone etc. – are figurative expression and empirical angle.  The wise people figuratively say that the seeker gains knowledge and words like liberation are all figurative expression,  similar to running away from rope snake – there is no snake to run away.

Verse 99

There is no second duality objectified for an all-pervading wise person – who is thuriyum or all-pervading chaithanyam. For that person, consciousness does not contact any person.   Because there is no matter separate from consciousness.  Agyani’s consciousness also does not come in contact with anything.  A gyani knows there is no second object whereas an agyani thinks there is a second material object.  This is true with regard to all jivas – that there is nature is thuriya chaithanyam.  This teaching is not budhist teaching but vedantic teaching.  In budhism also the world is negated.  Because of this common feature, many people mistake that advaidam is only a version of budhism.  However, budhism does not accept veda pramadham.

Verse 100

The fourth chapter started with a prayer and ends with prayer.

We are offering namaskaram to that thuriyuam which can’t be comprehended as an object of knowledge.  It is available for knowing only as I but can never be experienced as an object.  It is extremely subtle and deep for a gross mind because a gross mind always wants to objectify things.  Such a mind can never grasp Brahman.  That thuriyum is eternal, birthless, deathless, uniform without any internal differences or pollution like space.  We are offering namaskra to that thuriyum.  How can you do namaskara to that thuriyuam?  Thuirya namaskara is only in the form of thuriya gyanam.

If doing namaska is in the form of knowing, then knowing is also objectification.  Knowing thuriyum is claiming the fact that I am thuriyam.  Listening to sastra is also form a puja.  The fire is not physical fire, but it is gyana agni.  The oblation is duality, viswa, taijasa, pragya; sthula, shuksham and karana prabanja are all oblation.  After this namaskara, I will not get up as an individual.  According to our capacity, we do a compromised version of namaskara in temple.

Class
79

Up to 90th verse, Gowdapadha was summarizing
the Upanishads teaching of Madukaya Upanishad aham sathyam and jagat mithyam
and refuted all other systems of philosophies.

From 91st to 100th verse, Gowdapadha is winding up the entire teaching.  The essence of the teaching is whatever we want to achieve, is already our nature.  This is the irony of life; we search all over and come back to our-self.  Security, peace, fulfillment etc. we have within ourselves in absolute measure and can’t be attained externally. We finally find out that we are what we want to be.

The word aham or I is neither the
pure thuriyum nor pure viswa taijasa pragya (collectively called
ahangara).  Thuiryum is the pure consciousness.  The I is neither the
pure ahangara nor the witness; it is the mixture.  Pure ahangara doesn’t
exist because it requires chaithanyam to exist.  Pure sakshi also can’t
say I am, because it does not have any attributes.  The misra or the
mixture says I.  In the initial stages of life, even though we are a mixture,
what is prominent is ahangara.  The sakshi is subdued and we are not aware
of.  Therefore, initially the jiva is ahangara pradhana jiva.  When
we say want moksha, we are only asking for improvement of this ahangara
pradhana jiva.  Then ahangara pradhana jiva does karma yoga, sadhana etc.
and becomes gyana yogya, endowed with all qualifications.  Then gyana
yogya becomes gyani.  This title belongs to buddhi and therefore the
ahangara pradhana has become gyani.  The gyani continues sravanam does
nidhidhyasanam and becomes gyana nishaha.  I am not disturbed by the
events of life.  This is also from the standpoint of ahangara pradhana
jiva.  At this point jiva is not ahangara pradhana and I look at myself as
sakshi pradhana aham or thuriya pradhanaa aham.  Ahangara becomes feeble
and thereafter I don’t say I made the journey because I have not traveled
because I am the sakshi whe does not travel; who is never impure; this is
sakshi pradhana dhrishty.

I don’t look at myself as gyani, but
I am sakshi pradha jiva.  From ahangara dhrishti, shanthi has to come
gradually; from ahangara dhrishti shanthi is mental peace; from sakshi
dhrishti,  shanthi is my nature.

All jivas are essentially thiruiya
chaithanyam; the difference is from ahangara dhrishti; from sakshi dhrishti
they are all one and the same.  The very statement all jivas imply there
are many jivas.  But this is from ahangara dhrishti.  Bodies are
many, minds are many but chaithanyam is only one.  This chaithanyam
is birthless, shantham and ever pure.

When I look at myself from ahangara
angle, I have to attain purity; but when I look at myself from sakshi angle, I
am always pure.

Verse 94

First problem is sense of isolation
or smallness; we want to belong some group.  This is samsara.  All
the dualistic philosophers face the same delusion and the problem of
samsara.  Philosophies like sankya, gyaya, vaiseshika, poorva mimamsa and
yoga are all dualistic.  They all conclude I am I, you are you.  Lay
people suffer before thinking and the philosophers suffer after thinking. 
All these dualistic philosophers are unfortunate that they come to the
conclusion of dualistic.

Verse 95

There are some fortunate lucky
people who are born in a culture where this teaching is available, and who
receive, understand and assimilate this teaching.  They have firm
conviction of advaida thuriyum.  The perception of differences will continue
and the experience of the duality can’t be removed by advaida gyanam.  We
are only removing the false notion.  Experience of duality will continue
for gyani, but he knows advaidam is sathyam.  Those are who are
established in the advaida gyanam, they are the greatest gyani.  Most
people can’t appreciate the gyanam of a maha gyanis.  Advaidam gyanam is
so great that not only I am liberated from samsara but I am also liberated from
the need for the appreciation of my liberation by others.

Verse 96

When I claim I am the sakshi
chaithanyam, there is also duality.  It means I am witness
consciousness, it means I am witness and that there is a world that is
witnessed by me, which is called sakshyam.  Once I accept the sakshi and
sakshyam, there is duality.  Even the status of sakshi is only temporary;
from my own standpoint, I can’t call myself sakshi.   To talk about
relationship there should be two things belonging to the same order of
reality.  Two individuals in wakers world can have relationship; two
individuals in dream world can have relationship; one individual in wakers
world can’t have relationship with an individual in dream world. 
Consciousness and matter can have realtionship only when they are in the same
order of reality.  Consciounsess is paramarthika sathyam and matter is
vyavakarika sathyam and therefore they can’t have true relationship; if they
have any relationship, it can only be apparent relationship.   The
status of dream like being rich etc. do not apply to waking world.

Shloka 16.9:

16.9
Holding on to this view, (these people) who are of depraved character, of poor
intellect, given to fearful actions and harmful, wax strong for the ruin of the
world.

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, In our scriptures, they talk about four goals of human life, known as purusharta’s.

Purusha
meaning human being, artha means
goals. Therefore, purushartha means human goals. They are called human
goals; because human beings alone can fix a goal and work consistently to
accomplish that, because fixing the goal and working for that requires a
freewill and human beings alone are endowed with this freewill and therefore
they alone can have short-term and long-term goals and consistently work for
their accomplishment and since freewill and these goals are unique to human
beings, they are called purushartha; Of these four purusharta’s, the
first one is well-known and every human being naturally goes after that; and it
is called artha; artha means material possession that make sure that
the life is secure.

So material possessions for the sake of my
security is very natural for even animals and certainly it is instinctive and
natural for human beings and all material possessions are called artha; it may be in the form of money, in the form
of shares, land etc.

And the second is kama, kama means all forms of sense pleasures or entertainment. This is a season of entertainment and therefore people know what entertainment is; it is sense pleasure. This artha and kama are called material pursuits and this is very natural to human beings. One need not have any special training; we do not require gurus; we do not require scriptures to train people in these two pursuits.

But Vedas say that these two are human goals; but do
not stop with these two; there are two more human goals; uniquely human, not
available to other animals and the third in that list is called dharma, by
which we mean inner refinement; or refinement of the mind. In Sanskrit we
call it samskara;
chitta samskara. In fact,
we have several ceremonies from conception to death; 41 such ceremonies are
mentioned. Each ceremony is called a samskara.
Garbhaadharana, pumsavana samskara,
seemanthonanyana, jathakarma, nama karana,
choula, annaprasana,
upanayana, vedavrathini, vivaha; 41 such
samskaras are
mentioned; the culmination being the rituals done at the time and immediately
after death. All of these are samskaras, because they are supposed contribute to
the inner refinement;

And not only the rituals contribute to the inner samskara, even a life of values contribute to this inner refinement. All the ethical values are part of the inner samskara and not only rituals and values, even healthy attitudes contribute to the inner refinement; our attitude towards the parents; matru devo bhava; pitru devo bhava; Our attitude towards elders; which is unique to our culture, we are asked to do namaskara. Namaskara indicates our reverence for age; our reverence for experience; because certain type of refinement can come only through experience. Therefore, attitude towards wealth; attitude towards people, attitude towards the environment; attitude towards the world in general, they all form part of the lifestyle; contributing to inner refinement. This chitta samskara is called dharma; Thus, the third unique human goal is mental refinement; In Vedanta it is called sukshma buddhi.

But unfortunately, this inner refinement is
not a tangible goal. Money is a tangible goal; people can understand it. And
entertainment is tangible; I can switch on a show; but dharma is an intangible
goal. Therefore, it takes time for the human beings even to know the value of
this goal; Why is dharma an important human goal? Even to appreciate that it
requires sensitivity. Plus, dharma is inner refinement, attained through
combining religious life as well as ethics and morality. And this will lead to
inner refinement. This is called dharma purushartha or in the language of sixteenth chapter;
daivi Sampath or inner wealth or invisible wealth.

And then the fourth purushartha, which
is the culmination of these three is moksha, otherwise called spiritual enlightenment
or spiritual knowledge. Spiritual wisdom is the fourth purushartha, which
is called moksha. Moksha means freedom from ignorance. Knowledge
will give me freedom from ignorance. And freedom from ignorance means freedom
from problems created by ignorance and according to our scriptures; all human
problems are caused by ignorance. And this spiritual knowledge or wisdom is
also an intangible goal; I also cannot show what is moksha.

Dharma is an intangible inner goal; moksha is also an intangible inner goal; but the scriptures say they must be included. And Vedas say, even if you do not know the worth of these two higher goals, even if you do not understand what is dharma; even if you do not understand what is moksha; it does not matter; you follow the lifestyle that I prescribe; then if you follow that; in due course you will know the value of dharma and moksha. Like a mother, cannot teach everything to the child; because child is too young to understand what is hygiene. Child cannot understand; therefore, mother blindly commands: wash your hands before eating. The child does not understand the significance of washing, infection; hygiene; bacteria and disease; mother cannot teach a small baby; therefore, the mother says, do what I tell you now.

 Even though the child may be unhappy because the mother is forcing too many things; but mother does not feel bad, the motive of the mother is the wellbeing of the child. Therefore what the Veda’s say is: You may not understand the significance of inner growth; you may not understand the significance of a value based life; you may not understand the significance of religious life itself; even if you do not understand, follow with faith in the Veda’s; with the attitude that veda is my mother; whatever it tells will be for my good. And even if I do not understand the significance now; as I grow, I will understand. Thus, dharma and moksha purushartha’s also should be included even as a person is pursuing artha and kama. Such a person is a religious person; a person given to daivi sampath.

And Sri Krishna says the problem with the materialist people is they will value only artha kama purusharta. A materialistic person is defined as that person, who looks upon only two goals in life; artha and kama alone. He will not understand what is dharma; he does not want to understand what is dharma; He will not understand what is moksha; He does not want to understand; At least if he blindly follows the vedas, it will be fine; but he does not have faith in the Vedas; So, no faith in god; no faith in vedas ; no faith in gurus; and himself, he cannot understand as well.

These people, artha kama pradhana, are
called materialistic people.

Sri Krishna is very strongly criticizing
these materialistic people; he said; their goal is work for 5 days, enjoy for 2
and then die.

They do not know the higher possibilities of
human life, the wonderful ananda born out of dharma and moksha; they
do not understand what is inner growth; they are short sighted people; And when
I try to talk about dharma, they only argue.

They say, I do not value dharma or ethics,
morality or devotion; I see many dharmic and religious people going through all
types of problems. Devotees are suffering; ethical people are suffering; while
all those adharmic people are enjoying. This is the argument they give. They ask, what is the use of being a bhaktha?

This is the silliest argument, because, if
you look at life in this manner, you cannot accept any law of life. For example,
there are so many rules prescribed for good health in health magazines. They
talk about do’s and don’ts with regard to health. But if you observe, you will
certainly find that there are many people who follow all the health rules and
they fall sick. They do not smoke; they do not drink; they do not eat meat;
they exercise regularly and yet they suffer heart attack. And, there are others
who violate all the health rules and yet enjoy without any diseases.

Now can I argue, therefore, that all the
health rules are meaningless. They say cigarette smoking is injurious to
health; yet there are people who smoke, and who are healthy. And there are people
who do not even touch a cigarette and have cancer. Therefore, can you say that
rules of health are meaningless. We can never give such an argument. Similarly,
we say dharma is good; adharma is bad. This is based on a shastric vision. To argue that dharmic people
suffer while adharmic people enjoy, is the silliest approach.

So, we should not argue that
dharmic suffer and adharmic people enjoy. Adharma is not good for our spiritual
health. Dharma alone protects our spiritual health and this asuric people will not accept and they argue.

We can only pray for them.
Therefore, Sri Krishna says, they are short sighted and they will take to
violent lifestyle; because even though himsa is adharma, they do not believe in adharma, whatever is an
obstacle to them, they want to destroy; and thus, they are enemies of the world. As I said
in the last class; violation of dharma will create an imbalance in the cosmic order;
imbalance in the cosmic order will cause the destruction of the universe. And therefore,
they are enemies of the world and they cause destruction.

Shloka 16.10:

Giving
themselves up to insatiable passion, filled with vanity, pride and arrogance,
adopting bad abjectives due to delusion, and having impure resolves, they
engage in actions.

There
is no limit to materialistic desires. Fulfilment of worldly desires can never
give total satisfaction. So, it is like a mirage; from distance there seems to
be water; when I go near, it recedes further. And similarly, we have a false
hope that the fulfilment of materialistic desires will give us satisfaction,
but we find once, one set of desires are fulfilled; the next set is ready;
Swami Chinmayanand nicely says: Happiness is the Number of desires you fulfil
divided by the Number of desires you have.

But
the problem is we only study the increase in the numerator while we are
assuming that the denominator, the number of desires, will remain stationery.

The
problem is that the denominator also increases very fast.  You will find that you have fulfilled so many
desires; but instead of increasing, the happiness decreases, because there is
no end to the fulfilment of desires.

Therefore,
Sri Krishna says, nobody is satiated; and they say it is like pouring ghee into
the fire; you want it to subside; you want it to quench; reality is that they
will never quench by offering of ghee; it only increases. So, having fulfilled
their petty desires; they get dambha, pomp and show, ostentation; and mana meaning
pride and mada; meaning haughtiness or arrogance; they are full of these
negative traits. All because of delusion. Now, what is the delusion? Finite
plus finite is equal to finite only. By effort whatever I achieve in life; will be limited both in time and in
size. I start as a finite being; by adding any number of finite goals, I only
go from finitude to finitude; infinitude will not come. This they do not
understand, because of delusion.

So, it means they believe in
false values that the external objects will give me security not realizing that
the external object itself is insecure. Money is insecure; inflation problem
and interest is coming down; And the expenditure is increasing; cost of living
increases, and the interest decreases; What security do we have? Therefore,
money is insecure, property is insecure, people around are insecure; job is
insecure; so, by holding on to other insecure things, how can I find security.
But the human being never thinks.

They have all kinds of vratams; which are all asuchi or Evil
resolves; So instead of taking the religious vratams, like sabarimala vratams they take to evil resolves. In the olden days 41 days Vratham
was taken to go to Sabarimala; now no vrathams are taken anymore.

But these people have got asuchi vratams; What is their resolve or
Vrtham? Resolves such as, I will finish that competitor. Their resolves are
usually negative ones.

Their vrithams are like those of rakshasas. They also follow religious discipline but for the destruction
of the world.

Shloka 16.11

16.11
Beset with innumerable cares which end (only) with death, holding that the
enjoyment of desirable objects is the highest goal, feeling sure that this is
all.

These materialistic people learn only to depend more and more on external factors; their very acquisitions indicate they want happiness and security that are based on external factors. Therefore, the number of external factors they depend upon increases gradually. Whereas the vedanta tells us to reduce dependences. The fundamental motto of Vedanta is sarvam paravasham Dukham or dependence on external factors is sorrow. External factors may be person; may be things; may be situations. Vedanta says, sarvam atma vasham sukham or Non-dependence on external factors or self-dependence or independence is joy. Whereas materialistic society is a consumerist society; And the more the number of external factors are, the more unpredictable my life will be; because which factor will fail, how and when, I do not know; so therefore, hidden variables will increase, unpredictability increases. Therefore, I do not know what will breakdown tomorrow and therefore whether I am happy or unhappy will depend upon perfect functioning of so many gadgets from telephone; computers and so many things. And, therefore, the problem is, the more life becomes unpredictable, the more the stress will be. Unpredictability leads to stress and strain; And the materialistic person depends upon more unpredictable external factors for his comfort and happiness; whereas the spiritual person requires only one thing; atmni eva atmana tushta; Fortunately, atma will not break down; and therefore, these materialistic people are full of stress and strain.

So, they have limitless worry and sleepless nights,
whereas, a devotee who is a karma yogi, a
man of daivi sampath, he says, let whatever happen, happen. Let not my peace
depend upon these unpredictable factors, Oh Lord. Therefore, Oh Lord give me
the inner strength, spiritual strength.

This devotion, the materialistic person does
not have.  His worries have no end at
all.

He remains committed to money and entertainment.

These materialistic people are miserable and unfortunately,
they convert other people also to materialism because that is a more tempting
philosophy.

Shloka 16.12:

16.12
Bound by hundreds of shackles in the form of hope, giving themselves wholly to
passion and anger, they endeavour to amass wealth through foul means for the
enjoyment of desirable objects.

So, these materialistic people
are shackled by countless attachments; whereas the daivi sampth approach is, I
do not own anything. His attitude is everything belongs to the Lord; I use them
with the grace of the Lord, that is why when I build a house, I do not enter
without placing the picture of the Lord. The idea is this house is not my
house, it is a temple; and I am using that house with the grace of the Lord.

Therefore, a satvic person disowns everything;
whereas the rajasic, tamasic and materialistic people; they hold on to things.

They are rich in kama and krodha. And unfortunately, a
materialistic society praises only these rich people. When there is a humble
person who has value for dharma; society does not honor him. Vedic society always valued
renunciation. If Buddha was valued it was because he renounced everything.

A materialistic society will
value possessions.

They are also given to kama and krodha as the ultimate thing.

They
are busy people, workaholics; and they have no time for pancha maha yagna. They
work for amassing wealth and all is done for entertainment. Earning money
itself is not bad; when you earn more and own less; you become a blessing to
the society. In fact, a karma yogi is one who earns more and owns less. A karmi
is one who earns more and owns more; because when I earn more and own
everything I earn; he has no money to share with others.

While
Karma yogi is the most important person because he earns plenty and owns less;
that means he has a big buffer which is available for pancha maha yagna.

Therefore,
we are not against earning, but what we are against is earning and owning all.
These are the people who earn wealth and but do not give to others.

Shloka
16.13:

6.13
‘This has been gained by me today; I shall acquire this desired object. This is
in hand; again, this wealth also will come to me.’

So generally, these people are
busy and their philosophy is: Time is money.

 Therefore, they do not waste time, they
utilize all the time to convert into money. This is the philosophy; therefore,
generally they do not have free time; and even if they have some free time,
they only think of how to increase their money and not about God.

In these three verses, Sri
Krishna talks about the thought pattern of the materialistic person.

And what is their thought pattern?
They are always calculating the money they possess and planning to expand their
possessions. They do not have time to think of anything other than artha and kama.

In short, the idea is: he also
meditates; only

difference is the object of meditation
is Lakshmi rather than Vishnu. Therefore, his is money dhyanam.

Shloka 16.14:

16.14
‘That enemy has been killed by me, and I shall kill others as well. I am the
lord, I am the enjoyer, I am well-established, mighty and happy.’

And once there is inordinate
greed, naturally I will see all other people as my competitors. So, greed means
I see enemies everywhere; as obstructing my goals; and therefore, shatrus increase; And in business field, liquidation of the competition
is part of the program, and therefore different normal and abnormal methods are
used to finish off the other people. So big companies swallow the small ones.

They even use goondas and even physically
liquidate the people, because of their inordinate greed.

Initially there may be some guilt but after
sometime, their heart gets benumbed that there will be no regret or guilt also.

Once I have destroyed all the competitors and
I have got the monopoly in that field, nobody can come in front of me. I am the
one who will enjoy all the wealth as the Siddha or successful person; I am the
most successful person, but how he attained success is a big question.

I am the strongest person, even the law
cannot do anything because police are in my hands, because I know what is their
rate; once I know the rate, everybody can be fixed. And politicians no problem.
So therefore, I hear that all the politicians are in the hands of big business
groups. So therefore, all are in my hands.

 He
thinks, I am the happiest person in the world; thus, these people dream their
future.

Take Away:

Dharma
means inner refinement or refinement of the mind.

Vedanta says
dependence on external factors is sorrow. External factors may be persons,
things or situations.

Vedanta
also says, non-dependence on external factors or self-dependence or
independence is joy.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka 16.4:

16.4
O son of Prtha, (the attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature
are religious ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is
abhimanah, self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance.

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said,

In the 16th chapter of the Gita, Sri Krishna is talking about two types of lifestyles, one that is conducive to spirituality and moksha and the other one non-conducive to spiritual goal and these two lifestyles are called daivi sampath and asuri sampath.

We can roughly translate it as spiritual value system and materialistic value system; and the based on this, the spiritual value systems were mentioned in the first three verses; and the materialistic value system, Sri Krishna summarized in the 4th verse and he will elaborately deal with that from the 7th verse up to 21st verse later on. But before elaborating the asuri sampath, Sri Krishna points out that if you want to gain moksha, then your life style should be governed by daivi sampath. This is mentioned in the 5th verse and we will read:

Shloka
16.5:

16.5
The divine nature is the Liberation, the demoniacal is considered to be for
inevitable bondage. Do not grieve, O son of Pandu! You are destined to have the
divine nature.

Sri Krishna says, the spiritual value system which I gave out in the first three verses will take you towards Moksha. It is conducive to self-knowledge. Whereas the asuri sampath, the materialistic value system; will keep you in Samsara and bondage. And naturally Arjuna is worried as to which category he belongs to, therefore, Sri Krishna pats Arjuna and says, Arjuna fortunately, you are with daivi sampath only.

You
are born with spiritual inclination. You have a value for spiritual growth; Interest
in spirituality is possible only if inherited from the previous birth.

Sri Krishna
has said before that spiritual development takes place through many janmas. If
we had such a lifestyle in this birth, we will have a natural inclination for
religious or spiritual life. Arjuna, you are born with such an inclination. You
have got a satvic tendency; you are a guna brahmana by birth itself and
therefore you can feel happy. And you can nourish that spiritual tendency more
and more.

Shloka
16.6:

16.6
In this world there are two (kinds of) creation of beings: the divine and the
demoniacal. The divine has been spoken of elaborately. Hear about the
demoniacal from Me, O son of Prtha.

So, here, Sri Krishna says, O Arjuna, the entire humanity can be divided into two groups. Not merely Indians; not merely the vedic people, the entire humanity can be divided into two groups; based on their tendencies; their values.

One group of humanity we can call
daiva group, which means naturally having a spiritual tendency. They might be
born in a materialistic society; but something pulls them towards spiritual
people, spiritual books, spiritual topics, something attracts them, they
themselves do not know the reason.

And there is another group, asuric; utterly materialistic group, down to earth group, as a Yamadharma raja said in kathopanishad. Yamadharmaraja calls them Shreyas and Preyas group. So Asura meaning People with materialistic tendencies; even though they born in a spiritual family; surrounded by Vedas, surrounded by Brahmaṇas, surrounded by temples; father himself may be a Gyani, but in spite of all these influences; these are people who turn towards materialism. Therefore, known as asuraha.

And, I have talked about the daiva group, the spiritual people, who have a spiritual value system, I have talked about them in the first three verses, but I have not elaborately talked about the materialistic value system. and I have briefly mentioned that in the fourth verse, but Sri Krishna feels that it should be elaborated. Therefore, he says the elaborate study of Asuri sampath, Arjuna, may you learn from me; so that you can avoid such a tendency. Thus, Sri Krishna gives an introduction to the asuri sampath; and hereafter He will elaborate on that.

Shloka 16.7

16.7
Neither do the demoniacal persons under-stand what is to be done and what is
not to be done; nor does purity, or even good conduct or truthfulness exist in
them.

All the human beings by nature and by birth are materialistic in character. Nobody knows that there is a such a goal called Moksha. And nobody knows that there is such a thing called dharma, because dharma is not visible to our eyes; moksha is also not visible to our eyes. Both of them are called apaurusheya purushartha; goals not available to our sense organs; or even to science. And since these two goals are not known, every human being has got only two purusharthas called artha and kama. Artha means money, and wealth. And the second thing is kama pleasure or enjoyment; therefore, everybody by birth has a value for artha kama purushartha’s; and therefore, our mind develops its own raga-dvesha’s. raga means likes and dvesha means dislike. Right from birth, our life is governed by raga-dveshas, our instinctive likes and dislikes; which are again based on artha kama purushartha; and our scriptures point out that this raga-dvesha based life is OK in the beginning stages. But once a stage is reached when we are capable of discrimination and thinking, this raga-dvesha based life should be changed; and a new value system should replace the old value system; and the new value system that is prescribed by our scriptures is the spiritual value system. And we do not know the importance of spiritual goals, because we are immature people at that time. And, therefore, we should be guided by the scriptures which we look upon as Veda mata.

Just as a baby does not know what is good for it and what is bad, a baby surrenders to the mother, and the mother decides what is good for the child. And as long as the child goes by the mother’s decision, it is ultimately for the good of the baby only. Just as mother decides what is good and bad for us, because we are immature. Similarly, Veda is the mother, who decides what is ultimately good for us and as per Veda the ultimate goal of human life has to be spiritual alone. Therefore, the shruti says: You do not know what is good for you. I am deciding what is good for you and therefore follow what I tell you. And the Shruti replaces the materialistic value system by a spiritual value system. It tells what us what is good and it is called vidhi. Vidhi means a thing which is good for me and nishedha means that which is not good for me. vidhi means kartavyam; Nishedha means akarthavyam and the Shruti asks us to replace the raga- dvesha based life by vidhi-nisheda based life. And this transformation from the materialistic value system to spiritual value system is considered the second birth of the human being. This transformation is from the prakrta to the samskrta purusha; and it is generally symbolized by the sacred thread ceremony.

Sri Krishna says that the asura purushas are
those people who do not go through this transformation of life. Because they do
not want to follow the spiritual value system prescribed by the scriptures. And
therefore, he says people who are materialistic people, asuras, who are
governed by raga-dveshas, likes and dislikes, they do not educate themselves scripturally.
They are literate materialistically, because they may know physics or chemistry
or economics, but spiritually they are illiterate. And therefore, this
transformation does not take place.

They do not know what is to be done, for spiritual growth.

They do not have dharma adharma viveka. And,
therefore, they do what they like.

So, the vedic
scriptures give us a daily routine to be followed for spiritual growth. The scriptures
give us instructions on what we need to do from the moment we wake up every
morning till we go to bed.

So, the first advice the scriptures give is
to get up before Sunrise. Most of us don’t follow this.

So, Shastra
says wake up before sunrise so that Surya
Bhagavan can
bless us.

This is the first spiritual value or achara.

And thereafter start the day with lighting
the lamp and then doing some prayers, apply some tilakam, and this is supposed
to be the greatest protection against materialism. The onslaught of
materialism is so powerful that if you have to protect, they say put some
kumkum or chandan or vibhuthi.

The vibhathi is
prepared by chanting a lot of mantras.  Vibhathi preparation is a very elaborate
ritualistic process, and therefore, it is not an ordinary ash, it is an ash with
lot of mantra. And not only it has mantras’ spiritual values, even when a
person is applying vibhuti he is supposed to chant mantras or names of the Lord
or namas. And that is why in vaishnava
sampradhaya it is
called nama.

Vibhuthi
means Bhagavan mahima.
When you are wearing the Vibhuthi, one
has to chant the triyambaka mantra.

This mantra says that Vibhuthi means it is glory of the Lord. Since you remember
the glory of the Lord, the ash itself got the name Vibhuthi and since this tilakam
is associated with God,
it is supposed to protect us from the onslaught of materialism. Therefore, get
up early in the morning; do snanam,
light up the lamp, chant the prayers, and remember the Lord and remember the
goal of life as well. And until you complete all these things, not even a drop
of water should be drunk.

Start your day with achara. There is no sense of religious purity at all for materialistic
people; So, they walk with the night dress all over the world, with the half-cleaned
teeth, with the brush in the mouth, with toothpaste, walking all over with a
newspaper. It is certainly not a vedic lifestyle.

Even brushing the teeth is a religious rite and there is a prayer mantra addressed to vanaspathi devatha, because in the olden days, they used the twigs of the trees for cleaning the teeth and therefore prayer to the twig: Hey Vanaspathe, I am brushing my teeth to remove my danta malaha, the impurities of the teeth; along with that, Oh Devathe, cleanse my mind also”. And for what purpose? For Atma Gyanam. All these are wonderfully designed by the Veda right from the very young age to be followed; materialistic people do not believe in any one of them.

So, they do not have the religious Discipline; what about values? They do not believe in the values also; their argument is, whatever is convenient is value; I will speak truth also when it is convenient.

So, values also they do not believe in. This is the beginning of materialism. Now we can imagine the details.

Shloka 16.8:

16.8
They say that the world is unreal, it has no basis, it is without a God. It is
born of mutual union brought about by passion! What other (cause can there be)?

They are totally irreligious people. They do
not connect with religion or spirituality, which is based on the vedic
scriptures. First, they do not believe in the Vedas or believe in Asthayam. Sathyam here means
Veda pramanam, Asathyam means that they do not believe
in Veda pramanam, even
though Veda is like thousand mothers.

Shankaracharya tells us, elsewhere, that the Vedas are superior to thousand mothers and fathers; it is interested only in our wellbeing but in spite of that; they do not believe in Veda pramanam. They are utterly nastika people. And if they do not accept Veda pramanam; they also do not believe in Dharma. Pratishta means dharma; dharma means moral or ethical order of the universe. Vedas say Dharma or morality alone sustains the creation.

Dharma means that which sustains the universe. Moral order alone sustains. Once the morality goes from the society, there will be utter distress and confusion and a society cannot survive for long; And therefore, scriptures talk about Dharmas and these people do not believe in dharma because dharma is not visible to our eyes. They believe in the physical order of the universe, because it is scientifically provable. They believe in the scientific laws of the creation; like the law of gravitation; like the ecological laws, etc. but the laws of dharma they do not believe because it cannot be scientifically proved. And therefore they say there is no dharma or adharma; there is no punyam or papam and therefore, there is neither previous birth or next birth. Enjoy this life; following whatever you feel like doing.

And then who is the creator of this universe?

They do not believe in God as well.

They say creation can come by itself; the
scientists have proved that the big bang took place at such and such time,
thereafter the world has evolved by itself with the help of chemical and
physical laws; we do not see any intelligent principle behind it; and therefore
we do not require a God.

They reject everything; they believe in only money and entertainment. Therefore five days of a week, earn and two days of a week, go all out and enjoy. Continue that till death. This is the philosophy of materialistic people.

Whereas what is the belief of the traditional people? We say, God is the creator of the world; and along with the world, God has created the Vedas also. And Vedas are the manuals which are meant to guide our life; so that we can extract the best out of this human life. And the best we can extract is moksha itself.

So, do not have materialistic friends; until you clearly understand the Vedas and understand the value of dharma. Until you understand the concept of pramanam, avoid materialistic people.

These people
argue that there is no Ishvara; no Vedas and there is no dharma.

Then how did this
creation come?

We are created by
our parents because of the male-female union, which is caused by kama or
passion, we are born. And how are our parents born? because of their parents;
and how are their parents born; because of their parents. Why is God required
for this? They argue that spending money on temples is useless, rather give
money to the poor.

And when we listen to those arguments, we also start having doubts, perhaps they are correct; whereas Vedas says spending money on God or dharma or puja etc. can never be a waste; it is like pouring water at the root of the tree; when you pour water at the root of the tree; water directly goes to the root; but in an invisible manner the water goes to all the branches; I do not see it, but every cell of the tree gets the benefit.

Similarly, Bhagavan is the root of this creation;
where did we see this? In Bhagavat Gita chapter 15.

Abhisheka you do, naivaidyam you do,
nothing goes to waste, ultimately it is for the benefit of humanity. But a
materialistic person will not accept that.

Shloka 16.9:

16.9
Holding on to this view, (these people) who are of depraved character, of poor
intellect, given to fearful actions and harmful, wax strong for the ruin of the
world.

So, these Asuric people hold on to the materialistic philosophy. Their philosophy is whatever sense organs can see that alone exists. That there are things, beyond our sense organs and which can be known through other means of knowledge, they do not accept. It is like a person with four sense organs. Imagine a person has only four sense organs by birth. He does not have eyes. He has got ears, tongue, nose and skin.

And I talk about the field of colors, I say that there is a world of colors. He says, I do not believe in that; I do not accept that; because I am not able to appreciate the colors with my four sense organs. And I say no, that you cannot know that, because the available four sense organs do not have access to the colors. It has to be known through the fifth sense organs, eyes, I tell. But this person argues that I do not believe there is a fifth sense organ. I want to prove the colors with the help of the 4 sense organs I have; he wants the proof for the colors through the ears, or prove the color through the nose, through the tongue, skin, through the available four pramanas. He is not interested in the fifth sense organ which reveals a field not available for these four.

Similarly, our culture talks about a sixth
sense organ. What is the sixth sense organ?

It is called Veda. And we want to prove that with the help of
the available five sense organs, we can only say that the available sense
organs do not have access to that; you have to use the sixth. And if a person
refuses to use the eyes, which is the fifth sense organ, who is the loser? If I
will not use the eyes, I alone am going to be the loser, neither the eye nor
the world of colors. If I should benefit from the world of colors, I should be
willing accept a fifth sense organ called the eye; which sense organ can never
be proved by the other four sense organs. Veda is the sixth sense organ which can never be
proved or disproved by the available five sense organs. You use the Veda pramana and study with faith, you will be opened to
a new and wonderful field, which is not accessible to science; which is not
acceptable to the sense organs.

By rejecting the Veda, Veda is not the loser; I am going to be the loser. But materialistic people will never understand the significance of the sixth sense organ. They claim that they are rational people, they will believe in only those things which can be sensed through five sense organs. Like the fool who wants the proof for the color with the help of the other 4 sense organs; how can I prove it; it is not possible.

And therefore, the materialistic people will never understand.  They are lost souls, because they are losing a huge chunk of the creation which is accessible only through Veda pramana. The very definition of the Veda is what: Veda is a sixth sense organ as it were; which will reveal a new world which is not accessible to these regular five sense organs. How can you define the fifth sense organ the eye; eye is a fifth sense organ, which reveals the colors, which are not accessible to the other four sense organs. Similarly, Vedas reveals a completely new field. It is for you to operate or make use of the Vedas; otherwise you are going to be the loser.

So, they are lost souls. All because they do not understand the concept of pramana. What the eyes reveal, the ears can never prove; the ears can never disprove; what the eyes reveal. Suppose I say this is orange color is revealed by eyes; suppose the eyes want to verify the orange color. No, the ears are great; but the ears can never prove or disprove, because their field is different.

Similarly, Vedic field is different;
scientific field is different. Science has got access only to a particular
field; therefore, science has no right to prove or disprove the Vedic teaching.
This is the significance of pramanam.

Therefore, they try to prove the Vedas
scientifically. That is the greatest foolishness. It is like trying to prove
the colors with the help of the ears. They will never succeed; and when they do
not succeed, instead of understanding their foolishness, they reject the Vedas.

Vedas are unscientific and therefore I won’t believe. That is the greatest foolishness to have. Therefore, Sri Krishna says: idiots; they try to prove Vedas through science; They hold on to a materialistic philosophy and once artha and kama becomes dominant in life; when dharma is not valued, then compromise with values become natural. Violation of values become natural. Telling a lie will become very comfortable; first it will prick, second lie it does not matter, the third lie we are comfortable; thereafter, lying become natural, cheating becomes natural, himsa becomes natural; therefore, they will be hurting the moral order of the universe. Ugrakarmanaha means they are people of violence. Violating what? the ethical or moral order of the creation; violating dharma which is the health of the universe. It is like violating the rules of health; by following the rules of health; I keep my body fit. If I violate those rules, the body dharma is disturbed; which becomes sickness physically, similarly when dharma is violated, the society becomes sick. Adharma is the sickness of the society. A sick body cannot survive; a sick society cannot also survive.

And therefore ugrakarmanaha, they hurt dharma; and the society indirectly prabhavanthi;

And jagataha kshayaya; they become the cause of the destruction of the humanity; And the tragedy is when the scientific knowledge increases, and value for dharma decreases, the scientific knowledge also will be used for adharmic purposes. And science gives enormous power and the increased power will be used for consistent akramaha. If medical science increases and kidneys can be replaced; kidney racket comes up. Thus, Knowledge without wisdom becomes dangerous. Knowledge is material knowledge, wisdom is dharmic knowledge; When material knowledge increases, without dharmic knowledge, that society will have problems. They will then cause destruction of universe. Militants will increase; terrorists will increase, train accidents will increase; naxals will increase. They will have even atom bombs and chemicals. Science will become a curse of humanity. Science will be blessing only when it goes along with dharma.

Therefore, these people will become a curse to the society.

Therefore, they become enemies of humanity.

Thus, educated people without dharma will
become enemies.

Sakshara rakshasa bhavanti. Sakshara means
literate people, they become Rakshasa.

Take Away:

Asuras means Materialistic
people.

Shruti
asks us to replace the raga- dvesha (likes and dislikes) based life by vidhi-nisheda (good vs bad) based life.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Class
78

In versees 87, 88 and 89 Mandukya
upanishad was summarized.  The teaching is that the avasthasthrya sakshi
is none other than Brahman.  The sakshi is thuriyum and knowing the
thuriyum alone gives moksha.

In the 90th verse, Gowdapadha talks
about sadhanas to be followed.  The four factors to be followed before
starting the sadhana.  The four facctors are:

1. Heyam (mithya vasthu):  The prabanja is mithya and
   only atma is sathyam; everything else is mithya and anatma.  Nothing
   wrong dealing with anatma because life is nothing but interacting with
   anatma.  But one should not be totally dependent on anatma and seek
   security, poornatvam and ananda.  Everyone seeks these three, but
   anatma or mithya prabanja can’t give.  Reject (don’t emotionally
   depend on) the anithya  mithay vasthu.
2. Yeyam or vigyeyam: (Sathya vasthu):  What is
   the ultimate thing to be known and relied upon.  Thuriyum. 
   Learn to lean up on the sathya vasthu.
3. Apyam:   To discover and rely upon atma;
   sadhana sadhusta sambadhi; sravanam, mananm and nidhidhtyasanam; acquiring
   a guru
4. Pakyam:  That which has to be rendered
   ineffective.  Roasted seeds do not sprout; they will be tasty to
   consume but they will not germinate.  There are certain tendencies in
   our mind, but we can’t remove them.  We can roast them, so they won’t
   cause problem.  These are the fundamental nature of raga dwesha; we
   all have natural likes and dislikes.  Adharmic raga dweshas should be
   eliminated right away.  Other ragah dweshas reveal my individuality;
   they are not adharmic; example food preferences; you do not need to
   eliminate them.  Make sure those raga dweshas are non-binding;
   binding ragadwesha is one where if it is not available, I become
   miserable; these are obstruction to spiritual growth; non-binding
   ragadweshas are one I accept by choice.  These must also be dharmic.

Practice all these four and come to
the dependence of thuriyum, which is self-dependence or moksha.

Three of these, Heyam Apyam and
Parkya, are vyavakarika sathyam and are useful at the time of sadhana and
should be utilized temporarily. Yeyam or vigyeyam is the ultimate
reality.  Once we attain this reality, we should not depend on the other
three.  Dependent on sasthram, guru, baghawan as an object are all should
be temporary.

Verses 91 to 100 the conclusion of
the entire karika teachings.  What vedanta wants us to communicate is that
every basic need we already have within ourselves.  Struggle for security
and protection last throughout our life and all our actions are triggered by
this sense of insecurity.  Protection from bayam is what we seek but our
very nature is abayam or security.  The real I alone sustain the
world.  The security is not only available within me but it is also not
available anywhere else.

After security, we seek poornatvam
or completeness.  That is why we always we grab on to anything. 
Grabbing and not giving up anything is what most of us do.  Once I know I
have what I want. struggles in life will go away.

Verse 91

Every jiva by very nature is like
akasa.  Common feature of atma and akasa.

1. All pervading,
2. Indestructible
3. Accommodates everything
4. Never polluted by whatever accommodated.

I am anadhi, without a beginning, as
atma.  There is no question of rebirth, because it is valid only when
there is a first birth.  At the level of atma, there is no plurality at
all.  There is only one jivatma which is none other than paramtma. 
We can count bodies etc. but chaithanyam is one and the same which enlivens everybody.

Verse 92

This atma swaroopam, is not only
wonderful, but it is also always evident.  It is never covered at any
time.  It is experienced by everyone all the time. Thuirya atma being
consciousness, consciousnesses being ever evident, everybody is experiencing
thuriyum all the time.  The problem is not the lack of experience of atma
or consciousness; but we have attributed certain limitations to ever evident
consciousness.  Our problem is the misconception of the limitation of the
body that we have attributed to the consciousness.  Remove the limitation
that we have superimposed.  The limitless consciousness I am.  We
don’t require new experience; we only need to drop the super imposition. 
The consciousness is clearly evident; there is no doubt at all.  The
person who realizes this, will be ever free from stress, restlessness; will be
relaxed.  Such a person alone is fit for mosha or immorality.

Verse 93

Similarly shanthi  is not
something we need to acquire; that is my real nature from the beginningless
time.  We are not working for mental removal of thoughts.  If you
define shanthi as thoughtlessness, that will not be possible as you will not be
able to maintain thoughtlessness permanently.  The function of the mind is
to entertain thought; life involves using the mind.  Let the mind
entertain the thought, but the presence and absence of thought has nothing to
do with my real shanthi which belongs to atma. Therefore, ever free from
samsara.  The so-called samsara is a vyavakarika event that can’t disturb
my real nature.  This is true of all jivas and only some jivas have
claimed this nature; All the jivas are really only one.

16.2
Non-injury, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, control of the
internal organ, absence of vilification, kindness to creatures,
non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, freedom from restlessness;

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, in the beginning of the 16th chapter, in the first three verses, Sri Krishna is giving a list of virtues which He names daivi sampath; and when a person lives a way of life; taking into account these virtues; then it will become conducive to atma Gyanam. We completed first verse in the last class and in the first verse, I had left out one word and I am happy that the students noted the omission and pointed it out to me. First, I will take up the omitted word, tapaha, in the second line.

If you split it; the word tapas or Tapaha has several meanings. Sri Krishna will talk about tapa elaborately in the 17th chapter, and He will divide tapas into three types, satvika, rajasika, and tamasika tapas. Here we will see one of the meanings of the word tapa; it is deliberately and willfully going through a painful experience for toughening one’s physical and mental personality. Voluntarily, deliberately going through some painful experience; of course, within a limit, in a controlled way; going through a painful experience, so that my body and mind will get toughened enough, immunized enough, to withstand pain or difficulty. So, immunization of the body, toughening of the body is the purpose of any form of tapas. And we have got many types of tapas, in the form of vrthams. For example, those who go Sabarimala, the Ayyappa temple in Kerala, they take a 41 day or 48 days of vow. And during these days; they willfully give up certain comforts. Certain types of physical comforts are given up, and the body is allowed to go through discomfort and similarly they walk 48 miles through thorns, stones and all those, without wearing a chappal; is a voluntary invitation of physical pain. Even though nowadays they can go through a very short route; they do that; Sometimes we can see people going to the Himalayan shrines of the Kedarnath and Badrinath, at higher altitudes, very cold; there also they go without proper cover, without chappal they go; this is a clear invitation to physical pain; but you do not call it suffering. A suffering is a suffering only when it is forced upon me by somebody else.

Whereas a suffering becomes a tapas when I myself, voluntarily, force on myself for the sake of toughening my body and mind. I have talked about this before; the difference between fasting and starving, is purely based on the attitude. When I want to eat food, and food is not available, it is starving; but food is available, but deliberately today happens to be Ekadasi and one stays away from food.

In Srirangam there are people who fast the whole day, even when food is available; I deliberately forgo and go through the pang and discomfort of hunger; and this voluntary suffering is called tapas. Shankaracharya calls it sharira pidanam; pidanam word he is using; but it is voluntary. The benefit, advantage of this tapas is the body gets a capacity to tolerate; tolerance of heat; tolerance of cold; tolerance of pain; so, increase of titiksha or tolerance is the benefit. And in Vedanta, tolerance is considered to be a very useful sadhana. It will help a person in several ways spiritually. One benefit is that if I toughen myself and develop tolerance when I have to go through choiceless pain. Everyone will have to face pain in life. Sometimes there are remedies, but there are occasions when a person is forced to go through pain and there is no cure or remedy. Like incurable disease or anything, I have got tolerance, choiceless pain in life will not disturb me too much. Thus, tolerance prepares myself to face choiceless pains in life; which is caused by prabhala prarabhada.

Durbhala prarabhda, gives me pain but I have remedy for weaker prarabhda, but there are prabhala prarabhda, which will give me pain for which I can have no remedy. How to face such choiceless pain? There is only one way; I have to raise my level of withstanding power; just as the military people develop that power; so, they have to learn to starve for days together; living with water; they have to survive with whatever they get; They have got endurance tests; thus, every human being requires increase in endurance power; And therefore, titiksha is useful to face choiceless situations.

The second benefit of tapas or increase of
tolerance is we can avoid impulsive reactions to situations. Any impulsive
reaction is because of lack of tolerance. I cannot tolerate nonsense. I cannot
tolerate adharmic action; I am extremely sensitive; many people say. When I am
sensitive and intolerant, the greatest disadvantage that I face, I impulsively
and immediately react to the situation without thinking. Any thoughtless action
is reaction; and any thoughtless reaction is improper; because we are not even
judging whether our actions are right or wrong. The only solution for impulsive
reaction is developing the tolerance power, so that even if somebody is doing
improper action, I can wait, analyze, think well and react at the proper time.
And when I react at proper time deliberately thoughtfully, it is no more a
reaction; it is an action. If I have to postpone my reaction, and deliberately
act, I require titiksha
or tolerance and that tolerance comes by practicing tapas. This is the second
benefit;

The third benefit of tolerance is this. Bhagavan has kept pain in life; not merely for hurting us. The role of pain is not merely wounding us, but Bhagavan wants to teach certain important lessons through pain also. So, sufferings also have a very important role in human life. And the important role of suffering is teaching; especially spiritual teaching; and if I should have the capacity to learn from suffering, I should enjoy an undisturbed mind. If suffering emotionally disturbs me, I will not be able to learn from suffering. I will go through sufferings but will continue to be where I am. So how can I learn from suffering? Only when my mind is calm, I can go through suffering and learn; and that is possible only when there is titiksha; there is tolerance. Therefore, the third benefit of tolerance is developing the faculty of learning from pain. Learning from suffering.

In fact, the very first chapter of the Gita is Arjuna vishada yoga. So Arjuna’s suffering taught a lot; At least he learned that he requires external help to solve the problem of raga, shoka and moha. And that is how he decided to surrender. Therefore, pain also has a role in spiritual growth; and I can make use of it only if I have tolerance. Thus, tapas plays a very important role in developing tolerance and therefore it is included in spiritual sadhana.

And now coming to the second verse, we saw the word Ahimsa, satyam, krodha and tyaga. The word tyaga, I pointed out, refers to renunciation; renunciation can be either external or internal. External renunciation is taking to a monastic life; internal renunciation is mentally dropping the ownership notion; I do not own anything. Bhagavan is the only owner; I am a trustee; I am supposed to only maintain things or maximize the use of things for the time being. This freedom from mamakara is called tyaga; mamakara tyaga.

The next value is shanti; shanti means the equanimity of mind; poise of mind; tranquility
of mind; freedom from stress and strain. Another word they use is anayasa;
inner relaxation. And this Shanti is a virtue, which we have to try to maintain
throughout the day, which Sri Krishna called samatvam yoga uchyate. The very karma yoga way of
life is to maintain this poise. And why is this shanti important? Only when the mind has shanti, intellect will be active and functional.

When the mind is disturbed, it will jam the intellect and it will not work. A Vedantic student has to do sravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasanam, all the three require an equanimous mind; therefore shanti. We can say, it is the samatvam attained through karma yoga. It is otherwise called samaha.

Then the next virtue is: Apaishunam. apaishunam means not publicizing the defects of other people. It is very enjoyable thing; it is a very juicy topic; to talk about the things happening in the neighborhood. Therefore, whatever defects are there; whatever deficiencies are there; whatever weaknesses are there, I enjoy talking about and whatever virtues are there; I carefully avoid. Shastra says it is never correct. If at all you want to talk about others, talk about their virtues.  Cover up your virtues; publicize others’ virtues.

Therefore, he says apaishunam; never talk about the other people’s
weaknesses.

Then the next virtue is Daya bhuteshu. Daya means compassion, bhuta means all living beings; human beings, animals, towards all of them, have compassion, i.e. learn to look at their suffering by standing in their shoes. Temporarily imagine what will it be if I am in their position. So, then, certainly it will be impossible for us to injure others.

Therefore, bhuteshu daya, or bhuta daya is considered to be a very important virtue.

Then the next one is aloluptvam; aloluptvam means not yielding to the temptations of sense objects. So the world is full of maya. And the world is full of temptations, my sense organs can very easily become an addict to anything. So even when such temptations are there; not yielding to them, that self-control is called aloluptvam. Previously we saw the word dama; dama is in a general sense control; aloluptvam is specific sense control; when there are temptations.

Saying No to drugs; because there are certain
temptations like drug, liquor, cigarette, etc. We have to yield only once;
first time it is a deliberate mistake, and second time, that object becomes the
master and I become a slave. First, I am master, the cigarette is slave; second
time, the cigarette become stronger; then time, it will still become stronger;
after sometime, I am utterly helpless that I cannot even imagine giving it up.

You will find that once a person becomes an
addict, it is almost impossible to get out. You have to read the book of
Alcoholic Anonymous. They say God alone can help such an addict; For that, one
has to surrender to God. even that becomes difficult. And therefore, always say
No first.

Therefore, better not to go in front of it, at
all; and therefore aloluptvam.

Then the next one is mardavam; mardavam
means gentleness, in handling people, in handling things, gentleness or
politeness in manners; Not being rude is called mardavam.

The mind of the wise people is very unique. It has got two opposite virtues. One angle it is stronger and harder than even diamond; and from another angle they are tender; more tender than even flowers; How come one mind is both hard and tender. It is said when they are receiving experiences such as people insulting, people criticizing, people misbehaving; when they are facing adverse situations, their mind takes the mode of hardness; the mind is so strong that any adverse situation cannot affect it; like the rock of Gibraltar, it will not get affected; but the very same wise people when they are handling other people, when they are talking to other people, their language and behavior is more tender than even flowers. So, as a karta they have a tender mind; as a bhokta they have a diamond like hard mind. But the problem of the ignorant person is the other way around. He also has a hard and soft mind. When he faces situation, it is too soft; that at the slightest insult he is affected; When he handles people, it is so rock like and rude, neither he is happy nor the other people around are happy. So, gentleness in handling other people.

Then hrih means modesty, and also a sense of shame; a
healthy sense of shame. There are two types of shame, one is a healthy shame. A
healthy shame is defined as that, which obstruct a person from doing wrong
actions. Sometimes we feel ashamed to do certain things in front of others,
when that shame restrains us from doing adharmic actions, that sense of shame
is a worthy sense of shame and it has to be cultivated. Shamelessness in that
respect is an evil thing.

Therefore, healthy shame is called hrih or modesty.

Then the next virtue achapalam; chapalam means restlessness expressed at the body level. Restlessness which is primarily a mental condition and when the mind is highly restless, it overflows to the body level and through the body language, the person shows he is uncomfortable. Hands and legs are moving; face is twitching. He is biting the finger; first nails then finger. They eat pencils and pens; all kinds of things happen; fidgety character is called chapalam; where the body does lot of movements purposelessly. Moving the legs purposelessly, moving the hands purposelessly. All of them are called cheshtai. When we are children, parents used to tell us sit quietly without doing any cheshtai. That indriya cheshta is called chapalam; achapalam is freedom from that; body also is relaxed.

Shloka 16.3:

16.3
Vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of
haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are (the alties) of one born
destined to have the divine nature.

Then next virtue is tejaha. teja means not being a victim of exploitation; goodness; Simplicity, it does not mean ideocracy. Being simple does not mean, being simpleton, it is not required; Be gentle; be good; be tolerant; all these virtues are very good; that does not mean that we should become door mats of other’s exploitation. If somebody is committing a mistake; if somebody is improperly behaving; it should not mean I should silently suffer and be a victim. I can certainly take appropriate action. I need not be taken for a ride in the name of being a Gita student.  Do not cheat and do not get cheated.

It does not mean I should impulsively react
and get angry. It is not necessary, we can study the situation and first, then
we can use non-violent methods of handling and later, even if we have to take
violent steps; by all means take violent steps. If that is the ultimate necessary
evil.

So not victimizing one’s self is called tejaha; because just as we should not hurt others, we should not hurt ourselves also. We have a duty to our own body; our own mind; it does not mean I should unnecessarily suffer; it does not mean I have to put up with non-sense. Need not. So, a no-nonsense attitude is tejaha.

Then the next virtue is Kshama. Kshama is otherwise called Shanti in the 13th Chapter and it is called titiksha in the 2nd chapter.

And this word Kshama has several meanings; one meaning is tolerance, which we saw before; Kshama is the benefit gained through tapas. While explaining Tapas I said, by practicing tapas, a person will get forbearance or tolerance. This is one meaning.

But, Shankaracharya gives another meaning for the word Kshama by contrasting it with the word akrodha.  Akrodha means capacity to handle anger. When the anger rises inside; before it is expressed outside, I allow that it to go through the filter of discrimination. Before expressing, if I can use my discrimination, discreet expression of anger; or discreet non-expression of anger; or discreet partial expression of anger; that is the management of anger. This was called akrodha in the second verse; Shankaracharya says kshama here means the mind becomes free from anger. Very tough; In the first stage, anger was allowed but it should be under your control; let it be but it should be within your control; but kshama means enjoying a mind in which anger does not rise at all. So non-arrival of anger is kshama; management of arrived-anger is akrodha. Is it possible for a person to avoid the rise of anger at all; looks it is almost impossible. In fact, even psychologists say anger is a healthy sign; healthy part of a regular mind; psychologists will not accept that; But Shankaracharya says it is possible. but he does not say how. We get a clue in the third chapter; we get the clue in the third chapter. There he defined anger is nothing but expectations converted to irritation; when it is obstructed; obstructed expectation gets converted to irritation. And since irritation is the converted form of expectation, if you have to handle irritation, you have to handle your expectation. Lesser the expectation, lesser the scope for anger; and even if expectations are unavoidable, try to make them into preferences.

And therefore, reduce the expectation and
whatever minimum you have, have non-binding expectation or we can call it preference.
That is the only way to avoid anger. There is no other remedy. Therefore, Kshama
is anger-lessness.

Dhrti means fortitude, perseverance, or will power
is called dhrti; the capacity to continue a sadhana in spite of obstacles, in
spite of hurdles, is called will power.

Sri Krishna will
talk about the importance of willpower in the 18th chapter; And there He will
talk about three types of willpower; satvic willpower; rajastic willpower and
tamasic willpower. I will not talk about it now; I hope you will have the
willpower to continue the classes until the 18Th. Therefore, dhrti; Dru means
holding on to. Dru, dharane; holding power; willpower.

Then the next
virtue is Shaucham. This also has come in the 13th chapter.

Shaucham is
cleanliness and orderliness. It should not stop with cleanliness only. We
should include orderliness, of the surroundings, from our street, visible from
the surroundings. We have the best teaching and least implementation; we have
got the best scriptures in the world; but we never implement. And the other countries;
they do not have such scriptures; and they seem to implement. We have the
enclosure for putting the rubbish; but it is put everywhere else, but in that particular
place. So, therefore, cleanliness of the surrounding; cleanliness of our dress;
cleanliness of the body. And above all, the toughest is the purity of the mind;

I have talked in
the 13th chapter, and therefore, I do not want to go to the details.

Then the next
virtue is Adroha; adroha is ahimsa at the mental level; not even desiring to
harm others; not even tending to harm others.  So, they will not even think himsa.

Shankaracharya says, not only you should not hit others, even raising the hand saying that I will hit, not doing that is adroha; not even intending to harm others is called adrohaha;

Then the next one
is natimanita. This is amanitvam of the 13th chapter.

Freedom from
pride, freedom from superiority complex, or positively put, humility; humbleness
is called natimanita. This is supposed to be a very important virtue for a spiritual
student. Because, a spiritual student has to do the namaskara to the guru.

If I have got
arrogance, namaskara is the most difficult thing. And that too, namaskara to another human being is very difficult; and if a person does
not have that humility; knowledge will not flow down; because if
something has to flow down; it has to be from higher level to lower level. If the
knowledge should come; I should bend humbly. And therefore, natimanita means Humility;

All these virtues will be present
in a person who has got daivi sampath; who is born with daivi sampathi. So, one
who is born with satva guna, or one who is a satvic person, he or she will have all these virtues and if these
virtues are not there from birth; we have to cultivate them. Most of us do not
have them. Therefore, in Vedanta, cultivating these virtues alone will take more time. Vedantic study really does not take
time; maximum time is in getting this daivi sampath;

Shloka 16.4:

16.4
O son of Prtha, (the attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature
are religious ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is
abhimanah, self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance.

So having talked about the daivi sampath, that is the virtues belonging to a spiritually oriented person. Now Sri Krishna wants to talk about asuri sampath; which is naturally there; in a materialistic person. As I said asuri sampath does not mean a person who has got the protruding teeth like a demon, it is means one with materialistic tendencies. And what are they? Sri Krishna is going to enumerate them in this verse, He presents them in a nutshell and later, from the seventh verse, He will elaborate the very same asuri sampath, till verse No.21.

What is materialism? We get a very beautiful
list. What are they?

Dambhaha means
pomp and show; exhibitionism of their wealth; their position; their status etc.
which is also called ostentation;

Then the next materialistic tendency is darpaha. Along with money and power, comes arrogance. Disrespecting people, disrespecting elderly people etc.,

Therefore, darpaha means arrogance.

Then abhimana; superiority complex, looking upon oneself as puja yogya. One who deserve honor, reverence etc.

The difference between darpah and abimana is; darpaha is externally expressed arrogance; manitvam is unexpressed internally thought. One is at bhavana level another is at the karma or action level;

Then krodha; krodha is
anger; because there is power; because there is position; and therefore, he
does not mind ill-treating anyone; krodha means anger; rudeness, harshness,
impoliteness; mannerlessness; all are called krodha.

Then Agyanam, means ignorance and here the
word ignorance means ignorance of Dharma Shastra.
We are not talking about spiritual ignorance; because we are not dealing with
philosophy in these two chapters. Chpaters 16 and 17 are dealing ethics and
morality; And therefore, the word ignorance here means ignorance of ethics,
ignorance of morals; dharmadharma
aviveka.

These are all naturally there in a person who
is born with rajasic and tamasic tendencies. Especially if he belongs to a rich
family, then he may not know what is humility, and that becomes a very big obstacle.

Take Away:

Anger is
nothing but expectations converted to irritation; when it is obstructed;
obstructed expectation gets converted to irritation. And since irritation is
the converted form of expectation, if you have to handle irritation, you have
to handle your expectation. Lesser the expectation, lesser the scope for anger;
and even if expectations are unavoidable, try to make them into preferences.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy