Sadhana Panchakam was written by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. Sometimes this is also called Sopana Panchakam or Upadesa Panchakam or Advaita Panchakam. The word Panchakam means a text consisting of five verses. It is called advaita panchakam because these verses deal with advaidic teaching contained in vedas. The word upadesa means teachings or instructions; Upadesa Panchakam means […]
Class 1 Introduction The faculty of choice, or free will, is one of the defining features of human beings. Animals do not have any goals in life. They eat, reproduce, live for a few years, and die. However, many human beings question free will and argue that we do not truly have free will, and […]
Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, From the 7th verse of the 16th chapter, Sri Krishna is talking about asuri sampat, which we have to know as an obstacle to spiritual growth; and therefore, we should take all pains to avoid these traits; And asuri sampat includes, rakshasic Sampath. Asuri sampat means raga pradhāna life; a […]
Each guna binds a person in one way or another, because each guna requires a particular set up. Satva guna requires a setup conducive to knowledge and tranquility, rājo guna requires a setup conducive to activity and tāmo guna requires a setup conducive to sleep. A particular set up that is favorable for sattva guna, […]
Our body mind complex is made up of three gunas, and ahaMkAra is part of body mind complex. As a result, we can’t escape the three gunas and we are forced to live with the three gunas and saguna ahaMkAra. To handle the ahaMkAra, we must understand ahaMkAra and which guna is dominant in us […]
The first four verses are introductory verses, dealing with self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is liberating wisdom. The third and fourth verses discuss creation; every product in creation is a mixture of two parts – purusha and prakriti; or called brahma and maya; or father and mother; Whenever we talk of Eeswara, that Eeswara is a mixture of […]
In the last ṣatkam of Bhagavat Gita, the first three chapters – chapters 14, 15 and 16 – mainly focus on jñāna yoga. Nethi Nethi method: Whatever I experience, I am not; by negating everything I experience, then I left out with is the experiencer, who can never be the object. Arrive at the subject […]
The thirteenth chapter is the beginning of the third ṣatkam of Bhagavad Gita. In the first ṣatkam, Lord Krishna highlighted karma yoga, in the second ṣatkam, Krishna highlighted Upasana yoga and in the third ṣatkam Krishna is going highlight jñāna yoga. The first three chapters, that is chapter 13, 14 and 15, are very important […]
Up to the 24th verse of this chapter, Lord Krishna discussed the six topics Arjuna requested. From 25, 26 and 27, the sadhanas were discussed. From the 28th verse onwards, jnana phalāḥṃ is being discussed. The first benefit discussed was complete understanding of the universe. The eye of wisdom sees inherent superficial duality and this […]
Up to the 24th verse, Lord Krishna dealt with all the six topics Arjuna wanted to know. From verse 25 to 27, Lord Krishna talked about the sadhanas required to gain this knowledge, the culmination of this knowledge should be knowledge. Problem of samsara is because of the error with regard to the perception of […]