Table of Contents
The common man can never challenge the Bhagavad Gita. It offers a synopsis of the scriptural conclusions of Vedanta and the Brahman Sutras.
1) About Wise Men
We shall deal with specific verses of the Gita from Chapter 2.
1) The man of wisdom has a much-enhanced sense of perception. For him, joy and sorrow are one.
Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2 Verse 15).
Only when consciousness becomes vibrant and belligerent can the mind become calm. The mind’s impurities and disturbances are responsible for keeping the consciousness levels low. When consciousness is low, the mind which is inert takes over and under the influence of material energy, Maya.
It resorts to unfair means.
The body becomes more important than the spirit and it is “misunderstood” as the spirit. Man gets Identified with the Body and Mind. He subscribes to its whims and fancies.
This bondage is solely responsible for the “experience” of sorrow and joy. When we satiate the body, there is a feeling of temporary elation. Man misunderstands this joy as “happiness”. But, one fails to understand that this joy is part of “enjoyment”. Enjoyment relates to the senses and hence is extremely short-lived.
Man identifies himself with the distress in his body and experiences sorrow or pain.
This is also short-lived. This makes man flicker ever like a dull flame in the midst of a storm. So, this is the irony of a man who is attuned to the body-mind.
Disadvantage of Sense Enjoyment
For Example: When we marry, have a child, celebrate birthdays, etc, so many small things or events become our source of happiness. However, with time disinterest shall set in. The same things that gave us happiness might become the cause of distress.
They might not yield the same happiness today. However, if one were to accept the Supreme Lord as the biggest source of happiness, one shall never consider such everyday causes of fleeting happiness.
Because they aren’t a fact.
Spirit is the Subject of Realization
The Hari Vamsha says that the Lord is the very source of the highest happiness.
He is the one point source for the distribution of happiness. When the mind is free of impurities or the “Ways of the World”, it loses the potency to interfere with the spirit.
Body and mind are different from the spirit. If we realize this fact, we also get to realize the subject of all experiences, the spirit. After this realization, everything that is ephemeral, fleeting, and disturbing is burnt to ashes in the torchlight of such wakeful consciousness. Naturally, the happenings of the mind and body stop disturbing the truly wise man.
When he is sick, he is cheerful in the light of the spirit. The small disturbances of the mind caused by loss of a job or lack of money for a living cannot cast a shadow on his state of happiness and joy born out of the spirit or purified consciousness.
Such a person is ever content and satisfied. The eternal subject, consciousness empowers him.
2) About Representing Eternity
2) That which changes with time can never be eternal and hence cannot represent the ultimate reality. Ultimate reality cannot change and is neither temporary. This, the enlightened Seers conclude.
Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 16).
We see that time moves along bringing about changes in the world. We see people dying, people getting old, and babies being born. What mindsets ruled the world yesterday have become undeniably obsolete and useless in the present.
What truths or myths that existed in the world yesterday have become more or less unheard in today’s world. Everything changes, body changes, mind changes then what is it that does not change? That which does not change is the projector of all that is changing and temporary. It is awareness, consciousness alone that never undergoes any change.
It is the same consciousness that is behind everything, the eternal witness. When one graduates in one’s observation by inculcating spiritual values and discipline, one shall be able to realize himself as the eternal witness and will be able to witness the vagaries of the mind and observe the workings of nature. This observation happens from the witness, also known as consciousness.
Such an individual graduates to the cadre of sages.
Test your Alignment with the Spiritual Subject Matter (only 7-8 Questions)
The scores generated in this Quiz are relative. There are no right or wrong answers. A percentage towards 100 indicates that you are more aligned to the overall subject matter.
3) About Rebirth, Life, Death and Consciousness
3) The body is the cloth for the soul. So, just as one discards worn garments, the soul discards worn-out bodies and accepts new ones.
Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, verse 22).
The soul stands for the jeev which is a combination of a vestige of mind along with consciousness. The transmigration process continues and individuality remains as long as the mind attaches to consciousness and travels from body to body.
It is the mind alone that gives rise to individuality. It is the mind that gives rise to pain and sorrowful experiences. Pain has two forms at both ends of life. If one is born, there is pain, and when one dies there is pain. This pain is cyclic in nature because of life and death alternate with every life. Death directly links with this material world.
So, transmigration is the basis of life in the material world. Death alternates with life.
Eradicating the Dilemma of Life
The association of the subtleties of the individual mind along with Consciousness makes the travel of the individual possible. The same mind, on the basis of Karma, undergoes addition, subtraction, and modifications, with every lifetime. Individuality is never lost and this is the secret of the endless transmigration process of an individual, whether he takes the body of a lion, a rabbit, woman, or a dog.
So, the Jiva is bound to infirmity and distortions because of its association with the body. However, distortions shall fade away as one focuses on the Lord, through steady practice in doing so. Also, the daily difficulties of survival shall transcend if one realizes the bigger problem of Samsara or worldly life.
As one worries about the bigger problem of Samsara, our petty perspectives change. As a result, the challenges of daily survival shall stop becoming concerned. This is the trick, that ends the changing of bodies.
It puts an end to the transmigration process. The Jeeva, then soul travels to his eternal home. Unless we resolve the mind through spiritual discipline and invoking the Grace of the Lord, there is no freedom possible.
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