|| Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum ||
Dear Friends,
Hari Om !!
In ancient times, Kings, Queens & Emperors would be woken up by singers and bards who would sing outside their chambers early in the morning. They would sing about God, Divinity and also about the glories & greatness of the Kings, Queens and Emperors themselves. This would remind the Kings & Queens of their 'true nature' and their stature and inspire them to wake up with this positive thought.
Similarly, we all should listen to "The Song of I", which will remind us of our true nature. An amazing song/composition which does that is this set of verses from the Jnaneshwari, by Sant Jnaneshwar. Here is the link to the original blogpost on this topic, with the meaning. The YouTube recording of the song can be found here, sung by Smt. Kishori Amonkar. For just the audio version, please click here. Try listening to this song every day morning and reflect upon it. We have referred to many of the words in this composition and some other words are common in all languages. Please give it a listen. We should ideally (try to) feel the following, after listening to this song: a. No hatred, frustration or aversion towards any person.
b. No negative judgment of any person.
c. Supreme confidence in ourselves and a general positive outlook.
d. No 'feverishness' or nervousness when taking up a challenge.
e. Ability to instruct our Body, Mind and Intellect to do the right thing.
The following is a summary of our session held on September 26, 2021. Thank you to all of you for your participation and presence in the session today.
We chanted the 1st verse of the Dhyaana Shloka, composed by Sri Madhusudan Saraswati. Here is a screenshot of that 1st verse. We will post all the verses in a separate blogpost later. Please try to memorize it or at least chant it aloud by looking at the words.
A few review items from the session:
A reiteration about the difference between Essence and a Commentary. What we are doing with respect to the Gita, Kathopanishad and any other scripture is understanding and learning the Essence. This is not anyone's opinion or an editorial-piece. It is necessary to know the essence of a scripture, before we start exploring other people's commentary on the same subject.
Kindly do your self-study as well, in reviewing these initial chapters. We have lots of material on our website (Visual Vedanta, Gita Summary Mind-maps, The Holy Gita book by Pujya Gurudev, 'Gita 365' app, etc.)
Here are some other important pointers from Chapter 2:
Bhagwan Shri Krishna expounds the Atman/Brahman concept from verses 11 thru 25, of Chapter 2. In brief yet direct and profound statements, Shri Krishna manages to package the ultimate essence of the Upanishads in this section (V11 to 25).
Some of the attributes of the Atman principle explained are: Nithya (Eternal), Sathya (Truth or Consciousness), Akarta-Abhokta (Actionless and Unaffected by Action), Nirvikara (Formless and one which does not change), Sarvagata (Omnipresent), Aprameya (Ever the subject - never the object, One that cannot be directly explained or pointed to). These are supremely divine Sanskrit words which explain this important section.
Another way to think about the Atman principle is the following: a. Atman is neither part, property or product of the Body. b. Atman is not limited by the boundaries of the Body. c. Atman pervades through the Body and enlivens the Body. d. Atman continues to exist even after the Body perishes.
To drill in this concept that Shri Krishna is trying to tell Arjuna, the only option for us is this constant reminder about who we really are.
We did an activity which wasn't very comfortable. We tried to do the Vrukshasan (Tree Pose) and also tried to write with our non-dominant hand. The lesson was that - Just as we had to intentionally focus and concentrate on getting it right, we should treat our Body, Mind and Intellect truly as our equipment and train them to do things the right way. A person who has complete control over their faculties and equipment is called a 'Swami'.
We also attempted to draw-up a connection between the 1st 6 chapters in a practical way. This should help us understand the flow of events better and also help explain to others as to what these 6 chapters are and how they are structured, etc. This is something we all might have gone through as a child or as a parent. This pertains to a child's tantrum/frustration/dejection regarding an activity or challenge that they have not yet mastered or learned. We as parents explain to them how they can be victorious and show them the way.
Similarly, the Gita tells us that Bhagwaan is within us and we should lead the way and teach our Body, Mind and Intellect to function the Dharmic way. The Parent in this example is our Individual nature (Jiva) and the Child denotes our faculties and equipment (Body, Mind, Intellect).
Dear Friends - Please continue your self-study for at least 10 mins a day. If you have any questions, please let us know. Also, other BV Teachers and Coordinators have posted their class content in the CMP Blog section. Please read those when you get a chance and encourage them.
May the ever-smiling charioteer, Shri Vasudev Krishna guide us in our journey and help us conquer challenges !!
As Pujya GuruJi Swami Tejomayananda beautifully puts it:
"Don't tell Bhagwaan how big your problems are; Tell your problems how big Bhagwaan is."
Have a great week, friends !!
Hari Om !!
Praveen, Visveish, Ganesh
(ganeshk76@yahoo.com | 412-916-8780)