Dear Friends,
Hari Om !!
We continued our journey with the summarization of Chapters 4 & 5. These 2 chapters constitute the 'Jnana Yoga' part of the treatment for the 'Arjuna Disease'. One way to look at it is, the Physician (Bhagwaan Krishna) prescribes a detailed treatment to the Patient (Prince Arjuna).
The overall flow being as follows:
Chapter 1 (Arjuna Vishaada Yoga): Patient (Arjuna) detects that he is suffering from a disease and tries to administer self-medication.
Chapter 2 (Saankhya Yoga): Patient admits his helplessness and seeks refuge in the Physician (Shri Krishna) and the physician summarizes the treatment path which is nothing but Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
Chapter 3 (Karma Yoga): Details about the first step in the treatment is expounded here. The physician also elevates it to the Upasana Yoga conversation here by saying - "Consider all work as worship".
Chapter 4 (Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga): This is Part 1 of the Jnana Yoga portion of the treatment. Give up 'Doership' and train your equipment (Body, Mind and Intellect) to operate in the most efficient manner.
Chapter 5 (Karma Sannyasa Yoga): This is Part 2 of the Jnana Yoga portion of the treatment. Give up 'Deservership'. Your equipment (Body, Mind and Intellect) is now completely trained to operate in the most efficient manner and just a little guiding or supervision is required.
Chapter 4 - Salient Points:
You can find the summary flow for Chapter 4 here.
One of the key parts of this chapter is the set of 12 disciplines which will help us internalize this understanding about 'Renunciation of Action'.
Here they are:
Chapter 5 - Salient Points:
You can find the summary flow for this chapter here. Chapter 5 is more of a wrap-up and summarization of Shri Krishna's messaging in the previous 3 chapters.
Shri Krishna unequivocally states that we stand to gain 'Moksha' or Emotional Independence if we follow the path prescribed by him so far.
2 Homework Assignments for everyone :-)
1. First Assignment: These are some Karma Yoga Sadhanas which we can choose from. I have sent the link on our WhatsApp group. Pick any number of 'assignments' and make it your own.
2. Second Assignment: We highly encourage all of you to download the 'Gita 365' App on your smartphone and listen to Clips 121, 122 & 123. Apple App Store link is here and Google Store link for the app is here.
Dear Friends - We will do a review of the next 3 chapters (6, 7 & 8) next Sunday.
Gita Reference Material: Here is the link to some Gita reference material that you can access.
"Faults become thick when love is thin."
~ Swami Chinmayananda
Have a great week, friends !!
Hari Om !!
Praveen, Visveish, Ganesh
(ganeshk76@yahoo.com | 412-916-8780)