Summary from Sunita ji
1. Class started with prayer by Sriramji
2. Sanjay ji chanted shlokas 1-10 of Karma yoga
3. Sriram ji chanted shlokas 7 and 8, did pada vibhag and presented his understanding and Kumarji moderated the discussion:
2. Sanjay ji chanted shlokas 1-10 of Karma yoga
3. Sriram ji chanted shlokas 7 and 8, did pada vibhag and presented his understanding and Kumarji moderated the discussion:
a. As per previous shlokas (1-6) any one who controls actions but lets senses wander is a mithyachara (hypocrite). Shloka 7 teaches that anyone who can control the senses by mind and works without attachment to the results will excel.
b. To understand the shloka #7 (yasvindriyani....) further, Kumarji initiated the discussion with asking if controlling mind is suppression vs sublimation.
i. suppression would lead to falling back to old habits while sublimation is to replace the lower state desires with a higher goal. With awareness one can get into the higher state.
c. wrt shloka #8 (niyatam kuru...) discussion was focused about nithya karma.
i. Kumarji started the discussion with how nithya karma or mundane tasks lead to unnecessary or unrelated thoughts as the body is in auto-pilot mode performing those tasks.ii. Karma-kanda like lighting lamp/incense etc that are used to train the mind to focus are good at the initial stages and advanced seeker don't require these aids.iii. By training the mind to focus on few thoughts while performing nithya karma one can get into advanced stage.
4. Ended the class with closing prayer
Additional notes
- Verse 7:
- "But, whosoever, controlling the senses by the mind, O Arjuna, engages his organs of action in karma yoga, without attachment, he excels"
- Continuation of verse 6
- Suppression versus sublimation
- Is self-control suppression or sublimation?
- sublimation
- Suppression
- When you say no, it creates a void. If void is not filled, mind will fill it
- Practical example
- Complete meal - Dessert is taken after main entree
- You wait for dessert last
- Higher within ourselves change
- Sankalpa - higher goal
- Keep substituting lower thoughts
- burn it like camphor
- To reach higher level, very less thoughts in mind is needed
- level of understanding goes up
- quieter mind
- Satvic state - Rishis are great at understanding the human mind
- Sense organs do no know whether thoughts are bad or good
- Distinction between good and bad thoughts happens in the mind
- Distinguish, recognize and move away from tamasic state
- Maximum of four quality thoughts according to research in Neuroscience
- Use God to take the burden
- Vasanas - quick to act
- Body and mind should be in sync with the activity that is being done
- Automatically less number of thoughts
- Happiness
- Book "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- If the body is in autopilot, challenge it
- Verse 8:
- "You perform (your) bounden duty; for action is superior to inaction. Even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for you by inaction"
- Different types of karma
- Right action with right attitude
- How to figure out your duty?
- Daily duties come with the role we play
- Parenting - taking care of kids
- interaction with child from Jnana yoga point
- Jiva wants mukti
- Goal of all jivas is the same
- Three levels of maturity
- Dependent
- Independent
- Interdependent
- Seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey
- Dependent people cannot be interdependent
- Only independent people can be interdependent