Hari om everyone,
We started with a brief meditation, followed by chanting the Bhagavadgeeta. We chanted verses 39 - 72 from 'BG chapter 2'.
As we approach our Geeta chanting yajna, scheduled for Apr 2nd, here's a final reminder to register for the event. (Click on the blue 'Register' button here - https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/activities/geeta-chanting )
We started the class by setting the stage for our new lesson. We revisited important pointers from 3rd chapter that led to 4th chapter. Krishna told Arjuna that doing work is important AND the attitude with which it is done is even more important! Doing the work with arpaNa bhaava (as an offering to the Lord) is key. Any work should be done without insisting on a specific outcome. My work shouldn't be tainted by my personal likes or dislikes.
In our interactive segment, we asked what qualified them to go to High school? Why were they born to their respective parents? Why do some people win a lottery and many don't? When I fall down in muck, does that make me dirty? Many such questions were asked. The answers from our students were on point!
We saw that all these mundane questions can directly be related to vedaanta! I can go to High School because of my previous qualifiers like finishing middle school, grades, age, etc. Similarly, we are born the way we are due to the qualifiers that we had in our previous births.
Technically, we did not choose our parents, but in a way, we did! Due to our own actions in previous births, our parents, the environment we are born into, our talents, everything is based on our qualifiers from previous births.
Falling in the mud doesn't make 'Me' dirty, it makes my body dirty. We tend to forget that we are more than just our bodies. Just as a postage stamp stuck to the postcard is a different entity than the card itself, we should train ourselves to put the space between our BMI and our Self.
Due to our vaasanaas (inherent tendencies), we see the world differently than the other person. We understood this with the story of Saint Kanakadaasa. In this true story, it is said that he couldn't find a place to eat a banana where nobody could see him! His reasoning was, there is bhagavaan everywhere..., where can I find a place where He is not seeing me?!
This knowledge about our Self is such that it will continue from birth to birth, learning further. Almost like after the summer break (death), we go to the next grade, in learning about the Self, we move forward in each birth, rather than starting from the beginning!
We also learnt about 'kartRutva' (doership) and 'bhoktRutva' (enjoyership).
- Attachment to any of our 'actions' is termed as doership.
- Attachment to the 'results' of actions is termed as enjoyership.
We have to do our work, but let go of the insistence on a specific outcome. We heard about a person who was checking lottery results every day. He complained that he NEVER won even once! So his friend said, 'that's so sad... From how long have you been buying the lottery tickets?' The first friend said, 'what tickets?!' ... How can he even think of winning if he didn't even put the effort to buy tickets in the first place?!! :)) So, we HAVE to put our efforts into doing our duties, but should not be attached to their outcomes...
We were talking about 'are you scientific or spiritual?' To make our case, we also saw this short video clip that emphasized the presence of the Lord for us :) -
We concluded that we have to become contemplative of things in our day-to-day lives. We have to figure out what has the tightest grip on us and work towards letting go. Some of it could be biological too. The brain can be trained to give up addictions even!
Amma extended the explanation that vaasanaas themselves aren't a problem, but they shouldn't get in our way of fulfilling our dharma! Then the students were asked to think about why certain duties are assigned to us, whether we like it or not! Arjuna didn't want to fight/hurt his dear ones. Can we relate ourselves to Arjuna's situation?
We finished the class with this thought -
See you all next week and best of luck to everyone for the Geeta chanting yajna on Saturday.
Regards,
Rashmi and Raghav.
Rashmi and Raghav.