Hari om everyone,
We started the class with a brief meditation, followed by chanting the Bhagavadgeeta. We chanted verses 39 - 72 from 'BG chapter 2'.
We summarized the essence of chapter 5 last class. We did a quick review again for continuity. We saw that Krishna told Arjuna to be an integrated person, without being attached to the outcomes of his actions!
We started learning about the conversations in the 6th chapter. Many a time, we see that the same actions have different outcomes. Certain actions like throwing a ball, whether I throw or someone else throws the ball up, it WILL come down. But many actions on a day-to-day basis do not have equal outcomes. For ex: everyone who buys a ticket will not win the lottery!
We understood that the vaasanas in each individual defines how one sees things. The same food, one may like whereas someone else may dislike. Or, funnily enough, I myself may like it sometimes and dislike it later. So, it is not the tongue, but the perceiving entity behind it, that makes judgments such as likes and dislikes. That 'perceiving entity' behind the sense organ is who we are addressing. Keeping it untainted is key!
In our interactive segment, we saw that we all have lots of acquaintances, several friends, few close friends, fewer best friends and countable few people we trust all the time. Interestingly, when asked who do you trust ALL the time, the answers were - myself, mom, parents, God. (even 'best friends' didn't make this elite list!)
The ONE person we can trust and who IS with us ALL the time is - ourselves!! We can be our own best friend and help uplift ourselves. On the other hand, we can be our worst enemy and sabotage our own cause! To be my own best friend, my mind and intellect have to be integrated. If I am too emotional, I will not be able to make the right decisions. If I am only intellectual, I won't be functioning with empathy in the world! When head and heart are in sync, I become my own best friend. This is what Krishna said to Arjuna!!
We have to remember to rely on ourselves rather than everyone else around us. We listened to the 'dashamo kaH' (The Tenth Man) story to understand this better :)
This knowledge Krishna gave Arjuna is relevant then, now and forever!!
When we rely on ourselves for our strength, our inner confidence will know no bounds. This will help us not be entrapped in an 'imposter syndrome' about ourselves, where we feel we are inadequate, not worthy of what we have, or deserve to be happy. It will also stop us from becoming overconfident and arrogant about ourselves on the other hand.
The below quote defines confidence beautifully!
With this thought, we ended the class with the ending prayers.
See you all soon.
Regards,
Rashmi and Raghav.