Bhagawat Gita April 6, 2008
In the Bhagwat Gita, the words of Sri Krishna include Dhyan
(Meditation), Gyan (knowledge) and Satya (Truth). Can we discuss
precise dfferences in these and what it meant by Sri Krishna?
Krishna used terms and never errs. By knowing terms, Bhagwat Gita becomes practical and eternal (nitya).
Gandhiji took a clue from it and chose his life as experiments
with truth. He himself a barrister from Cambridge had finally renounced the livelihood from profession of law and became a weaver like Kabir. What is his realization of the word Truth? How is knowledge different from Truth?
“Human Life:
Duration: momentary
Nature: changeable
Perception: dim
Condition of Body: decaying
Soul: spinning around
Fortune: unpredictable
Lasting fame: uncertain
Sum Up: the body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and
mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting
reputation is oblivion.
Then what guides us? Only philosophy.
Which means making sure that the power within stays safe and free
from assault, above pleasure and pain, doing nothing randomly or
dishonestly and with imposture, not dependent on anyone else’s doing
something or not doing it. And making sure that it accepts what
happens happens and what it is dealt as coming from the same place
it came from. And above all, that it accepts death in a cheerful
spirit, as nothing but the dissolution of the elements from which
each living thing is composed. If it doesnt hurt the individual
elements to change continually into one another, why are people
afraid of all of them changing and separating? It’s a natural thing.
And nothing natural is evil.”
“The human soul degrades itself:
1. above all when it does its best to become an abscess, a kind of
detached growth on the world. To be disgruntled at anything that
happens is a kind of secession from Nature, which comprises the
nature of all things.
2. when it turns its back on another person or sets out to harm to
do it harm, as the souls of the angry do.
3. when it is overpowered by pleasure or pain.
4. when it puts on a mask and does or says something artificial or
false.
5. when it allows its actions and impulse to be without a purpose,
to be random and disconnected: even the smallest things ought to be
directed toward a goal. But the goal of rational beings is to follow
the rule and law of the most ancient of communities and states.