Category Archives: aavritya

Bhagavad Gita Verse 9, Chapter 14

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14.9, aavritya, bhaarata, chapter 14 verse 9, jnyaanam, karmani, pramaade, rajaha, sanjayati, sattvam, sukham, tamaha, uta

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sattvam sukham sanjayati rajaha karmani bhaarata |
jnyaanamaavritya tu tamaha pramaade sanjayatyuta || 9 ||
 
Sattva binds through joy, rajas through action, O Bhaarata, while tamas cloaks knowledge and binds through heedlessness.
 
sattvam : sattva
sukham : joy
sanjayati : binds
rajaha : rajas
karmani : action
bhaarata : O Bhaarata
jnyaanam : knowledge
aavritya : cloaks
tu : while
tamaha : tamas
pramaade : heedlessness
sanjayati : binds
uta : and
 
Shri Krishna recaps the characteristics of the three gunaas in this shloka. Sattva binds by making us hold on to joy experienced after attaining a sense object. Rajas binds us by giving us joy in performing actions and obtaining their results. Tamas binds us by giving us joy in holding on to laziness and heedlessness. We now begin to look into how these three are interrelated.
 
In the second chapter, we have come across a series of shlokas that describe how the mind can fall from sattva into rajas and tamas in a matter of seconds. We start with the mind resting in a peaceful sattvic state. A tinge of rajas comes in, causing us to think about some sense object, let’s say a sweet. This fuels rajas further, creating a strong attachment to that sweet, culminating in a strong desire to do anything to get that sweet. But it gets worse. If we cannot get that sweet, if someone or something obstructs our consumption of the sweet, anger arises in us. Rajas deteriorates into tamas. The last rung of the ladder of fall is when anger goes to such an extent that it causes us to lose our faculty of intelligence and memory.
 
Conversely, we can go from tamas to rajas to sattva, but it may take a little longer. For someone steeped in tamas, immersing themself in action will raise them to the level of rajas. When action becomes focused and directed towards the pursuit of a selfless goal, rajas is elevated to the level of sattva. Swami Vivekananda always used to say “awake, arise, stop not till the goal is reached”. When India was under British rule, many had become accustomed to this slavery and had fallen into a tamasic state. They could not find a way out of their predicament, and were clouded in ignorance. Swami Vivekananda’s message urged citizens to engage in action towards independence. That was the only way to get them out of the tamasic state of laziness.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 13, Chapter 13

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in 13.13, aavritya, akshishiromukham, chapter 13 verse 13, loke, paanipaadam, sarvam, sarvataha, shrutimat, tat, tishthati

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sarvatahapaanipaadam tatsarvatokshishiromukham |
sarvatahashrutimalloke sarvamaavritya tishthati || 13 ||
 
With hands and legs everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, it is established in all the worlds, pervading all.
 
sarvataha : everywhere
paanipaadam : hands and legs
tat : it
sarvataha : everywhere
akshishiromukham : eyes, heads and mouths
sarvataha : everywhere
shrutimat : eyes
loke : worlds
sarvam : everywhere
aavritya : pervading
tishthati : established
 
How does a child come to learn about electricity? The teacher does not directly tell him that “electricity is defined as a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles such as electrons or protons”. The teacher uses what the child already knows and imparts the knowledge to him step by step. So the teacher may first say that to the child: wherever you see bright light in a bulb, that is electricity. Once the child has grasped this concept, then the teacher may say: wherever you see wires connected, that is electricity. Slowly, as the child is able to understand the nuances of atoms and electrons, the teacher then reveals to him the technical definition.
 
Shri Krishna uses a similar process to gently reveal the nature of brahman, the eternal essence, also known as “jnyeyam” or the knowable, to us. Now, it is quite easy for us to see action and sentience – the power to experience things – in living creatures everywhere. So Shri Krishna says that wherever we see action in living beings, symbolically represented by the phrase “hands and legs”, we should recognize the presence of the eternal essence. Furthermore, wherever we see sentience in living beings, symbolically represented by the phrase “eyes, heads, mouths and ears”, we should recognize the presence of the eternal essence.
 
Going back to the example of the child learning electricity, the child may sometimes think that the electricity in a bulb is different than the electricity in a fan, or that the bulb limits the flow of electricity to the fan. To remove any similar misconceptions about the eternal essence, Shri Krishna says that the eternal essence pervades everywhere. In other words, it is only one eternal essence that is functioning through the organs of knowledge and action of all living creatures in all of the worlds, and that one organ does not limit the functioning of the eternal essence in another organ.
 
An example commonly used to illustrate this notion is that of space and pot-space. The space that is in a clay pot and the space outside it is the same. But just because the walls of the pot surround it, we label the space inside as “pot-space”. The pot is a classic example of an upaadhi, something that as though limits the space in it, but does not do so in reality. Space, then, pervades all pots. Similarly, the organs of all living creatures may seem to limit the eternal essence, but not so in reality.
 
Having established the starting point for realizing the eternal essence, Shri Krishna goes one step further in the next shloka.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 40, Chapter 3

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in 3.40, aavritya, adhisthaanam, asya, buddih, chapter 3 verse 40, dehinam, eshah, etaih, indriyaani, jnyaanam, manah, uchayte, vimohayati

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indriyaani mano buddhirasyaadhishthaanamuchyate |
etairvimohayatyesha jnyaanamaavritya dehinam || 40 ||

The senses, mind and intellect are said to be its residence. Through them, this (desire) covers the body-dweller’s wisdom.

indriyaani : senses
manah : mind
buddhih : intellect
asya : this
adhishthaanam : residence
uchyate: it is said
etaih : these
vimohayati : delude
eshah : this (desire)
jnyaanam : wisdom
aavritya : cover
dehinam : body-dweller

Like a military strategist reveals the location of the enemy to the warrior, Shri Krishna in this shloka reveals the location of the karmayogi’s enemy. The enemy in the form of desire has three residences. The first residence is the senses, the second is the mind, and the third is the intellect. Note that he uses the term “body-dweller” to remind us that the body, mind and intellect are separate than the eternal essence.

In the senses, desire and anger manifest as likes and dislikes, as we have seen before. Now, each sense organ has its own likes and dislikes. For example, the ear may find some sounds pleasing and others harsh. These likes and dislikes come from our natural tendencies or prakriti. You can see likes and dislikes in animals as well. Your pet dog may prefer one kind of food over another.

There is not much that we can do about our natural tendencies. We just need to ensure that they do not obstruct us from our goals. But when we feed them by giving them time and attention, they get charged by our emotions and take residence in our mind. Our mind is the faculty that gathers data from the senses and creates a coherent picture of what is being senses. It also generates thoughts based on current and past impressions.

Our language will give us an indication of whether a like is residing in our senses or in our mind. If we say, “I like to eat fries” or “I prefer fries”, it is still at the level of senses. But if we say, “I absolutely love fries, I cannot do without them”, it means that the like has now gone into the mind.

There is another indication that a desire has penetrated into the mind. A desire can be active even if the object of the desire is not perceived by the senses. If we dislike a person only when we meet him, then that dislike is at the level of the senses. But if we keep thinking “I hate that person” even when he is not in front of us, then that dislike has become hatred and has penetrated our mind.

The last and most dangerous place for a desire to reside is in our intellect, which is the faculty that takes decisions based on analysis and rationality. If we begin to justify and rationalize our loves and hates, it means that the desire has penetrated into our intellect. It is extremely difficult to tackle such desires, because they have completely taken hold of us: our senses, our mind and our intellect. Someone who resorts to violence and is utterly convinced of his position will even quote from scriptures to justify his actions, for instance.

So therefore, Shri Krishna provided Arjuna with the location and nature of the enemy that he needed to tackle. He explains the technique of tacking the enemy in the next shloka.