Category Archives: dehinam

Bhagavad Gita Verse 7, Chapter 14

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14, 7, chapter 14 verse 7, dehinam, karmasangena, kaunteya, nibandhaati, raagaatmakam, rajaha, samudhbhavam, sanga, tat, trishnaa, viddhi

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rajo raagaatmakam viddhi trishnaasangasamudhbhavam |
tannibandhaati kaunteya karmasangena dehinam || 7 ||
 
Know rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment. It binds the body dweller by attachment to action, O Kaunteya.
 
rajaha : rajas
raagaatmakam : nature of passion
viddhi : know
trishnaa : thirst
sanga : attachment
samudhbhavam : source
tat : it
nibandhaati : binds
kaunteya : O Kaunteya
karmasangena : attachment to action
dehinam : body dweller
 
Rajas is our state of mind when it is agitated, like a glass of water that is being stirred. Imagine that we have to attend an extremely important meeting at 5 PM. It is 4:50 PM and the taxi is stuck in a traffic jam. Our mind will be in a state of rajas. A series of thoughts will suggest that we wait in the car, while another series of thoughts will suggest that we leave the taxi and start walking. Whenever our mind is agitated by a thoughts that propel us to act, we are in a state of rajas.
 
Shri Krishna says that rajas creates trishnaa or thirst for what we do not possess, and sanga or attachment towards what we already possess. Furthermore, rajas creates a vicious cycle. It fuels our desires, creates thoughts that compel us to act so that we can acquire objects, then it creates attachment to those objects which further increases rajas. Typically, rajas dominates our mind from sunrise until sunset.
 
To understand how rajas can bind, consider the case of a multi-millionaire who has recently married his young girlfriend. The millionaire is self sufficient and does not need to work to support himself. But his wife’s brothers, relatives, friends and acquaintances slowly approach him for capital to start their business, connections to get them jobs, advice on their career and so on. Soon, the millionaire ends up working all day, every day. Even though the millionaire does not need to move a finger, he gets bound by his relationship to his wife.
 
Similarly, even though the self, the “I” does not act, rajas binds the self through attachment to action and its results. It makes us say “I am the doer” and “I am the enjoyer” whereas it is actually Prakriti that is acting and providing the results. Karma yoga helps us come out of this bondage and entrapment. It teaches us to continue to act in this world, but do it in a way that removes our identification with Prakriti. We slowly start submitting the results of our actions to Ishvara, then we slowly start letting Ishvara take over the doership of our actions as well.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 5, Chapter 14

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14.5, avyayam, chapter 14 verse 5, dehe, dehinam, gunaahaa, iti, mahaabaaho, nibandhanti, prakritisambhavaahaa, rajaha, sattvam, tamaha

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sattvam rajastama iti gunaahaa prakritisambhavaahaa |
nibandhanti mahaabaaho dehe dehinamavyayam || 5 ||
 
Sattva, rajas, tamas, these gunaas born of Prakriti, O mighty-armed warrior, bind the imperishable body dweller to the body.
 
sattvam : sattva
rajaha : rajas
tamaha : tamas
iti : these
gunaahaa : gunaas
prakritisambhavaahaa : born of Prakriti
nibandhanti : bind
mahaabaaho : O mighty-armed warrior
dehe : to the body
dehinam : body dweller
avyayam : imperishable
 
Shri Krishna beings the detailed analysis of Prakriti with two points. First, he breaks down Prakriti into its three components: the gunaas which are sattva, rajas and tamas. We have to note that the phrase “born of” in the shloka does not mean that Prakriti creates the three gunaas. It means that Prakriti itself is nothing but the three gunaas. Next, Shri Krishna states the effect of Prakriti on the Purusha, also known as the jeeva, the individual soul. He says that Prakriti binds or ties down the imperishable body dweller, the “dehi”, the jeeva, to the body.
 
Let us begin by understanding what the term “gunaa” means. From our point of view, gunaa is a state of mind. In just one day, we experience calmness, passion and lethargy, which are roughly equal to sattva, rajas and tamas respectively. From a broader point of view, gunaas refer to building blocks of the universe. Inert matter is tamas, action or dynamism is rajas, and harmony is sattva. Since we are primarily interested in liberation from our sorrow, we shall focus on the impact of the gunaas on our mind rather than their impact on the universe.
 
Now, if we have repeatedly heard that our self is imperishable and can never be bound, then how can the perishable gunaas bind the self? The answer is : the gunaas by themselves do not bind us. Ignorance of our true nature, followed by our mis-identification with the body, puts us in a situation where we ourselves allow the gunaas to take over control of our life.
 
Imagine that you have parked your car on the left side of road. A car that looks just like your car is also parked on the same road, but on the right side of the road. After you come out of the building and absent-mindedly think that the other car is yours, you are trapped. You see a new scratch on the car and get upset, you get a parking ticket and have to pay the fine, and so on. The other car has not “bound” you, but your incorrect knowledge has done so. We can also go back to the example of the child watching the boxing match. He is as though glued to the screen, while his grandmother is not. The TV does not bind him since it is is nothing but millions of red, blue and green dots of light. It is the child’s strong identification with the boxer that binds him.
 
Similarly, the individual soul which has mis-identified itself with the body, gets entrapped in the play of the three gunaas. In the next three shlokas, Shri Krishna takes up each gunaa one by one, and explains its power to bind the body in detail.

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.