Category Archives: vrataahaa

Bhagavad Gita Verse 10, Chapter 16

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by in 16.10, aashritya, asadgraahaan, ashuchihi, chapter 16 verse 10, dambhaha, dushpooram, griheetvaa, kaamam, maanaha, madaanvitaahaa, mohaad, pravartante, vrataahaa

≈ Comments Off on Bhagavad Gita Verse 10, Chapter 16

kaamamaashritya dushpooram dambhamaanamadaanvitaahaa |
mohaad griheetvaasadgraahaanpravartanteshuchivrataahaa || 10 ||
 
Filled with insatiable desires, with pretentiousness, pride and arrogance, holding untrue views in delusion, they work with impure resolve.
 
kaamam : desires
aashritya : filled
dushpooram : insatiable
dambhaha : pretentiousness
maanaha : pride
madaanvitaahaa : with arrogance
mohaad : in delusion
griheetvaa : holding
asadgraahaan : untrue views
pravartante : work
ashuchihi : impure
vrataahaa : resolve
 
A major aspect of the materialistic world view is greed. Shri Krishna refers to this greed using the phrase duspooram kaamam, meaning selfish desires that can never be satisfied or fulfilled. People who follow the materialistic world view believe that one who is without selfish desires is as good as dead. They do not believe that selfless action, work that benefits someone other than themselves, is worth anything.
 
This greed propels them to dambhaha or pretentiousness. They do not see the harm in putting on a show in order to gain favours or get what they want. As they accumulate more wealth and power, they feed their superiority complex, resulting in maanaha or excessive pride. When their pride reaches greater and greater heights, they become drunk with their ill-gotten accomplishments and possessions. This is mada, intoxication.
 
We keep coming back to the theme of ignorance and delusion, of moha, when we analyze the materialistic world view. When one cannot tell right from wrong, one begins to develop views that are not based on truth or rationality, termed in the shloka as moha-asat. It is no surprise that the activities or undertakings of such people are impure, lawless, without any consideration of duty or the big picture. Defrauding others or destroying others property are illegal in the eyes of the law, but perfectly legal from their standpoint.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 28, Chapter 4

18 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in 4.28, apare, cha, chapter 4 verse 28, dravya, jnaana, sanshita, svaadhyaaya, tapo, tathaa, vrataahaa, yajnyaaha, yatayaha, yoga

≈ Comments Off on Bhagavad Gita Verse 28, Chapter 4

dravyayajnyaastapoyajnya yogayagnyaastathaapare |
svaadhyaayagnyaanayagnyaashcha yatayaha sanshitavrataahaa || 28 ||

Others offer sacrifice of materials, austerity and yoga, and other seekers with a resolute will offer the sacrifice of knowledge through study of scriptures.

dravya-yajnyaaha : material-sacrifice
tapo-yajnyaaha : austerity-sacrifice
yoga-yagnyaaha : yoga-sacrifice
tathaa : and
apare : others
svaadhyaaya : study of scriptures
jnyaana-yagnyaaha : knowledge-sacrifice
cha : and
yatayaha : seekers
sanshita-vrataahaa : with resolute will

Shri Krishna gives us a choice of four more yajnyas in this shloka.

First, he talks about the sacrifice of wealth, or as it is more commonly known – charity. As we saw in the second chapter, lobha or the tendency to hoard can destabilize our mind, and strengthen the ego. Therefore, giving away wealth or even our time to a higher ideal checks this tendency to hoard. But charity has to be done with the attitude that I am giving away what was not mine to begin with. If one donates with a view to gain publicity and so on, that is a selfish or rajasic type of charity.

Secondly, Shri Krishna mentions austerity or tapas. In this type of yajyna, the urge of the sense organs to go out into the world is checked, so that the ego is weakened. There are three avenues for conducting tapas: the body, senses and mind. In physical tapas, we use the energy of our body to do seva or service the world. In sense-related tapas, we keep a strong leash on our senses and organs. For example, we can practice austerity on speech by always speaking truth, saying what’s beneficial to someone, and creating disturbance in anybody’s mind. In mental tapas, we control our mind by not giving attention to negative thoughts and emotions, and not letting others trigger such emotions in us.

Third, Shri Krishna gives us the option of practicing a detailed regimen of spiritual practice or yoga. It could be bhakti yoga (which we will see later), karma yoga, raaja yoga of Patanjali and so on.

Finally, we can practice study of the scriptures, which is also known as jnyaana yajnya. A daily reading of the Gita, Ramayana or any other such spiritual text with utmost attention, concentration, understanding and discipline is also a yajnya. Here also, the ego becomes weak because the intellect gains a firmer and stronger position in relation to the ego, strengthened by daily exposure to the scriptures.

The common thread of all the yajnyas mentioned is that of weakening the hold of the ego, which is nothing but weakening of the notion of “I-ness” and “mine-ness”.